Have a Grace Confession

0:00The Lord's Prayer and the series so far

Amen. Well, I’m gonna invite you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter one, John chapter one. This is also a good moment, I’m gonna do it if you haven’t done it, to silence your cellphone. Turn and silence The choir director in my high school said, “Please silence your cell phones, pagers, and babies.” That’s what she would say every time we’d have a concert. Hallelujah. And your hearing aids. How many of y’all remember when hearing aids used to make feedback in the room? We used to think we were having sound problems, and then it turned out, no, it’s just Brother Reg over here cranked up to about 1,000.

Didn’t know what it was. Amen. I don’t know what I’m talking about now. Ready to just have a good time today. Amen. And hey, we’ve been in a series, and we’re gonna continue in a series on the Lord’s Prayer. And so throughout this series we’re gonna do what I’m calling little macro-series, and we’re in the Our Father portion of the Lord’s Prayer. But what we’re doing over this extended series on the Lord’s Prayer, because we wanna get this into your spirit as a template that you can pray throughout the day, we’re just reciting the Lord’s Prayer together every Sunday that we’re preaching on this.

So I’m gonna invite you to do that. If I can get the Lord’s Prayer, I’ll step out of the way so you can see it. And all together let’s say, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Come on, give the Lord a big praise in this spirit-filled church.

Amen. So we’re gonna jump into John chapter 1. I’m gonna preach a little fast and loose this morning. We’ve been in a series, like I said, on the Our Father portion of the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve been talking about grace upon grace. We’ve been talking about the gospel of the finished work of Jesus Christ at work in the life of the believer. Now, for the last three weeks, I’ve really just been hopefully filling you up with some understanding of the goodness of the grace of God, giving you some new covenant paradigm, hopefully introducing you into the beginning of what is a revelation of grace.

And today, what I wanna do is I wanna help take what we’ve talked about the last three weeks. If you haven’t been here, I’m gonna tell you, our media team puts together one of the best broadcasts in all of Mobile County, so you need to go back and watch those messages, okay? Go ahead and give them a hand of appreciation this morning. Go back and watch those messages, but today I wanna put some handlebars on it and kinda tell you how you can take this idea that’s floating around in the clouds, grab ahold of it, and bring it down into your life and actually see some fruit out of the gospel of grace.

Okay? So I think this is gonna help you, but first I just wanna preach some stuff to you, and then we’ll give you those handlebars. Are you ready? John chapter 1. I’m gonna move as quick as humanly possible, and I don’t even have to do that. I can move as quick as Holy Ghost possible this morning, in Jesus’ mighty name. So today, the title of my message is called Holding a Grace Confession. Holding a Grace Confession.

3:44John 1: the Word and the witness

John chapter 1, starting in verse one, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” I just wanna pause real quick as we continue to walk through, and I wanna mention that you will notice as we talk progressively through this text, if you haven’t noticed it already, that the Word is referring to Jesus. The Word is referring to Jesus, who later on as we read will say was made manifest in the flesh amongst us. It’s talking about Jesus Christ.

So the Word is the Lord Jesus. However, I do wanna read this from the framing for just a little while that we’re talking about the Word. We’re talking about the Word, the Logos, the Word of God. I want us to just read it from that frame because that’s where the revelation’s gonna come through today, okay? So we’re talking about the Word. Chapter one, verse six. We’re gonna continue on. “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that he might, or that all might believe through him. He was not the light.”

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. He was not the light. So what we’re being introduced to here, similarly to framing up at the beginning as the Word being the Word itself, now we are coming into an individual who is not the light. He is not Jesus. He’s John the Baptist. He’s John the Baptist, and John the Baptist here, what we’re finding out is he is not the one that we were looking for. Some people thought he was, but John was not the one that Israel had been looking for as a coming Messiah. John was not the fulfillment of that prophecy.

However, John was the one who would testify of the one to come. John is, if I was to give you a theological kinda paradigm on John the Baptist, John the Baptist is kind of the last moment that from the beginning of the Bible to, you could say, the beginning of the New Testament, but probably to the finished work of the cross. John is the culmination of the entire system that is found in the law and the prophets. John is the final voice for the old covenant. And what the Apostle John says of John the Baptist, he says that he is not the light. He came to bear witness about the light.

So the way I want you to kinda look at this, I’m gonna keep saying this over and over and over again for a few minutes, is because the Bible says it over and over again. If the Bible says it twice, I’m gonna say it 18 times. Hallelujah. I’m just gonna do my due diligence. Amen. But what you’re gonna see is that John is a type of the old covenant. When you look at John symbolically, John is a type of Genesis through Malachi. That’s who John is. John is the law, the prophets, the fathers who are all pointing towards a true light. They are not the light. If you get them confused with the light, you’re gonna be messed up in your faith.

If you think you’re looking at that and it’s the light, you’re gonna be disappointed. So they testify of the light. They bear witness to the light. They bear witness to what is to come. We’re gonna continue going on. I told y’all I was gonna preach fast. I ain’t got time to mess around. Come on, buddy. Chapter one, verse nine. Verse nine. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. So there’s John the Baptist in his ministry. Jesus is probably born at the time it’s talking about this, but Jesus is, He has not been revealed yet in His ministry.

He has not come out and gotten in front of everybody. He’s somewhere back in the shadows building birdhouses for older ladies. Amen? Amen. Everybody needs a good hummingbird feeder from Joseph and Sons. That was a better joke than y’all. Y’all gotta read the Bible to think I’m funny. Amen. Amen. Can’t help it, I’m sanctified. So verse 10, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.” You wanna talk about an A-bomb of a passage in the Bible. He was in the world. The world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.

