 Every one of us, I was meeting with the person after the first service and they said, my co-worker, they said this about Christianity. As long as you're a good person, you're a Christian. Many people, when they think of Christianity, they think it's all about good behavior. I don't have to go to church as long as I'm a good person, I'm a Christian. Whether what I believe, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, as long as you're a good person, that is not what is what it means to be a Christian. Amen. Maybe it's what it means to be an American. Maybe what it means to be a religious person, but to be a Christian is something different. Two months ago, I remember I was driving to a Vanatchi, took some time off to be with God. And as I'm driving there, I'm crying out deep in my heart and I'm praying in my heart, in my car, and I'm saying, Lord, I want to be closer to you, God, I just want to be closer to you. I'm taking next three nights and I'm closing everything off. I just want to be closer to you. And I felt like I heard God speak back to me and he said, you can't get closer to me than you are already. Because you are already in me. You can only get deeper. You can get rooted and grounded in me, but he says, you're trying to get to a place, you're already in. He says, I want you to live out of this place. Don't get into this place. And that's what I want to talk about today. I believe what I'm going to share with you, if you listen with your heart, it can forever change how you view your relationship with God. And I believe it's more gospel-centric and scriptural than whatever the ideas we grew up with. For example, the Bible mentions word Christian three times, but the word in Christ is mentioned over 70 times. In fact, if you were to use the Bible to define what it means to be a Christian, it would not be Christian. In fact, the word Christian twice out of three times was mentioned, it was given to us by the secular world. The word Christian is not God's word for you. God's statement and definition of you is in Christ. Not Christ-like, first in Christ. And when you are in Christ, you spend time with Christ so you can be like Christ. It's not trying to be like Jesus, be with Jesus so I can one day get into Jesus. It's being in Jesus so that I can be with Jesus to be like Jesus. This is not mental gymnastics, this is not a play of words. This is a game changer of what the gospel, what the good news, what Jesus reveals to us. I find it interesting as I started to read the New Testament, I see the New Testament is written, majority of the New Testament is written by Paul. You have to understand one thing about Paul. Paul's mission and calling was to the Gentiles, which is you and I, most of us here today are not Jews, we're Gentiles. And you see that Paul's writings always said in Christ, in him, through him. It's almost like Paul made a big deal about Jesus. I find it interesting and I ask myself a question. Why did Paul, and where did Paul get the revelation of in Christ? I have an idea, just my idea, take it, leave it. When Paul met Jesus first time, I think it shook him with the fact that when he was persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Jesus. Because Jesus said, Paul, why are you persecuting? He didn't say, why are you persecuting Christians? He says, why are you persecuting me? And I think Paul got a revelation. Jesus doesn't just relate to Christians. Jesus is in Christians and Christians are in Jesus. And I think it opened a world. I want to be a part of a faith where the God is not somebody I try to connect to. It's someone that I live in. This is not us being God, it's us being in Jesus. And that's why Paul's revelation is so powerful. You would think Paul would go to the Gentile pagan, people with garbage stuff, the things that pagans did was just crazy. You would think Paul would come in and bring Christian morals. Say, you guys are bunch of heathens. You practice, you have no sexual morality. You don't know how to manage your finance. Let me tell you the 10 commandments. Because even if you don't accept Jesus, at least you can accept Christian principles and live a better life. Paul never preached the commandments. Knowing it could change your life. He always preached Christ. Because as our sisters shared today, you can change everything about your life, applying Christian principles and the law. But the core of who you are is never changed until we get Jesus. Amen. In Book of Acts, when Paul is speaking to a lot of pagans, people who don't believe in God and he's saying to them, he says, God created us. He says, he created boundaries for our existence on earth. And then he says this, is that God gave us a time within these boundaries that God created us in. So that people will seek God, meaning you and I have a purpose and that is to seek God. And then he says this, that we will grope for him, try to feel him, try to find him. And because God is not very far from us. And you will think, yeah, yeah, that's the purpose, constantly pressing into God, constantly seeking God. Yeah, I feel that. I just, sometimes I feel God, sometimes I don't, sometimes he's close, sometimes he's not near to me. As you're thinking, this is the Christian existence, but it's not. Because then Paul says this, but we are in him. He