Brothers and sisters, could we please start by turning to our theme verse, Colossians 2?
We will start in verse 6.
As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
rooted and builded up in Him, and established in your faith.
And then verse 18:
Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.
Then, if you could turn back two books to Galatians 2, verse 19:
For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
And then, if we could turn to Romans 6. We are going to be spending some time in Romans 6 through 8, so you might want to keep a finger there for the rest of the afternoon. Romans 6, verse 3:
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him by the likeness of His death, we shall be also by the likeness of His resurrection.
And Romans 8, verse 37:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for this afternoon, that we can be together in Your presence. Lord, we do pray that in this coming hour Your life might be sensed in our hearts, that we might be able to touch what is in Your heart.
Lord, we pray that You would bind up all the things that captured us before coming here—as we walked into this room and as we sat down. Lord, all the things that have captured us, we pray that You might take those things and put them aside in the speaking and in the listening.
In this next hour, Lord, might You show us something of Yourself? Lord, we are not going to be satisfied with anything else. So, Lord, we pray that wherever we are, in whatever circumstances we came, You might do a work in our hearts so we might see You.
Lord, how much we need You—the speaker, the listener, every one of us. So, Lord, we are all here waiting for You. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So, brothers and sisters, the theme for our conference this time is, as you are all now aware, Christ Our Life.
Now, if we said this theme quickly to ourselves ten times, it might be easy to almost transform it into “Christ our lifestyle,” or “the Christian lifestyle.” In many ways, that may be an easier topic for us to cover.
Because, brothers and sisters, so many times in our lives we are always looking for the way out, or the way by which we can live. To be honest, when I first read the topic, that was the first thought that came into my mind: What can I share with brothers and sisters to help them live their lives?
Or, even if you romanticize it or religiousize it a little bit: What can I do to help brothers and sisters draw closer to God? But, brothers and sisters, no matter how holy we try to make the Christian lifestyle, that is not the topic of the conference.
The topic of the conference challenges us. It brings before us a thought that cannot be escaped through shortcuts or a list of ten things to do or not do.
The brothers, as they prayed about this time that we have together, have put before us one life—Christ’s life—and have challenged us to consider what it means that Christ’s life lives in our hearts.
What does it mean that, of all the precious things that are man-made or even God-made, of all the things we see and hear about in lessons and teaching, foundational to all these things is one living Person Who has come into our hearts?
What does it mean that we should partake in that life in our short years here on the earth? How does that translate to the fulfilling of what is in God’s heart?
Now, brothers and sisters, when I was preparing, I realized how easily this might sound almost academic, like listening to a lecture on a topic. But what the Lord kept putting on my heart was: This is so real.
It is so critical and so crucial that, in these days and in these times, without a touch of the reality of this life, we will completely be lost. We will all go our own way.
Because, brothers and sisters, there is always a better way. There is always a more successful lifestyle. But life—eternal life—is only found in Him.
So, in these two days, what we would like to do together, and I think what all the brothers who have been preparing the messages would like to do, is present this life before us and see how He might become the focus of the years that we have together.
Now, in California, we have lanes on the freeway called high-occupancy vehicle lanes. As you know, in California the freeways can get really slow.
The way California government officials thought to craft a way for us to get from point A to point B faster was to encourage carpooling. So they created a high-occupancy vehicle lane.
Sometimes when we watch television, we are always amazed by those people who want to go into the carpool lane. What they do is take a life-size dummy, put it in the back seat, drive to work, and pass all the people in the single-occupancy lanes.
Sometimes we think, brothers and sisters, that if you speed by fast enough and just look in, you see the outline of what looks like a life. Maybe you can get by and think that you are going this high-speed life.
But in the end, when you get pulled over and brought before a judge, what is in the back seat is just plastic. It only has an outline.
Brothers and sisters, those things that are real—real in life—cannot be mimicked or impersonated by artificial things. The Lord would put on our hearts at this time: true life, real life.
We all know what real life is. We all walked into this room carrying real life with us: the burdens of our lives, the challenges of raising children, the challenges of living day to day, going to work, and not knowing how to make it.
But the Lord is telling us that He lives in real life, and His desire is for us to engage in that real life with Him.
In fact, brothers and sisters, when we examine the Bible from the first chapter to the last chapter, the Bible is a story about real life.
