Behold Your New Identity | Ps Kane Attard

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Newman Church podcast. Wherever you are in the world, we are so glad that you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly Father is as we grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message. Thank you Jesus. Is anyone hungry for more of God this morning? I am. I am always. Even when preaching. Hey, I, I really do pray like holy spirit. Feel free to encounter me and let me encounter you while I'm reading your word. Sometimes I'll read a scripture out that I had written or planned and Holy Spirit will start speaking to me and convicting me even as I read a scripture that I've read a hundred times in front of other people. It's really embarrassing sometimes, but it's good to be here today. Thank you for having me again. I was only here a couple weeks ago. It's good to be back. I love and honor Pastor Glenn and Lynn. They are thawing out in Queensland, defrosting and also love our good friends Josh and Kelly. So good to be here. Can we just turn our eyes to the Lord for a moment? Again, let's just honor his presence in the room. Maybe that song we were singing before holy and anointed one, your name is like honey, come on church, why don't you just open your heart, turn your eyes to him. We love you Jesus. Let it not just be a song but an encounter. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Lord, we hungry tonight. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Hungry to know you. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Jesus, I love you. [00:01:47] Speaker A: We love you, we love you, we. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Love you, we love you. Your name is icon. [00:01:58] Speaker A: He loves your voice. [00:01:59] Speaker B: He loves me. [00:02:08] Speaker A: The lamb that I need, the lamb I need is in your word. Jesus. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Your name is I come. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Oh, beautiful name, beautiful name. [00:02:28] Speaker B: Your spirit. Jesus, I love you. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Jesus, I love you. Let's sing that. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Jesus, I love you. I love you, I love you. Jesus, I love you, I love you, I love you. Jesus, I love you, I love you, I love you. And my heart will follow. Jesus, I love you, I love you. Jesus, I love you, I love you, I love you. Jesus, I love you, I love you, I love you. And my heart will follow. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Holy. Oh, we love you. This morning Jesus, we come into a great awareness that without your spirit, Lord, this would not be a church, but because your spirit is here, because you are moving in our midst, anything is possible. I thank you that because you are here by your spirit, we come into a oneness and a unity in the spirit of God, knit together in love. I pray Lord Jesus today that anyone who is here seeking you with a need in their life would be met with the miracle working power of God. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that limitations are broken today, as we open your word and the truth comes to set us free, we declare that we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free. I thank you that freedom is here today because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. I thank you, God, that healing is here today because the healer Jesus, is being made manifest in our midst. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to make yourself known in this room today. God. Lord, we are not just wanting to play church. We are not just wanting to hear a sermon. We are wanting to encounter life itself. This is eternal life. To know God. To know God. We want to know you, Lord. We want to know you. We invite you, Lord, to interrupt our way of life. We invite you to interrupt the cycles and the patterns that we've been living in. God, I thank you. I renounce the lie that we are not called to just work and die and go to heaven, but we are called to allow the spirit of God to transform us from the inside out so that we would be a walking encounter everywhere that we go. I pray, Holy Spirit, put your fire in us today. Let your fire shut up in our bones. Lord, revive us in our spirit. God, revive us. May we walk into our Monday and our Tuesday and our Wednesday with a realization that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. Holy Spirit, make yourself known in our midst. I thank you, God, that these encounters we have with you in your presence on a Sunday, not subject to only a church gathering, but anytime we call upon the name of the Lord God, I pray that we would see a great, mighty move of your spirit in our homes. I pray that when we get alone with you, when we call on the name of Jesus in our homes, we can have the same atmosphere, the same power, the same presence. When we're washing the dishes, we can look up to you in our hearts and say, thank you for washing me clean. And we can have an encounter with the love of God. I pray, Lord Jesus, don't just fill this meeting, but I pray fill our homes this week, God, I pray for revival in our homes of revival on our kids. God, oh Lord, in our marriages, Lord, would you stir up the spirit and the gifts of God in our homes and in our family? Let the anointing transform us to live differently. May we not be the same circling through the way of life that we've once known, but may we be transformed by the way of life in Christ, that you are the way, you are the example. Jesus, we honour you this morning and we thank you for this great invitation to a supernatural life. Oh, how wonderful. Oh, life would be so boring without you, Lord. Oh, I thank you that you have flipped the script and turned the tables and flipped our world upside down, ushered in your kingdom. We invite your kingdom to come today. Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yeah. Wow. Lord, anything in this room that does not represent heaven, let it be removed today in the name of Jesus. And we thank you. Heaven come, anything in our minds that will not be taken to heaven. I thank you, Lord, for freedom today. Heaven come, your kingdom come and have your way. Lord Jesus, we love you and we honour you most. High Adonai el Shaddai. We lift you up. Glorious king. Glorious king. We give you the authority over this room, the authority over our minds and our hearts. Today we ask that you reveal your word to us. In Jesus name. We thank you and we praise you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Can we just give a thank offering to the Lord this morning? Oh, we love you, Jesus. We love you. We love you. It's so good to be with you this morning. My wife Alyssa is here with me as well, and I'm so excited to share this word with you today. I really feel like the Lord's been speaking to me about what he wants to do this morning. And so at the end of this service, we are going to have some time of prayer. So I want to encourage you to stick around if you need to grab kids throughout. Do we have a kids ministry on this morning? Yeah. If you need to grab your kids and come back for prayer, you're welcome to do so. But I really do feel like God is moving in this room right now, and I think in this season, specifically across Australia, anyone who is hungry to encounter him, I think if you reach out, you will see that there is a big open door for you to walk in the more of the spirit of God. And so I'm excited to share with you today. Thank you, Jared. You're amazing, brother. Can we thank Jared and the team for leading us in worship today? So good. So good. Today I want to be reading from two Corinthians, chapter five. So if you'd like to open your bibles with me, you can. Two Corinthians, chapter five, verse 17 to 21. It's one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 1721. It says this, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away behold, all things have become new. Somebody say, beholden. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Behold. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Behold, all things become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of Reconciliation. Can I tell you? You've received a ministry. You've got a ministry of reconciliation and restoration, restoring people unto God. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. Can I tell you? You're an ambassador. You're an ambassador. What's an ambassador? It's like a representative. You know, if I was an ambassador for the Collingwood football team, I'd probably be wearing their jerseys. I'd probably be handing out their material. I'd probably be saying, they're the best in the world, but they're not. And so we're here to be ambassadors of Christ. Ambassadors of Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. You know, God is pleading through your life, Monday to Friday, Saturday, Sunday. God is pleading through your life, be reconciled to goddess. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Man. I remember reading that for the first time. He made him Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. You are called to become the righteousness of Goddesse in Christ Jesus. This morning, the title of my message is, behold your new identity. Behold your new identity. And I want to take a deeper dive into the scriptures today on the identity that we have within us. Because so often we can hear about this new identity we have in Christ. And we come into gatherings like this on a Sunday and we. We hear about our new identity. But then we go out into the world and we are faced with challenges and obstacles and situations and all of a sudden, we don't feel like the righteousness of Christ anymore. And so today, I wanna open up the word and pull out some powerful truth and let the word do the work. This is not a sermon on great ideas. This is a sermon where the word will set you free. Jesus said it, the truth. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. And so this truth, I pray, would be sown deep into your heart and to your mind and to your spirit, and that something would come alive and you'd be empowered to live differently from this day forward in the word of God. A couple weeks ago, Alyssa and I were invited to go and minister at a youth camp in Brisbane. And so we went up to Queensland. It was amazing to see the sun again, and my fingers got color back in them. It was beautiful. And while we were there, we had a powerful and beautiful time. It was very special for us to go and minister together. It was a really beautiful time. But one of my favorite things that happened over the course of those four days at this youth camp was watching the transformation of young people when they started to see this shift, as the word of God was planted in their hearts and their minds and identity was being established each session, identity was being established. And you saw the change in some young people. Maybe some of them looked quite down, and they didn't really worship with much passion, and they kind of were quite reserved. And then by the end of a few days, as