Zion Assembly of Harrisburg

Transcription

1 Zion Assembly of Harrisburg Sermon: Speaker: Behold the Glory of The Lord Pastor Raleigh Wingfield Date: March 31, 2013 Length: 01:02:16 PASTOR WINGFIELD:...referred to in the worship this morning by the team, as God always connects us together. By His own grace he does that. And then there are several other passages we will look at to support certain points we would like to make today. Let s give God our hearts by prayer. Father, we thank you for this moment that we will now share together, to look into the holy word and to receive from the spirit of the Lord a word of encouragement that helps us to understand what this life of faith should bring us. We pray for the scriptures to open in our minds and hearts. We pray, Father, for understanding. We pray, Lord, that you would speak beyond the sound of my voice, and that all of us who are here today will hear something specifically said to make us stronger in our faith. Bless the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts. May they be pleasing in your sight because you re the Lord who is our strength and our redeemer. Let s look in John 17. I d like to read the whole passage, the whole chapter. This is the chapter where Jesus is praying prior to the crucifixion. Our Lord is before God, realizing that the journey is about to end. He is about to culminate many generations of promises, many generations since Adam, where God is now about to do a new thing. Something is getting ready to happen to change how human life exists. And this is the savior, the son, the seed, the one that came from the Father, the one upon whom this change must occur, the one through whom without whom this change would not happen. His words

2 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 2 are important to us because it s about Him. And all of us who believe in Jesus are at the benefit of these words. His mind is on us when he s praying this prayer. So there s something here for us that gives meaning to the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also gives meaning, based upon the death and resurrection, to all of us who believe. It brings us into a partnership with God that goes way beyond just whatever limit we may see in this life. But it gives meaning to this life that is a part of a master plan that God has, that we all have the privilege of being a part of. And I hope that you will see yourself in this word today, and you will allow yourself to see life bigger than your few futile years because you re a part of this master plan. And to realize that gives you much authority in your current days, so that you can draw from this reality and become more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. Does that sound good to you? CONGREGATION: Yes. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Let s see what Jesus is praying. We re not going to dissect this chapter word by word because obviously we re going to summarize it today. We can always do that at another time. But I do have certain things I want to point out from it. I think the main issue of it is what I want to draw today. In John 17: Then he said to the disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should I m sorry. Wrong book again. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I caught it early this time, didn t I, Judy. Three words, and I said, that ain t it. Last time I think I was in about the third verse before I realized, that s not where I want to go. I was in Luke 17. I want to be in John 17. Okay. Let s start again. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. Or in other words, make me be known in a way that you would be known. Make me be known in a way that everyone will know that it is not me, but it is

3 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 3 you. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you. Let me be seen in a way that points a direction to you. Can we say amen to that. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: What a powerful prayer to make. Is that the prayer of your life? God, let people see me. Glorify my life so that, when people look at my life, they ll see you. Let me do the sacrificial things for the benefit of the sight of other people. Let me lay the pattern for those who can t know you, those who don t see you. Let my life make up the difference for their blindness. What a mission in life. Have you ever heard anybody who had escaped a significant from a significant accident or tragedy, and they say, God spared my life for something. My work s not over. I m here for a purpose. And then we go looking for this great and grandiose kind of thing that God must have preserved me from because people don t walk away from this kind of thing casually. I must be preserved. What s God mission for my life, as though that one thing was to awaken them to the reality that your whole life has been a mission intended by God to be used to do some marvelous thing. By every thing and issue in your life, God wants to be seen as you in that thing. That s why we prayed this morning, God is my life. Why? Because God wants to be seen as you in everything. Somebody say praise the Lord. CONGREGATION: Praise the Lord. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Now, this is this is possible, for God to be seen as everything in your life, because Christ, the one who came to pay for the death of your life, prayed to God and asked him to let his work not be in vain, but in fact all who believe in him, they should now see who he is truly because they believe, and therefore their life will become a statement of who God is. This is a Glenn just said he wants to be shaken and stirred a little bit. He wants to be cleaned off and scaled.

