In this profound episode, we delve into the depths of what it means to live a life of worship rooted in the biblical truth of our identity in Christ. Discover the liberating power of understanding your position in the Lord. Learn how our crucifixion, burial, and resurrection with Christ transforms not only our spiritual standing but also our everyday life, offering us a new identity and an eternal purpose.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, November 5th. Today, we continue looking at the biblical view of worship by directing our attention off our preferences and on to what is ours in Christ Jesus. Here’s part two of the motivation of worship.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, I want to share with you a simple truth. It may not be simple when you first hear it. And if you’ve listened to me over the years, you’ve heard me talk about it before. But it’s the most liberating truth that I have ever discovered in my life. Changed my whole life, changed my perspective about life, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the church, and everything. And I realized I began to understand what worship was all about when I began to understand what God had done for me in the way He has related me to Him once I was saved by His grace. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Colossians chapter 3. And in the third chapter of Colossians is a simple passage. I want us to read the first four verses of this passage together. And Paul begins by saying, if or since then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. I want to talk about our position in the Lord Jesus Christ. When I began to understand that, something happened in my life. It took me a long time to get around to being willing to share it because I wanted to be sure that this really works in my life on Monday morning, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, as well as Sunday. And I can tell you, my friend, it works. Here’s what he says in this passage. First of all, he says in our position with him, not only have we been translated from the kingdom of darkness into light, not only have we been saved and have we been forgiven, not only have we been redeemed by his blood, but the Bible says that you and I have been crucified with Christ. He says we have been crucified with Christ. And I hear a lot of people quoting the verse in Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That is, when Jesus died, we died. What in the world does he mean, when Jesus died, you and I died? It isn’t some feeling that we have, but something happened to us. So let me explain it to you simply, and just follow me through this. That is, when God the Father saw Jesus’ death, he likewise saw the death of every single believer. Because you see, it wasn’t enough that Jesus Christ died for my sins. It wasn’t enough that you and I be forgiven of our sins and redeemed from our sins. But God needed to deal with sin within us. Because once you and I have been saved by the grace of God, we still have to live in this world. We still have to go to work and go to school. And we still face the difficulties and the hardships and the trials. So it wasn’t enough when God reached out in His great love at the cross… Jesus Christ not only dealt with my S-I-N-S, he dealt with S-I-N within me in order to enable me and to enable you and I both to live victoriously and triumphantly, not continuously defeated by sin. So that when Jesus Christ died, you and I were identified on that cross with him. Now, 2,000 years ago is before you and I were born. So in the mind of God, that’s when he saw it. In reality, it took place in your life and mine. The moment you and I received the Lord Jesus Christ, our crucifixion with Christ became a reality in us. And Paul says in Romans chapter 6 that something happened to a part of us. And you’ll recall in that sixth chapter when Paul, dealing with this whole problem of sin, says that something happened to what he calls our old man. Listen to what he says. For he says, if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, crucified with him, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, not hoping this, not feeling this, but knowing this, that our old self was crucified, past tense, completed action. Our old self was crucified with him that our body of sin might be done away that we should no longer be the slaves to sin. That is, what you and I were before we were saved was crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, God dealt with what we were. And the Bible says that you and I have become new creations in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are new creatures in Him. We are new persons in Him. And that you and I have become the partakers of His divine nature. And the Bible says in Colossians 3, verse 4, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear. So when Jesus died, God included every single believer in that crucifixion. And when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, not only did something happen to your sins, something happened to the old you inside of you. And the Bible says you were crucified. You became a partaker of a divine nature. We have a new nature in us, and all of us who are believers are saints themselves. who do commit sins at times, but we are not what we used to be. We can’t ever be what we used to be, or we are something that we were not, and we are something we will never be again, because the Bible says that you and I have been made new in Christ Jesus. Now, we understand this part when we talk about having been born again. That is something so transpired in your life and my life that God saw fit to call it a new birth, with the implication of which is a new life and a new beginning. Paul says it another way when he says, “…what you were died, what you are now.” is your spirit has been made alive and Christ has become our life. Every single believer indwelt by the very person of Jesus Christ so that the Christian life itself today is an expression of the life of Jesus Christ who is alive within us