Scripture Reference: James 5:16 (AMPC); Colossians 3:1-4 (TPT); Romans 6:1-13 (NKJV); Romans 6:1-14 (MSG); Matthew 6:33 (KJV, AMPC); Mark 4:14 (NKJV)
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Wow. How awesome it is to praise and worship the Lord like that. Amen. Well, I’m going to ask the team to leave the stage. We have something to do. You guys may be seated in the meantime. Praise the Lord.
So, you know the Bible tells us that one of the jobs that I have to do as a spiritual leader, as a shepherd is to watch out for your soul. Right? That means I’ve got to have some kind of relationship with you. Sometimes it’s easy to watch over everybody’s soul together. Because the reference in the Book of John says that a good shepherd is a shepherd that will make sure that 99 sheep are taken care of, and they’re safe and then he’ll go after the one sheep that’s lost. The direct connection is that actually, there’s a lot of people that are already safe from danger. Right? So that means our job is to look after the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Watchful, so that many different things don’t come in and harm the church of the Lord Jesus. That’s part of our job. So without me saying anything more, I want to show you a clip, please, you can roll the clip.
[Clip showing Pastor Garth, Marcelle and Pastor Christi]
Pastor Garth:
Good day, Church. Firstly, we would just like to say thank you to Pastor John and Pastor Sharon, for being our loving spiritual leaders, and for watching over our lives and constantly seeking God for His best for us. We also want to say thank you to Pastor Christi, for your time, your love, your patience, and for also seeking God for His best for us. Over the last few weeks, and under the instruction from the Holy Spirit through Pastor John, we have been in a process with Pastor Christi regarding some personal worldviews that have been out of order. And God has required us to mature and submit ourselves to the order of God in these things.
Marcelle:
Our necessary growth and submission has been required by God in order for us to do and be what God has called us to be alongside Pastor John in this Ecclesia. As Pastor Christi would say, we’ve had to grow a stomach. The correction of the Lord has been beautiful to us. And we have received His love, His grace and His mercy. And we would like to give Him great honour and praise in this. We have repented before God for our misalignment, and we have also repented before Pastor John and Pastor Sharon. But the purpose of this recording is to also repent before you, our bloodbought family, for our misalignment in this Ecclesia and in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Garth:
We are grateful to God for His jealous love and His consuming love and for His resurrection life that has saved us. Thank you for listening, Church.
Pastor John:
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. The Book of James, chapter 5, verse 16, says, 16Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]… The next part of the scripture most Christians know very well. 16…The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working] (James 5:16 AMPC). But actually that power of that scripture is from the first part of the Scripture. 16Confess to one another therefore your faults. So this is not a small and light matter where you just walk around telling everybody, you know, “I sinned. I was doing 160 in a 60k zone” or something like that, you know. It’s not like that. This is something that is deep and it’s significant and serious. And so, anybody that has been around me long enough will know that the walk that I have with God does not mitigate that my natural blood sons are excluded from the Word of God. They are also bloodbought children, and therefore they are part of the Body of Christ. And the reason they needed to do this publicly is because they are spiritual leaders, pastors in the church. And so, when they have a misalignment that has potentially affected the Body of Christ then their repentance must be public. So, we know what it is. We’ve dealt with it, they know what it is, if they want to share anything more with you, that is their business to share it with you personally. They can share it with you one on one. But I just suggest that you don’t crowd, you know, kind of run after them and say, “What did you do?” You know, give them some space. This is a big thing that they’ve done. It was a big thing for me and Pastor Sharon to do, which is why we asked Pastor Christi to deal with the whole matter. Because as mom and dad and as family, like that, where we are familiar with each other, the proper correction couldn’t come. It had to be done by somebody that was outside of our immediate family.