4 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 4 And so I m going to shake off any dust that s on you this morning. Just a little bit. I want you to see with the eyes of your heart the plan that God has for all of us to see the glory of Jesus, to see him in his truest light, and understand that, as we see him, we are actually being like him. We are showing everyone who God is. And I want that to be on our minds because, if we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, that s not a small statement you can make. You can t say that casually. You can t really say that I believe the power of God raised this man s body out of the grave without you having to ask the next question, what does that mean for me? If God did this for us, then he s also done something else to us. And that is, he has, by his divine grace, made all who believe able to be as him, just as Jesus was as him. Jesus said, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. The fullness of the godhead was in this man. And so people, while they looked at him, depending upon the condition of their heart, saw the Lord, and some saw an offense. But they were all looking at the same thing. They received it as the Lord, or they received it as an offense. But they all saw the same thing. They saw the son of God. And thus our lives are to reflect that glory. Let s continue reading. That was just so powerful in that phrase there. I m going to try to resist doing that with each verse, but: As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given him. I want you all to be reading this as God s, Jesus s prayer for your life, as well. Can we say amen. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: We re reading what Jesus prayed to the Father, asking the Father to do this for him. I want you to put yourself in this place, that what you re saying here is asking God to do this for you. Can you say amen. CONGREGATION: Amen.

5 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 5 PASTOR WINGFIELD: Because your life is God. Because you believe your life is God, this has to be your prayer. Let s keep reading. Verse 3: And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. So listen, beloved, don t bother to try to introduce yourself to people when you meet them because yourself can t give nobody eternal life. But if you dare to present the life of Jesus to people, you are in fact exposing them to eternal life. The challenge for us as true believers is make sure you see his glory right so that you can reflect it right because we don t want to reflect just a historical account of Jesus. We definitely want to reflect the historical mission of Jesus. The mission of Jesus was to show people who the Father was so they could have eternal life. That has to be your God-ordained mission. Every believer has to see that that is your mission in life. Regardless of your vocations or avocations or provocations, your mission in life is to reveal the glory of Jesus so that people can see the Father and thus see eternal life. That s your calling. That s your calling. That should shine through every vocation you have. That quality should shine through every relationship you have. That quality should be what people feel about you. They may see something, but what they should feel is the glory nature of God, that drawing nature of God. Jesus prayed that we would see it, and we would have it. This is eternal life. Let s go to Verse 4. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Now, I m sorry. I m going to pause on each one. Just too much in here. What is Jesus asking God to do? Look at this verse again. It s loaded. It s a loaded mystery. But in it is the secret of our pursuit as a believer. Father, glorify Me together with Yourself. So I want to now have the self life of God. This is not just the perspective of God, the personality of God. This is the self of God. I mean, he s using the word yourself. He s talking about all that is you. Glorify me or change me or let me be seen as because, when the Bible is using the word glorify, it s really saying identify, let me recognize, let

6 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 6 me identify. When we say we bring glory to God, what we re saying is we re talking about who he is, what he is, how he is. We re shining a light. We are glorifying. We are exposing him. That s what we re doing when we re glorifying. So if Jesus is saying, Father, give me the glory of yourself or, in other words, let me look like you now, not just like you. How did he qualify it? Like yourself with are you reading? with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Now, he s not talking about the earth world. He s talking about the systems of human drama and life. The world is that universe of how men, human beings, see life to be. That s this world. It s sown in sin of departure from God. In other words, when departure from God occurred, man developed life on his own terms. It was based upon fear and shame. The world is based on the principle of fear and shame. How do I know that? Well, let s look at Adam s life. When Adam sinned, what became of his heart? It was fearful. He was afraid of God. He was fearful, so he hid himself, the Bible said. Shame, because he covered himself. Self will, because he chose the means by which he would cover himself, something as futile as leaves. That is the principle and the law of the world. Everything that is absent of God is built upon the principle of fear and shame. God said, when Christ came to you, I didn t give you that. Don t live that way anymore. Come out of that. As you identify things that are coming from fear and shame, then you have to rebuke it by the knowledge of what I gave you. I didn t give that to you. You got it. I didn t give it to you. I gave you the spirit of love, power, and soundness of your mind. I cause you to know who I am without fear and without shame. I ve redeemed you from that curse and gave you liberty to know who I am and identify with me. Jesus says to the father here, give me, restore me, now that I ve finished your work, restore me back to the way I was known, as you, before all of this began. I was at a place where there was no sense of controversy. I was with you in one total nature. Take me back there, now that my work is done. Take me back to where I am with you. I m no longer in the world, in the system of what men do by fear and by doubt and by shame. I m now back in a glorified place where my power and my authority is