through the presence and power of His Holy Spirit. He says we’ve been crucified with Him once and for all with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says, not only have we been crucified with him, but we have been buried with him. Now you say, how in the world can you be buried with someone who was buried 2,000 years ago? Well, he says it again here in Romans chapter 6, the same thing. Do you not know that all of us who’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death, buried with him? Back over in Colossians again in this third chapter. He says, if then you have been raised up with him, raised up from what? Raised up from death. When he says that you and I have been buried with him, that’s Paul’s way of saying that when you and I died to the old life, that is when you and I were saved, my friends, something happened. I hear people say, well, I received Jesus Christ as my savior. I accepted Christ. And their idea is they simply added Jesus to what they were. That is, something changed. What happened is they just added Him. I want to tell you, the Bible says that you and I were born again. We became new creations in Jesus Christ. When you and I were saved by the grace of God, we didn’t just add something to what we were. We became somebody new by the grace of Almighty God. He says, when he was buried, we were buried. We were buried in what? We were buried in him. That’s why Jesus in the 15th chapter of John, trying to explain to those disciples and helping them to understand this new relationship. He says, I’m abiding in you and you’re abiding in me. As the branch abides in the vine. He says, the sap that runs in the vine runs in the branch and produces the fruit. He says, the believer is living in Christ. Listen, having died to our old life, buried with him. and having been placed eternally in a relationship with Him which can never be broken because it is God the Father who placed us in that relationship the moment we responded by faith to Him. We have a relationship with Him that is absolutely eternal. We have a relationship with Him that is not the result of adding on to what we were, but rather an absolute transformation. Now listen, you and I are eternally secure in Him. That does not give us license to sin against God. That does not give us license to be disobedient to God, but rather a motivation for holy living and righteous living. Crucified with him, what we were is dead. And he said, now we’re new persons in Christ Jesus. He has placed us into a relationship to him that is eternal. He says, crucified with him, buried with him. And then he says, since then you have been raised up with him. What does he mean by that? That when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you became a new person in Christ. Listen, the friends of yours who know that you have been saved, they have a legitimate right to expect something different out of you. They have a legitimate right to expect your actions, your behavior to be different. Because now Christ has become your life. You’ve become a follower of Jesus Christ. You have identified yourself with Him, with His body, with the church. He says that we are risen to walk in newness of life. That is the expectation. That is the enablement. When you and I have been crucified with Christ, buried with Him and risen with Him, what is it that we were risen with? Risen with newness of life, resurrection life. Isn’t that what Paul talked about when he said, above everything else, he said, I want to know Christ in the power of His resurrection. I want to know what it means to live daily in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. We tolerate sin in our life. We explain away our weaknesses when the truth is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is alive, is available inside of us, enabling us every single moment of our life to do and to accept and to receive and to overcome every challenge Satan throws in our path. Every single thing you face, you have the power of God to see you through it. But if in your mind he’s still up yonder somewhere and you do not recognize that he’s an indwelling friend living with inside of you. Listen, Paul says when Christ who is our life. He’s our very life on the inside and the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us. He says, this is your position, crucified with him, buried with him, risen with him. But then I came to this passage of scripture and I thought, Lord, how in the world could this possibly be true? And he says this in Ephesians chapter two about our relationship with him. He says, And raised up with Him, in verse 6, and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That speaks of our relationship. It speaks of the security that you and I have in Him. It speaks of God’s desire in your life and my life and for our lives that you and I would always sense the presence of God. Seated at the Father’s right hand is the place of authority. You say, well, I don’t have any authority. Yes, you do. The Spirit of God within you enables you to call upon Almighty God, has opened the door to the throne room of God that you and I can come before Him, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. We have rights in the throne room because Christ is our mediator. And when we understand what our position is before Him, not of pride and egotism, But of grace, the blood of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness, the redemption, the reconciliation, the sanctification, all that God has done for us, we have access at the throne room of God for anything and everything that we need. Because the truth is, in Christ Jesus we are sufficient. He says, when you have Christ, you have everything. He’s made us sufficient in Him. Why? Not sufficient within our own strength, but sufficient within Christ. That is, you and I have been made sufficient by our position with Him that no matter what we face, we will be adequate because of His presence. Seated with Him in the heavenly places. What a beautiful way to describe the intimate relationship you and I have