Colossians 1:24-29 (Christ In You, The Hope Of Glory)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

So I feel a little bit like Paul just a little

Because I want you to know how often I've tried to come Over the months of October and November in December.

We really tried to carve out some weekends where we could get here, but life Just wouldn't allow it

But we are here now and when your pastors emailed me Just before Christmas and asked if I would come

I was thrilled to be able to say yes and As I've been here twice before you will know that I love the stories of the

Bible God is a storyteller He has told us the revelation of himself by and through stories

So if I were to tell you that the story is not over What would you say?

Right. Now we know the canon of Scripture is closed No new verses.

No new chapters. No new books But God is still at work

You know how I know that Because you're here You and your life is being written into God's story and when

God writes you in You're in right he is weaving a tapestry that includes you and You will forever be in that tapestry if God has filled you by a spirit

You can't get out You could try But you'll fail Because you are not as great as God You may think you are but you're wrong so you are

Now a part of God's story Which is tremendous Because we don't think of ourselves that way

Can I tell you that there are books in heaven being written and they are about you

And You're gonna have children and great -grandchildren and great great great -grandchildren and even more than that and when they get to heaven

They're gonna be able to go to that great library and read your life story They're gonna read about all your struggles and all your sacrifices

They're gonna read about how the power of God's Spirit dwelt in you

They are gonna read about how you change the world And you know what they're not gonna read about sin

That parts been erased. That's not part of the story They are gonna read some great stuff about you because you're being written into God's story and God forgets nothing

Every good thing is remembered. Do you know how he can remember it? It's by his the power of his spirit

It's in you It's working in you and you don't even know it

So, let me ask this question, I know you're all alive what does it feel like to be alive

I Thought about this I Really thought about this.

What does it feel like to be alive? You know, I'm tired. Sometimes I'm exhausted Sometimes I feel very rested

Sometimes I feel sick. Sometimes I feel healthy Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes I feel happy But what does it feel like you want to push all that thing what does it feel like to be alive

You know what? I come up with normal ordinary That's what it feels like to be alive.

You wake up in the morning. You're not like oh, this is great No, they're just normal, right?

Sometimes you can't even get to normal until you had that cup of coffee, right? What does it feel like to be in the spirit?

What does it feel like to have the spirit in you working through you? You know what it feels like Ordinary and normal if you look back before your conversion and you look at yourself now

You don't really feel any different There might have been some moments where you felt

God is good. I'm filled right but then Life is just normal And you know what?

That's good because God's an ordinary normal God The Sun comes up every morning, you know why because God likes ordinary

Right, if God didn't like ordinary the Sun might not appear sometimes but it always does because God likes ordinary

The world spins around on its axis and it spins around the Sun 365 times a year

Because God likes ordinary And so he's taken you Ordinary people and he has filled you with his spirit

So that you ordinary folks could go out and change the world And I'm gonna tell you how to do it today

And it's easy. You just don't know how easy it is

Now I'm gonna start Shouldn't do that I'm gonna start by reading you a portion of scripture from Colossians.

It's chapter 1 and Paul is talking about how God has made him a

An apostle to the Gentiles And this is what he says now

I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body.

That is the church of Which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God that was given to me to make the

Word of God fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations

But now revealed in his Saints this mystery that nobody knew about until Jesus came

What's the mystery? To them God chose to make known how great among the

Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you the hope of glory

That's my title Christ in you the hope of glory Did you ever think?

That you would be the hope of glory Paul just said it you're the hope of glory verse 28 him we proclaim

Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ Listen to verse 29

For this I toil struggling with all the energy That powerfully works within me

What is this energy he's talking about? That's powerfully at work in him Well, that's the

Spirit of Christ that's the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit that has come and taken up residence in you and You now get to live like Paul Energized by the

Holy Spirit and how having Christ powerfully work through you

Now I'm gonna read a scripture from 2nd Corinthians Now the

Corinthian Church was a wreck Every time Paul had to go there.

He had something to fix because these people were just Their theology was messed up right

Paul's always having to teach them the right way to do things But listen to what Paul says in 2nd

Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation

The old has passed away Behold the new has come

He's saying this to messed up people They were let me tell you you go read Corinthians and you find out what kind of sin was going on there

It was pretty scary And Paul says you're a new creation What's new?

