Reigning in Life

It is so awesome to be with you and what an honor and what a privilege it is to be with you. And just to start out, if you could say this with me, look at somebody next to you and say, the life of God dwells in me. The life of God dwells in you. Therefore, you have victory in every situation, under every circumstance, and in every place, and your victory releases a fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere you go. Praise the Lord. If you believe that, you can be seated.

Once again, so honored to be with you all this morning, and the relationship that we have with you. You may not know it. You know, we may be like your third or fourth cousins, but it’s been a relationship that has been some 40 years in the making, and as I say, in the making, it’s been developing. I believe God always increases us, joins us together, and we have been mightily blessed by Believers Center in Glenwood Springs New Creation Church. The teaching that your pastors bring to impart to us once a year has really been life changing. Their counsel to us has been helped us establish. They have been with us, Pastor and I, Pastor Tosh and I since the beginning of our pastoring, and they have known us since before we were married. And so it’s about a 40-year relationship, and it’s been valuable and precious. And thank you, Pastors David and Jordan. You’re such a blessing. We’re looking forward to the relationship just continuing on and on and on.

And your pastors David and Jordan came and did a youth camp for our youth some years ago. And there are youth that were in that youth camp that they imparted things that are serving God mightily today, even in ministry. And I don’t know what just happened to me, but my daughter, my youngest daughter, they had a word for her, her life was dramatically changed, and she stepped into the call of God because that word. So thank you for having us here. And we just honor your pastor so much, and we honor you. And as I said, I believe that we all together serve God in this region, that we are a family. Certainly the church is a family, but through divine connection, we are together in this.

And so I want to take just a second. You’ve met most of my family, but not all of my family. So I’d like you to meet them today, if we have that picture right here. This is my family, and so Kate, who’s sitting right here, is off to my right, your left, and then Tasha, who brought Force for Good, and she is a force for good, has changed my life. You know, I said we’ve been married 38 years, and I’ll always say, Man, it does not seem like 38 years, and she’ll say it seems about like every minute of it. So you know who’s working on it a little bit more than the others. And then next to her is my youngest daughter, Carrie, and her husband David, and they serve. Carrie is the assistant director in our preschool and does an awesome job, plays our keys, works in our worship team. David is a construction supervisor, builds houses, plays the guitar, serves in our security, and then the little guy that he’s holding is our only grandson Matthew, and he is awesome, and you cannot see her, but our only granddaughter is also there unseen and will be with us the first of May. And so that’s my family, and I love them and appreciate them. Just wanted you to get to see them so you know them, and praise the Lord. Glory to God.

I just want to bring a word to you

Well, I just want to bring a message to you. I know that you are incredibly well taught here at Believers Center, and so I just want to bring a word to you that I hope will encourage you and help you in the life that you’re living daily, and how to think about the life that we live as believers and what Jesus Christ has done for us. If you’ll open your Bibles with me to Romans the 14th chapter, the 14th chapter, and while we’re turning over there, if we could just pray.

Father, I thank you so much. I thank you for divine relationships. I thank you so much for this time, this moment in time that we have right here today. And I pray that the moment that we have, these few moments, that because of your word and your spirit will have an effect in eternity, the hearts and the lives of people and the effect that they will have on those who do not yet know you, to bring light and revelation, help and strength to them. Thank you for utterance to speak as we ought to speak with clarity and accuracy. Help me with that. It’s so important. Your word is so vital. It’s alive and it’s quick and it’s powerful. Help me to share that and give us ears to hear what you’re saying to us. Each one, you know why they’re here. You know what brought them here this morning. You know what struggles they have, and you know your word is alive, and Holy Spirit, you can take it and apply it to bring help and strength and growth to each one. So we give you glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving for everything that will be accomplished in every heart and in every life by your word and by your spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy

So Romans the 14th chapter and the 17th verse, it says this, it says,

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

The kingdom of God, in other words, the realm that God rules in, of which we are a part, is not, one translation says, rules and regulations, but it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit of God. So this place of reigning, this place of ruling that God has within his kingdom. Really, we need to know how we’re going to reign in life. We’re not just living as Christians according to a bunch of rules that are set out before us and the struggle that comes with that, but we are living from a place of relationship with Him.