He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, if that’s you, say, “That’s me.” That’s me. Who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God. Look at the person next to you and say, “You look like a child of God.” You look like a child of God. We’re gonna talk a lot today. I can feel it in my spirit. Verse 13, “Who were born, not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh,” whew, “nor of the will of man, but of God.” But of God. Okay. Right here, this is what I wanna make sure that we do.

So we’re gonna set us up ‘cause I’m gonna get in. I’m gonna really start preaching here in a second. This is all kinda setting us up this morning. Even though some of this stuff as I’m reading it, I’m like, “Man, that’s so powerful. I could just stop right there and preach it.” The hardest thing is just to not go for so long. ‘Cause, man, the Word is powerful. We think the Bible is just a thing. Man, I’m telling you, if you cut this book, it would bleed. If you get up on it, you’ll hear it breathing. I’m telling you, this Bible is powerful. If you hit somebody with one that’s big enough, they’ll get a concussion, I promise you.

It’s a powerful book. Amen. Hallelujah. And so here’s what I wanna look at, okay? What we’re talking about here, there was a light, there was a man who came. His name was John. He is not the light. He is bearing witness about the light. But there is a true light that is coming into the world. That true light coming into the world is Jesus Christ. Again, like I said when we started, I don’t want you to think right now of the Word as Jesus. Or I’m sorry, I don’t want you to think of the Word as Jesus. I want you to think of the Word as the Word. The Word as the Bible, okay?

I want you to think of the Word as the scripture. So frame that up in your brain, ‘cause that’s gonna help you here in just a second. Now we’ve been introduced to two people. We’ve been introduced to John, who is not the light. He is here to bear witness about the light. He is the culmination of the Old Testament. He is the final word. He is the exclamation point that is somewhere on the page in your Bible right after Malachi ends, and he is the culmination of the law and the prophets. He is the final voice of the old covenant. And then we have the true light that was coming into the world.

The true light is? Some of y’all would’ve passed that test. Amen. The true light is? Jesus. Jesus. He’s the true light. But remember, we’re not talking about Jesus as a person, we’re talking about Jesus as a typology right now of the Word. So if John is the final word of the old covenant, the Old Testament, then Jesus is not the first word, not the last word, He’s the only word of the new covenant, whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So I’m talking to you, He’s the Word. So now your Bible has been divided. You’ve got the old covenant, you’ve got the new covenant.

There is some argument that the old covenant is not necessarily the Old Testament, and the New Testament is not necessarily the new covenant. There’s some ways that you can slice that, but essentially what you have is you have a word that is spoken from the law, the prophets, the fathers, and then you have a word that is spoken by the finished work, the blood of Christ. Talking about the culmination of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Those are the two words we have. Those are the two words. Now we gotta know that. We gotta know these two words. And the reason for this is because when we wanna know about God, where’s a good place to turn?

The Bible. The Bible, right? This tells us about God. It tells us about His character. It tells us about who He is. Here’s the problem, though. If you randomly flip in your Bible and you land on a page that doesn’t make Jesus super clear, all of a sudden you can start to believe things about God that are not necessarily true in our present context in history. Why? Well, because Jesus is a lot. Let’s just go ahead and start there. Jesus, it’s hard to put Him in a box. Amen. Amen. They tried putting Him in a tomb, and that didn’t work. So you can’t put Him in a box.

You can’t hold Him in. You can’t drill down Jesus. If you ever hear the phrase, “Well, basically, Jesus,” you know this is about to be some mess that you’re about to hear. Okay? So Jesus is, while He’s much, while He’s a lot, He is also, in the simplest terms of the Word, He is the great clarifier. He is the great clarifier.

13:38Jesus, the great clarifier

Hebrews 1, this is a powerful verse. You’re gonna hear me quote it 1,000 times in this church. Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world.”

Can you see that connection from there to John 1, that He created the world? But what it says here is it says all of this time, all of this history, God’s been speaking in all of these different ways through different prophets and different voices and different people and different fathers, but in these last days that we presently live in now He has spoken through His Son. That means that when we go to the Word, Jesus is the great clarifier. And if the devil can keep you from looking at this book through that lens or looking at, God forbid, the gospel through a lens of Jesus Christ, your salvation through a lens of Jesus Christ, your blessing through the lens of Jesus Christ, your sufficiency through the lens of Jesus Christ, you’re gonna miss all kinds of stuff.

You’re gonna miss everything. And in fact, what’ll happen a lot of times is even the way we talk about Jesus Christ in relation to the old covenant positions you in a way that you can miss Jesus. We often say that the Old Testament is Jesus concealed and the New Testament is Jesus revealed. So a lot of times, what we do is we go back to the Old Testament. We go to the Law of Moses, or we go to Genesis, or we go to look at David, or we go to read the prophets, or we read the Psalms, and we’ve been trained that when you go read those things, you should look forward and see Jesus.

You don’t have to do that ‘cause we already know how the Lord has spoken to us. He’s spoken to us by His Son. So you don’t have to go to Psalms to find Jesus. We know where He is. Yes. So we can go to Jesus, and rather than reading there to get to Jesus, we can look through Jesus and see revelation in those old covenant promises. That’s a good word that is better than you think it is, so I’m gonna take an amen whether you want to or not. What I’m telling you is I feel I will just preach. I hope this building is structurally sound. ‘Cause I feel like preaching today.