Well, you didn't have the Spirit and now you do you were spirit less

Now you're spirit full But how do we tap into this how do we get there?

What does it do? Why is it useful? Well, that's what I'm hoping to tell you and I'm gonna do it by doing what

I always do By telling you Bible stories because this is how

God has chosen to reveal himself in Bible stories Now before I get into the stories,

I'm gonna say a couple of things. I'm gonna throw some stuff out there May not make sense to you now

God help us if it doesn't make sense by the end Then pastor will have to say yeah, don't come back anymore

But I want you to know That when God shows up things change

God doesn't show up and everything stays the same when he shows up everything changes and he does this by speaking

Saying words and once he says a word everything's changed So he comes into nothingness and he says

Let there be light What happens the lights go on? Why because God said it

Right when he says things when he shows up things change You know the story of Adam and Eve in the garden

You know how they were placed in the garden and they were told don't eat the fruit from the tree of the wood

Knowledge of good and evil everything else is yours. That tree is not for you yet It'll be for you later

And what they do they go right for that tree they hear the tree and then it's day seven

God is showing up on the Sabbath. He wants to meet with these people and their sin is revealed

And what happens God speaks to them and they are exiled from the garden he gave see when

God shows up things change And how did he do it?

He did it by speaking Now there are two words in Our scriptures the

Hebrew word for breath or Spirit is

Ruach you can hear the the expelling of air when you say it

Ruach in The New Testament that word is Numa and it means wind it means spirit, right?

It means breath So we're gonna talk about well if Christ lives in you Then you have the

Ruach and the Numa in you and when you speak things can change

You can do this because the Spirit of God lives in you So that's what I want to talk to you about.

So we we talked a little bit about Adam and Eve, right? We've got the story of Noah in the ark, right? God says the world's wicked so wicked.

I'm gonna wipe it clean Then he shows up And he wipes it clean, right?

Eight souls saved on the ark Noah his wife and his three girls and our three sons in there whatever

Eight souls, right? Everybody else is gone. They are erased when

God shows up things change We have the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God says these towns are wicked

I'm gonna blow him away And when he blows him away They're gone, right when

God shows up and God says something things change Well We've got some good stories

About when God shows up and things change, so I'm going to talk about those. I'm going to read you

About the story about when Solomon consecrates the temple now, let me just give you some background David is sitting in his palace

He's writing Psalms He's having a grand old time communing with God And he says to himself wait a minute.

I live in a palace. I got to go to a tent to meet with you This the tabernacle.

That's not right. We should give you a palace to live in And God says to him sorry

Dave not your job You can collect everything to build that palace, but I'm let your son do it.

Do you know that story is? mimicking the father and the son Came to build a temple out of bricks that are alive

Right that was his job and so God says to David let your son do it

But you can get everything ready you get the gold you get the silver you get the bronze you can get the stones

You can get the timber you get it all ready and your son is gonna build a temple and so Solomon shows up And he builds the temple now

If you lived in Jerusalem While this was going on It probably wouldn't have been too pleasant.

I grew up in New York City Whenever they decide they're gonna build a building in New York City, or they're gonna tear one down That means you can't go there

So if that's your way to get to work you got to find a new way You got drive around here, and he has a stop sign

They got it all blocked off, and you got to go another way, and it's it's terrible You can't wait for the building to get done so you can actually get your roads back right

I want to go my way. I don't want to go your way well We got good old

Solomon. He builds the tabernacle the temple He gets it all finished, and he sends word to all

Israel And he says listen we're gonna consecrate this place see we can't use it until God moves in So we're gonna consecrate it and God's gonna move in and you want to be here for this

This is a celebration and all the people who lived in Jerusalem They're calling all their friends up hey listen guys come on stay at the house.

We get up on the roof We're gonna watch this consecration take place right so let's read the story in Chronicles chapter 7 as Solomon finished his prayer fire came down from heaven and It consumed the burnt offering in the sacrifice in the glory of the

Lord filled the temple The priests could not enter the house of the

Lord because of the glory of the Lord filled the temple even the priests couldn't go in because the glory cloud

The fire remember good old Solomon. He took 70 bowls one bowl for every nation he had

Slaughtered and had the carcasses put on the altar and the fire from heaven comes right down and consumes

Those sacrifices and the glory cloud moves in Does this remind you of the story of Exodus?

