If You Miss Him, You Miss Everything

Praise the Lord, everybody. Amen. Well, it's good being in the house of the Lord. If you didn't feel that this morning — it's like wearing blisters on your soul; I don't know how you couldn't feel that. I want to turn quickly to the word of the Lord, and I'll try to take off and land fast. It's a delight to be back in the Western District. I think the last time I was at camp meeting, I heard my bishop up here preaching, and I love that man; I miss him. And I know I get to hear my pastor tonight — I'm looking forward to that. Thank you for suffering [with me]. I want to go to Galatians chapter 3. I'll quote a couple of scriptures while you're turning there. And thank you so much for the great hospitality, Brother Cantrell. So many people have been gracious, asking every time, lots of places, "Do you need anything?" And I just want to thank you for that hospitality; evidently you know how much I need.

John 14 — I'll just quote verse 26: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost" — Jesus says — "whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." I think it's important to realize that Jesus was promising His disciples supernatural recall when they would go to teach and even to write the New Testament. You see the same admission in 2 Peter chapter 3:16 — a very familiar portion of Scripture: "And also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood" — now, if you've read 2 Peter, that's like the pot calling the kettle black; Peter's got a tough epistle there — "which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest" (or twist) "as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." So the apostle Peter calls Paul's writing Scripture, just like the Old Testament.

Galatians 3:24 — here's where I want to land today. Why say those verses, Brother Killmon? Because we're not just looking at man's ideas; we're looking at the inspired, inerrant, preserved word of God for His people. He says, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" — why? Well, the apostle writes by the Spirit of God — "that we might be justified by faith."

I'm going to teach a little bit this morning on "If you miss Him, you miss everything." Turn to your neighbor and say, "If you miss Him, you miss everything." God bless you; you may be seated.

Now, I have had this tucked away for quite a while now, so if anything sounds familiar, you'll forgive me. I just expect the Lord is trying to say something to His people. I want to talk a little bit about the person and work of Christ. We call that — because I teach at a Bible college, Brother Lopez — we call that Christology. It comes from two Greek words, Christos and logos; it just means a word about Christ, an understanding of the person and the work of Christ.

Now, I want to try to be as nice as I can be, but maybe some of you have heard there's something on the inside of me called "bad Bobby," and I try not to let him out too often, but every once in a while he gets out, and I might come across a little snarky. I try to keep my heart in check. But I really do, Sister Roy, want to explain the difference between our faith and someone else's, because if we don't understand Him, we're going to miss everything.

Our Trinitarian friends will sometimes, in their approach to understanding Christ and His work, seem to suggest that it's just a historical circumstance, almost incidental, that Christ happened to be born in Israel. And I'll quote one of them — Hendrikus Berkhof, one of my great favorite thinkers. He says, when you begin to talk about Jesus — and like the bishop already said, there are these creeds that they go to, whether you're looking at Chalcedon, Constantinople, or backwards even into Nicaea — all of those become man-made ideas, where you begin to talk about Christ in ways that are foreign to the New Testament. Now the problem with that is, when you begin to reduce God away from the language of revelation and pick up man-made ideas, you get what man can give you, but you might just miss what only God can give.

Now what does that mean? Berkhof says the problem is, God became a mystery in which His covenant partner, man, does not share. He says the latter — man — can only adore this mystery, but for my everyday faith, he says, it has no significance. Why? Because if you start talking about an eternally generated Son — now, the bishop was already a little loose; I feel like I'm at home a little bit, I can be a little — maybe, you know — something. But that's a long pregnancy. No, no — that's not what the Bible means. Because when you begin to talk about God and "persons," your faith has no goal; it has no end, no purpose, no significance.

What does Berkhof say? He says, "I know I'm supposed to affirm the Trinity in order to be orthodox, but all I can do is stand in awe of it. For my everyday life it has no significance; it does not inform my faith." Now, that's the problem. If you reduce Jesus to man-made ideas — John 17:3 says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God." Now, I'm going to try not to get stuck here, but when you look at John 17 — how many of you want eternal life? Then you've got to know the only true God. There's no other way to get to eternal life except through the only true God. But are you ready? That's not enough. Jesus goes on to say you've got to know something else: you've got to know "Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Because if you miss the man that God became, you're going to miss the door to salvation. As the bishop already said, He is the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Him — not by "them." You've got to come by Him. That's why you've got to get baptized in Jesus' name: because you've got to understand that the work of the man that God became purchased your salvation. Why did He become the Lamb? Because only the Lamb can shed blood. So you have to see Him as He is, because if you miss Him, you miss everything. We're going to get there.