the word of God and the truth was working within them, and they started to realize that they didn't have to perform in the presence of God. They didn't have to try and call heaven down, or they didn't have to try and be better in order to win God's attention. But they were so loved and so chosen and so called by God. You saw the shift in their identity and the expression of their faith change over those few days. And it was actually around the same time that we had the prophet Larry Sparks come and minister at Numa in the city. And I was hearing great things about what was happening. I didn't want to miss out. And I heard that there was a prophecy being released, that there is a river rising, and that the spirit of God in Australia is rising. The river of the Holy Spirit is rising, not just amongst Numa locations, but amongst Australians, that there is a river of the spirit arising in the church of Jesus Christ. And so I'm hearing that and my face being stirred, I'm like, I'm in Brisbane. I don't want to miss out. And so Alyssa and I got together, and we started to pray. Lord, I pray the same river that Larry Sparks is prophesying of down in Melbourne. I call it into this camp meeting this week. I pray that the same power of the Holy Spirit that is stirring in the room in Melbourne, I pray, lord, let it be poured out here. We call the river into this youth camp in Jesus name. On the first night worship starts, and the worship team are kicking off with a song of praise. And this one young girl, she's up the front with her friends, kind of standing there watching. I assume she was new, and she came and sat down next to, just in front of where Elissa was standing at the time. And Elissa said, are you okay? What's going on? You know, why are you sitting down? She said, oh, I've damaged my ankle. I've had like a real problem with my ankle for a long time now and it's been injured. And so Alissa says, well, you know, Jesus wants to heal you. Can we pray together? And she's like, oh, sure, I guess so. Lyss prays with her and instantly her ankle gets healed. And I love this because before we were introduced, just as the camp starts, they didn't even know who we were. We weren't some special guest speakers or anything like that. God starts to move in the room and so as I get up to share, I just testify about what God's already doing. There's healings happening, there's healings happening in the room. And so I finished preaching that night and we have an altar call and the team is ministering to people. And all of a sudden I remember this time on my first youth camp that I ever went to when I was about 1718 years old, I remember praying for someone's wrist to be healed because I had just finished reading the book of acts and I was seeing healings happening not just from Jesus but from other people. I'm like, wow, other people have got this stuff like, this is awesome, I want to see this happen. And I've never seen anything like that happen in our youth ministry at the time. And so a guy had a broken wrist and I remember praying for him and his broken wrist gets fully healed. It didn't happen off the first time we prayed, but after three times praying, he gets fully healed during the worship time. And that story comes back into my mind at this youth camp. And so I get up to the microphone and I said, hey, I just want to pause what we're doing right here, is there someone in the room today and you need healing in your wrist? And this young girl comes forward, beautiful young girl, and she had this heart for God, but you could see there was wrestles and tensions and things that didn't make sense for her. And she comes forward and we prayed. Not me personally, I got the students to pray, the kids got around her and prayed for her and instantly her wrists were healed. I asked her what was going on because she was flapping her wrists around like this and both of them I said, so what happened to you before? She said, well, I've actually had a tendon issue in both of my wrists. For the last six years, I've had a growth and tendon issue where I've struggled to put weight and pressure on my wrist, and I could hardly move it more than this. And all of a sudden, a bunch of students who have never seen a miracle before lay hands on her and pray in the name of Jesus. A simple prayer like, be healed in Jesus name, wrists be healed, and she gets full freedom, full mobility, back in her wrists. Praise God. And I say this because it was a very special thing to watch her journey over that youth camp. The first night she gets healed, the second night or the second day, she comes to me and says, hey, I feel like I need to forgive my father. And so we lead her in a prayer of forgiveness towards her father. She forgives her father that night, which is the second night, she comes forward to respond to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And we prayed for her, and she falls over on the ground, and she got some deliverance, some demons were manifesting. We dealt with them very quickly, and she got freedom and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Got up speaking in tongues. It was amazing. The third night, she's now filled with the Holy Spirit delivered. She's got a new identity established, walking in freedom. By the third night, she's praying for others on the front row. The first night she was there, awkward in worship. By the third night, she's walking around the front row, praying for people, praying in tongues, calling forth their destiny, saying things like, I see you walking through a dark tunnel, and you've been