P. Schaller

Great to have a good crowd here tonight. It gives me the opportunity to say a few things to folks that aren’t here that often. I got a good audience and you can’t leave I guess! Two things, one out of the box. Out of the box. Christmas is the great Christian feast of the Incarnation and in our little play in the beginning – they did a great job, didn’t they? Mary sang like an angel and Joseph listened like an angel!

P. Gary is here.

Do we realize what it means that God and that word “God” is so big? That Jewish people didn’t even say the word. It is so big, God.

Psalm 139 covers his omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. When we have a great big God in our heart and minds, life is awesome. When God is worshipped and we know God, we are so blessed because we know God. By the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son. Out of the box, God becomes a man because God is so out of the box. He’s so radical. He’s so awesome. He’s so humble. We spoke about that this morning. We cannot imagine the humility when the nature of God is so holy and he comes to such a filthy place as this world. Living in a dumpster. Living in the mud. For human beings living in a dog house, pig style, pig pen, becoming a no body, a nothing. We would say yeah, but he is God and can do all things. Yes, but he is a holy God and we are sinful. What love that God has that he would come as a man.

For God so loved the world that he gave it says in King James “only begotten.” It’s not a good translation. God never begat his Son. His Son was always with God, Prov 8, Jn 1:1, MONOGENES is better translated unique Son. God so loved the world he gave his one and only, absolutely unique Son. God himself came here because he is radical. He made whales and stars and planets and bacteria and mosquitoes and fish and you and me. That’s radical. He made you and I and he gave us freedom. He gave us freedom. Adam and Eve, just don’t eat of that one tree in the garden. You are free to eat of it but do not eat of it. Please do not eat of that tree. On the other hand, I put it there. You are free. How radical. God, you could have protected us by not putting a tree there. Yeah, but I gave you millions of trees to choose and eat from. That one I had to give you an option. I had to give you free will because I am God. I must make somebody in my image. I need somebody to be like me. I am the Trinity, one God and three persons. I in my wisdom decided to make man. Let us make man in our own image. These truths resonate in our hearts. If you are a new believer, keep coming and listening. You have many challenges ahead of you because the devil wants your lunch.

The second thing I want to speak about is your stubborn sins. The stubborn ones. The ones that don’t leave you alone. I’ll never do it again. I hate what that is. And 48 hours later, you do it again. You swear up and down again a few times. You know what is missing? The radical God. The God that is out of the box. The God released in this world because when Christ came, the world changed forever. When Christ came and the tomb was empty and victory over sin was finished, then we are born again.

We are born with the nature of God, 2 Pet 1:4. We have become partakers of his divine nature, the nature of God is in you. The nature of God is in you. “No, not me.” Yes, the nature of God is in you.

You are regenerated, born again, Titus 3:5, 2 Cor 5:17. You know the Bible verse from the day you are saved. Old things have passed away; behold all things become new. Great Bible verse but in reality what does it mean? Listen to the radical God. Old things are passed away and behold all things. Inside is the stubborn sin in my nature and I go back like a dog to the vomit. A pig to the mire. P. Scibelli does it. I do it. Everyone in this room is a sinner. You go back to your sins. Your sins are stubborn and they don’t release you until you – well, I don’t want to say it that way. The radical God became a man so you would be like God. It wouldn’t just be words on paper. It would be listen, the third person of the Trinity, who is it? The Holy Spirit. God. Just like Christ really died there on the cross and overcame death and the tomb really is empty, so he is gone and sent the H.S. into this world and the H.S. really does regenerate us and fill us. You are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. You have the H.S. of God that deals with your stubborn sin. I find it happening in my heart. I have both things happening because I have a sin nature. With biblical integrity, I say what Christ has said is true. The power of sin is broken at the cross and we are free. We are free. I have to say well, stand fast in the liberty for which Christ has set you free and don’t be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. I don’t want to speak too long. I just want to make a clear message. The God out of the box and becoming a baby and showing us his humility, his obedience, his struggle, his faith, his victory. That same God has not left us alone. He sent the Holy Spirit and he dwells in you and the Holy Spirit is your teacher and lets you know you have victory over sin. I don’t go back to it as much as I used to or I don’t go back at all. It’s gone. I’m free. I met through the years people that have said I used to be an alcoholic and I got saved and I get sick when I smell it. Just smelling the alcohol makes me sick to my stomach. Even if I wanted to go back to it, it makes me sick. I met people who smoked cigarettes and said the same thing. I can’t stand the smell. I smoked two packs for years. Those stubborn sins it is so true the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead quickens our mortal body. Sin does not have dominion over us. We are not under the law. Let me give a warning out if you live by law.

