WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Hebrides 2.0 – Purifying Fire Publishing Date: 2023-06-04T06:00:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/hebrides-2-0-purifying-fire/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 God willing, we'll be dedicating Kanak fan Joseph Yip next week. 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:23.400 So last week when I asked Derek to preach, it's one of my favorite Sundays, sometimes 00:00:23.880 --> 00:00:30.880 even more than Christmas or Good Friday, and that's Pentecost Sunday, and I kind of was 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:38.040 wishing I was here. And so I was going through my notes on Pentecost Sundays from the past, 00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:45.040 and I came across these notes from 2020. And in 2020, Pentecost Sunday was when we first 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:52.880 started talking about Wally. So that's three years ago. And I went through the notes from 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:59.560 2020 Pentecost Sunday about Wally and what we hoped would happen. And as you read the 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:05.360 notes you realize we have no clue what we are supposed to do. And then three years later 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:12.360 you look at Wally and you marvel. And this is a work of God, eh? I mean, I know for sure 00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:19.360 that I can't take any credit, at least some of you guys who go there can take some credit. 00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:26.000 And sometimes the things that we have been saying, God is saying in this church may sound 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:33.000 very obscure, may not, you may not be able to wrap your hands around it, but in two or 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:38.440 three years God takes the word he has spoken and gives it form and it becomes flesh. Wally's 00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:42.800 become flesh. When I look at the notes there and what we had planned, and I think we asked 00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:47.400 people to go to the corner of 106th and some other road and stand there and pray, and a 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.880 few people went. That was three years ago. And now to see Wally the way it is, where 00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:58.880 it can function as a separate church, nuts man. So I was very encouraged that sometimes 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:06.600 when God gives us a word about something he's going to do, most of the time we don't know 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:12.200 how he's going to go about it. I definitely have no idea. And yet he has the power to 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:16.920 bring it to pass. And so today I want to visit something that happened at the beginning of 00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:23.200 the year and that was when we went to, when some of us went to the Hebrides Islands because 00:02:23.200 --> 00:02:30.200 we felt that one of the things God wants to do through us is bring about Hebrides 2.0. 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:37.520 So for the next little while, for as long as it takes, we'll be talking about Hebrides 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:44.520 2.0. What do you mean by Hebrides 2.0? In the 40s and the 50s these remote islands off 00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:52.040 the coast of Scotland suddenly knew the heavy presence of God and they didn't know what 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:59.200 to do with it. We went to those villages and I know most of you have heard this but there 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:06.000 are people who have not heard it so I'm just recapping quickly. Suddenly village after 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:13.000 village began to feel the tangible heavy presence of, they knew it was something supernatural. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:18.800 They didn't even know how to define it. Many of them had no Christian upbringing but they 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:23.420 grew up in a Judeo-Christian culture and so what would happen is they would be working 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:28.400 in their fields and they would feel this tangible sense of God and they would run to the closest 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:34.720 church or minister or pastor or Christian and they would be weeping uncontrollably and 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:40.200 they would ask for help. It was not even repentance because they did not know what to repent of. 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.040 It was penitence. It was a sense of deep penitence and so we went to those islands January 6th 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:50.480 or 7th because a lot of said that would be the first stop this year. So we went there 00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:57.480 and it was as barren as you can see. You go there and you feel squat. You feel nothing. 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:05.160 There's no vestige or residual effect of the revival that happened 40 or 50 years ago but 00:04:05.160 --> 00:04:12.160 it shook the world because what started there then began to spread. We met one man who was 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:19.120 the son of one of the guys who was critical or pivotal to that revival and he began to 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:23.240 talk about the scriptures but he couldn't talk about the revival because his heart was 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:30.240 no longer expectant and most of the work happened among the young, among the 20s and the 30s 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.360 so while we were there and there were people from Bahrain, from Los Angeles, from here, 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:42.360 God gave a word and this was the word. That's your cue Brandon and this was the word. That's 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:55.360 an actual shot of this village called Barvis where the Hebrides revival actually started 00:04:55.360 --> 00:05:02.360 and this was the word that was given to us to take into the future and this was given 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:06.240 to us as a church and to the churches that we are connected with saying this is what 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:12.400 I want to do. I don't know when we'll see these guys but all I can say is if three years 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:16.840 ago on Pentecost Sunday God said I want you to go into this place called Wally and I want 00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:21.600 you to transform it and today we look at Wally and we are fascinated by what God has done 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:28.600 then this too can come to pass. So turn off the lights, it's easier maybe. Yeah, so here's 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:36.040 what the promise was that was given to us and here's what it says, a purifying fire 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:43.040 from heaven that burns up religious and historical junk. That's from Hebrews 12. As the divine 00:05:44.320 --> 00:05:51.320 warrior, Revelation 19, marches delivering young men and women to the temple of God and 00:05:51.760 --> 00:05:57.240 the emphasis seems to be on the young men and women, delivering them from what? From 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:04.240 the nations they come from into the kingdom, calling sons and daughters into that circle 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:10.000 of dancing, of abundance, of joy. Each of these is from scriptures, I'll give you the 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.480 references later and so they're being drawn into the kingdom but they're being drawn into 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:20.560 the kingdom not as disciples but as sons and daughters. Into what? Into a circle of dancing 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:27.560 abundance and joy, meaning it won't be something that we as a church have experienced, it'll 00:06:28.320 --> 00:06:33.960 be beyond us. A circle of dancing of abundance and joy that does not exactly describe us 00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:40.960 so we'll have to shift some. Before the lion and the lamb, both, the lion of Judah and 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:46.720 the lamb of God and then it ends with and they will become a torch bearing generation 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.360 that goes forth and will not remain empty, return empty. This is what will happen over 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:58.000 the next one, two, three years, I don't know. Any questions on that before we go on? So 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:05.000 this was a promise that was given to us and now looking forward to how this will pan out, 00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:12.080 and this is not a Hebrides thing, it's a worldwide thing. It'll happen across the world but we 00:07:12.080 --> 00:07:17.520 are igniters and once we ignite things we take the torch that we ignited with and hand 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:22.120 