Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Continuing our series this morning, life in the spirit. Life in the spirit. Our text today, for all who are led by the spirit of God are children of God or sons of God. You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him Abba father. Come on. Can we just say that together? We call him what? Abba Father. That's right. His spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children. Oh, I love this. You ought to memorize this. Since we are his children, we are God's heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But if we share in his glory, we must also share in his suffering. Boy, that feels real today, doesn't it? There's moments of glory, there's moments of suffering. But this is part of being a son. It's part of being in the family of God. Let's pray and let's ask the Lord's hand on this time as we open his word together. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is light, it's life, it's instruction, it's correction where we need it. And God, I'm asking that today your word would accomplish all that you desire it to. I pray, Lord, for a mighty anointing even now, to just rest upon this room. Come on, church, will you help me pray for the anointing? For the spirit of God to just come in this place. Holy Spirit, we ask you to come and to minister your word to us today. I pray Jesus, the same anointing that was upon you to preach good news to those in need, I pray, would rest upon me as well. I ask your anointing give us eyes that see and ears that hear, a heart and a mind that perceives what your spirit is speaking to everybody. Open heart and I bind the works of the enemy. According to Matthew 1619, I bind the works of the enemy. He who would seek to distract, to distort, to confuse or uproot the word as it comes forward. Give us liberty today in receiving your word. I pray in Jesus name and everybody say amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:24] Well, I'm pretty excited to preach, you guys. I'll be honest with you. I've been out for three Sunday mornings. We've had some good guest speakers. Christoph, I heard you did amazing. Doctor Christoph.
[00:02:35] Love it.
[00:02:37] We had brother Jesse Duplantis last week, which was a lot of fun. Who did we have before that. Oh, my friend Josh Lewis. So anyway, it's great to be with you guys. I don't like typically missing more than one week, much less three. But I'm going to do just a touch of review before we dive into some of the new content. But really what I'm dealing with, and you're going to hear me. Over the course of this series, you've been hearing me say a lot of the same phrases and quote a lot of the same scriptures. And it's not because I'm running out of content. I'm working new things in every single week. But the reason I'm doing this is I really want some of this to really seep into your heart. I want the revelation that you're an heir with an inheritance to be with you for the rest of your life. That's why I'm saying it. We read it just a moment ago out of verse 17. We are heirs of Christ. We are co heirs with God. I want you to say it. I'm an heir with an inheritance.
[00:03:37] I was like half the room. Tell your neighbor I'm an heir with an inheritance.
[00:03:44] There you go.
[00:03:46] I want you to say this. I am a child of God.
[00:03:51] This is a big deal. I need you to realize. Do you realize you being a son of the most high God is a really big deal?
[00:03:59] In the Old Testament, saying that I'm a son of God or I'm a daughter of God actually would have been considered blasphemous. Do you realize you can read this in John, chapter five. The reason the Pharisees became so aggressive towards Jesus was he said that he was the son of God and that God was his father. And they knew. They knew very well in that culture. We've kind of got away from some of this in the present day. But they knew in that day and age that if you claimed to be the son of a father, you made yourself equal with the father. And that's exactly why they sought to kill Jesus, because he said that he was the son of the father. Father God. He called God father, making himself equal with God. So the idea, consider what Jesus was ministering was a radical revelation. I'm not just a prophet. I'm not just a good preacher. I'm not just another rabbi who's come, I am the son of God. I am equal with God. I was with him in the beginning. In all creation, Jesus is the fullness of God in a human body.
[00:05:15] Oh, my goodness. So you take it a step further. And again, I'm reviewing here the Bible says Nicodemus, john, chapter three, you must be born again.
[00:05:32] Ganeo, you must be regened with the DNA of God. You are being brought into, adopted into. Not just legally, it's not just a legal declaration, but you are literally being transformed and conformed into the image of God. You are being brought into his family, as his son, as his daughter, as a child of God. John, chapter one. Again, I'm sharing you the same verses I've shared a dozen other times already. But John, chapter one. To those who believe he gave the right to become Ganesha, born again, to become children of God.
[00:06:16] Wow.
[00:06:17] You're a son. You're a daughter of the most high God.
