 Good morning and welcome everyone to this second week of classes second week of doing This course BC 110 on our identity in Christ And all of our people are Connecting right now Just let them Come in. All right So good morning everyone's again Let's take a moment just to pray and then we will get started to spray together and We will have a wonderful time Just drawing out of the word of God and trying out of God's heart Let's pray together Just want to invite someone to please Unmute your mic and just lead us in a word of prayer and just Name of Lord Jesus Christ Man, thank you We didn't necessarily All of it, but thank you. Thank you for leading us. All right, so Good morning hero one We're going to just quickly review what we did Last week and we got started and then we will go forward in our last today And the things we wish to cover So I'm gonna share my screen so we can together look at the notes and then Just quickly review what we did last week So as we introduce this course on our identity in Christ, you know, this is one of the most important Relations in New Testament scripture by Paul primarily through Paul and then through the other apostles God has unveiled for us what he has done for the new creation in Christ and this is so important for every believer for us to understand this truth of our identity our Inheritance in our life in Christ and to live out of that So as a class as we journey through this course this semester I want each one of us to be able to really Assimilate this truth this revelation receive it into your heart your life and then impart it to other people You know, you need to know this so well so that you will be able to teach it And you will be able to impart it to other people, you know in your area in your communities and share the truth of in God's people because many Believers many of God's people are they're good people? But they haven't received this revelation. They don't know this truth Of the new creation who we are in Christ And so we must help them understand that we need to be able to share it with them So we can all live out of our identity our inhabitants and our life in Christ So quickly to review, you know, we just gave the analogy of An orphan Boy who has nothing to his name living in the slums if he's adopted by a you know of a family That that's wealthy that has everything They adopt him his life completely changes Right because now he isn't totally he's been adopted and he's been accepted into this family He has the family name. He's got everything taken care of but this boy has to change his thinking and he has to Embrace what has happened in his life and live out of it. He shouldn't go back to his old life In the slums If any reason he has to go to the slums It'll be only to bring more people out from there and give them a better life so What we have said is the way God works is that he completes the work and then he invites us to live out of that He says I will do the work for you Which is what he did for us in Christ and then he says live out of what I've done for you And that's what this study is going to lead us into to understand what God has done for us in Christ And then we live out of that So we must know this truth and how will this truth change a life? It will change our self-image the baby look at ourselves It will change the baby relate to God in worship. It will change the way we face situations in life It'll change our lifestyle will make us victorious people who people will walk in dominion and authority Now it will change the way we face demons the morning powers will not be fearful I will not be intimidated, but Satan and his demons will tremble before us when we confront them I will change the way we relate to people If you learn to look at people with love and compassion believe what God has placed in their lives And recognize what God is doing in them. So I'll change the way we relate to people Ultimately, we will all you know if we learn to walk out of who we are in Christ We will walk just like Jesus That's that's the whole purpose the reason God brought us into Christ is so that we could be like Christ We could walk like Jesus and that's a journey We are going to make so It's we started this year last week. We looked at the some of these scriptures. I'm just quickly reviewing now We looked at John 40 19 20 by Jesus foretold the time When his disciples will know this revelation that you know, he said you will know that you are in me And I am in you and that's in John 14 verse 20 You are in me and I am in you you will know that so he Told them in that day the time is coming and so sure enough that revelation was given to the church through the apostles another way Jesus communicated this truth for us is and The picture of the wine and the branches. He said I'm the wine. You are the branches So, you know, we made many important statements here. We said, you know, we are really Connected to Jesus spiritually. We are connected to him. You are spiritually connected to Jesus And his life is flowing in you just as the life of the wine flows into the branches Right. So what's in him is in you And and and be there the fruit we express His life flowing through us and and that's what we are journeying to discover the life of Christ in us Then we went into this whole passage in Ephesians chapter one We read the first 14 verses and we Highlighted a few things from that that passage We said that in these 14 verses There are about 16 descriptors of Of believer in Christ says, you know Paul says This is who you are in Christ. You're blessed. You're chosen You're holy. You're blameless. You're covered in love. You're predestined. You're adopted. You're a people of praise Having