7 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 7 unrestrained, where my word creates things, where nothing is created that does not come from my word. Take me back to your selfness. Now, why do I go there? Because that is what our Lord prayed before he left. Why? Why is that his prayer? Because he s getting ready to go to the garden, to make this final step to bring something to bear that has everything to do with what a human being now is. And if we look at it, we will see what God is up to and why Christ came because all of us who confess him have stepped into the eligibility of seeing that nature because he wants it to be inside of you. That prayer, that place, that glory, that oneness with God is what he wants to be inside of you. And if you can by faith grab it, if you can grab it by faith, it s the power, it s the new door to step into and experience an entirely different life. It s empowered, not by circumstances, but it s empowered by a purpose that was started a long time ago that you stepped into now to learn to discover how to live a more influential and authoritative and disciplined and destined life. That s what we all want because that life is why he died. And if you don t get that life, the whole thing was wasted on you. Let s read more. Verse 6: I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given to Me. In other words, I ve described to them your name. I gave them your name. They know who you are. Who are these men? These are the men chosen by God to receive such. Chosen by God is the point of this verse. We know now, because we sit in the kingdom, we have been chosen by God. The scriptures say that we have been called out of darkness, appointed to eternal life, predestined by God. God called us. You, me, he called us. We did not know him before he called us. He called us out of darkness. We didn t choose to get saved because it was a good idea. We were responding to an impulse way above our pay grade, a call that was way beyond our knowledge, our concept of self, our sense of right and wrong. There was a plan by God that was way higher than your conscious level. It reached your heart long before your intelligence caught up. God s not a political decision. He s not a choice of paths. He s the author of life, and he gave that to you. And he brought you to that path on his own. We didn t get there because we found our way. Can somebody say amen.

8 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 8 CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Your life is a part of his plan. Jesus said of his disciples, I gave your name to them you chose, Father. It s all in God s way. He chose, gave Jesus these men. These men received his name. Another emphasis of this verse is, there s a quality laden within those whom God calls to be able to hear. God gives men according to their ability to hear. Jesus said to the disciples one day, don t be alarmed if you can t get my message. No man comes to me unless he s been taught by God. John, Chapter 6. Don t go there. I just referred to it. No one can come to me unless he has learned of God. Jesus said, these men you gave me, I put your name on them. I did what you wanted me to do. I put your name on them, and they got it, identifying a quality of hearing within them called. Can you all say, I can hear. CONGREGATION: I can hear. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Because I ve been called. CONGREGATION: I ve been called. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Sometime we need to go back to that statement, and I can hear, just to tell the devil he s wrong. Just to tell yourself it ain t in charge. Just to tell that doubting spirit that rises up and says, I can t get it, you re wrong. I can hear. Somebody should say amen. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Just to tell that thing inside you, make God look mysterious and make the spiritual things seem out of reach. You can tell it, you re wrong, I can hear. I m the evidence. I came into the kingdom. You don t come in deaf, dumb, and blind. You come in because of God s opened your eyes, and he s opened your ears, and he s touched your heart. That s why you came in here. And

