The Spirit of God gives us passion and a different way to see. We have eyes that see how the Lord brings victory. Our freedom from bondage is a miracle. Let’s live large in that reality. Numbers 13:17-33; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16

Speaker(s): Kim Shibley, Thomas Schaller, Ben Hollopanien
Sermon 12323
6:30 PM on 6/19/2022

P. Schaller –

Alright. Would you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2 for an introduction. What a wonderful day we had today. We are
so much anticipating God speaking deeply to our hearts this week. When was the last time we
assembled together for Convention? Three years ago, was it or when? Three years ago. We
cancelled it and then we had it anyway in August. Was that it? There’s so many different
variations of what happened. Then the next year I think we had it but people couldn’t travel.
And now we have it, so we are wondering how much, how far away we have gone from God?
So, turn to your neighbor and say, how far away have you gone from God? Backslidden.
Departed. Unbeliever. Jealous. Judgmental. Unforgiving.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. We have a short message and then Benscu is going to do a short message.
We’ll have the offering. Maybe after this we will do the offering, and then P. Shibley is going to
share with us tonight. We have P. Jay here with P. Toll and the whole gang. Let’s see. Anybody
else come in this afternoon to be with us? You want to stand. You’re welcome. P. Moon. Great.
Come on. Yes, here we go. You can stay standing. We can look at P. Steve Devries. Wow. Great.
Oh, Carol. Wow. Excellent. Wow. Excellent.

In our pastors’ get-togethers in the morning, I made a couple – we had a fellowship about it a
little bit and I was thinking about how pastors need encouragement. We need to have our iron
sharpening iron. We have an important role in the world and that’s to proclaim Christ. To see
Christ produced in people. If we don’t produce Christ in people, not as pastors alone but in the
Body of Christ because we are fitly framed together, then what will be produced in people’s
lives? If Christ is not produced in my life or manifested or revealed in my life, then what is
revealed in my life? Good question, isn’t it? What do you think the answer is? Turn to your
neighbor and tell them the answer.

I’ll walk over here and ask these guys. Don’t trip over that. So, in our morning pastor’s meetings, we’ll talk about forgiveness. This is a big issue in everybody’s life. If you want to get your life helped out and kind of some how some sparks flying, some kind of compass in your heart to get sharpened or to have your navigation system.
Remember we preached one message about how a ship had two compasses. One on the deck
and one way up on the mast. Remember that? Sometimes the magnetic field will shift and will
affect the compass so you needed two.

So, I need my Bible and my closet, my own Bible, my own personal life with God and then I need a pastor cause that compass, the Body of Christ is a big part, important part of my life. I need the Spirit of God in the Body and the teaching.
Another thing we want to share about in the pastors’ meetings is our whole way of thinking
about presenting messages. How we, what we are saying. How what we say affects the Body.
How we think about it ourselves and how we grow in it. Everybody is different but we also have
our own. God leads you. There’s never been another Billy Graham but there have been other
men: Louie Palou and Franklin Graham and his grandson, Will. His son. Billy Graham’s grandson, Will, and so on. We cannot copy. We need it from God. We need the Spirit of God to teach us
how to minister to people and help them so they are not left as the natural man.
If you look at chapter 2:9.

Those things are here but we can’t see them. We don’t hear them
with our natural ears like the way you listen to music or somebody reading a book. But you hear
it in your heart. In your heart, you are hearing cause your heart is after God. You have the new
birth. You are regenerated. You are hearing. But the natural man does not see it. He does not
understand it. He doesn’t know the value of forgiveness. The value of love. The value of the
Bible. Amazing. The Bible. What the Bible does for people.

Vs. 10. When? The last three years. The last three years God has been speaking by his Spirit to
us. We have been edified by his Spirit, counseled by his Spirit. He has opened the Bible to us by
his Spirit. We have seen it in our assemblies and fellowships in various ways where God is
working in our lives.

Somebody could say, I will not forgive. I’m not going to forgive my mother or my father. Or I’ll
always complain about my country or about the politics or what happened to me or the tragic
thing that happened to me and so on. But you are – Booker T. Washington said, “I will never
allow my soul to be reduced to hating a person.” My soul will be reduced if I hate a person. I
have more dignity. I’m made something higher than hatred and depression and sorrow.
Look at verse 10. That’s why we are here. We want the deep things of God. The deep things of
God. The real things from God. I got a picture in my mind the other day about this dirty metal,
like a fender on a car. And it’s kind of rusted. I have a truck like that.

