 Let's go to the Bible. John chapter 12 verse 24, most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. Last week I talked about being in Christ, how God places us in Christ, how God places everything in Christ, not in us directly. We also talked about how God took us out of Adam and through the death of Jesus and the burial of Jesus, He has separated us from the family of Adam to place us into the new race and the family of Jesus. Today I want to speak to you about the other component of the same thing. What does it mean to be, to have Christ in us? Because as a Christian, we are in Christ, amen. But also the Bible says that Christ is in us. So what does that mean? How does that apply in our life? This position that I have in Jesus and now Jesus lives in me, how does that work practically? But before we do that, let's start from the beginning. The death of Jesus Christ had three main aspects. The first one we talked about last month is that Jesus paid for our sins through His blood. The second one is that Jesus took our sin, our old man, and crucified it on the cross. So our old man was crucified on the cross, amen. But there's a third aspect and that's what we're going to talk about today and that is on the cross Jesus also gave his life so that this life can be imparted to his followers. Now unlike your life and my life, the life of Jesus is actually the very life of God. The life of Jesus, what in Greek it says zoe, meaning the very life that God has within him. So on the cross not only he was paying for my sins, on the cross not only he was crucifying the old man but on the cross he released life that now is available to us. I want you to see this in John chapter 12. Jesus is saying as a grain of weed goes into the ground and dies. Have you noticed that the grain of weed dying in the ground has nothing to do with forgiveness of sins and has nothing to do with the removal of the old man. It has to do, so this is what happens with the grain. The grain has life inside that is protected by the outer shell. Once this grain that has a life inside, if you put the grain of weed on the table and the kitchen table and you keep it there for 10 years it will not multiply into 10 grains. If you breathe it, if you breathe on it, if you put it in a microwave it will not multiply. If you put it in a freezer it will not multiply because there is a shell around the grain that protects the life inside of the grain. Jesus Christ carried the life of God but his flesh was the restriction, it was protecting the life of God. So what had to happen on the cross is the flesh had to be ripped. The death of Jesus Christ, what it did is it released the life that Jesus carried and that life is now available and it could be imported to his followers and they become mini grains. We become the sons of God, we become the children of God because Jesus the son, the begotten son of God went into the ground and he broke the shell, he broke his body, he ripped his flesh, the veil was rent open so that we can have the life that God had. Hallelujah. The Bible says John chapter 10 verse 10 that thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but I came to give you life. Now most of us think what that means is this, is that Jesus comes, he heals you and he improves your life a little bit. Most of us, this is what we think, I'm going through loneliness and Jesus comes and he does a remodel to my life. He takes away my loneliness. What Jesus is saying, how does he give us life by giving his life but his life couldn't be released until the shell is broken, until the flesh is ripped, until the grain goes into the ground and the breaking, the decay that happens until the holy body and the life of Jesus is broken, life couldn't be released. So he doesn't give you life meaning he improves your bank account, improves your relationship status. He actually releases his life and imparts it into you. Hallelujah. Jesus died number one for my sins, my sin but also gave his life, ripping his flesh, his flesh being torn, life is being released now and that's the parable of the grain, dying. Not to pay for anybody sins but to release life that is restricted by the shell. What does that mean practically to us right now? That is how you get Christ in you is because he gave his life, the flesh was torn, his life was released so that Christ doesn't just live in one place today, 2000 years ago, he can live in each human being who accepts his sacrifice, forgiveness of sins and we have Christ living in us because he gave his life, he released that life for us. Amen. The second thing I want to highlight today, I'm just building on a little foundation. Humans are beyond repair and God replaces them with Christ. God doesn't remodel them. Before we talk about receiving Christ's life, I want to tell you why it's important and imperative that you understand. God doesn't give life of Jesus to you as an addition to your life. He doesn't give it as an add-on, he gives it as a replacement to your actual life. Now in the Bible it uses this thing about the law, I want you to go with me to Book of Romans and chapter 7 verse 14, it says that the law is perfect, spiritual, but I am not. And then in verse 4 it says this, therefore my brethren, you have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead that you should bear fruit to God. So keep the thought that Jesus died on the cross, not only to pay for my sins, to kill the sin man, the old man, but he also to release his life. Keep that on the side, let's go to this side for just a second. Your ability to meet God's standards, your ability to please God on your own is so flawed, and when I say your ability myself included, is so broken and is so flawed that it's beyond repair. In fact the Bible doesn't say that God came in and saw our