shifts the game from trying to grope for God, feel God, am I in him? Is he close? Am I close? Am I too far? How can I get closer to God? And he says, we are in him. See, there are people without God, there are people trying to get to God. Christians are not those, Christians are in Christ. Not with Christ to be in Christ. We are in Christ so that we are with him. And that's a whole game. It's a game changer. Let's start from the beginning. And the reason, one of the reasons that I'm bringing, it may seem like a very huge foundational teaching is because we are in a culture today that is confused of what it means to be a believer. What it means to be a Christian. And another thing is a lot of Christians have worldly views of what it means to be a Christian, which hinders their intimacy with God. In Genesis chapter two, if you have your Bible, I want you to open it with me. In Genesis chapter two and verse 15, it says the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden. Let's go to the beginning. God did not create birds until he created the air. God did not create fish until he created water. God did not create man until he created the earth and the garden. God always creates an environment and element and then he creates living beings to live in that environment. God did not create a suspend us in the air and says, hold on, let me just create everything else for you to live in. The same way we do, we don't birth children and then we go trying to find a crib. We buy the crib and then we bring the children. So God makes the crib and then he brings the baby. God makes the crib and the crib for humanity was the garden of Eden. And once the garden of Eden was made, it's God's home office, it's God's headquarters. It's garden of Eden was more than just a beautiful garden where Adam was running around but naked, eating fruits, living there and having his residential area there. Garden of Eden was actually a convergence between God's spiritual family and God's earthly family. To that point where sometimes they overlapped and a serpent showed up walking and talking and Eve didn't run. Because I think it's not a first time that Eve and Adam have witnessed spiritual beings in their midst. I think once in a while people would come from that realm to this realm and interact with humans and it was normal. Two realms were combined. Adam lived in that garden. Adam lived off of that garden because he ate there. Adam got married there. Adam's world was in the garden. God's presence was there. But Adam through sin, through deception, through the lie of the serpent, he gets kicked out of the garden. I want you to notice what begins to happen after that. Adam starts having children. Guess where all the children of Adam were born outside of the garden? None of them were born inside. That means every descendant of Adam came outside of the element of God's presence. Out of the relationship with God, you and I were descendants of Adam. And the proof for that, even if you don't believe in the Bible, you do know one thing. There is a natural inclination within you to do bad. You don't have to train yourself. You don't have to take classes to do bad. It comes very natural. You don't have to develop, muster up strength to do bad. It's very natural to do bad. And this is what happens. We're descendants of Adam. And we, God placed Adam in the beginning, in his presence, he's supernatural. I believe placed him there. Adam was kicked out of that presence because of sin. And then God is working a plan to bring us back, not into the garden, but to bring us into something else, actually into Jesus Christ. Because in John chapter 15, Jesus says, my father and watch the image, watch the image of the garden again. He says, my father, he didn't say he's a law giver. He is the vine dresser. My father is the farmer. My father is the gardener. And Jesus does not say, you are divine. Like Israelites believe that the Israel was divine. Jesus says, I am divine. God takes me and plants me on the earth's soil. And God takes Christians and he places us in Jesus Christ. But hold on, because we cannot get into Jesus until we get out of this bad boy, Adam. When I started to talk to my wife on Facebook, that was about 13 years ago, there was another girl I was talking to at the same time. Bad, I know, 100%, wrong. So there was this girl before Lana that I kind of was interested in. And I said it in the morning, an accident. Deer, word deer, I guess the word deer bring a flag or trigger something. So she said, why are you talking? Why did you call me deer? So I told her that I had feelings for her. And then there was this pause from seven o'clock in the morning till seven p.m. And so my heart almost stopped. I almost died. I was like, what happened? Am I gonna get a police at my house or something? And then in the evening, I get the email that every guy doesn't wanna get the email that starts with your first name, Mr. When it starts with a Mr. from a girl that you just said you have feelings for, you know it's not gonna be a good email. And if it's an email, that's already bad. And it started with the whole thing with my brother in Christ. I'm like, oh, yep, I know where it's going and stuff. And I just don't see you that way, hurt my feelings, but at the same time, I was freed. But I continued