it to others so that they can ignite things too. No one church can do this alone but He 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:29.120 is announcing and igniting this across the earth through us. Any questions? Okay, so 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:39.240 over the next few weeks, you can turn the lights back on guys, over the next many weeks 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.320 we'll take each of these and we'll begin to talk about it. So today we deal with just, 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:51.320 we'll just call it Hebrides 2.0 Purifying Fire because that's the first bit. One of 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:01.080 the things that really makes me happy about Wally is it's one thing to teach guys, it's 00:08:01.080 --> 00:08:05.680 one thing to get info, it's another thing to apply and see something become flesh and 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:10.520 so I'm praying that even as we learn stuff like this that it eventually turns into flesh, 00:08:10.520 --> 00:08:16.400 that it becomes real. So I'm just taking the first sentence today and the first sentence 00:08:16.400 --> 00:08:23.400 was a purifying fire from heaven that burns up religious and historical junk. That's from 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:30.880 Hebrews 12, 27-29 in the message. A purifying fire from heaven that burns up religious and 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:38.000 historical junk. We'll just deal with that. Another word for purifying fire, you can turn 00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:48.200 that off if you want to, Brandon. Another word for purifying fire that the Bible often 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:55.200 uses is refinance fire. That's a more common term that we here use. Refinance fire. And 00:08:55.200 --> 00:09:02.200 the refinance fire may take many forms. We're not as concerned about the forms right now. 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:14.520 We're concerned with the outcome. Now the forms can be worship, sometimes refining happens 00:09:14.520 --> 00:09:21.520 during worship, other times it happens because God's glory shows up. These are the incidents 00:09:22.520 --> 00:09:26.360 in the Bible, in the Old Testament and the New Testament where refining happened during 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:32.120 worship as in with Isaiah. And again because of the glory of God that he sees, he suddenly 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:37.960 realizes that he's a man with unclean lips and then the refinement happens. Sometimes 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:44.960 it is through just obeying through very difficult times. Obedience refines. Obedience refines. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:51.960 Through pruning. Pruning begins with God giving instructions. Pruning is not some kind of 00:10:01.640 --> 00:10:07.880 thing that we should dread. Pruning is basically discipling. Discipline begins with instructions. 00:10:07.880 --> 00:10:14.880 And if one listens to the instructions, pruning is actually very helpful and produces fruit 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:19.040 and if pruning doesn't work then there is discipline. Hebrews 12 talks about it as a 00:10:19.040 --> 00:10:26.040 father disciplines his child. And sometimes persecution is used to refine. What's the 00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:35.280 intent? The intent is very simple. Till refining happens, till the reflection of the refiner 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:43.280 can be seen. As in the purity of his nature can be seen. The purity of the nature of the 00:10:50.880 --> 00:10:57.320 refiner can be seen. I don't know how true this is but they asked a silversmith who was 00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:02.240 refining silver, how do you know when it is refined? And his response was, when I can 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:09.240 see my reflection. So the intent of refining is so that the reflection of the refiner can 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:16.520 be seen in the silver or the gold that is being refined. That the purity of his nature 00:11:16.520 --> 00:11:23.520 is made evident. That is the intent of purifying fire or refiner's fire. Yeah, very often Israel 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:38.680 would go through persecution and would stick through it and in the process that which was 00:11:38.680 --> 00:11:44.120 shakeable would be cast aside and that which remained, the remnant would be what God would 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:51.120 use to spring things again. So there's always been this process that God uses throughout 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.520 the Old Testament and the New Testament. You see it in the letters written to the book, 00:11:57.520 --> 00:12:01.680 to the churches. It will talk about you will be tested for ten days but if you stand, if 00:12:01.680 --> 00:12:06.840 you overcome then. And he always, one of the intents of refining is to bring you back to 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:13.400 the core remnant so that the original can be maintained. So that there is no hybridization. 00:12:13.400 --> 00:12:19.340 Refining removes any hybrid or any mutations are removed, comes back to the core and then 00:12:19.340 --> 00:12:24.720 once you come back to the core it can start multiplying after its kind. So persecution 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.720 is used. Persecution is God's will. Persecution is God's will. Persecution is God's will. 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:35.600 Persecution is God using what the enemy meant for harm for the betterment of the church. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:43.240 God using what the enemy means for harm for the betterment of the church. So when Paul 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:50.440 talks about all the things that have helped him die from the outside but increase from 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:54.920 the inside, he's talking about whippings and scourgings and beatings and imprisonments 00:12:54.920 --> 00:13:01.920 and near drowning and being exposed to beasts in Rome. What did it do to him? He says that 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:09.120 at the end of the day even though my external tent is dying, internally I'm finding new 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:16.120 life. And so we must realize the severity or the weight of this that if God is saying 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:23.120 that I want to use a purifying fire across the earth and he wants us to begin the process, 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:33.040 he'll first try it out on us. So it's not something that we dread, it is something that 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:40.720 will make us different, change us to look like him and that should be anyways the aim, 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:47.720 that's always the end goal to grow into the full stature of Christ. And so one of the 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:57.000 things with refiner's fire is it always exposes or separates or sieves, so it separates the 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:03.840 chaff from the grain, the dross from the silver, so that's one of the things it does, it sieves. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:10.320 The other thing it does is refiner's fire tests. So I'm half looking forward to God 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:16.560 testing in this church what is solid and what is not. He talks about it in 1 Corinthians 00:14:16.560 --> 00:14:22.880 3, he says fire will test what you're built with. If you have built with gold, great, 00:14:22.880 --> 00:14:29.880 but if you've built with stone, rubble, straw, then it'll be exposed. It doesn't mean that 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:34.120 your salvation is in question or whether you're doing well as a church or not is in question, 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:37.800 but I want to expose everything here that is not built with gold that you bought from 00:14:37.800 --> 00:14:44.800 me. So in a way, like I said, I'm half looking forward to it because it's always disruptive, 00:14:46.760 --> 00:14:53.760 so I'm only looking half forward to it. So that's one of the things he'll do because 00:14:54.440 --> 00:15:00.120 fire tests, refining fire tests. And refining fire can be resisted, refining fire can be 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:07.120 resisted, you don't have to accept it. Nineveh accepted refining fire, Capernaum rejected 00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:15.880 the refiner himself. So we have that choice, but we foolish to... And by the way, why use 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:23.660 refiner fire? Why use purifying fire? Because the one thing Christ is after is a pure bride, 00:15:23.660 --> 00:15:29.060 why would he not use it? He's coming for a pure, spotless, blemishless bride, why would 00:15:29.060 --> 00:15:36.060 he not use purifying fire? Try ironing your clothes with a cold ironer. If you try that, 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:44.540 we'll have to call you Stone Cold Don or Stone Cold Derek. That also you wouldn't understand. 