July 2, 2025 • 45 mins
Standing at a crossroads between two philosophies of life, we face a pivotal choice that determines our spiritual reality. Do we build our lives on the wisdom of this world—with its foundation of pride and self-sufficiency—or on God's wisdom, which emerges from humility and faith?
The world's wisdom tells us we must earn everything, deserve better, and can achieve it all through our own strength. Yet God's wisdom, seemingly foolish by worldly standards, reveals a counterintuitive truth: everything we truly need has already been freely given. Picture grace as a waterfall continuously pouring from heaven—our pride places us outside its flow, while humility positions us directly beneath its refreshing current.
Our union with Christ represents the most profound treasure of knowledge available to humanity. When we believe in Jesus, we share completely in His death and resurrection. His sacrifice becomes our forgiveness; His resurrection becomes our new life. This isn't merely philosophical—it's transformative. We receive a brand new heart and spirit while our physical body and brain gradually renew through continued faith.
Most Christians unknowingly sabotage their spiritual lives by "trying to get closer to God." This misunderstands our fundamental reality in Christ—we can't possibly get any closer than being in Him! Our challenge isn't earning more of God's presence but surrendering more areas of our lives to experience what's already ours. This surrender looks like rest, not striving; peace, not stress.
Which tower will you choose? Will you continue exhausting yourself digging broken cisterns that can't hold water, or will you drink freely from God's fountain of living water? The choice determines whether you'll experience the abundant life Jesus promised or continue struggling in your own strength. Everything you truly need—love, acceptance, purpose, healing—awaits in the tower of God's grace.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody.
Thank you guys so much forbeing so kind and loving to each
other.
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Check it out YouTube, facebookreels, instagram, tiktok, my
(00:44):
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Okay, let's get started.
Today's sermon is called the TwoTowers.
Anyone Lord of the Rings fans?
Yeah, I knew you would be.
You're very nerdy and you too.
(01:07):
Yes, I knew you would be.
You're very nerdy and you too.
Yes, I got you.
I got you Okay.
So the two towers.
Father, please speak to us as westudy your word and learn your
truth.
Help us to stand on your truth.
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Our new identity in Christ doesnot make sense to the worldly
mind.
(01:27):
It doesn't make sense to theworldly mind.
We just learned last week thatwe are the temple of God and
holy.
All that's by grace.
You're made the temple of Godbut we don't really look holy or
feel holy sometimes, right?
So if we use our reasoning,we're going to determine that
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we're not really holy.
God's just saying that we'reholy.
But we can't just use our minds.
We have to believe our identityminds.
We have to believe our identity.
So you either know youridentity or you believe your
(02:13):
identity.
You might think I'm strugglingwith sin.
I'm struggling with this sin orthat temptation to sin.
So that must be my identity,because I desire it, I want it,
I feel like that will satisfy me, that will completely.
So that must be my identity,which means I am a sinner or
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some other way we put it.
I'm an alcoholic, or I'm anaddict, or I'm a
fill-in-the-blank, because whatI believe about myself is what I
am.
That's how our minds work,maybe because of the trauma in
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my past, or repeated failings,or even just deep, dark, secret
desires that never seem to goaway.
And all this evidence adds upin my mind and in my heart to
tell me I've got a problem thatneeds fixed, and God doesn't
seem to be willing or able tofix it for me, and so I need to
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find a way to fix it myself ornothing's gonna happen happen
and I'm going to end up in hell,or at least never free from
this struggle that I'mstruggling with.
Hmm, or we just entire the, weabandon the entire idea of sin
altogether and holiness andrighteousness, and we just stop
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calling wrong and right wrongand right and there's no such
thing as morality and in thisweird new morality that we
invent, anyone who believes Godis moral is immoral.
So that's how it gets twistedin our minds.
And what I've just described isthe way the wisdom of this
(04:05):
world is messed up, the naturalway that our minds work, and it
doesn't really make sensebecause God's wisdom is
completely different than theway the world thinks.
It's contrary to the world,it's offensive to our natural
mind, the way that God's wisdomis, dare I say, stupid.
(04:28):
The world thinks we are stupidor foolish.
The Bible says the world looksat the way we think about truth
and about God's love and hisreality and they're like man.
That doesn't make any sense atall.
So it's like in one corner wehave the world, all the wisdom
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and philosophy that men canachieve and all the answers men
can come up with about why weare the way we are and why the
world works the way it works.
And then in the other corner wehave the wisdom of God, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and theywill never agree and they will
never have peace, and we cannothave both.
(05:11):
You can't be in both corners.
Tyson's going to bite your earoff.
We must choose one or the other, and even today we must choose.
Choose one or the other.
And even today we must choose.
Are we going to believe in thewisdom of God or the wisdom of
man?
Because which one of these youchoose will be the path of life
(05:33):
or death for you.
It will lead to blessings ormaybe even some cursings in our
lives.
It will lead to joy or tofrustration.
So let's dive in and let's puton our grace glasses to see how
things really are, because Goddoes an amazingly wonderful job
of simplifying everything for ustoday as we look at the Word.
(05:56):
So we're in 1 Corinthians 3,verse 18, and Paul says Let no
one deceive himself.
And Paul says let no onedeceive himself.
If anyone among you seems to bewise in this age, let him
become a fool, that he maybecome wise For the wisdom of
this world is foolishness.
To God, for it is written, hecatches the wise in their own
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craftiness and again, the Lordknows the thoughts of the wise
that they are futile.
So two worldviews are beingdiscussed here.
They're like two towers builton different foundations the
world and its system.
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The world's philosophy is builton pride and self-sufficiency.
Pride, the idea that I deservesomething, and self-sufficiency
I am going to go get that thingthat I believe I deserve.
(07:00):
Pride also is this independencefrom God, while the wisdom of
God is built on the foundationof humility and faith.
Humility is the attitude ofdependency on God,
interconnectedness with God.
Not, I'm independent and I cando whatever I want, but I'm so
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dependent I need my father andI'm not complete without him.
Oh yeah, I could live my lifeon my own, but I love him
because he loves me, and so thislove creates a bond between us,
and that's humility and faithin God.
Is this tower of wisdom fromGod?
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Paul tells us that one is adeception.
It's stupid in God's sight.
It's crafty, he says, but it'snot right, it's futile, weak and
pointless.
Paul says to build your lifeand live in that tower of
worldly thinking.
(08:01):
But our thinking needs to betransformed so we don't fall for
that deception.
In Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5through 7, it says trust in the
Lord with all your heart.
If see, if the world waswriting that, it would say trust
in yourself with all your heart.
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If Satan was the author of theBible, he would trust in
yourself with all your heart.
That's literally his only gameplan.
Instead of listening to God,listen to yourself.
Hmm, trust in the Lord or inourselves?
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You can test any thought.
You can test any thought.
It's in one of those two towers, each thought you have.
And this verse helps usidentify and see and learn what
faith in God looks like.
It's trusting in God instead ofourselves.
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I think I need this, but youknow what I'm going to seek,
that I need.
I say I need this.
What do you say?
I need God and I'm going towalk your path.
First, I'm going to honor youwith my actions and my thoughts.
God promises he will take careof you.
If you choose faith in him, hewill heal you, he will love you.
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He does love you and he'sasking us to put our trust in
him.