to talk to this person because there was no one else until I meet Lana. And then when the moment I met Lana and I was talking to Lana, there's something I had to do. I had to stop talking to the person that rejected me. And so, and then I pretty much, and it was so easy to stop talking to her. I simply stopped. I didn't even notify what happened that I met somebody else. I just simply stopped responding. She got the message and it just moved on. That's exactly before God can place you into Jesus. He has to get you out of Adam. Because a lot of us, what we want to do is we wanna stay within Adam. We wanna stay with our ex and stay in our next. God wants to, has to exit you out of Adam and place you into Jesus. You cannot be in Jesus until you exit Adam. Are you with me? Now, how does God get us out of Adam? He brings Jesus on the cross. Jesus dies for our sins. He takes care of this penalty, this bill that we have. And unlike the government that cancels your $10,000 college debt, but in reality, somebody else is gonna be paying that. God actually takes the payment upon himself for our sins. He lets Jesus take the blame for our sin, the penalty for our sin, and something else happens on the cross. God takes the old me that I got from Adam and he crucifies it with Jesus. Romans chapter six and verse six says the following, knowing this, that our old man, that part that I got from being born outside of the presence of God, our old man was crucified with him. So not only Jesus died for my sin, I died with Jesus because God could not bring me in without take me out. How did I get into Adam through birth? How can I get out of Adam through death? I am born into the Savchuk family through birth. The only way I exit that family is through death. I am born into Adam, into sin, into separation from God, constantly groping, trying to find God. But the access is closed and God says, I cannot bring you into my son until I take you out of your sin. And the way I take you out of the sin is I let Jesus die for your sins. And while he's dying, I'm gonna take your old man and attach it to the cross. For those of you coming for the first time, you're like, man, why is he screaming? This is so exciting. This is a good news. And I get happy when I talk about the good news. It's kind of like when you get something new and you come in and even if you're a reserved, quiet person, you get all bubbly because it's a good news. So, but that's not what it ends. Jesus is crucified. I am crucified with Jesus. And then in Romans chapter six and verse four, it says, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death. Every dead person has to be buried, correct? If you keep a dead person in the house for more than two weeks, something is not right. Dead people have to be buried, not carried. But it's also wrong to bury people who are not dead. That's a crime, right? Now, so I was crucified with Jesus Paul is saying, so this changes your perspective on the cross. The cross is not just the place where he's dying for you. A cross is a place where you're dying with him. The atom part outside of the garden, that part that got kicked out of God's presence, tries to get in, but the access is closed. The password is changed. Somebody changed the lock. That part, God doesn't change that part. God doesn't cleanse that part. God has no mechanism to fix that part. It's so messed up, God says, I have to kill it. You entered it through birth, you're gonna exit it through death and through the son's death on the cross. But now since it's dead, we gotta do something with it. We gotta bury that bad atom. Where do we bury? How do we bury? Through the baptism. Some of us don't realize when you got baptized, that was your funeral. And some people got baptized without knowing that they died. We're still praying, say, Lord, kill the old man. That's what, that means we don't know we died. Lord God, please help me to crucify the old man. That means you're still living as though you're not dead. As a Christian, the Bible says that's a historic fact. Jesus died on the cross and my old man was died there. Then it was buried through baptism. And now Jesus rose again three days later and in 1 Peter chapter one verse, 1 Peter chapter one verse three, it says, blessed be the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again, born again, to a living hope through the resurrection. So in Jesus's death, I die to this old race. Through the baptism, I am buried and as Jesus rose again, I am begotten again. I am born again. So I am not stuck in between two houses, two families. I am born again now in a new family where the head of the family is Jesus. He's not outside of the garden, he is in God. And I am in Jesus. When I was born in Adam, I was outside of the garden. But I have to get out of Adam through this long process called the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection. And this is the process by which God got me out of Adam. And through his resurrection, he places me in Jesus. Jesus is already inside of God's garden because he's God's vineyard. And I am the branch in that vineyard. Come on somebody, whoo, come on, thank you Jesus. First Corinthians chapter one verse 30, it says, but of him, but of him you are in Christ. But of him, meaning that is the work of God to place you