All right, I'm going to give you point number one. It will sound familiar: You need a revelation of who He is. You know what we call that, Brother Lopez? We call that Christology equals soteriology — because if you don't understand the person and work of Christ, you're going to miss something else. Soteriology comes from two Greek words again — it's just logos and soteria, a word about salvation. You need a revelation of who He is, because if you miss Him, you're going to miss the revelation; and if you miss the revelation, you're going to miss the opportunity. But if you get His person and His work right — if you understand right and grasp by faith — then you get access to salvation.

Okay, I'll prove it to you. Berkhof goes on to say: to acknowledge Christ is to acknowledge His benefit, not just behold His nature. All right. Brother Killmon, what does that mean? Because they're talking about what it means for Him to be "the eternal Son," which is not a biblical phrase. You can't say that. You can say "Son of the Eternal"; you can't say "God the Son," because it's a non-biblical phrase, but you can say "the Son of God." You can talk about the man that God became. Why? Well, I'll prove it to you. One man says it this way: "Does He help me because He's the Son of God, or is He the Son of God because He helps me?" Well, the answer is yes. Because if you know He's the Son of God — if God loved you enough not to let death and hell and the devil have the last say, and He robed Himself in flesh and came down to die in our place — are you ready? He is the Son of God. And does He help me? Yes, because He is the man that can purchase my redemption.

Now, I'll try to calm down, but you do understand that substance can only be known in function. The name of Jesus was prophesied over our Lord at His birth: "You shall have a son, and call his name Jesus." "Son" is not His name, because — you ready? You're going to have a son; He's going to be something, but He's also going to earn something, because the name of Jesus means "Yahweh has become my salvation." What was prophesied over Him at His birth had to be lived out in obedience and death in order for Him to earn the name that's above every name. Now, why are you so passionate about that, Brother Killmon? Because person and work are inseparable. He's got to be the right person, but He also, in order to be the right person, has to accomplish the work.

Jesus says in John 8:24, "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins" — the good King James: that "ye" means all of y'all. My mom is from East Tennessee, Brother Lopez; she would say "all of y'all." All of y'all will die in your sins. Jesus says, "unless you believe that I am he." You've got to acknowledge who He is in order to get what He can provide. But if you miss who He is, you're going to miss access to the door of salvation. Jesus says, if you don't believe that I am He, you will die in your sins — because person and work are inseparable.

That's why Sir Martin Gilbert wrote a book about what they call Yad Vashem — the righteous among the nations — because they were talking about that great Holocaust and the Jewish people that were killed. And I get it; I understand all the complexities around that. And he said, "But the problem is, we haven't told everything about the story." He says, "Because everywhere in Nazi-dominated Europe, there were people that were willing to put their life on the line to save Jews." He said, "So we need to tell that other piece of the story. Yes, we need to tell the horrors of the Holocaust and say 'never again'" — can I get an amen? Amen. But more than that, he said there were these people, and he begins to tell the stories of Schindler and tons of other people; it usually took about ten people to save one Jewish person. But what they call the righteous among the nations were recognized because they were willing to put their life on the line. You don't get the title unless you're willing to do the work. You don't become something unless you're willing to lay your life on the line.

I just came to the Western District to remind somebody: He really is a Savior. He really is Jesus. He really can save a life.

I wish we could go through all the details. As you can understand, there's a little complexity around John 1 with IBC right now — I'll try not to be too snarky, "bad Bobby" — but we're trying to do the Christian thing and be careful and let a judge make a call. I get all that, and I wish we had time to deal with it in detail, but I would just remind you that John 1:1 is real — that when you begin to interpret that from the Trinitarian lens, you confuse what God is trying to lay out in His revelation. Because if you're going to get John 1:1 right, you've got to go back to Genesis 1:1. Don't take me to some Greek philosophical notion of God; take me to the Old Testament revelation, because it is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. You're going to get Him wrong if you go to tradition. But if you'll go back to that Old Testament, it will tell you who He is and what He came to do.