And though that makes sense, and though we’ve heard it, there is an active working. There is something that should be working on the inside of us every day as we fellowship with Him that reaffirms that situation every time that the sin conscious mind would try to bring us back to you need to do more, there’s something different working on the inside of us through relationship that says, that’s not what I’m working for. I’m not working for you to just do more to merit more, but I’m working in you to develop to transform your life into something that will be a beacon to those in darkness, those who are struggling to do more with no end in sight, that they can see it’s not what they’re doing that’s going to bring it, but it’s what Jesus has already done for them that will bring a transformation in their life. And so we’re looking for transformation. We’re not just looking for more information. And though we love inspiration, we’re looking for revelation that will bring a transformation. Because the mark of the high calling that Paul would talk about is becoming like him. So we’re stretching and we’re moving, but we’re not working. There’s something working in us.

So if I could just start it off with saying this, if we could get to the point that we’re not out here trying to move things into the proper position, although we will do some things, the core is not what could I do here, but our work, if you will, is to understand what’s going on in us and be able to yield to that every day. So our struggle, sometimes we think our struggle is in doing it, but our struggle is in knowing that the one, the worker of it, is in here. And if we could work with him, flow with him, understand him. Boy, would that change everything. Would that change everything?

What God did in Christ Jesus far exceeds Adam’s fall

So turn over to Romans chapter 5 with me. Romans chapter 5. I love this portion of Scripture. And we’ll see how far we get, but to try to break some things out of this portion of Scripture. But let’s start here in verse 12. He explains a lot to us right here. He says,

Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed where there was no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense.

The free gift is not like the offense. Too often we’re thinking, well, here’s the offense, here’s the free gift. But the free gift is not like the offense. There’s a great difference.

For if by one man’s offense many died, much more.

Somebody say much more. Say it with me again a little louder. Much more. Much more. I believe God wants to get through to us. We’re not trying to get back to zero. We’re not even trying to get back to the relationship that Adam had. There’s a depth, there’s something much more. Much more in Christ Jesus.

So he says, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by one man’s offense death reigned through one, much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

So we have to receive something. We have to understand and acknowledge and receive something so that we can reign in life.

Verse 18: Therefore, as through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man’s righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man’s obedience many were made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now that’s a mouthful. But there’s a gentleman who wrote, and we actually use it as our benediction at New Creation Church that sums all of this up. That says, What God did in Christ Jesus, far exceeds any damage done to me by Adam’s fall. What God did in Christ Jesus far exceeds any damage done to me by Adam’s fall. And so I just want to take that statement, our benediction, and just open it up just a little bit this morning. Because many times we’re just moving over it, and we don’t actually know what happened in Adam’s fall. And how it so vitally affected us.

Sin consciousness

And so Paul says here, he says, listen, when one man sinned, it spread to everybody. Something happened. And what happened in that was condemnation came. And so we know, many of us know through Romans 8:1, there’s therefore now no condemnation through those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And so there’s no condemnation. So we think, well, no, I won’t feel condemned anymore. But if we don’t understand what condemnation is, we’ll struggle with that. And so condemnation is judgment. But it’s not simply judgment, it is judgment with a sentence attached to it. So he said, when Adam sinned, that sin spread to all men. And when it spread to all men, condemnation. The understanding that that sin had judgment and a sentence attached to it. God proclaimed that. He said, the wages of sin is death.