9 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 9 if that s the case, you can hear everything else God is saying. You can. Verse 6, I manifested Your name to the men whom You have given to me out of the human system. Or among the human system. You carved them out for me. They were yours. You gave them to me. And they have kept your word. Let s look at the transference of the mission. They were yours. You carved them out. You gave them to me. I know they belong to you. And they now have your words in them. The same word in me is now in them. The same name that was upon me is now upon them. So you can see now that there is a passing on, an enlarging of the vision of Christ taking place. Can you see it here? And that doesn t stop there because it reached all of us. Let s read more. Now, Verse 7, they have known that all things which You have given to Me are from You. They have enlarged their understanding of me, and now they can now see you. But they couldn t see you unless the human had come first. They couldn t have seen God until they saw the human. They had to see Jesus. Jesus said, they saw me, now they know I came from you. Or in other words, because of me, they now know you. And they know how you operate because you were sent I was sent among you. So now we see God as not sitting on a celestial star somewhere. God sends word to humans, to us, to people, through a person, for us to relate to God as not being celestial, but actually being the author of a human life. He sent this human life to let us know he s the author of a human life. Now, again, why am I going into this teaching? Because it is because of this prayer that we understand the spiritual mission of what our life is on. What we are seeing in this prayer of Jesus is what is happening to all of us by the grace of God. And I want to upgrade you to understanding it so that you can put more energy into it, so you can understand what s happening to us. We have the glory of God upon us. This nature of Christ has come upon you and I. This is now our story. Can you say amen. CONGREGATION: Amen.

10 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 10 PASTOR WINGFIELD: This is now my story. So wherever you are in terms of how well you re doing and being what Jesus now is saying, it doesn t matter today. I just want you to know you re on that path, and that God is the one ushering it. And if you understand it, you put more faith into what s happening to you. Are we all ready? CONGREGATION: Yes. PAST WINGFIELD: Okay. Verse 7: Now they have known all things which You have given Me are from You. Verse 8: I have given to them the words which You have given Me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from You, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. Now, this is getting good here. I m praying for this unique group of guys, these uniquely called individuals, sent out of the world by you to me. They belong to you. They have your name upon them. They have the words you gave me, and they believe them. They know that I ve come from you. I m praying for that select group. The prayer of Jesus is to a unique quality of calling, of faith. He s going to reach the Father s heart with his words. He s going to release something of the Father s passion because he would not pray outside of the will of God. He s going to declare something by words that was laden in the heart of God from the moment God said let us make man. Beyond, before the foundation of the world, before God created a man, this thing, this thing, he s getting ready to say, was in the heart of God. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, that s a key thing to see, but I m praying for those whom You have given Me because they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Once again he s clarifying specifically who he s praying for, this thing that belongs to God, this thing that now looks like God because it s been glorified.

11 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 11 I am no longer in the world, Verse 11, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. God wants something that is as he is. I pray that they would be one. Now, this verse has usually been used to signify unity among people. Can I raise you up a level higher than that? Because he s not talking about us getting along with each other here. But he s talking about our foundation, our formation, the principle by which we exist, that thing that defines us. He s talking about something at the core of our new existence, something vital to the creation that God is going to make because of the resurrection of Jesus. He s talking about the formation of this new life. He s laying a pattern, a foundation by which all human life will now be defined and exist. He said may this new thing we re getting ready to do be completely you. May it be one as you and I are one. Now, when Jesus is saying him and I are one, he s not talking about me and you get along. He s saying as you and I are the same thing. As you and I are the one thing. That I am God, and God is me, yet I m Jesus, but I m God. There s no difference between the father and who I am. I am you in every conceivable way to define you. Are you with me, beloved? I m telling you what you and I have become by our faith in Christ. I m shaking off your carnal man. I m destroying your self-concept that you are not based upon the foundation of the water birth, but you are created by the spirit that this thing here defines. My identity is this. My reality is this. This is who I am. Why? Because the power that raised Jesus created a new life. And that s the life that we all have been born into. Jesus said, your name I want you to make them one through your name. Keep through your name those whom you ve given me, that they may be one as we are one. Because your name is what makes us all of one thing. Can you say with me, I am of him. CONGREGATION: I am of him. PASTOR WINGFIELD: I am one with him.