The fender is rusted out and there is a big hole in the fender. The metal that is rusty and I was thinking of when you take
some dirty metal and you grind it and you find it shining. You get passed the paint, passed the
dirt, passed the rust, and it is shining. I think of that regarding people. If God can go to that
shiny part, if God can do an operation in me so that he touches me deeply and I can forgive.
When I forgive, I am like God. When I love, when I forgive my enemy, when I learn to pray and
I’m there like Jesus.

Another picture is Jesus is praying on the mountain and he’s like white. He’s shining like the
snow or the sun. Remember the story. Vs. 11. That’s why we love being together because the
Spirit of a man, the shiny metal part. You get passed all that stuff. Our assembly this week isn’t
about politics. Halleluiah! It’s not about the NFL or MBA or any other. It’s not about the
weather or about America or any other part of it. It’s not about the war and all the pain and the
poverty and the suffering and troubles in life. That is all real. But we are people of the Spirit.
And our prayers touch the heart of God. God touches us in the deep part, vs. 11-12.
Not the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world. Have you noticed? The spirit of the world is
afraid. They’re afraid of the times we are living in. The spirit of the world is afraid of dying.

Are you afraid of dying? I am except the Spirit of God has revealed to me things my eyes have not
seen and my ears have not heard and it’s never come from within my own heart but it’s
revealed to us from the heart of God and we are not afraid as others. We are not worried as
others. But life goes on.

Jesus may come back in a year, or ten or a hundred or a thousand. We don’t know. We do not
know. I anticipate it to be soon. And that’s good and healthy and that’s spiritual to anticipate
the coming of Christ now. He could come now and I’m very excited about it. But if on the other
hand, our calling is to be here until he – you know. Our calling is to be in this world manifesting
the love and the Spirit and the wisdom and the Word of God for many, many more years. Glory
be to God let us be busy with the Father’s business.

How do you live? It says that here, vs. 12. We are different. We are different. We think
different. We’re different. It’s great. We’re different. We cook food different. We drink things.
We work. We live. We love. We forgive. We are different. We rejoice. We talk. We interact. We
engage. We have a discussion. We are looking for things. We are seekers and we find. We are
alive. We have vitality. We have passion. That’s another good point. I don’t want to be in a
church that is falling asleep. I want to be in a church that has passion. Amen. What’s going on?
Anything going on from God? Anybody seen a miracle? Anybody have an answered prayer?
Anybody excited about Jesus Christ? Have you heard he’s been raised from the dead? Does
anybody know that our sins have been forgiven, our names are in the book of life and somehow
that reality is touching my heart. That’s good. That’s so good.

Vs. 13. Different words. Different words. Healthy words or true words. Great words. We speak
about it. We just speak about it. Ever been to a church where the man behind the pulpit
changes his voice religiously? You know, he changes. He has a religious language he learns in
seminary. And somehow, he goes into a religious mode of operation. What do you think about
that? To me, it’s not honest. It’s not realistic. It’s not natural. It’s not normal. To me, it’s
artificial. Why would you be that way in a church where a church is to be exactly the opposite.
It’s to be reality. It’s not a con. It’s not a theater. It’s not a play. It’s not a comedy show. It’s not
some kind of a device for entertaining people.

I come to church so I can hear the reality of the Holy Spirit speak to us just like shiny metal
when it grinds through all the stuff of life and it speaks to us and it’s real. Rap sessions are real.
We ask the questions and we expose ourselves. We are vulnerable. We have the discussion and
we are looking for God.

Prayer meetings are real. Sometimes in a prayer meeting it might be somebody going through a
list just like a grocery list. I say I cannot handle it. I love the prayers and I don’t mind grocery list
prayers but also it says we pray with the Spirit with groanings that cannot be uttered. There is a
prayer that touches the heart of God and you cannot even articulate the words that you are praying. There is an intercession that moves a mountain. There is prayer that shakes things.
There is prayer that moves a church. There’s prayer that sends people out to the mission field.
There is prayer that is powerful. It’s good.

