6/11 – Man Alive

If we can behold what it means that we were crucified with Christ it will bring forth the power of the resurrection in us.

This is a heart condition, not saying that we have to suffer.

** Phil 3:8 – that I may know him and the power of His resurrection // Paul is saying that was life for Him in Jesus so he considered the life he could gain through the strength of the flesh as dung.

Paul was talking about an experiential knowing not just head knowledge. Talking about the way in which he was able to experience resurrection life in this world.

To be made conformable to His death – means for the belief in our hearts to be made conformable to the death we died in Christ. There is a truth revealed in Christ crucified.

You become captivated by the beauty he finds in you which leads to some action. That is how church service happens organically. Shouldn’t be trying to convince ppl to find their purpose in the church so they can give you free service.

Many times we will think about our life and daydream about our house, finance, relationships, status, the good we can do, etc. This is the life that is of the world. Paul says that through understanding Christ, he thought about the resurrection of Christ. Paul no more thought about his finances, culture, relationships, etc. Paul found something happen to me, not that he worked some formula. This thing was so profound that all He could do was sit and listen and this is what happened when he did that.

** None of those things (finances, relationships, etc.) can bring you out of the grave. There isn’t anything wrong with those things but we don’t judge our lives by those things. When you judge you life by those things you are in bondage to fear and death.

What does it mean that we were crucified with Christ?

The tree of knowledge of good and evil it looks good but there is no shade. The tree of life feels cool, the fruit just falls in your lap and there is no worm in the fruit :). Eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is like saying there’s going to be a party but then finding you have to do all the work…not so sure that’s good news.

We are dead to sin and death having any say so in our lives. Our life overcomes in all things. Our life conquers sin and death.

God wants to fill your daydreaming with His thoughts, not the life in this world.

Jay Jenkins Notes 

Man Alive!!! In this

In this message Greg talks about what it means that we were crucified with Christ and how we can see the power of the resurrection manifesting in our lives. –

What is it to be captivated by the life of God?

• What does it look like? • What is it like for me? • What does it mean about my life? • How do we see the world in light of that life? –

We all love to day dream and we all day dream about our lives • The power of resurrection life manifests when we start day dreaming and thinking about God’s life as our life! • We struggle to experience the resurrection life because we don’t talk about it • We rarely explore what the resurrection life is about and what it is like • When you do explore it and talk about it – it does something to you!!!! –

We will find the resurrection life when we behold the fact that we died with Christ and we are resurrected with Him – Phil 3:8-10 • 8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

• Verse 10 speaks of a heart condition – we do not need to suffer as Christ did – We will have fellowship with His suffering by believing that He died and was raised unto resurrection life • Life of flesh = dung: because Paul saw the life that he could attain to in the flesh • Life in Jesus is far greater than life in the flesh • Paul rejects the life in the flesh to be able to have life in Jesus – resurrection life!!! • Paul is talking about the resurrection life here on earth – not sometime in the future. He is telling us that he is experiencing resurrection life. • He wants to impart the resurrection life to us!!!

– Verse 10: Conformable = Belief in our heart to be conformed with the death we died with Jesus on the Cross; the belief that Paul had in his heart was conformable to the death that Jesus died • Your heart must believe that you died with Christ on the Cross before you can experience resurrection life!! – The fellowship with suffering takes place in real life • Paul counted all the life in the world as dung – Real life is found at the Cross – We experience intimacy with resurrection life – it is the place where life is animated from!! •

Day dreaming = identifying with life in Christ and His resurrection and ascension; it is not about life in the flesh – We can say that something has happened to us – Jesus has been revealed to us!! – Paul no longer thought on the life the world had to offer, but thought of the life of the resurrection and ascension of Christ and His being seated at the right hand of the Father! – It is not something we can do – we just sit and listen to God

• We all the time talk and focus on the world – a life full of death and pressing in on us – This life, the life of the world – cannot bring you life, it cannot resurrect you! It is dung! – If whatever you think you need can not bring you out of the grave, it is dung! Life is not judged by the things of the world! –

