I want you to know the legal parameters that give you an invitation to live a higher life. You have permission to think from heaven towards earth. It's really how faith functions. You can live life as a Christian one of two ways. Both work, but one's better. Stand on earth, beg him to come and fix your problem, or live in heavenly places and enforce his authority on the problem. The first is where everybody starts, but you don't have to stay there. I'm Steve. Bless you. Bless you. Please. Please be seated. Steve and I go way back. Way back. Way back. My goodness. I remember you at a men's retreat in when I went over to Fortuna. Goodness. How long would it that be? 35 years ago. 35 years ago. Yeah. 35 years ago. And he still likes me. I don't know. It's It's amazing. I'm I'm crazy about him. He's so fun. Um it's hard to be depressed around him. It's uh he he's allergic to it. Apparently, every every demon of depression leaves when Steve comes in the room. It's beautiful. That's good. I will say that he had a dog that was heavily demonized at one time, though. You know, them demons that went into pigs, they didn't all go into pigs. long waited for a [Laughter] dog. Oh yeah, we we've been going around round about this for 35 years. So, well, good evening. Good to see you. Um, happy Easter. My goodness. You know, without the resurrection, we're the most pitiful group on the planet. It's true. True. We We are absolutely spinning our wheels, wasting our time. Everything everything is hinged on that one reality that Jesus was raised from the dead. Everything. And uh so and it's true. So that's pretty cool. In a Minnesota church one Sunday morning, a preacher said, "Anyone who wants prayer, please come forward." Sven got in line. When it was his turn, the pastor asked him, "What do you want me to pray about?" And he said, 'I need you to pray for help with my hearing. Preacher preacher put one finger the finger of his hand in his ear, placed the other on top of his head, frayed blue streak, and the whole congregation joined with great enthusiasm. After a few minutes, the preacher removed his hand, stood back, and he said, "Sven, how's your hearing?" He said, "I don't know. It's not till Tuesday. [Music] [Music] Yeah. Um, I hope you didn't come tonight looking for a nice little devotional because I really want to make you work. So, if you didn't come to work, repent. I don't know. Change. Do something different. Get get ready. All right. Grab your Bibles if you would. And uh we're going to bounce around. We got quite a few scriptures to read. I think if if if you endure it, I'll endure with you. And uh and we'll look at a number of scriptures. Um I want us to start in Romans chapter 6. We're going to go to Romans 6 and Colossians 2. And uh and we'll just see where else. How many of you actually have your Bibles? Let me see your Bible's hold. Oh, look at this. Bibles all over the place. How many of you have the electric version? That's That's okay. That's legal. That's legal. I'm still waiting for someone to create an app that when you turn on your Bible, it has the sound of turning pages because I I grew up with hearing the sound of Bible pages turning whenever it was time. And you guys have all these electric things and I do too. But anyway, um Romans chapter 6, we're what I want to talk to you about is I want to talk to you about the resurrection. We talked about a little bit about water baptism. I want to talk to you about um a resurrected mind. I I feel like, you know, I've been teaching on the renewed mind for goodness as long, not as long as I can remember, because it probably started really about 20 25 years ago. And it's a favorite subject. A favorite subject, not because I like to tell you about it, but because I like to learn about it. And so the the more I talk about it, the more it expands my own heart of exploration into uh into this subject because uh the the renewed mind is the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is the mind of wisdom. And uh he said in Romans, Paul said in Romans 12:2, he says, "Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." So there's no transformation apart from the transformation of mind. A transformed life is transformed consistently with their mind being transformed. No more, no less. A transformed mind transforms a person. Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that may you may prove the will of God. So what's the will of God on earth as it is in heaven? Best definition of the will of God is found in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. Pray like this. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does the re renewed mind do? It proves the reality of heaven on earth. You're gonna make me work all night this hard, aren't you? I can tell. I can tell the renewed mind is somehow able to put on display the reality of God's heart, which is his world transforming this one. And so when one person is ministered to and they have lived with torment their whole life and it's gone, guess what? The kingdom came. The will of God came. And it was because someone had enough of a renewed mind to demonstrate or display that which God intended to do for everybody. To seek first the kingdom is to seek first his rule in any given situation where we have influence. We're not praying for a military invasion of heaven to earth. We're not praying to go to heaven. We're not praying for a military invasion from heaven. We are praying for the will of God to be demonstrated in every broken situation where we have influence. And the renewed mind sees this the answer more than the problem. The