James, chapter 4, verse 6, saysbut he gives more grace.
See, god loves to give us grace, he loves to give us grace.
So therefore he says Godresists the proud but gives
grace to the humble.
So God has a way that he givesgrace, but it's not to the pride
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, the proud.
He gives grace to the humble.
That means there's something inour heart that will keep you
from getting God's help, god'sgrace, god's blessings, god's
gifts, god's life, and thatthing is pride.
God is like pouring out hisgrace, like just think of like a
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waterfall falling from heaven,just continually splashing down
his grace, and it's just like inthis area.
And he says if you havehumility, you are under that
waterfall receiving his grace.
If you just have the heartattitude, god, I need you, you
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are there, you're getting hisgrace.
But the moment our heart saysGod, I need me, moment our heart
says God, I need me, or youneed me, or I need what I think
I need and I'm going to abandon,then we immediately are placed
outside of his grace waterfall.
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Now, did God change?
Did his lovingness change?
Did his kindness change?
Did his willingness to givegrace change?
Absolutely not.
He's still pouring out grace.
Jesus has so much grace thathe's pouring out.
But our response, our heart.
Reality, our relationship withhim governs whether we will
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experience the grace thatalready belongs to you.
The waterfall is yours, it'sgot your name on it.
But we can keep ourselves fromhis grace by saying I'm going to
live in pride.
God resists the proud, but givesgrace to the humble.
(12:00):
His help, his power, his joy,his blessings, they're all
transferred to you in a veryreal way.
So we see the two towers here.
We see the tower of pride andthe tower of either dependence
on God that is, humility ordepend on ourself or man's
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wisdom.
What other men tell me?
That's his plan.
It's been his plan since Adamand Eve.
That's been his one plan andit's designed to isolate you
from God, who loves you andwants to give his life to you
and everything that you need,through dependence on him.
(12:47):
So the plan of Satan is just toseparate you from the grace
that he wants to pour out inyour life.
Grace is God's wisdom.
Self is man's wisdom.
Grace is God's wisdom.
Self is man's wisdom.
Grace is God's life.
Self is man's sad attempt tolive outside of God's life.
(13:15):
So now we have an application.
How does this matter to us?
How does this matter to us?
How does this apply to us Inthe Bible?
When you see the word,therefore, you got to know what
it's there for.
So cheesy, but what it's therefor is to tell you why.
(13:37):
He just said how do we applywhat was just said?
So look what he says.
Therefore, let no one boast inmen In the church.
He's saying we need to renounceman's wisdom, reject it wisdom,
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reject it, be hardcore about it.
I'm going to trust in the Lordexclusively, not in man, not in
man's wisdom.
Let no one boast in men.
So everything we just learned,the application is don't trust
in men.
Four, now, this is crazy.
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All things are yours.
He's going to remind us now ofour identity and the grace
that's been given to us, for allthings are yours, whether Paul
or Apollos or Cephas.
These are different ministriesthat were happening or the world
, or life, or death, or thingspresent or things to come.
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All are yours and you areChrist's and Christ is God's.
So again he says let no oneboast in men.
That's man's way, man'sphilosophy.
Don't live life in man's tower,don't trust it, don't believe
in it, don't follow their advice.
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It's a sad but more scarydeception of what life is
supposed to be.
Paul is telling his churchfamily to stop looking to men,
stop looking on this plane, andlift their eyes up to the head
of the church, which is Jesus.
And when they get their eyes onJesus alone, they will discover
that they have everything theyneed in Jesus alone, because he
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says all things are yours.
But where do you discover thatyou actually have everything
that you need?
Only in Jesus, only when youknow your identity in him, only
when you've begun a relationshipwith him by grace and you're
continuing or growing in thatrelationship by grace alone.
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He, jesus, jesus is the fullnessof life.
He is the life.
He's the way, the truth and thelife Exactly.
There is no life besides him.
Outside of him, what we areactually experiencing is a slow,
creepy death.
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He is life, it's death.
He is life.
He is that breath of life thatwas breathed into our lungs in
the Garden of Eden and as eachone of us breathe our first
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breath as we're born, he's theone who puts that there.
He didn't breathe his life intous so that we could live
independently from him, butthrough him and with him.
To be connected to him is theplan, that's the design.
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So he says, for all things areyours, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas or the world, or lifeor death, or things present or
things to come.
All are yours and you are Christand Christ is God's.
So all things are yours.
Now what does that mean?
It's included in the grace giftthat God gives us, the grace
that's included in the gracegift that God gives us, the
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grace that's been given to us.
It includes all things,everything we could possibly
need.
God has said I will give it toyou.
I will give it to you.
Everything we could possiblyneed to become.
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God says I'll work that in you.
Everything you're ever calledto be.
God says I will do that for you, I will develop you.
Everything you could want,everything you yearn for.
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God says it's yours, it belongsto you.
Absolutely everything isalready yours Things you don't
even know that you need.
God's already made the provision.
Things that you don't even knowthat you desire.
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Things hurts that you don'teven know that you have, that
need to be healed.
God knows all about them and heis absolutely, and he is
absolutely already given thegrace to supply those things.
So some of you may be goingthrough incredibly difficult
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things right now, today.
Number one we know it's not asurprise.
Number two God has worked outthe situation so that right now,
you're going through somethinghe already knows about and he's
already made the provision for,and so we are experiencing it in
real time.
He's like I already know that Ilove you and this is designed
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for you to grow in yourknowledge of me, to grow in how
much I love you.
You're my child and I will notabandon you, and I'm here and
I'm going to convince you thatI'm here.
Things to help us let go ofthat tower of man's wisdom and
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stay in the tower of his wisdom,of humility and faith, of
abiding in his life.
Everything we need Jesus hasalready given us, and for us it
was free.
Does anyone know how much itcost Jesus to give us all this?
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Yeah, it cost him his blood,his life.
He had to pay the price for Godto freely give.
Before Jesus came, in order forus to get those blessings, to
feel like God's children, we hadto live a perfect life and he
had 10 commandments that we hadto follow.
But once Jesus comes, he setsus free from having to live up
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to the standard and he saysanyone can come to me and
receive all the blessings thatGod wants to give you, because
God wants to pour out hisblessings, he loves to pour out
his blessings and the system ofus trying to earn them was not
working, because literally 4,000years of people tried and zero
succeeded.
And so God has a new covenant,a new plan, a new way where
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Jesus earns the blessings and weget to receive them.
What's required of us?
No works, zero works, but tworelational realities called
humility and faith.
Humility is a heart that saysGod, I need you, jesus, I need
you.
I acknowledge that I fail, thatI sin, that I'm broken and I'm
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hurt and I'm sick and I need youand I really believe that.
And then faith is a heart thatsays God, I'm going to trust you
, I'm going to trust your word,I'm going to trust your son, I'm
going to trust you exclusively.
And God says if you developthat heart, if you choose that
way, that's how you get in thistower and you get all the
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blessings.
Everything you need andeverything you actually want is
already yours.
What do you actually want?
Do you actually want to be rich?
No, that's not actually whatyou want, because rich people
are sad and angry too.
What you really want is to feelloved, to feel worth and value,
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to feel safe.
And those are the things Godsays they're yours.
I love you, you are safe withme, I'm going to protect you, I
honor you, you are my child andyou have an identity in me, and
that's all the things that arealready given to us.
