Who You Are In Christ, Delivered from the Power of darkness.

This week we're looking at Delivered from the Power of Darkness, and next week we'll look at the second half of what we've got going on there, which Randy will cover, which is Translated and Transferred into the Kingdom. The verse that we're going to focus on this morning is Colossians 1.13a. 1.13b is the second half that we'll be looking at next week.

And it simply says, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness. And kind of the first word to look at there is rescued. And rescued, delivered, those are both good translations of the word. The King James Version uses delivered. The NASB, which I have here, is rescued. Kind of brings to mind for me, Any idea of deliverance or rescuing kind of brings to mind the Exodus in the Old Testament. I think there are some comparisons to be made between the Jews being delivered from bondage in the Old Testament and our deliverance from bondage on the cross. The second word there is domain.

And I'm not going to try and butcher any of these Greek words, but the word has a root, the meaning of freedom to act. And when you think about the Jews in the Old Testament being under bondage of the Pharaoh and of the Egyptians, they didn't really have freedom to act. They were being told, this is what you're going to do, and they were very limited in what they had and what they were able to do. They had someone else as a master the entire time.

And there's some similarities to who we are in Adam there, which we'll look at a little bit later. In the context of this verse, it means that as unbelievers, the God of this world had the freedom to act, but we did not. So he has, the God of this world, Satan, has dominion and power over the world, and to a degree, those who are in it. The next part there, unbelievers are entirely subject to the sin nature. They have no freedom to act from any other source than sin nature. So before you came to Christ, the only nature that you had to act on was the sin nature.

We'll look a little bit more in depth at that in a little bit too. And then the third point there, those who are entirely subject to the sin nature are also entirely under the domain of darkness. So, kind of a question for you guys to think about and feel free to blurt out whatever comes to mind. What are some of the characteristics, when you think of it, of the power of darkness? There's no direction in it. There's no direction. Kind of a loss. A lost? Anybody else? Blinding. Blinding? Blinding you from the truth and light? Definitely, yes.

There actually could be some, what we would call positive things too, because you know, Satan is an angel of light, so there could be some aspects of the power of darkness, which would, maybe to most people would seem okay, you know, but they're contrary to God's purposes. plan. So in the eyes of the world it may look good, but in the eyes of the Lord it's obvious that it's something else.

And it's under his power. Satan has the ability to bring people up like the Antichrist. It's going to look pretty good to the world. He's going to be, hey, this guy's really got it together. He's going to bring peace, but that's going to be a false peace.

So this power of darkness is the power which emanates from the evil one. Yeah, and some of the other things that I thought, I mean, I thought it's controlling. From the verses we looked at, or from the thoughts we looked at there, it controls the unbelieving. Now here's a question concerning kind of the power of darkness. Do you guys think that those who place themselves under a law-based system are delivered from the power of darkness? So if you place yourself under a law-based system, can you be free and delivered from the power of darkness?

Anybody? Sure. What do you guys think? Stan? If you comply with every aspect of it. If you comply with every aspect of it. But even then, is that pleasing to God? No. No. The verse that always really convicts me is that whatever is not of faith is sin. Right. And you think about that, that's pretty, it's kind of almost mind-boggling, you know.

God desires that we operate in faith. We come to Him by faith, we're to operate by faith. So, Christian life is based on our faith, our trust in what Christ has done. totally contrary to that. You make yourself susceptible. So in that same thought process, can believers be controlled by the power of darkness? Can a believer walk under that control?

We have the same nature. So, if you always... So you have a position and condition. Your position is, you're free from it. In your condition, you may be able to place yourself under it. Or not even be aware. Right, there's a temptation process. We're drawn away from Christ. But you have to find your position and condition here. Right. All right, so those are just things to think about. The next question is, when were we delivered from the power of darkness?

Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ.

Galatians 6.14, may it never be that I would boast except for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. So if the world is under the power of darkness, and we've been crucified to it and it's been crucified to us.

What does that mean to you? Are your ways completely different than the ways of the world? Maybe not your ways, but Christ's ways completely different from those of the world. So things that were life to us before that we thought were bringing us joy They don't anymore. You know, those fleshly or carnal or whatever phrase you want to use there were actions or thoughts or possessions and things like that where we thought that that was life that the world chases after so hard. That's not where our life and where our heart should be. And conversely, the world, you know, if we're following Christ, they're going to look at us and think that's weird.