In Genesis, that real life was at the very beginning. Before anything was created, before a single story was written about a man, before anything of God’s faithfulness and desires was seen, there was a life. He was in the beginning.
The life in the beginning had three. There was God the Father, Who watched in authority and planning. There was God the Son, the Word, manifesting and creating. And there was the Spirit of God, hovering over the surface of the earth.
What we see in the beginning, brothers and sisters, was life. There was nothing manufactured. There was nothing practiced. He just lived, and there were three.
Then, when we trace through the Bible and get to Revelation 22, there is still life. There is the Father, there is the Spirit, and they seem to be waiting for the Son Who is there, though you cannot yet see Him in that last chapter.
But the remarkable thing in Revelation is that something has been done that is so different. When you tear everything down—everything created, everything that dies—there are still these three Who are alive.
But there is a fourth that we see at the end of Revelation: there is a bride. Now, the bride is not God, but she is made and built of God’s life.
In the end, there are these three, and there is this fourth: the bride of Christ, the church. When we look at the church, what we realize is that all of us who have been saved have had a life imparted to us.
Together, built together, the life of Christ that was put into our hearts composes this perfect bride in Revelation 22, waiting for her Bridegroom to appear.
Something happens between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22. There is life at the beginning and life at the end, but something has been done. A work has been accomplished that has been in His heart.
He did it. He built it. He built her. Everything in between these two chapters speaks to this work that He has done.
In fact, brothers and sisters, everything in your life and mine during these short years is in part between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22. The cultivating, growing, and nurturing of that life is what we experience through these years.
It does not speak of lifestyle, and it does not speak merely of how we should live. It speaks of a true life that is born in struggle and labor, comes forth for the glory of God, is nurtured through the cross, perfected, bound together with the lives of brothers and sisters, and made ready.
The entire Bible, brothers and sisters, is a single thread speaking of the topic the brothers chose for this conference. When the Lord looks down, the one currency, the one object of value that He sees, is this life. Nothing else—only the life.
That life pleases His heart. So, by the Lord’s grace, the Lord has put this topic before us.
At first, when I heard the topic, I thought perhaps it would be an easy topic to consider together. Then, as I searched the Scriptures and prayed, I realized it is so huge. The enormity of it was a little intimidating.
But I think the Lord calmed my heart by reminding me: Think of the Person. Think of Christ. Think of His heart for us. Focus on what He is doing. Maybe we can go on this short journey together in these next two days.
We remember the church at Sardis in the early chapters of Revelation, when the Lord sent them a letter. Sardis evidently had something of this life in their hearts, but over time that life began to die for lack of nurturing, feeding, and sowing to it.
The Lord told them, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” This was a warning to my heart.
Perhaps we think we are alive because of all the things we have heard, and because of the brothers whom the Lord has blessed us with to take care of us. They have shared so many incredible things with us. Maybe we think or say that we are alive.
But the question we have to face is: Are we alive, or do we only have a name that we are alive? Is there really something of the Lord’s life living in our hearts, both individually and corporately?
The theme verse tells us that there must be a life from Christ that we receive. In Colossians 2, it says, “As ye received Christ.” It is not the teachings of Christ. As we receive Christ—the life—so walk in Him.
There are two parts of this theme verse: you have received the life; now walk in the life.
As we consider Galatians 2, it is the same thing. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me.” There is a life that lives in my heart. Then Paul writes, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”
Again, we see these two parts: the true life that lives in us, and the life that walks in our regular, daily life.
We remember John 1: “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Then 1 John 1:1 says, “We beheld Him, and our hands handled Him.” John reminds us that there is a life that is so precious, and there is a walking in that life.
So, brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, this afternoon we would like to consider some aspects about life—true life. Tomorrow, we might share a little about walking in the life.
Now, about life: some of us, probably more than one of us, are in the business of life. I remember the first time I delivered a baby. I will never forget it.
I was a third-year medical student, and my patient came from prison. They brought her in from prison, nine months pregnant, with her foot handcuffed to the gurney. I remember looking at her and thinking, “Where is she going to run?”
There was a guard there, and I had read over and over about how to do this. When the time came, I took up the position where I was supposed to be. I kid you not, it was very much like when I played football as quarterback—not professional or organized football, but when we played for fun. I was ready.