All things he says are yours.
So why do we strive for thingsthat we still think we need?
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Why do we do that?
We should rest in what we have.
We should rest in his grace.
We should rest from ourself-life and enjoy God's grace
life that he's given us.
Because of our union with Jesus, we have access to all
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spiritual blessings.
Let me read to you in Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 3, one of the
craziest verses that you'llever see.
It says blessed be the God andFather of our Lord, jesus Christ
, who has blessed us.
That's past tense with everyspiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ.
That means everything heavencould possibly give to you.
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Everything you could get fromGod is already yours.
You don't have to earn it.
It's already yours.
All spiritual blessings includeswisdom, life, even victory over
death.
We're all going to die.
Did you know that?
But it's not going to hurt,it's not going to be painful.
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For us it's just like movingfrom being asleep to being awake
, because the sting has beentaken out of death.
The Bible says For us it isjust experiencing more life.
We get the new body.
Who's excited for a new body?
Craig's like me?
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First, all spiritual blessingsincludes life, even victory over
death.
Paul is teaching us that ouridentity and worth is not tied
to anything man can see orobtain or deliver.
Instead, it's all in arelationship with Christ.
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Everything you look to men foris really found in Jesus.
Ah, man, I want to feel loved,I want to have friends.
I want my friends to like me.
We all have those needs andthose desires in our soul, but
we will only ever truly discoverthose satisfied when we receive
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it from Jesus.
When we get it from Jesus first, he says all are yours and you
are Christ, and Christ is God's.
This describes our relationshipwith Jesus, our union with him.
We are one with him, just likehe is one with his father.
You know what blew people'smind when Jesus came to the
earth?
He called God his father.
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Nobody did that until Jesuscame.
Zero.
We're so used to.
Oh, Father, god, and everyoneprays that way now and we just
accept it and take it forgranted Call God their father.
So when he because it was tooclose, it was too familial, it
was too much separation, becausehe's holy, and Jesus is like I
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don't have to, because I'm holytoo.
And in John it says John,chapter 14, verse 20, at that
day you will know that I am inmy father and you in me and I in
you.
Sounds confusing, but what it'ssaying is it's describing the
union we have with God.
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Union is what we call this, oryou could call it united
closeness.
And this is the most importantthing you can learn in this
world.
It's the most important thingyou can learn about the gospel
in life in general.
This is the most importantthing.
Your union with this is thehighest treasure of all the
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treasures of knowledge.
I think it's dumb.
You could succeed.
Who cares?
You're not gonna succeed.
For all the pursuits of thisworld?
For all the pursuits of thisworld, this relationship of
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union with Jesus is the greatest, deepest, most amazing treasure
of knowledge anyone could everdiscover.
You may have your passions andyour desires.
I'm telling you, what you'remost deeply looking for is found
right here, in this union withJesus and union with Christ is
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one of the most centraldoctrines that has ever been
discovered.
With him, you could say, a unionis not just like some
metaphysical reality, becauseyou are as humans.
We are physical, so we have amind, will and emotions and a
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body.
This is how we interact withthe world.
Like this, if we're robots andwe are also invisible, so we
have an invisible spirit.
Now, the animals were notcreated with that.
Animals just have the physicalpart.
They can only interact with thephysical world.
We have a spirit, which is partof our being that connects and
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relates to God in the spiritualworld.
And this is just how it's To beGod's counterpart, to be God's
counterpart, to be God's bride.
You could say we could be lovedby him and love him.
And so our union is when we arebound to him and connected to
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him in the spirit.
And so, in the spirit, whathappened when Jesus died on the
cross?
Physically, you weren't there,but his spirit was there.
And when Jesus connects youwith his spirit, then what
happened to him happened to you.
So you died on the cross withhim.
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When you trust in him and whenhe rose from the dead, you also
have risen from the dead.
So we died on the cross withhim, which means we are just as
innocent of sin as Jesus was.
We are cleansed of our sin,we're forgiven truly of our sin,
and then the fact that Jesusrose from the dead to serve his
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Father in newness of life, thenwe also have the same life given
to us, and that's what theBible talks about.
What happened to him happened toyou and the other way around,
what happened to you happened tohim.
So you think, absolutely hedoes.
He knows your pain, he knowsyour feelings.
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He knows your pain.
He knows your feelings, heknows your thoughts, he knows
your heart.
He has united himself that.
He feels what you feel and heknows what you know.
He shares with you, and so weget to hold nothing back, even
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the things that I'm worriedabout.
I can share those with Jesus,and he shares with me his life
and we live together.
The apostle Paul describes thisas verse 17 when we get there,
and so this means that we areinseparably connected to Jesus,
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sharing his life with us, andthis already is true of you,
whether you believe it or not,but you're only really going to
experience it if you choose tobelieve it, and so through this
union, we're given this newidentity that we've been talking
about, where our old self iscrucified with Christ and we're
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raised to life.
Like we said, that means we nolonger have to be identified by
our past.
So when you think of youridentity and then a lot of it
comes from your past.
But that doesn't have to be thereality anymore.
Our sin and our failures, andeven other people's sin that was
done to us is erased and ournew identity is the
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righteousness of Christ.
His life replaces everythingthat we have been through.
Now you still might have thefeelings, the emotions, the
trauma that you think definesyou, but it actually doesn't
define you anymore.
The real that defines you isthe love of Christ that you have
in the union with him.
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Now, because the Bible says weare new creations, the moment we
believe we are given a newheart and a new spirit.
He doesn't change our brain andour body.
Your body is the exact same themoment before you believe and
the moment you believe and after.
Your body doesn't change.
You're not given a new tickerand your brain also physical has
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learned how to respond in poorways and it's learned how to do
all kinds of fleshly things.
Okay, so the brain takes timeto renew, but your heart and
spirit are brand new when youbelieve.
That's amazing.
That's our new identity.
So we're not striving anymore toget closer to God.
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We are secure in ourrelationship.
Why does this matter?
To know your identity, so thatyou don't have to try to be
something that you're not.
You don't have to strive to getcloser to God, do you have you
guys?
I've said this hundreds of timesI need to get closer to God.
You ever heard someone say that?
How many times have you thoughtthat I need to get closer to
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God?
And that's actually not thesituation.
You cannot get closer to Godthan being in him, and you were
in him the moment that youbelieved.
Now I understand what we'retrying to say.
What we're trying to say is Ineed more of God in my life.
But that's actually not iteither, because we have all of
God already given to us.
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What we need is to surrendermore of our life to him, open up
our hearts more to him.
Let him take control, becausehe lets us be the boss of how
much in control he is.
So he can say we can say I onlywant you to run this much of my
life.
And that's where we experiencehis blessings, where we're
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living in humility and faith.
But where we live in pride,we're going to not experience
the peace there, we're not goingto experience the blessing
there, so we not gonnaexperience the blessing there.
So we come to church and then wesay let's all surrender all of
our hearts and all of our livesto the Lord, every area of our
life, from our private things toour relationships to how we
treat people and everything.
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Let's surrender it all so thatwe can experience the life God
intends for us to live and thelove and the blessings he has
for us.
We don't have to strive to getcloser to God.
We are already as close as wecould ever get because of our
union in Christ.
We have to learn how to rest init.
