IN HIM - Part 15 - Reviewal of 6 Things We Have In Christ

We're living in victory. The battle's won in victory. We've overcome whatever comes our way. You're worthy to taste the seed. We're living in victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hello brothers and sisters. This is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. We're going to continue our series today titled In Him. At the end of this series we're going to go through and review some of the things that we have covered. The series is based on Philemon verse 6. That the sharing of your faith. In other words, you should share your faith. You should share the fact that you are a child of God. You are a Christian. Amen. That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you. You can effectively share what God has done in your life to people. Because of the good things that are in you. Because of Jesus Christ. Because of what He has put in you. Let's turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 11. As I mentioned, we're going to review some of the things we've covered. You know that we have the blessing of God in Him. In Christ. But we must act in faith to receive or to take those blessings. 1 Timothy 6 verse 11 says, Fight the good fight of faith. We need to be fighters. Amen. You know, when I was younger, I was in the Sullivan Boxing Club. We had to learn how to attack offense and defense. Amen. We need to learn how to do both. We need to learn how to fight the good fight of faith by the Word. It goes on to say, Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Lay hold of something. When you lay hold of somebody, you grab a hold of them. Amen. Lay hold of it. We need to lay hold of all the benefits we have in Jesus Christ. To which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. The good confession of what? That Jesus is Lord of your life. Amen. God has a calling on your life. It is inviting you to eternal blessings.

Blessings in this life, in the next life, the eternal life. But you must respond to the call. You must receive salvation to have the blessings of God in your life. You may think, I don't need that. I'm blessed. You don't know how much better you could have it. And if you don't know Jesus, my, in eternity, you've got some challenges. There is a heaven and a hell. And only those who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior go to heaven. It doesn't matter what you believe. God said it. Amen. You need to call on the things that are in you, out of you, to operate in them, to walk in them. You know, I can call my dog all day long. Her name is Harley. I can call her all day, but until she comes running to me, she's not getting the treat that I have for her. Amen. God is calling us to act upon His Word, to be doers of His Word. But you must confess that Jesus is Lord. That's the foundation of it. There's only one way to heaven, and that's through Jesus Christ. Not Buddha, not Allah, not through Hinduism. Buddha and Allah are dead. They're in the grave. Jesus is alive. He's sitting on the throne in heaven. The Weiss translation of this version says, Amen. You must be a fighter. In Him, God gives us everything that we need. But we must possess it, take it, lay hold of it by faith. And faith without action is dead. It's worthless. We've got to act. Jesus has bought and paid for us. are healing but we've got to receive it by faith finances man he shall supply all our needs according to his riches and glory but we must also rightly divide the word we need

to sow and we need to reap in faith amen number two we are complete in him who is the head over all with rule and authority over every angelic and earthly power Colossians 2 10 says and you are complete in him yes you you may say oh you don't know how much I'm lacking no you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power in him you are also circumcised with circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead verse 13 and you being dead in their trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses he's forgiven all your sin but this was written in King James and a lot of this stuff is hard to understand what's really they're trying to say here I'm gonna read it out the New Living Translation the New Living Translation in Colossians 2 10 says so that you also are complete through your union with Christ who is the head over every ruler in authority when you came to Christ you were circumcised but not by a physical procedure Christ performed a spiritual circumcision the cutting away of your sinful nature for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead you were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross in this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross glory to God you have resurrection power living in you the power that raised Jesus from the dead out of hell out of the hands of Satan is living inside you that is tremendous power tremendous authority we have power to make us alive eternally living in us power to forgive power to be forgiven power to receive cleansing of all our sins is living inside of us tremendous power number three we are alive with Christ amen Ephesians 2 4 says but God who is rich and mercy in God we obtain mercy in Christ we obtain mercy we need mercy amen his mercies endure forever I need mercy boy I don't want a sentence of death of eternal death lack suffering due to my transgressions are due to my sins no I want mercy and we need mercy but God is the God of mercies he goes on to say because of his great love with which he loved us even

when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ in him we are made alive and have a seat in God's eternal heavenly throne eat at his table glory to God we need to come and partake in everything that he has for us in Christ amen it goes on to say by grace you were saved it's not by works it's not by how good of a person we are if that's what it is none of us will ever get to heaven no it's because his grace amen people pridefully declare what they have done that's not how you get there you get there because of God's unmerited favor his ability his grace by receiving forgiveness amen saved includes eternal life yes but so much more it includes healing righteousness prosperity ALL THESE ARE OBTAINED THROUGH GRACE BY FAITH, ACCORDING TO VERSE EIGHT. WE'LL GET TO THAT IN JUST A SECOND. LET'S CONTINUE READING VERSE SIX. IT SAYS, AND RAISED US UP TOGETHER AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS, THAT IN THE AGES TO COME HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE AND HIS KINDNESS TOWARDS US IN CHRIST JESUS. Think of this, in ages to come, we're gonna see more of his goodness. We're gonna say, oh God, you are so good. He's gonna say, you think that's good? Let me show you this. Let me do this for you. And he's gonna do something else for us. We're gonna go, whoa, wow, he is so good to me. He has so much more in store for us, amen? Just think of this, God, the creator of all the universe, all the heavens, all the planets, that he wants to be kind to you because you received Jesus as your Lord and savior, his son. Verse eight, this is the one we talked about a second ago,