So what happened to man in Adam’s fall, the damage that was created, that in the really the unconscious mind of man, there was an understanding that what I deserve is death. What I deserve is death. And so if we’re not careful, we begin to carry around, even as believers, this sin consciousness. A consciousness that down on the inside, whatever I’m doing, there’s this underlying tone that I don’t deserve something good. That the underlying tone is no matter how I try, I have to try harder because there’s something down on the inside that is telling me I’ve got to try harder to try to deserve something. And so it’s sin consciousness. One writer wrote about sin consciousness, he said it can be traced back to the reason for practically every spiritual failure. Because it destroys faith.

So we have a lot of feeling like we don’t measure up. We have a lot of competitiveness, even in the Christian world. We have a lot of comparison. We wonder where does that come from? Where is that feeling like, wow, they’re really good, I don’t measure up? There’s a place of honor, they’re really good. Man, they’re really anointed. But when we start feeling like I don’t measure up, something is working to bring us to a place of a lack of confidence, which affects our faith in what Jesus has done for us. And so, because of that, a person who has a sin consciousness really becomes afraid of God. He becomes afraid of God. He’s actually afraid of himself. He doesn’t trust himself with what he’s been given. Sin consciousness really works hard on you. He’s ever looking for someone else to pray the prayer of faith for him. Someone’s always, if somebody else could pray, it could change that, which if you understand that sin consciousness is keeping you from that place of knowing I can go straight into the throne of grace. I can obtain mercy. I can find grace to help me when I’m in need. But sin consciousness will try to hold you back from that.

So I was praying the Lord put this on my heart, sin consciousness will always take me back to the negative things I deserve because of my mistakes. Right? When something goes wrong, how often does your mind go back to this must be going wrong because I did some stuff. So it gets working on the inside of us. Then when anything goes wrong, my mind takes me back to those things that I’ve done, where I’ve missed it. And it shows you how simple or simply you just can’t make it. That’s what sin consciousness does. So all men were brought under this consciousness that I can’t make it. I can’t do this. And no matter how hard I try, I’m on this treadmill that really what I deserve is nothing but death. Condemnation. So Paul could freely say in Romans chapter 8, there will be no more condemnation because of what God did in Christ Jesus.

What God did in Christ Jesus

What God did in Christ Jesus. Well, what did God do in Christ Jesus? First of all, because we were sinners. We were sinners. I want to make that very clear. We were sinners. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and put your faith in him, you are no longer a sinner. You’re not just a sinner saved by grace, trudging to try to make it. Right? This statement in itself, I’m just a sinner saved by grace. If grace saved you, what did it save you from? It saved you from sin. So it translated you out of the kingdom of darkness or out of the rule of darkness into the kingdom or the reign of his dear son. So that we could reign with him. We could reign over this sin consciousness. We could reign over this sin nature and what it would be doing in our life.

So the first thing that Christ did for us, what God did in Christ Jesus, what God did for us in Christ was He justified us. Turn over to Romans the third chapter. The 23rd verse says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Verse 24: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God passed over the sins which were previously committed to demonstrate at this present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is the boasting then? It’s excluded. By what law? Of works? No. But by the law of faith. Therefore, we could conclude that man is justified by faith apart from the law.

So your faith in Jesus Christ, your faith in what Christ has done for you on the cross, the blood that was shed for you. Hebrews chapter 9 says that it was the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses your conscience from dead works. Something happened the day that you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. You believed in the blood of Jesus. God didn’t come in. We have to be very careful to not reduce the blood of Jesus to the level of the blood of bulls and goats. Thinking I came to church, I repented, that covered it till next time. No, his blood is not covering your sin, it’s cleansing your sin. And the blood of Jesus, there is no place that the blood of Jesus cannot reach. The blood of Jesus reaches into your unconscious mind, where that knowledge that sin existed and I deserve death, and the blood went in and it washed that. It cleansed that. It didn’t just cover it, it washed it clean.

So when you have a knowledge of that, you’re like, whew. Man. I’m clean. When the devil comes back and says, What about your mistakes? You can freely with faith say, What about them? What about them? I’ve been washed. I’ve been cleansed. I’ve been sanctified and set apart from my mistakes unto God. So when he brought that blood, he cleansed us and he justified us at that moment that you said, I believe in what Jesus Christ did. I believe in the blood shed for me. God made a proclamation of justification.