Rest in it that's how you walkwith humility and faith.
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It looks like rest.
Do you know what it looks likewhen I'm walking in pride and
self-sufficiency?
It looks like stress andstriving and worry and work.
And I look at the church and Isee most people are stressed out
, discouraged and trying super,super hard to be good Christians
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and they're not experiencing itBecause, even though they want
to be good Christians, they'restruggling and they're living in
this tower over here, doing itby themselves, when God has done
everything.
All are yours.
Paul said therefore, let no onetrust in men.
Therefore, let no one trust inmen.
(34:10):
Rest in, enjoy what Jesus hasgiven you.
Believe it.
You've already believed it atthe beginning.
Now continue to believe it, andthat's how we grow.
Moreover, this union that wehave empowers us to live the
Christian life that we've beencalled to.
(34:31):
So the Holy Spirit lives insideus and he empowers us, he
inspires us to express the fruitof the Spirit in our daily
lives, and the fruit of theSpirit is love, love, and that's
why we're called One2Church,because we desire to have that
fruit seen in our lives.
Love God one, love others two.
(34:51):
It's pretty easy.
We can't produce that.
I can't tell you love God andlove others, and you just go do
it.
That only comes as a fruit ofbelieving the gospel, believing
what Jesus has done for you,believing, believing, believing
that is our job.
To believe.
They asked Jesus what do we doto work the works of God?
(35:12):
Jesus said you need to believein the one he sent, which is me.
Believe, that's your job, andthen he takes the responsibility
for your life.
He takes responsibility foryour heart, your actions, your
words.
He takes responsibility foryour life.
He takes responsibility foryour heart, your actions, your
words.
He takes responsibility foryour life.
If you simply believe, yourlife will never be the same.
(35:32):
We're not left to our owndevices, but we're continually
inspired and supported by Christin us to live a loving life.
So, in summary, union withChrist is the foundation of our
identity and our life asbelievers.
(35:53):
It assures us that we'recompletely forgiven.
That's our new identity.
We have an intimaterelationship with our God
because we are accepted as hischild.
We're completely accepted, andthis gift of grace transforms
(36:18):
how we live and relate to Godand others.
So we can see ourselves as ason loved by him.
So no more daddy issues and wecan be patient with our brothers
and sisters who are really dumbsometimes or who are really
selfish, and we can understandthat they.
The reason why they're actingin such foolish ways is because
(36:42):
they don't have their trueidentity.
And so, instead of saying youshould change and you should do
this that way, and give them allthese rules of what they should
do.
Rules don't ever change people.
Instead, where we say I'm goingto teach you about your
(37:03):
identity, that you are loved,that God is the answer for
everything that you're searchingfor, that he will meet your
every need.
I'm going to demonstrate thatto you by how I live my life and
I'm going to encourage you tomake that choice too, because
this tower is a tower ofblessing and joy and life.
(37:23):
That's his tower, the wisdomthat we can choose to believe
and follow in God's word.
We can hide ourselves in thistower.
Psalm 61, verse 3, you havebeen a shelter for me, a strong
tower from the enemy.
Isn't that cool?
The enemy just wants to get youout of the tower.
(37:45):
He just wants to get you tobelieve the tower.
He just wants to get you tobelieve there's another way to
live life besides humblesurrender to God.
It's prideful self-sufficiency.
And man, it's a tower thatcrumbles.
I'm gonna read to you one lastpart of scripture, and that's in
the book of Jeremiah.
And it says this in Jeremiah,chapter two, verse 12 and 13.
(38:07):
Be astonished, o heavens, atthis.
And it says this in Jeremiah,chapter 2, verse 12 and 13.
Be astonished at the heavens,oh heavens, at this and be
horrified and say or behorrified, be horribly afraid.
Gosh, I'm reading it all wrong.
Be very desolate, says the Lord.
So God's like you should freakout about this.
My people have committed twoevils.
First, they have forsaken me,the fountain of living waters.
(38:32):
Second, they have hewnthemselves cisterns, broken
cisterns which could hold nowater, cisterns.
Back in the day they would bein the desert and so they needed
water all during the summer.
So they'd dig big holes in theground, in the rock.
They'd have to dig them out ofa solid rock.
But if the rock cracked whilethey were digging out the rock,
(38:56):
then all the water that they putinto it would leak out into the
sand.
Hence no water, you die.
So God says listen, my peopleare so dumb.
I am a fountain of livingwaters, which means I am a
gushing out fountain that neverruns dry, that you don't even
(39:17):
have to work for.
It's a free gift.
That's me.
But my people forsake mebecause they like to do things
themselves.
So they like to dig their own,so they develop entire
philosophies and psychologiesbased on here's what we do.
But he says every single timethe fountain, the cistern breaks
(39:41):
, the well is cracked and thewater that they're trying to
save, the life that they'retrying to have to get them
through.
It leaks out and God says behorribly afraid about this.
This is a bad news.
And then, in chapter 17, hecontinues by saying this.
Thus says the Lord cursed isthe man who trusts in man.
(40:04):
Trust in man that could just beour sermon right there.
Cursed is the man who trusts inman and makes flesh his
strength, whose heart departsfrom the Lord, for he shall be
like a shrub in the desert andshall not see when good comes,
but shall inhabit the parchedplaces in the wilderness, in a
(40:27):
salt land which is not inhabited.
Blessed is the man who trustsin the Lord and whose hope is in
the Lord.
Make no mistake God offers youeverything.
He's already given you,everything you need.
All that he asks for you inreturn is your heart.
(40:50):
You have to give him your heartto receive everything that he's
given.
What does it look like to givehim your heart?
It means choose humility,saying God, I need you.
That's scary for us, because wehave been indoctrinated from
the moment we startedkindergarten here in America.
(41:11):
You can do it with no help fromanybody else.
Here's a belt buckle with yourname on it.
You can do it, and every timewe just encourage that
philosophy.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
In America, we valueindependence so much, but the
(41:32):
gospel isn't that.
That is not the gospel.
The gospel is we live throughhim and we need him, children,
and he is our God and he'sprovided everything.
You don't have to do anythingto make that happen, except give
(41:55):
him your heart, saying Jesus,okay, I'll humble myself and say
I need you and I'll trust yourword.
I'll believe that you are whoyou say you are, that you will
somehow make us one by me simplybelieving you.
Leave from here.
You get to choose which toweryou want to live in covenant and
(42:19):
his love.
Walk in humility and you'lldiscover all things are yours.
You have everything that youcould possibly need.
All right, would you guys standwith me as we're going to sing
another song?
(43:00):
Amen message today is speakingto your heart and you have a
desire and receive thatforgiveness.
That's not you.
That's putting that in yourheart and he's like working from
the inside, calling you.
(43:21):
Receive my gift, receive my son, and your sin will be forgiven.
Your life will be transformed.
Place it with a brand new heart.
If you know that's what youwant.
Believe, jesus, that your deathpays for sin, and come and live
(43:42):
in my heart.
You can pray that prayer in amoment, in a second, from the
heart, and you will beabsolutely forgiven.
And, jesus, we as a churchfamily we love you and we are so
grateful that you give us yourwisdom in the word of God, that
(44:05):
you teach us about the unionthat we have with you.