My attending doctor told me that I had to count for the patient. I counted for the patient. I was so excited. The attending physician came in and said, “I know you are counting. We can hear you all the way down the hallway. You are counting for every room where someone is delivering a baby.”
When the baby came, I remember holding this baby in my hands and thinking, “This is remarkable.” Brothers and sisters, life is remarkable.
Sometimes we take it for granted. We think about spacecraft that go to investigate Jupiter or Saturn. On earth, we have dollars per ounce for gold or platinum. But if you find gold or platinum on Saturn, nobody is going to care, right?
But if you find a drop of water on Saturn, everyone goes bonkers, right? Here in New Jersey, you can buy a twelve-ounce bottle of water for a dollar fifty. Yet what we realize is that, in the economy of the universe, the things of man have no value. But life is a miracle.
If you find water, there is the possibility that you might find life, because life, brothers and sisters, is a miracle. It is so precious.
But it is also, in some ways, confusing. How could something of such great value be so fragile and so easily lost? When our loved ones pass away, what we realize is that life is fragile.
We have some sense that this should not be. Death should not be the end for something so precious that has been created. How could it be so easily lost?
But in the Lord Jesus, in His life, we see what life was supposed to be. In Hebrews, we are reminded that His life was an indestructible life. It could not be taken down.
His life was always victorious—majestic, noble, a King’s life. Yet it was still mysterious, because we could not see it. In our theme chapter, if you read up and down, it speaks of the mystery of Christ.
But one day, brothers and sisters, the mystery was revealed in the craziest way: a baby was born. This baby was so little. When He was handed over to Simeon, Simeon must have held the baby and thought, “This is not possible—that the miracle, the mystery, of the life of God might be manifested in this little baby.”
What we see here, brothers and sisters, is that the Lord was doing something. His intention was to get from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and along the way the only way was His life.
So He was born, and He grew up. He had no sin. He was perfect.
When the day came and He was crucified for us, it was the greatest miracle. As our brother shared last night, it was the greatest miracle that He would give His life for me—the perfect for the imperfect—and He died.
On that day, the Bible tells us that all my debts, all that was against me, were nailed to the cross. All my debts were paid for.
But not only that, brothers and sisters: something else happened. Something of the life that had been tucked into this Man poured out. If we are willing to receive Him—as we have received Christ—that life came to land in our hearts.
So I was saved in two ways. I was saved because the punishment for my sins was paid for. All the debts were nailed to the cross, and I bear them no more.
But I was also saved because His life came into my heart and began to do something that I could not do on my own, even though all my sins had already been paid for.
Brothers and sisters, do we know that not only has the past been dealt with, but the future has been accomplished for all of us who have been saved? This is a remarkable thing.
But when the life came into my life, my old man was somehow still there, even though I had been crucified with Christ. He still had this last ember of hope to fight back and hold on.
We see in ourselves the conflict of these two lives that are at each other. Which one will reign in this body of mine during these years?
It is so real to us, right? I was giving an example to a brother yesterday. When I first started building computers, I remember you could build computers with two hard drives. Maybe you can still do this.
You have one operating system on one hard drive and another operating system on another hard drive. When the computer boots up, you can choose: Windows 95 or Windows XP, or Windows 8, or whatever we are on now.
You boot up, and that is the operating system you have. But in our lives, it is not so easy, right? I wish I could just boot up with Christ and have the old man hidden somewhere in some dead hard drive—Windows 95.
But it does not work like that, as you and I both know. There is this conflict in us. We have so much struggle because oftentimes our point of view is from the old man.
I remember someone telling me that we have two eyes and one eye is dominant. You can tell which eye is dominant by looking at something far away, making a little circle with your index finger and thumb, and bringing it toward your face while keeping the object within the circle.
It ends up on your dominant eye. In the same way, when we go through life, it is like we have two lives. But somehow, we go through life with one life dominant.
Unfortunately, so much of our time is spent with our flesh dominant. That is also the cause of so much difficulty. That life is destined to die.
We spend so much time in our ministry these days trying to minister to the old man. All of the ministry becomes how to make him feel better, how to assuage his hurt feelings, and how to get him back on track.
Brothers and sisters, he has been crucified. We spend so much time on him, and then wonder why we always feel like we are in failure. It is because we live our lives looking through the wrong lens, focused on the wrong life.
