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Trying to get into seats you think you deserve while missing the seat that you're seated in that you don't deserve. You don't deserve. Are you striving today? To sit somewhere you may not know. You may not belong. You do, but you may not. Do you want to occupy a place you think? Years ago, Jerry Vaughn told me this and we talk about it sometimes with our team and it's about transformation. He said this, he said, "if you have to announce your transformation, probably not that deep." If you have to tell somebody, you're worth it. You may not be. Be worth honoring. If you have to cry out for your plate, that may not be your place. If you have to strive to have a place and a seat, it may not be yours. But hopefully, before we finish today, you can realize you have been seated. It's not just that you have, that you have a seat, you have a seat. Been seated in a seat. See, you most certainly do not deserve as Jackson said just a second ago, to remember and recall that, to run it back, that we were separated from God, but now in Christ we're seated man, this week, think. Think, be led to possibly recognizing you're striving for a seat you think you deserve and you deserve. While not living in the reality of sitting in a seat you definitely don't deserve. To think that spiritually you were seated with Christ is absolutely absurd. But doesn't that heighten the grace of God, at least in your mind? Doesn't it make you realize that if God fed me with Jesus, and the way that the seat worked in the ancient world, you gotta start stepping back and realize this absolutely has nothing to do with me, Adam. If Paul's words are true for me and you, wouldn't we both agree? There is no reason why I should be sitting in that seat. What does it make me do? It makes me go, the grace of God is the grace of God. The grace of God must have done something for me on that cross that I still don't fully must be doing stuff for us. That I just don't fully understand. So instead of wondering about it, we worship. Instead of going, how did he do that? We go, I just know he did. And if he did, and this wonder-working grape, again, that we just sang about, it's true. I should probably stop trying to investigate hell and just worship because. We need to honor God. for putting us in places that we don't have to work for. It is finished was the song we just sang. The seat is yours. You are seated there. spiritually while even physically and mentally and emotionally you may be running around like a proverbial chicken with your head cut off trying to get to the seat you think you deserve. But God says, I cut your work out of it. You've been saved by grace. So that grace must be pretty powerful. Two things that I want to emphasize before we leave here. I want to go back thinking now about what Paul had said. In Ephesians, he's told us that we're seated with Christ. And Jesus says, a seat of honor. Honor needs to be out of humility. Isn't that how you were saved? Did you know that God does not save the proud? Let's get into our ideas about salvation. Did you know that you are not saved because you're good? You're not saved because you worked hard? You're not saved? Because you were faithful? You're not saved? Because of anything that you've done... God does not save the proud... The proud by definition don't... Don't want to be saved. Come on, is that right? Why would I need Jesus? I don't need salvation from something that I don't have a problem with. So the proud, by the very definition, can't be saved. Jesus said he didn't come for those who were well. He came for the sick. He came for those who need salvation. And how many of you know this? You know this to be true. The needier you are, the more humiliating you feel, the more humiliated. I've witnessed this recently. by talking with other people who've been walking through some of the same things, but the more needy you feel, the more the more humiliating it is. It's why some of you don't like to ask for help. You feel needy. Because our thought is... Like, get it together. Just do the right thing. You know what? Why are we sitting here whining about it? If you just did X, Y, and Z, everything would be fine. But really, before you can do X, Y, and Z, before you can put the plan in them, the plan in emotion, really what you need is you need to receive your inability. Did you know that God's not strong in your strength, that he perfected strength in your weakness? Did you know that he doesn't heal? Those that are well, he heals the sick. Did you know that he doesn't deliver those who are free? He delivers those in bondage. So by definition, if you're proud, you don't need God. You certainly don't need the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. When Jesus tells this story and we look back at what Paul's saying, what should be evoked when Paul tells us, very quickly by the way, these are two sentences in the midst of a six chapter letter. And he is, as I've said many times, he is doing a theological drive-by. He is peppering us with... with sanctified ammunition, okay? And he just flies through. You're seated with Christ in heavenly places. Well, what does that mean? What should it evoke? Immediately it should evoke What I've noticed is that in the church is it is so easy to be prideful in in Christianity. I have