We could have been left withzero information or just believe
in you, but no, lord, you giveus all that we need to renew our
mind and to think differentlyabout our trials and about our
needs and about our wants andour desires and our lives.
God, you give us a tower we canrest in from the enemy, and I
(44:30):
pray that each and every personin here would fully surrender
their lives, that we would notlive for ourselves but we would
live for your glory with everydecision that we make.
In Jesus' name we pray Amen.
Welcome everybody.
Thank you guys so much forbeing so kind and loving to each
other.
Oh, have you guys seen oursocial media blowing up?
Yeah, we've had reels.
We've discovered reels.
So, if you look, we'd love foryou to like and share our reels.
(00:22):
We got like this program that'shelping us distribute, it's
making like reels out of oursermons and it's a way to reach
the valley, and actually a bunchof people have said they really
love it already so far, so it'sbeen pretty cool.
What?
Check it out YouTube, facebookreels, instagram, tiktok, my
(00:44):
LinkedIn page, if you know me.
So, okay, any otherannouncements?
I think we're good.
Okay, let's get started.
Today's sermon is called the TwoTowers.
Anyone Lord of the Rings fans?
Yeah, I knew you would be.
You're very nerdy and you too.
(01:07):
Yes, I knew you would be.
You're very nerdy and you too.
Yes, I got you.
I got you Okay.
So the two towers.
Father, please speak to us as westudy your word and learn your
truth.
Help us to stand on your truth.
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Our new identity in Christ doesnot make sense to the worldly
mind.
(01:27):
It doesn't make sense to theworldly mind.
We just learned last week thatwe are the temple of God and
holy.
All that's by grace.
You're made the temple of Godbut we don't really look holy or
feel holy sometimes, right?
So if we use our reasoning,we're going to determine that
(01:53):
we're not really holy.
God's just saying that we'reholy.
But we can't just use our minds.
We have to believe our identityminds.
We have to believe our identity.
So you either know youridentity or you believe your
(02:13):
identity.
You might think I'm strugglingwith sin.
I'm struggling with this sin orthat temptation to sin.
So that must be my identity,because I desire it, I want it,
I feel like that will satisfy me, that will completely.
So that must be my identity,which means I am a sinner or
(02:37):
some other way we put it.
I'm an alcoholic, or I'm anaddict, or I'm a
fill-in-the-blank, because whatI believe about myself is what I
am.
That's how our minds work,maybe because of the trauma in
(02:59):
my past, or repeated failings,or even just deep, dark, secret
desires that never seem to goaway.
And all this evidence adds upin my mind and in my heart to
tell me I've got a problem thatneeds fixed, and God doesn't
seem to be willing or able tofix it for me, and so I need to
(03:22):
find a way to fix it myself ornothing's gonna happen happen
and I'm going to end up in hell,or at least never free from
this struggle that I'mstruggling with.
Hmm, or we just entire the, weabandon the entire idea of sin
altogether and holiness andrighteousness, and we just stop
(03:44):
calling wrong and right wrongand right and there's no such
thing as morality and in thisweird new morality that we
invent, anyone who believes Godis moral is immoral.
So that's how it gets twistedin our minds.
And what I've just described isthe way the wisdom of this
(04:05):
world is messed up, the naturalway that our minds work, and it
doesn't really make sensebecause God's wisdom is
completely different than theway the world thinks.
It's contrary to the world,it's offensive to our natural
mind, the way that God's wisdomis, dare I say, stupid.
(04:28):
The world thinks we are stupidor foolish.
The Bible says the world looksat the way we think about truth
and about God's love and hisreality and they're like man.
That doesn't make any sense atall.
So it's like in one corner wehave the world, all the wisdom
(04:49):
and philosophy that men canachieve and all the answers men
can come up with about why weare the way we are and why the
world works the way it works.
And then in the other corner wehave the wisdom of God, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and theywill never agree and they will
never have peace, and we cannothave both.
(05:11):
You can't be in both corners.
Tyson's going to bite your earoff.
We must choose one or the other, and even today we must choose.
Choose one or the other.
And even today we must choose.
Are we going to believe in thewisdom of God or the wisdom of
man?
Because which one of these youchoose will be the path of life
(05:33):
or death for you.
It will lead to blessings ormaybe even some cursings in our
lives.
It will lead to joy or tofrustration.
So let's dive in and let's puton our grace glasses to see how
things really are, because Goddoes an amazingly wonderful job
of simplifying everything for ustoday as we look at the Word.
(05:56):
So we're in 1 Corinthians 3,verse 18, and Paul says Let no
one deceive himself.
And Paul says let no onedeceive himself.
If anyone among you seems to bewise in this age, let him
become a fool, that he maybecome wise For the wisdom of
this world is foolishness.
To God, for it is written, hecatches the wise in their own
(06:18):
craftiness and again, the Lordknows the thoughts of the wise
that they are futile.
So two worldviews are beingdiscussed here.
They're like two towers builton different foundations the
world and its system.
(06:39):
The world's philosophy is builton pride and self-sufficiency.
Pride, the idea that I deservesomething, and self-sufficiency
I am going to go get that thingthat I believe I deserve.
(07:00):
Pride also is this independencefrom God, while the wisdom of
God is built on the foundationof humility and faith.
Humility is the attitude ofdependency on God,
interconnectedness with God.
Not, I'm independent and I cando whatever I want, but I'm so
(07:20):
dependent I need my father andI'm not complete without him.
Oh yeah, I could live my lifeon my own, but I love him
because he loves me, and so thislove creates a bond between us,
and that's humility and faithin God.
Is this tower of wisdom fromGod?
(07:41):
Paul tells us that one is adeception.
It's stupid in God's sight.
It's crafty, he says, but it'snot right, it's futile, weak and
pointless.
Paul says to build your lifeand live in that tower of
worldly thinking.
(08:01):
But our thinking needs to betransformed so we don't fall for
that deception.
In Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5through 7, it says trust in the
Lord with all your heart.
If see, if the world waswriting that, it would say trust
in yourself with all your heart.
(08:24):
If Satan was the author of theBible, he would trust in
yourself with all your heart.
That's literally his only gameplan.
Instead of listening to God,listen to yourself.
Hmm, trust in the Lord or inourselves?
(09:01):
You can test any thought.
You can test any thought.
It's in one of those two towers, each thought you have.
And this verse helps usidentify and see and learn what
faith in God looks like.
It's trusting in God instead ofourselves.
(09:23):
I think I need this, but youknow what I'm going to seek,
that I need.
I say I need this.
What do you say?
I need God and I'm going towalk your path.
First, I'm going to honor youwith my actions and my thoughts.
God promises he will take careof you.
If you choose faith in him, hewill heal you, he will love you.
(09:50):
He does love you and he'sasking us to put our trust in
him.
James, chapter 4, verse 6, saysbut he gives more grace.
See, god loves to give us grace, he loves to give us grace.
So therefore he says Godresists the proud but gives
grace to the humble.
So God has a way that he givesgrace, but it's not to the pride
(10:15):
, the proud.
He gives grace to the humble.
That means there's something inour heart that will keep you
from getting God's help, god'sgrace, god's blessings, god's
gifts, god's life, and thatthing is pride.
God is like pouring out hisgrace, like just think of like a
(10:37):
waterfall falling from heaven,just continually splashing down
his grace, and it's just like inthis area.