Why would you want to do that? But when were we delivered from the power of darkness on the cross? You know, Verne teaches very often that we died, were buried, resurrected and ascended and seated with Christ. All those things we did, we were with Him. And so anything that we have of character that is His happened on the cross and the moment you believe.

All right, flipping to the next page there. So I've got, who were you? And would anyone like to read Ephesians 2, verses 1 and 2 there for me? No? And you were dead? according to the prince and power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Alright, so who you were before, you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air. That's who you were. And that's who all unbelievers are.

William, why don't you read 2 Corinthians verses 4, 3, and 4 there. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of men believing it, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So that even brings out a little bit more. Someone said that the power of darkness is blinded. It's blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. I've heard the phrase that the greatest trick the devil ever played was making people believe that he didn't exist. And so to the unbelieving, they may not even be aware that it's even a power. That it's even something that they're dealing with. But their minds are blinded, and unfortunately it's keeping them from Christ.

So the circle, it kind of looks like a donut or a wheel or whatever you want to make that look like. There's two circles below. In Adam, So we could fill this up with all the things that we've gone through in this course, who you are in Adam versus who you are in Christ. You could fill this circle up with all the things that we've gone through.

In Adam, you are a sinner by nature. There in the middle, that is the only system that you know how to operate by. The only nature you have to operate under is a sin nature. So one of the first things that we could fill in the circle is controlled by the power of darkness. If you think back to some of our other topics, there are a lot of other things we could fill this in with and a lot more to come. What do you guys, just kind of a review. What are some of the other things that we could fill in the circle with? Separated? Controlled? Controlled.

Well actually, if you trace to the word dead, Christ referred to people, unbelievers, as the dead. He said let the dead bury the dead. Kind of shakes you up there a bit. Not that they're alive, but they're dead. Yeah, sounds like a horror film. It does. But Christ referred to them in the Gospels as being the dead. Right. And so you can put the dead in there. Right.

So I mean, there are lots of things we can fill this up with. But kind of, One of the interesting things that I think to look at here is this is not only who you are, but this is who every unbeliever that you deal with on a daily basis is. All the things that you fill this circle up with, that's who they are. And I think oftentimes it's easy for us to be critical or judgmental towards the actions of people, when in fact, if you look at it as like a role or a job title, They're just doing what they're supposed to do. Right. Exactly. It's true. It's the only thing they know. Right. They're just fulfilling their job title. Right.

And the other thing is, as much as you desire that they know Christ, I'm not sure if everyone has experienced this, but you can desire to tell them and almost plead with them, but it almost is to no avail because that's what the Lord, that's what the Holy Spirit's doing.

He's convicting them. And you may be part of that equation, but you, of yourself, cannot, by some great oratory ability, convince them that where they are, they'll laugh at you, or they're blinded. Or they're angry. Or they're angry, or many other things. It doesn't connect. It doesn't make sense.

I've had the other case where somebody will say, you know, I could do... The guy said, Roger, I could be just like you. I could be basically a Christian. I taught a Bible study at work for a time period. I could teach a Bible study like you, but I don't want that.

It just kind of floored me because he realized that I could go that path, but I don't want that. It reminded me of the Romans passage where they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They know about it, but they don't want it. And that's even more, that's even more, another thing you just, it just, you know, makes you feel awful. Why would the people, they see something there, but they don't want it. They agape the world. Exactly. Right.

Well, and that's like the passage we looked at, Galatians 6.14. where the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. That person, the world is still very appealing to them. It's not dead to them, it's very alive to them. No, the world's more appealing than Christ. I see what you have. You know, that's not, you know, it's okay, but I don't want that. Right. Stan? Well, if you go back to Ephesians 2, 1 and 2 again, I think the key of that whole verse is where it says, of the spirit.

So in other words, the prince of the air, Satan, However that is set up, they're under the power of the spirit of the world. Not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of the world. Since they aren't saved, they don't have the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's impossible for them to see anything other than by the guidance of the spirit of the world.

And having come out of psychology, even to this day, they don't know how the mental capacities of a person the conscious, the subconscious, whatever you want to give all these different titles to this very day, they really don't understand how the human mind functions and what controls it. Ask anybody or any brilliant person, where does a thought come from? I mean, there's no answer. We don't have the answer.