Where the fire and the cloud led them oh? God is amazing he writes the same thing over and over again, and it's always great

Right so the the glory cloud fills the house and listen what happens to all of Israel that are in Jerusalem When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the

Lord on the temple they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and Worship listen they're on their hands and knees and their head is down on the ground

And they are worshiping God as one man This whole nation let me tell you we can't get five people to do the same thing at once God can get a whole nation to bow down before him and They just begin to worship and listen to what they say

They gave thanks to the Lord saying for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever

I Hope that little phrase sticks in your mind from last time. I was here, but the steadfast love

This is what they all said as one Let me tell you when God shows up, and he breathes and his spirit shows up, and he fills something it is an amazing sight and If you happen to live in Jerusalem back then and you were there that story would inform the rest of your life

When you sat around your little fire pit in your backyard and you talk to your little kids you'd be saying man

You should have seen it And when you talk to your grandkids this same story, you know how old people are we got like five stories

We tell them over and over and over again. This is one of your stories You should have been there when the fire fell and the cloud filled the temple

It was amazing when God showed up, right? Well, I'm gonna jump to the

New Testament Because there are other people in the New Testament that God worked in and through And I want to talk to you about the story of Zacchaeus I'm gonna try to read the story and then talk about it.

Let's hope I can do it in Luke chapter 19 and He entered

Jericho and was passing through that's Jesus and there was a man named

Zacchaeus He was a chief tax collector and was rich and he was seeking to see who

Jesus was But on account of the crowd he could not because he was small of stature so he ran ahead climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him because he was about to pass that way and Jesus came to the place and he looked up at him and he said

Zacchaeus Hurry on down. I want to go and stay at your house today so he hurried down and received him joyfully and When they saw it they all grumbled he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner and Zacchaeus stood and said to the

Lord behold Lord half of my goods I give to the poor and if I've defrauded anyone of anything,

I will restore it fourfold and Jesus said to him today Salvation has come to this house since you also are a son of Abraham For the

Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost now Ah my nose

We got Zacchaeus Zacchaeus is we found out a tax collector.

He's not just a tax collector. He's a chief tax collector He's a Jewish man who is taking taxes from other

Jewish men and giving them to Rome Nobody likes

Zacchaeus Zacchaeus is the scum of the earth And when

I say he's the scum, let me tell you he's the scummiest Right if you're a thief or you're a murderer

You're higher up in respect than Zacchaeus because he's a traitor And he's a chief tax collector and he has made himself rich.

You know, they made themselves rich Rome says we want 5 % He comes to your house and says you gotta give us six

And you say I Rome said five and he says I see these soldiers over here with their swords. I Say six and he keeps one and he gives

Rome their five And who gets shortchanged you so you understand why people hate him

Well, Jesus, he's a little short guy, right a little short guy wants to see Jesus. He can't cuz he's too

Much taller than him. So he comes up with a plan. I'm gonna run ahead I'm gonna climb a tree and I'll be able to see this guy who

I've heard so much about This guy who heals the sick he raises the dead he takes a fish and a loaf and he feeds thousands

This is a guy who went into the temple with a whip and overturned tables. I gotta see this guy.

I Want to know about this, right? So he climbs his little tree Jesus is coming through Jericho and he stops and he looks up and He says

Zacchaeus come on down How does he know Zacchaeus his name

Does he have a Rolodex of all the chief tax collectors was it put up on the billboards in Israel?

Oh hate these people or maybe the Spirit of God just happened to live inside him and he knows those who are his and He calls them by name

And he says to Zacchaeus come on down. I'm gonna stay at your house right

And then it says they all grumbled. Who's the they? Well, they're the chief priests

They're the Pharisees. They're the Sadducees There is they got this little cohort that follows

Jesus everywhere so they can find something to condemn him about Because they hate him

You know why because the limelight the little spotlight that used to be on them for their goodness and their righteousness

Has now been shifted and they're in the gray they're in the shadow they want their spot back so they're looking for something to condemn this man and They say one of the most stupidest things

I have ever heard come out of people's mouths Listen to this. They saw it and they grumbled

He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner

As if they're not sinners and if Jesus went to their house, he'd be going to the house of a sinner

Let me tell you these these guys are dumb Right. How can you be so stupid that you don't know you're a sinner?

