All right, what's today? Okay, it's Resurrection Day. Well, I've got to start with a resurrection joke. A man and his wife and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land.
While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, you can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for just $150. The man thought about it for a minute and he said, well, I'm just gonna have to have her shipped home. The undertaker said, why would you spend $5,000 to send her home when you can just spend $150 and have her buried here in the Holy Land?
The man replied, there was a man that died here 2,000 years ago. He was buried, and three days later, he rose again. I just can't take that chance. If my mother-in-law was watching, I love you.
I ship you out to go get him. Hey, good morning. You know laughter is health, right? It's laughter is health to the bones.
And so it's always good to laugh. You can laugh in church. You know, I think of our church. This is family.
It's like sitting around the dinner table. We had the appetizer and now it's time for a little meat. And then we're gonna go enjoy the day and be blessed. And we're gonna leave better than we came in.
We're gonna leave more like Jesus than when we came in. Phil read that verse earlier from Acts chapter 4. It said, with great power, with great power, that's dunamis, that's miracle-working power, with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And great grace was upon them all.
Grace is never an excuse to go sin. Grace is an empowerment. Grace is an empowerment to live a holy life. Grace is an empowerment to go do the miraculous.
I actually live in a holy life. It's kind of miraculous for some of you. I tell you this from, yeah. I'll say it's a miracle for me.
Let's just say that. I want to say today that I want to pray that the resurrection grace and power of Jesus rests on you today and this week. And that you leave here today and go out into the community and go downtown Cumberland and go to your workplace and you demonstrate and you testify to the resurrection power of Jesus. And I'll pray that his grace and his power rest on you to do that.
Can you do that this week? Now don't just sit there. You know where all ours go. City reach church now.
So we've been in a series called Kingdom Lifestyle. And so I think I want to just continue that series today. I know it's Resurrection Sunday, but there's a part of our lifestyle that is dependent on our understanding of the resurrection of Jesus. And that Paul tells us in Romans chapter 6, he says that I want you to walk in newness of life.
He says just as God raised Jesus from the dead in that same way, the same way that God raised Jesus from the dead. He says I want you to walk in newness of life. So there's a lot of things in this passage. We're going to read Romans chapter 6, actually it's verses 3 through 11.
And there's a number of things in this passage. I actually don't have a three point message today. I know you get, I said what? None of the points have the start of the same letter.
I have one point. So if you can't get the point today, I don't know how to help you. Like it's super simple. His resurrection is my resurrection.
His resurrection is my resurrection. And if you leave here today, I want you to remember one thing. I want you to walk out of here and say, his resurrection is my resurrection. So in Romans chapter 6, it says, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
So let me just talk about these couple words just to kind of launch us back into our series. So we're talking about kingdom lifestyle. And lifestyle is the manner that we live, the way that we live, the way that we go about a normal day. And when we live as Christians, it should look different than the world.
The way that we walk, the way that we live, there should be a difference in our lifestyle. And so this word walk is the one that we've been honing in on the last few weeks. The word walk is the word peripatao. So you're going to have these Greek words down by the time you leave here.
Peripatao just means it's the way that you regulate your life. It's the way that you make due use of opportunities. Comes from two words, peri, which means round, like perimeter. And then patao, which means to walk or tread on.
So it's the way that you walk the entirety of your life. So that when we talk about these things about your lifestyle or your walk, this isn't just something like, oh, you know, I left church and on Monday, I'm going to do this. But on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm going to do this. This is something that should be part of your life every day, all day.
This should be what your life looks like. And he says that I want you to walk in newness. And newness is the word conotace. And you'll remember earlier in the year we did the series on the word kynos, which means new.
And it means new of a different kind, of a new quality. It's something that's unprecedented, something that's never existed before. And when you read in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, and it says, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? New creation.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So twice in that verse is this word kynos. And it says that when you are in Christ, that means when you put your faith in him and you're placed in Christ, that you become new.
That you become a species that has never existed before. That it's unprecedented. It's something brand new. And that God has created the new you.
The old you has died. The old is gone. And all things have become new. And so Paul says this.
He says, just the same way that Christ was raised from the dead, the glory of the Father, even so you should walk, should live, should have a lifestyle, should make due use of every opportunity, and walk and live in newness of life. Someone ask you a question. Does your lifestyle resemble a funeral or a resurrection? Depends on the day of the week.