So, you know, and what we've been saying is very true. We follow what we've been given. But you know what you said earlier about people that are not believers, you know, they're doing exactly what they're supposed to do. That's really kind of keen that you said that because it explains it very easily. Well, it's a good way for For you to understand. When those actions or when words or when whatever occur, it's not to, ugh, gross, you know. They're just being who they are. They just need love and grace.

And that's where we come in. And guess what? When we're in the sin nature, we're doing the same thing. Sure. That's who we are. Right. At that time, not positionally, but conditionally, that's where we are. So when we lash out at our children, or our husbands, or our men at the traffic, or whatever we're doing, that's who we are. Right. We're no different. Yeah. Definitely.

I was listening to the Christian scientists driving here, and they bypassed this whole thing. To sum it up, they're fixated back when they were created, that they were created perfectly. And so that's where you really are. They totally ignore the fact of the fallen Adam. Which is really interesting. It's like they just do this big hurdle over the fallen nature and then the new nature of Christ.

You can't use the Bible to do that either. to have that viewpoint, you can't use the Bible. So now they still claim for healings, but I don't quite get that yet. It seems like, to me anyway, when you get into bad theology, it's usually people have discounted the Bible. They've decided that their viewpoints and experience and things like that are more important than what the Word has to say.

You can get in there with your black highlighter, I don't really like this fall thing. Let's go over this part in the next part. This is why it's important to know where you came from and where you are. Because these are all... A couple weeks ago Stan said that most of these things that we're talking about are concepts. These are concepts of our faith. These are objects of our faith. Faith has to have an object. Primarily it's Christ, but also what he's done and who he's changed you from and who he's made you is part of that. So it's important to know where your faith lies. That's why we study these things. Alright, so the next page there. We looked at who you were, let's look at who you are. Or who are you?

Will someone read Acts 26.18 for me?

To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith This is Paul talking, and he's before a council of Jewish people.

And they're basically asking him why Christianity was looked at as a sect of Judaism. And they were asking him, why are you part of this sect? Why are you teaching this? And this is Paul's answer. To open their eyes. And this is not only Gentiles, but Jews that he's speaking of in the word there. so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me." Pretty amazing that that was Paul's reason for living was showing people Christ and turning them from Satan to God. But he almost got a grip of it.

He did, yeah. That's right. In my Bible this says that these are the words that Jesus spoke to Paul. Right. So Jesus actually spoke these words. This was part of what the Damascus, on the road to Damascus. Sure. But, and so yeah, it's Paul quoting it. He's quoting it, right.

He's using this as, this is why God is using me. Yeah, I think it's interesting that, you know, we think of them as being blind, the scripture says they're blind, and that the, you know, the Aqsa is opening their eyes. So you have that, God's desire is to open their eyes through, by the Spirit working in their hearts to open their eyes. They're blinded and he wants to open their eyes. So I think that's a good thing. which was quite literal for Paul's experience. Yes, for Paul's experience it was quite literal, yes. Who wants to read Ephesians 6, 10 through 12 there? Back on this other one.

Again, if you look at that, I think the crux of the whole sentence there is to receive the forgiveness of sins. And the reason that so many people importance of this is because they have a worldly view of sin. Like there's seven bad sins, and there's six other ones that aren't quite so bad.

So if you can not do any of those, then you're okay. Yeah, and this one might be unforgivable over here. Yeah, right. So you focus on living your life so you don't do those things, which is in a sense a type of law. But still, if If you really understood that it's falling short of what God wants, and as long as you do that, you can't be in God's favor. That's huge.

I mean, that is the first and foremost thing that has to come about, and that's why Paul says that here. I mean, that's the goal of this whole thing, is the forgiveness of sins. That's why Christ died, wasn't it? That's why he came. That's why he went to the cross. So that he could break the power of Satan. and no longer have the power of sin.

Everything is right there that you really need to start with. The forgiveness of sins is where it all begins. Recognition of of a need for forgiveness of those, and it's not going to come from you, it's not going to come from your works, it's going to come from faith in Christ. And obviously from there, so that's our starting point, from there we look at, you know, you're buried with Him, and you're raised new with Him, and you're ascended and seated with Him. It's a whole process, but yes, forgiveness of sins is where it starts.