enemy works to make us more aware of the problem we face than the solutions we carry. If he can emphasize in my thinking, in my awareness, my consciousness, if he can increase my awareness of problems that I face, and this is true for everybody in this room, if he if he can somehow highlight or increase my awareness of the problems I face, I will live in reaction to those problems. They will influence me. I don't mean the devil controls me. I just mean I live in reaction to and Jesus didn't live that way. He lived in response to the father. Often times people live in reaction to the devil and feel spiritual about it. You have a certain amount of sense of purpose when you react to the devil. And and and I don't want to say it's entirely wrong. I'm just saying it's inferior. My anger doesn't intimidate the devil. My determination, my strong will does not intimidate him at all. It's the blood of Jesus that intimidates today. And functioning under the influence of being a forgiven one allows me to repeat that in people's lives. In other words, the redemption that I have experienced is the redemption I get I get to minister. I get to put on display. All right, let's uh let's just get into Romans 6 and we'll we'll just take some uh some good thoughts here and just get ready to bounce around with me. All right. Um let's go verse four of chapter 6. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. And you saw it tonight. We were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now these are these are pregnant ideas, very lofty thoughts. How many believe Jesus was raised from the dead? E equal to that conviction, you should walk in newness of life. What he does, he's he's tricking us. He raises the bar and then he says, "All right, this is how you're supposed to live because you believe this. This should be the impact of your life." But then he pushes it farther. We're not going to go through the whole chapter. It would be worthwhile, but I have other places I want us to go. So, jump down to verse 11. Likewise, you also reckon or consider yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Likewise, consider yourself All right, so just think with me a minute. How many of you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? You you weren't as you weren't as eager that second time, but just because you you felt I tricked you, and I did not. I did not. All right. You believe in the resurrection of Jesus, the power of the blood of Jesus, the absolute condition of forgiveness. Yes. All right. Consistent with that thought, here's this huge thought. Now, take that same lofty ideal and put this idea in there. I am dead to sin because of this reality. Here's a reality you might not have known about. That's so good. It's not mind over matter. The mind the the mind is a horrible leader and a tremendous student. We know that faith doesn't come from the mind. Bible says with the heart man believes under righteousness. All heart issues are surrender issues. So that means then that great faith comes from great surrender. And yet the mind the renewed mind creates opportunity for faith to flow. I the illustration I give you all the time is the renewed mind is like banks of a river. It creates the context for faith to flow in. We see it with centurion. He gives this brilliant answer to Jesus about the chain of command and authority. And Jesus hears his reasoning and says, "I've not seen such great faith in all of Israel. Kingdom reasoning can manifest or reveal kingdom faith." So here Paul is establishing facts for us. Jesus died. He was buried. He rose from the dead. His blood has cleansed you. You stand forgiven. Now, that lofty ideal needs another matching lofty ideal. Consider yourself, think of yourself in this way. I'm dead to sin. If you believe this is true, then you must believe this is true. Yep. So I wonder how much sin takes place in our lives because we give ourselves to thinking it before it's birthed. Again, it's not mind over matter. He's just saying if you'll think consistent with the kingdom, you'll get the benefits of the kingdom. Let me put it this way. Whatever kingdom your thoughts reveal, that kingdom will be manifested in your life. Go to Colossians chapter 2. Please, please, that sounded kind of demanding there. Please turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2. Verse 13. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him. having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. So, every indictment ever written about you, he wrote, or he took the handwriting, the judgment against you, the accusations, the uh information, all the stuff, and he nailed it to the cross. and it was crucified with him. Do you get the picture? Yes, of course you do. Verse 15, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing, triumphing over them in it. We know in 1 John uh 3:8, he said he came to destroy the works of the evil one. Jesus came, one of the reasons he came was to destroy the works. Remember that he he they they he planted Adam and Eve in a garden, a paradise, a perfect location on a planet that was in chaos. You have to understand that part of the mission that God had for Adam and Eve. He planted them on a planet that was in chaos. That's why he said, "Be fruitful, multiply, subdue." Subdue is a military term because things are in chaos on this planet. So he takes Adam and then creates Eve, puts them in a garden, tells them to work and their responsibility is to expand his delegated authority on a planet through them as they increase in number and increase the influence on on the globe until the powers of