To declare righteous

And so what is justification? Well, justification really takes place, and understanding, A.B. Simpson wrote it like this. I can’t really explain it any better. He said the term justify means to declare righteous. To declare righteous. It does not necessarily imply that the one declared righteous is righteous. In fact, it assumes in the case of the sinner that he is not righteous. It is the ungodly that God justifies. But he recognized not in himself, but in the person of his substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness is regarded as ours. For his sake, we are treated even as he is.

So, under Napoleon in a French prison, a Russian prince was given the order by the prerogative of Napoleon, he could pardon one prisoner. And so he went into the prison and he started interviewing prisoners. And he could not find one prisoner that would admit that they belonged there. If you were to say 99 out of 100, so he’d interview him. I don’t belong here, I’ve been unjustly treated. He moves on to the other one. And finally, he finds a man. He finds a man that says, I did what they said I did. And I deserve the penalty that I’m getting. And he said, Today, because you recognized your sentence, today is the day that I get to show mercy. And I get to declare your sentence paid and pardon you.

So the necessity of realizing that we have a sin consciousness and kneeling and saying, Through Adam, I sinned, I’m not worthy. Jesus, what you did for me is the only thing that could be done for me. I’m not worthy of that, but I acknowledge you. God comes in and he says, Because of your humility, I extend mercy and grace, and I declare you justified. Sentence served. In believing in the power of the blood, Jesus died on the cross. That condemnation, the wages of sin is death. We’re feeling it. We’re feeling it. Just a minute. This thing’s got it. The wages of sin is death working in the unconscious mind. When you come to Jesus Christ, there’s a revelation. Listen, you could never serve that sentence. You could never absolve yourself of that sentence, but one came and served the sentence. Stamped, sentence served. Not just life paid for, but sentence served. Sentence served.

So in his book, Holy War, John Bunyan had an allegory about King Emmanuel, and they had defeated the enemy. I love this. This helps me with justification. I hope it helps you. They fought this war, and it was a brutal war. Many lives were lost in this brutal war. And in order to reconcile or to get a peace agreement, he said, all of them must come with chains around their necks shackled and come before me and kneel before me. And so they came and they had been defeated. And they were all afraid because the war had gone on, they’d killed so many of his people, of what would take place, that he would execute them. And they all came and they knelt before him. And they said, We have done these terrible atrocities, and we kneel before you, King Emmanuel, right now, and we humble ourselves before you. And he says, Because you’ve come, I extend mercy upon you. But he didn’t just extend mercy, he gave a king’s order that he would go into their cities and would restore totally their whole cities, and that the capital city would become his own city, and that every one of these prisoners and all of the society would be restored. And a declaration and a proclamation went out that they will be in record adopted as the king’s sons. And they would be restored. That is justification.

Man as he ought to be

And when we understand that we could never make ourselves righteous, but in believing in Jesus Christ, he justifies you. For what happened in Adam’s fall was condemnation, resulting in death. But what happened through Jesus Christ was justification by God. Something we could not do, something we could not earn, something that could not take place. You became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And so 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. After declaring that we are now brand new creations in Christ, it says he who knew no sin became sin that you and I might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Now in studying this out, you know, as we went through this last summer, our church went through this the kingdom of God ruling and reigning, understanding that we were righteous. I’ve always held to the definition right standing with God. As I dug into it, it is right standing with God. It also means right character. As we develop that right relationship with God, the character of God is going to begin to be developed in us. It also means right living, a process of living. But as I went into the Strongs, I looked at this simple definition that just stood out to me. I’d probably seen it a long time. But righteousness means man as he ought to be. Man as he ought to be. So when God declared you righteous, and he broke and paid the sentence for your sin, he said, I restore you as you ought to be. How should man ought to be? He was created in the likeness and the image of God. He was created sinless, not sinful. So when we receive the justification, when we receive this gift of righteousness, we realize I am not the person that I used to be.