You know how your prideful religiosity gets in the way and you think that you're good that goddess

Come down here and you've come up here and now you're good. You're nice and even with him Let me tell you they weren't even and they grumbled and then what happens what is

Jesus done so far He said Zacchaeus. Come on down. I'm gonna go to your house. He's breathed out a couple of words not much

They get to the house and Zacchaeus says half what I have I'm gonna get to the poor the guy who never gave a penny to the poor before and If I've defrauded anyone,

I'm gonna give him back four times. That's the law That's what was required

Now all of a sudden this man who was a chief tax collector Something's happened to him

God has shown up and said, you know what Zacchaeus you're mine and As soon as God breathes out his name

That man's heart is just filled with faith and everything for him changed.

You know what when you and I get to heaven You know, I love my coffee sit down with Zacchaeus and we're gonna ask him what was the rest of your life like How did thing change for you, right?

and then Jesus Says this after it's all taken place.

He says today Salvation has come to your house Because you are a son of Abraham, you know, he was a son of Abraham ethnically before but now

He's a true son Just like you right

Father Abraham had many sons Many sons had but right that's who you are now

You're a son of Abraham. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has come inside you and made you a son just as God told

Abraham when he breathed out those words More than the sand in the sea more than the stars in the sky are gonna be your children

And then he says verse 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost

Now if Jesus had a chariot that he traveled around Jerusalem in His bumper sticker would have been

I have come to seek and save the lost That was the thing that informed his life

When he healed the sick and when he raised the dead and when he fed thousands or when he just sat down on a hill and taught

He was fulfilling this mandate. I have come to seek and save the lost and you

Are a part of that because you were the lost You were Zacchaeus Right.

You were the scum of the earth. You were the scummiest and he said I'm going to your house

Because he's come to save this the lost Well, let me come to another story because I got a move quickly because there's a meeting at one that Derek has to be at The story of Nicodemus is really interesting and good old

Nick I think gets a bad rap Because everybody says, you know, well, he went at night.

He was skulking around and sneaking. I don't think that's the case. I Worked for years and years and years thirty -eight of them for one company

And I usually worked Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 And if you wanted to come to my house and talk to me about something really serious

If you showed up at 10 o 'clock in the morning, I was not there You had to come in the evening when

I was home And I think this is what Nicodemus is doing. He knows that Jesus is a worker

He knows he's got stuff to do and he's been doing it And so he's gonna come in the evening when he can sit with Jesus and talk about some serious things

So, let me read the story and we'll talk about it Now there was a man there was a man of the

Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews He's no slouch this guy.

He has studied the scriptures He has learned them and he has been made a ruler of the

Jews when people need help they go to him Because he knows stuff he's put in the work right and He's coming to Jesus and listen to what he says

The man came to Jesus by night and said to him rabbi Now we know that you're a teacher from good come from God for no one can do these signs unless God is with him

He's calling him master teacher And he's saying we know you've come from God.

Well, at least Nicodemus did Because nobody could do these signs that you're doing unless God was with him really interesting

Now, what are the words that that Jesus is gonna breathe out to Nicodemus?

Jesus answered him Wait a minute as Nicodemus has any questions yet No No question

But it says Jesus answered him. It doesn't say Jesus said it says Jesus answered him.

Do you know? That there are questions in your heart That you can't even articulate

Because you don't know them enough There's just something that you know is messed up and maybe wrong and you can't even put the question into words but God knows

God knows the thing that's burning in your heart. He knows the message you need to hear

And so he answers Nicodemus and he says truly truly I say to you unless you are born again

You cannot see the kingdom of God And Nicodemus responds. How can a man be born when he's old?

Can he get back into his mother's womb and be born again? You see this was the question that Nicodemus knew

Nicodemus knew he wasn't right. He knew he was broken He knew something was wrong.

He kept the laws perfectly as he could But when he stood at home in front of his mirror, he knew what was in his heart

And he said how can a holy God How can how can I did

I don't understand and God says you must be born again You see you were born of Adam that old broken failure from the garden.

You need to be born anew And how do you get born again? This is what sickness to me the how how do

I get back in my mother's womb and what does Jesus say? Truly truly I say to you unless one is born of the water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God So there's something else that needs to take place now.

I want you to see something here Things are changing God has shown up.