And Satan has worked at so appropriately in today's world, because you have all these different churches You hear about sin on TV. You hear it in the movies. Everybody talks about it, but nobody really has an understanding of the true importance of what this is. I mean, well, because if you believe that you were perfect when you were born and people are all good people, we're all born good.

So if we're all good and I didn't murder my wife today or I didn't on my child when I was angry, or you know, these things you read about. I didn't do any of those horrible things. I haven't stolen from my company. So, okay, so I... At least nothing big. Nothing big, maybe paperclips, you know, I mean, those don't count. I mean, but you know, really, people don't, the world doesn't, I think, as you point out, they think I didn't do any of these bad, big things. So those other things, everyone does those, so those don't really count. So if you don't know you're a sinner, it's difficult to want to be saved from your sin. You have to recognize at some point that you're a sinner. Yeah, or even at some point to recognize that you were controlled by this sin nature. Exactly. Thank you, Stan. So, Ephesians 6, 10 through 12 there.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against powers and against forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. So obviously the verses before this are talking about putting on the full armor of God. And it's interesting to study those verses and look at how each one in Roman culture had a specific meaning to how you can use those things. They were a very good comparison. We'll go over that some other time. But it's interesting that, I mean, where's our battle? That's what you said earlier, Kurt.

It's not against people who are living in the flesh or living in the world. They're just doing what they're doing. Right. Because of how they're led and how they're controlled. So all I'm saying here, you know, it's not against other human beings who are trying to get by just like you and I are.

But it's against the part that we don't see and the part that we don't understand, which is far above us, and that's the spirit in the previous verse, the spirit of the air, you know, that's guiding these people to do the things that they do. If I could ever understand that, you would never get upset at people, per se. That's how we can be compassionate and loving in contrast to the legalist. And a lost person sees that and it's disorienting.

Wait a minute, I thought you were a Christian. You're not judging me and accusing me of all these things off the cuff and distancing yourself from me. As a believer, I know exactly where you're at. That's the muck and the mire where I was. And I love, Jesus loves you through me. I don't love your sin, but I sure love you and I want you to hear, here's the gospel message. You can respond like that.

You know, when Fred Phelps and his church that go around and, you know, protest at these funerals and, you know, God hates gays and a bunch of other things like that. When you look at these charts, well, they're sinners by nature. They're never going to be, in Adam, anything but Adam. So instead of protesting, that this guy died, before you die make sure you know the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's where compassion, you know the compassion is logical based on Christ's work. Yeah, you can't fix what's in the middle of the circle by telling them that they're doing bad things. You can't fix the sin nature by telling them you shouldn't do that.

Y'all remember that story that Bob told you where we were. We were at a dinner and across the table from us was a lesbian scientist. And the first thing she said when she found out we were Christians is exactly what Randy just said. I'm sure you hate us. You hate me because now you know I'm a lesbian.

And we said, no, we don't. We love you. as a child of God, we love you, and your sin is no different than our sin. Of pride, vanity, you know, we went through all these sins. Your sin is no different. And she was blown away because her whole life, since she had been a lesbian, all she had heard from Christians were that they hated her. I mean, she felt like they wanted to burn her at the stake. I mean, she really was kind of afraid of Christians.

And so now, you know, we're invited to the wedding. Do you remember that story? We're invited to the wedding. So now the dilemma is, do we go to the wedding? Yeah. So that's going to be the... Bob had presented that to the class. Should we go to the wedding? Of course. But actually, I think we do. We do go to the wedding. So, this summer we'll find out if it can work it in our skin. It's a fun story. We'll go even though it's contrary to...

Well, you know, that's the big dilemma. It is, it is, the dilemma. But after we've shared so much with her on numerous occasions about the Lord, and that we care about her, but we don't like her sin, we don't agree with that. That's not biblical to us. And she knows, you know, we've told her enough about this now. And so, I don't know, it is a dilemma.

It is. Because we don't agree with, you know, getting married. But would you go, is there any difference between that and a person who... Who's not a believer and gets married. Exactly. And that's what we actually talked about. Well, what makes this different than unbelievers marrying? If they were living together and sleeping together before they got married, that's as much adultery as it's changed.

So it is a difficult thing, but we're the only Christians they know. Didn't Paul say that he would do all things to bring people to Christ? So it's more like we would go because we know that the people there are not believers, but the fact that we would be there I don't know, it's really...