into Jesus. But of him you are in Christ, who has become for us the wisdom, the redemption, the righteousness, the sanctification. We are in Christ because of God. It's not because I went on a 40 day fast. It's not because it's been 52 days, 52 Sundays that I have not missed church. I tied every single week out on cuss, out on smoke, out on sleep with my girlfriend. And now I have worked and deserve to be in Christ. You don't get into Jesus like that. You never got into Adam through sin. You got into Adam through birth. You get into Jesus through birth, but you can't even get to birth because you're not starting with zero. You're starting with negative 100. Your negative 100 is you have to die first, be buried and then be born. And this happens through the cross. I don't wanna confuse anybody, but you wearing that crucifix, I just want you to know what that means. We have this on our crosses, on our churches. I want you to know what that means for you. This is more than just an innocent Jewish man who claimed to be God, who died and Pilate crucified him. This man Jesus is the son of God. He died for our sins. We were included in his death. Why was that necessary? Because you couldn't get out of the bad relationships and get into a good relationship without a breakup. This breakup demanded death and you had to die. You had to be buried because that's what you do with dead things. And God says I wanna raise you now to a new life. Meaning I don't wanna keep you in the limbo until you die physically one day and then you can go to your sweet buy and buy. Jesus gives us the access to new life today. Now, what I'm trying to get to is this. All that God has for us are not really in us. It's in Christ. Many times, I think I had that view concerning salvation. Like even sometimes we say things like our goal is to get everybody saved. That's not really our goal. Our goal is to get everybody from Adam to Christ. We treat salvation as an ear part. Come to the front, we'll give it to you. Now don't lose it and use it. That's what we treat salvation as. Salvation is not a gift like this. Salvation is more like a wedding invitation. You don't like, when I get married to my wife, imagine if my wife would say, yeah, I'll accept you if I can get the life that you provide for. Let me get your life that you can provide for a house, maybe a car or your last name and everything. And then I'm gonna continue to live in Vancouver, but I want the life that you're promising to come and chase me in Vancouver. See, you're not accepting Christ to get salvation. You're accepting Christ so that you can leave Adam and in Christ is salvation. In 1 John, if you can give us the verses, in 1 John it says this, for in him is life. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And we're like, yeah, great, I got the eternal life. But this life is in his son. Let's go to the next verse. And the next verse it says, he who has the son has life. It does not say he who has the life has the son. What I'm saying is don't fall in love with escaping hell. That's not what the gospel, the gospel is in love with Jesus. God is not giving you an insurance card. God is not giving you an escapism gospel. He's giving you Jesus. God is not giving you a gift to God. And the reason why I'm carrying this iPad is because I lost it this week. I went for my prayer walk one of the mornings and then I live close to one of the team leaders from our church and he has this little place where you can sit like above, almost like on the top of the mountain. So I went in there and I had this thing in my pocket. Turns out it fell off. So that day, Everett is sending me a text message. He's like, is this yours? I'm like, oh shoot, I forgot that I even lost it. See, when you think of salvation as something that God gives you and you have to guard it, you will always live in fear of losing it. Salvation is not an ear pod. Salvation is not just a gift. It is the gift of God. But please understand, it's a gift of God, like food, like a car, like other blessings that my wife has access to in being married to me. God's gift is not just salvation, it's Jesus. The gospel is God placing you from darkness into his son. And in his son is eternal life. In his son is wisdom. In his son is not just going to heaven and escaping hell. It's living in his presence right now. In his son, you bear fruit. In his son, you talk to God and you drew near to God. Everything is in Jesus Christ. The Bible says we have no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We are new creation in Christ Jesus. It says we have redemption in Christ Jesus. It says God has reconciled the world through Christ Jesus. God is doing nothing with you. He's doing everything for you. But he's doing everything in his son. God is in love with his son. If you, and he says, if you believe that my son is the son of God, all we have to do, because some are like, man, this is great, well, how do I get into Jesus? There's a very simple password. And it's so simple that it's very hard. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, whoever believes. Not behaves, but believes. You have to believe, what do you believe? That Jesus exists, that demons do the unfortunate, that's the wrong password. You believe that Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is not a truth, he is the truth. Jesus is not just somebody who can tell you about God. He is very God himself. Son of God meaning the very essence. What makes God God is Jesus. That's what Jesus is. That means that you no longer need a self-help book to find the truth. The answer the pilot asks, what is the truth? It stands right in front of you, is Jesus. When you believe in Jesus, then what begins to happen is that God takes that faith in the son of God. That changes everything because that means he defines what is good, he defines what is not good. He is the one who, what he says is true that he died for your sins. He tells you to repent, that means that you have to obey because he is God. Everything changes when Jesus is the son of God. Not one of the gods, not one of the ways, not just a good teacher, but is the son of God. And God takes that faith and says, I will account it to righteousness. I will produce within you a new nature. That faith leads me to bow my knees. Why? Because I'm standing in front of a king. Because I am worshiping a king. Jesus is not just a teacher, he is God. And God says this simple trust I will use as a passcode to bring you in to Jesus. Everything is in Christ and we are in him. Now at first it seems like, oh, does God not trust me with stuff? It's not like that. You and I are like a light bulb. It has everything it needs to shine. If it's in the socket, in Christ you have everything. Without me, Jesus says you can do nothing. So it seems like Jesus is not saying, I'm gonna give so much stuff to you. You can leave me, do whatever you want, and you got it still. It seems like if you got it, it's only because you're in Jesus. Why is that? God doesn't want you to be in love with the stuff. Love with Jesus. I'm struggling with depression, I want peace. See when you come to Jesus, God wants you to be in love with Jesus. God wants you to be on the socket. The socket is Jesus and then you shine. Then you have your peace and then you have righteousness. Then you have salvation. You have everything in Jesus. If you think you have everything because at the age of 15 you went to a summer camp, you prayed a magic prayer and now you walked away from the Lord. You want to do nothing with Jesus while you prayed this magic prayer, you're walking around, you're like, man, I am saved. No, you're just a light bulb that has no light because Jesus tells us to abide in him. Why did he say to abide in him? Because at that moment, Judas left him. He spent three and a half years with him and you can confess it. You can be like, Katie, she shared, she's like, but I profess to be a Christian. And the question I'm not asking, do you profess, do you possess it? Are you abiding in Jesus? You don't have to put yourself in Jesus. All you got to do is to stay where God puts you in. It's not that hard, just simply don't leave. Stay in him, abide in him. Now I have an iPad. It's Zach's iPad. It does not have any internet in the iPad. You know what that means. When you can buy an iPad that has the internet connected to it and there's iPads or laptops, most of the laptops where they have the ability to connect to internet if there is a wifi in the room, but they actually don't have the internet within themselves. And so this iPad will work in the room. But if I walk away from this room, the further I go, the weaker the signal will get until it just won't work anymore. Now the iPad will still be operational. It's just, there will be no connection there. And that's how our blessings are. Our blessings are in Christ. God doesn't put him in you. He just puts you in Jesus. And he says, I want you to be in love with my son. I want you to be in my son. And once you're in him, you have access to all of the spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. You can open those blessings. You can enjoy those blessings. Now, what does this mean in a nutshell? What does this mean? A few things. Jesus is not our supplement. He's our source. Jesus is not the little vitamins that I take. Jesus is not my vitamin. He is vital to my existence. Without him, I am nothing. Paul says, for me to live is Christ. He's, Paul is an aged apostle. But he still says, I live through Christ. I can do all things through Christ. He says to be found in him. I'm not trying to find myself to him. To be found in him. I want to know him once I'm in it. I want to be rooted in him. I want to be grounded in him. If Paul can say that how much more we should to abide in Jesus means to stay where we've been placed. Jesus does not tell us to struggle to get into him. He tells us to simply remain in him. We're told to abide. We don't pray to get into Jesus. This is a game changer. We obey that we are in him. I don't go to prayer retreats to get into him. I go to prayer retreats because I am in him. The only distance that exists between you and God is your unawareness of his nearness. David Degas said that. We are not praying to connect with God. We are praying from a connection that we have in God. Prayer doesn't draw me nearer to God. It makes me more aware of his nearness. Jesus spends verses in John 15 says abide, abide. He never once says get in, get in, get in, get in. He's already saying that you are in him. He says remain in me. Let my words remain in you. Abide in my love. And then he