He's having a conversation with Nicodemus and as God is breathing out these words through his son

Everything is changing for Nicodemus lights are going off Understanding is coming into his mind in his heart

He's beginning to figure out what's going on Jesus says to him in verse in verse 6 that which is born of flesh is flesh

But that which is born of spirit is spirit. There's those words again. Ruach Duma Do you know those the word

Ruach appears almost 400 times in the Old Testament? the word

Numa In the New Testament, which is much much much smaller than the

Old Testament Appears almost 400 times as well Let me tell you the

Spirit does some amazing things and we need to know about it And Jesus tells him that which is born of spirit

Don't marvel that I said to you you must be born again, and then Jesus says this the wind

Blows where it wishes. There's that word Numa again wind the spirit blows where it wishes

You hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes So is everyone who is born of the

Spirit? This is amazing. Do you know?

that guy that you work with That just grates on your soul

Right When you show up, oh Here's Mike holier -than -thou, right or every filthy joke he's ever been told

He wants to make sure that when he tells them you're there That guy right.

It just vexes your soul every time you see him. You're like, oh god The Holy Spirit blows where it wishes.

You don't know where it comes from. You don't know where it goes just maybe He's a son of God sometime someday, too

You don't know We don't know we think we do but we don't

We are so willing to condemn so willing not to say anything so willing to watch the lost go to hell

Because they grate on us Well You don't know the sound you don't know where it goes

You don't know where it comes from so is everyone who was born of the Spirit when God shows up and when

God breathes out Things change and that guy can become one of your best friends later in life when finally the

Spirit of God Makes his heart full of faith That guy may come to you someday and say you remember when

I did all those things Forgive me. I didn't know

I Didn't know but now I do Because the

Spirit of God has filled him Well, I got two more stories and then

I'm done Because I got that one o 'clock time. What have we got when

God shows up in the garden of Eden after the fall of Adam and Eve Words get spoken and things change.

I'm gonna read from Genesis 3 starting in verse 8 And this is

Adam and Eve when they heard the sound of the Lord God Walking in the garden in the cool of the day

So they hear the sound of God walking in the garden they were not listening That's not what they heard

They heard their names being breathed out by God Adam Eve Where are you?

I'm here right And it says it happened in the cool of the day

You know that word cool is not a temperature word. It does not mean the opposite of hot

It is the word Ruach He came in the spirit of the day.

He wanted to meet with Adam and Eve, right? this is the Sabbath the day of rest and their

God has come to the garden to meet with them and Sin gets revealed And that God said, where are you?

And they said we heard the sound of you in the garden and we were afraid Because we were naked and we hid ourselves and now the sin is revealed, right?

They've done what they shouldn't have done And so there are three judgments that God is gonna breathe out against them

It's gonna come out the first one is in in verse 14 of chapter 3 The Lord said to the serpent because you have done this cursed.

Are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and You shall eat

The dust all of your days, right? That's curse judgment number one then unfortunately

It comes to you ladies and he says, you know childbearing supposed to be pleasant

Wasn't supposed to be so difficult Now it's gonna be hard It's gonna be hard for you judgment number two and Then he comes to Adam and he says

Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. You shall not eat it

Cursed is the ground because of you in Pain, you shall eat of it all of the days of your life.

Listen, it was supposed to be easy You were supposed to go out and plant seeds and they were just supposed to sprout no thorns.

No thistles. No weeds But your sin has changed everything

Three judgments And They are exiled from the garden forever and you and I both know what it's like to live in a world

Where we got to work by the sweat of our brow now, nothing comes easy anymore right well,

I Want to compare that story? to another story and This is the story when

Jesus Has come he's done his work. He's been crucified. He's been buried.

Oh, by the way, do you know who helped bury him? Nicodemus Right, so he's been buried and Then he has been resurrected and the disciples haven't seen him and they are locked in a room

Because they're afraid that Jews are gonna come and kill them just like they killed their master

Does it sound like the story of Adam and Eve who were hiding in the garden and were afraid? Wow, really similar.

Well, let's read it John 20 verse 19 on the evening of that day the first day of the week

When did God come to meet with Adam and Eve the last day of the week? Things have changed

You wonder why we worship on Sunday This is one of the reasons because God came to them on the first day of the week

The doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them and he's gonna speak now.

How did Jesus get there? It's as if he came in on a breeze Right, the doors are locked

Right somebody had to get down on their hands and knees go under the door so he could just slide up in there, right

Amazing. He just shows up And what is the first thing he says to them? Peace be with you.