What I’m telling you is you don’t have to look. This is why my headset was making me uncomfortable in the back. I needed this handheld today. You don’t have to try to find Jesus through anything in the Old Testament, anything in the old covenant. I hear this a lot, that people love to just talk about all these things from the old covenant. I do it too. There’s great narrative, there’s great stories, but man, I’m telling you, there is a point in time where you gotta go, “Maybe I’ll just go over here to Romans. Maybe I’ll go to Galatians. Maybe I’ll go to Hebrews.

Maybe I’m gonna hang out in John for a few minutes,” because Jesus is enough. He is sufficient. I don’t care how deep the story is, Jesus is enough. My God, some of y’all are like, “I was gonna bring this guy lasagna, now I’m not thinking I’m gonna do it.” Amen. Here’s why this is important. To understand the scripture as it relates to your righteousness in Jesus Christ, you have to do what 2 Timothy chapter 2 calls rightly divide the word of truth. Now, the ESV says to rightly handle it. It says this, it says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

The King James, I think the New King James says this, it says, “Divide.” That is actually a pretty good translation of what’s going on there in the Greek. Rightly divide the word. Both translations are good, but you gotta rightly divide the word. You gotta know when you get in the scripture what you’re dealing with right now. You can get into the scripture and you can get under all kinds of condemnation. In fact, Galatians says that the scripture, it’s talking about the old covenant, imprisoned everyone under sin. You get into the old covenant and you get in here and just reading anything that the Bible says, and all of a sudden you could find yourself in a place where you go, “I don’t know if I can do that.

I don’t know if I can be that. I don’t know that I am that.” I read about Nehemiah who looked down and he said, “I’m doing a good work. I can’t come down.” And the problem is I come down sometimes. You get enough pressure on me, and you get the right person in here on the right day pushing on the right buttons, and all of a sudden I’m down on the ground, my spade’s hanging from a nail up in the wall, and I’m no longer up there because I don’t always live up. And when you’ve got a Bible that on one half of it is saying, “You better live up, you better get it right, or you’re gonna be cursed and you’re gonna die,” that’s what it says.

But when you read it through the lens of Jesus Christ, I don’t have to be enough. I don’t have to be everything. I don’t have to be all that and a bag of chips. I’m gonna be less than, and I’m gonna eat a bag of chips. I’m gonna come boldly before the throne of grace because Jesus has been sufficient on my behalf. Now, what I wanna talk to you about this morning is receiving grace from the Word, receiving grace, and utilizing grace as your means to gain access to God. How many of you’d like to have an audience with God today? Come on. I’m not talking about the man in the sky.

I’m not talking about the man upstairs. I’m not talking about this little trivial God that you’ve built in your brain. I’m talking about the creator of the universe, that if he was to sneeze, half the earth gets wiped out. Thank God he doesn’t have allergies. Amen. I’m talking about a powerful God today. So if you want that audience, I’m gonna tell you how to get that audience today in this service.

19:57Full of grace and truth

John 1:14. Now, y’all thought I was preaching. Here we go. John 1:14. I wanna teach you a little bit about the Word right here. And the Word, Jesus, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, And we have seen His glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Somebody say, “Full of grace and truth.” I want you to say these three words: full, grace, truth. Full. Full. Grace. Grace. Truth. Truth. Hallelujah. He’s full of grace and truth. Now, verse 15, John bore witness about Him and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’” Woo! I’m gonna tell you what, I feel like the Lord has just given me revelation as I’m standing here. I ought to scream more often. Hallelujah. He says it right there. I’ve actually always hated this little verse ‘cause I feel like it messes up the whole flow here from verses 14, 15, 16.

I know some of y’all are like, “I can’t believe you said that.” Well, I can’t believe you don’t read it. So we’re even. Golly. Buddy, I’m gonna tell you, can you get my Ritalin? I’m just kidding. I’m ready to preach. I don’t know. Thank God we don’t have an organ player. But he just said that there in John 1:15. He just said that, “He who comes after me ranks before me. He who comes after me ranks before me.” He has the final word. There, yes, the whole Bible is inspired. The whole Bible is authoritative. The whole Bible is inerrant, infallible. It’s immutable.

If you’re coming on Wednesday nights, you know all of this stuff, ‘cause I just told you this Wednesday night. Amen. So yes, it’s all of that stuff, but there’s a final word in the scripture. Yes, I know Exodus 1 says this, but there’s a final word on Exodus 1. I know that Judges 3 says this, but there’s a final word. I know Psalm 43 says this, but there’s a final word. I know what Malachi said, but there’s a final word. There’s a final word. That word is Jesus Christ manifest among us. Hallelujah. Verse 16, “For from his fullness we have received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” I may come to 17 here in a moment. “No one has ever seen God. The only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Okay, I want you to look at this. I wanna go back to verse 14 for a moment. Let’s go back to verse 14. If we can put it on the screen, that’d be great. Verse 14. I’m gonna be all over the place today. Here we go. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Okay, what is he full of? Grace and truth. He’s full of grace and truth. He’s full of grace and truth. I know some of y’all are going, “We’ve heard this 100,000 times.” Well, I’m about to mess you up. So we about to have some church. So he’s full of grace and truth. Okay. Now, go down to verse 16. For from his fullness, what is he full of? Grace and truth. From his fullness, he is full of grace and truth. From his fullness, from the stuff he is full of, from what he is filled up with, from what he’s full of, we have received, what does it say here? Grace upon grace.