actually found that I find more proud people in the church than I do outside the church. Because it's hard to see. But when Paul tells us this reality, he's helping us realize there's a place for us to learn humility. I want to point out these two things. Number one, you're seated as a sign. You're seated as a sign. When Paul says you're seated with Christ in heavenly places, I want to do this. I want to do a very quick tour of something that you may not believe or you may have believed for a long time. He uses a phrase in the heavenly world. Or in your translation, it might say something like something like the heavenly or the heavenly realm. Why is that important? Real quick, because the heavenly places are not the same thing as heaven. We're not going to go deep dive, but I want to give you a quick understanding. Heaven is a temporary holding place for the saint until God renews all. God renews all things, and there's a new heaven and a new earth. And guess what, baby? We coming back here. So, while your citizenship... May temporarily be in heaven, it's not staying there long term. Heaven's going to meet earth in a glorious renewal of all things and we will be back on earth. In glorified body, enjoying God's life. Come on, right? That sounds pretty awesome. I told a guy the other day I'm doing work with, I said, Maranatha. He said, Amen and amen. I'm like, come Lord quickly. If that reality could happen today, let it be. But until then, here we go. Here we are. We're seated, though. While we may not be in heaven, we are seated spiritually in the heavenly places. What are the heavenly places? If it's not heaven, wait a minute, Jonathan, are you telling me there's two heavens? Well, Paul says there's three, but I'm not even gonna get down into that rabbit hole. Here's the reality. There's no reason to talk about all of that. You just have to know if you're reading your daily, reading your daily Bible reading with us. We just finished Job about a month ago or a few weeks ago. In the very beginning of Job, it's the perfect story to help us understand that there is a another area of spiritual activity called the spiritual place. And based on basically Job's book gives us an understanding. There are all kinds of things happening in the spiritual world. We would call them, by the Bible standard, heavenly places. Demons are not running around this room right now. Angels are not chasing. Angels are not scrambling around this room right now. They are running around in the heavenly places. Now, do we believe that angels and demons are real and all that kind of stuff? Again, not a message on that. Maybe one day. So there's a world where spiritual, Paul calls it, spiritual passions. Spiritual powers, principalities. Rulers, Paul said, in heavenly places. What is he talking about? in Ephesians and Corinthians and other places where he's referencing this other word? He's saying there's a place where God's reign is going. It's going on fully and the spiritual powers are reacting to it. Now listen to this. When Jesus ascended, he didn't ascend to heaven. The temporary holding place for the saints until God renews all things. He is seated in heavenly places and it's important for you to realize that because all eyes in the heavenly places were on Christ when He was crucified. Why do I believe that? Because Paul says that when Jesus was right, Jesus was raised from the dead, God made a spectacle. Of the rulers... You got to think. Think about it being in a stadium. Watching the eternal plan of God play out. Jesus is getting whipped And all of the heavenly realms are looking in on this moment. I imagine you've got the angels... Who are saying, yeah, oh no, and the demons are going, yeah, this is when we get, this is when we get to do what we want. We're going to get victory here. And Jesus dies. But when Jesus is raised from the dead, when Jesus is raised from the dead, spiritually in the heavenly realm, demons are grabbing their hair. If they have any. Wait, no, no, no. This isn't, oh my gosh, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? With him being raised, the spiritual world erupts. Some with groans, some with cheers. Okay, now all that is happening in the spiritual world. Now, again, I'm not citing my opinion on that. That's all in the Scripture, okay? Now think about it for just a second. You, spiritually speaking, are seated with Christ in that place where all that activity is going on. Go read the beginning chapter of Job when you get home and go, no, wait a minute, I'm seated there? You're seated there with Christ. And you're like, what's the point of me being spiritually seated with Christ in that crazy land you're calling to? The spiritual realm. It's so when you get added to that seat, by trusting what Christ did for you, God can point over I'm gonna call some of y'all out, okay? Not in a bad way, y'all calm down, my God. This ain't one of those churches, I saw what you did last night. What you did last night? No, it's just not like that. But when you're seated with Christ, God can look over and all that spiritual activity, I want you to think about it. Again, absolute chaos. He can look over as a sign. And you, this demonic person, this angelic world, you may have thought my power was fully displayed when I spoke atoms into existence. You realize that these spiritual beings saw God