No matter what you're going through, your life can look like a resurrection. Matter of fact, his resurrection is your resurrection. And so I realize you might say, well, I'm going through hell. Well, he's already been there and back.
And he's still living to tell about it. You don't have a t-shirt, I don't think. They took the keys. We'll get to that later.
What do you want to preach today? OK. You're welcome to. You're welcome to.
So let's go ahead. I want to read this passage. And then I really want to hone in on verses 4 through 6. That's really a crux.
So there's a lot of things in here. I could probably make three or four or five points from this passage. But I really just felt God just wanted this one thing this week is that his resurrection is your resurrection. And I just want to give you something to go out of here on and be able to live life the way Jesus walked out of that grave.
Because he didn't walk out of the grave and say, well, today I feel resurrected and tomorrow I don't. He didn't walk out of the grave and say, well, today's a good day and tomorrow's a bad day. He walked out alive and never looked back. So he says this in Romans chapter 6 verse 3.
So Paul starts just to put in there. But Paul builds this whole thing up through the first few books or chapters of Romans. I was telling somebody the other day, it's kind of hard to pick and choose chapters in Romans without reading the whole book. Because you can get to one point and think it's OK to do this and another point and think it's OK to do that.
So he builds this case on grace and how much God loved us and did for us. And it's not anything to do with us. And it's strictly 100% by faith, which makes you think, well, if it's by faith and I'm forgiven and advanced anyway, maybe I should go ahead and sin. And so the grace that Paul preached actually created the thought process, should we sin so that grace can abound?
And so he's answering that here and saying, absolutely, we're not to sin so that we can have more grace. Now, grace always super abounds over sin, but we don't sin to get grace. So he's making that case here. He starts with the first couple verses and says that.
But in verse 3, he says, do you not know as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Therefore, 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 should walk in newness of life. Let me just stop there. So many times, and even some translations, we'll talk about that this is speaking of water baptism.
If you read the entire book and read all of Paul's teachings, this is not talking about water baptism. The old you does not die by you getting in water and coming out. The old you dies the moment you put your trust and faith in Jesus. And so when Paul's talking about for as many of you as have been baptized, so what's baptized?
Baptives means to be submerged or to be immersed. And Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 13, he says, by one spirit, we have all been baptized into one body. And he goes on to say that that body is Christ. So that the baptism Paul is talking about here is the baptism that the Holy Spirit does, the moment you get saved, and he baptizes or places you into Christ.
Have you ever heard the term in Christ? Yeah, how many are in Christ? Did you know that the Holy Spirit put you there? He baptized you into the body of Jesus.
Now there's other baptism. There's a baptism that Jesus does. John the Baptist says this, he says, there's one coming who is mightier than I, whose shoelaces I'm not worthy unto untie, or I truly baptize you with water, but there's one coming after me who will baptize you with fire and in the Holy Spirit. So Jesus is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the one who baptizes us in Jesus. And then if you get baptized by water, baptism and water is just the minister or somebody else immersing you and submerging you in water. And that's a picture when you go under, it's a picture of death. When you come up, it's a picture of life.
And so what Paul's talking about here, he says, as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, that was the day you were saved, the day that I said, yes to Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit in that moment was he took you and he puts you into Jesus. It says, as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. So when I went into Christ, what did I go into?
His death. Is he still dead? Oh, we're going somewhere. So I got placed into his death.
Therefore, 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 should walk in newness of life. So a lot of times when we think of resurrection, we think of down the road, right? Okay, I do. If you're not going to be there, I might need to talk to you after church.
So if you die before Jesus comes back and you've put your trust in him, you're going to be raised from the dead. But that's not the only resurrection. And what happens a lot of times believers only look to the resurrection of the dead body, but don't realize that their spirit has already been resurrected. But you have a resurrected spirit on the inside of you that one day, if you don't live to the rapture that you will be brought up from the dead and your spirit and your new body will be joined back together.
But I don't need to walk in newness of life then because I'll be completely new. But I need to learn how to walk in newness now that I have the born-again spirit of Christ, the resurrected Christ in me. And I've got a mess outside of me and I need to learn how to walk in resurrection life day to day to day. And verse 5 says this.
It says, if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we should also be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing 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. For he who has died has been freed from sin. I have anybody that's free from sin today. I got about ten.
Say, here's why. Because you read that as free from sinning. And you start thinking that your sinning is what you're relating to. Say you've been freed from the body of sin.