wondering if there's any way to get out. And I see God saying, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Who is this girl? We didn't get her to preach, but we see this transformation happen as the identity is established and restored and her confidence is restored, that it's Christ in her, the hope of glory. And the cool part was, guess what her name was. Her name was river. We called it in. Lord, let the same river that's flying. How many people name their daughter river? It's not a very common name, so I take that as a sign and a wonder that God was moving, the river was flowing, the Holy Spirit was moving in that meeting. And so something happens when we don't just hear the truth, but we embrace it. We come into understanding, like, we actually stand under it, you know, like an umbrella you can stand under certain truth, you know? And so something happens when we come into an understanding of the truth. One thing I've noticed in my personal journey following Christ, but also in others, is there is this lie that plagues the mind of believers that says, well, here's an invitation in the scriptures to your identity, the righteousness of God, the power of God, the life of Jesus Christ. And we see this invitation in scriptures, but this lie that has plagued humanity is that, well, that's good news, but you will never get to live that out, or that's good news, but that's for Jesus. And he was God in the flesh, so he could do those things. But you're going to constantly struggle in this cycle of sin, in this cycle of falling short, in this cycle of weakness, in this cycle of fear, until you get to heaven. And then when you get to heaven, you'll be set free. But can I tell you that is a lie? You were not called to live in a cycle of sin, in a cycle of fear, in a cycle of weakness your whole life, Jesus came to save you and set you free. And if Jesus came to save us, what did he come to save us from? Well, sin, death, shame, fear. If we are waiting to get to heaven when we die, for us to walk in our identity and finally have freedom from the things we've been struggling with and finally have freedom from that personality trait that we say is just our personality, but is actually a toxic tendency we need to get healing from. If we wait till we get to heaven before we finally enter into healing, if we wait till we get to heaven to finally be free from sin, then death has become our saviour and not Christ the Lord. If Jesus is our saviour, then it's him who sets us free. And it's the power of coming into agreement with that truth that will start to restore and liberate you from the inside out, to walk in the newness of your identity in Christ. Proverbs, chapter 23, verse seven, says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. That word, heart has also at times been translated to imagination. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And so often what happens to believers is we are so grateful that we've been saved. We're so grateful that we know that there is a hope that we will be with Christ in eternity in heaven. We're so grateful that we're forgiven and washed clean from our sin, but we still think of ourselves as a sinner. And as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And so what happens is, even for me, in my journey and my walk with the Lord, for the first few years of following Jesus, I would think of myself as still a sinner, a sinner saved by grace. And because I would think of myself as only a sinner, I was living in this cycle of sin. Maybe you found this problem yourself. Maybe you've seen a friend or a family member fall into these cycles before. But as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And cause I would think of myself as a sinner, I would find myself constantly falling back into sin because it's part of my nature, it's part of my identity. Now, we were sinners saved by grace, but it doesn't mean we're sinners anymore, because the very nature that you're saved means that there's something that's changed. The scripture we first read says that you are a new creation. Behold, all things have passed away, and all things are now made new. What was passed away, my old sinful nature has been done away with crucified, with Christ on the cross, buried in a grave, and it's not coming back out unless I go and try and dig it out and put it on my head and wear it as my new identity and live in the cycle of sin again. But there is a new nature. All things have been made new. He became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Behold, all things are made. Something's been done away with. Something has changed. That word new creation, that word new, it means completely new, never seen before, like a new creation. Like if I was to design a new automobile, a new vehicle, it's something that never been created. But I'm designing something completely new and revealing it to you. It says here, a completely new creation. Not 50% new, 50% old, not, you know, there's my spirit's new, but my body is still just a terrible sinner. God wants to do a full, full restoration work within you by the Holy Spirit. The way we see ourselves determines how we behave. If we see ourselves as weak, as less than, as someone who is still struggling as the old person we once were before we came to the knowledge of Christ, then when we pray for someone to be healed, we pray for a miracle in a loved one who needs a miracle. We're going to be praying as if we are that person we once were, that sinner who was in that cycle of sin. But if we recognize this new and we behold this new identity, we're not praying for sickness the same way. We're not praying into healing the same way. We're praying with a new authority that's seated in heavenly places. In Christ, something has changed about you. Something has changed in your nature. I am no longer a sinner, but a saint. You are no longer a sinner. You were a sinner, but then you were saved by grace. Now the Bible says you're a saint, you're a son of God, or you're a daughter of the king. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Somebody say amen. Amen. Amen. The first point I want to raise with you today is when I heard this truth. It not only changed the way I saw myself, but it changed the way I would see the father. And our identity really does come from the father. Our confidence comes from knowing that we have a God who loves us. Our identity comes from knowing we have a goddess who has actually adopted us into his family. But for a long time, I believed that God loved me and loved us. I believed that the father was good, but I didn't really know what that meant. And because of my experience with my own earthly father, when I had done something wrong as a child, I would often get yelled at, discipline, put in the naughty corner of the room. Still today, sometimes I get put in the naughty corner. But my father, the way that he loved me, he loved me deeply. I know he did, but he was not a perfect example of a father. And so I had this image of God that when I sinned, I had to hide myself. I didn't feel like lifting my hands in worship that week because I'd known I'd sinned, that when I'd swear or I'd said things wrong about someone or I had hatred or bitterness in my heart. I didn't feel like I had any authority to pray. When I was stuck in this cycle of lust and pornography, I felt like I had no authority to pray for someone's healing. And I felt like God. When I sinned, God would turn his back on me. Little did I realize that Jesus came to reveal the father and he came to reveal the nature of God. And when he saw someone in need of a savior, he didn't turn his back on them. He looked at a woman caught in the act of adultery and said, who condemns you? Nor do I go and sin no more? It was the grace of God that wasn't a license to keep on sinning. The grace of God was the empowerment for her to live free and not sin in that way. Again, humanity. All throughout the Old Testament, they're trying to understand God. They're trying to understand, who is he? What is he like? Is he like this? Is he like that. And they're on this journey. But then Christ comes on the scene, God in the flesh, and he reveals to humanity the full stop on the nature of God. The first truth I want to bring to you today is Jesus Christ is the truth about Goddess. Jesus Christ is the truth about God. He came to reveal the nature of the Father. I want to say to you this today. If there is anything you believe about God, or about God the Father, that isn't found in the life of Christ, it needs to be dealt with by the truth. If there is anything you believe about God that is not revealed and found in the life of Christ, it is not a true example of God. It is not a true image of God. Hebrews one, chapter three says this. Hebrews one three. He being Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Those aren't my words. That's the scripture. The exact imprint of his nature. Meaning not just 90% of the nature of the father, not just 99%, but the exact 100% imprint of the nature of God. And he, Jesus, upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ is the truth about God. Anything you believe about God that is not found in the life of Christ needs to be dealt with, because the truth is he is the exact imprint of the nature of God. And also anything you believe about God that is revealed in the life of Christ means it is true. It is him revealing himself to you. Colossians 115. I love how Colossians says it. Colossians 115 21 says this. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. I've heard people argue and say, well, where does it say that Jesus is God in the Bible? Well, all things were created in him, through him and for him. I don't know if it gets much clearer than that. All things were created in him through him and for him. He, Jesus, is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. Oh, aren't you thankful you have a good head? Oh, I'm thankful I've got a good head. Praise the Lord. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn among from the dead. So that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased. You need to catch this. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on a cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour, but now you are not. You are his restored, reconciled. This is the truth, man. This is the truth about the Jesus we worship. All of the fullness of God dwelt with him. He is the truth about God. The mystery of God has been revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. You don't have to go looking anywhere else. You don't have to go on a pilgrimage to find God. You don't have to climb to a new mountaintop. You don't have to attend another conference. You can find the truth about God by opening the scriptures and encountering Christ in his word. If you're wondering what God thinks about something, go and look at the life of Christ. If you're wondering how God would want you to respond to a situation, go and look at the life of Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you want a revelation of the Father, look into the life of Christ. God is good and the Father is is like Jesus. The Father is revealed in the life of the Son. John 114 says, we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. He who is at the father's side has made the father known. Known. So in order to walk in a deep and confident revelation of our identity, we need to know the love, the goodness, the identity of our father if we're adopted to be his sons and daughters. And now the second truth I want to bring to you today is this Jesus Christ? Yes. Is the truth about God, but he is also the truth about you. Jesus Christ reveals the truth about you. Somebody say Jesus reveals the truth about me. Amen. Jesus Christ is the truth about you two. Corinthians 517 like we read earlier, those who are in Christ are a new creation. Your new creation. Identity is found to in Christ. He came to reveal the truth about God and the truth about you. He lived and walked on the earth as an example for how we are called to walk. He is the truth about you. Colossians 127 says this to them. God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles? Which is this? Christ in you the hope of glory. The mystery of God is being revealed through you. Christ in you the hope of glory. The world is wondering today, who is God? What is he like? God is revealing that mystery through your life. You have a calling. You have a ministry, and it's to reveal Christ in you, the hope of glory to the world around you. You are called to represent Jesus, meaning to represent him to a world who's seen him presented poorly for a long time. We are called to demonstrate the life of Christ on this earth, in your homes, in your family. Not just waiting for a moment to pray on a Sunday. Not just waiting for a moment to share communion on a Sunday. Your ministry is out there waiting for you. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory being revealed to those who are searching for the truth about God. Jesus Christ is the truth about God, and he's the truth about you. Romans 829 says this for those whom he foreknew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Oh, that's good news. That's good news. We are being conformed into the image of his son. Did you know every Sunday you come and you spend in time in worship? Every time you, throughout the week, open your bible and you read the scriptures. Every time you pray and call on the name of the Lord, there is something happening within you. You are being conformed. You are being transformed and renewed into the image of the son. You are being transformed into the image of Christ himself. It'd be a shame if we continued our christian walk thinking that we are going to live in these cycles of constantly running back to fear. To think that for the rest of my life I'm never really going to feel like I have the faith or the authority to pray for a miracle. Cause I'm not anyone special. I'm just still a sinner. Be a shame if we lived in the cycle and not received freedom from some of those things in our lives, those bad habits we have, or the way we treat people, the way we lash out at people, or the insecurity that we harvest and harbor on the inside. It'd be a shame if we continued to walk and live our christian life not looking anything like Christ. The truth is, it's not something you have to strive to attain, to try and be holy. It's something you open your heart and you allow to be downloaded on the inside of you. It's a new nature that's being birthed on the inside of you. An apple tree doesn't squeeze and strive to produce apples. It just stays rooted in the truth that it is an apple tree. And it gets watered and it gets sun, and it gets rain and it produces apples in the same way. There is a new nature that has been planted within you. A new nature, the nature of Christ. The sin nature has been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, that nature has been done away with. You've received a new nature to produce beautiful fruits, the fruit of the spirit to produce beautiful apples or oranges, whatever. You're into oranges in this winter season because we all need a bit more vitamin C. There is a new nature planted within you. Second, Peter one three says it like this. Two, Peter one three. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Wow. Did you know you have access to all things that pertain to life and godliness? All things, not some things. All things you need for life and godliness. So you can't use the excuse, oh, well, you know, Pastor josh. He can do those things because he's Pastor josh, and I don't have that gift. No. All things that pertain to life and godliness are found in christ. Who has christ. Well, that's a good start. About eight of us today, we have christ. You have all things you need for life and godliness. It's in him. You don't need to chase another anointing. You don't need to chase down another prophecy, although those things are great. First, come alive to the truth that's already within you. All things pertaining to life and godliness are in him. I'll read on. Through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be, you, numenorf, may be partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, you have received a new nature, a new system, a new programming. You've received something new of God. I was even reading last night in romans eight one. I love it how it says it here. Romans eight one. It says, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. I love what it says here. Ready? Verse two. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Now, this is not talking about the law, like is in the law of Moses. It's saying the law of the spirit of life and the law of sin and death. It's not talking about the law of Moses. And maybe even law is not the best translation of what this is saying here. My footnotes in this Bible say that the law of the spirit of life is talking about a new system, the system of the spirit of life, the way of the spirit of life, the lifestyle of the spirit. This new nature, this new system, I was thinking of it like this, like receiving a new software update, a new program into your computer. The old program of this sinful nature has been done away with. It's been destroyed and driven out by the new nature of life in the spirit. This is good news. This is good news. You've received a new nature. You're no longer a sinner. Why act like it? Well, I don't feel like I have the power to overcome this temptation, or I don't feel like I have the power to overcome this fear, or I don't feel like I have the power to stop smoking or stop swearing, or I don't feel like I have the power to. Guess what the Bible says you do. All things pertaining to life and godliness are in him. You've got a new nature, the nature of Christ in you. Time to let it shine. You've got a new nature. The old program, the old software, has been driven out by a new system that's been planted in you. The nature of Christ, Christ in you. The hope of glory. All things are possible for you now because you no longer walk alone. You walk with Christ in you. You walk with the seed of hope that wants to birth and burst forth into glorious life around you. You've received a new nature. The truth of the word of God sets you free. And so oftentimes we hear a message like this and we read these scriptures and we see that there is this freedom. But then we go back and we start operating on the old Windows ten software that we used to operate on. We often receive these downloads of the word of God and of the spirit. And then we find ourselves challenged by an obstacle where we step into bitterness and offense again and unforgiveness, and we start operating. This is how I've operated all that time. Anytime someone cuts me off, anytime somebody tries to correct me or say something about me, we go back to that old pattern of defending myself and getting offended, getting frustrated and jumping to the next church and trying to find another mentor, because the last mentor was just such a bully and told me that I need a change and this is just who I am. I'm not going to change. No, that's not who you're called to be. Your mentor loves you because they want to see Christ in you revealed and they want to help you be conformed to the image of Christ. So oftentimes we receive the word of God and the truth sets us free. But we have a responsibility to renew our minds on how to use the new software of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, the kingdom of God within us, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We have a responsibility to renew our minds, to sharpen our minds, to quicken ourselves and learn how to use this new nature that you have within you. So has something changed in me the moment I take hold of that truth in the word of God? Yes, something has set me free. But why does my life not look different? Well, because you need to learn how to use the new software. You need to learn how to walk with the Holy Spirit. You need to allow his word to show you what God loves and what he hates. You need to let the word do its work within you. Renew your mind and wash your mind in the word of God and the things of God. Maybe cutting out some of those things that you once used to hang around with or watch or listen or read. Something has changed within you. Yes, we need to renew our minds to activate and walk in that truth. And this is where I come to my last scripture. I want to share with you today in two corinthians three, two corinthians 318, it says this, and we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. We all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. There is this idea we see in the spirit, this idea in the scriptures, that the more we behold something, the more we start to become like it. The more we focus on things, the more we start to gravitate towards them. The more we embrace something by faith, the more it starts to do its work within us. And I want to propose to you today that part of walking in the fullness of your new identity is beholding the one in whom your identity has come. After that, instead of focusing on our sin issues to try and get free from sin, we should focus on the righteousness of God revealed in Christ Jesus and allow that nature that he's put within us to come alive within us and have more faith in the righteousness of God within us to set us free than our own strength to overcome temptations. That we should have more faith. Beholding that Jesus didn't cower in a storm, but he said, peace, be still. And he didn't be overcome by fear. He actually spoke into the atmosphere of fear and released peace. And it should be that we beholden rather than our fear and coming submitted under our situations and circumstances around us. If you become what you behold, what have you beholding? What have you been beholding lately? Because maybe that's where you've been drawing your identity from. What are we feeling stirred in our spirit? What is holy spirit calling you to behold about the nature and life of Christ that maybe you need breakthrough in that maybe you need to grow in. I want to say this this morning. Jesus Christ is not the exception. He is the example. And too often we defer and we opt out of responsibility