I want to say thank you to Pastor Garth and Marcelle and their family for submitting to what God had to say to them, and for going through the process, and now they are restored to a spiritual tone of heart and mind. Hallelujah. There is nothing anymore that separates them from you, and from us. Hallelujah. It also says that, for one another, that you may be healed and restored (James 5:16 AMPC). And I just want to make this declaration publicly that I still and I stand on this scripture that because of what they’ve done, full healing comes to Daina-Mae’s arm. Hundred percent healing without blemish comes to Daina-Mae’s arm because they’ve been obedient to this scripture. They can stand on this scripture and they can receive it from this scripture. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I thank you all for listening, I thank you for receiving it in the right spirit and I believe that God is going to use Pastor Garth and Marcelle and their children in a mighty way in this Ecclesia. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. What just happened is a holy moment, you know. On the one hand I want to leave it alone because repentance is a big and deep thing, you know, and it took time to get to that point. But on the other hand, it is a great celebration. It’s a great celebration because when you’re actually there and your restoration happens, it is a beautiful, amazing, spectacular thing. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen. Praise the Lord.
There are many things, there are many things that the enemy wants to plot against us, many things. One of the things that happen is very common in church life. One of the things that is very common in church life is that when a pastor preaches something from the pulpit, then the immediate thing is, “Well, I am not sure if he said the right thing. I am not sure that is accurate by the Word of God. I am not sure. I agreed with that, but I didn’t agree with that”. You may not voice it to somebody, but if you think that, it becomes part of your thought process – your internalisation process – and it becomes part of you and without knowing it, it actually begins to separate you. So then you have to wonder what it is about you that is questioning what I am saying from the pulpit. If you do question something that I say from the pulpit, don’t think it, go to the Bible immediately and go and study it. If it is that important to you, go and study it. If it is not that important to you, then you know where the thought comes from; either your carnal nature or the devil and both at the same time. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And so none of us are immune to that. That is why we’ve got to keep a watch out for each other, we’ve got to be alert at all times. That’s why the body of Christ is important. We can stand together, hold hands together, and watch out for each other. Amen? Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus.
There are so many things happening in the ministry right now, it’s hard for me to keep up. There are many things that I need and want to feedback to you, and give you a report back of things that happened in Ethiopia, things that are happening in the Johannesburg church project. There are many things but, and there are all kinds of other things that are happening, but you’re just going to have to wait for that for a little bit, because it is, a lot of it is really is so special and it wouldn’t do justice for me to just run through it quickly and give you a quick feedback. Amen.
I’ve got to teach this morning and I’ve got to teach next Sunday morning because of baptism. So we’ve had a couple of challenges, a couple of people that were not well, and we weren’t certain if they or their family were going to be well enough for us to continue with the baptism this day. Not only that, but we realised that that was our primary point of decision-making, and then when I spoke to the team who was building outside and you can go and have a look at it, they said, “Pastor John, it will give us good time to just make everything a hundred percent perfect from all the finishes to everything else.” We realised actually that there are a lot of logistics involved in getting forty people baptised on the first day. How long do you think it takes one person to get baptised? Let’s just say 3 minutes. They’ve got to get into the pool, they’ve got to get themselves ready, prepared, spiritually, have things to say. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will come upon them, and they might be crying, and they might be laughing, things might happen to them and then I have to wait. You can’t dunk them under the water when they’re both crying and or laughing because what you do through those orifices, in the front of your mouth, you know, are also what you breathe through. So you have to wait and be respectful. Sometimes it’s just somebody is ready to be baptised and it can happen much quicker. There is not one rule that applies to everybody. But even if it’s in the water getting ready, hold your nose like this, okay, are you ready, peace of God is on you, I make declarations and then under the water bringing them up out of the water, normally, just that act is very spiritually powerful. And you’ve got to give them time to experience what God’s doing in their heart, you can’t just shove them out of the water. You understand? So three minutes is rather optimistic. So if it takes me three minutes to do 10 – you guys can do maths – that’s half an hour times four. And so we have many, many more than 40 people that want to be baptised. And so we might have to spread it out. But the problem is, is that the longer you spread it out the colder the weather gets. And you’re not the one who has to stand in the pool for two hours. Hallelujah.