The thing in you that used to make you sin is dead. You now have a choice to sin. And so if I say anybody here been freed from sin, if you are saved, then you've been freed from sin. That thing in you that used to drive you is gone.
Verse 8. Now if we died with Christ, remember when we were placed into Christ, we were placed into his death. So have we died with Christ? Oh man.
Have we died with Christ? Okay. What Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, yet I live.
And the life I live in the flesh out here, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So see what happens all this time? We go out trying to die to sin. Well, we die to sin once when he did.
You have to deny yourself, but sin is dead. And too many Christians spend time trying to die to sin and it's already dead. See what we need to do is learn how to live. Death gets swallowed up in life.
Knowing the Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God.
How many times did he die to sin? How long has he been living to God? Ever since, like before then and ever since then. Likewise in the same manner, do what?
Reckon. That means to account. That's an accounting term. The same term it says when Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Same word, Reckon. He said this is so sure, it's like a math equation. You can put the debits and credits on the left and the right. It says, wrecking yourself.
Dead indeed to sin. So the same way Christ died to sin one time when you've been placed into his body, into his death, you died to sin one time too. And then when he rose again, is he ever going to die again? No.
And when you received his resurrection life, guess what you're not going to do? You're not going to die again. Likewise wrecking yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I love this passage in your film.
But I want to focus. I want to get focused here. Lays are focused on one thing today. Verses 4 through 6.
Everybody say just as. What does that mean? In the same manner, right? In the same manner, in the same way that who?
Christ. In the same way Christ was raised from the dead even so me, you, we collectively should do what? Walk in newness of life. So he died to sin how many times?
Once. And then he rose again, never to die again. The same way that he just did that, that's how you walk. See we walk around all the time focusing on sin and what to do and what not to do.
And guess what happens? You start sinning. Man, I'm not going to cost. I'm not going to cost.
Right? That's why I like, I'm not going to look at porn. I'm not going to look at porn. I'm not going to go.
There she goes. I just happened down that I went sheets. Oh my goodness. It jumped out at me.
Stop focusing on dying to sin because sin is dead. Focus on living the resurrected life of Jesus. See when you walk in resurrection life, those things just automatically dissolve. I was stuck in pornography for years.
And 15 years ago, I was set free. I didn't do it by focusing on what not to do. I did it by focusing on who I was in Christ and who he was in me and starting to live out the resurrected life of Jesus. And when I did that, those things just went away.
Or if we have been united together, this is an important word. This is a crux of this message today. If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, possibly, certainly. So have you been placed in Christ?
How do you know? Because you accepted Jesus and the Holy Spirit placed you in Christ. If you've been in Christ, you've been placed into his death. So if I've been united in his death, certainly I'll be united in the likeness of what?
His life. He died to sin one time ever since then. He lives unto God. And it says that you can be certain to this.
If you were united with him in death, you are and will be united in life. See it's not just down the road a million years from now. It's right now. Eternal life starts now.
It starts the day you accept Jesus. And you can actually live it out today. See a lot of times, aside from all that, you know, so, never, I'm not going to do it. The Father, I don't want to go off on theology, but Jesus raised himself, the Holy Spirit raised Jesus and God the Father raised.
I don't argue with that. But the Father brought Jesus back to life by the agency and the power of the Holy Spirit, which means I can't walk in newness of life without the power of the Holy Spirit in me. Right? I can know all this stuff.
Head knowledge is not going to help me walk in victory. It's knowing God's Word and a spirit of God that's in me, empowering me to do it. Can I say that? Okay.
All right. All right. Look at this. You've been united together with him.
What does that mean? Does that mean, well, we walk down the aisle and, you know, we said or I do's. Well, that's true too. You are the bride and you are married to Christ.
But do you know it's more than just being married to Jesus? This word actually means that you were born with him, born together with him. Look at this. It says that you grow together, united with.
It means born together of joint origin. Remember that when he came back to life, guess what? You came with him. In eight, in eight means that it's in you.
Con eight means it's the same word. It means in eight, congenital. You've probably heard of congenital heart disease. It's something that somebody has from the time they were born.
Well, you have congenital life. You have life from the moment that you were born, born again. It's implanted by birth or nature. So that if I've been united, born with him in death, I've also been born with him in life.
Well, what does that mean? Is Jesus born again? I want to show you something. When Jesus hung on the cross, still ask me about this morning because I might as well use it.