God create the heavens and the earth. They saw him broken. Bring about mountains and oceans and fill them. But he does not point... The heavenly places to his creation power. Where did he point when he wants to show every life? Every ruler and power His great might You see, this one should should not be seated here. But now, because of Christ, He is. And you say, well, what does that matter to me? You know, to be honest, it shouldn't matter to you in the sense that it makes much of you. It should matter to you because God wants to make much of himself and he does it by saying, I've chosen to seat you in where you don't deserve an and it causes confusion in the spiritual world angels look on in a sense of peculiarity they want to understand but they can't because they don't understand redemption why would a perfect holy God eat that scumbag in that chair you think of yourself the way the scripture declares then you should be in all as well. Don't let the demons be in all of your stories. Don't let the let the fact that you've been cheated with Christ grow weary in your mind as even a big deal in God's kindness and mercy. He has seated you where you don't belong and he uses it as a means of pointing back and saying, I want you to look at how powerful I am. You think making making mountains as hard? Try changing a heart. You think creating a... All manner of life is difficult. No, no, no. Try getting a heart to want... want something it doesn't want. Anytime you think about God saving you, you want to say it shouldn't be but it is, praise God. And secondly, you're seated as a son. It's a spectacle that you're seated. It's a sign. God through the ages is going to constantly point to our lives and you're going to say, there's not much to my life. I haven't done a lot. I haven't even been alive that long. No, no, no. He's not pointing to your life as in what you've done. Look what I bought. Y'all got that friend that when they buy something they want to show you? If you don't know a person like that, you're that person. You buy something new. I want everybody to know. I got that. And it doesn't even matter if you like it. It doesn't even matter if you care about it. They like it. But you know, God doesn't care. I don't care if other people like what he's done to you. He likes it. It's for him. Your life is for him. Him, you exist for him. For him, everything in this world. And in this world that breathes or moves or has life or doesn't. Was made for his glory. So when God shows up and says, that one's mine, I bought it. I bought it. I sit right here in this special seat of honor. I say, but what? I feel like it's special. He's like, it's to me. It is to me. See, this isn't about boasting in yourselves, is it? You don't deserve to be in that seat. You're seated as a son. This is the part that, you know, if Jonathan's gonna cry, this is the moment for Jonathan Cross, this portion of understanding has completely changed my life. And I'm still not good at it. I am not good at being God's son. I still got to work, you know, Adam. There's still a lot to do. And I've still got things in my heart, my mind, that I'm... I still got to work, you know, I still got to work. And so I went from being a prodigal to sometimes now I live as an older son. If you know the story of the prodigal son we spend a lot of time looking at the prodigal son when we talk about the prodigal son when we do encounter, we use that story. Of him coming back and the father's love toward the son, the elder son is who I've become. When I met Christ, I was the prodigal, but now I've become an older son. It's harder for me to rejoice in things I've known for years. I'm asking God for a fresh joy in my life. Why? Because it's hard to run it back sometimes. I'm too busy trying to do stuff for God sometimes that... I get wrapped up in that I have big become something because of God. That I don't deserve, that I can't earn. And if I really want to enjoy God, I know this sonship part's really a piece of it. Paul talks about us being seated in Christ and multiple times when he talks to when he talks about Jesus ascending the psalmist talks about this the writer of Hebrews talks about this Paul writes about this in Corinthians but he says that there's coming a time at the end of the age where all of God's enemies, all of Jesus' enemies, maybe you can remember this, they're going to be brought under the feet of feet of Jesus. The psalmist uses the word footstool. They will become a place for Put him on there. I mean, if that doesn't speak of power, that your greatest enemies have now become where You'll rest your feet. I don't know of a greater imagery. For the power of God. And this is what I've thought about all week long. And I hope, again, swallow your mind this week as well. In the end of the age, it should be that I am there too under his feet as an enemy of God. Again, hard to be led to these places because most of us were raised saved. Most of us were raised in the church. We do not believe that. We do not think that we are enemies of God, but we have to. Those who exalt themselves, they will be thwarted. They will be humbled, but those who humble themselves, God will exalt them. This is one of those places where we have to be led to realizing that we should, we should be put under the feet of Jesus as his enemy, as a conquered