I heard somebody say it. It says that Jesus is full of grace and truth, but from His fullness, what have we received? Grace upon grace. Grace upon grace. He’s full of grace and truth, but we’ve received grace upon grace. The reason I need you to see this this morning is because at some point, some condemnation preaching hijacked John chapter 1 and started going around telling people, “Yeah, brother, I know how you need grace. You’re saved by it. I get it. But you know what you also need? Truth.” Yeah. And then we got preachers who preach whole messages on how if you have grace, you don’t have everything, but you gotta have the truth as well.

And it’s funny to me that everybody who preaches this, my God, I am coming for somebody on the other side of the camera today in Jesus’ name. I can see some of your faces like, “What is this?” I don’t know. I think it’s the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. I keep acknowledging it ‘cause I’m taken back by it right now. Praise the Lord. This is what preachers do. They’ll get in there, they’ll start talking about grace and truth, and all of a sudden you’ll find out, you know what that preacher likes more than grace? Truth. And all of a sudden truth becomes synonymous in its treatment of the law because it’s not that you need grace, it’s that you need to act better.

And that’s what we’re preaching. It’s not that you need grace. What you really need is you need to get your stuff together. You need to act like you ought to act, you ought to behave, and gosh darn it, you ought to at least be as good as I am ‘cause I’m the preacher, and I’d rather you not go beyond that, ‘Cause then I have to listen to this mess. Amen. So no. That’s not what the Bible says, though. The Bible doesn’t say that the remedy for your problem is grace and truth. You don’t need grace and truth in the sense that they are two separate substances.

You need grace because from His grace, what do you get? Grace. And from His truth, what do you get? Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. He’s full of grace and truth, and from His fullness, we receive grace upon grace. Listen to me.

26:07Grace should always be the takeaway

If you wanna write anything down this morning, I think this is worth taking home with you, that grace should always be the takeaway. When you’re in the Word, when you’re in the Scripture, grace should always be the takeaway. You can walk away feeling less than, feeling like you don’t live up, and, and with good reason, because you don’t.

But there is one who lived up on your behalf. His name is Jesus Christ. And He’s given you full access to God the Father. He’s given you a full status of righteousness. I know you’re messed up. I know you get angry a little fast. I know you can’t add good. I know you’re bad with money. I know you can’t cook. I know you scream at your husband. I know you’ve got all these things going on. I know you drive too slow, or you drive too fast, or you don’t have a good singing voice, or you have too good of a singing voice, and everybody thinks you’re prideful. I know all of this.

I’ve lived some of this, amen. Hallelujah. I get it, but there is one who is enough. And you get the full benefit of His righteousness imputed to you. That is a Bible way, that’s a doctrine way to say, “Baby, it’s yours.” Hallelujah. You ought to shout right there. I know I’m scaring you, but you ought to give the Lord a praise. Whenever truth is revealed, whenever truth is really shown to us, we’re talking about grace and truth, whenever you really see truth, you’re gonna see it on the grace side of the Bible. John goes further to say this, because we treat the truth like it’s the law.

Yeah, that we need grace, but we need to lay the hammer down so people really know what’s going on. And we always like to lay the hammer down on people who don’t look like us. You know how bad it would be if I came in and laid the law down in this church? ‘Cause it ain’t hard to kinda look through from here and figure out what everybody’s issue is. I’ve been doing this a long time. You just start going, “Stop doing this. Stop doing that. Stop doing this. I know you did this this week.” And people’d be going, “Is he a prophet?” No, he’s got Facebook. You put all your business out there anyway.

My gosh, Mark Zuckerberg put the word of knowledge out of business, baby. I don’t know. We hardly need it anymore. Amen. So you can have that kind of preaching. But John goes on and he says this. He says, “That’s not what truth is.” Truth isn’t making sure everybody knows their comeuppance. That’s not what it is. It’s not putting judgment on everybody. It’s not showing everybody how little they add up. No. From His truth, we should be getting grace. In fact, the law came through Moses. So when it starts to look like the law, when it starts to look like legalism, when it starts to look like condemnation, when it starts to look like judgment, and I’m not talking about basic general information.

The Bible says what it says, and we’re not gonna change it. It’s immutable. I’m not talking about not having some kind of standard of this is where the Bible is, but that stuff is there for a reason. It’s not to keep the believer in condemnation. It’s to lead people to Jesus Christ. The Bible says that the law is good for the one who uses it lawfully, laying it down not for the righteous, but the unrighteous. That’s 1 or 2 Timothy 1. You can go check it out later. I quoted it pretty good, too, amen. Amen. Hallelujah. So this stuff is here. It is good, but what John says is he says, “When the truth starts to sound like the law, you’ve gotta be careful because the law came through Moses.”

That is not what came through Jesus. On this side, on the John the Baptist side of the Bible, on the Old Covenant side of the Bible, that is the law. But you need to understand that something greater has come. It is grace and truth. He’s full of it, and from His fullness you have received grace upon grace. Hallelujah. I feel like I’ve got a church that knows the Word in here this morning, amen. Y’all feeling good? All right. Me too. Hallelujah. Everything you need, you can find through a New Covenant lens.

30:19What do you say about yourself?

Now, here is the sermon, okay? I got nine minutes.