said that we you know, we We need to affirm God's word for our lives That this is who we are We are who we are in Christ Is who we really are and I want to encourage you to say that very often, you know Make that a part of your life Every day or every so often just declare, you know who I am in Christ Is who I really am that's my identity That describes my inheritance and that's the life I live I live out of who I am in Christ You know, um, so learn to Live out of that. Let me just see if I think there are a lot of people waiting here We just submit all of them Okay, um, can you all hear me? Okay. It's my audio. Okay. Yes, master Yeah, okay Okay, so welcome everyone. I'm just going to go back to Um sharing the pdf and The kid follow with me there All right So learn to affirm these things about yourself, you know, and I've just given a little summary here On page 10 and you know, you and I can as we go through the scriptures I want you to take a hold of these things and say this is who I am Who I am in Christ That's who I really am Right. Don't let other people define your identity You know people may call you smart and people may call you foolish People may call you, you know this or that or whatever in different people will have different opinions about you But your identity is not based on somebody else's opinion about you Your identity is based on who you are In Christ on who God has made you to be in Christ So you and I must just be firm in that, right? My identity is who I am in Christ and I'm going to live out of that Right. So you learn to say and I'm blessed with every blessing from God. I am chosen. I am holy. I'm set apart I'm blameless without fault and righteousness site. I'm covered in his love. I'm totally loved by the father Um, I'm predestined according to his purposes and I'm adopted as a child in his family I'm a I'm a person for his praise displaying his glory I'm accepted in the beloved You know, I'm redeemed by his blood. I am forgiven In Jesus I'm a recipient of his abounding grace I'm part of those who are have been gathered in Jesus I have a rich spiritual inheritance in Jesus I've been sealed with the holy spirit. I'm as much as possession You learn to say these things about yourself um You don't have to Say it in front of other people. You're not trying to impress other people when you It's strengthening you you're in a man It's strengthening you your understanding and your acceptance of these truths and also it's a powerful You know, it's a it's a wonderful thing for God to hear you say that that you know God hears our confession. He hears what we say and so he says yeah, this child is accepting my word This child is accepting what I've done for him or her And you know, so you affirm that and also it's a and we affirm this. It's a powerful weapon against the enemy right we overcome Satan by the blood of the lamp and by the word of our testimony so we need to testify to what God has done, right? So testify these things So some of the things we highlighted as we progressed was we said this is a finished work You know, many of these things that that we saw in this passage are in the past or present tense That means, you know, he has blessed us. He already chose us. He already predestined us. We have been accepted We are redeemed. We have obtained an inheritance. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit So these are things God has already done. He's not, you know, planning to do that for us sometime in the future He says, look, I've already done this for you. It's completed. It's a finished work in christ So we need to learn to live out of that finished work Another thing we emphasized last week is that This is something that is done for us in heavenly places That means it is it is in the spiritual realm. This is a spiritual reality So just like in the natural we all have, you know, our identity, you know, we've all been born into somehow soul we live in some part of the world We have we have our own each one of us have our, you know, different social bringing cultural upbringing Some sort of an education some sort of a profession all those things, you know, we have in the natural But and those are realities in the natural but in the spiritual Your reality is defined by who you are in christ That's your spiritual identity. That's your spiritual inheritance And just as in the natural You know, we go about when people ask you who you are and which family you're from where you live You know, you say those things, you know In the natural So also we need to recognize this is our spiritual identity And the spiritual is more powerful than the natural Because everything in the natural is subject to the spiritual And so we need to learn to live out of our spiritual Identity that we have in christ So that's about where we Progress Till last week. So I just want to pause there and Just ask if anybody has any questions of What we did, I mean, I've just quickly reviewed any questions Any things you want me to clarify anybody? Everybody's everybody's been following these This so far everything is okay Yeah, we just did a quick review And uh, and we will be more than happy to answer this questions Go ahead. Did I see you've raised your hand up? I will Pause sharing and we'll take your question. Go ahead Thank you. Thank you so much master. My question is When we say to live out of the spiritual into the natural so like, um, you know How do we apply it in our lives like love live out of the spiritual into the natural Yeah, thank you. So So what we will learn Is that there are Certain ways uh by which This we Which god has given to us in the bible By which we can bring we can there's certain things we can do To