And he says if you havehumility, you are under that
waterfall receiving his grace.
If you just have the heartattitude, god, I need you, you
(10:57):
are there, you're getting hisgrace.
But the moment our heart saysGod, I need me, moment our heart
says God, I need me, or youneed me, or I need what I think
I need and I'm going to abandon,then we immediately are placed
outside of his grace waterfall.
(11:17):
Now, did God change?
Did his lovingness change?
Did his kindness change?
Did his willingness to givegrace change?
Absolutely not.
He's still pouring out grace.
Jesus has so much grace thathe's pouring out.
But our response, our heart.
Reality, our relationship withhim governs whether we will
(11:40):
experience the grace thatalready belongs to you.
The waterfall is yours, it'sgot your name on it.
But we can keep ourselves fromhis grace by saying I'm going to
live in pride.
God resists the proud, but givesgrace to the humble.
(12:00):
His help, his power, his joy,his blessings, they're all
transferred to you in a veryreal way.
So we see the two towers here.
We see the tower of pride andthe tower of either dependence
on God that is, humility ordepend on ourself or man's
(12:25):
wisdom.
What other men tell me?
That's his plan.
It's been his plan since Adamand Eve.
That's been his one plan andit's designed to isolate you
from God, who loves you andwants to give his life to you
and everything that you need,through dependence on him.
(12:47):
So the plan of Satan is just toseparate you from the grace
that he wants to pour out inyour life.
Grace is God's wisdom.
Self is man's wisdom.
Grace is God's wisdom.
Self is man's wisdom.
Grace is God's life.
Self is man's sad attempt tolive outside of God's life.
(13:15):
So now we have an application.
How does this matter to us?
How does this matter to us?
How does this apply to us Inthe Bible?
When you see the word,therefore, you got to know what
it's there for.
So cheesy, but what it's therefor is to tell you why.
(13:37):
He just said how do we applywhat was just said?
So look what he says.
Therefore, let no one boast inmen In the church.
He's saying we need to renounceman's wisdom, reject it wisdom,
(13:59):
reject it, be hardcore about it.
I'm going to trust in the Lordexclusively, not in man, not in
man's wisdom.
Let no one boast in men.
So everything we just learned,the application is don't trust
in men.
Four, now, this is crazy.
(14:20):
All things are yours.
He's going to remind us now ofour identity and the grace
that's been given to us, for allthings are yours, whether Paul
or Apollos or Cephas.
These are different ministriesthat were happening or the world
, or life, or death, or thingspresent or things to come.
(14:41):
All are yours and you areChrist's and Christ is God's.
So again he says let no oneboast in men.
That's man's way, man'sphilosophy.
Don't live life in man's tower,don't trust it, don't believe
in it, don't follow their advice.
(15:12):
It's a sad but more scarydeception of what life is
supposed to be.
Paul is telling his churchfamily to stop looking to men,
stop looking on this plane, andlift their eyes up to the head
of the church, which is Jesus.
And when they get their eyes onJesus alone, they will discover
that they have everything theyneed in Jesus alone, because he
(15:34):
says all things are yours.
But where do you discover thatyou actually have everything
that you need?
Only in Jesus, only when youknow your identity in him, only
when you've begun a relationshipwith him by grace and you're
continuing or growing in thatrelationship by grace alone.
(15:55):
He, jesus, jesus is the fullnessof life.
He is the life.
He's the way, the truth and thelife Exactly.
There is no life besides him.
Outside of him, what we areactually experiencing is a slow,
creepy death.
(16:15):
He is life, it's death.
He is life.
He is that breath of life thatwas breathed into our lungs in
the Garden of Eden and as eachone of us breathe our first
(16:36):
breath as we're born, he's theone who puts that there.
He didn't breathe his life intous so that we could live
independently from him, butthrough him and with him.
To be connected to him is theplan, that's the design.
(17:02):
So he says, for all things areyours, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas or the world, or lifeor death, or things present or
things to come.
All are yours and you are Christand Christ is God's.
So all things are yours.
Now what does that mean?
It's included in the grace giftthat God gives us, the grace
that's included in the gracegift that God gives us, the
(17:23):
grace that's been given to us.
It includes all things,everything we could possibly
need.
God has said I will give it toyou.
I will give it to you.
Everything we could possiblyneed to become.
(17:45):
God says I'll work that in you.
Everything you're ever calledto be.
God says I will do that for you, I will develop you.
Everything you could want,everything you yearn for.
(18:08):
God says it's yours, it belongsto you.
Absolutely everything isalready yours Things you don't
even know that you need.
God's already made the provision.
Things that you don't even knowthat you desire.
(18:28):
Things hurts that you don'teven know that you have, that
need to be healed.
God knows all about them and heis absolutely, and he is
absolutely already given thegrace to supply those things.
So some of you may be goingthrough incredibly difficult
(18:51):
things right now, today.
Number one we know it's not asurprise.
Number two God has worked outthe situation so that right now,
you're going through somethinghe already knows about and he's
already made the provision for,and so we are experiencing it in
real time.
He's like I already know that Ilove you and this is designed
(19:12):
for you to grow in yourknowledge of me, to grow in how
much I love you.
You're my child and I will notabandon you, and I'm here and
I'm going to convince you thatI'm here.
Things to help us let go ofthat tower of man's wisdom and
(19:39):
stay in the tower of his wisdom,of humility and faith, of
abiding in his life.
Everything we need Jesus hasalready given us, and for us it
was free.
Does anyone know how much itcost Jesus to give us all this?
(20:01):
Yeah, it cost him his blood,his life.
He had to pay the price for Godto freely give.
Before Jesus came, in order forus to get those blessings, to
feel like God's children, we hadto live a perfect life and he
had 10 commandments that we hadto follow.
But once Jesus comes, he setsus free from having to live up
(20:23):
to the standard and he saysanyone can come to me and
receive all the blessings thatGod wants to give you, because
God wants to pour out hisblessings, he loves to pour out
his blessings and the system ofus trying to earn them was not
working, because literally 4,000years of people tried and zero
succeeded.
And so God has a new covenant,a new plan, a new way where
(20:49):
Jesus earns the blessings and weget to receive them.
What's required of us?
No works, zero works, but tworelational realities called
humility and faith.
Humility is a heart that saysGod, I need you, jesus, I need
you.
I acknowledge that I fail, thatI sin, that I'm broken and I'm
(21:14):
hurt and I'm sick and I need youand I really believe that.
And then faith is a heart thatsays God, I'm going to trust you
, I'm going to trust your word,I'm going to trust your son, I'm
going to trust you exclusively.
And God says if you developthat heart, if you choose that
way, that's how you get in thistower and you get all the
(21:36):
blessings.
Everything you need andeverything you actually want is
already yours.
What do you actually want?
Do you actually want to be rich?
No, that's not actually whatyou want, because rich people
are sad and angry too.
What you really want is to feelloved, to feel worth and value,
(21:59):
to feel safe.
And those are the things Godsays they're yours.
I love you, you are safe withme, I'm going to protect you, I
honor you, you are my child andyou have an identity in me, and
that's all the things that arealready given to us.
All things he says are yours.
So why do we strive for thingsthat we still think we need?
(22:22):
Why do we do that?
We should rest in what we have.