Go to the next one. Vs. 14. He doesn’t get it but he’s talking a lot. The natural man is talking day
and night. Talking a lot. He is just filled with words. Filled with himself. Filled with opinions.
Filled with chatter. Filled with language. Filled with words. Filled with himself. He’s just filled.
The natural man just simply in vs. 14 does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.
Have you ever noticed something? God doesn’t talk a lot to people. Have you ever noticed
that? Wait a minute. Isn’t he talking? He’s talking this (the Bible). But they are not hearing him
so what else is he saying? Nothing. He’s not talking. They’re not listening. He has nothing to say
to them. Isn’t that interesting. God, I got issues with you. Silence. God, show yourself to me or
else. Silence. You know. God, I don’t believe in you. Silence. He doesn’t answer a fool according
to his folly. He’s not in that world. The natural man does not get it.

No, but if you are spiritually minded person. If you are a person that is saying Jesus Christ I need
you more than anything. A pastor that gets kind of burned out and tired and dull and empty. I
heard about a pastor; he was very greatly used of God but he came to the end. He said I
couldn’t even pray. I was so exhausted, so tired, so discouraged, and so depressed. I couldn’t
even turn in my Bible to one place in the Bible. I was so sad. I was so depressed. I checked into a
hotel room and I stayed there. I just waited on God. I just was silent. Silent. I was listening. I
started to listen and unburden all my cares. Cast all my cares upon God cause he cares for me. I
was exhausted and tired and worn out and burned out. He said then it started to happen. I
waited on God and started to hear something. I started to pray. God was answering me. He was
comforting me. He was helping me. Eight hours later when I left that hotel room, I was so
energized. I was so excited about the ministry. I was so restored.

How come a pastor quits the ministry? Maybe because he hasn’t found the rest that is in Jesus
Christ. The truth that comes from God’s mouth. When God speaks, he moves mountains. When
he speaks, he can pluck up the fig tree and cast it into the sea. When he speaks, he will restore
your soul. The natural man doesn’t receive this. He doesn’t know it. vs. 14. He can’t know what
we are talking about. He can’t know it. Talk about a radio station. He doesn’t even have a radio.
He can’t tune in. He doesn’t even know what we are talking about. He has no idea. When he
drives down – when he passes this parking lot he has no idea why these cars are in the parking
lot and why the tent is up there or the two tents and so on. Or why you are carrying a Bible or
why you are laughing on the deck or why you are talking to your friends or why you are crossing
the ocean to be here. He has no idea. So, we should understand that and pray for the world,
the people, and care about them and minister to them. Listen to them. Not argue. Listen. Talk.
Love. Forgive. Encourage. Restore.

The natural man doesn’t know about evangelism. He doesn’t know about missions. He doesn’t
know about preaching and listening. He doesn’t know about serving. He doesn’t know about
giving. The natural man doesn’t know the things of God. He cannot discern it. They are
foolishness. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The things that
we have received and kept and cherished in our hearts are things that we have discerned and
recognized and built our lives on.

Vs. 16. He’s got all kinds of eyes. remember. I want to finish but on the throne, there’s – what
was it that had all the eyes? Some living creature had all eyes all around. I think, I don’t know.
Does a house fly have 70 lenses or something? Something about a house fly. All these eyes, and
I think about intelligence. Eyes represent intelligence. And a spiritual man has some eyes that
other people don’t have. He has some perception. He recognizes that something is happening.
He knows that salvation is a reality. He has seen it with his eyes. He knows that prayers are real.
He has seen it with his eyes. He knows what forgiveness means cause he has seen it with his
eyes. He has such an appreciation for it.

vs. 16. We have no idea. Could you counsel God? Could you and I give God advice? We have no
idea. He is very capable all by himself. I do not have the mind. I do not have that mind. He has
the mind. But wait a minute. But we have the mind of Christ in that verse. But we have. What?
But we have the mind of Christ. You mean God and me? God and us? We have the mind of
Christ? You mean that God kind of bends down to listen to what we have to say? Do you mean
that God enjoys our company? Do you mean that God and us, we are in fellowship? Do you
mean that God uses us as his tools? Do you mean that God sends us and we are like those in
the book of Acts that went forth with authority. God answered the prayers and Christianity
spread around the world. We are like somehow.

The mind that we have, we have the mind of Christ and we are able to do the meaningful things, not those things that are immediately satisfied but those things that are meaningful. If it is sacrifice, then let it be. If it is a loss of
something, then let it be. We have the mind of Christ.