00:15:44.540 --> 00:15:48.820 There was a famous wrestler called Stone Cold Steve Austin, but why would you know stuff 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:55.820 like that? Sorry, you have a question about Stone Cold Steve Austin? No, sorry. Yeah, 00:16:04.420 --> 00:16:09.420 how do you know that something that's happening is God and how do you know it's the enemy? 00:16:09.420 --> 00:16:15.700 Any fire that falls from the enemy will destroy, will destroy, it will diminish, it will shame, 00:16:15.700 --> 00:16:22.100 it will harm. It is never towards building and showing what is true. It is always towards 00:16:22.100 --> 00:16:29.100 destruction, shame. You don't come out of it thinking any better of yourself. You come 00:16:31.260 --> 00:16:36.620 out of it undone. But after you're undone, there is no coal from the altar that touches 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:43.620 your lips and makes you clean. You walk around feeling undone. I once had this strange experience, 00:16:43.780 --> 00:16:50.780 this is anecdotal, it's not meant to prove anything, where I was in a church and I was 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:58.540 watching Jesus as he showed any part of his nature, let's say kindness. He would take 00:16:58.540 --> 00:17:02.200 kindness and he would show me how kind he was. He would take kindness, he would take 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:05.800 the word kindness and then he would show me how kind I was and then he would quickly show 00:17:05.800 --> 00:17:11.400 me how kind Jesus was. And every time he did that, I would burst into tears because I could 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:16.600 see the gap. Yet at the end of it, when I got up to my feet and walked away, I didn't 00:17:16.600 --> 00:17:22.360 walk away thinking I'm a useless, unkind, terrible guy. I got up thinking, oh my God, 00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:29.360 this is the God that I'm supposed to pursue. That was in 1993. You don't come away from 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:36.720 it feeling shabby or worse off. And so it's an odd kind of fire. It does not destroy the 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:44.720 bush. Yeah. But it sets it alight. So when you look at the purifying fire thing, purifying 00:17:50.840 --> 00:17:57.680 fire, what's the intent? Can we now begin to get to a place where we reflect the purity 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:04.680 of his heart? So here are three or four things that we will need to have happen to us. This 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:13.720 is proof that purifying fire is at work. One, purifying fire will end up with us recognizing 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:24.440 his claim of ownership. Recognizing his claim of ownership. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says he bought 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.600 us, he ransomed us, he paid a price. So one of the things that will happen if purifying 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:38.600 fire actually begins to work in our lives, in my life, in your life, is that we will 00:18:38.600 --> 00:18:44.680 begin to recognize his claim of ownership. Most of us are leasing our lives to God. Even 00:18:44.680 --> 00:18:51.680 though he's purchased it, we lease it. Most of us don't always, in everything, think that 00:18:54.920 --> 00:19:00.440 he owns us. We choose when to lease our lives to him. I've never owned a car. I've always 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:05.840 leased a car. I know how it works. On the insurance papers it says, belongs to the name 00:19:05.840 --> 00:19:12.840 of the company that leases me and belongs to me. Both names are on. The claim of ownership 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:20.440 is different. We are leasing to him. I decide when I own myself and I decide when he owns 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:27.440 me. I decide when he owns me. This will have to change because if you have property then 00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:46.120 you can have, you need to have legal ownership. He has legal ownership. If you have property, 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:53.880 at least in those days you had to have a single user who possessed legal claim. And if you 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:09.000 have property, the value at which the property is sold, the value at which the property was 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:16.480 exchanged, depends on how valuable the property was to both parties. Your God's property, 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:45.440 there must be a legal claim. Jesus has a legal claim on your life. Satan had a legal 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:52.440 claim on your life. That legal claim was settled. Sin requires payment. Satan had a legal claim. 00:20:53.840 --> 00:21:00.400 That legal claim was settled. God pays. Second, it's a single user who possesses the legal 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:07.400 claim. It's not multiple users. He has single user claim over my life. I cannot lease it 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:12.520 to him when I want. I cannot hold it back when I want. In every area. I was driving 00:21:12.520 --> 00:21:16.520 here today and I was thinking of a picture that I wanted to put up. I saw it on some 00:21:16.520 --> 00:21:22.060 website. I was going to send it to Brandon. I had this thought in my mind. What gives 00:21:22.060 --> 00:21:29.060 you the right to take someone else's property that they have actually taken a shot of and 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.440 put on the website? What gives you the right? Why is it Jacob that you can flip so easily 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:41.440 from being very Christian to not worrying about copyright? Every time we do things that 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:48.040 are not God, we are deciding that we will not abide by his ownership. His ownership 00:21:48.040 --> 00:21:53.640 requires that we function a certain way. Every time I choose not to, every time I skirt around 00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:58.240 things, I suddenly begin to leave. As in, in this area of God you have ownership but 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:02.760 in this area you do not. In decision making it is the same. In this area of God you have 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:06.480 ownership. You can tell me what you want and I'll do it. In this area you do not. I am 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:11.680 the one who makes choices here. This is why ownership is the end of self-determination. 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:15.980 Ownership is the end of self-determination. Salvation is ownership. Ownership is the end 00:22:15.980 --> 00:22:22.980 of self-determination. It's crazy. Salvation is ownership. Someone owns you. But ownership 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:26.680 is the end of self-determination. 00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:33.680 The third one I really was touched by that the value at which property was exchanged 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:46.920 is the value that both parties were willing to pay. And that just put such a different 00:22:47.840 --> 00:22:54.840 spin on it that for me to be bought, the value that was demanded was the value of the sun 00:22:54.920 --> 00:23:01.920 and it was paid. That's a high price. That's a high price. The value at which the property 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:15.480 was exchanged depends on how valuable the property was to both parties. I was very valuable. 00:23:17.280 --> 00:23:24.280 These are the reasons why I cannot lease myself to the one who owns me. 00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:31.840 Purifying fire will help us recognize its absolute claim of ownership over us. Once 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:41.000 that happens you'll find that there's a spontaneity of obedience. There's a spontaneity of obedience, 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:53.400 of healing, of new life that breaks out like a fountain. 00:23:54.840 --> 00:24:01.840 You'll find that. In Genesis 22 you find that ownership was a reason. Genesis 22 verse 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:20.640 5 or 6 or thereabouts is where you see the first act of worship. And what is the first 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:25.440 act of worship? Abraham takes his son Isaac, takes him up a mountain, puts him on an altar 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:30.280 and offers him to God. What is he offering? He's offering his entire person. He's offering 00:24:30.280 --> 00:24:35.200 himself. He's offering himself unreservedly. This is why in Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 it 00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:42.200 says there's only a reasonable act of worship to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:49.960 What we are saying here is that when we recognize God's claim of ownership over our lives you'll 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:56.960 find a strange thing happening. You will unreservedly begin to offer yourself all the time, every 00:24:57.040 --> 00:25:04.040 time, all of you. That is what purifying fire does. I am not at that place. Just yesterday 00:25:05.280 --> 00:25:09.040 morning I was telling the Lord, I mean I wasn't even going to teach this, but yesterday morning 00:25:09.040 --> 00:25:13.600 I was telling the Lord, Father, you know, you really don't have full ownership over 00:25:14.520 --> 00:25:21.520 I take it back so often and I decide how things are going to be. On one hand I know he's Lord 00:25:23.080 --> 00:25:27.560 of my life, on one hand I know he loves me, I love him back, on one hand I know I'm doing 00:25:27.560 --> 00:25:33.440 my best to, no I'm not doing my best, I'm doing a lot to run after him but I can take 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:37.160 back ownership whenever I want. That free choice is given me, God will never take that 00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:44.160 away. But I do, I do, I take back ownership. Any questions guys? Any questions? What would 00:25:55.560 --> 00:26:01.960 it be not to take back ownership? What would it be not to leave myself to God? Different 00:26:01.960 --> 00:26:08.960 areas guys, in your marriage do you take back ownership from God? In your finances? 