What the Lord would want for us in these days is to have Christ’s life live in us. We would like to consider four aspects of that life.
The first aspect we would like to consider, brothers and sisters, is that the life is always victorious.
Perhaps ninety-some years ago, when our brother Hosea was born, or when our sister Sue was born, the enemy—who does not have the ability to see time from another dimension and is limited by time—thought, “These two are going to end up being mine.”
But by the Lord’s grace, He found them. He claimed them, and they accepted Him—accepted Christ into their hearts.
In the past week, the victory was in the life of Christ, and it cannot be taken away. The enemy was thoroughly defeated. He has no claim over these two.
They are in glory, in paradise. As the Lord told the prisoner, they are in paradise. They are living a victorious life.
The Bible tells us, and we should read these together. Romans 8:37:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Then 2 Corinthians 2:14:
But thanks be unto God, Who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.
He always leads us in His triumph in Christ. When we shared that death has lost its sting, it speaks to the fact that the life is victorious and death no longer has control over us.
When death tried to contain the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus bound the strong man, broke out, and His life burst forth. Now, for all of us who have died in Christ, we have been united with Him in His death and united with Him in His resurrection. In Him, we can live.
But it is not just at the end that the victory is settled. It is not just when we die that the grave can no longer hold us. The victory is today.
Yet we cannot always sense it, even though we read that He always leads us in triumph and that we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ. How come we never feel that this is true?
When we think of our brother Hosea and our sister Sue, what we realize is that they are in triumph and victory. Their lives were a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I sense, and I think it is true, that when the Lord took them, a little light of His life was lost from this earth. But I remember when my grandmother passed away, my wife said to me, “I kind of now want the Lord to come back more than I did before, because I know who and what is waiting for me there.”
What we know about our dear brother and sister is that we may not yet have the subjective experience of Christ coming back, but we know that the light of His life is burning brightly with Him.
When we see Him on that day, we are going to see so many who lived the life of testimony for Him. When they lived, the light of His life burned in their mortal bodies. We sensed it and we saw it.
How come we so frequently feel defeated? It is because our point of view is always toward our old man. We are trying so hard to resurrect him. We are trying to cater to his needs, and he is destined to fail. He has already died.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord needs to turn our eyes again to Him. He needs to turn our eyes to see the life planted in our hearts, which He is nurturing and growing.
Please turn with me to Matthew 12, verse 20:
A bruised reed shall He not break,
and smoking flax shall He not quench,
till He send forth judgment unto victory.
Even if there is only a little life in you and me, even if we are like a battered, broken reed or a smoldering wick, the Lord is telling us that He will nurture us until the victory comes.
My life should be pointing to the sky, but it is pointing to the ground. My life should be a light to testify of His life, but it is just blowing smoke. Yet the Lord will nurture us until the victory comes.
This is where we put all our hope—not in ourselves, not in our teaching, and not in our gifts. We put our hope in the fact that the life is His, and the life cannot die.
In His love, He is nurturing us to come alive again. This gives me hope. When we think of Him at work, building and caring for us, we have hope.
If you look at yourself and your failings, it is almost overwhelming. But remember Who is at work. He always leads us in triumph in Christ. “Always” does not mean sometimes, or when we are in a good mood, or when we have done well.
He is always leading us in the victory that is in Christ. He overwhelmingly conquers through Christ. Even though we see our lives as they are and sometimes have such great difficulty, might we take hope in the fact that there is a life in us that cannot die?
It is a victorious life, and He Himself, through His love for us, is nurturing us onward. We all came through these doors bringing real life. I hope that we might find the Lord Jesus with us in real life, this victorious life that might shine as a testimony for Christ.
The second thing the Lord put on my heart is that life is a spiritual life.
Brother Kong, as he has done many times, shared something, and I thought, “Oh, that is what I meant to say.” The life is a spiritual life.
We remember that in the garden of Eden there was a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We remember the temptation that came to Eve: “You should take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
But the concern was, “If we take of this tree, we will surely die.” Satan’s counter was, “You surely will not die.”
If what was meant was your soul or your body, Satan was in essence correct. When you take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, our soul and flesh can actually become enhanced—grow, sort of, out of control.
But it was certainly deceiving and a lie, because what the Lord meant when He referred to “you” was the spirit—the spirit created to communicate and commune with Him. That was the portion that would die.