darkness are destroyed. Now the devil has never been a threat to God. this idea that uh spiritual warfare is God and the devil fighting. No, that's laughable. Absolutely laughable. God is eternal power. The devil is limited strength. God is unlimited power. Unlimited in every possible way. The devil has no claim at all. The devil wars against his creation, which is you and me. He works to defile. People say, "Why did God create evil?" He didn't create evil. Evil is a distortion of what he created. Hello. Okay, let me let me see if I can illustrate. All right, let's say um Yep, I can tear this one up. All right, let's just say that this piece of paper represents God's creation of marriage. All right, just to illustrate, God created marriage. Part of the marriage relationship is the intimate part of the relationship. What has the devil done? He takes that part and he puts it down here. What do you have now? You have a distortion of what God made. It's what's called evil. Everything that's evil is a distortion of God's purpose and plan. God didn't create evil. He created the capacity to choose. Why? Because he's a father. What does that have to do with anything? He can give gifts all day long, but he wants to give rewards. And there are no rewards where there are no choices. Yes. Amen. All right. Colossians uh 2:15. I want to read this to you out of the Passion translation. And what I like that Brian Simmons does in his uh uh in his translation, which by the way, I think he has two books to go to complete the whole Bible, which I'm excited about. But um what he does is occasionally there'll be a verse that's translated very differently than what we're accustomed to and he always puts footnotes with brilliant explanations so that you understand why. All right. So here it is. Um chapter 2 verse1 15. Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner. They were his. Not bad, huh? That's that I just read you good news. Now, think about this. you we have to we have to learn to think consistent with what is true because sometimes we think of things like this that are true but we hope they become true for us someday not realizing they are already true for us right now. Did that make sense? Yes, Bill. It made perfect sense. All right, let me read let me read this. The Aramaic text, which Aramaic is what Jesus actually spoke, the Aramaic text has a phrase that is not found in Greek manuscripts. The Aramaic can be translated, "Having put off his body, he stripped principalities and powers and shamed them openly." This implies that between the day of crucifixion and the day of resurrection, while in the spirit realm, Jesus destroyed death, the powers of darkness, and every work of the enemy through the blood of his cross. All the enemy's weapons have been stripped away from him. And now the church has authority in Christ to enforce this triumph upon the dethroned rulers of this world. When you pray for someone and they get healed and that torment that was on their life, ju guess what? You just enforced the victory of Christ on a dethroned influence. Yes. When you pray for that neighbor that's been struggling with torment since they were a child and that torment gets broken off them, guess what? You just you just um enforced the authority of Christ and getting that person free according to what Jesus would do if he were standing in your shoes. When Jesus died in Ephesians 4, in fact, let's just turn there. Let in instead of just quoting verses, I'm going to make you look at them. So, turn to Ephesians 4. Yes, I'm going to make you work. I promise you, I will make you work. Ephesians 4. How many of you are there? Let me see. You're there. You're there. You're there. All right. All right. Ephesians 4:7, "To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift." Therefore, he says, "When he ascended on high, he led captivity, captivity captive, and he gave gifts to men." Now, what he's doing here is he's describing what Jesus did between the cross and the resurrection. Some people say Jesus went in into hell and suffered in hell on our behalf. No. No, he did not. If he did, then the blood wasn't enough. He went into what's called shol. Shol. If you read Luke 16, I might get to it if I feel we have time, but in Luke 16, it talks about this this place of the dead before Christ, before the death and resurrection of Christ, people would die. They would go to either a place called Abraham's bosom. Does anybody remember what Abraham is known for? He's the father of what? Father of faith. Remember, God looked at his faith in his obedience and considered him righteous because of faith. He became the forerunner of the entire New Testament church. He set the pattern for how we live life. Are you all right? Is Is it too late for this at night? No, you're doing all right. All right. All right. So, there's this place called Shield. There's a place Abraham's bosom. That's where every person who lived by faith, believe it or not, Old Testament, New Testament, the same. No one is able, no one was able to qualify themselves to obedience in the law. Abraham's bosom and then the other place is called a place of torment. So this is the place of the dead. When Jesus died, he went into those lower parts of the earth to present to those who were in Abraham's bosom that that place of the dead of the righteous dead to announce to them the price had been paid. And this passage says he led captive a host of captives. They were captive. Why? Because they were under the law that said the soul that sins shall die. Are you with me? So when he comes, he makes an announcement to them. The price