Well, there might be two messages. One might message you to her individually, and then to the larger group. But we don't know the larger group. Hey, that's true. We only know her and her partner. So, anyway. We've been praying about it a lot. It's a dilemma. But, you know, if we're being a witness to her... Well, and I think the principle of it is right, what Randy's saying. It's no different than... than to a guy and a girl getting married without Christ.

But anyway, the circle here, in Christ, now you are a saint by nature, and so that we could fill this circle in with a whole bunch of stuff, free from the power of darkness would be the first one, because that's what we're studying today. But you can fill it in with everything that we've learned in this class and everything that we will learn in this class. And you'll notice this circle is a little bit different than our one in Adam. It's got our second little kind of football shaped guy going on over here. What do you think we fill that in with?

We're a saint by nature. We can still sin. So what do we still have going on there? Sin nature. I argue with your presentation, but I think I would put that outside. Put it outside the circle. Positionally we're in Christ. It's a pictorial representation. That's all I'm arguing with.

You view yourself positionally as being totally in Christ. And the sin nature is not in Christ. If you drew a picture of you, a person, Hal had a cool picture here where he had the in Christ part was a separate part. The sin nature is in you, not in Christ in you. That's my only objection to you. Okay, well that's fine, yeah, we'll view it that way. But we'll always have a sin nature.

Right. Until we go to glory. Right. Right. I guess I was just arguing with the concept of that being part of Christ. That was all. Sure. Yeah. It's just kind of a... Right. Pictorially. Got you. Take your pen. Draw it out of the circle. Right. Position and condition next to it. Yeah, we'd like to get rid of that guy. Yeah, we will. We will. Not until we go to be with the Lord.

So, some of the things that I wrote here, you know, what other characteristics can we fill the circle with? You can do that on your own time. Why do we care what's in the circle? talked about this a little bit, but why would you care what's in the circle? Why do you care about who you are in Christ? It's your life. It's everything. I mean, it's everything. It's how you think. It's how you interact. It's how you, you know, it's how you present yourself. It's how you, it's your life. It's what animates you.

And these people that say that your politics shouldn't be influenced by what you believe. I mean, it's like, it's an oxymoron. Everyone else's politics are influenced by what they believe. Why can't a Christian's politics be influenced by what they believe? Right, because you're not supposed to mix church and religion or something. Something, right. But then you think about abortion, which is a political issue, but it's totally against God, and yet these people say they're Christians, go to church and What is that all about? That's a good rationalization is what it is. I think the important part of what you're leading up to, like we're learning in the class, is that we're learning, you know, God has done all these wonderful things in us. We may not be aware of all, we may have read them, but never really thought about them.

What does it mean to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies? You think, wow, what does that mean, seated with Christ in the heavenlies? Obviously, that's not physically, right? As you go through each one of those different truths about you, that helps you to know better who you are and helps your faith to be grounded in the truth and not in some, well, let's see, I see myself, you can have some weird weird thought, you say, well no, Christ sees me with him in the heavenly places. I mean, that's a, how secure is that? You think, am I secure? I'm seeing with Christ in the heavenlies, sounds pretty secure to me.

And so, I mean, as you go through each of those, I'm a child of God. I'm adopted. And you go through each one of those, what we're going through in this class, and you learn, and that becomes part of your thinking. That's just, that grounds you so that you're not tossed about, you know. And actually, I think it improves your prayer life because you're not praying for something you already have it.

If he says you're already his child, you're not, well, am I sure? Am I sure? Am I sure I'm his child? He says you're his child. Am I near? Last week, am I near? You couldn't be any nearer. Do I have the blessings? Right. Do I have what? People all the time, you know, we want you to pray for the blessings. Well, you know, we already have all the blessings. So all those wonderful things, all that repertoire, it's what we're to know. And that's our wonderful position. And sadly, it's not taught that much, unfortunately. It's just not taught that much. And it's so vital to know who you are. Stan, you had something to say? I was going to say that you just have to pause life.

And prior to Damascus, he was a very religious person. He was high up in the Jewish religion. He was very zealous. He actually fought against the church, did all kinds of things that he thought was right, the way that he was being led by the spirit of the world. But then he met Christ on the Damascus Road. After 14 years of teaching the concepts and principles that he was supposed to learn from Christ himself, look how his life changed. I mean, he was no longer a religious person, but he was striving to become more like Christ. And so his whole thought process and life changed.