[00:06:23] Now, I know people get nervous when you start talking like that. I don't know if anybody in our church is getting nervous over this, but people get nervous when you start talking. Well, yes, pastor, but of course, he's capital g God, and we're lowercase g God. Here's the problem.
[00:06:39] Can I just mess with you a little bit here? You realize that in the Hebrew and in the Greek, they don't have uppercase and lowercase.
[00:06:49] Son of God is son of God. There's no uppercase, there's no lowercase. And here's. Now, I'm going to say two things, and I need you to understand me well when I'm talking about the fact that you are a son of God.
[00:07:02] I feel like we, in our efforts to remain humble and to keep God God, which is appropriate. I'm gonna speak very carefully here. In our efforts to be humble and to keep God God. That's good.
[00:07:18] What we have done is we have so diminished what it means for us to also be sons and daughters of God, which is not good.
[00:07:29] I believe what Jesus did, Jesus did is an example of what a spirit led son was and what Jesus accomplished on the earth. He said that we will do, and even greater things would we do, because he goes to the father and he sends to us the very same spirit that was dwelling in him. So the ministry of Jesus is not just the standard for what our spirit led sonship identity should look like, but it's actually the floor that's the starting point of what our life as sons and daughters of God should look like. I believe that most of us have operated well. Jesus is God, and Jesus is great. So of course he can work miracles, and of course he has all provision, and of course he has disciples. And of course he speaks with authority, of course, because he's Jesus and I'm just me, but Jesus was kind. I talked about the fact that Jesus spoke to a tree and the tree withered. And the disciples, they asked him, they'd say, Jesus, the fig tree that you cursed, it died. And Jesus said, well, yeah, that's because I'm God and I can do that. But you guys could never do anything like that. No.
[00:08:43] He said, I tell you, you could speak to mountains, and if you believe what you say, you will have what you say you can speak to. You think trees are impressive? Try talking to mountains. Jesus is saying, believe bigger because you have the same God stuff that I have. Now, with that being said, we need to raise our expectation of what God is able to do through his sons and daughters. But on the other hand, I need to be very, very, very clear.
[00:09:16] Jesus is God. He is holy. And while that is my goal, I will never be that. God is set apart. God is completely other, and I never will. Nobody in this church will ever be worthy of worship. Nobody in this church will ever be worthy of praise. God will honor us, and we one day will be transformed into his glorious image. But I need you to understand, he is God. You are not, but you are a son.
[00:09:46] You are a daughter. Do you feel the tension in that? So it's like, I need to believe bigger, but I'm always looking to him. And by the way, how are we transformed into his glorious image?
[00:09:59] By beholding him.
[00:10:02] By beholding him.
[00:10:05] Two Corinthians, chapter three. I spent months preaching on that. We behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and we are transformed into his glorious image from glory to glory. So this is where, if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you'll never be exalted above me, but you will begin to look like him. And this is essential for our identity, my friend. We must look like him. You realize? I mean, we had just a great time.
[00:10:36] We were in the airport and I was just listening to my son make jokes and I'm listening to him and I'm like, that's my son. Like, that's what I'm thinking. He's making these jokes. You know, you ever have things that your kids say or do that are like, as an adult, it's inappropriate for you to laugh about, but you actually think is pretty hilarious. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Maybe my kids should shut their ears during this time. But I'm telling you, I'm hearing stuff come out of his mouth that I used to say when I was like 18, 1920 years old and stuff that I stopped saying because I'm a pastor now, right? And so it's like. But how did he learn that he's in the jeans? He's my son. And I'm telling you, if you guys know me and you hang around with my son, you're going to begin to see all these things in his life. That's Pastor Jacob. That's Jacob right there. God help the man who marries my daughter.
[00:11:37] Because some of you, I mean, I'm telling you, I watch her. She'll get in a group of adults in particular situations. I mean, she's already running the coffee shop that she works at. What in the world is that? This girl has pulled the leadership qualities of me and my wife.
[00:11:53] She needs to have a tank of a husband. I'm just telling you, somebody who's confident, because otherwise she'll eat them alive. Praise God. She got the strength. Why? They're my kids, right? That's my blood. And you'll see, oh, that's. That's Leah right there. Oh, that's Jacob right there. And they'll see attributes of both of us. Why? Because this as family.