has been paid. You are no longer under that bondage, under that law. I took care of it for you. And so he leads captive a host of captives. These are all the righteous dead. On his way to the father, he sees Mary Magdalene weeping. and he stops to talk to her. It's in John chapter 20. Turn there. All right. Empty tomb. Mary Magdalene. Um verse 11. Uh John 20. Are you there? Did you get there already? All right. You're fast. That's good. Uh Mary stood outside the tomb. Verse 11, weeping as she wept, stooped down. She looked into the tomb, saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. I want to remind you in the Old Testament, there was the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant had two angelic chair beings that faced each other. The ark of the covenant contained the the budded almond rod resurrected sign of leadership for Aaron's almond rod, the tablets of stone, and a jar with mana testimony. It's called the ark of the covenant or the ark of the testimony. The angel sat here on top of this is called the mercy seat. This box contained the testimony of God's covenant with Israel. So every time you share a testimony of what God has done, you're bringing in the mercy seat of God into that environment. So when Mary looks into the tomb and sees an angel at the foot and at the head, you're seeing a a the real copy of the testimony of Jesus, the real arc of the god. The other was a preliminary glimpse into what was coming. This mercy seat is based entirely upon the resurrection of Jesus and his militant intent to show mercy wherever people are open to receiving mercy. Verse 13, they said to woman, "Why are you weeping?" She said, "Because they have taken away my Lord. I do not know where they've laid him." When she said this, she turned and saw Jesus standing there, but did not know it was him. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? So the angels asked her, now Jesus asked, "Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She supposing him to be the gardener said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." And Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him, "Raboni," which means teacher. And Jesus said to her,"Do not cling to me, for I've not yet ascended to my father. Stop clinging to me. I've not yet ascended to my father. Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God." Think about this for a minute. Here we've got the 70 disciples that Jesus anointed. We've got the 12. We've got the three, Peter, James, and John that got to be with the mount of transfiguration. So we have this oh hierarchy is not the right way to put it but you understand how people start feeling when they get favored right we all hate yeah Jesus chooses to reveal himself first to Mary Magdalene the person out of whom seven demons had been cast the first Mary that he revealed himself to in his virgin birth was the Virgin Mary. Purity. Wow. Mary Magdalene. Wow. Grace. It's not a new chapter in the book. It's a new book. Wow. Wow. So Jesus says, "Stop clinging to me." Matthew's gospel, Matthew 27. Go ahead and turn there. I've told you I'm going to make you work. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27 says, verse 50, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Then behold, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earthquake, and the rocks were split. That word torn and the word split are the is the word that is used in Mark chap uh Mark 1:es 9 and 10 to describe the parting of the heavens when Jesus was baptized in water and the Holy Spirit came down. In other words, it's a word that describes a violent action. When Jesus gave up his spirit, it wasn't taken from him. He surrendered it. He gave up his spirit. He died. At that moment, the veil in the temple, which was four to six inches thick, was torn from heaven towards earth. And the rocks around Jerusalem were also torn. And those two words or that word in those two statements are is the same word used in Mark 9 when Jesus was baptized in water came up out of the water and the heavens were torn open in fulfillment of Isaiah's prayer. Ren the heavens and come down. ran the heavens, tear open the heavens. So there's this violent act at Jesus's baptism and the Holy Spirit came descended upon him and remained upon him in the form of a dove. Verse 52, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Wow. All right. Here's what I think happened. Jesus is dead. He He dies. He dies. He goes into shol. He announces the payment has been made. He's leading a host of captives to the father. the prize, the prize of his suffering. He's leading this host of captives that are now what he gets to present to the father as the redeemed. On the way to the father, he sees Mary. And I I get so rocked by this that here's here's his plan is to go to the father, but he's moved by his love for this lady out of whom he cast seven demons. and he stops the whole procession and he comes over to Mary and begins to talk to her. All the saints that were with him start thinking we might as well catch a few sights in town and see how the old house is doing. you know. So, while he's talking to her, there's all these sightings of old saints walking around Jerusalem. This is just weird and glorious. And then Jesus takes the prize to the father. Now, what I want you to see here, I want you to go back to Colossians 2. You guys still all right? Yeah. I hope so. Colossians 2, I'm going to read it out of the uh Passion translation and then and then we're actually going to jump to chapter 3 and we're going to end uh probably we'll end in that chapter. Let's see how how we do time-wise. Um verse 15, Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. Man, is that good news for anybody? And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner, they were his. Now look at verse one of chapter 3. If then you were raised with Christ. How many of you were raised with Christ? His resurrection. This is important to understand. His resurrection is actually your resurrection. That that's the whole point. The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the spirit of resurrection. He is the one who dwells in you. That's why surrender to him is key to every aspect of victory we could possibly have in our life because he is that power of resurrection that is able and capable of producing a resurrected life through you through me. Verse one of chapter 3. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. Why? Because you died. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Now let me take it in the passion translation. Christ's resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above. For that's where Christ sits enthroned at a place of all power, honor, and authority. Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm. And fill your thoughts with heavenly realities and not with the distractions of the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life. Now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ. And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you really are will also be revealed. For you are now one with him in his glory. Now, I don't know the these are pretty large thoughts. They hurt my head, actually. It's hard it's hard for me to comprehend this. And I don't know what you're like, but I I know my tendency when I when I read lofty thoughts is is to read over it and move on. Almost like, well, that's too big for me or too big for now. when some of these things just need to be prayerfully meditated on. This would be the kind of thing where you you would sit in your in your car or in your your prayer closet or wherever and and you you you pray. You sit in there and you pray. My mind is set on heavenly things. I imagine I wonder about unseen realities. The realities of God's rule, the reality of his world. Those are the things I get to feed my soul on. Those are the things I get to feast on. I'm going to set my eyes on those things. I'm going to set my mind on those things. I want to engage with things that I don't understand because I want him to teach me what his world is like. What you do is you pray it, you talk it, you sing it, you confess it, you find scripture of this nature. Please, please be willing to write your own cross references in your Bible. When you see another verse like the verses I just read to you from Colossians 2 and Romans 6, they they marry each other. They fit perfectly. Things on on ideas and lofty ideas. Um anytime you find these these thoughts, these threads through scripture, write them down in your own reference because because one day you'll read that verse and you'll wonder, why did that stand out to me? And you'll notice another verse and you'll be farther down the journey. And as you turn to that second passage, it begins to open up. And that's it's the it's the one thing I'm not a great student, but one thing I do is I I mark why a verse stood out to me and I mark my own references down that will take me through my own her history, my own journey in scripture. And so that means in a sense, this is my diary. It's not filled with a lot of explanations. It doesn't need to be. It just has the right things marked. Yeah, it's a good point, Bill. All right, let's You know what? I I I said u that we'd probably not use any more verses, but I I want to use another verse. Um so, go to uh go to John 3. Here's one of the the loftiest thoughts that I've ever seen. I've taught on it a number of times. It's been a while, I think, but uh here, but go to John chapter 3 and um and I think we'll we'll probably end it. I'm allowed three endings before it's a lie. So, I've This will be my second one. I'm allowed one more before you you actually can say I'm I'm lying. All right. I don't know where that rule is written. Somebody made it up and it sounded good to me. All right. So, John chapter 3 is where um Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and he and he asked him. We're going to read through uh several passages. So, I have it open. Verse two, this man came to Jesus by night, said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him." I I emphasize this all the time, but I'm going to do it again. When you see doing and teaching in the same phrase, mark it, do something. Because our culture is accustomed to teaching without doing. Our culture is accustomed to embracing lofty ideals with no change in how we behave. It's just it's just a culture. It's not I don't know that it's intentional. It just happens that way. You can you can go to school and be taught a business class by somebody who never owned a business because we don't always require performance equal to what we say. But the the Bible approach to training and education is quite different from that. It it is learning through experience. PE people say, "Well, if we interpret the Bible through our experience, we can be deceived." And that is true. But if you interpret without experience, you're already deceived. All right, let's just move on. Well, let me put it let me let me put it to you this way. Would you listen to anybody's teaching about being born again that wasn't born again? No. Why? Because they haven't experienced what they're talking about. Amen, Bill. That was a very good point. Very good point. Okay. All right. John John 3. Um Jes verse three. Jesus answered and said, "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." So what happens here? Conversion gives you the capacity to see. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most people repentant enough to get forgiven, but not enough to see the kingdom. Verse four, Nicodemus said, "How can a man be born when he is old, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and a spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Born of water is natural birth. The water breaks in in natural birth and born of the spirit. Verse six, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel. I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. That's a a very strange analogy that Jesus just provided. He just described you. Are you born of the spirit? Okay, here's your description. don't know where he's coming from and where he's going. It's like it's like wind. Honestly, this the nature of the spirit of God is has become your nature. All right. Verse nine. Nicodemus answered and said, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you a teacher in Israel and you do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you not you do not believe our witness. All right? You still alive? Still awake. We speak. Who's we? It's not him and the angels. The angels don't know what's going on. It's certainly not him and the disciples. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we speak what we know. We testify what we have seen. God has a testimony. He'd like to tell you about it. He'd like to describe to somebody the release of the spirit of God upon the 120 in upper room and how it forever changed the course of world history where the Christ, the anointed one, was crucified and as a result 3,000 Christians, smaller anointed ones were raised up on that day of Pentecost or released into the earth. What the enemy thought he had destroyed had absolutely multiplied exponentially to absolutely terrify every thought and plan that he had of conquering this earth. It's true. Verse 12. If I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? All right. If I tell you earthly things, you do not believe. Where did he speak of earthly things? Said you must be born again. Born birth. He said one who is born again is like the wind. Don't know where it comes from, where it goes. So wind is natural. Yeah, it's not a trick question. You can trust me. Honestly, I I I know you don't. The hour's late. I I I know. He speaks of earthly things, birth, wind, and he says, "If I talk to you about natural things and you don't make the connection between the natural and the spiritual, how can I talk to you about heavenly things that have no earthly parallel? Wow. Now, see, when the Lord reveals truth to us, he often uses natural things to illustrate. For example, sewing and reaping. It's a spiritual principle. So, he uses natural things to illustrate. He says, "I no longer call you servants. I call you friends." He uses natural things to reveal things to us, to illustrate. And so now he's telling us, if I talk to you about earthly things and you're not making the connection, then how can I talk to you about my world that has no earthly parallel? How I I have no place to put it. Does this make sense to you that he uses truth, revealed truth as a platform for greater truth? It'll always stay consistent with the foundation. I no longer call you servants. I call you friends. He didn't abolish servantthood. He built on top of it a measure and level of intimacy that servants never have. But we still serve. Right? So he uses the previous truth as the foundation for the newly revealed truth. It'll always be consistent with the foundation. Right? So then he comes and he says, "All right, now I'm talking about earthly things. You're not making a connection. And if you don't, I have no place to put what I want to show you about my world. All right. He he says, "Whatever you bind on earth," best translation is, "shall have been bound in heaven. We we know what to bind. Things that cause death, loss, and destruction. He came to kill, steal, destroy. So, we bind when we see someone in torment, when there's uh affliction, infirmity, spirit of infirmity. We know what to bind. We bind. What to bind means God has given us a contract. And you, devil of torment, I'm holding you. I'm binding you to the contract that says, "I have authority over you." It's a binding contract. If you go buy a car and you decide not to make payments, the bank will come to you and say, "We have a binding contract. We're going to hold you to the contract." So when you bind the devil, you're holding him to the contract from the higher power that assigned you to administrate his purposes. Right? So he says, "What you bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven." In other words, you you bind here because it doesn't exist there. Right? But then he says, "Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven." We know about binding because we know about loss, death, sickness. But what are you going to lose? See, without understanding the nature of his world that he's wanting to reveal to us, we don't have the insight to know what to release into a given situation. And so verse 13, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. Look at this verse. No one has ascended to heaven. So Jesus, you remember Jesus, he died, he resurrected, he ascended and was glorified, right? Died, resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the father, glorified. That hasn't happened yet in John 3. This