12 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 12 CONGREGATION: I am one with him. PASTOR WINGFIELD: I am one with him. Let s say it again. I am one with him. CONGREGATION: I am one with him. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Make them one like you and I are. Like is a condition. In the same way you and I are one. Jesus said, God, Father and I, we are one thing. Now, he described it in various ways. He said the love of God is with me. I love the Father, and I obey the Father. And his love is with me. What he s saying is, as he is, so am I. It is the self-devotional commitment to abandon any identity separate from him. It s a self-willed laying down of any recognition of who I am. It is not I that I see when I look in the mirror. It is not I. It is not me. I and me have been crossed out of my personal dictionary. If you look up the letter I, you ll never see I defined as something I am. If you look up the letter M and you find the letter M-E, that thing doesn t have no definition behind it. There s no I. There s no me. When I look in the mirror, I see God. When I look in the mirror, I see God. I don t see a black man with a bald head. I don t see a man of this distinction or of that definition or this way and that way. My eyes are not determining my sense of reality. This is why he died. To kill that man. He died to kill that man. Him dying was that guy. I must focus my life, my dreams, my hopes, my heart, my mind must be focused on what came out of the grave. What came out of the grave. Because that is now who I am. See, that s who you are. You re raised by the power that raised him. You re defined by the passion and the purpose that raised him. He comes out of the grave as your new man. He comes out of the grave by the power that now empowers you. He comes out of the grave to teach you how God now will dwell upon the earth. He will now dwell, he will now manifest, he will now reflect his glory. Not through the one, but through you. You have become the one through whom God reflects his glory. You are the one through whom now God walks the earth. You are the one now recognized in the heavenly places as the son of

13 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 13 God. You are the one over whom the angels will watch. You are the one whom the Holy Spirit will tell what is the mind and the purpose and the plan of God. You. You and you and you and you and you and me. That glory that he showed to the called ones. That name that he gave to the called ones. That s what s upon you. That s what s in you. That s who you are. That is who you are. It establishes your identity. And to them who are called, they hear this. To them chosen, it burns their heart. They re ready to abandon the former life. They re ready to lay down their weapons, their baggage, their very life to be called of God. Called of God is not joining anything. It s coming out of your grave, coming out of hiding, coming out of your death, coming to life. And you want that. From that you can say in him I live, in him I move, in him I have my being. He is responsible for me. He is my life. He carries my burdens. He knows my weakness. He hears me when I mourn. He is my joy. He s my hope. He s my confidence. It s because of him that I rise from my bed in the morning. He s the strength that lays me down in security at night. I have no sense of me any longer. That s the power that raised him from the grave. Because Jesus got up, not in weakness. He got up not feeling any pain. He got up not bound to any opinions of the world. He went to his own to be seen. He went to them who he had taught to be seen. He went to them who knew him. He went to them who had known the name of the Father. He said, see me now, boys. Look at me now, boys. That s me. I m not a ghost. I m a living reality. Put your finger through the hole in my hand, Thomas. Stick your hand through the hole in my side. He said, I am a man, glorified, raised by the Holy Spirit, walking among you, and you will be my disciples. To tell the others. To show the glory. To explain the life. To call the called. That s what we have. While I was with him in the world, Verse 12 says, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the

14 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 14 world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. Jesus said these guys are no longer identified in any human kind of way. Human fears no longer grip their hearts in the sense of how they disqualify. They re in the world, and they will be exposed to the travails of the world. So are you and I. We will be exposed to the travails of the world. We will deal with the same woes, the same issues that everyone in the world has to deal with. Yet, and still, in the midst of having to go through that, there is an identified distinction, a distinctive quality to them who believe. He s making a distinction. They re still in the world. I m not asking you to give them a free pass. Listen here, beloved. If we re going to carry the glory of God, we ve got to know how to bear the weight. If you re going to have the glory of God, you ve got to have a way to bear the weight. You ve got to handle your troubles, handle your business, deal with your issues, and know that you re called of God. You ve got to know that there s a way to handle it in God that is different than the way you handled it in the world. You ve got to see yourself as him to be as him in this world. Many woes, many troubles, Jesus says, many tribulations will come out of this world. But don t fear. He takes away the human response. Don t fear. Don t fear. Don t worry. Don t focus, don t identify with, don t draw meaning from, don t draw identity from what comes at you in this world. Listen, guys. You ve got to have some spiritual muscle to push back in this world. You ve got to have a push-back attitude to live like a called believer in this world. There are things that are heavy to bear. There are things in your own life, issues within your own human life, matters within your own human makeup that you ve got to push back in order to carry the glory of God in a right way. There are things, reasons, feelings, moods, attitudes, opportunities, lusts, issues, thoughts, memories in this world that you re going to have to deal with in a godly way. You have to. Because Jesus prayed that the same glory that was on me now be upon them. Let them be seen the same way. When people see them, let