cause the spiritual to bear upon the natural so for instance And we can look at it in different areas of our life But let's pick a few examples for instance If somebody speaks and says something about us, you know, say you about me About any one of us, you know, somebody says something And it's negative Now if I want I can believe what they say I can listen to what they say or I can choose to believe who I am in christ And take hold of that example If somebody is or you know, you you you you're not going to amount Choose to take hold of the word and the word of god says I am list with every search of blessing in every basis The word of god says God always causes me to triumph in christ the word of god says That I am born of god and I overcome the world So Instead of listening to what they are saying I'll say, you know, I don't have to tell them But to me between me god and against the devil. I said no I reject what they're saying. I believe god's word I believe my identity I am who I am my who I am in christ is who I really am Okay, so I don't let what people say Define myself image and what I think about myself But I let the word of god and who I am in christ and the life I have in him define What I think about myself. That's one example. That means We are forming our self image our confidence Everything based on our identity in christ what god has said about who we are in christ one example Another example could be when we are facing challenges in life You know, maybe something unexpected happens You know, we'd be say oh, there's a storm or there's a Challenge there's a difficulty whatever it may be a financial problem. It may be You know what people are causing anything something unexpected happens in life In that situation, I am not perturbed. I'm not disturbed But in that situation I say god doesn't matter what's happening Your word says that you always cause me to triumph in christ So in this situation, I'm expecting to come out victorious I'm not denying that there's a storm. I'm not denying that there may be a mountain in my way I'm not denying that there may be a big challenge But I am just choosing to live out of who I am in christ But in christ God always causes me to triumph So then When I do that I'm walking by faith and then god that gives god an opportunity to work In my life situation now sometimes If a believer does not know this what what would their response be and i'm just speaking normally, you know naturally So a believer finds themselves in a very difficult. Oh Oh god, why am I going through this? Maybe god is angry with me. Oh, I'm going to suffer and all that Instead of living out of what god has done for us in christ They live a very A life like a victim a life that is subject to the circumstances You know, that's another you know just an example so like this You know, we can think of various situations in life when it comes to dealing with sin there's so many believers who are trapped in sin and they may be believers for many years But uh They have not seen victory in the lives or sin or habits or problems things so They can just say oh, I have to live like this the rest of my life or if they know the truth And one of the truths that we learn is that the in christ the power of sin over our lives is broken So what we do we say no, that's the truth Sin will not have the meaning over me I'm not going to let any of these things control me and what happens when they begin to live out of their life in christ They begin to walk victorious over sin So these are just some examples that and this is what we mean they to live out of this truth And that means we speak the what god has said we Act on that word and that word becomes a reality in our lives Thank you. Thank you best All right, so let's go forward From where we stopped We're going to I'm just share the notes here. So all of us can See and Uh, you know just follow that being so this is um in the pdf that we gave last week So this mystery So this this whole truth the reason we say it's a revelation is because Paul writes about this And he uses the word the mystery the mystery of his will That means this was something god had planned to do But he kept it like a secret a mystery and of course This mystery is christ christ himself is the mystery of god And everything that unfolded through christ is part of this mystery So this revelation of our identity in christ is part of this mystery that In the fullness that that you know god made it known Our god revealed it to The apostles, you know at the right time so This was had kept secret God had already planned it before the foundation of the world But he had kept the secret until the time came. He says okay I'm gonna unveil this secret So christ came he was the mystery of god to us unveiled to us And everything that god unfolded in christ god began to reveal and said this is what i've done for you This is what i've done for you in christ and so You know again paul writes in Ephesians 3 that by revelation god made known To him the mystery right so god revealed this mystery To the apostle paul so like i said this mystery has to do with christ And to everything god would unfold in christ and so he explains this to us part of this mystery was revealed by the spirit To the apostles and prophets he says that and what is the part of that mystery the gentiles should be fellow heirs The gentiles would also be saved and they would come into the same body Right and they would partake of the promise in christ So notice that word there that phrase again in christ He says you know gentiles to be brought in people to be brought in and we will all share In this promise in christ so this In christ what god was going to give to us in christ is part of this mystery Which has been put for us in the holy scriptures And so that's what we are studying. We are missing. Okay god May our eyes be opened to know this mystery so that you know, we can understand it And we can live out of it So as we mentioned last week in that same chapter in Ephesians 1 The apostle is praying apostle paul prays He tells him Ephesians, you know, i'm making mention of you in my prayers So says look i'm praying for you and what is he praying? He says that god the father will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him So i want god to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation that means the holy spirit Has to unveil this to us Right. So for each one of us as we journey through this course, we're saying holy spirit open my eyes help me to understand this Right. And so paul prays here and he says i'm praying for this What what should be he mentions four things. He says i want you to know him That you may know The hope of his calling I want you to know the hope of his calling I want you to know the riches of his inheritance In the saints and i want you to know the greatness of his power towards us Who believe right. So he says i want you to know these four things. I want you to know him I want you to know the the future the hope he has called you to I want you to know the inheritance is made available. I want you to know the great power That's towards us who believe right So that's what we Are our journey to understand These these things the inheritance that god has given to us right, so As part of this revelation, right, we must understand our human spirit You know, we're all spirit soul and body Our human spirit has seven functions at least seven functions So the human spirit has what we refer to as a function of conscience Which is to tell us what's right and wrong It has a function of knowing that means our spirit has to receive Revelation knowledge like how we educate our mind in some way we have to you know educate or grow in knowledge in our spirit Our human spirit has the ability to commune with god The human spirit is a container Of the life nature and power god. So god puts things into our spirit The human spirit also carries the identity so This is who god has made us to be and so we have to learn to live out of that In the spiritual realm When the spiritual realm looks at you They see you as who you are in christ See the natural When people look at you they know who you are or you are, you know, you're so and so you live in this place This is your family etc But in the spiritual Your human spirit has an identity And the identity you carry in the spiritual realm is who you are in christ That's the identity and the spiritual world recognizes that And that's you know, something important for us to know That in the spirit, this is who I am and therefore the rest things I can do from the realm of the spirit To affect the natural world to affect things that are happening here on earth I can do this because I have an identity Yeah, our human spirit can also take action By believing we pray we intercede we speak words of faith the exercise of faith that's taking action And our human spirit also grows There's seven functions of the human spirit people study about this later in our second year In depth. I'm just outlined this for us here But in our second year, you know talk about each of these in detail And and we'll get into it All right, but What I want to emphasize is this knowing part We have to grow in revelation Right, that means our human spirit needs to grow in knowledge Just as our mind in the natural we keep on learning things In the spiritual our human spirit needs to be filled with revelation knowledge with the knowledge of the truth Of the word of god, right and knowledge comes through Revelation comes through perception and illumination Right, that means we have we need eyes that can see But we also need light that comes from the holy spirit Right, if you have light, but if our eyes are not opened Then it's no use Or if our eyes are open, but if there's no light, you're not going to be able to see things clearly so We have to pray and say god open my eyes And help me to receive the illumination That comes from the holy spirit. So when when we have perception and illumination We will be able to receive revelation of god's word and our spirit is able to grow So Here again, I just mentioned here that Paul once again talks about this mystery It has been hidden from ages and from generations collusion set the one verse 26 and 27 But now has been revealed to his saints So look at that now has been revealed to his saints God wants all of his saints all of his people To know this revelation what he has revealed What he has put in the scriptures. He wants all his people to know So I want to encourage each of us You know, we need to learn these truths and we need to share it with others and say this is who we are in christ so one of the things this is Maybe just one or two more points here on this One of the things that we must understand is we need to grow in Knowledge, right? So Paul writes about the new man In collusion three Was just nine and ten. He says you've put off the old man And you put on the new man And he says something about the new man. It's being renewed in knowledge So the new man is constantly Being renewed it's in knowledge According to the image of god who created it Right, so that means this it's it's continuously being receiving knowledge About god and what he has done For the new man The passion translation puts it like this For you have a quite new creation life Which is continually being renewed into the likeness of the one who created you