I wanna give you the actual sermon. So if y’all got DoorDash on your phone, the address is 907 Shelton Beach Road. Amen. John 1:19. John 1:19. And I want you to see something. I’ll just tell you before we get in there. I want you to shift gears now. We’ve been talking about John and Jesus as typologies of the Word. There is the Word, and then there’s the old covenant, there’s the new covenant. I want you to shift, and now I want you to see John as a person. I want you to see John as an example. So transitioning into John 1:19, “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’

He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ.’ And they asked, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ And he said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you a prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us.’ Listen to this. ‘What do you say about yourself?’” That’s a good question to ask right there, almost as if I’m about to preach on it pretty heavy. Amen. Verse 23, “He said, ‘I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

Here’s the big point I want you to get this morning. Write this down in big, bold Sharpie permanent marker on a piece of cardboard and hang it on the front door of your house. You gotta get a confession from the Word. You gotta get a confession from the Word. In our area, especially amongst Pentecostals, we have a lot of people who believe in a faith confession, and we talk about speaking faith words pretty often. And I’ll just even say this. We have some good instruction for speaking faith words right here ‘cause a lot of people, what they do is they speak faith words, but they deny reality.

But John says right here, it says of John right here, it says, “He confessed, but he did not deny, but he confessed. He confessed. He did not deny, but he confessed.” I don’t know what the merit is in having some kind of crazy disease and walking around and acting like it doesn’t exist, almost as if you can outthink the disease. The way you think ain’t gonna do nothing for the disease. You need the blood of Jesus Christ to touch you today and move in your life. You can have a faith confession that the cross is enough for whatever illness I’m walking in and not walk around and act like you don’t have any illness.

There is something about having a confession and not denying. Listen, there’s some stuff about me I just need you to know. I’m probably not qualified to be up here. I’m probably not qualified to do this job. I’m probably not qualified to be able to pray. I’m probably not qualified to be in the church, but that doesn’t matter. I’m not gonna deny that stuff. I have a different confession, though. I’m not gonna deny it. I’ve got stuff, and I know everybody in here’s going, “What are you doing then?” I don’t know. Man, I was just thinking right there, I’m thinking, “Why don’t I start listing stuff off?”

I don’t know. Listen, I got a short fuse. In fact, when I walk into the church, it’s the grace of God. I’ve had five to six things happen in this church that I walked out of them going, “That was the Holy Ghost, that I did not just tell that guy off.” And at least half of them have happened in this room. I’m telling you, sometimes I have a short fuse. I’m not a patient person. I like to be alone. I like to isolate. I hide. There’s a lot of stuff about me, man, I don’t know. I got a low tolerance level. So when you feel the love of your pastor, that’s not me, that’s Jesus.

Amen. That’s grace upon grace. Amen. Hallelujah. And I really do, one of the most shocking things coming here is to find out I love you people incredibly deeply, but I know that’s not me. That doesn’t come from me. I got some stuff that just… I got stuff. Everybody got stuff, though. I don’t deny it. I’ve got a confessional word. There’s some of you in here that you know the thing that disqualifies you. So what? You’ve got a confession of the Word. You don’t have to act like it doesn’t exist. You don’t have to pretend like it doesn’t exist. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the veil that was over Moses’ face.

One of the things we didn’t talk about, there’s a lot to unpack in that 2 Corinthians chapter 3, is one of the reasons that Moses wore the veil is to hide that the glory was fading. See, Moses wore the veil so nobody’d catch on that it wasn’t as good as he had made it sound. We walk around in churches all the time, and you know why people get so upset about hypocrites in church? It’s ‘cause it’s like once in a blue moon, people’s veil falls off, and we find out, oh, everybody’s not perfect in there. Under what notion did we start coming to church and think we’ve gotta have it all together?

I need some screwed up people in this church who need God to intervene in their life. Lord knows you perfect people aren’t good for testimonies. Imagine that fundraising video. Hey, we’re asking you to sow seed today. Our people don’t need it. They’ve pretty well got it together. Amen. Praise the Lord. Verse 22 says that it asks this question. It says, “What do you say about yourself?” I’d ask you today to evaluate this. I’m gonna give you some things today, but what do you say about yourself? What do you say about yourself? In verse 23, we find out that John the Baptist answers and he says, “I am the one who the prophet Isaiah talked about.”

I’m the one who the prophet Isaiah talked about. And you gotta find a confession in the Word. You have to find a confession in the Word that speaks of who you really are. For instance, I can tell you right now, I am one like Psalm, I think it’s Psalm 92. Now, Psalm 92 says that I am planted in the house of the Lord, and I flourish in the courts of my God. You just have to find a confession of who you are. Don’t deny what’s going on, but you gotta find a confession. But John did something that’s very interesting considering he’s a typology of the old covenant.

This is crazy. He looks back to Isaiah, and somehow pulls out a confession of how Jesus Christ relates to him. Your confession should always be anchored in how Jesus Christ relates to you. It’s easy to have any confession you want from the scripture and to speak and believe things over yourself that come from the Bible, but specifically, how does Jesus Christ relate to you? I get that God so loved the world. How does Jesus relate to you? I get that it’s for everybody. How does it relate to you? I know Hebrews says that He died once for all, but how does He relate to you?

You’ve gotta get a confession over what Jesus has done for you. You talking about a testimony? No, I’m talking about what the Bible says. You don’t have to have a prayer breakthrough. You don’t have to have a healing testimony. You don’t have to have a deliverance testimony. What does the Bible say about what Jesus did for you? And guess what? You start doing that, you’ll probably have a healing testimony and a breakthrough testimony and a deliverance testimony and a… Hey, you’ll probably have a financial testimony. You’re gonna have all the testimonies.