So there’s a lot of logistics involved in this and what we are doing is we are setting it up so that everybody, we want as many people to be part of the baptism of the people as possible. It’s a very powerful moment, there are a lot of things that God can do and I will share between now and next week I will share with you. And so we are going to have every baptism on the big screen. So you can sit in the church. We’ll biscuits and sandwiches and tea and coffee and water to drink so that you don’t have to rush home, you can just sit in here and enjoy the spiritual atmosphere and just be part of it.
After people have been baptised, it might be that they’re feeling extremely vulnerable to the Lord and they want to go home and just be quiet and I ask you to respect that about the person, the people that are being baptised, that might be in your family, and or you. So I’m getting ready for an extended period of baptisms, weeks, Sundays, for the reason I just told you, and there are many people that want to be baptised. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
So I go back to Colossians chapter three, verses one to four, which is the original message and scripture that we used, talking about the resurrection power of Christ. 1Christ’s resurrection, this is the passion translation, 1Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! 2Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. 3Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ (Colossians 3:1-3 TPT) So there is definitely a distinction between the life that is the natural realm and the true life that you live. Hello? Definitely, the life that everybody else lives around you is not the true life in Christ that you are supposed to live. It’s two different kinds of lifestyles. That’s a big point. If Christians live the way everybody lives around them, then what is different about us as Christians? We have to live with the power of the resurrected Christ living in us. Because if we live with that power it becomes obvious, the difference. It is obvious because you have a whole new life that you live, a completely different lifestyle.
So I read it again, 3Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ. 4And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with him in his glory! (Colossians 3:3-4 TPT). Hallelujah. We are now one with Him in His glory. I’m going to read two passages of scriptures and then we’ll just see how far we get in the teaching today. And what I don’t get done today will happen next week. Romans chapter six, I’m going to read the whole chapter in the New King James and then I’m going to read it again in The Passion Translation. Because the Bible says it better than I can say it, mine would only be a commentary on what the Bible says, anyway. So verse one, 1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:1-3 NKJV). Remember what I said; Christ’s crucifixion is our crucifixion. That’s what I read in Colossians. Here he is saying, we are buried, 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4 NKJV).
So Jesus walked in this earth, in this life, He walked as a man, but He walked as a Divine Person too. When Jesus died, and when He was resurrected, He walked in a new life. What was the new live? The new life was a glorified body that was dead to any temptation. When He was a man living on the earth, before His death, He was like any one of us; tempted. He could sin, He could sin. People don’t like to hear it when you make that obvious statement that Jesus could sin because He was human, so He could sin. The Bible says that He was tempted in all things and all ways, like we are tempted.
He was tempted as a man to separate, to do something different to what the will of the Father was. When He died, and He rose again, His body was now a glorified body, therefore, He no longer could be tempted. He had a whole newness of life. His spirit was still perfect like it was before He died, His soul was still completely perfect, like it was before He died. Now His body was resurrected to be perfect; never again to have to die. He walked in a glorified new body. This is an important point.
5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. If we’ve been united to Him in death, then we are also united to Him in resurrection. That means we are like Him in a new body. Read with me, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Romans 6:5-6 NKJV). People have said to me, and many times I have to watch words that come out of my mouth because sometimes I talk about my humanity; but actually, the Bible says sin for a Christian is not inevitable. In other words, because you’re human, as a Christian, doesn’t mean that your humanity must sin. In fact, Jesus has actually, the Bible says here that if we are like Him in the newness of life, our old man has died. The man that causes you to sin is dead. Wow. I’m not telling you anything the Bible’s not saying. Right? I’m so glad I’m reading the Bible, then nobody can say this is heretical stuff.
So let me continue. I’m going to start with verse six again, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him (Romans 6:6-9 NKJV). Of course, you can only die once, in your body. I mean, really die, not somebody that is sort of dying and then their heart comes back to life again and then they are alive again. I’m talking about morsdood, forever gone, you know, dead.
Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:10-11 NKJV). If we as Christians, confess this passage of Scripture every day for a month, this revelation will change your life forever. Because when sin comes to your body and tempts your body, you have the power over it to say, “You died to sin and the newness of life that is in my spirit has dominion over the body that wants to sin.” It’s not a given that because you’re a human being, you must sin. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts (Romans 6:12 NKJV). Lust is not just sensual, it’s any kind of appetite. It’s an appetite for wealth, it’s an appetite for power, it’s an appetite for food, it’s an appetite for unhealthy relationships, it’s an appetite for achievement, it’s an appetite… You know, you hear people talk about things like “He’s a workaholic, I mean, just working all the time.” It’s an appetite for work, where you just work, work, work all the time. It’s an appetite that you follow those lusts but it also includes sensual lusts. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6:12-13 NKJV). This passage of Scripture clearly says that we have an authority, we have a power over our body and over our thinking, and over the way that we live, we have a power that is not our own. This stuff you can’t get free from by yourself. You can’t be free from the stuff that is your bodies’ lusts and your human desires. You can’t be freed from that by yourself. You can, I mean, you can, I promise you, you can go on a diet, a diet, a diet, a diet, and you can use lots and lots and lots and then say, “I’m free from doughnuts.” And then one day you walk past some shop that’s cooking new doughnuts, or baking new doughnuts, the smell of absolutely spectacularly new doughnuts, and they stare you in the face and they talk to you. And you find yourself reaching for one and stuffing it in your mouth before you even know it. What is that? I thought I killed that thing? Well, you can’t have victory over that in yourself. You can have victory over that in Christ. Hello.
If you and I could have victory over our lusts, and over our sin nature, that is our humans, then Jesus would not have had to die. So, the reason Jesus had to die is that we would always have been slaves to sin. Hallelujah. So, I want to just take you to the beginning and then I’m going to read The Passion Translation. So, I want to take you to the very first verse that says, 1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 NKJV). You know, there are a lot of ideas out there today, especially in the younger generation of people, that if I can just put it in this context, when I was 10 years old. In the society that I lived in as a 10 year old, no one, no one got divorced. Divorce was like a society evil. You were almost going to be an outcast of society if you were going to get divorced when I was 10, nevermind earlier than that. Right? I mean, that was a cultural value system. People didn’t get divorced. Didn’t matter what was going on in the home, people didn’t get divorced. So, 20, 30 years later, it’s now a common thing at least. I’m talking about 20 years ago now. I’m ageing myself today, but 20 years ago, more than half the population was getting divorced after they got married. Today, the numbers are up to 70% of people that get married, are getting divorced.
So, I’m trying to make a point to you that there is this concept that the younger generation who didn’t have a moral fabric that was a society moral fabric, which anyway had its fabric in the Bible – I’m using that specifically – I’m not saying in the church, because the church abused it. And the church had many things wrong in the way that they applied the Word of God. But in the Bible, there was a moral fabric, you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. Right? That’s a Bible thing. That’s not a church thing. So, what’s happened in the modern day world is that with a younger generation, it’s like, nobody wants to get married anymore because what’s the point? We’re just going to get divorced in a few years, so why get married? We’ll live together and enjoy the convenience of what it brings to live together and then when it’s time to separate we’ll find a new partner. That is a very common thing that’s happening in the modern day world. Nevermind all of the other immorality, young girls and boys that display themselves naked and do all kinds of things on social media that goes everywhere. And so this Scripture says, 1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 NKJV). And so it’s like, become a thing in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ – if you are together, and you happen to sleep together and keep coming to church, it’s okay. It’s not, it’s not. This grace is not so that the church is not judging you for sleeping together. This grace is so that you have the power to not sleep together. It means you have died to the person that wants to sleep with your partner.