Giving you the full revelation of god So we are you know, we're progressing in this revelation of god And as you're progressing in the revelation of god the inner man is also, you know being Groving into that likeness and becoming more and more like jesus right, so The goal of the study is to really receive revelation Of who we are in christ And grow into becoming more and more like christ so We're going to get into section two. We're going to start start talking about the new man Let me pause here and see if there are any questions Anybody has any questions at this time? Anyone? Everyone's following me. Everyone's Yeah Good good Okay, so we're going to go forward now. We're going to get into The next chapter here And I'll share the pdf so we could follow along right So Let's start talk. Let's spend some time understanding a few things about the new creation Could somebody read these? Seven Second Corinthians 5 17 18 Therefore if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation All things have passed away. Behold all things have become new Now all things are of god who has reconciled us to himself Through jesus christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you All right. All right Okay, so now These verses are very familiar to many of us You know, we read them often But we want to understand what these scriptures say, right? It says if anyone is in christ So that's what we're talking about being in christ Right But now It says if anyone so that's good news right that means it's for all of us Doesn't matter who we are How does it matter? You know, what our background is This is for everybody if anyone That's good news But then how did we get into christ? You know, how did how did we start that? life in christ What does it mean to be in christ? What does it mean? We want to understand that right if anyone is in christ He's a new creation What is that, you know, what is a new creation and What does it mean? because We can look at ourselves and say well, you know before I Received christ, you know, I I looked like this and I was so so tall and I was You know like that and after I prayed the prayer of salvation I was still the same. I still looked the same. I was the same height and whatever What is this new creation about? You know, and it says all the things all the things Have passed away What does it mean for all the things to pass away? right For some people Some old things will be still troubling them. So they're like, hmm Why is why are some old things still troubling me? Right, how can I get free from those old things? And it says here all things Have become new Well, what does that mean? What does it mean for all things to become new? And it also says all things are of God What does that mean? Right? So we want to spend some time here Trying to really understand this. So this is foundational for all the details Right And then they're going to delve into all the pieces of who we are at christ Create a picture of our identity or our inhabitants and then it's okay. This is how we live out of this And this is how you can live victoriously out of this, right? So Like we emphasized already anyone can come into christ, right? Anyone is welcome. Anyone can have this privilege of being in christ now He said he also says if anyone's in christ, he's a new creation. So jesus talking about this new life Sorry paul is mentioning new life And when you go back into the teachings of jesus We find that jesus already spoke about new life Right, he just put it in a different way He said unless a man is born again Unless a man is born again He cannot see the kingdom of god. This is in john chattat three and worse three So you need to be born again Now that word born again It simply means to be born from above You know, it needs to be born from above or born anew So he says unless you're born from above Or born anew. So jesus already spoke about this. You know, he said You need to be born from above You need to be born anew So we can understand here that this new life jesus talking about is a life that comes from above. It comes from god and jesus already, you know mentioned about this new life to us Even before paul wrote becoming a new creation jesus said When you're born from above You're born anew or you have this new life And that's what enables you to be part of the kingdom But he has also indicated to us that this is being born of the spirit so this being born again Which means to be born from above do you see right from god from above Which means to be born anew Also means to be born of the spirit Means this is a work that the holy spirit does And sure enough when the scriptures were written for us You know, these things were addressed The bible says that bendy receive him He gives us the right to become children of god. This is john chapter 1 verse 12 and 13 And we are not born of blood or the will of the flesh But we are born of god so How do we receive this new life? Well, we receive him We welcome jesus as lord as savior of our lives and they said you are my lord You are my savior. I believe in you. I believe what you've done I give my life to you and then what happens he gives us this life from above And we are born of god at that moment What happens the word of god and the holy spirit bring new life into us for speed of 123 says we are born again We are born again How by the word By the word of god So we are born again by the word and then Titus chapter 3 verse 5 says that we are regenerated and renewed By the holy spirit So there are two things that happen We hear the word of god And at that moment when we say yes to jesus the holy spirit comes And to the action of the word of god and to the action of the holy spirit We