00:26:09.280 --> 00:26:16.280 In your work? In following the laws of the land? In how you think? In what you watch? 00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:28.880 In standards, moral standards? In relationships? In church? In mission? In marriage? In marriage? 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:38.960 In calling that is on your life? In the use of time? Treasure? Talent? Strength? Pace 00:26:48.120 --> 00:26:55.120 of growth? Self determination? As in I'll decide what needs to happen? I don't know 00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:08.960 that. Affordable sin, small time sin, not big time. I mean the list is endless. You 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:17.200 suddenly realize how often you take back ownership, habits, attitudes that I afford myself. So 00:27:20.080 --> 00:27:24.360 what are we saying? What am I saying? I'm saying that if I began to recognize his legal 00:27:24.360 --> 00:27:30.880 ownership over me, his claim of ownership over me, I will not go into this eyes wide 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:37.880 shut. I'll become aware that, ah shucks, in this area you have ownership, therefore 00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:45.920 I will not be able to do what I want to do even though I can do it if I want. I'll choose 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:52.920 not to. How much do you belong to him? How much do I belong to him? Any questions guys? 00:27:53.760 --> 00:28:00.760 Purifying fire helps you recognize his absolute ownership over you. There's a word that most 00:28:02.040 --> 00:28:06.880 people don't use now. We exchange this word for the word servant. But the actual word 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:13.040 used for us as sons are slaves. We are called slaves. We use the word servants just to make 00:28:13.040 --> 00:28:17.080 it sound more culture. The actual word used in the Old Testament and the New Testament 00:28:17.080 --> 00:28:24.080 is the word slave. A slave has no rights. A slave belongs to his master. A slave's family 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:32.440 belongs to his master too. A slave is utterly dependent on the benevolence of his master. 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:41.960 A slave does not get paid because the slave is owned. This is what ownership looks like. 00:28:47.080 --> 00:28:52.720 I have ways to affect every area because every area of the slave now belongs to the 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:59.720 master. The only way a slave escapes his master is by dying. That's how we escape the power 00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:06.360 of sin. Now we belong to one who lives and we will not die. So we are sons who choose. 00:29:06.360 --> 00:29:13.360 A mature son is one who is constantly moving towards servanthood. When Christians claim 00:29:14.360 --> 00:29:19.960 that they are the son or child of a king, that's very nice and charismatic. But it doesn't 00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:26.640 help the cause of the kingdom. Jesus could have done that and sat on the throne and had 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:33.640 the angels singing forever and ever after. Any questions? I'm not saying don't think 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.360 son. You have to think son before you can think servant. But it is necessary to move 00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:46.360 towards slave. Any questions? The other thing ownership does, and then we'll move on, ownership 00:29:55.560 --> 00:30:02.560 is dependence. Ownership is dependence. If he owns me, I'm utterly dependent on him. 00:30:03.560 --> 00:30:10.560 I've become utterly dependent on him. For life, for choices, provision, protection, 00:30:23.320 --> 00:30:30.320 satisfaction, joy, healing, expectation, and love. I'm not saying that you should be dependent 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:39.880 on him. You should be dependent on him. For life, for choices, protection, expectation, 00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:46.880 everything is now dependent on him. Ownership is dependency. And so at some point today 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:53.960 or some point this week if you can say yes to his purchase of you. I say yes, oh God, 00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:59.960 to your purchase of me. My mind, my body, my hands, my legs, my eyes, my mouth, my thinking, 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:05.000 my life, my all, everything is now depriving me of that purchase of me. There is nothing 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:11.240 that is now outside of that purchase. I know how valuable I was to you. I know what was 00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:18.240 exchanged in my place. I fully belong to you, I cannot keep leasing this life to you when 00:31:18.580 --> 00:31:25.580 I want and then to the prize, when I would, I cannot do that. This is when clay becomes 00:31:25.580 --> 00:31:29.020 back on the potter's wheel and spun around again. 00:31:29.020 --> 00:31:31.420 It's clear that it's malleable, it's shapeable. 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:34.140 Purifying fire does that. 00:31:36.380 --> 00:31:37.220 Any questions? 00:31:40.820 --> 00:31:41.800 Any arguments? 00:31:45.940 --> 00:31:47.180 Anything you disagree with? 00:31:48.140 --> 00:31:50.820 I wonder if you make a perfect thing 00:31:52.140 --> 00:31:53.740 anywhere close to the sun. 00:31:55.740 --> 00:31:56.860 Some of us may. 00:31:56.860 --> 00:31:59.260 Paul probably was getting there. 00:31:59.260 --> 00:32:02.180 Yeah, so Paul is not some special kind of guy. 00:32:03.060 --> 00:32:04.740 I mean, if there was a gone guy 00:32:04.740 --> 00:32:08.340 who should have struggled with guilt every so often, 00:32:08.340 --> 00:32:11.080 and was tormented by what he did, it was Paul. 00:32:11.080 --> 00:32:14.820 And so, we mustn't think of Paul as exceptionally. 00:32:18.340 --> 00:32:20.220 I mean, I used to think Elijah was exceptional. 00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:21.680 Did you read James chapter five 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:24.040 and you realize he was ordinary? 00:32:26.580 --> 00:32:30.980 But Paul pursued. 00:32:30.980 --> 00:32:34.380 So, yes, some of us may get somewhere close 00:32:34.380 --> 00:32:39.380 to looking like Christ, so that others have someone 00:32:40.300 --> 00:32:42.740 to imitate, and I pray God that it be you. 00:32:47.540 --> 00:32:51.740 The question was, maybe all of us won't reach 00:32:51.740 --> 00:32:55.140 this level of recognizing his claim of ownership 00:32:55.140 --> 00:32:56.580 over us in this lifetime. 00:32:56.580 --> 00:32:59.340 Actually, the question was, will any of us reach it? 00:32:59.340 --> 00:33:00.340 Not in that world. 00:33:00.340 --> 00:33:02.700 Yeah, will any of us? 00:33:02.700 --> 00:33:04.140 Look what you've started done. 00:33:06.740 --> 00:33:08.380 Will any of us reach this place? 00:33:08.380 --> 00:33:10.540 I'm saying that some of us may, 00:33:10.540 --> 00:33:13.240 and if you do, then people have someone to imitate. 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:15.240 Okay, next one. 00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:20.240 Purifying fire brings you to a place 00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:27.240 where you will just one thing, 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:33.240 and that is, treasuring. 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:37.240 And that is, treasuring. 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:38.240 One thing. 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:44.240 And that is, treasuring God. 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.240 You will just one thing. 00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:50.240 You will just one thing. 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:53.240 Purifying fire brings you to a place where 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.240 treasuring God becomes that one singular thing 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:59.240 you are after, which will never be taken away from you. 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:02.240 The one singular thing you are after, 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:04.240 which is treasuring God. 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:08.240 Always remember that most battles, 00:34:10.240 --> 00:34:12.240 most battles are fought 00:34:14.240 --> 00:34:16.240 at the treasuring level of life. 00:34:16.240 --> 00:34:20.240 At the treasuring level of life. 00:34:24.240 --> 00:34:27.240 Most battles are fought at the treasuring level of life. 00:34:27.240 --> 00:34:29.240 That's where most battles are fought. 00:34:29.240 --> 00:34:32.240 There are no battles when there is no 00:34:32.240 --> 00:34:34.240 conflict over treasure. 