is early in in the game. There's been no death and resurrection yet. There's been no ascension. And yet Jesus says, "Nobody has ascended except pointing to himself, the son of man, who first descended. You all right? This all right." He said, "No, nobody's been going up into heaven except for one person, and that's the one who first descended." What did he just what did he just say to us? He just told us, "This is my lifestyle. I ascend into heavenly realms while standing on planet earth. He's describing how he knows what the father is doing. He's describing his relationship with the Holy Spirit where his if we could uh it's been called by some some in the in the past an ascended life. Romans 5:17 talks about that Jesus set the stage for us to reign in life. So the ascended life is literally living in the resurrected in that resurrected place of triumph. And so Jesus says no one has ascended except the one who descended that is the son of man. And he there's a phrase in my translation that some don't have. He says, "The son of man who is in heaven." All right, picture yourself. You're one of the 12 guys sitting there. And he says, "Uh, nobody's been ascending into heaven except for me. And and I'm I'm there right now. If you're gonna live there, then you'll think there. And so he says, "If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Um let's uh let's yeah, let's wrap we'll wrap this up uh like right now. Right now. No three endings tonight. No sir. This is it. Now, this is um what I what I wanted to do tonight was was to try to set like the legal parameters that give you permission as well as an invitation to live a higher life. A higher life. Living conscious. I I don't mean I don't mean where uh you know I I don't mean where you become a stupid driver because your mind is in heaven and not on the stoplight that says you know you really shouldn't go through this red light. It's it's I don't mean that. I don't mean where you don't pay your bills on time or something. It's it's it's not that. It's it's living with the realization of heaven itself. this realm of the Holy Spirit. The verse I quote often for you is uh the kingdom of God is not meat or drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. So the realm of heavenly things is in the realm of his presence. So being a person who feeds naturally on fellowship with the Holy Spirit is our introduction into thinking his thoughts, imagining his imagination, desiring his desires. And I hope that that made enough sense for you to at least ask him questions and look for chances to think higher. Amen. Let's stand. You all right? Yeah. Good. All right. Anybody else tired of thinking thoughts of fear, intimidation, worry, all the nonsense? [Applause] I want you to know that you, we have permission. mission to think from heaven towards earth. It's really how faith functions doesn't faith doesn't function from earth towards heaven. I don't think not in its strongest form. You can live life as a Christian one of two ways. Both work, but one's better. stand on earth, beg him to come and fix your problem or live in heavenly places and enforce his authority on the problem. [Applause] The first is where everybody starts, but you don't have to stay there. Put your hand on the neighbor next to you because I don't know if they know it, but they needed to hear this. I want you to pray for them. God, help them. Help them. Help our online family. I bless you. Help us, Lord, to live in and with the mind of Christ. To live in and with the mind of Christ. Open our curiosities. Open our curiosities, our godly fantasy, wondering how it is that you would work and move in and through us. You know, I think this is really at the heart of stepping into another level of of creativity that the Lord has for us. uh where we literally where we solve some of the issues, the problems, the inventions, the uh different things as we we develop curiosity with God. And uh put your hand on your own heart and pray for the person who needs it the most right now. Oh Jesus, help me. Help me. Help me. Yes. And I I do pray for that. I pray I pray that the Lord would help you help us together as a church family. Be curious. Just to be curious. I saw a quote uh by Einstein a couple weeks ago that I love so much. He said, "Creativity is intelligence at play." Creativity is intelligence at play. There's this merging together, the molding together. I feel so strong that the Lord wants to increase the intelligence of his people. But it's an intelligence that's born out of faith. That's biblical. Bible says by faith we understand. Increase our capacity, Father. Increase our capacity for seeing, for understanding, for learning. Yes. Increase our curiosities, our hungers. Father, I pray that uh in fact I pray for everybody in this room that over the next 30 days there'd be some sort of an encounter in the night, dreams in the night where you actually you teach us about how your your world works that you would introduce us to to that which Jesus lived in continuously that you teach us an ascended lifestyle. Yes. Keep us from being weird. Some of you it's too late. I know it's just too It's too late. Yeah. I should have prayed that years ago for some of you. Yeah. Seriously, Lord, help us really to function in the mind of Christ, in the curiosities of children who have questions for the father, and that you would help us to administer your will on earth as it is in heaven. Open our eyes to see things we've never seen, our hearts to understand things we've never understood, our mouths to declare things we've never stated before, Amen. Amen.