because we say, well, Jesus would do that. But Jesus was God in the flesh, so I'm not going to do that. Like, well, if Jesus prayed for them, they'd be healed. But I'm not Jesus, so I'm not going to pray. I'm just going to pray that God would heal them quietly over here. Or, you know, well, if Jesus was at my workplace, my whole workplace would be saved. But I don't think I'll see anyone saved at my workplace because I'm not Jesus. But Jesus was never coming to earth to be the exception. He came to be the example for you and I to follow in. So guess what? You can't defer anymore. You can't opt out anymore. You have a responsibility. Today you've heard the truth. You now have a responsibility to walk in it. You have a new nature. This is good news, friends. I'm telling you this to let you know that you have a power at work within you. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is within you and wants to empower you to walk like Christ on the earth, that you would be his hands and his feet. That when you encounter problems and opposition, you would not see it from a position of I am just a sinner saved by grace, waiting to get to heaven when I die. But you would know that I was once a sinner, but now I'm a son, now I'm a daughter. I have the king of kings living within me, not just partially, but fully. I have all things pertaining to life and godliness. I've got a toolkit with every power tool I need within there to release mass destruction on the kingdom of darkness and mass construction on the kingdom of God. You have everything you need within you to fulfill your calling, to fulfill your ministry. You have what it takes not on your own, but by the spirit of God. Some of you, God's been speaking to you about ministering to somebody or maybe stepping into something new, and there's been this faith tug of war in your heart of can I step into this? Can I do this? Can I do that? And you've been wondering, cause I don't feel like I'm ready yet. I don't feel like I have what it takes. Let me tell you, friend, you have everything you need within you. It's time to step up and walk in obedience to the spirit. His power is alive in you. And if you go home and you don't feel it, time to stir up your faith, time to look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself of the truth. Your feelings are not your reality. The word of God is. Your circumstances are not the truth about your life. Jesus Christ is the truth about you. Oh, I feel like I have sinned and I have fallen short, and I feel like God is so far away from me, he doesn't want to hear from me. Well, Jesus Christ is the truth about God, and he didn't walk away from you. In fact, he hung and died for you and Bleda and his blood and his body opened up your new identity for you to walk in. His body was open so that you could walk into your new identity in him, step into relationship with God, be set free from sin and no longer walk and live like a sinner, walk in the cycles of the ways of this world anymore, but to be completely delivered into a new life in Christ. This morning I'd love to pray with you, and I feel like God has spoken to me about a few things to pray into today, a few areas of healing, a few areas of even anointing. I feel like there's a new anointing for transition here today. So why don't you just turn your eyes to the Lord and open your heart to him? And if you're here today with every eye closed and every head bowed, if you're here today and you feel like you haven't truly honored the word of God and your new nature in Christ, and you feel like, yeah, I've been living in this pattern of the world and I've been living in this cycle of sin, I want to pray with you today and with every eye closed. Holy spirit, I just thank you that you're making yourself known in this room right now. I pray, Lord, for anyone here today who feels like they've been in this cycle, in this pattern falling short. I ask, Lord, that right now the truth that we've read through your scriptures today would be planted and grounded in the hearts of those who would believe if anyone's here today, if you're here today and you feel like you've been in that cycle of sin and you believe that today is the day, you want freedom, you want to walk in that nature, that new nature in Christ, I want to just invite you to raise your hand so that I could see. I'm not only asking for an opportunity to make Jesus your lord and savior. I'm asking if you want to be free from the cycles of sin today, would you raise your hand and say, yeah, lord, that's me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think we could all pray this together this morning. So I want you to say it with faith, out loud with me. You can repeat after me. Say, Jesus, I thank you for your cross, for what you did for me. I pray today, Lord Jesus, that the power of the cross would empower me to walk in the righteousness of God. I repent and I'm sorry for where I have submitted to the cycles of sin. Today, I choose to take your word as truth and an invitation. [00:56:12] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or us simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans chapter six, verse 23 says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 316 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus. The Son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with him. Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord and we do that through a simple prayer. Follow along with me dear Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at Numa church. Thanks for listening.