I mean, it's a beautiful picture. I'm sure it's there. It's there for that purpose. It's a beautiful picture of what's supposed to happen to a person when they meet Christ. I mean, he's, he's emulating the person that has totally changed his whole outlook and his whole lifestyle. I mean, it's amazing, the transformation of this man. And besides that, everything he wrote before he was saved, nobody even has a copy of it anymore. Yeah, that was a real important one. Also his view of what he was before Christ. He called it, you know, something that was basically dumb, right? All that he had before, it's not worth anything. It's of no value. Right.

Going back to that one example, I wouldn't say so much that abortion is a political issue as much as it's a moral character issue trying to be solved in a political arena. So therefore your identity in Christ or your lack of identity in Christ is going to position you on a viewpoint. with that and so many other issues. Yeah. Well, and if the world is being led by the power of darkness, but they still claim morals. What are those morals based on? So, yeah. And there are a lot of Christians, I think, that still talk abortion. There are Christians who say they're Christian. But I think they're not, they may be Christians, but they're not, They're not growing. They're not walking with the Lord.

Because the Lord will, just like he did with Paul, the Lord will change your view over time about what, when you're in this word, and you're reading this, and you're growing, the Holy Spirit's going to convict you about that. And it could be over time. It could be wrong. Well, and if we think about a believer, and if they say abortion is okay, they could still, they could be saved. But their thinking is not in line with God's Word. Exactly, exactly. But the Holy Spirit will change those people over time. And I think, you know, I know people who have changed that too, over time.

One of the things that you said, Stan, where Paul went from a very religious person to someone who was striving to be more like Christ. The viewpoint that I wanted to bring out on why do we study these things is not to be religious and know them, but if the person that is not a believer, if their job role is all the things that we talked about that we filled that circle with, the things that we're filling this circle with are what define us. They're what we should be. And so it's not about being religious, It's about that relationship with Christ.

And I'm going to use kind of an example of myself and my wife. I can't know, I can't please her if I don't know what she wants. If she has certain things that she wants me to do, certain roles that she wants me to fill, I can't do them or I might, you know, maybe I'll do them, if I don't know. And so these things that you are, these things that's about you, you can't actively live them if you don't know what they are. And so it's not a matter of you actively living, oh I need to do this, I need to do that.

It's a matter of, this is who Christ has made me. Through the Spirit, these are the things that he's going to have me do, and these are the things, this is the character that he's going to have me show. in confidence in these things that are true rather than when you don't know what they are then you basically you just walk in some kind of new legalism and you come up with your own well I don't know who I am in Christ so I've got to redefine who I am in Christ based on fitting the law into the structure of Christianity and so you don't Yeah, you just read upon things and you're not resting. Well, it's not what would Jesus do, it's who is he? Who am I in him? It's not what would he do, so let me do those things.

And that's what so much of Christianity is about. Here's our list. And if we just do these things, we're going to look just like Christ. Good luck. Good luck. Yeah, the what would Jesus do? We would joke around. It's not what would Jesus do, but what would the indwelling Holy Spirit do? That doesn't look very good on a bracelet. W-W-T-I-H-S. Again, I want to go back to the Acts 26-18. Forgiveness of sins.

That's why he came. That's why he did that. So that we could have more than just knowledge. of who he is and about him, historical knowledge, you know, all these other things that you argue about, you know, in a school situation or in a study situation. That's not why he came, so we could do those things, because the Pharisees were doing those things, and were not blessed, and their righteousness had to be greater.

He's looking for the personal relationship, and as long as that sin is standing there, and if you truly understand how huge sin, how big sin is, and how important it is, and it stands between you and him, then it affects that relationship. But if it's gone, if it's been forgiven, then you're allowed to have that one-to-one relationship. So again, that forgiveness of sin is so huge in this argument.

I think. There's no relationship. Right. Well, because he doesn't have a relationship without someone being righteous, and the only way we can be righteous is by believing in Him and having His life in us. Because that's what the Lord seeks, is His righteousness, not our righteousness. We're certainly, there's nothing we bring to the table. It's His righteousness that He seeks. Statement they made a few years back. Please be patient. God is not finished with me. I don't know. I think he's still teaching Bud some style. Sorry, I had to. I apologize. Sure. No, no, that's fine. The thing that I like about these illustrations, like the two circles, Especially, I went and took a bunch of apologetics classes.