Those of you who are single are gonna find good-looking women, amen. There should’ve been some teenage boy who just claimed that as his own right there. Hallelujah. I can pray for you. I got that anointing. Hallelujah. So you gotta find that specific thing.

38:41Neither, nor: one who comes after me

Let’s go on to 24. Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” And John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one who you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

These things took place in Bethany across from the Jordan where John was baptizing. Means it happened at a real place, at a real time, in a real situation, when he was really actually doing the stuff he was called to do. And they come to him, and they say this. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard something like this. They said, “If you are not, neither, nor. If you’re neither John or if you’re neither Elijah, nor the prophet, nor the Messiah.” If you’re not this, and you’re not that, I’m telling you, your life is gonna be a confrontation of everything that you’re not.

You’re gonna step up to do stuff, and you’re gonna constantly find out what you aren’t. You’re gonna go to start a business, and you’re gonna be selling little bracelets, and you’re gonna find out, I can make a heck of a bracelet, but I can’t do accounting. QuickBooks freaks me out. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Some of y’all are gonna go make $25 a week doing something, and you’re gonna be freaked out. What am I gonna do about taxes? Why? Because everything will come and hit you in the face when you start to do something. Everything you feel like you’re not or you know that you’re not is gonna show up.

You’re gonna hear, “Well, you’re neither this nor this.” I don’t know, man. You know, preachers get funny. I’m funny like this. I don’t like my preaching voice. I don’t like my singing voice. I don’t like any of those things. Well, guess what? I’m having a lot of fruit out of my preaching and my singing. So if I’m a person who’s sitting around going, “Well, you don’t sing good. You don’t preach good. It doesn’t look good on camera. It doesn’t sound good on camera. You’re neither this nor this, nor this, nor this.” And if you’re constantly doing that, there’s no fruitfulness in your life because that’s all condemnation.

That’s all it is. That’s all it is. So he says to him, these guys come to him, and they say, “Well, you’re neither this. You’re nor this. You’re nor this. You’re none of these things.” And he says this. He said, John answered them, “I baptize with water.” This is what I do. I baptize with water. This is all I do. Yeah, I’m pastoring this church right now. Yeah, I sing. Yeah, I preach. This is what I do. But there is one who is coming who you don’t even know about yet. And he’ll baptize you with fire and the Holy Ghost. I’m talking about you’ve gotta look at every obstacle that comes in your way.

You’ve gotta look at everything that speaks down to you. You say, “Well, I don’t have anybody who’s doing that.” If you don’t have anybody who’s doing it, you’re doing it. Yeah. You’re looking in the mirror and you’re saying, “I’m not good enough. I’m not skinny enough. I’m not big enough. I’m not thick enough. I look funny in clothes. I’m too tall. I’m too short. I can’t do this. I can’t do that. If I just had…” And this is the one, “If I just had what this other person has.” And little do you know that they’re living in torment through this stuff, too.

Amen? Everybody’s having to muster it up and get up there. I hear guys talk about it all the time, preaching 20, 30, 40 years. They go, “I get nervous every time I do it.” And I’m like, “Man, I’m too busy to get nervous.” But you get nervous. World-class preachers get nervous stepping into the pulpit because they go, “What if this is the one that just doesn’t work?” Well, what if it’s the one that does work, honey? What if it’s the one that takes off? I don’t know if I want to start this business. What if it doesn’t work? What if it does work? What if you’re the one that turns around the economy in Saraland?

What if they don’t have enough warehouses in North Mobile to fill up your vision? Come on, somebody ought to shout in this place. I’m talking about what if it works out? I want to start a lawnmower company where I go out and cut people’s grass. You can tell the country’s coming out when I preach. I want to start a lawnmower company. I want to start a lawn business. Amen. I want to start a lawn business. And I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know. I have a lawnmower, but I don’t have a lot of equipment. I don’t know a lot of people. I don’t know anything about running a business.

How do I invoice? I don’t know. Why don’t you just go ask your six neighbors that live closest to your house, “Hey, for $30 a month, can I just cut your grass?” And then at least you got something. Well, why would I go do that? So you did something. You don’t have to talk about everything you can’t do. I’m telling you, baby, there is one that you can look towards who will baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. Ho. There is one. There is one. You’ve gotta use the confession that you get from the Word against every accusation that is thrown against you. And there’s an accusation that’s coming that says you’re not good enough to pray.

That’s why I’m preaching these four weeks is this moment. There’s an accusation that says you’re not good enough to pray, you’re not good enough to come to God, you’re not good enough to ask God for what you want, you’re not holy enough, you’re not righteous enough, you don’t serve enough, you don’t give enough. Whatever that is, there’s a word that’s on you that you’ve claimed as your own. You’ve claimed some condemnation disqualifying word. But I’m telling you, don’t look at me. Look, this is what I do. Yes, I’m the one that prays, but this, what I’m doing in the prayer time isn’t all that significant because there is one whose sandals I’m unworthy to untie.

There’s another. There’s another. I’m not in here by myself. I’m in here, and I’ve got the Lord Jesus’ credit card. Look, I took the ID badge off of the Messiah and I snuck in here, but I’ve got the right to be here because I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got it because there’s another. It’s not just me. There’s another, Holly I’ll tell you, I’ve been feeling this as the preacher. That’s why a couple of these have come up this week. Man, I’m just telling you, I’m getting to this place where I’m like, I’m living in a kinda two dynamics right now. You know, we’re coming up to Vision Sunday.