Pastor John, you’re just about to lose half the young generation in your church. No, I’m not. I’m actually giving them more authority and more power so that they can live free of all the baggage that comes with people that just decide to sleep together because it’s nice. Or because there’s pressure from one person to another or because society says you got to have it. You know, one of the things that Pastor Sharon has shared with the young people, is that just because the world out there in Grade 11 and Grade 12 says that’s the time you should start dating and have boyfriends and girlfriends, that doesn’t mean to say that you have to have a girlfriend and a boyfriend. The society that puts that pressure on you, is wrong. And so, why do you want to become girlfriend and boyfriend? What’s the point? The point of it is so that you can cuddle and kiss and then if you’re alone, and you’re cuddling and kissing, it’s very difficult to stop there especially if you have this grace mentality, that it’s okay because it’s allowed in the Church. So I just want you to know, in the way of God, it’s not permitted. God hasn’t changed His mind about ‘you should be married to one person’. I didn’t really intend to go here this morning. But now I’m here. I might as well make the most of it. I must be here by the Holy Spirit’s leading.
So, what happens then if you have, you’re still a young person and you have slept with someone? What does that mean to your future? Well, here’s the thing. Part of what you can receive in baptism, is that the old man that you were, when you get baptised, that old man with all of its stuff dies. And if you are a male or a female and you’re no longer a virgin, you can die to that person and you can be raised in the newness of life and now you can begin to act like a virgin. You can have full restoration, full restoration in baptism, believing that you are free from what you did in your past.
This baptism that we are going to be doing, that’s why it’s important that when you get saved, you get baptised because there is a power of the resurrected Christ, the newness of the life of Christ that is released in you, because you have chosen when you get baptised, you’re saying, “I choose to identify with the death of Jesus Christ.” If you are choosing to identify with the death of Jesus Christ, then it means you recognise Him as your Lord and your Saviour. If you recognise Him as your Lord and your Saviour that means you recognise Him as the One whose blood has washed away your sins. Come on now, the One who has completely cleansed you from all your sins. And so when you come up out of the water, you recognise that as my Saviour, who died for all my sins, and has washed me clean from all of the old man, I now I am rising into the newness of life where I do not have to obey the stuff of my body any longer and I come up completely as a new man.
Now, it’s not possible in human terms to go back and undo some things that you’ve done. But spiritually and in your heart and in your mind, you can behave and act as though God has taken care of that too. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
Next week I’ll share something, I’ll share a testimony with you but I’ll tell you, when you go down in the water and you come up, there are a number of things that you can begin to believe God for and you should. You should believe God that when you come up out of the water, if you are not baptised in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, you need to be believing God this whole week and you need to be saying, “Lord, when I go down in that water, if I’m not baptised with the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, when I come up out of that water, I’m asking You that I immediately get filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues.” And we’re going to have people there with you, to pray with you immediately. If it doesn’t happen coming up out of the water, it’s going to happen immediately after when you’re out of the water. Praise Jesus. You can go in there and say, “Whatever sickness and diseases are in my body, it dies because Jesus paid for it on the cross and I come up completely healed out of the water.” Hallelujah. Because you are identifying with the death and the crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ and you’re also saying, “He was resurrected, my faith is He was resurrected into the newness of everything so, it’s new for me. My mind, my oppression, all of the depression, all of the stuff that has been plaguing me,” all of the stuff that the devil has been trying to control your mind with, “I am free from it because my mind is no longer submitted to the lusts of my flesh or to my body, my mind is free from all of the stuff that happened before.” Hallelujah. Glory to God.