are born again or we are regenerated and Renewed made new Through the word and through the holy Spirit Right. So that's what this new creation. That's how it happens to us Jesus spoke about it And how it happens is and we hear the word And we say yes to jesus The holy spirit Works in us and he gives us new life And he renews us and makes us New creation now We are going to Delve delved into this a little bit more How did we get into christ So we ask that question What the bible is telling us this this in first current in chapter one per study could somebody read that for us You could read both from the new king james and the good news bible what we have here in the notes Can somebody read it for us But of him you are in christ jesus who became for us wisdom from god and righteousness and sanctification and redemption The god has brought you into union with christ jesus and god has made christ to be our wisdom By him we are put right with god. We become gods holy people and our secretary Thank you So notice what it says here But of him You are In christ jesus. That's what we are studying So you'll find this phrase in christ jesus so many places We already see it in second current in spy 17. We saw it several times in infusion chapter one Now we're seeing it again in first current But of him You are in christ jesus or what does that mean? It says god brought you God brought you Into union with christ jesus So god brought you This is a work of god A preacher can't do this for you a pastor can't do this for you church membership can't do this for you But god brought you into christ So at the time when we said yes to jesus Received jesus as our lord and our savior And the when we heard the word of god and the holy spirit worked in us giving us new life What happened god brought us Into union with christ jesus And in this one verse he gives us a little glimpse Of what it means to be in christ or you know and and and we will we will Explain a lot of this in the weeks to come but he gives a little glimpse. He says because you're in christ christ Becomes for us Christ becomes or God made christ to be So when god brought you into christ And you are in christ It means All who christ is becomes yours So to be in christ To be in union with christ Means all who christ is Becomes mine Because he says you are in christ jesus who that is christ became for us And then he gives a few things Wisdom from god Our righteousness our sanctification and our redemption And that is not a complete list obviously Because christ is more than just wisdom righteousness sanctification redemption jesus is much more than that But what the what he's telling us is as god brought you into christ You're in christ and when you're in christ all who christ is becomes yours Christ is wisdom That's available to you Christ becomes your wisdom Christ is righteousness. That's available to you Christ becomes your righteousness Christ is the great sanctifier That becomes yours. You are sanctified in him christ becomes your sanctification Christ is the great redeemer that becomes yours Christ is your redemption in him. You are the redeemed So this is very powerful. It's very simple very powerful God brought us into christ And christ becomes for us Everything he has He becomes wisdom from god He becomes our righteousness. He becomes our sanctification. He becomes our redemption. He becomes our healer He becomes our deliverer. He becomes our victor He becomes our provider everything christ is becomes yours because you are in christ so How did we get into christ god brought you Into union with christ jesus right then The next thing And let's just read this before we go for a break. Could somebody read Ephesians 2 to 10 for us, please Go ahead Ephesians 2 10 for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works Which god prepared beforehand beforehand that we should walk in them. Thank you. Thank you Notice it says we are his workmanship. That's we are something god is doing And the greek that actually is poema That means we are god's poetry is what he's saying or we are god's work of art So we are his workmanship. We are god's Art work work of art poetry. We are his workmanship Created in christ jesus now that phrase again in christ jesus. That's what we've been talking about who we are in christ but I just want to emphasize and we will come back to many of these verses over and over again But I just want to emphasize the word created created So when God put us in christ He created us in christ To be to be created is different from just being remodeled To create means you're bringing something into existence that didn't exist before To run away to to remodelments. You are just taking something. It's already there and just you know, maybe Painting it a fresher, you know giving it a little touch up So god didn't just give us a touch up and put us into christ. No, he created us in christ That means something that didn't exist came into existence. That's why we had a new creation And for us to become new creation the old had to be completely gone So I want you to understand this You are created in christ meaning something completely new The old has no more claim over your life or my life The old is gone and we are created in christ jesus That means We became something we were not earlier What did not exist came into existence When we came into christ jesus Okay, so I'm going to pause here. It's our Break time. I just want to give you enough time. We need to go for your break and Have a quick break And then when we come back, you know, feel free to ask your questions if you have any doubts So welcome to do that and then we will continue. Okay, so I'll see you all in 10 minutes Thank you