If Paul is in prison, then I am the prisoner of the Lord. I have the mind of Christ. I can write a
letter to the Ephesians and no complaint about the Roman government. No complaint about
the prison cell, the house arrest that he was under. There is something about us living in the
United States of America at this time where we are to have a ministry. Where we say let’s go to
South Dakota. Let’s go to Arkansas. Let’s go to West Virginia. Let’s go to Richmond, Virginia.
Let’s go to Utah, Idaho. Let’s go to San Diego, California. Those are big names I know. Big words.
I know that but they are said for a reason.

What can we see with our eyes? We have many eyes and we can see. Dr. Stevens 50 years ago
had eyes that he said we can go into all the world and we do not need a mission organization.
We just need a local church that is on fire for God. Isn’t that great? We do not need a mission
organization that is bureaucratically kind of organized and putting together and approving or disproving. We need a local assembly that lays its hands on people that are living in faith and
producing a life on this side. Send them out to corners of the world to preach the gospel. And
make disciples and it happened.

Dear brothers and sisters. Imagine. This has happened. Nobody, nobody, nobody could ever do
it. None of us could ever do what has happened. It can never happen. It does not happen but it
has happened because we have the mind of Christ. In short. I guess. That’s what it means. We
have. This is Jesus with us. So, don’t quit. We are not to be naturally minded but to be
challenged in our faith. We are to be believing and trusting and I think God will do great things
for us this week. That’s that. Give in the offering tonight in Jesus’ name. We’re going to do the
service and then afterwards beautiful weather outside. We’ll be out there on the deck for a rap
and have different ones sharing. We’ll have a beautiful. Time together tonight. Bless the
offering, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Benscu –

Good evening. Turn to Ezekiel 1. Let’s pray. (Prayer). Now as fragile humans, we are
afraid of many things. We might be afraid of our thoughts sometimes. We might be afraid of
meeting people, strangers. We might be afraid of deception. That we are deceived. We might
be afraid of death. We might be afraid of losing that which we hold dear.

Out of all these fears, you could say the biggest fear for someone is to stand before God. You
could say that in a sense. Just like Hebrews 10 says. “It is a terrifying thing to fall in the hands of
the living God.” You could say for those that don’t know him; you could say this is the highest
fear there is. This is not my point yet but I need to begin with this.

Look at Ezekiel 1. Here is a revelation that Ezekiel saw. Perhaps the most intense vision of all
the Bible. It says in Ezekiel 3:15, he was overwhelmed seven days. It was too much. He could not
take it. Seven days he had to digest it. We see this now this vision. Ezekiel 1:26, and it goes on
in detail that he was radiating like the rainbow. His appearance was like fire and thunder. You
could say this is the fullness of God in intensity, majesty and wisdom and power and this is the
fulness of God. You could say that.

It's funny because we read this and we could say we are afraid of this God sometimes. We are
afraid to go to this God sometimes. We are afraid if we go to Him, we will be overwhelmed in
the same way that Ezekiel was. And we might think this God I’m afraid of but I’m going to go to
Jesus. He is the gentle side of him. The goodness and the love and he intercedes. He’s my
Advocate. We might think this way. I’ll go to Jesus. I’m not afraid of Jesus, but this God I’m
afraid of in his fullness.

But I want you to consider something. Turn to Hebrews – sorry. One sentence. Look at this in
vs. 26. Keep that in mind. Turn to Hebrews 1. Such was the appearance of the glory of the Lord.
And hear we read in Hebrews 1:3. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. That the Son of God fully represents who God is. He is the exact imprint of his nature.
We might think that yeah Jesus in the flesh, he’s the good side of God. But no. Here it says that
he is the exact imprint of his nature. He fully represents God.

We might still say I don’t know. If I meet him in his fullness, it’s going to be terrifying. I’m afraid
of him. But Colossians 1 and Colossians 2 says that the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell in him bodily.
Two times it says the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell in him bodily. He is the exact
representation of who he is fully in his flesh. Didn’t he say in John 14 whoever sees me, sees the
Father. He is fully God in him. He’s not the nice parts only. He’s not the gentle part but he is
fully him.

And we are still afraid of him sometimes. He is the Advocate but if the Advocate is taken away
and we see the Father what is he going to say? It’s the vision of Ezekiel. It’s terrifying. But no, he
says whoever sees me, sees the Father. There is no lack of representation of who God fully is in
the person of Jesus. There is no lack of representation of who God fully is in the person of Jesus.
The fullness of deity was pleased to dwell in him bodily. Whoever sees him, sees the Father. We
hear the invitation he says on the throne, come to me. I’m not overwhelming. Come to me. I’m
gentle, lowly of heart and meek. I am on the throne. We hear the invitation.