00:34:36.240 --> 00:34:38.240 Every time there is a conflict in your heart, 00:34:39.240 --> 00:34:42.240 it is only because you have two treasures 00:34:42.240 --> 00:34:44.240 that you now have to fight for. 00:34:44.240 --> 00:34:46.240 That's where the conflict is. 00:34:46.240 --> 00:34:48.240 If there are no such treasures you are fighting, 00:34:48.240 --> 00:34:50.240 if there is only a singular treasure, 00:34:50.240 --> 00:34:52.240 there is no conflict. 00:34:52.240 --> 00:34:54.240 James chapter 4 talks about it. 00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:56.240 Why is it that we have quarrels? 00:34:56.240 --> 00:34:57.240 Why do we have fights? 00:34:57.240 --> 00:34:59.240 Because we desire things. 00:35:02.240 --> 00:35:05.240 Hinduism, Buddhism, what do they suggest we do? 00:35:05.240 --> 00:35:08.240 That we empty ourselves of desires, 00:35:08.240 --> 00:35:11.240 which is absurd. 00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:14.240 We were made with desires. 00:35:14.240 --> 00:35:17.240 What we need to do is not empty ourselves of desire, 00:35:17.240 --> 00:35:19.240 but desire one thing, 00:35:20.240 --> 00:35:22.240 of unsurpassing worth. 00:35:22.240 --> 00:35:25.240 Philippians 3.8, call Christ. 00:35:26.240 --> 00:35:30.240 And so, most battles happen at the treasuring level. 00:35:30.240 --> 00:35:33.240 And what your heart treasures, 00:35:33.240 --> 00:35:37.240 or tramples, 00:35:38.240 --> 00:35:40.240 what your heart treasures 00:35:40.240 --> 00:35:43.240 or tramples at any moment 00:35:48.240 --> 00:35:51.240 is what your mouth speaks. 00:35:54.240 --> 00:35:56.240 Your mind thinks, 00:35:56.240 --> 00:36:05.240 Your eyes see, your feet either move towards or away from. 00:36:05.240 --> 00:36:09.240 Your feet move towards or away from. 00:36:09.240 --> 00:36:14.240 So we don't realize how critical this is to our existence. 00:36:14.240 --> 00:36:18.240 And if we can get this right, so much aligns. 00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:24.240 Because whatever I treasure or trample is how my mouth will speak, 00:36:24.240 --> 00:36:31.240 my mind will think, my eyes will see, my feet will walk towards or walk away from. 00:36:31.240 --> 00:36:34.240 It just depends on what I treasure. 00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:43.240 Be it sin or be it something virtuous, this is how it works. 00:36:45.240 --> 00:36:50.240 And so whenever, so in other words, 00:36:50.240 --> 00:37:00.240 if Christ isn't, if Christ isn't my supreme treasure, 00:37:01.240 --> 00:37:04.240 if Christ isn't my supreme treasure, 00:37:05.240 --> 00:37:07.240 at that moment, 00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:12.240 He ceases to be 00:37:16.240 --> 00:37:18.240 what I'm pursuing. 00:37:21.240 --> 00:37:24.240 So let's say in the next 20 seconds, 00:37:24.240 --> 00:37:27.240 Christ is no longer the supreme treasure in my life. 00:37:27.240 --> 00:37:30.240 The moment He ceases to be supreme treasure, 00:37:30.240 --> 00:37:34.240 at that moment I'm no longer pursuing Him because something else replaces Him. 00:37:34.240 --> 00:37:39.240 Purifying fire brings you to will just one thing. 00:37:40.240 --> 00:37:42.240 Nothing else. 00:37:50.240 --> 00:37:54.240 One of the strange things with what you treasure is what you treasure 00:37:56.240 --> 00:37:58.240 frees you 00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:05.240 from competing offers. 00:38:07.240 --> 00:38:09.240 Let's say 00:38:10.240 --> 00:38:14.240 you treasure everything Elon Musk does. 00:38:14.240 --> 00:38:18.240 Google comes and offers you, Microsoft offers you, 00:38:23.240 --> 00:38:26.240 the Facebook guy comes personally to offer you a job, 00:38:26.240 --> 00:38:29.240 but because you treasure Elon Musk, 00:38:29.240 --> 00:38:33.240 all competing offers are no longer attractive. 00:38:35.240 --> 00:38:40.240 So what you treasure frees you from competing offers. 00:38:41.240 --> 00:38:45.240 So what you treasure frees you from competing offers. 00:38:45.240 --> 00:38:49.240 What you treasure frees you from competing offers. 00:38:53.240 --> 00:38:55.240 So when you begin to treasure Christ, 00:38:55.240 --> 00:38:58.240 it frees you from all other offers. 00:38:58.240 --> 00:39:01.240 All other offers are still present, they'll be offered to you, 00:39:01.240 --> 00:39:06.240 but they no longer carry the ability to pull you away. 00:39:11.240 --> 00:39:14.240 Guys, sometimes we treasure lies. 00:39:14.240 --> 00:39:17.240 Sometimes we treasure lies. 00:39:21.240 --> 00:39:24.240 All strongholds are built on lies. 00:39:24.240 --> 00:39:27.240 All strongholds in our lives have been built on lies. 00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:33.240 Behind every stronghold, I'm talking about ungodly strongholds, 00:39:33.240 --> 00:39:36.240 behind every stronghold is a lie. 00:39:37.240 --> 00:39:43.240 And sometimes we treasure lies, 00:39:45.240 --> 00:39:50.240 and you wonder why the knowledge of the truth is not setting you free, 00:39:50.240 --> 00:39:52.240 when the knowledge of the truth is not setting me free, 00:39:53.240 --> 00:39:55.240 I must go examine the lies that bind me. 00:39:56.240 --> 00:39:59.240 When the knowledge of the truth is not setting me free, 00:39:59.240 --> 00:40:03.240 I must go examine the lies that bind me. 00:40:03.240 --> 00:40:05.240 The knowledge of the truth is supposed to set me free, 00:40:05.240 --> 00:40:08.800 me free but why is it that I'm hearing the knowledge of the truth but I'm not being set 00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:14.160 free? It's because sometimes I believe the lie so deeply that I need to go pull out the 00:40:14.160 --> 00:40:19.380 lie from the substructure before anything can be built on me. It's like that has become 00:40:19.380 --> 00:40:24.200 so embedded in my foundation that I have to reach out and pull it out. Otherwise nothing 00:40:24.200 --> 00:40:32.900 grows and all of us have some lie or the other in our lives that is so embedded that it doesn't 00:40:32.900 --> 00:40:39.660 matter how much truth is spoken it never seeds. I mean I'm watching construction happen near 00:40:39.660 --> 00:40:45.660 my place and the place I used to live in before was the gas station and when they had to redo 00:40:45.660 --> 00:40:50.780 the gas station it was so much work man because they had these huge gas tanks that carry gas 00:40:50.780 --> 00:40:56.500 and it just discolours the soil. You have to dig it up, you have to literally bring 00:40:56.500 --> 00:41:01.740 in new soil because those tanks have been there for so long that the gas and the soil 00:41:01.740 --> 00:41:06.660 have become, it's impossible to do anything there. You've got to dig deep to get it out 00:41:06.660 --> 00:41:13.420 and then you build something new over it. Sometimes this is important that when the 00:41:13.420 --> 00:41:17.760 knowledge of the truth is not setting you free, begin to examine the lies that are binding 00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:27.180 me. The Holy Spirit will help because one of the Holy Spirit's greatest desires is to 00:41:27.180 --> 00:41:32.460 help you treasure Christ. One of the Holy Spirit's greatest desires or greatest pleasures 00:41:32.460 --> 00:41:39.260 is can I help you treasure Christ and he likes cultivating an exclusiveness towards Christ. 00:41:39.260 --> 00:41:43.660 Read about this in James chapter 4 where he says, don't you know that the Spirit of God 00:41:43.660 --> 00:41:49.060 yearns jealously over you. In 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2 it says, don't you, Paul is talking 00:41:49.060 --> 00:41:53.380 now and Paul says on behalf of God, don't you know that I've betrothed you to one as 00:41:53.380 --> 00:42:01.060 a chaste virgin. As in, it is, the Spirit of God has great pleasure in helping me treasure 00:42:01.060 --> 00:42:08.660 Christ. He wants to cultivate exclusivity with Christ because at his very essence God 00:42:08.660 --> 00:42:18.860 is jealous. It's a great quality that God has. If he wasn't jealous, it would be terrible, 00:42:18.860 --> 00:42:29.700 sorry. Yeah, jealousy, God's jealousy is the kind of jealousy that will not control but 00:42:29.700 --> 00:42:38.220 is possessive. It is possessive but it will not control. It will not control, it will 00:42:38.220 --> 00:42:44.900 not take away free will, it will not use force to do harm, to bring a person back. You see 00:42:44.980 --> 00:42:51.220 this in the Hosea story. So there is Gomer who Hosea is married to and she goes around 00:42:51.220 --> 00:42:58.220 sleeping with others and he says, let her go. You lavished her, she was your wife, she's 00:42:58.220 --> 00:43:04.580 run after others, let her go but pray a hedge around her. Pray a hedge so that she cannot 00:43:04.580 --> 00:43:09.500 chase after her lovers, her lovers can't find her and she will soon say, let me return to 00:43:09.500 --> 00:43:15.820 my husband who loved me. And he says, this is how I treat Israel. If it wasn't for God's 00:43:15.820 --> 00:43:21.180 jealousy over Israel, Israel would have been lost long ago. If it wasn't for his jealousy 00:43:21.180 --> 00:43:25.820 over you, you and I would have perished long ago. If not perished, we would have gone askew 00:43:25.820 --> 00:43:30.780 long ago. But here is a God who is possessive and yet his possessiveness does not control 00:43:30.780 --> 00:43:37.380 or take away free will or lock us up or threaten us but the jealousy keeps us, brings us back 00:43:38.380 --> 00:43:42.940 on track. It's the nature of a father, it's the nature of a spouse. This is why God has 00:43:42.940 --> 00:43:49.940 no problems using spousal parables or fatherly parables to talk about his possessiveness. 