says and whatever you ask because you remain in me, I will do for you. See most of us think that as long as I pray I can get in. Jesus says you got in because of the new birth. I want you to remain in me. I want you like a husband and wife, they live together. Like an iPad connected to the wifi source in the house, stay in me. And out of this place live, out of this place love, out of this place raise your family. The Bible says that you can even seek your spouse as long as it's in the Lord. The Bible says in Philippians that I pursue the call of God in the Lord. This is the will of God for you in the Lord. Even the dead in Christ will rise in Christ. Everyone who abides will pray. Not everyone who prays abides. When I was in Egypt I saw our tour guides pray five times a day. You can look at Muslims and I loved your Muslims but you look it in their eyes. There's no life in those prayers because you're trying to get into something that you don't have access to. You only get into it through birth but you can't get in until you get out of that bad boy. And whether you're Muslim, whether you're born an atheist whatever your family are bringing is you're either in Adam or in Christ. There is no, there is no Juan. It's Jesus or it's Adam. You're either one two families. Prayer doesn't bring you closer. Jesus does and you pray out of that closeness. Instead of saying, Lord help me to live for you. We pray, Lord Jesus, live your life through me. To the outsiders, today Jesus says come to me. To those who are here who have believed in him he says abide in me. Maybe you are here today and you left. I don't wanna get into the Christian losing salvation the whole nine yards but you know one thing is that you left being with Jesus. Whether it was 70 disciples who through offense left, Judas through deception of the enemy left, whichever way the Bible says in the last days people will heed to the demonic doctrines and they will depart from their faith. Jesus says abide in me and whoever doesn't abide indicates it's possible to be still a branch and just not abide. Whether you just kinda walked away like a prodigal son just left. There's a difference, two types of leaving. For example, a few weeks ago when I left to Coeur d'Alene went for a few days to be just with the Lord. I left my house but I didn't leave my house. I didn't switch my address. It was just for a season that I left my closest to my wife was affected. I was still in that house legally and I was still with my wife legally. But for example, the way I left my mom's and dad's house I actually left, I don't no longer live out of there. And maybe that's how you have spent. Not only you just experienced your closeness to God has been affected by certain things that you went through in the last few days or few weeks but I'm talking about if you're here today and it's been years you actually moved out of Jesus. Nothing you hate him, you just change your address. And you moved back into yourself, moved back into Adam, moved back into yourself. Now I don't know how the logically or practically that happens, I just didn't know I met a young man today at the first service and he came up and he says I was doing a tattoo on somebody and the guy that I was doing a tattoo on he said the moment I finished doing a tattoo on him he afterwards he looked at me, he said he put his hand on me and he says young man, he says God is calling you back home. He says at the age of 16 he says you gave your life to Christ but you walked away from him, God is calling you back home. He says the longer you wait to answer the call the more quiet that voice will become. He said that shook me, I went home, I got on my knees, I opened my Bible and he says it's been three months and I've been here. And he says, I don't know how to explain it but I know what that means to be in him. And to have been moved out of him. If you moved out, you changed your address, your dwelling place, I wanna invite you, your father still has a room for you. He didn't give the room to anybody else. He's still waiting, your place is still vacant. Jesus still says come to me, all you heavy laden I will give you rest and I will give you peace. If you're here just to escape hell my friend don't bother. Jesus is not offering escapism. He is offering you an entrance into a new family. He wants to give you a new nature. He doesn't want you to wait to die so you can be delivered from the sin. He wants you to experience freedom from the power of sin today. He wants you to experience new life. He wants you to open the fridge of your father's love today and experience his goodness, experience his love that you don't want to live in sin. That's the gospel is that he loved us. Hey, thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you would you help us and hit thumbs up so that it could help more people to discover this video. It cost 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 hit subscribe, click on the bell so that you can do reminded each time that we upload videos. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you're interested in learning more about Hungry Jen, our internship, our conferences, deliverance, and so many other things go to HungryJen.com for more information. And as always, remember, better is not good enough the best is yet to come.