We don't have time to do them all. I will counsel you: do your own study on it. You look at John 1, and Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1, and you will see that there was not a change in Jesus's deity in the incarnation — that is not what that's about. There was a change in His function. God became what He was not, a man, in order to die. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him" — hyperypsōsen in the Greek, exalted Him higher than ever before. That cannot work in a co-equal Trinity. "Hath highly exalted him, and given him a name." He earned the name; He did not have the name. If you're given something, you don't have the power of that thing. But what Jesus did as a man — what He submitted to as a human being — allowed Him to step into a function that no man has been in before. Hebrews says, "To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?" What is he saying? You're going to be the only human being in existence that can operate in this power, in this authority, in this place of salvation. And if you miss Him, you're going to miss everything.

That's why you can't mess with Jesus-name baptism. There's nobody that can come any other way. There's only one door, there's only one Shepherd, there's only one High Priest, there's only one name. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Philippians 2:9 shows us when He won, when He earned the name.

And when you look at Genesis — "let there be light" — and Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Can I just tell you that that "let" in Revelation is the same type of "let" that's reflected in the Hebrew in Genesis 1? God is not asking hell's permission. God did not ask darkness's permission to let there be light. It's a command; it's an imperative in the original language. He's saying, "Let it happen."

Now, I just came to tell somebody: if you want to be saved, He is a Savior. If you want to walk right, He can help you walk right. If you want to overcome addiction, my God will live up to His name. My bishop — my father in the Lord, Brother Mooney — his favorite New Testament word was "access." He provides access to salvation. He recreates the opportunity for us to step back into the glory for which we were intended. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Turn to your neighbor and say, "You've come short of the glory." Hopefully I didn't cause any fights among couples. Some of you are like, "Yep, yep — all have sinned and come short." But are you ready? The glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ is my opportunity to step back into salvation. God would not — I'm going to say it again — God would not let sin and hell have the last say. He loves too much. His mercy is too great. His sacrifice is available. If you want to be saved, He will save you.

How powerful is that salvation, Brother Killmon? I tell you what it'll do: it'll change your family history. Let me go ahead and encourage some of you first-generation [Christians]: when you start hearing about life in the Spirit and disciplines and all of the things, and you're tempted to go back to the shame of your past — can I just remind you that what you didn't have in your parents, you're going to give your children? Why? Because my God is a Savior. He can overcome all the lies of the culture and the bondage of the enemy and set you free to walk in a saved life.

My dad used to ride by with women in the car and wave at my mom. I come from — he came from eastern Kentucky, my mom from eastern Tennessee, and he was an alcoholic, and he fought people in bars and cut them with knives. I've never seen my father that way. Can I just encourage somebody? At 87, when he died, the seven kids were in the room, nineteen grandkids were in the room, sixteen great-grandkids were in the room. You ready? He's got Bible college professors, church planters; he's got Bible study teachers and Sunday school teachers; he's got godly children and a posterity. Why? Because my God is a Savior, and the devil is a liar. You can have victory. You can live the life that God wants you to live.

Brother Kevin, you're the day teacher; I know I'm explaining strong, but I'm explaining. I really am trying to build understanding. I know they used to say preachers tell it, and teachers tell it and preachers yell it — well, maybe something a little deeper. I want to explain today, because if you miss Him, you're going to miss the opportunity. You're going to cut yourself off from what God can give you as a Savior.

I'll concrete it. There was a young couple that went up to a church, and she had been messing around with Ouija boards and all sorts of things, getting into stuff she shouldn't have gotten into, and she had become demon-possessed. And they had enough presence of mind to say, "We need to go to a church." So the young man had been attending a church occasionally in his life; he went to that church, Brother Lopez, and he said, "Can you help me?" He's talking to the pastor, and the pastor's looking at them, and it was with no guile, with no ill intent — he looked at them and he realized, "This is out of my control." He said, "You know what? We really don't do that here. But you see that United Pentecostal church across the street? They do that there." Can I just remind somebody, that's what we do when we go back to our church: we offer the message that's connected to the name that's above every name, that can bring about lasting change in a person's life. That's why we're not ashamed to preach about the name, and teach about the name, and sing about the name. We're going to lift Him up until He comes back for His bride. Why? Because if you miss Him, you miss everything.