Your sin will revive, Rom 7:6. If you live by law, let me make a diagram. These are rules and regulations you invent in your own heart or read out of the Bible. You live by laws and regulations and your sin nature has a revival. You get bored with that revival and your stubborn sin nature takes on a life of its own and your Christianity is boring. It’s Christianity in a box. It’s my behavior and how I appear before other people. My opinion and I may do a lot of talking about Christianity but how much I am saying is God in that. Like Job’s three friends. They did a lot of talking and God was not in it. It was legalism in different forms. It was people talking. We can take this book and learn it and talk and talking and how much of God is in that talking? When Jesus came into the world, he had a lot of people talking the Bible but nobody was coming to him. There wasn’t the humility. That’s what is needed in our church and churches. I’m so thankful for what God is doing in Greater Grace and many places. The reproduced model we have here.

I was a missionary for years. You know the story probably. I was in Turkmenistan once for some days and we were talking. It’s a poor desert country in the Middle East. We were talking and they said we are so happy you are the way you are in Greater Grace. We are so happy for the doctrine and what you have taught us. They said it’s reproducible in Turkmenistan. It’s reproducible anywhere in the world. This isn’t about exporting America. It’s about the radical God out of the box saying to people in the desert I am the Christ. They are saying we are Muslims but we are listening.

What do you have to say? God loves you. How do I know that? He came. He came to Bethlehem. He is the Christ. Where is he today? He is gone at the right hand of the Father but not left us alone. He sent the Holy Spirit into the world.

One brother that became a believer, he told his mother, I am a believer in Jesus. She said you can’t do that. We are Muslims. He said, mom, I have to. It’s true. God has shown himself to me. Jesus is the answer. And he said she cried all day. He got in a fight. The family was fighting. The whole thing was a disaster and he had to leave home for six months and then he went back One year later, he went back again and was ministering to his family. But he could not deny the reality.

It’s the same thing we read about in this amazing book. What you and I have is the gift, the grace of God, the ministry of God. In our new man, we are free. Christmas means that God is humble and came to give a gift not just to the good people. Christmas you give to the bad people. You don’t just behave good. You have joy unspeakable and freedom. You are singing and loving and giving gifts and caring. God is bigger than me. Halleluiah. God is bigger than my problems. God is bigger than who we are. God is God. The answer to the human race is God. Look out. The pride of man is boring. We said it this morning. If you go you are born again and he has a relationship with God. Do you thinking walking with God is boring? Yes, if your concept is this one. I don’t have any interest. I tried it already. It’s too confining. I’m not interested. I got stubborn sins. I got personal issues. I’m guilty all the time. I don’t care. I’m not involved. I would agree with you except for one thing. Listen to this. Our God is out of the box God. He’s radical. Loving, merciful God. It’s so much fun to be Spirit filled and encouraged deep in our hearts and hear words I cannot hear at the university. I cannot hear them at CNN or Fox News. I cannot hear them generally on the street or in the bar room or social media. I don’t know what they are talking about. I cannot hear words of life until I meet people like you. You have them. We could almost cry about it. Where would we go? You have words of eternal life Peter said to Jesus. Will you also leave me, too? We would like too but where will we go. I’ve been fishing and they don’t talk about eternal life. They talk about perch and bass and minnows. They don’t talk about eternal life. They talk about football and sports and the weather and things they talk about in the social media. This is a foolish age. It’s an age of arrogance, of opinions of men, of communicating foolishness on social media and looking for significance and value because we are proud people. We talk about as if we know what we are talking about. We take a photograph of this or that and lust after this or that vacation and we are so empty and hurting. We haven’t found the radical God, the living God.

Do all you can to find him and walk with him and be as serious as a heart attack. Do everything you can to be humble before the living God. Yes that means I’ll go to church. I’ll be part of something bigger than me. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. He ordained churches to be light and life and salt and wisdom and deliverance and freedom. We worship together.

Well, I got to say what I wanted to. That was a lot of fun. That was amazing. Thank you, Lord, for the people hearing. The hearers make the flow of truth resonate in our hearts and fellowship. This is needed around the world. 730 churches from the graduates of our school. 3,500 Bible school students every week sit down and study this book and listen to these messages in 80 countries around the world. God did it.

Start with the small but the quality. What does that mean? God, the radical God. The God that sent the H.S. is in Turkmenistan. They meet together and they say, do you have any hidden sin in your life? Yes, I do. I have stubborn sins I can’t get rid of. God says you are free. Walk by faith in him. When you fail, confess it. Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and you are free.