I'm just going to steal whatever Phil gave me and preach it. He said, Jesus, when he stood on the cross and he's dying, when Jesus goes to the cross, he takes the penalty, the sin, the punishment, the curse for all people for all time. And for the first time in eternity, he calls his father God because he's no longer addressing him as a father but a judge. First time and only time.
He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He says, into your hands, I commit my spirit. His spirit for the first time in all of eternity, billions of years, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been in perfect union. Never in eternity passed have the two or three ever been separated.
And now for the first time, Jesus is going to die like we do spiritually so that he can be like we were and pay the penalty that we had to pay. And when he died, his spirit did not go to heaven. His spirit went to Hades. And for the first time in eternity, there's a separation between God and Jesus.
And he says, into your hands, I commit my spirit. What he's saying is this. He said, Father, I trust you so much that even though I'm going to die and be separated from you, I believe that you will send your Holy Spirit and reunite me with you again. Could you do that?
Never in a billion years separated but now separated for a brief time. But he says, Father, I trust you. In my dying breath, I trust you that you're going to reconnect me again. Paul calls Jesus this.
A few verses prior to this, Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. Paul says that Jesus Christ is the first born over all of creation, or by him all things were created. So, if you think about that, Jesus was not born at creation because he actually created everything, right? So it would make sense that that means that he was born at creation.
So in one aspect, when you see this term, first born, it means preeminence. It means priority. It means that Jesus, because he created everything, carries complete preeminence over it. Does that make sense?
First born is also used the way we would think of it. Like, my son, Frederick, is my first born. And if I have a first born, what do I also have? A second, third, three, yeah.
Second born, third born. So first born can carry the connotation of priority or preeminence, or it can also mean first in a sequence of things like chronological order. That makes sense? So he says earlier that Jesus is the first born over all of creation.
And now in verse 18, he says that he is the first born from the dead. A lot of times we think of Jesus dying and resurrecting, but we fail to remember that he was brought back to life before he resurrected. Like he didn't die and come back dead. He actually, and his spirit was alive, but it was disconnected from God.
And so that Paul calls him this, he says, you were the first born from, that word, first, from means to be disconnected with something that you were previously closely related to. And we know that he tasted death for all men. Very familiar with death, because he tasted it for each one of us. Paul says that he was the first born from the dead, that we have been united with him and born with him.
How was he born? Out of the dead. John says this in Revelation 1. He says, grace to you in peace from him who is, and who was, and is to come from the seventh spirit to our before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead.
The ruler of all the kings of the earth, the hymnal who loved us, watched us from our sins in his own blood. A little bit later in the chapter, Jesus. So John, he has his vision of Jesus, right? And all of a sudden it says one as if the Son of Man appears, and John goes on to describe him.
And in verse 17 he says this, he said, I fell down like a dead man, because he was so glorious, so magnificent, and said Jesus reached out, he put his right hand on me and said, hey, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. He said, I am the first and the last. That's a message right there.
He's the bookend to whatever you have going on in your life right now. The chapter's not over, the story's not over. He actually later in Revelation calls himself the Amen, like he's it. He said, I'm the first and the last.
I am he who lives and was what? Dead and behold I alive forevermore. When he died, you died. When he rose, you rose.
In the life that he now lives, he lives eternally to God, never to die again. Jesus says this, he says, I have the keys of Hades and death. Where did he get him? He went back and got what Adam lost in the garden.
The God had put man in charge of this earth. God said, I want you to be fruitful, multiply. I want you to subdue the earth and have dominion over everything here. The enemy walks in, tricks him out of it.
Adam commits trees and hands the keys of the authority over the enemy. Matter of fact, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil, in Luke chapter four, the devil takes him on to a high pinnacle of the temple and says, in a moment in time he shows him all the kingdoms of the world. And he says, I will give you all of these because they have been given to me and I have the authority to give them to whoever I wish. Jesus never argued that because it was true.
They were given to him by Adam, but Jesus didn't fall for it. He said, you shall worship the Lord your God and worship him. But he knew in a couple of years, he would be descending to get back what the enemy took. It doesn't say that Jesus went to hell, it says that he went to Hades.
If you read Luke chapter 16, there's a description of Hades in Luke 16. Do you remember the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man? It says Lazarus died and went to Hades to a place of Hades called Abraham's bosom. Abraham's bosom was where all the faithful saints were when they died.
So you guys are faithful saints. It said that the rich man, when he died, he went to the other side, which was the side of torment. And it said he looked across and he sees Lazarus over there and he says, Abraham, Father Abraham, have Lazarus dip his finger in water and touch it to my tongue so that I don't die of thirst. And Abraham says, I can see you over there, but between us and you there's a great gulf that I can't come to you and you can't come to me.