[00:12:15] Never forget when I first met Linda. Who's Jeremy? My brother. Jeremy's mom. We have different moms, same dad. I didn't grow up with his mom. I didn't grow up with my dad. My dad left, married Jeremy's mom. But I will never forget the first time I met Linda, Jeremy's mom.
[00:12:37] She looks me in the eyes, and it's like this shock, this bewilderment. And she's like, you are your dad's son. And I don't think that was a compliment in that moment, because, you know.
[00:12:52] But he just. You know, I look like and I walk like, and I sound. Even though I didn't grow up with him. But she knew him. And she meets me, and she's like, that's your dad. You are his son. What is that? Well, it's in the genes. It's in my bloodline. Now, I need you to understand, there needs to come moments in each and every one of our lives that we are so with Jesus, that we are so transformed that people begin to get around you. And they see Jesus. They get around you, and they see that royal priesthood. They see the divine nature of God in your life.
[00:13:32] Not just christian in name. I've got a t shirt that says I love Jesus. No, they actually see you in the things you do, in the way you talk and the way you walk.
[00:13:42] It's all about him.
[00:13:45] I'm still reviewing here, but I am convinced that God's plan of salvation, that what the Lord intends to do, it mostly comes down to family.
[00:14:01] Jesus is the firstborn, Romans eight says, amongst many brethren.
[00:14:07] And what Jesus did was to bring you and I into the family.
[00:14:12] That's his plan of salvation. Not that you would be a slave, a fearful slave to an angry God. Know that you are a treasure that for the joy set before him, Jesus laid down his life to purchase you and the world that you were in while you were sinners. He died for you. That's how earnestly Jesus loves you, and he wants to bring you into the family, not as a slave, but as a son, as a daughter of the most high God. I heard an amazing testimony from a pastor.
[00:14:48] His name wasn't released, but I was reading the report of he's operating primarily in the Middle east, and his job right now is to collect testimonies from the thousands and thousands of Muslims who are being born again.
[00:15:01] He's reporting, and I've seen some studies, they estimate somewhere between 50 and 25,000 thousand Muslims being born again a day.
[00:15:12] A day. More Muslims being born again than are actually being born.
[00:15:19] And do you know how that's happening? Do you know how that's happening? For most of them, they're going in the mosque to pray and Jesus shows up in the prayer meeting, or they lay down their head to sleep and an angel comes to them and begins to declare the gospel of the kingdom, or God appears to them and sharing like by the masses. By the way, not to get you freaked out in end time stuff, but it is one of the signs of the end times that God was going to send out angelic witnesses who would be preaching the gospel. It's happening. It's happening right now. And so what's happening is this pastor is beginning to collect all the testimonies. Tell me what you saw. Tell me what you heard. You saw Jesus. What did he say? When the angel came to you? What did they declare? And again, this whole series, my goal is just kind of mess with you and shake your theology and just test what you believe. Okay, this is what's interesting. Of the thousands and thousands of testimonies they have begun to collect, Jesus never comes to them and says, you need to repent. You're in sin. You need to turn away and come to me.
[00:16:29] What Jesus comes to them is saying, there's a father who loves you so much that he sent me, that I stooped down to your love. That means a lot to a muslim who believes God is so holy they cannot talk to him that I sent my son so I could receive you into my family church. This is where I think we've missed it in much of our gospel presentation.
[00:17:00] We start with holy fruit inspection.
[00:17:04] You need to fix your crap, and then you can come to Jesus. Can I say crap? Maybe I need to repent of that. I don't know.
[00:17:12] You need to fix. You need to fix your mess, and then you can come to Jesus. And that is not what Jesus preached.
[00:17:21] Jesus, while we were sinners, died for us.
[00:17:28] He didn't come to start a new religion.
[00:17:31] He came to start a family.
[00:17:33] And we start in the place of identity. I'm telling you, in my greatest efforts, I always fall short. But when I begin to realize who I am in Christ Jesus, it moves me into a position of royalty. All of a sudden, the divine nature begins to flow in me and through me, and it is not. It's not performance.
[00:17:55] It's not effort. It's transformation. I am being renewed. I am being. In fact, that word in two corinthians actually says that we are being transfigured. The same word that was used of Jesus when he was glowing white and transfigured before the disciples on the mountain. The Bible says that you and I, as we behold Jesus as he truly is, we are transfigured into his glorious image.