with Him. We’re a whole different person heading in a different direction. Seated the Father’s right hand. But listen to this next phrase. I love this. He says, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is what? Your life is hidden with Christ in God. How am I hidden when I’m down here? What does he mean when he says you and I are hidden with him? Does that not again speak of that intimacy? God, you and I have an intimacy with each other that is indescribable. Crucified with him, buried with him, risen with him, seated with him, hidden with him. Does that not speak, first of all, of security? all of these verses if you’ll notice crucified with him buried with him risen with him seated with him hidden with him what does it say but a relationship of intimacy and my friend you don’t want to live your christian life just being satisfied being saved and going to church and singing songs and praying prayers you ought to be building an intimacy with jesus And once you begin to build that intimacy with him, it is amazing how your interest in other things begin to subside. You don’t need some things you thought you need. You don’t want some things you used to want. You’re careful about your relationships. Why? Because there is an awesome sense of the presence of God and an overwhelming sense of inner sufficiency in him. Security listen hidden with him speaks of security, but it speaks of something else hidden with him speaks of secrecy Do you realize that you and I have something the world doesn’t understand? What we have the world doesn’t understand is this we have a resource that is that is a total mystery to them and that resource is the indwelling presence of God and to nourish your life. When you get discouraged, who is it that nourishes you from within? When you want to just give up and quit and tell God, just forget it. And yet God begins to work in your inner life. When you become fearful, God is the one who grants you courage. And if you think about all the needs you have, you don’t have to pump out the solution. What is happening? Because Christ is your life, He’s overflowing within you. That supernatural resurrection power of Christ in which you and I are to live, that life is overflowing within us. If we will believe and receive and accept and live out of the inner resource, You’ll begin the sense of satisfaction in your heart you’ve never known. Hidden with him speaks of a secret strength. That is, we have a resource the world does not know. It likewise speaks of satisfaction. The Bible says when you have Jesus, you have everything. You know, a lot of folks don’t believe that. I’ll tell you why they don’t believe it. Because if they did, they wouldn’t be in such debt. That’s one reason they wouldn’t be clamoring, trying, working, slaving, sacrificing holy things to get ahead in the world. If you really believe that Jesus Christ was sufficient for you. Listen, hidden away with him, there is my security. Hidden away with him, there is the source of my secret strength. Hidden away with him, there is my reason for separation. And hidden away with him, is my reason for satisfaction. Then he says one last thing I want you to notice in this chapter. He says, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, and when He appears, we’re going to appear with Him. Think about this. You want to know how much God loves you? He loves you so much that He wasn’t willing for you to simply have your sins to be forgiven, but He was willing to put you on the cross with the Lord Jesus Christ and take care of your old self. Give you His divine nature, making you a partaker of it. Burying you in a beautiful relationship with him that is eternal. Raising you up in supernatural resurrection power. Seating you at the right hand with him. Hiding you away with him. And then he says, to top it all, when he comes back, guess who’s coming with him? He says, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory. My friend, the truth is while our citizenship is in this nation, our better and higher citizenship is in glory. And while we live and work down here, home is being prepared up yonder. And while we face the difficulties and the hardships and the trials and the burdens of life, Someone on the inside of us is that continuing, ever-flowing, adequate, satisfying resource to meet every single need we have. Now let me ask you a question. Let’s think about, let’s forget everything else for just a moment and think about this. God reached down and saved you. You didn’t have anything to do with it. Not a thing. He forgave you of every sin you’ve ever committed, past, present, and future, all nailed on the cross 2,000 years ago. He sanctified you, that is, He set you apart for His own. He reconciled you, brought you to Himself in a beautiful, intimate relationship. The truth is, He bought you with His own precious blood, the blood of His Son, Jesus. And the Bible says He’s already glorified you in His mind, glorified already. crucified you, buried you, having sealed you as one of his own forever, raised you up, seated you with him, hid you with him. And one of these days, Jesus will be willing to bring you and me back with him in all of his glory, in all of his majesty. Do you realize what God must think about you? That he’s willing to do all of that? And remember that you and I didn’t do one thing to deserve it, not one. That’s grace. That’s unconditional love. That is the ever-flowing love of God toward His children. If you and I will think about what He’s done for us and think about how great He is, something will happen to our prayer life. Something will happen. You see, you’ll no longer be satisfied just being saved. No longer satisfied just serving God. You know what you’ll begin to want? You’ll begin to want to build an intimacy. When you fall in love with Jesus, you fall out of love with this world. And something happens in your heart that Jesus becomes enough.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to part two of The Motivation of Worship. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