enemy. Power of God and his grace. Makes enemies his sons. And so when you are seated with Christ spiritually, spiritually speaking, it points to your sonship. That the God of the universe has adopted you as his child. So when the writer of Hebrews says we can boldly and confidently approach the throne of grace, well, sure we can. We're seated right next to it. You're seated right next to it. the throne of grace. Boldly and confidently, come, turn, right? I don't have to, barge into the house. come through the front door. I'm just being crouched. Does that change a little bit of your perspective on even your prayer time? Do you know you don't have to climb some staircase to go into God's presence? If you're an enemy made son, you just got to turn. Spiritually speaking, God is the one who is the God is no closer to you than he's ever been and no further either. He's with you. You're seated at the sun where God can say, look, look at my power on display. Some of you need to exalt God, you need to honor Him. You just need to take time. Tonight or in the morning when you get up to pray and you just need to say, I need to take a second and do that old school praise. And so you deserve much more than I've been willing to give lately. I'm seated as a sign for God's power. Again, I don't deserve to be seated with Christ. I deserve a lot worse. Romans 1 says that the wrath of God is being revealed and it's being revealed against a group of people that would not glorify God. My thought is how easy it is to trade the glory of God for my own my own glory, for my own sense of worth, for my own honor the reason we need to read passages like this and the reason we need to dig into them is so that we can come and once again remember what am I trying to do? to get because I think I deserve it. And what do I already have by Christ that that I surely do not deserve? Things are hard for me like this because I think truth for me, for it to be real, has to be emotional. And that's something that the Lord's been having to break out of me. Does it affect my soul, not necessarily my tear ducts, you know? And sometimes we have to steepen truth, not till we become emotional about it, but until it resonates with our life. And so as we go through the week, it's going to be really, really important not because that again, just share this one part. And then I want to pray over us and then trace got us on this sin sending liturgy last week so we want to we don't just want to leave here we want to be sent from here years ago I was sitting with Glenn Schaefer. Glenn was with us a few weeks back and I was talking to him about a relationship that I had had for a really long time. And he said, you know, I think you're probably struggling with bitterness. And I thought that was hilarious. Because in my mind, bitter people... Is that lady or guy sitting on their front porch just smoking a... smoking a Virginia Slim just... you know, like a chimney. And yelling at people as they come by, mad at the postman because they... You know, didn't get the mail filled out when they were trying to... I mean, you know, just salty, mean... And I remember being like, no, I actually did, you know, I told him. I told him, I said, respectfully. I don't know how that could even be the case. Because I just don't see myself as a bitter person. That's a great... I love when you out yourself. I said, I just don't see myself as... And that's why sometimes we gotta be led, right? Because he said, well, you know, the Greek rendering of that word bitterness, when he talks about don't let bitterness have a foothold, so Satan gets a foothold. It means prolonged piercing. You know, just like we were at... I'm having some spiritual experiences at full moon. You just keep praying, Josh. We'll just shout the glory down, okay? Sitting at a booth at full moon, and it was like all the lights went out, and there was like one light on me, and it was just on my heart. I was just like, I have a prolonged piercing. We just spent 20 minutes on this dissertation. I'm like, no, I don't see that. And he's like, it just means prolonged piercing. And I was like, oh, I'm bitter. Oh, I'm the poster and, poster child for bitterness. I think that about pride. I don't see myself as prideful. Let me tell you something about the nature of pride and why it's so dangerous, especially those who would consider themselves seated with Christ. Imagine with me, if you would, for a second, sitting in a seat you don't deserve and then standing up in it on your tippy toes. It doesn't say we're standing in a seat of honor. It says we're seated. I'm here because I'm here. Because I am good. I'm here because, and using that illustration, no one in here would say, I wouldn't do that. Jonathan, I wouldn't do that. Oh, but get us out of the heavenly realms and get us in our own heart. And where have we stood up in our own heart? And not declared the glory of God, but demanded that we be noted, demanded that what we done be taken to consideration, demanding that our needs get met, demanding, demanding, And asking and asking and being so upset when someone doesn't recognize us. And I would just say for myself. The whole point, why would it be if I If I humble myself, God adopts me why would this need to be the case? So that when you're exalted where did it come from? It come from God. Man, if you feel