Point number two — going to sound really familiar: You need a revelation of who you are in Him. What do we say in the Bible colleges — I've got my friend here, Brother Lopez — what do we say? We say Christology is pneumatology. What does that mean, Brother Killmon? Pneumatology is just two more Greek words: logos and pneuma — a word about the Spirit, a word about life in the Spirit: not just about initial salvation, but about living. And if you get a revelation of who He is, then you can understand who you are in Him. Sounds familiar? But if you miss Him, you'll miss the revelation; and if you miss the revelation, you'll miss the opportunity.

Because if you start talking about natures and you reduce Him somehow away from the revelation of God and make Him some second person of the Trinity, He doesn't involve your faith. But are you ready? If you believe Paul in Romans 8:29, that He is "the firstborn among many brethren" — I think I heard that this morning. Or Colossians 1:15 calls Him "the firstborn of every creature." What does that mean? Not first in terms of created order, but the most prominent thing in creation. Why? Because the consequence of the last Adam is the opportunity for the new humanity. What does that mean? I'm glad He saved me and He gave me the get-out-of-hell-free card — but He gave me more than a get-out-of-hell-free card. He gave me the opportunity to be a better man, and a husband, and a father than I could ever be on my own. He sets me free from the manipulation of carnality that will limit me in all of my relationships. And all of a sudden, righteousness, peace, and joy become possible in the Holy Ghost. Because if you get His person and His work right, you get access to not just salvation, but new life. This is life eternal.

So that change in you — Paul says in Colossians 1:27 — is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." What does that mean? Your potential of life in the Spirit is reflected in the life of Jesus. Now be careful; guard against pride: "The Son can do nothing of himself." This Son can do nothing of Himself. I don't try to command anything, or say anything, I don't hear my Father say — why? Because my words are not powerful. But if I can be submitted to His guidance — when I can always seek to do the will of my Father, when I can humbly say in the garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will, thy will be done" — it doesn't matter what I have to walk through, because I have the Who who can get me through. Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't have to fear evil. Why? Because He's with me. And life in the Spirit gives me the victory to face any situation in life.

Bishop Cantrell, wherever you are, thank you for that sermon last night. We're not pretending that we have victory — we have victory right in the midst of the storm. I'm not waiting on new life; I have new life right now in the Spirit. In whatever state I find myself, I can be content. Paul says, whether I'm abased, whether I'm exalted, none of those things move me. Why? Because I know who I am in Him.

Acts 17: that great apostle says, "In him we live, and move, and have our being." And the great philosophical question was something like this: How do we face both being and non-being, or being and becoming? How do I know what I am, and yet know I long for more? That's been the great philosophical question. But Paul answered it in Acts 17 when he said, "In him" — not "them." Now, I ain't gonna poke fun at the Trinity all day, Brother Lopez, but they miss it, because it's in a Him and not a them. In Him we live. You have new life. How many of you are glad you're saved? In Him we live. But how many of you know, even though He's working on me, there's more I need to do? Brother Killmon, that's okay. In Him we move, and we go from faith to faith; we go from victory to victory. And when the Lord begins to work on your life in the Spirit, He's going to peel off one more layer, and one more layer of carnality. And what you need to do is, when you walk in the house of God, say, "Lord, light my pastor up tonight. Show me the next layer of victory you have for me, and my family, and my life." But if you miss Him, you're going to miss the plan.

John 7:37: "He that believeth on me," Jesus says, "as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." But then you get the explanation by the apostle: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given" — why? "because that Jesus was not yet glorified." He had to go away; He had to die in order to provide new life. But now that He's provided new life, why wouldn't you tell your friend? I understand you see a little bit about the crucifixion of Jesus, but you're misunderstanding who He is. And if you misunderstand who He is, you're going to miss the opportunity of Him to come dwell on the inside of you.

I'll prove it: John 17. My wife's back there — I've got to hurry. Thank you for that; there's the one I'm blaming, baby, there's one. John 17 — that great high priestly prayer that Jesus prays as a man. Every high priest is taken from among men — that's Hebrews. Jesus is praying. By the way, prayer is a petition to a higher power for help; God does not need to pray. It's why the Bible says Jesus offered up prayers in the days of His flesh. How many of you are flesh? Then you have the opportunity to pray. And our Lord shows us how.