Any wonder that it says in Heb. 4, come boldly to the throne of grace? We read this and say we
need the boldness because it’s going to be so intense. He’s saying come boldly to the throne
because I’m not going to overwhelm you. I am gentle. I am God Almighty. I have things to say in
Jn. 16 that you are not ready to hear. When we go to him, he won’t be overwhelming. We don’t
have to be afraid. He says come. Don’t worry about that. Rest in peace. Rest. I’ll give you rest.
Learn of me. Come to me in the fullness of who I am. It won’t be overwhelming.

In his is everything. It’s the absence of overwhelming. He will increase the capacity when we go to him.
So, we take courage in going to his throne because we don’t have to be afraid. We take courage
and go to him and we find his perfect love casts out fear in the fullness of who he is. Amen.

P. Shibley –

Thank you, sir. That was great. Hi, everybody. Hey, I heard that Justin Fields got held
up, got robbed at the Shell Station. It was really hard for him. He was like crazy shaking and
they took everything. All his money. Everything he had. Finally, when the cops came, he was
able to talk again the police – and I guess it was all recorded – but the police officer asked him,
do you know who did this? He said, yes. It was pump #10! Anyway! I thought that was funny!
Justin, I told you that was a good joke. See. It worked very well. You should have done it at
church! Anyway.

That’s – back to serious now. I could just stand here for the next 20 minutes and it would be
perfect. Good to see you guys. Imagine if you were a slave your whole life and but you were set
free. But then you didn’t know it. Wouldn’t that be awful if you think about it? It’s amazing.

We’re going to read a passage in Numbers 13:17-20. This is actually a passage that if you read the
Bible at all, if you’ve heard some messages, sermons, preaching, you know this story of the 12
spies. It describes what happens about a year after Israel is free from slavery. They kind of
already set up their whole system of worship has been done, and they got the tabernacle. They
got the holy of holies. They got the priesthood as well and the sacrificial system. All of that is in
place now. And now actually only one year or so after they got out of Egypt, they are ready to
move forward into the Promised Land. (Prayer).

So, Moses, who was by the way, was never a slave. Isn’t that interesting? I mean he was a baby
born a slave but it wasn’t very long in his experience. He had never been a slave. He was always
been, he had always been a free man. We’ll talk about that a little more later. Moses told them
to be courageous. You wonder why did he give them that exhortation? What was the big deal?
Hey. We’re going. Look what happened? How could we not be of good courage? Look what God
has done.

There’s a few reasons for us to have courage. I mean look. There were the ten plagues of Egypt
destroyed the country. Their economy was shot. They were lead out of Egypt by a cloud by day,
a pillar of fire by night. God parted the waters of the Red Sea. He then dried them up in one
night. That’s a lot of muck for one night. In one night, dried them up. Then they were able to
walk over all the while holding back the Egyptians. Of course, why would they not be
courageous? They had bread from heaven. They had water that quenched the thirst of 2 million
people in a very dry arid place. Not only that, but they had the glory of God that had come
down on top of the tabernacle and that was pretty amazing.

These are people that had been in the land of the pyramids and the sphinx. Some incredible things. This crazy wild priesthood of the Egyptian gods and things like that. But they had – the tabernacle didn’t look so, you know.
It’s nice but we built the pyramids. It looks okay. They never had seen the glory of God come
down like that. It’s amazing.

They should have been courageous. Of course, the list goes on. There’s a lot more things that
God had done. Moses thought they needed to have this courage. They needed to be
courageous. When you think about it, it wasn’t a big deal. I’m going to send 12 guys into
Canaan. You’re going to go check it out. See how many cities there are. Do you they live in
tents? Do they live in houses? Do they have wood? Do they not have wood? Whatever. Go and
do the things they had to do. I mean they’re basically preparing for an invasion but Moses knew
some things. He knew the kind of tricks that the mind can play on men and that they would
actually eventually play on men and this is why.

Remember Moses had never been a slave but these people were born into slavery. As a matter
of fact, the entire history of the nation of the Hebrews was 100% slavery from the time that
Joseph had died. They were slaves. They only knew slavery. Four hundred years of slavery. This
is all that they knew. And now they were 2 million people. That’s a long time. There entire existence as a nation had been synonymous with slavery, and then all of a sudden they were
free. All of a sudden they were free. We’re free.