00:43:54.780 --> 00:44:01.780 How does God display jealousy? So Phoebe is obviously not my child but if someone, if 00:44:07.580 --> 00:44:12.580 I saw someone messing around with her or trying to harm her, why is it that I would go to 00:44:12.580 --> 00:44:19.580 protect her? It is because there is a love that is jealous over her that no harm should 00:44:21.340 --> 00:44:27.500 come to her. It rises up in you. You don't want any harm to come to her. Some of the 00:44:27.500 --> 00:44:32.660 scriptures in the Bible like, you are the apple of my eye. Where does that come from? 00:44:32.660 --> 00:44:37.620 That listen, I am so jealous and possessive over you that even if someone comes near you, 00:44:37.620 --> 00:44:44.620 I'll make sure I protect you. It's a possessiveness that protects. It will not allow harm. It 00:44:44.820 --> 00:44:51.060 would rather die than let harm come to you. That is a jealous God. Oprah got it all wrong. 00:44:51.060 --> 00:44:55.020 She turned away from the God of the Bible because she heard that God was jealous. For 00:44:55.020 --> 00:44:59.580 a woman who reads so many books, she could have read a little more and figured it out. 00:45:00.500 --> 00:45:06.380 Sorry, that was just side tracking. But I just find it so absurd that someone with a 00:45:06.380 --> 00:45:13.380 book club could not understand the word jealous. We did a teaching on jealousy. If God wouldn't 00:45:15.620 --> 00:45:22.620 be jealous, my God, he would let us be. But his love is jealous. Thank God. Yeah. 00:45:29.580 --> 00:45:36.580 What you treasure, you protect. What you treasure, you honor. What you treasure, you protect. 00:45:42.300 --> 00:45:49.300 What you treasure, you honor. Now you can see why Jesus is asking Peter, one of his 00:45:51.740 --> 00:45:57.980 favorite disciples by the way. He is asking Peter, do you love me more than these? What 00:45:57.980 --> 00:46:04.980 is the intent there? He wants to establish treasure. He is asking Peter, do you love 00:46:06.420 --> 00:46:10.980 me more than this? He asks the same question sometimes every day. Do you love me more than 00:46:10.980 --> 00:46:14.540 the work you are doing? Do you love me more than the shortcut you are taking? Do you love 00:46:14.540 --> 00:46:20.140 me more than the taxes you are scrimping on? Do you love me more than the other things 00:46:20.140 --> 00:46:24.060 you are doing? Do you love me more than Acts 29? Do you love me more than ministry? Do 00:46:24.140 --> 00:46:28.980 you love me more than Wally? Do you love me more than worship? The questions are always 00:46:28.980 --> 00:46:35.620 there because the treasure must be established. The treasure is very simple. There is also 00:46:35.620 --> 00:46:41.260 why he wants you to sell everything for this treasure because it is so priceless that you 00:46:41.260 --> 00:46:46.660 cannot have it till you sell everything. I know you have heard this before but again, 00:46:46.660 --> 00:46:50.700 because some haven't, I will just quickly go over it. There was a man who stumbles across 00:46:50.700 --> 00:46:55.780 the treasure in a field that he was walking through. He knows that according to the law, 00:46:55.780 --> 00:47:00.260 he cannot take what is in the box that he stumbled over because it belongs to somebody 00:47:00.260 --> 00:47:06.300 else, because the field belongs to somebody else. So he goes home. He hides it so that 00:47:06.300 --> 00:47:11.980 nobody else finds it. That is how we are jealous over things. One of the things we should do 00:47:11.980 --> 00:47:16.060 about things of God is you should be so jealous about the things of God that you should hide 00:47:16.060 --> 00:47:23.060 it so that you can find it. So he hides it and then he goes. What does he do? He sells 00:47:24.060 --> 00:47:31.060 everything. He sells all the wealth he has. He sells his reputation. He sells his dignity. 00:47:32.500 --> 00:47:39.240 He sells whatever is required. What do you need to sell to get this treasure? Sell it. 00:47:39.240 --> 00:47:45.760 Because once you know what you are after, there will be no competing offers that can 00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:52.120 begin to create conflict. Sell everything. You do that for your spouses sometimes. You 00:47:52.120 --> 00:47:59.120 will travel miles. You will go to Portland. See, that's how this works. You sell everything 00:47:59.120 --> 00:48:06.120 and then you sell everything and what do you do? You buy the field. You don't buy the 00:48:09.280 --> 00:48:13.920 treasure. You buy the field because you cannot buy just the treasure. You have to buy the 00:48:13.920 --> 00:48:19.640 entire package. You can't take Jesus. I really like you as a healer. Yahweh Jaira, Yahweh 00:48:19.640 --> 00:48:24.880 Rafa, oh my God. No, Yahweh Rafa doesn't come separate from Yahweh Jaira, Yahweh Shama, 00:48:24.880 --> 00:48:30.360 Yahweh Rohi. He is all Yahweh, self-existent one. Either have all of him, you can't have 00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:37.360 just a bit of him. This is why Paul asks in Philippians 3.8, hey, do you count everything 00:48:44.080 --> 00:48:51.080 else as rubbish, Jacob, in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ as 00:48:51.960 --> 00:48:58.960 your Lord. Next one, purifying fire. Derek, you are keeping an eye on time, right? I know 00:49:03.120 --> 00:49:10.120 the preaching is so good you don't want to get up and go, but you do have to go to Victoria. 00:49:10.880 --> 00:49:17.880 Purifying fire will eventually lead to representation. If purifying fire touches you, it will be 00:49:21.640 --> 00:49:28.640 to representation. What is representation? It is the fearful privilege of representing 00:49:35.400 --> 00:49:42.400 the King of Glory. It is the fearful privilege of representing the King of Glory. Purifying 00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:49.400 fire always does that and we'll talk about that very simple. Because we like encouraging 00:49:53.640 --> 00:50:00.640 people and we should, we don't think that representing him is a weighty task. We see 00:50:01.680 --> 00:50:06.440 it as anybody and everybody can do it and that's true. If you were the ambassador of 00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:13.440 Canada to Indonesia or to the United States, that's great, but you usually won't send 00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:20.440 your six-year-old son to meet Biden. Because even though you're the ambassador and the 00:50:21.800 --> 00:50:27.360 boy is the ambassador's son, you won't usually send it because you need a degree of maturity. 00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:32.840 Why? Because you're representing a nation. We don't understand the weighty responsibility 00:50:32.840 --> 00:50:36.760 or the fearful privilege. I like the words fearful and privilege. On one hand it's a 00:50:36.760 --> 00:50:43.760 privilege, on the other hand there should be fearful privilege of representing him. 00:50:47.480 --> 00:50:54.480 So God's prime concern, surprisingly, God's prime concern is not with sin, at least when 00:50:55.480 --> 00:51:02.480 it comes to believers, God's prime concern is not with sin but with representation. He 00:51:08.320 --> 00:51:15.320 is concerned about sin because of representation. It's not as complicated as it sounds. I think 00:51:24.480 --> 00:51:28.080 he's concerned about representation. His desire is, hey, now that I've called you to 00:51:28.080 --> 00:51:32.040 myself, I've separated you, I've separated you so that I can send you back into the world 00:51:32.040 --> 00:51:36.840 so they may see me. I'm more concerned now with representation. I'm not as concerned 00:51:36.840 --> 00:51:41.920 with sin. The reason I'm concerned about sin is so that when you go out there, you better 00:51:41.920 --> 00:51:48.920 not sin because you're representing me. So his concern is not, his prime concern is not 00:51:49.320 --> 00:51:56.320 with sin. Oh, I didn't put the word sin there. His prime concern is not with sin but representation. 00:51:56.320 --> 00:52:01.560 Can I send you out as an accurate representative of me? That's my prime concern. The reason 00:52:01.560 --> 00:52:06.960 I'm even thinking about sin is because when you go out there, if you sin, you don't represent 00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:13.480 me. So please, can we stop? Because if you do, you can represent me accurately. Purifying 00:52:13.480 --> 00:52:19.520 fire helps us represent him better because there's very little chaff and dross left 00:52:19.520 --> 00:52:26.520 because the silver begins to reflect the refiner. And so, and you can't really represent God. 00:52:29.360 --> 00:52:33.520 You can only surrender to him and he can use you. You can't turn up and say, Jesus, you 00:52:33.520 --> 00:52:39.560 know what, I'll represent you. No, it's usually not that way. It doesn't work that way. Peter 00:52:39.600 --> 00:52:45.280 tried that, didn't work out very well. He said, before the cock crows three times, you 00:52:45.280 --> 00:52:51.280 will deny me. But you can surrender yourself to him so that he can take what you're giving, 00:52:51.280 --> 00:52:58.280 sacrificially, intentionally and say, all right, I'll use you to represent me. That's 00:52:59.320 --> 00:53:06.320 all we can give him. Romans 12 gets more and more powerful as you get older. Present your 00:53:06.880 --> 00:53:13.880 body with living sacrifice and there's only reasonable so that he can wear it and go where 00:53:16.640 --> 00:53:23.640 he wants and use your mouth to say what he wants. So let's go beyond just being purified 00:53:25.200 --> 00:53:32.200 from sin. Purifying fire will take this church from beyond just being, it'll take us beyond 00:53:33.200 --> 00:53:40.200 purity from sin. It'll take us beyond purity from sin to purity in attitude, core values, 00:53:48.200 --> 00:53:55.200 aspirations. It'll take us beyond purity from sin. Purity from sin was what the Puritans 00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:02.200 