inability to keep his standards and lowered his standards to our ability to keep it. You know there was a guy who was teaching a basketball to one of his students and the guy just couldn't jump high because he wasn't very tall and so what he did is he lowered the basketball hoop to the height of the guy who couldn't hit it, so now he was able to come in and just go like this. So that's not what God did. God couldn't lower his standards because God's commandments reflect his nature and God never changes his nature to cater to you and I. So God's commandments are not bad, it's us who are bad. God's commandments are not evil. God's commandments are not the problem, the problem is with us and our inability to jump high enough and so to meet this problem God doesn't lower the hoop and nor does God take us to a training booth or to a training booth camp and says let me teach you to jump higher. See most of us think like this is that God has these standards, you know love your husband honor your husband love your wife you know take care of your children do all of these these high standards and then there's you know the things of walking in purity the things of walking in honesty and these standards are so high and it's so high to keep him and then we know that God won't lower them because they reflect his nature but we're so low we're thinking that all God needs to do is give me a hand to meet those standards but I want you to notice what Paul is saying. Paul is not saying that because we were not able to meet those standards that God came in and helped us God came in and killed us so God didn't kill the law he killed us so if God in his wisdom didn't think you were worth fixing improving renovating he said this is such a mess beyond repair there's only one thing I can do burn this to the ground guess what this is your and my ability to keep God's commandments and he says I want to kill you to the law I died to the law God doesn't kill the law he does not remove the law he kills me to the law the law is still there I'm just dead now when I am dead meaning my ability to keep it my ability to please God through it my ability to be perfect dies and God says now I can marry you to Jesus you can be married to Jesus so you can bear fruit so it's no longer work for God it's no longer trying to please God it's an intimate union with Jesus Christ and out of it comes the fruit that pleases God what am I saying God is not in the renovation business God is in a completed demolition and starting everything from scratch and guess how he starts things new from you not by building you as a new person by placing his son to live inside of you and living it right through you that what it means to have Christ in me meaning my ability to please God it's not just broken flawed it's beyond repair I will never be able to measure up I will never be able to be good enough that's what God thought imagine praying Lord help me to do better when God himself thinks you'll be young repair why pray that prayer it's contradicting God's word and God's assessment of how actually messed up you are you messed up way more than you think that's why when people sometimes say you're bad I say you don't know how bad I'm way worse than you think I'm so bad God didn't even think to he I could be fixed God thought the only solution was to kill because he says this thing can't be fixed if God thought that my friend we should get on board and should give up trying to be good in our own ability why did God give us Christ why is his life necessary because the whatever mechanism you have to live for God is broken beyond repair that is so freeing that is so liberating I knew something was wrong with me I just didn't know it was that bad but now knowing that it was worse than that and that God already has a solution and that is to to kill me and to say I don't want you to live I want my son to live through you now I know some of you are looking at me and you're not convinced yet so let's go just a little bit deeper stop trying and let Jesus live through you look chapter 18 has this story of a young rich ruler and young rich ruler is the goals for every person here not only he was righteous the guy was rich I mean come on let's be honest a lot of us were like man I wouldn't mind have a little bit of money but I was sure I would like to have a lot of money and a lot of morality imagine having money and morality I mean that's it that's what it means to be an American successful Christian you're righteous and God bless your soul you're rich and this guy comes to Jesus and he says this how can I enter the kingdom of God and Jesus highlights the fact that he has one more thing this guy needs to do just one more thing not many things just one thing this guy has done 99 percent right he just needs one more thing and Jesus highlights that he says oh yeah you just need to do one more thing I mean how hard would it be to do that one more thing right when you've done everything right in your life and you can finally please God because you've been disciplined you've been doing good you've tried your best other people are slacking you are exhibiting effort and a lot of strength to please God and now the God of the universe says just one more thing there's just only one problem with that one more thing that one more thing is what he could not do and then disciples come to Jesus scared to death they said Jesus if that is the standard who can be saved and I want you to notice what Jesus says he does not say oh yeah if you just try harder he says it is impossible he doesn't say it's hard he says it is impossible with man the meaning as long as it's you it's impossible now you can get to 90 percent maybe 80 percent but to be what God wants you to be Jesus Christ says it's impossible why try maybe we should