We should rest in his grace.
We should rest from ourself-life and enjoy God's grace
life that he's given us.
Because of our union with Jesus, we have access to all
(22:43):
spiritual blessings.
Let me read to you in Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 3, one of the
craziest verses that you'llever see.
It says blessed be the God andFather of our Lord, jesus Christ
, who has blessed us.
That's past tense with everyspiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ.
That means everything heavencould possibly give to you.
(23:05):
Everything you could get fromGod is already yours.
You don't have to earn it.
It's already yours.
All spiritual blessings includeswisdom, life, even victory over
death.
We're all going to die.
Did you know that?
But it's not going to hurt,it's not going to be painful.
(23:28):
For us it's just like movingfrom being asleep to being awake
, because the sting has beentaken out of death.
The Bible says For us it isjust experiencing more life.
We get the new body.
Who's excited for a new body?
Craig's like me?
(23:51):
First, all spiritual blessingsincludes life, even victory over
death.
Paul is teaching us that ouridentity and worth is not tied
to anything man can see orobtain or deliver.
Instead, it's all in arelationship with Christ.
(24:12):
Everything you look to men foris really found in Jesus.
Ah, man, I want to feel loved,I want to have friends.
I want my friends to like me.
We all have those needs andthose desires in our soul, but
we will only ever truly discoverthose satisfied when we receive
(24:36):
it from Jesus.
When we get it from Jesus first, he says all are yours and you
are Christ, and Christ is God's.
This describes our relationshipwith Jesus, our union with him.
We are one with him, just likehe is one with his father.
You know what blew people'smind when Jesus came to the
earth?
He called God his father.
(24:57):
Nobody did that until Jesuscame.
Zero.
We're so used to.
Oh, Father, god, and everyoneprays that way now and we just
accept it and take it forgranted Call God their father.
So when he because it was tooclose, it was too familial, it
was too much separation, becausehe's holy, and Jesus is like I
(25:22):
don't have to, because I'm holytoo.
And in John it says John,chapter 14, verse 20, at that
day you will know that I am inmy father and you in me and I in
you.
Sounds confusing, but what it'ssaying is it's describing the
union we have with God.
(25:42):
Union is what we call this, oryou could call it united
closeness.
And this is the most importantthing you can learn in this
world.
It's the most important thingyou can learn about the gospel
in life in general.
This is the most importantthing.
Your union with this is thehighest treasure of all the
(26:04):
treasures of knowledge.
I think it's dumb.
You could succeed.
Who cares?
You're not gonna succeed.
For all the pursuits of thisworld?
For all the pursuits of thisworld, this relationship of
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union with Jesus is the greatest, deepest, most amazing treasure
of knowledge anyone could everdiscover.
You may have your passions andyour desires.
I'm telling you, what you'remost deeply looking for is found
right here, in this union withJesus and union with Christ is
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one of the most centraldoctrines that has ever been
discovered.
With him, you could say, a unionis not just like some
metaphysical reality, becauseyou are as humans.
We are physical, so we have amind, will and emotions and a
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body.
This is how we interact withthe world.
Like this, if we're robots andwe are also invisible, so we
have an invisible spirit.
Now, the animals were notcreated with that.
Animals just have the physicalpart.
They can only interact with thephysical world.
We have a spirit, which is partof our being that connects and
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relates to God in the spiritualworld.
And this is just how it's To beGod's counterpart, to be God's
counterpart, to be God's bride.
You could say we could be lovedby him and love him.
And so our union is when we arebound to him and connected to
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him in the spirit.
And so, in the spirit, whathappened when Jesus died on the
cross?
Physically, you weren't there,but his spirit was there.
And when Jesus connects youwith his spirit, then what
happened to him happened to you.
So you died on the cross withhim.
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When you trust in him and whenhe rose from the dead, you also
have risen from the dead.
So we died on the cross withhim, which means we are just as
innocent of sin as Jesus was.
We are cleansed of our sin,we're forgiven truly of our sin,
and then the fact that Jesusrose from the dead to serve his
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Father in newness of life, thenwe also have the same life given
to us, and that's what theBible talks about.
What happened to him happened toyou and the other way around,
what happened to you happened tohim.
So you think, absolutely hedoes.
He knows your pain, he knowsyour feelings.
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He knows your pain.
He knows your feelings, heknows your thoughts, he knows
your heart.
He has united himself that.
He feels what you feel and heknows what you know.
He shares with you, and so weget to hold nothing back, even
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the things that I'm worriedabout.
I can share those with Jesus,and he shares with me his life
and we live together.
The apostle Paul describes thisas verse 17 when we get there,
and so this means that we areinseparably connected to Jesus,
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sharing his life with us, andthis already is true of you,
whether you believe it or not,but you're only really going to
experience it if you choose tobelieve it, and so through this
union, we're given this newidentity that we've been talking
about, where our old self iscrucified with Christ and we're
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raised to life.
Like we said, that means we nolonger have to be identified by
our past.
So when you think of youridentity and then a lot of it
comes from your past.
But that doesn't have to be thereality anymore.
Our sin and our failures, andeven other people's sin that was
done to us is erased and ournew identity is the
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righteousness of Christ.
His life replaces everythingthat we have been through.
Now you still might have thefeelings, the emotions, the
trauma that you think definesyou, but it actually doesn't
define you anymore.
The real that defines you isthe love of Christ that you have
in the union with him.
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Now, because the Bible says weare new creations, the moment we
believe we are given a newheart and a new spirit.
He doesn't change our brain andour body.
Your body is the exact same themoment before you believe and
the moment you believe and after.
Your body doesn't change.
You're not given a new tickerand your brain also physical has
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learned how to respond in poorways and it's learned how to do
all kinds of fleshly things.
Okay, so the brain takes timeto renew, but your heart and
spirit are brand new when youbelieve.
That's amazing.
That's our new identity.
So we're not striving anymore toget closer to God.
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We are secure in ourrelationship.
Why does this matter?
To know your identity, so thatyou don't have to try to be
something that you're not.
You don't have to strive to getcloser to God, do you have you
guys?
I've said this hundreds of timesI need to get closer to God.
You ever heard someone say that?
How many times have you thoughtthat I need to get closer to
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God?
And that's actually not thesituation.
You cannot get closer to Godthan being in him, and you were
in him the moment that youbelieved.
Now I understand what we'retrying to say.
What we're trying to say is Ineed more of God in my life.
But that's actually not iteither, because we have all of
God already given to us.
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What we need is to surrendermore of our life to him, open up
our hearts more to him.
Let him take control, becausehe lets us be the boss of how
much in control he is.
So he can say we can say I onlywant you to run this much of my
life.
And that's where we experiencehis blessings, where we're
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living in humility and faith.
But where we live in pride,we're going to not experience
the peace there, we're not goingto experience the blessing
there, so we not gonnaexperience the blessing there.
So we come to church and then wesay let's all surrender all of
our hearts and all of our livesto the Lord, every area of our
life, from our private things toour relationships to how we
treat people and everything.
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Let's surrender it all so thatwe can experience the life God
intends for us to live and thelove and the blessings he has
for us.
We don't have to strive to getcloser to God.
We are already as close as wecould ever get because of our
union in Christ.
We have to learn how to rest init.
Rest in it that's how you walkwith humility and faith.