were aiming for and in the end that whole movement kind of backfired. It changed into 00:54:02.200 --> 00:54:08.200 the holiness movement and then it got dreadful after a while. It started off well but we're 00:54:08.200 --> 00:54:15.200 not just looking for purity from sin. We're looking for something beyond that. It's called 00:54:15.200 --> 00:54:22.200 blazing purity where it's no longer a sin thing. So here's a question. In representing 00:54:34.600 --> 00:54:41.600 Jesus, please try and answer this. Please try and answer this. In representing Jesus, 00:54:45.200 --> 00:54:51.720 what area of my life can't I present yet publicly? In representing Jesus, what area 00:54:51.720 --> 00:54:58.720 of my life can I, can't I present publicly? What area of my life can't I present publicly 00:54:58.800 --> 00:55:05.800 yet? I can't present it publicly. It's got way too much contamination in it. And don't 00:55:05.800 --> 00:55:12.800 get stuck with sexual stuff on the air. The sexual stuff is an out working of a whole 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:22.000 lot of other things. Habits, addictions are often the result of other things but at the 00:55:23.800 --> 00:55:27.680 end of the day, just ask yourself this question and I will ask myself. I didn't want to ask 00:55:27.680 --> 00:55:31.240 ahead of time. I wanted to ask with you. So I'm going to go home tonight and today and 00:55:31.240 --> 00:55:38.240 ask in representing Jesus, what area of my life can't I present yet? This is a frightening 00:55:38.680 --> 00:55:45.680 line and it's not mine. Representation must get you to a place where those you stand before 00:56:01.240 --> 00:56:08.240 find themselves in the presence of God. I'm going to ask you a question. Did I offend 00:56:11.560 --> 00:56:18.560 you guys? I asked for it. Thank God you guys are not miked. Representation must get to 00:56:18.560 --> 00:56:25.560 a place where those you stand before find themselves in the presence of God. I'd say 00:56:32.960 --> 00:56:39.960 to you that some of you have areas in your life where this happens. So don't diss yourself 00:56:40.120 --> 00:56:46.160 as in no, no there's no such area. No, I've seen it. Where in your lives there are areas 00:56:46.160 --> 00:56:51.000 in your life where the way you behave, one would be standing in the presence of God because 00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:57.280 you're trying to reflect his nature as close as possible. Representation must go to a place 00:56:57.280 --> 00:57:04.280 where those you stand before find themselves in the presence of God. And it will be in 00:57:04.280 --> 00:57:08.880 the areas that you think you're not good at. I've had people come in and sometimes tell 00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:13.280 me, hey, this is what I experienced when I was with you and I'm thinking to myself, that 00:57:13.280 --> 00:57:18.960 is not the way I think of myself. Sometimes people see things in you that you don't see 00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:25.960 yourself because who are the people that are most severe on you? You. Who beats you up 00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:34.280 most? You. Nobody can beat you up better than you beat yourself up. I never win when I wrestle 00:57:34.280 --> 00:57:41.280 with me. Am I a daily letter from Christ? Am I a daily letter from Christ? 2 Corinthians 00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:58.560 3-2. Paul says about the Corinthians, after writing 22 chapters on how messed up they 00:57:58.560 --> 00:58:05.280 were, he then says to them, hey, you are a letter. When people read you, they see Christ. 00:58:05.280 --> 00:58:09.040 So if you can say that about Corinthians, I'm sure God can say that about Acts 29 because 00:58:09.040 --> 00:58:13.720 we haven't messed up as much. At least not if you compare it to the things that the Corinthians 00:58:13.720 --> 00:58:20.720 did. The point being that many of us are letters that are read, but the question is, are you 00:58:20.720 --> 00:58:27.720 daily a letter that Sheldon reads and he says, my God, Jane is like Jesus? Sorry, you were 00:58:35.320 --> 00:58:42.320 sitting right up front. Okay, let's end with the last one. Purifying fire consumes culture 00:58:50.920 --> 00:58:57.920 and religious, soulish junk. That's how the message puts it in Hebrews 12.27. Purifying 00:59:08.040 --> 00:59:15.040 fire consumes cultural, historical, religious and soulish junk. It just consumes it, doesn't 00:59:15.680 --> 00:59:22.680 let it stand. And so it should be. I pray God that as we teach this, God will test us. 00:59:23.560 --> 00:59:30.560 And as he tests us, hey, you guys are still here. Either leave or come back in. Wow, the 00:59:32.480 --> 00:59:39.480 husband's coming back in. Yes. Alrighty, as a special offer, we let you, we let you know 00:59:45.840 --> 00:59:52.840 give a second offering. So purifying fire consumes cultural, historical, religious and soulish 00:59:58.400 --> 01:00:05.400 junk. In other words, it consumes or shakes itself free, whichever way you want to look 01:00:05.720 --> 01:00:12.720 at it, or shakes itself free from old wineskins. Old wineskins are basically old operating 01:00:22.280 --> 01:00:29.280 systems, old mindsets, old clannish behavior, old denominational behavior, world views, 01:00:35.400 --> 01:00:42.400 etc. Hal Lynn says stuff. Nothing wrong with it, but if you're still thinking that the 01:00:45.160 --> 01:00:49.120 late great planet Earth is going to happen, it may not happen immediately. Don't even 01:00:49.120 --> 01:00:55.560 go there. Just forget what I said. Erase the last bit. It was not important. So it consumes 01:00:55.560 --> 01:01:00.900 or shakes itself up from old wineskins. That's one thing purifying fire does. And it'll happen 01:01:00.900 --> 01:01:06.140 here. And I pray God that he tests us on it so that anything that should be shaken, 01:01:06.140 --> 01:01:13.140 should be let go, will be let go. We can't hold on to things when God is moving forward. 01:01:13.140 --> 01:01:17.540 It is a mistake that the Old Testament and New Testament and ever since churches have 01:01:17.540 --> 01:01:22.140 been making what God was doing, they hold on to when God is doing something new. We 01:01:22.140 --> 01:01:27.940 can't let go. And maybe be shaken there. There are things in this church that it's time to 01:01:27.940 --> 01:01:34.940 let go. There are things in my life that I have to let go. It's an old wineskin, an old 01:01:34.940 --> 01:01:41.940 method of operating. It's usually done or accomplished by God through change, through 01:01:45.580 --> 01:01:52.580 unfamiliar situations, being put in unfamiliar situations. These are the methods he uses 01:01:53.580 --> 01:02:00.580 and through the scalpel of the Word, the Spirit and the people of God. It's a three-pronged 01:02:07.180 --> 01:02:14.180 scalpel. These are the methods he uses to change old wineskins. What is a wineskin? 01:02:14.180 --> 01:02:21.180 Later, Derek. What is a wineskin? This is your wineskin. This is your wineskin. You're 01:02:25.220 --> 01:02:32.220 thinking. This is your wineskin. This is your wineskin. If this wineskin doesn't change, 01:02:34.180 --> 01:02:41.180 no new God thoughts can be poured. This is the wineskin. Old wineskins doesn't mean old 01:02:41.900 --> 01:02:48.900 people. I have met more young people with old wineskins than old people with old wineskins. 01:02:54.500 --> 01:03:01.500 The old people sitting in this room have had to change much more than you guys. We didn't 01:03:04.020 --> 01:03:07.620 have phones. I'm not even talking about a cell phone. We didn't even have a phone at 01:03:07.620 --> 01:03:14.620 home. Our TVs were black and white. You don't know how rapidly we had to adjust. There were 01:03:14.860 --> 01:03:21.860 no microwaves. There was no automatic car. There was nothing called Bluetooth. Bluetooth 01:03:25.180 --> 01:03:32.180 was when you colored it blue. I could go on. I could go on. I could go on. I could go on. 01:03:37.620 --> 01:03:41.540 I was thinking of things with Facebook. No, we won't go there. One of the things with 01:03:41.540 --> 01:03:46.220 old people is their jokes get a little dad jokes, so I've got to stop before it gets 01:03:46.220 --> 01:03:53.220 there. This is the wineskin, guys. This is the wineskin. This is the thinking. If this 01:03:54.380 --> 01:04:01.220 thinking doesn't change, no new revelation of God, no new wine is poured into you. This 01:04:01.220 --> 01:04:08.220 must change. To change this, historical junk, religious junk, traditional junk, denominational 01:04:08.580 --> 01:04:15.580 junk, cultural junk will have to be shaken. How is it shaken? Through change, through 01:04:15.980 --> 01:04:21.700 unfamiliar situations you are placed in, through the three-pronged scalpel of the Word, the 01:04:21.700 --> 01:04:28.700 Spirit and the people of God. This is what God uses, has always used. Any questions? 01:04:31.220 --> 01:04:38.220 How do we posture ourselves if we want to be part of it? We can be based on change, 01:04:40.220 --> 01:04:47.220 and we can also be naturally resistant. I want to change, but then I'm afraid. How do 01:04:47.220 --> 01:04:54.220 I go about aligning myself with the Spirit? When we are resistant to change, and most 01:04:55.220 --> 01:05:01.220 of us begin our lives resistant to change, but if you are exposed to change over and 01:05:01.220 --> 01:05:07.220 over again, you get more accustomed to it. But if I'm resistant to change, then you have 01:05:07.220 --> 01:05:12.220 to do everything in your power to make it easy for me to change. You have to walk with 01:05:12.220 --> 01:05:17.220 me into the change. And if after all that I resist, you have to come back to me three 01:05:17.220 --> 01:05:23.220 months from now, four months from now, and try again. This is what we do with our children. 