I’ll probably say this again, or just our vision for 2027, and there’s part of me that I’m telling you, I think I’ve given the church about everything Jason Mayfield has got. And I’m glad we got the curtains that change color. But those aren’t gonna take us from here to where God has called us. Listen, I’ve poured myself out as much as I can into this church. And I’m glad that we’ve seen something, but I’m also glad that you ain’t seen nothing yet. Amen. Something’s about to happen. Do you feel something happening in the church? You say, “I don’t know if I feel it or you’re just screaming at me,” but one of the two.

Amen. There’s something happening. There’s a stirring and there’s more coming, but I’m telling you, it’s not gonna come out of my own strength. It’s not gonna come off of my own back. I can sing a little bit, I can preach a little bit, I can program the lights. I’ll be honest with you, outside of that, I don’t know anything. I am limited. I am limited. I am limited. And I can look in the mirror every day and I feel this way. I can go, “I’m limited. I’m limited.” And then I’m talking to all these preachers ‘cause it’s funny how you try to look for the answer in all the other places, amen.

And so I’m talking to preachers all the time right now, and I’m saying, “Hey, I’m thinking about doing this. I’m processing this. I’m thinking about this.” And basically every preacher I’ve talked to has told me basically that everything I wanna do is wrong, and that it’s gonna destroy the church, and that I ought to do it this other way. There is no sensibility in me that operates the way they’re telling me to operate. They’re telling me to do things that… And it’s working for them. God bless it. And so I’m kinda up against this place where I’ve given everything I can give, and everything that takes us to the next level requires me to be a different human being.

But God has called me in this situation and in this season. So I’m up against a wall now where I have to say, “Okay, well, I can just keep getting better. I can keep changing. I can reverse my whole strategy. I can become a totally different person. Or I can baptize in water. But there’s one whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie, and he’s gonna baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. There’s a source outside of myself that I can call on, I can access. And yeah, I may not be enough. I may not be enough, but I’m willing to say, “God, what can you do in this situation?”

And I’m not talking about the church right now. I don’t know if you can hear it. I’m talking about you. There is something in your life, disqualification has flooded in on you. Condemnation has flooded in on you, and you’ve got it together today. You look like you’ve got it fine today. Honey, I’m here to tell you, you need a grace confession. You need to speak the Word over yourself until you believe it. And so I’m gonna give you some things to say over yourself today.

47:27The next day

Verse 29 says this. Remember, John, his confession was the Word. His confession pointed to Jesus.

His confession pointed to the finished work of Christ, one that comes after him. And then it says this in verse 29. It says, “The next day.” Somebody say, “The next day.” The next day. The next day. I’m talking about the next day. I’m not talking about next year. I’m not talking about next decade. Man, I’m kinda getting ready to have some impatient faith. I’m tired of waiting. I just kinda wanna start, even in my own situation here, I wanna walk in and be floored. I wanna open my bank account and be floored. I wanna have people show up, and I go, “Where did this person come from?”

I wanna walk in the church and go, “Man, these three people look like the people that I wrote down on a piece of paper I wanted to see come into the church.” I just wanna start to see something. I wanna see God move in a powerful way. I’m talking about the next day, though. I’m not talking about in 20 years at my retirement party, I don’t want people going, “Oh, my gosh, Jason Mayfield, after 20 years, he got the church up to 600.” No, I want people to be going, “Man, Jason Mayfield was there for two years, and the church was running 2,000 people. Where in the world did this guy come from?”

Because it’s not me, it’s the Lord. I want some next day breakthrough. Somebody say, “The next day.” The next day. The next day. Hallelujah. I’m talking about the church ‘cause that’s what I’m living. I hope you’re catching what I’m dropping. Picking up what I’m putting down. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him. He saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me.’” Listen, I want you to hear this.

Your confession will produce. I’m gonna give you some stuff to start speaking over yourself and declaring the word over yourself, but I need you to hear this. I’m giving it to you because it will work, not because it might work. I’m not handing out any little halfway promises that cover my behind if things don’t happen in your life. I don’t care for that stuff. I’m just gonna put it on the Lord, and the Lord can deal with it between you and him. Amen. So I’m gonna tell you this works. It works. This will work. It will produce in your life. If you take these things, you will see Jesus the next day in your life.

And maybe it’s not the next day. Maybe it’s the next 20 minutes. Maybe it’s the next hour. Maybe it is next week. Maybe there’s some things that have to get worked out for you to step into whatever you wanna step in, but I’m telling you it works. It works. It works. It works in Jesus’ mighty name. You will see Jesus at work in your future. So this morning I have five or six confessions I wanna share with you. I wanna see your phones out. I wanna see you popping pictures. Write fast. Do what you gotta do. You need to get these confessions. We’re gonna find a way to publish them for you in the future.

If you tap your phone on the seat back in front of you and look at the sermon notes, they’re written down in there. These are things that every day, as dumb as this sounds, I get it. I’ve been in this thing long enough to go, “That preach is good, but would you really do that?” Yes. This is stuff you ought to do. This is how you pray. So when you get into the prayer place and you say, “Our Father,” that is your trigger to start confessing these things over your life before you go any further.

50:43Grace confessions for prayer

Let me see these confessions real quick. The first one is this.

This is my all-time go-to. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I’m not the righteousness of God in myself, not in my own behavior, not in my own doing. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ. Because I’m in him, I am righteous enough to pray and to get before the Lord. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ. The second one is this. God has already given me more than anything I will ask him for. The Bible says in Romans chapter 8 verse 32, “If He did not withhold His Son, how will He not also with Him freely give you all things?” There’s another version of the Bible that says, “Graciously give you all things.”