And they had followed Moses through the wilderness. They had done all the things that made
all the articles of the tabernacle and things like that. They were free but they honestly did not
know how to handle their freedom beyond the fact that they said they were free and that the
Egyptians were no longer chasing them. But now they were stuck with this guy Moses who
apparently talked to God every once in a while. Brought down the Ten Commandments and
those kind of things, and did a lot of amazing things.

Yeah, this God Yahweh is amazing. He’s an amazing God. But can we trust him? Do we know for
sure that this is going to work out for us? Is he happy with us? Will he do to us what he did to
the Egyptians if we make a mistake? It’s interesting, right? Remember, Moses sent out 12 spies
but these guys were the princes of each of their tribes. This is what the ten, ten of them out of
12 said this in Numbers 13:31-33. Then we saw people even bigger. We saw giants.

These are the tricks that I talked about with Moses. These are the tricks that the mind plays.
These are the people that have faith that don’t understand the freedom, the thing that they
have been given. It’s very interesting when you think about it. To us as 20 th century readers, we
say that’s crazy. I mean that’s crazy. How could you think that you could be defeated when this
God that did all these things for you all within one year or so, when this God is on your side?
And look at Caleb. He’s positive. Caleb’s amazing. Look at what he said. Vs. 30. Now those are
great words, right? Those are great words of faith. Those are great words from a former slave
who no longer identified with slavery. That is an issue right there.

It didn’t matter though what Caleb said to the people. It didn’t matter what Joshua said. It
didn’t matter what Moses said. I’m sorry Caleb. These people were absolutely not well able.
They actually were not. It says, he says, these are Caleb’s words. We are not able but actually
they were not well able. They were not able to go. They couldn’t go. The Bible is lying. No, the
Bible is not lying. That could have been able to go had they had the courageous spirit of Joshua
and Caleb, but they didn’t have it. They didn’t have it at all.

They couldn’t do it. You say P. Shibley how could you say that? I say that because that’s essentially what the Bible is saying. Because of their negativity they had no capacity. They had zero capacity for victory. They had
no capacity for victory. Because in a sense he curse that was brought upon them that actually
they brought upon themselves from God. It was this. Is that they refused to believe that they
were free. Isn’t that amazing?

They were free but they refused to believe they were free. As a matter of fact, it says in the
book of Exodus quite a few times it speaks about them – here in Deuteronomy 11, it speaks about them
desiring the melon and the cucumbers and the leeks, right? Take us back! Take us back! We
want slavery again because we get this stuff, you know. They wanted their slave masters. They were so in tune and it’s hard for me to judge that because this had been their entire existence.

This had been their entire existence. It was negativity. They brought the curse upon themselves.
They were the majority by the way. The majority of the people of Israel thought those things.
Look at what it says in Numbers 11:5. They’re looking back to their old life forgetting the fact that in
their old life, yeah they had a little bit of whatever their masters would give them but they were
still slaves. They still had no freedom. They had no ability to do the things that they actually
wanted to do and even earlier on in Exodus they said to Moses, because there were no graves
in Egypt, have you taken us out into the wilderness? Really? There’s no graves, so you are going
to bury us here?

But knowing this, right, Moses had good reason to charge the 12, be of good courage. These are
words that we should repeated to ourselves. I love the title of the conference, right? Courage.
Courage something. What is it? Take courage. It’s the same thing. Be of good courage. Be
courageous. Take courage. Why? Because most of us, all of us have an old sin nature. We have
an old sin nature and it’s true like the Egyptians we find comfort in slavery. Slavery to sin.
Slavery to our maybe our past. Slavery to in a sense to our family and things like that.
One time I was – I was an early Christian and maybe I already told you this. I don’t know. I’m
sure people of Silver Spring know this story about my early Christian life. It was at Storrowton
Chapel, P. Scibelli, and as a matter of fact, you and Linda were there. It was a couple weeks
before I got baptized. I think I had been saved for all of three or four weeks. And my mom said
to me Sunday morning –

I was 19 living at home – you are going to take me to church today. I
said, oh, no. No. I’m going to my new church. My new church. So, without her knowing I quickly
got dressed and slipped out, got in my car and went to Storrowton Chapel where P. Stratus and
P. Scibelli were. He wasn’t P. Scibelli back then. He was Steve. Anyway, it’s all going good. Sky
Zucker is probably up there singing. All kinds of good stuff is happening and I’m happy. I’m
saved for three weeks.