01:05:23.220 --> 01:05:30.220 I remember taking this kid and all I wanted him to do was walk into the elevator by himself. 01:05:30.220 --> 01:05:34.220 I believe you are not supposed to do that. But that's not the point. I wanted him to 01:05:34.220 --> 01:05:39.220 be brave enough to walk into an elevator without holding my hand. And it didn't matter what 01:05:39.220 --> 01:05:43.220 I did, the kid wouldn't go in because he had heard horror stories of kids being jammed 01:05:43.220 --> 01:05:50.220 between the doors, which never happens, but that's what parents tell you. And so eventually, 01:05:50.220 --> 01:05:56.220 I had to walk with him. And over a period of time, he began to dare it himself, knowing 01:05:56.220 --> 01:06:00.220 that Jacob would be right behind me and would take care of me. Change will be resisted unless 01:06:00.220 --> 01:06:05.220 you are used to it. When change is resisted, you have to go just like with your children 01:06:05.220 --> 01:06:10.220 and help them. And when they resist, you have to back off and start again. I recently watched 01:06:10.220 --> 01:06:11.220 a dad. 01:06:11.220 --> 01:06:15.220 So in other words, to answer Benny's question, if we're the ones who are resistant, we have 01:06:15.220 --> 01:06:19.220 to hang out with people who are daring and challenging you? Is that the... 01:06:19.220 --> 01:06:23.220 Or I should find you if you're resistant and try to help you. Sometimes we have to 01:06:23.220 --> 01:06:28.220 look for... Guys, we're supposed to do this together. So if I find that Diana is resistant 01:06:28.220 --> 01:06:33.220 to change and she disguises it well, I must still go and find situations where I can help 01:06:33.220 --> 01:06:38.220 her with change. We must both look for help and we should look for those that need help. 01:06:38.220 --> 01:06:42.220 It's both. It's not one or the other. We should look for help, but we should also look for 01:06:42.220 --> 01:06:48.220 those that need help and who will not let on. We're not waiting for our child to ask us 01:06:48.220 --> 01:06:54.220 for help. We look for the child who needs help and we go help. I saw a dad who's a guy 01:06:54.220 --> 01:07:02.220 who's literally like Dr. Dolittle, helping his son with horses. It was fascinating watching 01:07:02.220 --> 01:07:08.220 him. He's got three sons and one son is a little scared of horses. But the way he went 01:07:08.220 --> 01:07:13.220 about it... A change is scary, eh, because you get on the wrong end of a horse and you 01:07:14.220 --> 01:07:21.220 can go flying without the horse. And so he had to make sure that the child is positioned 01:07:21.220 --> 01:07:26.220 correctly. He wanted the child to hold the reins right up where the bit and bridle is 01:07:26.220 --> 01:07:30.220 so you can hold the horse. There was a way to feed the horse. But the way the dad went 01:07:30.220 --> 01:07:34.220 about encouraging the horse, in the end the boy was on the horse. I'm watching it and 01:07:34.220 --> 01:07:40.220 I'm thinking to myself, wow, a boy who was resistant to sitting on a horse is now desiring 01:07:40.220 --> 01:07:47.220 to sit on a horse. So the only way we go through change is this way. And when all else fails 01:07:47.220 --> 01:07:57.220 and you're really stubborn and resistant and full of yourself, then God uses his favorite 01:07:57.220 --> 01:08:07.220 weapon, which is jealousy. This is how God uses jealousy. He'll send a wave that will 01:08:07.220 --> 01:08:14.220 ward your boat from the safe mooring that you refuse to let go of and the wave will 01:08:14.220 --> 01:08:21.220 carry you on the ocean of his love into the deep where you suddenly realize that oh shucks, 01:08:21.220 --> 01:08:28.220 what do I do now? One way or the other, because he's jealous over you, he will get you to 01:08:28.220 --> 01:08:34.220 where you need to get to, only you'll have less time to do it because you spent too many 01:08:34.220 --> 01:08:41.220 years moored to the port. God will always keep you moving. One of the things about his 01:08:41.220 --> 01:08:46.220 jealousy is he will get you moving. The only difference is you may not get to the destined 01:08:46.220 --> 01:08:55.220 end that he had planned because you've run out of time. But he'll always keep you moving. 01:08:55.220 --> 01:09:03.220 These are the things that happen with purifying fire. One, recognition of his claim of ownership. 01:09:03.220 --> 01:09:14.220 Two, a singular thing, treasuring him. Three, able to represent him accurately because 01:09:14.220 --> 01:09:21.220 sin is no longer an issue because a purifying fire consumes it. Four, historical, religious, 01:09:21.220 --> 01:09:29.220 cultural and soulless junk being burnt up and now you always have a new vessel that's 01:09:29.220 --> 01:09:34.220 forged through change, through the scalpel of the word, the spirit and the people of 01:09:34.220 --> 01:09:41.220 God and through unfamiliarity. You become a wineskin that Jesus can always pour new 01:09:41.220 --> 01:09:47.220 wine into. New things, new things, new things. Continuously pouring new things. And if you 01:09:47.220 --> 01:09:53.220 don't change your wineskin, then here's the flip part. You will at some point resist the 01:09:53.220 --> 01:10:00.220 move of God and you will resist the generation that's coming after you. Just remember that. 01:10:00.220 --> 01:10:05.220 Many of us who refuse to change will become the enemies of change. There is no middle 01:10:05.220 --> 01:10:09.220 ground when there is a refusal to change. Please hear that again. There is no middle 01:10:09.220 --> 01:10:14.220 ground when there is a refusal to change. Every time you refuse to change, you will 01:10:14.220 --> 01:10:21.220 become the enemy of those that are changing. You will resist them. It's only a matter 01:10:21.220 --> 01:10:35.220 of time. Cool. Why did I say the scalpel of the spirit, the word and the people of God? 01:10:35.220 --> 01:10:41.220 Isaiah 65, 8, beautiful scripture, it says that the wine is found in the cluster, not 01:10:41.220 --> 01:10:50.220 in a single grape. The wine is found in the cluster, so do not destroy it. It's a three-pronged 01:10:50.220 --> 01:10:57.220 scalpel. The word, the spirit and the people of God. Remove one of them and it collapses. 01:10:57.220 --> 01:11:11.220 The wineskin is not formed. It's all three. Okay. Let's pray and end. I know I'm supposed 01:11:11.220 --> 01:11:16.220 to do communion and Heidi brings communion every week and then she packs it and keeps 01:11:16.220 --> 01:11:29.220 it next week. We would have finished earlier had Tooni not lost his voice. Yeah. Let's 01:11:29.220 --> 01:11:39.220 pray. Father, part of the reason I'm excited about not this message but excited about this 01:11:39.220 --> 01:11:46.220 series is because of what you will now do. One of the things you told Israel to do was 01:11:46.220 --> 01:11:52.220 always walk into the future looking back. We've talked about that. They would walk into 01:11:52.220 --> 01:11:58.220 the future looking back. They would literally walk backwards. They could see all that God 01:11:58.220 --> 01:12:02.220 has done and they would look at it and say, this God did, this God did, this God did. 01:12:02.220 --> 01:12:08.220 Why should we be afraid of the future? They would walk into the future looking back. And 01:12:08.220 --> 01:12:13.220 so we walk into this future looking at Wali, looking at other promises, looking at this 01:12:13.220 --> 01:12:24.220 place you gave us that we are now releasing. We want you, O God, to do these things in 01:12:24.220 --> 01:12:31.220 our midst. There's no other reason for being a church but to be everything that you want 01:12:31.220 --> 01:12:38.220 us to be. So we go over that list one last time, Brandon, if you can just put it up and 01:12:38.220 --> 01:12:45.220 say yes to this, O God, your hands are gentle. Your hands do not harm. Your fire does not 01:12:45.220 --> 01:12:50.220 destroy. And so we look at it and say let this begin with us and then let it spread across 01:12:50.220 --> 01:12:58.220 the earth that you, O God, will, are going to, have begun sending a purifying fire from 01:12:58.220 --> 01:13:04.220 heaven that will burn up all the religious and historical junk in our lives, that you 01:13:04.220 --> 01:13:13.220 will lead us as a divine warrior marching ahead of us. You'll teach us how to war. In 01:13:13.220 --> 01:13:20.220 the process you will deliver young men and women from many nations into the kingdom. 01:13:20.220 --> 01:13:27.220 And you will bring them into the kingdom as sons and daughters. And you'll draw them into 01:13:27.220 --> 01:13:33.220 a circle of dancing of abundance and joy that we haven't really experienced. It's 01:13:33.220 --> 01:13:39.220 not natural for us. We do burst into it occasionally but it's still not part of our DNA. We'd 01:13:39.220 --> 01:13:46.220 like to become like that so that we can show them. And that they would do this before the 01:13:46.220 --> 01:13:51.220 lion and the lamb. They would both know the one who was crucified and the one who rose 01:13:51.220 --> 01:13:58.220 like a lion, not one or the other. And that they would become a torch bearing generation 01:13:58.220 --> 01:14:03.220 that goes forth and will not return empty. So we as a church say thank you for this rich 01:14:03.220 --> 01:14:09.220 privilege. It is so overwhelming that it must be you. It is so overwhelming that only you 01:14:09.220 --> 01:14:17.220 can do it. So thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Bless you guys. Hey, this would not be possible 01:14:17.220 --> 01:14:22.220 if we didn't all do this together. Sometimes when you look back now 17, 18 years later, 01:14:22.220 --> 01:14:29.220 it's magnificent. So thank you. Thank you. If you need prayer, someone has arranged for 01:14:29.220 --> 01:14:36.220 people to be out front here and they'll pray with you. And God will respond because he 01:14:37.220 --> 01:14:38.220 said so.