John 17:5: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Now, I don't know if you highlight in your Bible — I advise that. But if you highlight "thou," "thine," and "thee" — those are all singulars. The King James is showing you in the Greek: that's an argument from the oneness of God. It's not just like "you, Benson," or "you, everybody" — it shows you that the Greek is singular. Jesus only believes in one God. Imagine that. But He says, because He's praying in His humanity, "Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory that I had with thee before the world was." What glory did the man have before the world was? That His obedient life, submitted to the will of His Father — "not my will, thy will be done" — would bring about the glory and the purpose of God in the world.

But look at what He says in verse 18 — again, still praying, because He prays as a priest: He prays for His disciples as a priest, and then He prays for every disciple and priest after Him. He says, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so" — the Greek is strong: in the exact same way — "have I also sent them into the world." You are being sent like Christ, as a man, was sent and commissioned.

Verse 21: "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." Now this cannot be Trinitarian language, because He says, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." How many of you are a part of the Trinity? Nope. Because it's not about the Trinity; it's about His obedience as a man, bringing about the will of God, not seeking His own glory. He came to make of Himself no reputation. So forget about your reputation and embrace the form of a servant, and listen — you'll forget; you won't worry about whether people remember your name, or any of that kind of nonsense. You won't care about that, and you will be in the position to let God use you. It's your obedient submission that will bring the glory of God in the earth. And He's saying, "Can I get somebody just to obey? Can I get somebody full of the Spirit, surrendered to My direction, that will bring My glory in the earth?" We have that potential.

Oh, look at that: 1 John 3:8 — I'll just quote, because Bishop did the rest of it: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested" — how was He manifested? In the flesh — "for this purpose was the Son of God manifested," the apostle John writes, "that he might destroy the works of the devil." Now you've found what Christ's obedience as a man was for. And if you find His purpose, you find your purpose, because He's the firstborn among many brethren; He's the first of a kind.

I'll prove it to you: Colossians 1:25 — Paul says, "Whereof I am made a minister... who now rejoice in my sufferings for you." How can you rejoice in sufferings? I thought we were supposed to command all of that away. No, no, no — because you realize whatever the Lord is allowing in your life is for His glory.

I'll get really concrete. There was a couple at Calvary Tabernacle that called me and said, "Brother Killmon, can you come help us teach a Bible study to a young girl? She's an atheist, and she's been out of a life of drugs, and now she's wrestling with the Bible." And I went over and began to talk. She's like, "Well, what are you going to do?" You know, because the new argument against the Bible is not so much the scientific and the preservation — which is important — but it's more like, "My morals are higher than the Bible." And so she began to say, "What do you do with these genocides?" and all of these people. And I start answering questions — and you've got to remember not to only be on the defense; you've got to go on the offense. I said, "Well, you're an atheist. So can you give up on the notions of love and justice? Can you give up the ideas of truth? Can you give up on all the higher ideals of life?" She said, "No, I tried that; I can't do that. My question is, can I believe the Bible?" I said, "Well, we're in a good place, then, because I can defend that the Bible is different than every other holy book in the world."

But you know what convinced her to start asking those questions, Brother Lopez — because I'd keep talking to you — but you know why? What convinced her? Because that young couple at Calvary Tabernacle were praying for God to give them a baby, and God did not give them a baby. And she lived with them. And she watched them as they pled, and they cried, and they fasted, and they had hands laid on them — but they did not receive their healing. And she said, "If they can still stay connected to God even in the midst of this absence, there has to be something deeper to their relationship other than just the blessings of God. They want relationship, not blessing. They want His heart, not just His hand." And that caused that young lady to say, "I've got to take this seriously."