[00:18:25] Are you hearing me today? I know. I know this is hard for some of you, but no, we have to start with the sin. This is why. This is why guys, like, I was so embarrassed when all this stuff about the Super bowl commercial came out. I was embarrassed.
[00:18:40] And the reason. Do you guys know the one I'm talking about? What's it called? He gets us. You see all the arguments about this? It got real quiet in here. I don't know. You guys are. What are you about to say?
[00:18:55] I was embarrassed because I have friends and family that I'm constantly witnessing to praying for and asking them with all sincerity. I want you to experience the family and the Jesus that has set me free.
[00:19:12] I want you to experience the liberty that I have.
[00:19:17] And they look in and all they see is christians arguing over commercials.
[00:19:25] And it's petty, it's foolish, it's divisive.
[00:19:35] I believe, friend, I don't want you to mishear me. I take sin seriously. That's why we're breaking the devil off of people on Thursday nights. I know Sin has a cost. Sin will bind people, no doubt about it. But I'm telling you, where freedom comes, it starts in the place of identity.
[00:19:52] Then you move into the realm of freedom, healing, deliverance. We're being transformed. Then God begins to activate us. Usefulness in his kingdom.
[00:20:04] We've got the order mixed up. Well, let me give you a list. Let me give the doctrines you want to follow Jesus. Here's all the stuff you need to do. Stop it.
[00:20:13] Stop it. Okay, I'm gonna skip. You know, I talk about the ministry of Jesus. I talk about. Does this make sense to you guys? Does this help anybody? I'll tell you where it's most liberating. When I've been sharing these messages, it's, you know, new church. People are loving it. They're coming to me and like, wow, this is awesome. I love this church. But honestly, the strongest response I've been getting from people are seasoned believers. Pastor, I've been in the church my whole life, and this is so liberating.
[00:20:43] This is so freeing.
[00:20:46] Hallelujah. We're going to be like Jesus. Amen.
[00:20:49] So let me see. I want to talk. You want to know why it's important for you and I to begin to move into our identity. We are sons and daughters of the most high God. And I'm telling you, it is one of the most important revelations that you and I can come to. And I'm gonna show you this. In scripture, the Bible says that the world itself is literally crying out for the revealing of the sons and daughters of the most high God. Where are the people who understand who they are in Christ? Not people who have a religion, not people who've memorized the commandments. Where are the people who know, I am a son of the most high God. I am a daughter of the.
[00:21:39] You'll actually see there's a groan that comes from three different directions. Number one, I want you to write this down. There's the groan of creation. There's the groan of creation. You see this in Romans chapter eight in verse 19. It says, all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal or the revealing of the sons of God, who his children really are.
[00:22:09] If you're led by the spirit, you're a child of God. If you're led by the spirit, you are a child of God. We read that earlier against its will. Verse 20, all creation was subject to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day where it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. We know that all creation has been groaning, as in pangs of childbirth, right up in until the present time. Do you realize the earth is groaning? The world is groaning. The Bible compares that groaning to birth pains. Do we have any mamas in the house today? Any fathers who are there in the delivery room? You know what that groan sounds like? And I'm just telling you, the world around us is crying out, where are the sons and daughters of the most high God?
[00:23:10] I'm telling you, when you see crisis, when you see bus crashes in Tanzania, when you see tornadoes tearing apart cities, when you see hurricanes and volcanoes, and all of these things are groans in the earth, and the message that they're crying out is, where are the sons of God? Where are the daughters of God? Not new religions, not another missions base, but people who understand, I'm a son of the most high God, I'm a daughter of the king, I'm an heir with an inheritance. This is what the world is crying out for. You understand? You hear these wild testimonies where people actually grab hold of this idea. Jesus, your kingdom come, your will be done on the earth just as it is in heaven. I saw testimony from an unbelieving sheriff in Pensacola, Florida, at the height of the Brownsville revival. Mighty move of God. And this sheriff is giving testimony of how they've watched crime go down and down and down and down as the move of God is taking place in their city.
[00:24:23] You'll look at cities in history like Wales and the welsh revival and how the spirit of God came down in bars, God forbid. People began preaching, people began turning away. And literally, pastors would talk about how they'd have crowds gathering around their church and around their homes in the middle of the night, looking for a place where they could encounter this God that they just experienced. In the bar.