15 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 15 them see you. I don t pray that you take them out of the world. They are not of the world, just as I m not. Sanctify them. That s what I want you to do. Sanctify them. Separate them. Define them. Let them know they ve been defined by your word. This is the prayer of Jesus. You know what, the word of the Lord, when it s brought to us to do something, do you think God would ignore the prayer of his own son who s getting ready to obey him in a most significant way? Jesus said, Lord, Father, separate them from this world by your words. Let your words be the knife. Let it be the difference. Let your word have so much power. Let it reveal so much reality and so much truth inside of them that are called that it would separate them from anything in the world so much that the world in concept hates them. Now, he s not saying, listen, everybody out in the world s going to come after you. Although, although when you take a stand, you are standing against a tide that is so very powerful that you d better be sure that what you re sure of. And listen, guys, be sure. Be sure. Be very sure that your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. Because what we have wasn t given to us by man. What we have is not given to us by popular opinion. What we have was not given to you by popularity. By common choice. It s not given to you by headlines. It s not given to you with fashion. It s not given to you by public opinion. And if there s one thing I hate and I m putting myself out there. If there s one thing I hate posed to me is the need to be politically correct. I put it out there. Don t bring me anything about you ain t politically correct. Because I ain t trying to be. I m trying to speak the truth as it is. And if it ain t correct politically, so be it. Now, when I say that thank you, brothers. Thank you, brother. And when I say that, I m sticking my chin out. And Jesus said they smite you on the one, give them the other. Meaning I ain t quitting. So all right, you smote this cheek. Here, here s another one because I ain t quitting. You might as well rear back now because another one s coming right out my mouth. Are you hearing me, beloved? Because I walk with the glory. My nature is his. My identity is in him. My words are from him. My pasture is him. My place is his kingdom. My seat is his throne. I don t

16 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 16 know me. Are you with that? That s where we want to be. And if you re not all the way there, that s all right. Be where you are and keep pressing. I d better hurry up. We didn t get very hallelujah. I have 17 panels, by the way. We re still in our text. Well... CONGREGATION: You re just warming up. PASTOR WINGFIELD: This is just warming up, yeah. What time s dinner? I don t want your dinner to get cold, but we re going to be a while. I m joking. I m joking. Verse 18: As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. Wow, another powerful statement. Jesus saying, listen, I took myself to the level of obedience that has the power to set a new pattern. I m not trying to fit in. I went all the way because we re dealing with the principle and the law of creation. Life comes from obedience. Jesus is saying, I obeyed so life could be born off my actions. It s a spiritual law that obedience is a birthing. Everybody say it with me. Obedience is a birthing. CONGREGATION: Obedience is a birthing. PASTOR WINGFIELD: When we obey God, we give life to something. When we obey the Lord, we give life to something. We have launched something. We ve made ground for something new to be born because, you know what, every act of obedience reflects God. And God can t be ignored. He can t be denied. He s the essence of creation. He s the father of every living thing. When God exercises or manifests himself through the obedience of a human, he opens the door of possibility for another human life to find him. And if it does, it will bow before the Lord.