And see when Jesus died, his spirit went into Hades. And he says, he that us ended is the one that descended. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 3, 17 and 18 said that he went and preached to spirits who were in prison.
Some of them had said were disobedient from the time of Noah. So what's he doing? He's telling the ones on this side, you didn't have your faith in me. I died.
I came back to life and now I just pronounced eternal judgment on you. To the saints, he says, I'm alive. I died. I came down here.
It says he led captivity captive. He took those saints out of Hades, grabbed the keys from the devil and they went up. If you read Matthew's account of the gospel at the end of Jesus says, on resurrection day, many of the tombs of the saints were split open and they walked around Jerusalem. How did they get there?
Jesus was bringing them out of Hades. And he decided to stop to see a woman who had seven demons cast out over named Mary Magdalene. And while he's talking to her, they're out. I remember that place.
There's a place to be a Walmart over there and they're walking around Jerusalem. But he only stayed there for a little bit and then he ascended to the father. He tells Mary, he says, don't cling to me because I haven't yet ascended to my father and your father. Now go tell my brethren, first time he ever calls him brethren, that I'm alive.
Jesus has the keys to death. See death is more than just dying. See everything that is bad in life is a result of sin and death. Sickness is part of death.
It is part of death. Disease is part of death. Bad family relations. That's part of the curse.
Jesus died to take every curse. He says, I got the key. I got the key. I got the key to death.
I got the key to life. Death is locked up. Life is open. So you can walk in that today.
I know we have that verse up there yet, but we'll go with it. Paul says that, you look in Colossians and Ephesians, it says that I died with Christ. I was buried with Christ. I was raised with Christ.
Now I'm seated in heavenly places with Christ. You're probably familiar with verse 1st Romans 828 says, and we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those who he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to his image.
That he might be the first born among many brethren. He goes on to say, in those whom he predestined, those he called and those he called, he justified and those he justified, he glorified. All past tense. See, Jesus didn't choose you at the expense of not choosing somebody else.
He died for everybody. He rose for everybody. He made payment for every single person that ever has lived, never will live, for every sin that will ever be committed. But see, Jesus lived outside of time.
That's how the, they could say, that's how the writers could say that he was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world because he doesn't live in time. He created time. And so from an eternal perspective, Jesus looked in eternity future and said, I know him. I know her.
I know, I foreknow that they're going to choose me and I choose them in advance. He didn't choose you at the expense of not choosing somebody else, but his foreknowledge because he could see he turned to the future he knew what you would do. But you still have a free will. He said those he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus.
That Jesus might be the first born among many brothers and sisters. He was born out of the dead. When you accept Jesus, you're born out of the dead. His birth is your birth.
His resurrection is your resurrection. You became his legacy. What's a legacy? It's like a special event in somebody's life that has repercussions for years to come.
You are Jesus's legacy. And that what he started two thousand years ago is continuing even today through you, the church. So I want to close today by reading the story of resurrection from Luke chapter 24. Because here's what I think a lot of us do.
Luke 24, there's three different stories in Luke 24. One is of the women coming to the tomb. The other is the two disciples on the road to a mass. And the final story is of the disciples that Jesus appears to in the room.
I think we'll just read the one of the women. I want to start in verse 55 of chapter 23. It says in the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. They returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Verse 24, chapter 24 verse 1 says, now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, today and certain other women among them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb and they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this that behold two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid they bowed their faces to the earth and said, why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is risen. He is not here. He is not here. He is risen.
Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. They remembered his words. See it was not that they were not told that Jesus was going to rise again. It is that they forgot where they did not put two and two together.
So Jesus, in this story, when Jesus meets the disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says that he expounded about himself from the law all the way through the prophets and opened up their mind to the scriptures. And when he appears at the disciples later that evening, it says he reminded them how he said that he must die and rise again. So here is what I want to tell you today is that I can tell you that his resurrection is your resurrection. I can tell you that.
But I think a lot of believers act like the women who even though they were told Jesus would rise again, they prepared spices and oils to anoint a body that was no longer there. And we do the same thing. See, the old you is gone. The old you is dead.
You died with Christ. You resurrected with Christ. But what do we do? We go back to the graveyard with our patchouli oil to make sure the weed smell doesn't smell.