When Eve and Adam took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we died—not our soul or flesh, which came alive beyond what we really wanted—but our spirit died.
The Lord’s Spirit no longer had a landing place on the earth. We remember Noah, after the waters had receded. Noah sent out the dove, and when the dove had not found a place to land, the dove came back to the ark.
The Holy Spirit had no place to land for so long, through so many years, until we remember when the Lord Jesus was baptized.
When the Lord Jesus was baptized, it was a remarkable event. The Father spoke from heaven. The Lord Jesus was being baptized by John the Baptist. The Spirit came down as a dove and found a landing place in the Lord Jesus’ life.
Before that time, He had no landing place. But when we were saved, not only were our sins dealt with, but a life was born again into our hearts: the life of God, the life of Christ.
Onto that life of Christ, the Spirit of God could land. He could begin to communicate with us again.
Why is this so important? Because when we are able to communicate with God, with the Lord, that communication begins to develop a friendship.
Friendships are built up in communicating. It is hard to draw near to someone when we have no ability to communicate. What was so wonderful about the Spirit being able to land in our hearts was that, for the first time, the Lord had a way to reach us.
A line of communication was opened. We were able to fellowship with Him, and He was able to fellowship with us. We began to learn how to love Him.
One thing that has happened recently in our circles in Los Angeles is that, at the Lord’s table, some of the younger people have started to pray something we almost never dared to pray. They have started to pray, “I love You, Lord.”
It is a crazy thing to hear your children pray something like that and know that they mean it. They have been praying, “I love You, Lord.”
When I was growing up, I would never dare say that. I would say, “Lord, thank You for loving me first,” or “I love You because You first loved me.” It is true: He first loved me, and I learned to love Him.
But the reality is that if a relationship can be built and we can draw near to Him, it is not only that the Lord loves us so much—which He does—but something begins to happen in our hearts: we love Him.
This relationship begins to build. It guards us, molds us, and corrects us. When you love someone and someone loves you, correction is in no way a hardship. It comes to us for our good and for growth. It is built on trust.
This is why the Spirit is so important. Our lives came alive so that the Holy Spirit could come and land in our hearts and come to know us.
I remember, when I was growing up, there was a younger sister in our fellowship. She went in for surgery and did not make it. It was unexpected; it was a standard elective surgery.
When we knew she was not going to make it, everyone in the fellowship came to the hospital. I remember opening the door to the waiting room, and the whole room was filled—not only every seat occupied, but people standing along the back wall, praying on their knees.
The nurses were staring into the room, thinking, “This is incredible.” There was a nurse crying at her bedside because of the love they saw in the house of God.
Her father was a quiet brother. I remember what he shared at the memorial meeting afterward. He went up, and we did not know what he was going to say. He had not planned to say anything. He said only one thing: “Before this happened, I did not know a lot of you. Now, I know a lot of you.” Then he sat down.
I remember this so vividly because what comes to our heart is that, in the knowing of each other and in the knowing of Christ, the Lord’s love can pour forth.
Until He found a place in our hearts, we could never do that. But now He has opened a way for us to know His love, to love Him in return, and to love one another. It is an incredible thing.
The other wonderful thing about the Spirit coming into our hearts is that, when the Holy Spirit comes into my heart, an order comes into my life that was not there before.
The soul can be saved, and the flesh can become an instrument. We can do things that ordinarily would be impossible for us to do: speak for Him or serve others whom we could not ordinarily serve.
That normal order that comes when the spirit takes headship in our lives is so special.
You may have seen a movie called Unbroken. It is about a brother whose last name was Zamperini—Louie Zamperini, an LA guy.
He was an alcoholic. If you watch the movie, you do not get the whole story; you have to read the book. The movie does not speak much of his faith, which is the best part of the book.
He could not overcome his alcoholism. Then the story tells how he met the Lord. After he met the Lord, he came home, took his bottles, and poured them all into the toilet.
It speaks of the Spirit coming into our life and doing what would ordinarily be impossible for us to do.
So, brothers and sisters, if we see our life, know where we should go, and know that we are not there, it may be because we are living based on that old man and trying to resurrect him. We are trying to do CPR on him.