[00:24:49] You look at testimonies. I mean, literally, the history of hospitals, the history of universities, the history of orphanages, the abolition of slavery. Every one of these was a cry that was coming out of the earth. And there was a son or a daughter of God who heard the cry and said, I'm going to do something about this. I've quoted Brother William Booth has become one of my favorite quotes.
[00:25:16] He said, I'm not waiting for a move of God. I am a move of God. Here is a man who saw hunger. He saw nakedness, he saw communities without a church. And he said, you know what? I'm going to do what God has called me to do. He started the Salvation army, which began to minister to every one of those needs.
[00:25:39] Look at people hear stories of Rodney Howard Brown. It's the summer before last. There's a hurricane bailing towards them in Tampa. Florida. Everybody's evacuating the city. The news reporters are there saying there is a 100% of landfall for this hurricane. He gathers his Bible school students. They don't evacuate. They begin to pray and speak to the storm. If Jesus, as the Son of God, could tell this storm to peace, be still and to cease over that area, we can do that, too. They gathered prayer warriors, the students from their Bible school, and they began to prophesy. Not only did that hurricane steer the other way, but literally all they got was a trickle that day instead of the category five hurricane that was coming their way.
[00:26:22] What is that? That hurricane was a groan in the earth. Are there any sons? Are there any daughters? I just wonder. Where are the sons and daughters who will feed the hungry, clothed the naked? Visit the imprisoned? Where are the sons and daughters who will bring solutions to housing crisis? Who are the sons and daughters who will contend for healing to break the back of sickness and disease? Where are the sons and daughters who will fight for godly marriages that stay together and mentor their children?
[00:26:58] Pick your crisis church. Identify the grown in the earth and stop this. Oh, God, the world is so broken down. Take us out, Lord.
[00:27:10] I'm serious, man. I believe in the rapture, but I am not going to. Let's hold the fort until the Lord takes us home, guys. We got churches to build.
[00:27:22] We got widows to care for. We got orphans to take care of. We've got communities to transform. We got hospitals to build. We have missionaries to send. We've got stuff to do in this day and age.
[00:27:35] Take me out, Lord.
[00:27:38] We're not doing that. All right, second point. Are you guys still alive? We're doing good. Come on, sons. Come on, daughters.
[00:27:46] Number two. There's a groan of believers. There's a groan of believers. The earth is crying out. The world is crying out. But verse 23, Romans chapter eight says, and we believers also grown. Although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised for us. For us.
[00:28:22] My goodness, there's a lot to be excited about in the future. This one passage talks about future glory. No temptation, no sufferings, full rights as adopted children, new bodies. I'm telling you, there's a groan that comes up. My wife made me run for an hour this last week.
[00:28:43] She's my coach in this triathlon, and my body was groaning.
[00:28:49] I want a new body, and I eagerly expect a new body.
[00:28:56] But you know what I. You know what I believe this really speaks to, and I need you to hear me on this. I believe that there is a cry on the inside of every believer for more like God. I have a taste of your glory. I have a taste of freedom. I have a taste of what? Relief from suffering? I have a taste of your presence.
[00:29:19] But there's more.
[00:29:21] But there's more. You understand? The reason I went to Christ for the nations was because I began. I grew up in a powerless church. I grew up in a church that didn't give altar calls, didn't believe in miracles, didn't. I mean, never cast out demons, never saw healing. But I'll never forget the day that a missionary evangelist came and spoke at our church. And he showed us videos of his crusade meetings in Pakistan, in the Philippines, in Honduras. I went with him to Honduras. I was so stirred, even as a drug addict who was trying my best to love the Lord. But there was something that grabbed my interest. I saw this video. He brought a lady on stage. She was blind. He lays hands on the blind lady. She receives her sight. And here I'm sitting in a church that doesn't pray for the sick, doesn't believe in healing, but I just saw a miracle. And so I thought, man, if God is using missionaries overseas to heal the sick and to open blind eyes and to cast out devils and to multiply food, if that's happening overseas, then I'm going to go overseas.
[00:30:28] And so I signed up for school to become a missionary. And I get in school Christ for the nations in Dallas, Texas. And I realize that the Philippines and Honduras and Pakistan are not the only places where miracles happen. I've just been hanging out with the wrong people.