I was going to learn how to negotiate everybody over to Jesus. The truth of the matter is that, as the scriptures clearly teach, but this visually illustrates, there is a nature, there is a type, there is a class here that exists that you don't get talked into. It has to be faith and the Lord doing something and changing us. I could never talk somebody into Jesus.

They have to, by faith, be identified with Him, and then He changes who they are. Right. By nature, it's not just an intellectual state. Right. Yeah, on the first page there, I mean, you know, when are we delivered from the power of darkness? When do these changes occur? They happen on the cross. And they happen by us placing our faith in the fact that it's real.

Not by, you know, negotiating, like you're saying, which is, when I think of the Muslim faith, it is negotiating. Yeah, you give your life to us, and when you die, if you kill yourself in holy war, we'll give you this and that and the other thing. So, a lot of other faiths are negotiating, and that's not what Christianity is about. I wish some of you artistic types would draw a circle with the different pinpoints of but you try to figure out who we are in Christ. It keeps a balance to keep going around that wheel. Because they all connect all the time. And sometimes it's easy to fixate on one of those points, and then you've got to unbalance and understand it. Right. Yeah. Well, the circle is filled with all of them. None of them are outside of it, and none of them are, you know, I guess. But yeah, yeah.

The illustration that Kurt actually came up with, which we don't have a graphic of, although I started it, is the double helix of DNA. And having the 33 things or whatever, as we have to make it 34. Otherwise it would be symmetrical. But that's part of DNA. But that's there. That was one illustration I was given. to recognize that it's not just one, it's all of them. But if you could roughly sketch that, I think I might understand a little bit. I don't fully understand what you're saying, but I can probably do it pretty quick.

So we're running out of time here, but the last page there, the contrast, 1 John 5, 19. We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. This is kind of what we were talking about. I mean, it's just totally different.

A quick, and I love to use this analogy, it's from a Greek philosopher who actually lived in the first century AD named Epictetus. I think I'm saying that right. And he used the analogy of a toga. And his fellow philosophers wanted him to just do whatever Caesar says. Just do whatever he says. And he said, you guys are like a toga. You're all just the same. You do just whatever you're told.

And he says, I want to stand out. I want to be totally different. I want to be like the purple thread in the toga. And that's the one that everybody sees. And I like to use that analogy for Christians. Because everybody else is just doing whatever the world is telling them to do. And when we are abiding and living in faith in Christ, we're like that purple thread. We stand out. And we do it for a purpose.

1 Peter 2.9, you are a chosen royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. This is actually one of the 33 things that we'll go over later, but the point is that God has changed you for a purpose. Kind of the same thing that Paul was talking about, about being used for God's glory. And then Colossians there says, We proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

For this purpose I also labor, striving according to his power, which works mightily in me. So there's two things that are going on there. One is if you're abiding in Christ, you're standing out. You're showing the world a different way. And the other one is you're growing. There's a growing process there where more and more you're being completed in Christ.

And the verse 29 there where he talks about striving according to his power. So we're not doing it by our own works like we've talked about, not by some law, but according to his power, which works in us. Let me ask you, when you were mentioning, was this a Greek philosopher, this Epictetus? Sure, yeah. It's spelled E-P-I-C, epic. And then T-E-T-U-S. Okay, thank you. And I think the reason he chose to say according to his power is because the power of Satan is broken. Exactly. In his life.

So now he no longer strives by the power of the world, or through the world, or part of the world. But he strives according to Christ's power. And that's how, that's the purple thread. That's how a Christian can stand out. And he's not saying, it's interesting because he's not saying he's walking or he's strolling along or he's just grabbing it. He's striving. And if you really look that word up, I bet it's putting forth a lot of effort. Like Paul did in his prayer line. What a great example.

And ours is too. Alright guys, well I guess we're going to wrap up here. So let's pray and then go enjoy our time in the main service. Heavenly Father, once again we just thank you so much that we can come together and meet, learn about who you've made us. This morning we just want to thank you for delivering us from from the power of darkness and into your light, that we are controlled by you, and you are our power. You work mightily in us, and I just pray that moment by moment we would live our lives in such a manner so that we may glorify you. Again, just thank you for our time. In Jesus' name, Amen.