I know that before I left, I was preaching strongly on Ecclesia – that’s just on pause. Because actually if you realise, I mean this is as easily as part of it because if you realise who you now become, when you get baptised, you become a complete new Christian. And you no longer live in life the way that you should have lived, that other people are living. Because grace is the power to live the way God wants you to live. Grace is not the power that covers your sin so that you can live however you want to live. Can I say that again? Hope it comes out of my mouth the way I said it before. Grace is not what gives you the authority and the power to sin, and then ask for forgiveness later. Grace is the power that prevents you from having to sin. Grace is the power that says, “You don’t have to sin.” Grace is the power that says, and I’ll tell you what this happens, you can count on it, you can take this to the bank, the Holy Spirit that lives in you, every time you’re going to sin, He’s already speaking to you, “Don’t.” If you’re honest with yourself, you know it. Right before you’re about to swear or right before you’re about to get angry, the Holy Spirit says, “No, no, no.” And sometimes it feels just like that. It’s just like an uncomfortable feeling you get in your Spirit. And sometimes it’s so quick, right? Because you’re about to behave badly. “You cut me,” and the Holy Spirit says, “Uh-uh. [Pastor John babbling, indicating that he can’t finish the sentence he was about to speak in anger] Really? You can do just like that. Because every time you are about to do something that is contrary to the re-newness of life that you are raised to, every time the Holy Spirit is going to convince you and convict you. “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. It’s not good for you. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” Right before my needle goes past 125km/h, the Holy Spirit says, “Don’t do it.” He does. I better learn not to ignore Him. And my foot creeps up. “No, I have to bring it back again.” Why 125 and not 120? Because, you have a bit of grace. This is true. The government empowers you to say that your needle that you have on your car might be out, and there, so that you’ve got grace. Empowerment to live free from that. Hallelujah.
The Holy Spirit is the One that helps us, and guides us and leads us. The Holy Spirit has been sent to us by the Father to be a helper. The Holy Spirit is the one that lives inside of you. Even if you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, that is a power that is available to you, so that you can live in the fullness of your newness of life. But even if you don’t have that Holy Spirit fullness in speaking with the evidence of speaking in tongues, He still lives in you. And He will still warn you and He will still speak to you. Hallelujah. Can I read to you from the Message translation?
1-3So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? If you’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, which means you’ve left the country. I was in Ethiopia last week and I stayed in a hotel there. I left the country. I left that hotel. How can I be there and here at the same time? And that’s where sin reigns. I’m not talking about Ethiopia. I’m just giving you an example. It’s like that you can’t live in two places at the same time. How can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! 3-5That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country (Romans 6:1-5 MSG).
Grace sovereignty means grace is the royalty of your life, where you command anything that wants to come into your world, you have the authority, the royalty, the command to say, “No.” 6-8Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. 9We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word (Rom 6:8-9 MSG) That’s why as Christians, when we die, we don’t really die, because we have already entered into a new land of living forever in Christ. If you’re living in Christ, when you die, it’s just your body dies, your spirit is in Christ. You never know the difference of a life that is outside of Christ. That’s why when you live in Christ, your spirit is in Christ, Christ lives in your spirit. That is an eternal connection. So that when your body just ends, stops living in this world, you don’t know the difference of life because you are already living in a sovereign land of grace-filled life. Wow.
10When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. 11From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you.. It’s like me saying [Pastor John speaks gibberish] Do you know what I just said? [Congregation answers, “No.”] Thank you. Prove my point. That sin language is so dead to us, I mean you can hear it speaking but it has no communication with you. Doesn’t have to get through to you. 11Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. 12That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. 13Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. 14Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God (Romans 6:10-14 MSG). This is the Bible. This is truth. If you believe this Bible, you need to be living free. Hallelujah.
Okay, I’m going to finish off my message today with this example, or just I’m going to talk for a minute. What is it about our natural lives that we live, when you walk out of here, and you go and you get in your car, you want to go eat and you want to go and do stuff and things like that, what is the connection between your natural living and the new person that has been raised into the newness of life? Well, the body that you live in still has to be fed. The body that you live in still has to be cleaned. The body that you live in still has to have a home for protection and provision. Right? The act of living life in God is holy. You can live life with freedom. You want to go and get on your bicycle, go ride on your bicycle, do exercise, go for a run, have a sleep in the afternoon, rela – this is all part of the new life. Hey?