that we are saved by grace through faith. It says in verse eight, for by grace, you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We received the gift of eternal life because of God's grace, because of his mercy. The gift of God is the definition of grace. It is his gift. God will do his part. People focus on grace. We need to focus on faith. Faith is our part. We take it by faith. We receive it by faith. We need to do what God has told us to do and his grace will come upon us. His grace will meet us where we are, amen? We are only saved by God's grace if we use our faith, not saved by grace unless we use our faith, amen? It takes faith. You must act. Part of the acting is confessing Jesus is Lord, confessing his word in your life, what you have in him, who you are in him, amen? I did not say this, God said it, amen? Verse nine, not of works lest anyone should boast. There's so much pride in this world. I had pride earlier today when I was talking to my beautiful wife, Shara. I had to call her back and say, you know, that was prideful.

I apologize, I repent. I had to get right, amen? For we are his workmanship created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We were created by God to do good works. That's not how we're saved, but we are supposed to do good works. You know, our good works follow us into eternity. That means we have eternal rewards for the things that we do on this earth that are good, that are led by God, that are righteous, that are the things that God told us to do. We're gonna be held accountable based on what God told us to do and whether or not we did them. You may be doing all kinds of good things, but if it's not what God told you to do and you're running from what God told you to do, you're gonna be held accountable for the things God told you to do or the things God told you to do that you didn't do, amen? We're still gonna get to heaven. I'm not talking about your righteousness or whether or not you're getting into heaven. That comes by receiving Jesus, but your rewards in heaven will come based on some of the works you did on this earth. God has prepared a place for us. You know, heaven's not a situation

where everybody's got a white picket fence in the same exact house. No, we are going to shine like the stars. Some stars are brighter than others, bigger than others, more powerful than others. We are going to shine like they do, amen? Based on what we do that has eternal rewards, based on what we do for Him in this life. If you're supposed to be a plumber in this life, man, you can be the best plumber in the world and do it to God's glory, amen? Do it with honor, with respect, because that's what God's called you to do. But if you're a plumber and God told you to be a pastor, you're gonna be held accountable for being called to be a pastor and you did none of it. Glory, have mercy on us, Lord. In other words, God has a predestined place for each and every one of us. And that's where our blessing is. If we're not in our predestined place, the place that God has called us to be, we will not receive all the blessings. things we could have in this life or in the next. The fourth item I want to review is that we are free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8-2. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. You know the Bible, it's a book. The first five books is called the book of the law. This whole thing is a book of the law principles, plans of God, the blessings of God.

It's a book about the restoration and the mercy of God. We need to apply it to our lives. The word in Christ is used to describe a believer, a Christian, a disciple over 140 times. The word Christian is only used a couple of times in the Bible, in the New Testament. Out of the 140 times were there scriptures to describe a Christian, 35 of those specifically state who you are in Christ Jesus. You know the spirit of life supersedes the spirit of death. In other words, sin into our lives, whenever we sin, that is following the spirit of death. But the law of death, but as soon as we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, doesn't mean we're perfect, but that supersedes that law of death. We have eternal life because we received Him. You know the law of lift versus the law of gravity, both of them have been there from the beginning. Gravity, something is in the air, it weighs, it's going to fall. But the law of lift, that airplanes fly, things of that nature fly, it supersedes the law of gravity in certain conditions. The Bernoulli principle, that's something that some of you may have learned back in high school, back in science classes, where it says if there is a separation of wind over something, if this is a wing and wind comes, part of it goes over the top, part of it goes over the bottom, that it comes and meets at the same time at the back side. Well Bernoulli realized this and that's where we started creating a curve on the top of wings and flat on the bottom. So the air picks up speed on the top and meets at the same place as the air on the bottom. That creates a vacuum on the top which creates lift. That's something that airplanes must have is lift over the wings. These laws were here, whether we understood them, whether we recognized them, they are still

in effect. Electricity, we didn't discover electricity. What was discovered is how to obtain electricity in a format that we could use it, how to capture it, how to apply it to things like lighting the light bulb. Electricity has been there since the beginning. Lightning, that's electricity. We have been made or set free, set free, liberty because of what Jesus did. Amen. We should have dominion over sin in our life. The ruler of a region has dominion over it and everything in that region. Well whenever Satan ruled us, he had dominion in our lives. But now that we are children of the Most High God, we have been given authority to trample over demons. We have authority over them. We are now in a different kingdom, a different domain. We are in the kingdom of God. Amen. First Corinthians 9 26, it says, Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. In other words, a boxer just beating the air. We would practice that when we were shadow boxing for our form. We are supposed to fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. My, my, my. We should beat our body black and blue into what some versions say, into subjection or submission to what the Word says. Don't let your flesh rule you. Let the Word of God rule you. Amen. We have authority over our flesh in Him. We have authority over the enemy in Him as we submit to Jesus. First Corinthians 10 13 says, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted on what you are able but with a temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. In other words, you can't say the devil made me do it. You can't say I couldn't resist it.