That is exactly opposite of judgment. That's really interesting to me

Listen if an angel should call you on the phone and say Jesus wants to meet with you on Thursday night

And you say the angel was he want to talk about He'll tell you when he gets there

Listen, Jesus shows up at your house Thursday night and he says peace be with you. Oh You're good

He's not coming to say oh you sinful thing No, he's coming to give you peace Exactly opposite of what happens in the garden.

You see something's changed Something new has happened the king of kings is now

Arisen from the grave. He's alive again, and he's not speaking judgment anymore

You know why because he's taken all the judgments. It's all fallen on him and now you're good

So he says peace be with you and then it says they he showed them his hands in his side

Listen, not fake news here. This is real I got the holes in my hands and the hole in my side to prove it's me right and they were glad when they saw the

Lord and Jesus said again to them Peace be with you as the father has sent me even now.

I'm sending you You remember the story of Nicodemus. I Have come to seek and save the lost.

I That's your job now That's your job and don't worry.

You're not supposed to do it on your own you have the Holy Spirit lives inside you and You and he are going to do the work that he was always called to do and that now he wants you to do with him not alone

But with him and then he says in verse 22 and when he said this

He breathed on them and said Receive the

Holy Spirit Can you hear that? The ruach of God going out into them

Listen to verse 23 But 23 is astonishing If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven them

If you withhold forgiveness from them it is withheld Whose job is that That's God's job

But he's in you now And when he goes and he tries to speak to someone and they want to hear it

Wow, their sins are forgiven, especially if it's out of your mouth that he's doing it But if they don't want to hear it

Their sins are withheld, right? But you're doing the work It's your breath and it's his breath together because you are not alone anymore

You are in him and he is in you so there are some differences between the two stories

We've talked about some in the garden. They only hear God in the upper room

They hear and see him Things changed right he came on day seven in the garden.

He comes on day eight in the upper room There were three judgments in the garden

Now there are three blessings proclamations of peace right in the first story

After God shows up they are exiled from the garden in this story

Christ breathes into them And says receive my spirit. Guess what?

You're back again in fellowship You're good He's good.

You're together. You're not separate. I know sometimes you sin.

I Know you screw up. You know how I know because I do it all the time. I am

NOT perfect And you know what Christ says? I Breathe my spirit into you.

You are mine and we're gonna work on you. We're gonna make you better But you know what while we're making you better You're gonna be used

You're gonna go out in the world and you're gonna breathe out into the world and things are gonna change

Right in the Garden of Eden They were weak in sin

In the upper room after God breathes into them and says receive my spirit

They are powerful in Christ just as Paul said in Colossians Right.

I am energized by the power of his spirit in me. It works in me

I'm I'm the guy used to kill Jews Christians that's who Paul was he's a murderer, but now the spirits powerfully working in him

Well, I'm coming to the end here I'm gonna tell you how you can be used powerfully in the world

And it's easy and it's simple Now Kendall is more familiar with these words than most of you are

Because he's down from that Bible Belt South South, right? See we're from we're from the godless

Northeast, right? Here's the three words

God bless you He hears those words down south all you go down south you go to those

Bible Belt states and you'll hear people saying to One another god bless you It's normal for them

They've been doing it for years It's not odd. It's not strange and It's not powerless

If the Spirit of God dwells in you and you go to someone and say god bless you you are doing something and You can change the world with three little words

God bless you When I first saw this a couple years ago, it changed the way

I live See, I used to go to a restaurant and when the waitress or the waiter would bring something my table.

I'd say thank you. I When I leave somewhere and I'm saying goodbye to somebody

I don't say goodbye anymore. I say god bless you right

Because I want them to be blessed. They need to be blessed. They need

God more than they know and I can do it. You know why because the Spirit dwells in me

It doesn't have to feel exciting. It doesn't have to be flames on my head

Right If a spirit lives in you you can do this and When you bless the world the world gets blessed and things change

Just like when Jesus said this is what's gonna happen and it did you can say god bless you

You're gonna come a time. It's gonna come to Judgment Day and The people that you said god bless you to they're gonna stand before God and God is gonna say

Do you remember when Derek said god bless you? He helped forgive your sins

Welcome into my kingdom because he said god bless you And then someone else gonna show up and God's gonna say you remember when

Derek said god bless you and you rejected it Over and over and over again.