Can I just tell you: your life of Christ in the Spirit is what will witness. Paul says, "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church." Now, Paul — you're saying you're suffering for the church to fill up the afflictions of Christ? What does that mean? He's not arguing for the lack of sufficiency of the sacrifice; he's just saying that suffering in Christ was initial, and we're called to complete [it]. I know your problem is, you really want to be used of God. Your problem is, you've been down in an altar saying, "God, help me to reach somebody; let my life make a difference." And the Lord Jesus takes your prayers seriously. So what He says is, "I'm going to let you be on display in all of the arenas of life." Paul says in Colossians, "I understand that us apostles were made a spectacle" — the Greek is strong: we've been put on display. Can God put you on display on your job, and you not lose your attitude, so that you can demonstrate that there is somebody on that job that has a connection to life in the Spirit that's different than the brokenness of this world?

I'll try to hurry. 2 Corinthians 5:17 and 18: "Therefore if any man be in Christ" — now, I know you're so Oneness you don't see it, but you need to write next to that "not the Trinity" — because if you're in Christ, "he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." But He did not stop there with your salvation. He says, "and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." Your life in the Spirit should be given to the ministry of reconciliation. Your life is the tip of the spear wherever the Lord plants you, to confront principalities and powers. God is saying, if I can get obedience in the physical, I can do something in the supernatural; if I can get obedience in the physical, then I can do something in the realm of the invisible. But if I can't get obedience, My glory cannot be on display, because only obedient, submitted humanity is the way I get My glory into the world. So God is saying, "Are you going to obey?" How many of you want the glory of God? How many of you want to be used of God? Then you need to say, "God, whatever You want me to do, whatever You want me to give up, whatever You want me to embrace — God, I want Your glory."

I'm going to try to land. You'll forgive me for my bad attitude, probably. Again, I have lots of friends in the room; they understand me, they pray for me. But, Benson, it's fascinating. I had a very, very liberal professor — in their denomination, they ordained homosexuals. And I remember going to seminary where the Lord called me to; I couldn't figure out why the Lord sent me there. It makes a whole lot more sense now: I can see bad ideas a mile away. And the Lord, I think, has helped create some discernment in me, helped me do what I do at Indiana Bible College.

But I remember we're in a class, and the professor is teaching through the Greek, and he hits 1 Corinthians, and we're going through, and he hits these gifts of the Spirit — like Bishop already talked about, this life of the Spirit, these gifts of the Spirit. You know, what is an apostle? Paul says, "I can't lay on the foundation of another; I've got to go somewhere where the name of Christ is not named." It's usually somebody who opens up areas by the touch of God; we call them missionaries. Just these powerful things that we cannot be without in the church — they've got to be biblically defined. But listen, we don't try to do church in our flesh. We — I'm going to be stronger: we cannot do church in our flesh. You must be born again.

And I remember that wonderful liberal professor — he's doing pretty good. He's looking at the Greek, and, Sister Virginia, he's like, "Okay — word of knowledge is gnosis; the Greek word means knowledge, so it probably means something the preacher knows you don't know." He's doing pretty good. Word of wisdom — he goes through all of these other gifts, and man, it was awesome. My Trinitarian friends, my very liberal friends — I mean, Mike, my Presbyterian pastor; Mother Katherine, the Eastern Orthodox lady; and all these — they're starting to ask questions: "Well, how would that look at a church service? And how would we do that?" You know, because they're like, "Wow." And finally, just kind of in frustration — there was a bunch of us; I was kind of sitting in an area over there — he said, "Well, if you really want to know, ask Bobby. They do this at his church."

Can I just remind you that we do this in our church? We believe in life in the Spirit. We cannot become CEOs in our administration and shrinks in our pulpit. We've got to have life in the Spirit. We've got to connect people to the Word; we've got to connect them to the guiding truth; and then connect them to life in the Spirit, which is the opportunity to live the life described in this revelation.

I really am [at] false close number three. John 14:16 through 20 — Jesus says, "And I will pray" — everybody say "pray." There's your priest; there's the man operating as the intercessor — "and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." I know you want me to stay in my flesh, but, Sister Darling, He can't stay in His flesh: if He doesn't ascend, He can't come back in another way. "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

What does that mean, Brother Killmon? They're not doing some big mosh pit in heaven. What he's saying, Vincent, is something different. He's saying that I am a man standing positionally in covenant. That's why the apostle John says, "As he is" — speaking of our risen Lord — "so are we in this present world." That means you have access to things; you have access to life in the Spirit. You've got to understand what the bishop already preached: who you are in Him is what God wants you to grasp. Because if you miss Him, you miss everything.