17 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 17 Your obedience is making a way for somebody to get sanctity. It always creates life. I sanctify myself so they can be sanctified. I m doing it for the others. My calling in life is to be a sacrifice for the next guy in line. Don t let the devil tell you, what s the meaning of your life? Look at you. You ain t got nothing. You got no hope. You got no pay. Look, you got no job. You got no education. You got no this. You got no that. You re this, you re that, you re that and the other. And the world will make you think, well, I m nothing. I might as well just go give myself to nothing. Lies from the devil. You are everything Christ died for. You are everything God made. So treat yourself right. CONGREGATION: I am everything. PASTOR WINGFIELD: So treat yourself right. Don t waste your given mind on negative thoughts and traces and shadows; ghosts and doctrines of devils, illusions and fantasies born in the darkness; regrets, condemnations, and guilts that s still being bounced up out of your bad life when you was a sinner. For the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Rise and shine. Whew. No wonder Paul said, God, I pray that they get the power what s working in them. Lord, I pray that they can just hitch their wagon to this. That they can connect their life to the power. They say they believe, but there s power at risk, at stake here. There s power. There s power. It s power, unlimited power, what has happened to you, what has been given to you by the confession of your faith, the power to make a new life. God never did anything like this before. Even when he created Adam, Adam had a short time. I don t know how short it was. It wasn t eternity. He birthed us by the spirit. Adam was formed out of dust, shaped by the hand of God. But you came out of his heart. Adam came from his hands. You came from his heart. Can you say amen. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Verse 20: I don t pray for these alone, not just these 12, or 11, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. You see, they re going to carry that word with such grace, such accuracy, such anointing, that it will inspire belief in others, and they will become one right

18 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 18 along with us. Look at the power of this thing, guys, if you live this word in a way others will believe because of the word that is living through you, the word that is living through you. Jesus said I ve already got them covered in prayer. You know what that means, look, the field is out there, already prayed for and prepared by the Lord. Jesus already prayed for them that will believe. The Lord has already prayed for them that will believe. Look how he wants to use your life. He wants to put you in front of people who don t believe because out there is many that will. You may never hear of it because believing is a quality of the heart. It s not necessarily a testimony, unless you have time to hear one. Are you with me? You may not live the full pattern of another person s life. But if you live the word of God, you will cause their hearts to see God, and God calls a heart that sees him to believe. There s a transaction going on, invisible to your eyes. But if your heart and your faith are connected to the process, you will do it with authority and with intentionality and purpose and with passion because you know something s happening here. Something s going on. There s a transaction in the realm of the spirit. Something in the heart is taking place. I tell you, my brothers and sisters, live by all that you see and understand in Christ. Live by the word of God. Live it boldly. Live it powerfully. Live it out loud. Live it strong. Live it with parity. Live it with purpose. Hold the line because you are causing things to happen on the realm of the spirit and the lives of other people. You don t measure it by what you see because you know, look, it took you a long time to say yes. It was a wide curve you were on. Did you forget? Did you forget how long it took you? You think you just saw it, and it was just like a hook curve? There was no hook curve. You was on a long arc before you turned to God. You heard long before you turned your heart over. So don t grow weary in well doing. You will reap in due season, if you don t faint. Because the power has already been poured out. Jesus already prayed the prayer. This is what he prayed before he went to the cross, guys. This is what he said: Father, this is my heart. Make it work. I m going to go do it, but

19 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 19 make it work. I don t even do it in my mind. I m doing it in words. I m praying it out. I m decreeing. I m living it out loud. I m declaring it out loud. Make it work that people will come to believe. Make it work. Make it work. That clock is my friend over there, but it s got the wrong hour. It s not moving, but it s set on 12:00 already. You have to set it on 10:00 next. Set it on 10:00 next time. Verse 21, That they all may be one. We re going to end with this. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, I in You, and they also be one in Us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. So they will see why I came. The intention is that everything will be an expression of God. I came to clear the way, that everything can be an expression of God. So, friends, let that be your heart today. My life is God. And everything about my life is an expression of Him. My mind is set in that place. My heart is set there. My knowledge and my understanding is there, that I know that s what I m doing. Oh, it will put such a shield of faith around you. Every fiery dart that comes by the devil will be quenched by the knowledge of your faith, by the condition of your hope, by the reality of your trust. What you are trusting in is what s going to extinguish every affront that comes at you that s dark. Can we say amen to that. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: This is what we want to believe: Lord, we want to behold your glory. We want to see you as you are and be you as you are. So help us, Lord, as we walk in the power of the prayer of your son Jesus, as the reality of his death and resurrection is what we hold to, as we behold that. May we say in the words of the Apostle Paul, it s not that we have apprehended everything for which we have been apprehended. It s not that we have attained everything, not that we understand everything. But this we do. We lay aside everything else that we may have the knowledge and be found in the righteousness, in the way of life that is in Christ Jesus. May we be a part of his resurrection. May we be a part of his rising. May we understand the nature of the power that raised our savior. May we