Now understand this, because of justification, because he declared you righteous in the courts of heaven. You did not have a jail break at your new birth. Right? You’re not living every day looking over your shoulder to see if the old man of sin is gonna catch up with you and pull you back into bondage. No, you are free. You have been stamped, acquitted, free, justified, made righteous. So in the world we live in, it’s like dogging our tracks trying to catch up with us. Am I gonna fall under this? When’s the shoe gonna drop? When am I gonna make that mistake? Because I’m just doing the best that I can. God said, No, you’re not just doing the best that you can. I’ve done the best that I can with you. And there’s no flaw in that. When God does the best that he can, it’s completely complete. When he restored you, he didn’t forget anything about you. He wiped the slate clean, and when he did, he broke the chains of sin that were connected to you that would try to dominate you to destroy you, to put you into feeling inferior, right? Less than the best. God says, I want you to know exactly what you can be because of what I’ve done for you.

That there’s a hope that this sin, this consciousness, the mistakes that you made no longer reign over you in life. The systems of this world, the economy of this world no longer rule your decision making. But in the midst of all that, he gives you wisdom. He gives you understanding. That you no longer feel like I’m being reigned over by this stuff. Emotionally, physically, mentally, financially, stuff’s happening. Anyone notice that? Right? We’re living 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re living life. Life happens. Jesus said, tomorrow, there’s gonna be plenty of trouble in tomorrow. Sufficient is the day for itself. You’re gonna walk right into that. But are you gonna let tomorrow govern what you do? Are you gonna let what God did in Christ Jesus govern how you respond tomorrow? Because when you do, you start feeling like a king. You start feeling like you can reign in life through Jesus Christ.

The abundance of grace

So because we’ve been justified, made righteous, we are full of and understand, and I’m going to be a little bit careful with this because I know the foundation of your teaching is grace. But see, we receive the gift of the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. And this grace is so awesome, and it’s so powerful. It is that unmerited favor of God, he loves us. But it also is God’s empowerment for us to live. Again, grace doesn’t just cover stuff. God moved in by his favor and justified us and made us righteous. We weren’t worthy of it. He came in and did what we did not deserve to break that undeserving spirit of sin consciousness and say, listen, I might not deserve life, but he gave it to me. I might not deserve prosperity, might not deserve healing after what I’ve done, but he bestowed it upon me. His favor, his empowerment is this life that we now live that seems insurmountable based on where I’ve been. There’s a power at work on the inside of you. And it is the spirit of grace empowering you to do more than you could ever do from your old man or by yourself.

And the third part of it is a divine influence upon your heart that has its reflection in your life. That there is a divine influence. That place of grace that lets you know I have been born again. I, by God’s will and God’s own virtue, have been made to partake of his divine nature. I am no longer partaking of the sinful nature that governed my life and continually dogged my tracks and brought my self-esteem down, my worthiness down, my sense of feeling that I could do anything in life, kept bringing it down to a lower level. But it starts to elevate with grace because there’s a divine influence letting me know who I am in Christ, what he’s done for me, and that it has totally 100% shattered the shackles that had me. The anointing has broken everything over my life. He set me free to be exactly who he created me to be. And he created me to be a king and a priest unto my God. That I would reign on the earth over situations of life. Praise the Lord. God’s good.

And he tells us in that redemptive process in Romans the sixth chapter that if we died with him, if we allowed that revelation that when he died, we died. When he raised from the dead, we raised from the dead. Right? That we would no longer lend our bodies over to unrighteousness, but we would lend our members over to God, who is our king. And sin would no longer, sin would no longer have dominion. So if sin no longer has dominion, who does? We do. We do. Because we’ve received it. We’ve received this abundance of grace. We’ve received the gift of righteousness. We reign in life through one Jesus Christ.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I love that Paul said, I’ve been crucified with Christ, or I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it’s not I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Right? So it’s no longer, it’s the grace of God. I’m not under the law. It’s the grace of God. I like the translation says that it’s no longer I that lives, it’s just Christ using my body.