Point number three, last one: Christology is eschatology. Turn to your neighbor and say, "More Greek." Eschaton just means last things, or a summation — and a word about the final part of life. So you need a revelation of who He is; you need a revelation of who you are in Him; and you need a revelation of His intention.

I love what the old-timers used to say when you start studying the book of Revelation. They said some people seem to know more about what Antichrist is doing than what Christ is doing. Because you've got to get His person and His work right, and then you get access to not just salvation, and life in the Spirit, but to eternity. What does that mean, Brother Killmon? One man said: He reaches the eschaton for us (salvation), in us (life in the Spirit — pneumatology), and with us; that means all of life's purpose and goal is aimed on that thing in eternity. Can I just encourage somebody today that most of this age — most of this time, if you'll forgive the word, most of this dispensation — is about the life of Christ being formed inside of you? God doesn't care so much about your comfort as He does your formation, because this life is about the next life.

Okay, Brother Killmon, give me a book for that. I'll do it. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 4 — and I really am closing. Verse 6: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts" — we have revelation — "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." What does that passage mean? It means what you see in Jesus is the revelation. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That life that Jesus exemplified — that life that's being formed in you — is what all of this time is about.

Look at verse 7: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." How many know you're still struggling to be conformed to the image? See, justification is beautiful: it means you're saved just as if you'd never sinned. But sanctification is beautiful, too, because God says, "I'm not going to leave you where I found you. I'm going to make your literal reality match your legal standing." What do you mean, Brother Killmon? "This treasure's in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." Maybe you walked into camp meeting saying, "Yep, that sums up a lot of what I'm facing now, Brother Killmon." Let me give you the revelation of the Lord.

In verse 10 he says, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." Why doesn't He just deliver me? Because you're called to go about bearing in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Why? Because there's a promise to it — it's not just suffering for suffering's sake — "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake" — why are we always delivered unto death, Paul? — "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." God is building something in you that is eternal.

Look at verse 15: "For all things are for your sakes." That means persecution, that means pressure, that means sickness, that means setback, is for you, not against you. Nothing can come into the life of a Christian outside of the direct permission of our Lord. All things are for your sakes. Why? "That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause" — because of this thing that God is doing in His church — "we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." I don't worry so much about this flesh, but about what's being formed in my life in the Spirit. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." What does that mean? It's about eternity. This life is about the future.

Think with me today. When 1 Corinthians 15 happens — you're raptured, and mortal puts on immortality — what will change? That external temptation will be absent in eternity. God will not do Genesis 3 again. See, some people have to go to hell because they would break heaven. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to, if you will, repentance; He will save you. But if you want to stay broken, He's not bringing that into eternity. So that external temptation of the devil — what Paul calls in Ephesians 2:2 "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" — all of those externals, because He is a good and loving Father, will be removed.

But at that 1 Corinthians 15, [when] mortality shall put on immortality, even the internal temptation will be changed. You know what's left? Just our will. And that's what all this life is about, because "the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land." I want to help somebody: you're wrestling with things right now, and God is allowing the pressure, because you're being built for eternity. That's why Paul says in Romans 8:18, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Remember what glory is? It's the purpose and will of God through His obedient people.

You ever been walking with the Lord and you've got that number-six thing — the grace of God is shining on you, and you're walking pleasing — and then the Lord, in an altar, or maybe in a sermon from your pastor, shows you something in your heart? "Man, I didn't realize I had that much envy until somebody else got [promoted]. I didn't realize I had so much pride until I was looked over." And in a moment like that, when God begins to show you your heart — "Lord, am I even saved?" And God is saying, "Yes, but I'm sanctifying you. I'm giving you the next layer of victory for your life." And are you ready? He's saying, "I'm shaping you, son. I'm shaping you, daughter, because do you understand what I have in store for you? You're being built now for then." And He loves me too much — see, the only thing harder than my preparation is getting to my moment unprepared. And as a loving Father, He loves me way too much for that. So He will park me until I get the lesson. He'll leave me under the pressure until I cry out and say, "Whatever you want, Lord." And then He begins to shape those things on the inside of me.