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It looks like rest.
Do you know what it looks likewhen I'm walking in pride and
self-sufficiency?
It looks like stress andstriving and worry and work.
And I look at the church and Isee most people are stressed out
, discouraged and trying super,super hard to be good Christians
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and they're not experiencing itBecause, even though they want
to be good Christians, they'restruggling and they're living in
this tower over here, doing itby themselves, when God has done
everything.
All are yours.
Paul said therefore, let no onetrust in men.
Therefore, let no one trust inmen.
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Rest in, enjoy what Jesus hasgiven you.
Believe it.
You've already believed it atthe beginning.
Now continue to believe it, andthat's how we grow.
Moreover, this union that wehave empowers us to live the
Christian life that we've beencalled to.
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So the Holy Spirit lives insideus and he empowers us, he
inspires us to express the fruitof the Spirit in our daily
lives, and the fruit of theSpirit is love, love, and that's
why we're called One2Church,because we desire to have that
fruit seen in our lives.
Love God one, love others two.
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It's pretty easy.
We can't produce that.
I can't tell you love God andlove others, and you just go do
it.
That only comes as a fruit ofbelieving the gospel, believing
what Jesus has done for you,believing, believing, believing
that is our job.
To believe.
They asked Jesus what do we doto work the works of God?
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Jesus said you need to believein the one he sent, which is me.
Believe, that's your job, andthen he takes the responsibility
for your life.
He takes responsibility foryour heart, your actions, your
words.
He takes responsibility foryour life.
He takes responsibility foryour heart, your actions, your
words.
He takes responsibility foryour life.
If you simply believe, yourlife will never be the same.
(35:32):
We're not left to our owndevices, but we're continually
inspired and supported by Christin us to live a loving life.
So, in summary, union withChrist is the foundation of our
identity and our life asbelievers.
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It assures us that we'recompletely forgiven.
That's our new identity.
We have an intimaterelationship with our God
because we are accepted as hischild.
We're completely accepted, andthis gift of grace transforms
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how we live and relate to Godand others.
So we can see ourselves as ason loved by him.
So no more daddy issues and wecan be patient with our brothers
and sisters who are really dumbsometimes or who are really
selfish, and we can understandthat they.
The reason why they're actingin such foolish ways is because
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they don't have their trueidentity.
And so, instead of saying youshould change and you should do
this that way, and give them allthese rules of what they should
do.
Rules don't ever change people.
Instead, where we say I'm goingto teach you about your
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identity, that you are loved,that God is the answer for
everything that you're searchingfor, that he will meet your
every need.
I'm going to demonstrate thatto you by how I live my life and
I'm going to encourage you tomake that choice too, because
this tower is a tower ofblessing and joy and life.
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That's his tower, the wisdomthat we can choose to believe
and follow in God's word.
We can hide ourselves in thistower.
Psalm 61, verse 3, you havebeen a shelter for me, a strong
tower from the enemy.
Isn't that cool?
The enemy just wants to get youout of the tower.
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He just wants to get you tobelieve the tower.
He just wants to get you tobelieve there's another way to
live life besides humblesurrender to God.
It's prideful self-sufficiency.
And man, it's a tower thatcrumbles.
I'm gonna read to you one lastpart of scripture, and that's in
the book of Jeremiah.
And it says this in Jeremiah,chapter two, verse 12 and 13.
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Be astonished, o heavens, atthis.
And it says this in Jeremiah,chapter 2, verse 12 and 13.
Be astonished at the heavens,oh heavens, at this and be
horrified and say or behorrified, be horribly afraid.
Gosh, I'm reading it all wrong.
Be very desolate, says the Lord.
So God's like you should freakout about this.
My people have committed twoevils.
First, they have forsaken me,the fountain of living waters.
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Second, they have hewnthemselves cisterns, broken
cisterns which could hold nowater, cisterns.
Back in the day they would bein the desert and so they needed
water all during the summer.
So they'd dig big holes in theground, in the rock.
They'd have to dig them out ofa solid rock.
But if the rock cracked whilethey were digging out the rock,
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then all the water that they putinto it would leak out into the
sand.
Hence no water, you die.
So God says listen, my peopleare so dumb.
I am a fountain of livingwaters, which means I am a
gushing out fountain that neverruns dry, that you don't even
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have to work for.
It's a free gift.
That's me.
But my people forsake mebecause they like to do things
themselves.
So they like to dig their own,so they develop entire
philosophies and psychologiesbased on here's what we do.
But he says every single timethe fountain, the cistern breaks
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, the well is cracked and thewater that they're trying to
save, the life that they'retrying to have to get them
through.
It leaks out and God says behorribly afraid about this.
This is a bad news.
And then, in chapter 17, hecontinues by saying this.
Thus says the Lord cursed isthe man who trusts in man.
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Trust in man that could just beour sermon right there.
Cursed is the man who trusts inman and makes flesh his
strength, whose heart departsfrom the Lord, for he shall be
like a shrub in the desert andshall not see when good comes,
but shall inhabit the parchedplaces in the wilderness, in a
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salt land which is not inhabited.
Blessed is the man who trustsin the Lord and whose hope is in
the Lord.
Make no mistake God offers youeverything.
He's already given you,everything you need.
All that he asks for you inreturn is your heart.
(40:50):
You have to give him your heartto receive everything that he's
given.
What does it look like to givehim your heart?
It means choose humility,saying God, I need you.
That's scary for us, because wehave been indoctrinated from
the moment we startedkindergarten here in America.
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You can do it with no help fromanybody else.
Here's a belt buckle with yourname on it.
You can do it, and every timewe just encourage that
philosophy.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
In America, we valueindependence so much, but the
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gospel isn't that.
That is not the gospel.
The gospel is we live throughhim and we need him, children,
and he is our God and he'sprovided everything.
You don't have to do anythingto make that happen, except give
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him your heart, saying Jesus,okay, I'll humble myself and say
I need you and I'll trust yourword.
I'll believe that you are whoyou say you are, that you will
somehow make us one by me simplybelieving you.
Leave from here.
You get to choose which toweryou want to live in covenant and
(42:19):
his love.
Walk in humility and you'lldiscover all things are yours.
You have everything that youcould possibly need.
All right, would you guys standwith me as we're going to sing
another song?
(43:00):
Amen message today is speakingto your heart and you have a
desire and receive thatforgiveness.
That's not you.
That's putting that in yourheart and he's like working from
the inside, calling you.
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Receive my gift, receive my son, and your sin will be forgiven.
Your life will be transformed.
Place it with a brand new heart.
If you know that's what youwant.
Believe, jesus, that your deathpays for sin, and come and live
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in my heart.
You can pray that prayer in amoment, in a second, from the
heart, and you will beabsolutely forgiven.
And, jesus, we as a churchfamily we love you and we are so
grateful that you give us yourwisdom in the word of God, that
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you teach us about the unionthat we have with you.
We could have been left withzero information or just believe
in you, but no, lord, you giveus all that we need to renew our
mind and to think differentlyabout our trials and about our
needs and about our wants andour desires and our lives.
God, you give us a tower we canrest in from the enemy, and I
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pray that each and every personin here would fully surrender
their lives, that we would notlive for ourselves but we would
live for your glory with everydecision that we make.
In Jesus' name we pray Amen.
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