like you're having to defend your exaltation, you're having to defend your exaltation. One time a guy told Glenn, he said, it's lonely at the top. He said, jump off. If you're tired of defending your exaltation, surrender. Surrender your exaltation to Christ. Quit trying to be the most important and let God make you important. my kids one time we were talking about just the fact that God knows you. And I said, what if one of the most famous influencers you knew came and knocked on the door? He said, I want to hang out with you this afternoon. And I don't remember if it was Ainsley or who it was, but they were like, you know, kind of like, that would be so awesome. And I thought, I'm not that way with the God of the universe. He skidded me. He knows me. What greater honor could there be? To have followers or subscribers, to have people know who I am, to people think that I can do something worth The God of heaven had seated me. Just like that person who invited the people in the party. No, no, no, no. Don't sit there. When you're in the middle of your pit, God comes to your pit and he says, no, no, no. Remember, remember, I've seated you here. You're seating yourself down there. I've seated you up here. And then when you're standing on your tiptoes and you're saying, I should, I better, it better be this way. Oh, sit down. Any of you got to do that with your kids? Oh, sit down. I don't know what it is about sitting a kid down that helps him calm down, but... We're seated as sons. Sometimes we need to sit down, not stand in the feet. They fit in it. This week, this week. Where am I striving to sit in seats I think I deserve? And where am I missing seats? Missing sitting in the seat I know I don't learn. Let God do a work in us in that place. Let me pray over us. And we'll take just a second to close up the rest of service. Father, in Jesus' name. The name of Jesus. The name above all these names, these powers, these principalities, these rulers in heavenly It's by that name. We come and by that name we are seated. Holy Spirit, work. Work in all of us. Pride is difficult to navigate. It's slimy and soft. It's slimy and slippery, hard to catch. Father, I pray that you would give us a grip. Through today and this week. To see where we have exalted ourselves. Father I pray. Father I pray that we catch ourselves before we have to be humiliated. I pray we humble ourselves before humiliating. Humiliation has to come. But I also pray, Father, for those who feel humiliated, who need to be exalted, Father, would you ensure with them that as they've chosen the lowly place, you will put them. Put them in a seat of honor. In Christ, it has been finished. We're thankful for that finished work in Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen. Before we leave, I think we... I think we've got a couple announcements I just want to push real quick. We've got our missions yard site. Yard sale coming up on May 17th. So if you've got donations for that, you can bring those anytime we're here at Mood. So, Wednesday nights, you can bring them. Sunday, so whenever we're meeting together, you can bring that stuff. up here. You can donate to that, and all of the proceeds from that are gonna go to those that are going on the Panama mission trip. We had a great time, and I just wanna mention this real quick. We had a great time of prayer on Friday. And I just thought, I don't know why I'm limiting this just to our team or just whatever. If you had time, I know many of you you've got busy schedules, but some of you have weird off-time. Every other Friday, we're meeting together and we're praying just over a mission. A missional heart for the church. And if that was something that you ever felt like, we're gonna do a better job of hopefully communicating that, that was just an epiphany I had on Friday I'm like, why are we not inviting the whole church? To this, if they can come. It's a weird time. So I know everybody can't, but even if you could pray where you are at that time, just some unity and prayer over missions would be fantastic, okay? Don't forget, if you need to come. If you need to connect with us or you've got a next move, tap your phone against that tap It brings up. Every move that you can make here. But let us know if you got anything like that. That connection card, that's what it's for. That next move card. Stand on your feet with us. We're going to... If you're able to stand, we're going to say this sending liturgy together. Let it continue as we do this week to week. Just week to week, just like the worship liturgy and the giving liturgy help kind of conform to the church. We're going to transform our leaving here. To a sending out. But read this with me. We are not leaving this place. We are being sent. We are obeying the command of our Lord to go. So send us, Lord. To find you in secret in prayer. In prayer and devotion. To love and care for our families. To strengthen and encourage our brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters in Christ. To faithfully work as unto the Lord in the marketplace and home. To wisely serve. Wisely steward all you have given us. To recognize our place and ability in our community. To witness of your goodness and grace to neighbors and nations. Send us now in your presence and power. Y'all have a great rest of your Sunday. We'll see you next week.