No, there was an escape route that God put in your path and you didn't do it. You had an escape path just watching something on TV that you shouldn't be watching. Oh, I want to see that. Your flesh is saying I want to see it. You've got a remote. You can change it. You can get up and walk away. Amen. You can stop yourself from going down the wrong aisle of the grocery store and doing things, buying things that you shouldn't buy. Amen. I'm trying to lose weight because I kept going wider and wider. So, I'm trying to lose a couple pounds. Well, that means I should avoid the cookie aisle which I didn't do today actually but don't tell Sarah. Item five, we are far from oppression and will not live in fear. Amen. I choose not to live in fear. I refuse to live in fear. Isaiah 54 14 says, in righteousness you have been established. Well, we know that you have been made right in him. You will be established. You shall be far from oppression for you shall not fear and from terror for all. You should be free from all terror, all fear for it shall not come near you. That word established means you have been made right. You have been accepted. It means that you flourish in him because of what Jesus did when you received him. Oppression, that includes sickness, disease, mental and physical attacks of Satan. You shall be set free from those. The word terror, you know fear has terror and torment in it. People who are anxious, that's just a low level of fear but the reason they are anxious is they're in a level of fear. Amen. We win. He always causes us to triumph. That's what we need to build our faith on. Not the schemes of the enemy, not his attacks that are coming against us but on his word. Amen. 1 John 5 18, this is the sixth thing that we're going to review in regards to what we have in him. We are born of God and the evil one does not touch me. The ESV version says we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. Born of God, in other words, we're born of love. We see people differently. We choose to love. We choose to forgive. We see people the way God sees them. Amen. You know the lifestyle of sin, we reject that as believers and because of that the enemy cannot touch us. Oh he may he may try to get in. He may get in a sucker punch but he's got to pay it back. Amen. We come up. We win if we do not quit. I will not fail. I will not sin. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. That's something I've been speaking over myself. I will not fail. I cannot fail. I will not sin. I choose not to sin. I choose to be led by the Spirit of God. Amen. I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen. If I keep from sin then Satan cannot touch me. We choose who we submit underneath. We either choose God or we choose Satan. You say oh I

didn't choose Satan. Well if you don't choose God you're ultimately choosing Satan. He won't he won't flee from you but if you submit to God, resist Satan, he must flee. That's according to James chapter 4 verse 7. Amen. Satan tries to attack his children by attacking their identity, by attacking our identity. He tries to put shame on us. You know condemnation. Condemnation is from Satan. The Holy Spirit will convict us to cause us to draw near to God, to receive our cleansing. To get right with him. But Satan tries to condemn us, to push us away. He tries to keep us down. He tries to say to us things like you're never going to make it. You're just a loser. You're never going to overcome this. Amen. No. God has said he has made us more than overcomers, more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. That is who you are. than an overcomer, more than a conqueror. You have the power of that one who defeated Satan living in you. That makes you mighty. That means that demons are terrified of you as you begin to declare the Word in your life. Live by the Word. Act on the Word. Them demons are starting to tremble and they will flee. They will run. They will scatter just like a bunch of roaches when you turn the lights on. Amen. They will flee from you. See, Satan wants you to repeat the thoughts that he gave to you. He wants you to speak them out loud. Instead, you need to say, no, I resist that. According to the Word, I win. According to the Word, I'm healed. According to the Word, all my needs will be met by his riches and glory. I'm coming up. I'm coming out of this. Amen. Do it the way God said to do it and we will win time after time after time. Amen. Well, we've still got more to cover before we finish this series on the review of it of who you are in Christ Jesus. Remember, 1st John 5 4 says, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Be a doer of the Word. Act in faith. Amen. You may say, well, I don't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Well, right now is a good time to do it and let us know if you do. Just say, Heavenly Father, I believe that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth, to die on the cross, to go to hell, and rise from the dead for my sins. Lord, I ask you to be the Lord of my life, my Savior. I receive it by faith in the name of Jesus. Amen. And your name is written in the books of heaven as a citizen. You've got a

passport to heaven as a citizen. Amen. Glory to God. Well, this is Mike Kennedy with Living in Victory. Have a blessed, profitable day. Amen.