Reign in life

So when we start to understand grace, they asked this question about reigning in life. They kept asking him this question. Right? So if grace is there, why don’t we just sin? So grace could abound. He said, Well, we’re not under, sin no longer has dominion over you because you’re not under the law, you’re under grace. They ask it again. Well, should we sin? That grace would abound. And Paul continued to say, What is it that you’re not understanding about this grace? Grace is not more lenient. Grace is something that you don’t have to look at the law, you don’t have to look at the pages. Grace is something that is written right here and it’s working right here. So, although I look at the pages, I learn from the pages when it comes off the pages as the living word of God. The DNA in the word that’s on these pages bears witness with the DNA of the life of the Spirit that is within me. And they combine and he translates this into not what I’m trying to do, but he begins to translate it into life.

So now it’s not what I’m trying to live, it is what through the help of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the influence of the Holy Spirit, I am able to live that life. I’m able to forgive. I’m able to give. I’m able to pray. I’m able to follow the Holy Spirit. And every time you take that step out, and the enemy says, Well, this is how you used to do it, and you say, That’s not how I do it anymore. That thought of, you know what, I’m not going to forgive that person. You say, nope, I’m absolutely going to forgive that person. Just to bring it down to day-to-day life. Right? Those thoughts that we have. Oh, I’m going to act this way. I’m not going to do this. I’m going to do that. And all of a sudden you say, No, that’s not who I am anymore. With the help of this Holy Spirit and the response of that, I am going to say that. I am going to give that. I’m not going to that person that cut me off in traffic, I’m not going to yell and scream about it. And every time you make the decision to not do what the old man wants you to do, even the simplest things, you’re reigning over that life.

So we don’t need to make it a big deal. Right? That person that you’re having trouble forgiving, and you’re like, I don’t think I can forgive. Listen, the Holy Spirit’s not telling you not to forgive. He’s telling you to forgive. Say, but you don’t know what he’s done. I can’t do that. He says, I know, I know you can’t. The old you is unable to do that. But if you’ll yield to me, I will empower you to forgive. And the moment you yield and let me forgive, you’ll feel that sense of I just reigned over all that was done to me. I’m not just reigning over the sin that I’ve committed, but I’m reigning over the sin that was committed against me. And what he did wasn’t just for my sin, but everything that was done to me. Not just through me. So sin has no place of ruling in my life.

Because we’ve received that justification, the gift of righteousness. And man, that abundance of grace. I know you’re taught on grace. Just to connect those dots. It’s incredibly important. But if we do that, it says, we reign in life. So don’t let life reign over you. Don’t let life reign over you. You’ve been equipped to reign over all the situations of life. They will come, they will try to reign over you. They’ll try to take you captive in your emotions, in your thoughts, and in your actions. But as you begin to believe and receive and listen and be led by and pray in the Holy Spirit, develop that relationship. And you will find yourself throwing your shoulders back, your head up, not because of who you are, but because of who he is. And you’ll say, Listen, truly I am reigning in life.

Father, I thank you right now. Holy Spirit, I thank you. I know you’re in this place. I know you know every situation. For every person here, I just pray right now, Holy Spirit. God, that you bring a revelation of reigning in life. You bring a revelation to anyone struggling with that old nature of what you’ve done in justifying them, declaring them righteous, that you restored them and cleansed their sin as they ought to be. A son and a daughter of God, free from that sin. The consciousness of their mind would be of righteousness and not of sin. That from this day forward, if they’ve struggled with being overcome by those situations of life, they will see themselves above that and reigning, reigning through Christ in life. I thank you, Holy Spirit, for working, reminding and blessing each person with your abundance of grace in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you so much. Love you all, appreciate you. Thank you.