I’m telling you right now, when you go to the Lord, don’t hinder down and stamp down and press down your request before the Lord. Make your request known to the Lord. Don’t go in there and say, “Well, Lord, I need transportation,” when you need a car. If you don’t have a car, you don’t need transportation. God, I need a vehicle in Jesus’ name, and I’m declaring that there will be some way made through the finished work of Jesus Christ ‘cause I am the righteousness of God in Christ and I already know that nothing I’m asking you for is bigger than anything you’ve already given me.

So just go ahead and ask Him for it. I need a new job. God, I need a new job with a $25,000 a month raise. Ooh, hey, a month. Sorry, some of my money from the master’s hand coming out up here. I’m sorry, I apologize. All right, here we go. The next one. Nothing I will do today is more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ. This works two ways, my friends. There is nothing that you do that’s gonna produce in your life more than the finished work of Jesus Christ. Well, the finished work of Jesus Christ is your ace in the hole. I’m telling you, it is your trump card you pull out, you throw it down.

It will take care of business. The other side of that is, though, too, is there is nothing that you’re gonna fail at today that is more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ. It’s like we try to be as good as we can to make God happy with us. When that doesn’t work, but then we think, “Man, if I mess up a little bit, God’s gonna be angry with me, and I gotta start back at zero.” No, there’s nothing you will do today that is more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ. The next one. Everything I’m not, Christ is in me. Yeah, you’ve got some insufficiencies.

You’ve got some things you can’t do. You’ve got some ways you can’t show up. You’ve got some areas where you aren’t everything you need to be, but guess what? Jesus is that in you. The Bible says in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He,” the Holy Ghost that’s in me, “than he that is in the world.” You have overcoming power in every situation in Jesus’ name. Next, Jesus has made up the difference between who I am and what I do. Romans 8:1. Coming out of Romans 7 where Paul is talking about all this frustration he has with every little character trait that isn’t quite as godly as it ought to be that’s coming out in him, talking about his own covetousness and talking about every time he tries to do better, he ends up doing worse.

He comes into Romans chapter 8, and he says, “But thanks be to God because there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Hallelujah. He makes up the difference. This is a good one. I’m worthy, qualified, and significant enough to experience more in life because I am in Christ. I am worthy, I’m qualified, I’m significant enough to experience more in life because I’m in Christ. Now, somebody will go, “That’s just New Age affirmations.” No, honey, that is the Word of God working on your behalf. Amen. Because you need the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness, and Romans 5:17 says when you get those things, you will reign in life.

And I don’t know what reigning in life is, but it sounds a lot like experiencing more in life because I am in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. So you take these things. Here’s the handlebars. This is how you’re gonna use it. Even if you don’t pray anything else but this stuff, you’d probably be doing really good. So you take these things, and you go into the prayer place. You read your Bible. You do your little Bible reading plan. You spend 27 minutes with Jesus. We’re gonna talk about that in the next few weeks. Gonna blow your mind if you haven’t heard about it.

And so you go to the prayer place, and you get done, you get ready, and you say, “Okay. Our Father,” not just Jesus’ Father, not just their Father, our Father, our, He’s my Father, our Father. Today, I’m the righteousness of God in Christ. Not of my own doing, not of my own being, not of my own actions, not of my own self. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ. God has already given me more than anything I’m about to ask for in the next few moments. As I spend this time standing before the Lord, there is nothing I will ask him that exceeds what he’s already given me.

Nothing I will do today is more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ. There is nothing I can go do that will outrun the power of this moment and the finished work of Christ. There is nothing that I will go and do that will undo the power of this moment and the finished work of Jesus Christ. Everything I’m not, he is in me. Everything I’m not, Jesus is in me. Everything that I’m not, the Holy Ghost is in me today. I know I have areas where I don’t live up. I’m not depending on all my areas. I’m depending on the power of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus has made up the difference between who I am and what I do. I know there are gonna be areas where I’m gonna mess up today, where I’m gonna say the wrong thing in a meeting, or I’m gonna say the wrong thing to my family, but Jesus Christ is the difference maker in all of those situations. And because I’m in Christ, I’m worthy, I’m qualified, and I’m significant enough to experience more in life. Everything I’m gonna proceed to talk to the Lord about in this prayer time, I am worthy to receive, I’m significant enough to receive because Jesus Christ has made me such.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And that’s what I’m gonna come back to in a few weeks, and we’re gonna start to talk about the hallowed be thy name and the power of the name of the Lord. The Bible says that the name of the Lord is a strong tower that the righteous run into and are safe. But when you take these confessions and you make them your own, and you… I know that sounds crazy, but how’s your prayer life looking right now? So take it. Try it, and you take these confessions and you use them. And as you say these things, it positions you to take a posture that the writer of Hebrews tells us to do.

He says, “Come boldly before the throne of grace in your time of need.” And so as you get ready to go before the throne of God in prayer and ask of the Lord, to make request of the Lord, to beseech the hand of the Lord, as you walk into that moment, you make these confessions. And you know what they do? They give you a boldness to step into the throne room like you belong there and to make your request known of the Lord and not come in there and grovel like you don’t belong and be laying on the ground and acting weird and the whole courts of heaven are going, “What is that guy doing?”

But you come in there and you do, and this is what I used to call it. I used to go out and walk the beach every morning, and this is what I called it doing business with the Lord. And you go in there and you’re prepared. Now I can do business with the Lord, in Jesus’ name. If you receive the word today, give the Lord a good hand clap of praise. Hallelujah.