What happens to us is that it’s the same body that also wants to make you sin. It creeps on you like an old rash. You know, it’s like, you know, if someone has hay fever, or gets hay fever for example, and suddenly you’re around – you don’t even know it – but somebody’s mowed the lawn six hours ago or something. And now there’s lots of seeds in the air. And suddenly you walk into that environment and you start sneezing. It’s like an old habit that just creeps up on you. And suddenly it’s there, you know. What happens is that because we live in that kind of environment where we tolerate many things, you live in this tolerance that you give yourself tolerance because it’s patterned, it’s habit, it’s easy living. But to actually tap into the power of God’s life to say, no, no, no, no. Now let me say this; is my spirit man perfect? Is my soul perfect? No, my soul is being renewed because I’ve got to make a conscious decision to take every thought captive that raises itself up against the knowledge of Christ. Right? And my tools to do that are not my will, or my flesh and blood. They are spiritual tools and they are mighty in God in the pulling down of the strongholds that occupy my mind because my mind is connected to the lust of what my body says. So, in church, the problem in the past was anybody who stepped out of line, anybody who got divorced – I’m just using divorce because it was an earlier example I was using – somebody gets divorced in the earlier church where there was all this judgement. It was all this criticism, there was all this social stigma that came with it. The church should never be a place of judgement unless it’s the love of God that’s doing the judging. What happened with my family was the love of God stepped in and said, “You can’t keep going in this direction. You got to come back to the ways of God.” That love, if you respond to that love, it’s a corrective love and it’s beautiful. It’s like a parent disciplining a child. It’s beautiful in the proper way, in the proper order it is beautiful. It does the right thing, it brings the correction, it brings the discipline and saves your soul. It’s what the Bible says about a child, if you correct the child, you save that soul. Amen.
The Holy Spirit is living in you day by day, to guide you and lead you, that where you are not living to the standard that you could be living in dominion. He’s there to help you to come up to that standard of dominion. So, I would like to finish off this by saying to you, when the scripture in Matthew chapter six, verse 33, says, 33… seek ye first the kingdom of God and (His way of doing …), … things (Matthew 6:33 KJV, AMPC). Everything I’ve been talking about is when you rise up out of the newness of life, you live in a whole new life. You live, as the Message Bible says, you move to a whole new land. You live in a whole new way of living. So in the New Testament, six, verse 33, Matthew, 33… seek ye first the kingdom of God and (His way of doing …), … things (Matthew 6:33 KJV, AMPC). In other words, seek first this new land that you’ve been born into, and the ways that you should be living in this new land. These new ways, when you’re in that place, all these other things that you have need of will be added to you. Your whole life of dominion is not about trying to have dominion over money so that more money can come or have dominion over houses so more houses can come or have dominion over goods, and food and clothes so that you can have more. The dominion that you have is that you live in this new realm that you’re seeking God and His ways. And when you seek God and His ways, then all the stuff that you need, He just gives it to you. And we should be releasing all of our faith.
If you go to Mark chapter four, and read Mark chapter four, 14The sower sows the Word (Mark 4:14 NKJV). That scripture has got nothing to do with money – zero, zilch. It does not talk about money other than deceitfulness of riches is what can choke the Word. That whole scripture is about sowing the Word into your heart, and the condition of your heart where the soil with the seed lands. So if your heart’s not in the right condition, get it there. How do I do it? The empowerment of the new Christ that you’ve been raised up with in resurrection in baptism, by the Holy Spirit is there to help you soften your heart. So when you sow seed of the Word into it, it grows up 30, 60 and a hundredfold return. And as you’re growing up, what is it teaching you? What is the Word growing up in you teaching you? It is teaching you to live in the new Kingdom, the new realm, the new land that you’ve moved into with Jesus – raised from the dead, in newness of life, like you’ve got a whole new body, like old stuff is dead, everything’s made new. I got to live there. That’s why I got to sow the Word into my heart so that I can keep living there. When I live there, I don’t have to believe God for more houses. He just adds them because in that Kingdom, you don’t have to work for it, He gives it. The Bible says He gives you wealth and he adds no sorrow to it. It means He just gives it, you don’t have to work for it. Well, what about, am I not supposed to go to work? Yes, you’re supposed to go to work. But your work and what He gives you are two different things. Completely. Hallelujah.