I’m kind of like want to be with the cool guys so I’m up with the pastors and but then I see, all
of a sudden I see heads starting to turn in the chapel. And like behind me and I’m like I look
back. And it’s my mother. And I mean mom, go mom, right? She’s amazing. God bless her. She
had courage, let me tell you! She walked right up that aisle. She didn’t say a word. She grabbed
me by the ear and walked me out of the chapel. It was unbelievable! Thank you, Julia.
And then her and I had a little reckoning in the car and you know what happened? I drove her
to church. That’s right. I did. To the Catholic church. It was great. I learned a little more courage
later. So, we were slaves to sin and then we were set free by Christ, but we had been slaves our
whole life. And don’t tell me I was born into a Christian family.

You were still a slave. You still have an old sin nature. This is why Paul would say – remember Paul was the Pharisee of
Pharisees. He knew the Scriptures tremendously and he knew how these things related to Christians and this is why he would say in Galatians 5:1, “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made you free.” Stand fast. Don’t move. Take courage. Stand fast in the liberty where Christ
has made you free. You’re no longer a slave to your old sin nature. You’re no longer a slave to
the very sin that is hampering you today. That thing and you know what I’m talking about. That
thing. It’s after you. It wants you. It wants to control you.

It wants to feed you leeks and onions and melons and at the end of the day and in the morning when you wake up, you’re still going to be miserable. Because you will have known that you had the ability to be free, you had the
ability to have the peace of God, you have the ability to grow up in Christ and be all that God
would want you to be and yet instead you said that was so good. I don’t like this life. There’s
too much trouble. There’s too many problems.

And what is this guy P. Schaller even talking about? What is Moses even talking about? What do
you mean we are going to go into the Promised Land? We can’t do that. That’s impossible. I will
never be free. This is what we think. Maybe not like that, but you know what I am saying. This is
what we think. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not
entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Cause your flesh wants bondage. Your flesh wants to
be controlled by money, controlled by family, controlled by things that do not have in their
mind the will of God for your life. But God does. Man. I should have been quicker. I got to put
the password in. It doesn’t like my face! There we go.

So, it’s amazing when you think about it. I don’t need those notes, P. Schaller. I’m all done now.
I just looked at the clock. I want to tell you a quick story. We had a lot of fun in church today. A
lot of people weren’t there, but we still had a lot of people. I was so blessed. It’s really great
having such an awesome group of people at our Silver Spring church and many, many will be
here this week. It’s awesome. But I’ll tell you a little story.

We had this couple that’s been coming, Jess and Rachel for about 8 months. Here and there
they are there and then all of a sudden they are kind of there all the time. Which is what
happens, right? I had a good talk with Jess today. I actually thought they were married, but
they’re not. They’re just dating. And I figured that out because she lives in one place and he
lives in another. Oh, they’re not married. And so, they’re very sweet. I had no idea that Rachel
just got saved a month ago. She has been coming to church for seven months and she just got
saved. Isn’t that amazing? It’s so beautiful. He’s been sharing the gospel with her, and being
with her, and bringing her to church. They found our church 8 months ago. They love it. They’ve
been coming and now they are getting involved in the 20-30 group and things like that.

But the beautiful thing about that is you can see – and she’s the nicest person in the world
anyway – but we know now that she understand. Even though she was nice, even though she
was a good person in many ways, she did not have freedom. That’s what we have in Christ. We
have freedom. This is the thing though. The devil will constantly tell us that the thing we were
doing before was better, or be a Christian but don’t throw away all the good stuff. Right.

All the good stuff that wants to keep you as a slave because what happens is this. This especially
happens to mature Christians. We forget to remember. This is what the Hebrews did. They
forgot to remember all the great things that God had just done for them. We must always
remember to remember, right? Remember to remember and understand that God has set us
free.

So, let’s be free. Let’s not just talk about it. Let’s be free. Let’s claim that freedom. Let’s talk to
the devil and say get out of here, and then talk to God and say thank you for setting me free.
And then you know what? It’s not easy. I don’t want to act like it’s easy. Take courage means
that we have to take courage. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a fight. Being courageous
doesn’t mean you are necessarily going to win every time. Okay. It means you are willing to
fight. You’re willing to fight. Are you willing to fight is the question. Are you wiling to fight? Is it
worth that much to you to be free in your walk with God and Lord Jesus I hope that it is and in
my heart I want it to be. Help me, Lord Jesus. Help me to be free. (Prayer).

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.