[00:30:50] I watched this guy, David Newberry, he would call down all these people, line up if you need healing. And I remember I was in the back of the sanctuary, and I'd watch him go, here's a young man, and, okay, what's going on with you? My body hurts here. All right, Jesus, heal that pain in Jesus name. And he would say, in Jesus name. And I'm telling you, I would feel like a wave moved from the back of the room right to where that person was in the altar. And he say, how do you feel now the pain is gone. Praise God. And you go on to the next person. What's wrong with you? Oh, I've got this issue going on, healing in Jesus name. And I watch healing right there. How does it feel now my pain is gone. I watched my first semester kid manifests demons, and I watched one of my heroes, Carol Thompson, doctor Carol Thompson, go over there. You know Carol Thompson. Somebody said, woo. Anyway, I watched him go over there and take authority, and I watched liberty come to that young man, and I'm like, oh, there was something on the. There was a groan. There was a hunger on the inside of me. I've known for all my life that there was something more. The reason I dove into drugs, I'm telling you, was because there's more. There's more. And the greatest experience I could have was in a high.
[00:32:14] But then I encountered the power of God, and I realized everything that I've been hungering for, every void that I've been trying to fill is answered in this. There's a groan. There's a hunger on the inside of me. I know there's more.
[00:32:30] I'd go home, and I remember I'd go talk to all of these guys from this dead church that I was in, and I'd just tell them, man, I was in a communion service, and I watched this lady come out of a wheelchair. I mean, literally, there would be people that just gather around just to hear these miracle testimonies. And I ended up bringing back with me about a half a dozen students who started at Christ for the nations, because they're like, whoa, we want to see miracles, too. We want to see the power of God, too. Church. I'm just here to tell you there's more.
[00:33:03] There's more. And I believe there's a hunger. There is a cry on the inside of individuals. There is more.
[00:33:11] We're gonna pray in a moment that God would once again awaken that hunger and awaken that groan on the inside of us that we would really stir in. And I don't want to be satisfied with a little of God's presence. I don't want to be satisfied with the miracle in 2020 that God worked here in Kona. God, what are you doing today? God, what are you doing right now?
[00:33:35] Now, let me give you some theology here, because some of you are astute, and I know you may have noticed in verse 15, it says that we have been adopted.
[00:33:44] So you're adopted today.
[00:33:47] We're sons and daughters of God today.
[00:33:51] But verse 23 says that we are waiting for the full adoption as sons and daughters, as children of God. So wait, pastor, are we sons, or are we awaiting adoption? The answer is yes.
[00:34:13] Yes is the answer. You understand? There's a concept they'll teach you in hermeneutics the study of scripture called already not yet.
[00:34:22] And you'll find that this applies to many different doctrines within the christian faith. It's already. Not yet. Well, do we have the kingdom of God with us here right now? Yes. We pray your kingdom come, your will be done.
[00:34:35] But it is not yet all that it will be. One day Jesus will establish his throne. One day we will experience on the earth. Truly, literally, as it is in heaven. All the way already? Yes. Not yet.
[00:34:50] Are you saved already? Not yet. You are saved. You're born again, but you are not yet all that you will be when you're perfected, when you're glorified, then you will fully be saved. But we're all in process already. Not yet. In fact, let me give you a Bible verse that will help you with this one. John chapter three. And verse two. One John three two says, dear friends, we are. Can we bring that up here? First John three. Two out of the new living translation.
[00:35:25] Wake up.
[00:35:27] Are we back there? Okay. First John three. Okay. Use your Bible.
[00:35:32] We got it. Dear friends, we are already God's children. Everybody say already, are you God's children? Yes, you are. You are already God's children. But he has not yet say, not yet.
[00:35:47] There it is right there. He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. There's more so. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. See, there's beholding and becoming. How are you going to be like him? By seeing him as he really is.
[00:36:06] Wow.
[00:36:09] I hope you begin to see this stuff all throughout scripture.
[00:36:13] You're a son. You're a daughter of the most high God already.
[00:36:19] You're not yet all the way there, but there's a groan on the inside of us that's going to push us into this reality. I'm not all the way there, but I'm telling you, I'm more there than I was even six months ago.