stop trying but see most of us think he's like no Jesus you don't realize if I only can get my smoking habit under control I'll get it and you will have that one thing you'll struggle with for the rest of your life until you get to this to this truth it is impossible with man but it is possible with God living on the inside that's look chapter 18 and Jesus demonstrates that it looks after 19 because in look chapter 19 a guy does not come to Jesus to get better Zekias doesn't come and see Jesus how can I get better Zekias is rotten to the bone and honestly he doesn't even want to change you never see Zekias wanting to change Zekias wasn't searching how to become a better husband a better leader or a better tax collector Zekias only one thing he wanted I want to see Jesus and even at that thing he was failing because he was too short until he climbed on the tree and I think that's a symbolic of the cross of Jesus we're all born short of the glory of God but when you come to the cross and the blood of Jesus washes your sins and you get crucified your old man get crucified with Christ the Bible says that Jesus saw Zekias Zekias didn't see Jesus Jesus saw Zekias my friend you are not good enough in yourself but if you come to the cross if you come to the blood Jesus will see you you will have an encounter with Jesus somebody give God some praise for the blood somebody give God some praise for the cross I'm sorry but we're gonna get excited in this church today because we've been washed we've been sanctified we've been redeemed our old man is dead we have been made new creation in Jesus and Zekias meets Jesus on the tree do you want to meet Jesus you may say but I don't want to change I'm not telling you to change I'm telling you to meet Jesus because when you meet Jesus everything changes you can try to change and never meet Jesus Christianity is not about changing it's about exchanging your life with his life it's not about being better it's about realizing you are so bad you are dead but Christ can make you new Christ can make you alive Christ can give you life and Jesus meets Zekias and Jesus asks Zekias Zekias make haste watch this come down from the tree I must be in your house Christ in me watch this he goes to Zekias's house we don't see a mention of Zekias's tax taxes misdealings duping people and lying to people the presence of Jesus in the house of Zekias without Jesus saying Zekias give money he tells the rich ruler who is trying to please God to give money and he can't he walks into a house of a corrupt man the presence of Jesus causes the man to churn his wallet over and says half of my income I will donate whoever I ripped off I will give four times more see this is the difference Jesus in me makes he produces desires he lives through me to produce change I can never ever produce in my own the Lord doesn't come to help you he comes to live through you he doesn't need your help the only help he wants from you is to stay out of his way the only help he needs from you is to quit trying imagine this if there is a semi truck parked in the parking lot today how many of you know that for me to lift a semi truck is impossible but it doesn't mean I cannot not try how many of you know that me trying to lift a semi truck I'm gonna ruin my back I can't lift it at all but the trying actually will hurt me as long as you keep trying you keep getting hurt you can't lift this thing you can't it's impossible you don't need Christ in you if you keep trying Christianity is about surrender it's about trust and it's about Christ in me the hope of glory Galatians chapter two verse 20 it says for I've been crucified with Christ remember the death of Jesus crucifies my old man no longer I Jesus is not coming to renovate my eye he's not coming to help my eye he's not taking my eye to the gym to say you can learn to jump higher no longer I but Christ who lives he doesn't just he's not just in me he lives in me and the life which I now live I live through the Son of God that's incredible you know we talk about anytime I mentioned Christians having demons it irritates people are crazy because of this one phrase Christians cannot be possessed by a demon because that would indicate a demon lives and owns them and this is how Christians usually say because a Christian is possessed by Jesus I've seen possessed people they look act talk funny something else takes over their tongue something else takes over you can see it in their eyes something else looks through them you can see it in their behavior sometimes they will not even differentiate between them and the spirit that is living through them because it mashed mashed itself so close but I think a lot of Christians have only claimed to be possessed by Jesus but in reality he is deep in the glove box of their theological preferences but he's not living Jesus is almost like Paul says I am in suffering until Christ is formed Jesus is not living is he living your life or are you still living yours asking him to help you live your life you don't need Christ in you to help you live your life Christ in you is to live your life and you need to stay out of his way in this way Christian life becomes about Jesus not Jesus about Christian life Philippians says this Paul says for me to live is Christ Paul didn't say I live for Christ he says I live by Christ he says life that I now live is Christ meaning Christ lives in me it's not a theological just a doctrinal statement it's your reality I have someone else living inside he's living through me he's speaking through me he is working through me and he's changing me I am a Christian I am in Christ and Christ is in me church are you picking up what I'm laying down Christian life is not a changed life it's an exchanged life there's a world of difference between