Now I’m in trouble because now everybody wants to get baptised again – the whole church. Right? Well, I’m not baptising if you’re not registering – true thing. We still have some rules that we have to abide by. You need to register. Otherwise, I can’t baptise you. Everybody says; Amen. And I’m also not going to be doing it by myself because, doing that many people, I haven’t done enough weightlifting to be strong enough to do that, I will have others that will rotate with me. The reason I will be there is because I understand what’s happening spiritually that I’m God’s spiritual authority that needs to be in that water.
Next week, I’m going to talk to you about John the Baptist and what he did with Jesus, and why he baptised Jesus. He baptised Jesus as repentance, but there was a lot more that went on there. And then I will tell you that you’ve been baptised into the body of Christ. And I will tell you what water baptism does to you. I’ve already been teaching you that today. And then next week, we will start the baptismal process. And we are going to have spiritual life party here for week after week after week while we are baptising people in water.
We are going to see the manifestations of healings, of miracles, of deliverances, of oppressions leave. All kinds of things are going to happen because – baptism. Praise Jesus. Won’t you stand with me, please. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Raise your hands.
Say; praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Praise You, Lord. Thank You, Lord, that we are delivered from an old man and we are raised up into a new life. We don’t have to live like that old man anymore. We live in the newness of life, powered by newness. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus.
Just put your hand on your heart like this and say; I thank You, Jesus, that You are my Lord and Saviour. I thank You, Lord, that I am free from sin and death, in Jesus’ name. I thank You, Lord, because You’re my Saviour, I am raised in newness of life. I have power of my old nature, in Jesus’ name. And so now this is something new that I’m going to do today. I want you to say; I am healed in my body, in my soul, in my mind, in every area of my life where I need healing and restoration. I receive it now, in Jesus’ name.
Father, I pray that Your healing power and all the declarations You’ve heard, that it comes into their lives right now. Your miracle power is released for healing. It is released for all manner of sickness and diseases and oppression and all manner of control that the enemy has had over people’s minds, whether it be depression, oppression, and all kinds of lusts and things that have been in their minds. Father, I declared they are free of it now in the name of Jesus. They are free of it. They walk free in Jesus’ name. They walk as sons of God free of the past and walk into a brand new life in the newness of life. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Every kind of addiction, every kind of habit, every kind of thing that’s been controlling your body, you’re free of it in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
Say; I am free in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Let’s just praise Him. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus, for a new life, a whole new living way life, a whole new country of living that we live in, Father. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, we are free. We are free. We are free, Lord. Today we declare our freedom, Father. We are free to serve You, to walk with You. We are free to seek You. We are free to walk in Your ways, Father. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to Jesus. Praise His Holy Name forever. Jesus is our Saviour. He is our Saviour. He is our Saviour. He is our Deliverer. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Wow. I suggest you listen to this message this week over and over,so that next week when I’ve got more to say, we’re going to move straight into baptisms and then we’ll roll it out week after week. But meditate on this so that next week’s message can get in you quick. So the soil of your heart is soft, seed can get in there. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Can I pray for you? Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, that no weapon formed against Your people will prosper. And this word that has been spoken, this word will not fall on hard ground where Satan can snatch it. Neither will it fall on the gravel, that it can be taken away or not find a root there. Neither will it fall in soil where there’s weeds that are growing up and choke it. I pray that this word comes into the soil of well-prepared hearts and that they live with 30, 60 and a 100 fold return of Christ-life rising in them, growing a great harvest of the Word, a great harvest of empowerment of the Spirit of grace, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. And I pray that whatever they put their hands to, they prosper. They’re blessed going out and blessed coming in. Glory to God. And everything in our lives is favoured because Your open hand is here for us this year. And we walk in Your favour and Your blessing in Jesus’ name. Do you agree with this prayer today? Then you can say; Amen. Alright then, that’s a better ‘Amen prayer.’ Thank you for coming. God bless you.
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