He cannot be resurrected, thank goodness. We should turn our attention to that life in our heart—quiet, but present. The Holy Spirit can take headship in our lives, and we can do what ordinarily we would not be able to do.
He works in me, and the amazing thing is that He works in all of us. As He works, it is as though the Holy Spirit’s attention is looking at us, looking at the church. Thank God for that.
The Holy Spirit’s eyes are on the church, helping us to grow, dealing with our failings, helping us see Christ, lowering ourselves, and increasing Christ’s life.
But one day, brothers and sisters, His work will be done. In Revelation 22, a great thing happens: the Holy Spirit’s eyes turn away from the bride and toward the Lord Jesus, and He says, “Come, Lord Jesus. The bride has been made ready.”
The bride says, “Come, Lord Jesus.” One day the Holy Spirit will finish His work, and His voice will call forth the fulfillment of the times.
The wonderful thing about the victorious life is that He will not stop. He is always at work in you and me. Praise the Lord for this: our spirit came alive so that the Holy Spirit could do His work.
The third aspect is that the life grows.
This is a truth about the life of Christ for which I am so thankful. When I was young, I used to listen to Lance share about this topic. He could share about it in such a way that you wanted to stand up, jump, and praise the Lord, because it was so real and alive.
The life grows, and it speaks of the fact that Someone is causing growth. Brother Kong mentioned this morning this growth.
We remember Apollos and Paul, and the Corinthian brothers comparing notes about where they came from. Paul’s correction was that one can plant and another can water, but God is causing the growth.
The life that the Lord planted in us longs to grow. It wants to grow. What holds it back so frequently is that we do not nourish it, and we strangle that life with weeds.
Then we spend so much time watering the weeds, wanting the old man to grow. But, brothers and sisters, the life grows.
What is the proof of this? I have known some brothers for more than thirty years. I do not see them as frequently anymore, but when we get together, I look at them and they look at me.
There are still things that are our same personalities. We still love sports. We still talk trash about the Dodgers versus the Yankees versus the Giants. This year, at least, the distraction of baseball is shared by many brothers—not Yankee brothers as well.
We still have the same loves and interests. But when we see each other, we also realize that something has changed. Thank God.
Somehow the cross has fallen in our lives, and we are not the same anymore. I could highlight many of my own weaknesses, and I could see in my brothers our previous weaknesses in the life of the flesh.
But the amazing thing is that the Lord has been doing a changing work in all our lives. We are not the same anymore. The Lord has never let us go.
So much of the work He did was through the cross. As our brother shared last night, sometimes we think of the cross as something so difficult. It is difficult.
I remember the first time I shared about the cross. I barely understood what the cross was, but I shared about it. An older brother came to me and said, “You should not share about the cross. You should share about love.”
I thought, “That is true. I should share about love.” But over time, as I thought more about it, I realized that sharing about the cross is sharing about love.
I remembered Psalm 23. When we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the reminder is that His rod and His staff, they comfort me.
When we are walking through that valley, oftentimes because of our own failings and our own flesh, the Lord’s cross comes into our lives. That hardship in our heart reminds us that He has not left us.
Brother or sister, have you wandered into the valley of the shadow of death and felt the Lord tightening His grip on you, the rod coming into your life and saying, “You cannot go there”?
Do you know what that is? It is love. It is not Him merely trying to crimp your style. His hand is still in your life because He will not let you go.
If you are like me, you have been there many times. To know that sense of the cross in our life is very important. When our flesh and self begin to be dealt with, then that life has freedom to do what it will do, which is to grow.
Sometimes the Spirit intercedes directly. I remember many years ago, when I was in a meeting just like this and was probably about twenty-two years old.
Brother Hosea stood at the podium. I was sitting on the right side of the room, with my heart hard and my brow furrowed. I thought Brother Hosea pointed right at me.
He said, “If you take one step toward the Lord, He will take ten steps toward you.”
I remember that this broken young person, who was completely lost, heard it, and it saved me.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is never letting us go. The light of His life shines forth through our brothers and sisters to capture us, so that our flesh might be dealt with and His life might grow.
Finally, brothers and sisters, the life reveals.
Mac shared about this yesterday. The life reveals God to us, but the life also causes the light in our hearts to reveal Christ to the world and to the principalities. The light in our lives bears testimony of Him.