[00:36:36] I'm not all the way there, but there is a hunger on the inside of me until my face begins to glow like Moses because his face was glowing in an inferior covenant. We have a better covenant. I'm not going to settle for less than what Moses had until I'm having conversations with God face to face and I come out of the prayer room with my face glowing.
[00:36:57] I'm groaning for more.
[00:37:01] We have about six people that have been healed of terminal cancer in our church in the last year and a half, and I praise God for it. Already healed but we have not yet arrived because not every person we've prayed for with cancer gets healed. Not every sickness we pray for here in these altars has gotten healed already.
[00:37:20] Not yet.
[00:37:22] There's more, and there's a hunger for the more. So the first thing the world is groaning. Will you hear the groan and will you respond to the groan? Secondly, there's a groan in believers. Will you release that groan? Will you be one who hungers and thirsts for more? You say, pastor, this is big. This is too much. Oh, I've got good news for you. There's a third groan and it's a helping groan. There's a groan of the spirit. I want you to write this down. The groan of the spirit, verse 26. Romans, chapter eight. The holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. You don't know what to pray. He's going to help you. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. Have you ever gone in prayer and after you, like, pray for your family, pray for your finances, pray for your, you know, sick people, whatever. You know, you just like, okay, now what? It's about five minutes. What do I do now? Anybody? Anybody? Here's what you do.
[00:38:23] We don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the holy Spirit prays for us with groans, with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows the heart, all hearts, knows what the spirit is saying. I like the new King James. King James, esv. It actually says the mind. It knows what the mind of the spirit is. For the spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.
[00:38:55] So there's moments you begin to pray and the will of the Father is expressed in the spirit. And the spirit makes his mind your mind, and you begin to pray the will of the father. Now, you'll notice that there's actually, if you look at commentators, there's actually division in.
[00:39:19] What is that groan? What is that groan?
[00:39:24] Some will say it's praying in the spirit. It's praying in tongues.
[00:39:29] Others will say, no, no, it's literally a groan. It's this deep groan, like birthing pains. It's that same word groan that was used earlier to describe the earth. It's a deep groan. You say, pastor, what do you believe? Is it tongues or is it groans? And I say, yes, I think it's both, because I can testify to both.
[00:39:55] I have moments where I'm anxious, where I'm fearful, where I'm heavy in soul.
[00:40:05] And all of a sudden I feel the mind of Christ. I feel the mind of the spirit and the will of the father begin to ring.
[00:40:14] I've also had moments where I'm so deep in the place of prayer, I don't know what to pray. I don't know what to say. And all I can do is go, oh, you ever have moments like that in prayer?
[00:40:33] Groans.
[00:40:35] Ever watch a woman give birth?
[00:40:38] Groans too deep for words.
[00:40:41] Groans too deep for words. And the spirit of God is crying out the same thing the world is crying out. Where are the sons of God? Where are the daughters of God?
[00:40:56] The same thing that you probably hunger for when you hear an on fire preacher, when you see the miracle testimony, when you see the entrepreneur shaking the world, starting hospitals, saving orphans. The thing that stirs in you, that hunger. It's the groan.
[00:41:13] It's the groan.
[00:41:16] God's trying to wake up the sons of God, the daughters of God.
[00:41:22] And you begin to pray, and the spirit of God begins to stir and make the father's will, your will. The mind of the spirit becomes your mind and begins to pray with groans that are too deep for words. Words.
[00:41:42] Hallelujah.
[00:41:45] Worship team, if you'll come, we're gonna.
[00:41:49] We're gonna turn this into a prayer meeting, is what we're gonna do.
[00:41:55] The next verse. This is important.
[00:41:58] It says, we know all things work for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.
[00:42:08] You know, a bus crash can be turned for good if we're called according to his purpose and if we're loving God.
[00:42:22] That's scripture.
[00:42:24] There may be moments that you agonize over that loss of life in words that are too deep for groans, that are too deep for words. But you know what God is producing in us.
[00:42:36] Romans 829 says, whom he foreknew. He predestined watch this to be conformed to the image of his son that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren.
[00:42:49] The things that you're going through in life, good and bad, victories and seeming defeated feats, if you'll stay in love with Jesus and you'll be mindful of his call on your life, all of these things will turn for good.
[00:43:08] And they are all working to form you to be sons of God, daughters of God.