My Bible tells me that I have the fragrance of Christ on me. We think we are living in a rotting grave like Lazarus. What they say about Lazarus says, Lord, he has been dead for four days and he stinks. What we try to do is they took the oil and spices they had prepared.
We spent all this time preparing man-made stuff to anoint a body to make it smell good that doesn't even exist. I felt like God told me this morning. I wrote it down. Stop trying to anoint the dead man and start living in the anointing that is already in you.
Stop trying to anoint the dead man and start living from the anointing that is already in you. You have the spirit of the resurrected Christ in you. See, we do all these things to try to anoint the dead body. You just follow these twelve steps.
I am not against twelve steps, but if you follow these twelve steps, I will let you know how you can remain the way that you currently are. See, Jesus never said put sabbel in the dead body. He said, walk out in resurrection life. Maybe it is relationships.
Maybe relationships are your anointing oil. I just want to surround myself with people that will affirm the way that I think I am. Instead of surrounding myself with true brothers and sisters that will call out to me that really is. I am not against medicine at all.
How often do we continue to take medicine for certain situations and issues in our bodies and say, I am going to have to take this medicine the rest of my life? Anointing oil. Fragrances. Instead, you should be saying, I am going to take this medicine until the resurrection life of Jesus that is in me manifesting my physical body and I don't need it anymore.
Every time you take that pill, I am the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. Take that next pill the next day. I have resurrection life in me. Someday I am not going to need this.
I have already been healed. I am already whole. I am already have healing on the inside of me. We try to create these ointments to anoint something that doesn't even exist because that you died.
The sinful you, the sick you, the depressed you, the disengaged you, the divorced you, the rageful you, the gospel you, the adulterer you, the attitude. There is no more. Talking to somebody the other day and they start, you said, you remember when? I was like, honestly, I don't because I only know the you that you now, I don't even remember the you that you used to be.
Sometimes the ointment we put on is the stories we continue to tell about the person we used to be instead of the person we now are. Oh, let me tell you about how I used to slug them down. I have done it. Instead of saying, let me give witness to the resurrection.
Let me give witness to the resurrected Jesus. I love the verse, it is said, and with great power they gave witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and great grace was upon them all. You're going to leave here today and you're going to testify of the resurrected Jesus in you. So you might be dealing with something out here, but in here is resurrection eternal life.
Paul said this, he said, if the spirit of God dwells in you, how many people do I have to have the spirit of God dwelling in them? Okay. If you don't know, I'm going to pray for you in a minute. But if you do know that Jesus, the spirit of Christ is living in you.
Paul said this. If the spirit of God dwells in you, then the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will bring life to your mortal bodies. So I don't care if you're sick, you're healed in here. I don't care if you're in addiction, you're free in here.
I don't care if you have no relationship with your kids. You have the relationship with Jesus in here. You have the love of God in here. And you got to start identifying with what's in here and walking in newness of life instead of walking in an oldness of death.
Let's pray. How much stand up? Father? Again, Lord, we just thank you today for Jesus.
Holy Spirit, I pray that even now you would begin to speak to those that are here. Lord, first and foremost, I ask you to speak to any unbelievers here. Holy Spirit, begin to draw them even now. We're to press on their hearts that you love them.
You love them when they were stuck in their mess. You love them now. You're going to love them forever. That you died and you sent your son Jesus to die for them.
So Lord, I pray for the one that's far from God right now, that you would draw them to yourself. What I pray for those that I feel like there's a lot of Lazarus resurrections in here. See, Jesus was not the first person to resurrect from the dead. Elijah raised a widow's son from the dead.
Elisha raised the Shunamite woman's son from the dead. The soldier was thrown in the tomb of Elisha's bones and came to life. Jesus raised Jairus's 12-year-old daughter from the dead. Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son right out of the coffin.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but here's the difference. They all died. Jesus and one of them were raised only to die again. Jesus raised to live to never die again.
I think some Christians today have settled for a Lazarus resurrection. That you've walked out of the grave with your sins forgiven, but your grave clothes are still on. That Jesus, when he walked out of the grave, left the clothes in the grave. I see a bunch of people here today that have walked out in forgiveness of sins, but have never left the grave clothes behind.
You need to lay that thing down today. That thing needs to lay down today. Jesus said, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it doesn't come to life. You have some things in your life today that need planted right now.
Father God, I just pray right now, save those that need saved. Heal those that need healed. Deliver those that need delivered in the mighty name of Jesus.