We are thankful because that life reveals Him to us—sometimes in seeing a brother or sister, sometimes in listening to a message, and sometimes innately through the Spirit to our hearts.
What is happening in our hearts is that the brightness is beginning to shine. The Lord and His life will reveal Christ. This is a tremendous thing.
We remember that Peter said, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” John said that when the guard thrust his spear into the side of the Lord Jesus, and out came water and blood, he saw these things with his own eyes.
What is this majesty? A dead Man on a cross? The son of a carpenter, a poor Man, Someone Who had no stately form? His face was marred. What exactly was the majesty they saw in this Person?
Brother and sister, the majesty was in the life that was lived out. It was in the interactions the Lord Jesus had with those around Him.
His Person, His looks, His communications, His patience, the fact that they knew He loved them, the times He corrected them, the times He was the first to go into dangerous places, the times He defended them, His kindnesses, and the times He was firm with them and did not let them go astray.
What was revealed to them was not in outward things. The majesty was in His life.
We remember John 7. The Pharisees sent soldiers to capture the Lord because He was becoming too popular. In John 7:32, they sent the soldiers out, and in verse 45 they came back.
The Pharisees said, “Where is He?” The officers answered:
Never man so spake.
It was as though they went out with swords, power, authority, and an issued command. Here was this carpenter with no weapons, no fighting skills, not a large man. They went to get Him, but came back empty-handed.
Why could they not capture Him? They said, “Never man so spake.”
What He had said to them in John 7:37 was this:
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
These soldiers knew that in their hearts they were dying. They knew they were thirsting for something more. Yet they had been given an edict to go get Him. Their jobs, livelihood, and reputations depended upon it.
They were bigger. They were more numerous. They had swords, power, and authority. But with these words, the Lord struck them in their hearts, and they came back with nothing.
Their only defense was, “Never did a man speak the way this Man speaks,” because out of the Lord came forth this life.
What they saw in this Man was something alive.
Sometimes in our hearts, brothers and sisters, we think that we are between a rock and a hard place. I remember Brother Lance telling a story about a seed that fell between two gigantic rocks.
Water came near the seed, but it was so squeezed that there was nowhere to grow. Yet a little bit of life began to grow.
Life began to grow, and the rocks tried to keep it in. Over time, life came forth and grew. The water nourished it, and it was coming forth.
At one point, the gigantic rock—the rock and the hard place that had captured the life—burst apart, and the life came forth, because life is victorious.
Brothers and sisters, perhaps we feel we are in that rock and hard place. But the life will burst forth. It is a victorious life.
When people see that life, it will reveal Christ. When people see His life in us, it will show others the preciousness of this miraculous, mysterious life for which everyone is longing: this river of living water.
In each one of us, we have this spark of life. I will conclude back in Revelation.
In the beginning of Revelation, the Lord is walking among the lampstands. Sometimes, if we look at the lampstand—the church—we wonder what condition we are in. We may even look at our own lives and wonder the same thing.
But I was listening to our brother Dana share recently. He was sharing that behind the veil, the Lord is still working. The life is still indestructible.
He is still leading us forward, overwhelmingly conquering—a triumphant life.
In the end, when we look at the lampstand, what is our testimony? It is the light of the life of Christ. It is still burning, and it is still in each of our hearts.
Sometimes the enemy is trying to make it academic. But might that not be? Might the Lord Jesus’ life shine forth in all of us?
This is how we can experience Him in our daily life. By the Lord’s grace, today’s portion has concerned these facts of His victorious life: the life that is a spiritual life and communicates with the Spirit, the life that is growing all the time, and the life that reveals Him.
These have nothing to do with you and me. Nothing you or I could do could change these facts.
Tomorrow, by the Lord’s grace, perhaps we can look a little at how we walk in that life and how we see it in our regular lives. Let us give the Lord praise. Let us have faith that these things are true and not lose hope.
Dear Lord, we thank You and worship You for the greatness of Who You are. We thank You, Lord, that to so many of us, when we were so lost, there came into our hearts a life such as this.
Lord, we tell You that Your life in us is all our hope. We thank You, Lord, for never letting us go.
I pray, Lord, that You would open our eyes to the wonderful glory of the children of God, that You might reveal to us more and more of Who You are and what You are doing.
Thank You, Lord. We worship You in Jesus’ name. Amen.