I Reject you those sins can be forgiven and those sins can be withheld and you don't know

Until you get there Who your blessing into the kingdom and who

God is gonna say see that? My son Derek helped judge you because your heart was hardened

So That's my application for this sermon Go out into the world and learn how to say god bless you.

It's not easy at first It sounds jarring to us out in the world because nobody says it around here

Right, it'll even sound jarring to you Let me tell you there are people that are gonna come and when you say god bless you

They are gonna be thrilled and they're gonna say Oh God bless you, too

They're gonna be others. They give you the old stink guy Right. Yeah, who do you think you are?

You know what I don't care My job is to bless him and I can do it because the

Spirit of God lives in me now Well, I'm not that wonderful. I've just not

I wish I was But but tell you this story Because this is part of my life that's been written into those books.

I told you about in heaven a new gas station opened up in my town and And they had nice cheap gas when they wrote when they opened so I started going buying gas there and You know, of course,

I want to see what the inside of the store looks like, too So I pump my gas and I go inside and I'm looking around and there's a little what appears to me to be an

Arabic man behind the counter Right dark skin dark hair when he talks to me

It's all in broken English he sounded like he was Arabic turned out he was from Sri Lanka But makes no difference to the story so I go in and I always buy something for like a dollar right and then as I leave

I say God bless you I've said God bless you to that man Maybe 50 times now

One day I walk into the store and I go in purposely Because he needs to be he needs

God more than he knows And I say God bless you to him and he says to me, you know,

I like your car in his broken English. I Drive a Jeep Cherokee They're like 10 million of them on the road.

Oh, I like your car Well, it turns out that I had bought that for myself when I retired

So I told him the story that well when I retired I bought this Jeep for myself just to celebrate my retirement

And he says to me, oh were you in the service What branch in his broken

English? Why is he asking me that I?

Was never in the service. I don't see good If I got into the service, you know, the first thing what happened to me

I'd be dead So they won't take me But he wants to know

I you know, what branch of the service you're in And I said to him why I never was

I worked for my company for 38 years I'm like, I'm in the car on the way home. Why he asked me this

Why did this guy say what branch of the service you're in? You know why you go search the Internet and you look for American soldiers just before they go into battle

You know what? You're gonna find you're gonna find pictures of men on their knees Crying out to a God to save them

Because they know what's coming, right? So here's this American who comes into his little store and says god bless you to him.

He just assumes I must be a soldier Well, you know what

I am But for a different army So I've been doing this for a long time telling this this guy.

God bless you I'm now in a men's breakfast at church

And after we have breakfast we go around the table and then we first share a little bit about what's going on I still got time

I'm getting close, right? This is it. I'm done right now So They get to me and they want what are you going to share and I and I tell him the story about how

I've been Talking to this man and saying god bless you to him And that's it. That's all

I say. God bless you and one of the guys said to me Oh, you need to stop doing that. You need to start telling something about Jesus and you need to start, you know

Letting him know because he might think that you're saying god bless you that you might be trying to bless Allah You know what

I said to that guy I said you don't understand I Know who lives in me.

I Know what I'm saying. I don't need to know what he thinks But the

God who hears the words coming out of my mouth knows exactly what I mean And so when

I say god bless you I am talking about the king who sits on the throne whose son's name is

Jesus and who has filled me with his spirit and Has made me alive in him so that when

I say something the world Changes, I may never see it in my life

God may bring some other Christian into that man's life and that man might ask him, you know,

I got this guy keep saying god bless me What do you think he means? And then this other person I don't even know can open up the gospel to him

And when I get to heaven,

I will see that man from Sri Lanka Worshipping around the throne

Never know what I've done Doesn't need to know all I need to know is I'm filled with the spirit and I can go out in the world and I can make it change.

Let me tell you you want to see the Northeast changed Go god bless people go out there and bless them with those three words

You know what they've been doing this for a couple years Those words fall out of my mouth now

Just normally Yeah, I don't have to think about it anymore. I don't have to work at it

I don't have to look for you know, the breeze of the spirit to come in. I just have to say the words because the

King of Kings Lives in me and when I open my mouth and I breathe out he is breathing out of me

Because he has filled me with his spirit So that's my sermon And I'm gonna say to you

By the power of the Father and the Son and the