It's like my son when he was just a toddler learning to walk — there he is, a little two-year-old tyke, and he trips, and he falls, and he stumbles. And what do I say? "Get out of the house, kid." No — I pick him up, and I brush him off, and say, "Son, you're going to walk. You're learning to walk. You've crawled; now one day you will run." And when he's walking and learning, I hold on to his hand, and when he stumbles, I don't just — sometimes I will pull him. You ever been in a service somewhere, and a sermon somehow, or a song somehow, or God confronts your heart and says, "I'm going to pull you. I know you're about to fall, but I'm going to pull you up and show you how to walk worthy"? And that means all of this life is filled with incredible purpose.

Revelation 1:8: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is" — right now, life in the Spirit — "and which was" — purchasing salvation — "and which is to come." He's coming back to save us. And can I encourage somebody? If you want to be saved, He will save you. They'll come to the music and put pressure on me; I'll quit.

See, I worry that we think our everyday, quiet, unseen faithfulness — with trials and temptations and setbacks, and keeping a good attitude when other people maybe don't; I know that only happens in Indiana — maybe you're wounded in the house of your friends, like your Lord, and the people that should be for you — maybe not even always maliciously; they just have limits of time. And you ever been tired? You ever been hungry? My wife threatened to buy me a shirt: "I'm not responsible for what I said when I was hangry." How many of you are a human being? And you get 500 decisions right, but the 5,001st one may be your pastor's one that he gets wrong — only in Indiana, not California. But can I just tell you that that quiet, unseen faithfulness, that God is using that pressure to form inside of you, is for more than just this moment? He is building you for eternity.

That's why we sing songs like: lived and He loved me, died and He saved me — one day He's coming back, glorious day. I want to tell somebody, "Be not weary in well doing." One day you're going to hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful [servant]." Now there is a joy. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" — I wish we had time to go to Revelation 20, 21, and 22 and look at what life in eternity is going to be like. But all due respect to these wonderful singers and worship leaders — they did so well today; they do — well, give them a big hand. But I am thankful that heaven is not going to be a 24-hour praise fest. We're not going to be little naked babies with harps. I wish we had time to deal with it: there will be work in the new earth, in the new Jerusalem. I wish we had time, so that God could show you that what you're dealing with right now with your attitude is to equip you to operate in understanding then, because your will is being conformed.

So you need a revelation of who He is. Stand with me today. You need a revelation of who He is; you need a revelation of who you are in Him; and you need a revelation of His eternal intention with this life. Now, that means He's saving you, and He's shaping you, and He's going to usher you into that promise.

Here's what I would like for you to do: just bow your heads for a moment, close your eyes, and just slip up a hand and say, "Lord, I'm thankful I know who You are. Greater love hath no man than this. Thank You for Your love, God." You need to understand He loves you that much. But you also need a revelation of who you are in Him. This thing that we call life in the Spirit will change you, and it will change your world. But then lastly — instead of praying for escape today, would you pray, "Not my will, thy will be done"? Come on, do you trust Him? The Greek word pistis — trust — can be translated faith. Faith simply means trust. That's why the bishop says we worship: why? Because if I can get in Your presence and see who You are, [Aresh?], maybe I can begin to trust what You're doing in my life, no matter what it is, to build me for eternity. And you will avoid escapology as your theology, and instead your faithfulness will be rewarded in heaven, because that good and faithful servant is the one that's going to be invited in.

Come on, I want somebody to hear from the Lord this day — Him saying something like this to you: "Well done." "I'm not done; everything with You is maybe not done yet — but well done, thou good [and faithful servant]" — just stay faithful. His will is not in question; the question is, what will we do? And we say, "God, I know who You are. I know who I am in You." I'm trying to close today, but I really want somebody's faith to grasp hold of the promise that every bit of what I'm facing is not just mean-spirited; it's not "God forgot my address"; it's not because I'm some evil, malicious person. Now, if you're being willfully disobedient, today's a good day to repent. But if you're doing everything you can to serve the Lord, can I just tell you: He's shaping deep things in you for eternity that you don't understand yet, and you just need to keep your hand in His hand and say, "Daddy, whatever You've got to lead me through to get me on the other side of glory, I'm willing, because I trust You."

Come on. If you miss Him, you miss everything. Don't shortcut His process. Let Him do all His will, in Jesus' name.