What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? – Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. • This verse is NOT about behavior modification • Paul is talking about the life that is in him right now! • The life that is in me now is the life that was declared to me though the body of Jesus being raised from the grave! • It is a different life; it changes our fruit but that is not the point! The life we possess in Christ is the point! – Tree of death = dead fruit – Tree of life = fruit of life

– Life in the world is corrupted by sin and death • But life from the Father is free and overcomes the life of the world • Jesus was in the world, yet He was filled with joy • Even when nailed to the Cross, He was filled with all joy

– Life in the world is subject to sin and death and can never cause you to experience the resurrection life • Sin and death entered the world through Adam • Adam brought the word in the world about the life we possess, about what life is and where we find it • Jesus brings another word, a better word about life!!

• Sin and death paint a picture of life in the flesh – Who you are – What kind of life you have – Life in the world is full of toil and labor – It causes you to live life as if it comes from the world. When you believe this, life becomes one of fear and shame and suffering and death

NOT MY LIFE!!!!

• Sin and death in the world use the good stuff of the world to paint the wrong picture of what life is! It paints a picture where… – What we do, what we have, what happens to us, our circumstances,what others say about us is the foundation of our life – not my life!!!

• Sin and death tried to paint a picture of the life in the world for Jesus – BUT, Jesus knows His life is not of this world – His heart was persuaded that the source of His life is Abba! – Sin and death could not define His life – He was dead to the world. He gave sin and death the “stiff arm”!! Not my life! He gave up the ghost! – Abba’s word overcomes all the sin and death! – THIS is the life to day dream about!

– Only God can give us what we deserve! • We are cut from the same Rock • Our identity is in Him • He gives us eternal life for free • You are filled with glory and honor, value and worth

– At the Cross, Jesus died to sin and death (the place where death died), He died to the life of the world, to the word the world brings to us about life • We are baptized into His life, death, resurrection and ascension because He is the last Adam • Because I am crucified with Christ, I no longer look to the world for my life • I look to life in Jesus and say that life is my life! • My life now conquers sin and death!!! • We are dead to death, to the life of the world, to the painting that sin and death would want us to believe is me!

To believe that death died with us, is to embrace the resurrection life!! – Paul’s life before Jesus: Believed he possessed life because of what he had and what he had done in the world; he looked to the good he had in the world as evidence that he had life. This is a lie!

– Gal 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. • It pleased God to reveal Himself to Paul • When He did, Paul saw Abba as the Father of life • He no longer looked to the world for evidence of his life, but he looked to Abba for life – No lack, no fear, no death! • He saw himself as raised to life with Jesus • When Paul considered if he was loved , accepted, blessed, etc., he looked to the Father for evidence, for the answer! • Paul did not do anything – he was persuaded by God – He did not create an action plan – He focused on Jesus alone and considered Jesus’ life as his own!!

– Example: Abraham – he did not consider his flesh to fulfill the promise that he would be the father of many nations. He looked to God to fulfill that promise! • If he had considered the life of the world, he would have been without hope – Hope is found in Jesus – contrary to the life of the world – We are all the time found in the life of the world • But this life cannot bring forth life in us • Therefore, it is dung… – God told Abraham that He was the All Sufficient One • He would bring forth His promise • Abraham believed this and it was brought forth in him

– The same way God did with Abraham – He does with us! • He washes our conscience clean through the Cross • He replaces the word of the world with the word of the Cross • He swallows up our mortality with His immortality – God reveals His Son in us – • His death is our death • We are dead to all He died to • We are divorced from sin and death • Jesus’ death = our death to the world • He died to the corruptible life • He died to the possibility of our ever being separated from God and from His life • He died to sin and death and the influence of sin and death • We can consider ourselves as dead to sin and death in all forms • We can no longer consider anything of the world as our life – Thinking of God’s life as my life… • We overcome all things • We conquer sin and death • We swallow up all darkness • We no longer care for what the world can do to us (Sin and death has and will persecute all humans)

Bertie Brits Message