asking God to help you to be holy and Christ living in you as your holiness 1 Corinthians 130 it says that God placed us in Christ who has become us our sanctification wisdom redemption and righteousness I wonder how many of us have been deprived of the power of Jesus the life of Jesus living through us because we're trying too hard surrendering too little and the efforts that we put into changing our character there's so the produce work but we're not supposed to produce work we're supposed to produce fruit you can't produce fruit if you're working you can only produce fruit if you're abiding abiding in what meaning I am in Christ Christ is in me Jesus is not my example of how to live Jesus is how I live Jesus is the life I live if Jesus is your model of how to live you will fail miserably like a rich ruler if Jesus is how you live you will be like Zacchaeus changed and surprised by the very change that God is doing in your life and you will be almost like an observer to the work of Jesus in your life I'm not saying that there's going to be no cost and no obedience but a lot of that cost and obedience is letting him live instead of me trying to get better and get stronger the over emphasis on self-esteem teaching in the United States cuts Jesus away because it's all about your self being esteemed Jesus's view is not esteeming your flesh it's killing it Jesus's view is not your self image that's your problem that's my problem in the first place Jesus's solution is this is you're dead to the law you're dead to sin so that Jesus can take the place it's almost like God says I don't trust you anymore I can only trust my son can you please make room for Jesus you're like oh but I'm too messed up I'm too weak oh but I can't quit smoking but you don't understand I am very mean as a person Jesus I have so many problems Jesus says I can handle the problem I'm really good at that if you don't know what I cannot handle is if you don't give me room to work he wants to enter in and he wants to live through you that's what the mystery of Christ in me when Christ who is our life appears then you will appear with him in glory Colossians chapter 3 verse 4 victory doesn't come because we got the power to be more like Jesus but because God gave us Christ to be in the place of us to live through us in the conclusion what does that mean what do I do this week practically will I get it so I just don't do nothing yeah look what what you're doing has got you not very much like a treadmill you're sweating kind of like me right now not going anywhere circles running circles around this pulpit and sweating like crazy and that's how most of our efforts are and so what do you do instead of saying Lord help me to live for you just pray this prayer Lord I can't do it live your life through me let's say you're addicted to smoking and you tried quitting so so for this week stop trying just absolutely so what if I will don't worry about what if and what's going to happen tomorrow this is this is the attitude instead of saying I'm gonna try to quit smoking you simply say that to the Lord in the beginning of the day Lord I can't quit smoking but you can so I'm gonna let you live through me today that's all I'm going to do is I'm gonna quit trying to quit smoking and I'm going to just let you live through me let's say you're a husband and you're not attentive to your wife and your wife is always complaining you forget to tell her that you love her and you forget to hug her and you forget to give her this and you're not very attentive as a husband when you come from work you're constantly zooming out watching television or constantly on your phone and you're like yeah yeah I'm gonna do better but you keep slipping into the same thing so what if you do this what if you stop doing better and you just tell your wife say I'm sorry I'll never be able to change don't worry she may kick you out actually you want to change but okay maybe don't tell her to your wife tell her to the Lord tell her to the Lord say Lord I'm a husband that I just cannot change it just just I just can't change but Jesus I yield to you and I ask you to live through me and be a good husband through me guess what happens you're transferring all the pressure on the Lord right now and I can tell you Jesus can live up for it because he died for that purpose that his life could live through you and Jesus will finally say I am finally finally maybe you're like Martha you're worried and stressed out and you're just so Martha wasn't trying to cook dope in the kitchen Martha was making them sandwiches for Jesus Martha was trying to please Jesus she was giving things to Jesus Jesus never ordered but she thought it would be a nice thing to do and she's frustrated and she's coming and and this is the thing she's like I just need just a little bit of help Mary could you help me Jesus could you help me and this is the thing when you're trying to live for Jesus in your own ability you will always feel like if I could just get a little bit just God I'm not asking for a lot just five percent okay God if you can do five one percent please and you will think Jesus will say yeah yes Martha I don't even know why are we not helping you Mary let's go help Martha Jesus sits there completely ignores her please to help him Jesus Martha you got this whole thing wrong you should quit doing whatever you're doing the only thing that you need to do is at my feet if you think God's gonna help you to live better the only thing he's gonna tell you stop trying come be with me be in my word surrender to me so that it could help more people to discover this video it costs you nothing but it can go a long way to help with the algorithm as well as if you're not subscribed to our channel 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