20 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 20 live from it. May it be our hope, our strength, and our joy. May we be excited again about what s really going on as we live in this life in the world. May we see our godly, heavenly appointed calling and focus. We who were not a people, now have become the people of God, who were not chosen, but now are citizens in the household of faith, called, as Peter said, to show forth the praises of him who called us. Called me. Called us. Lord, we thank you for the ongoing work of your grace and the knowledge that is in Jesus. This was a step up, guys. Today was a step up. I don t know where your starting point was. But I tell you what, this today, this was a step up. But there s more in this way for us. This is what keeps us from the spirit of the scoffer, that thing in the world that says, where is the day of his coming? What s the evidence? That spirit out there that says you ve got time, you don t have to turn your life over, you can go slow, that thing out there, that spirit that s in the world. This, what we do today, this is what defeats that spirit and says, wait a minute, I know what manner of person God wants me to be. Knowing that he s coming, Peter said, What manner of man should you be? Ask yourself the question, how much am I living this thing yet? Am I really holding onto the truth? Am I recognizing my heavenly calling? Am I walking in the full authority of it? Peter says, well, listen, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus. Don t struggle at difficult teachings like some with unstable minds do. Believe in your heart the grace of God. The love that he has poured out on you through Jesus is matchless. It s immense. It s boundless. It goes from the farthest extent of any sense of human life. God proves himself by his goodness to you. He wants to show you even more, if you ll open your heart and just let these truths now become the way you think, the way you believe, the way you see him. The Bible speaks in Psalm 22, we never got to it today, but he speaks about us being his posterity. We are that generation that received the word from our spiritual forefathers, and now we hand off the baton to the next generations. We are part of the chain. You re a part of the chain, my friends. You re connected to the ultimate purposes of God. You re a part of his process. And he s counting on you.

21 Zion Assembly / / Behold the Glory of The Lord 21 He s counting on you to believe him so that, when you live him, you do it large. You do it loud. You live convincingly. You live convincingly, that others may believe. Because God s counting on you. Father, we thank you for this meeting today, this awesome engagement. Every time we come together, something new comes from the throne. Purpose, dignity, goodness, mercy, and grace comes forth from your throne unto us. How privileged we are, and how thankful we are to give your name all the glory, all the honor, power, and praise, now and forever. In Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Did you get anything today? CONGREGATION: Yes. Clap your hands. PASTOR WINGFIELD: Hallelujah. I think God was pleased. Let s stand. Let s stand tonight. Today. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, for the meeting. Thank you for the gathering. All who are visiting, we appreciate you coming today. Thank you. This is Madonna over here, everyone. Madonna, raise your hand. We re glad to meet Madonna, the guest of Michael today. We re glad to have you. Thank you for coming. We see family members here, daughters and sons. My nephew and niece are here. Amen. Good to see you all today. God bless you. Father, bless you, thank you for our service. Bring us back at the appointed time. May we enjoy this day musing. And what you have poured out in each one of us as your word has been written upon our hearts. Surely there s a stirring within each of us today. We go to enjoy it, to live the life loud and large and full in Jesus name. And everyone said amen. CONGREGATION: Amen. PASTOR WINGFIELD: And amen. God bless you. God bless you. TRANSCRIBED BY ELAINE FARRIS 04/07/