This past Sunday at Haven of Hope will go down as one of my favorite Sundays ever!! It was one of my favorite message that I’ve ever heard Pastor Jonathan preach! Even more powerful is that the word that he brought causes people to spring to action and seek healing from harmful mindsets regarding righteousness.
The word “Righteousness” is basically a government term that means to be in right standing with the authorities.
In the beginning, Adam and Even were in right standing with God; however, through sin/disobedience, they lost their identity and lose their right-standing with God – therefore becoming unrighteous.
Ever since that time, man has done everything that they could to become righteous again. God wanted to show man that through their own power, they’d never be able to be righteous. As we review the 10 commandments, all the feasts, and the 613 commandments found in the Old Testament, we see that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to actually do it all perfect and be righteous.
On our own, we CAN’T be righteous. We CAN’T do ANYTHING to EARN it! The kicker is that, even though Jesus came to be our righteousness and justify us, we STILL live in the mindset of the law that says “I can earn this…if I just prayed enough..if I just fasted enough…if I just followed this rule or that rule better….I could MAYBE become righteous. Jesus came on the scene and messed all that up.
Galatians 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believe in Jesus Christ, that we miht be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law…”
Galatians 2:21 “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain”
If someone came into our home and told us that what Christ did on the cross for us was useless, unnecessary, and accomplished nothing, I’d be taking part in an impromptu Holy Ghost beatdown!
YET…when you and I live our lives with the thought that what we DO can earn our righteousness, we frustrate the grace of God and act as though His death was in vain. Our righteousness is like “filthy rags”, but He is our hope.
As soon as the message was done, we had a tremendous time of healing! Everyone came forward and told God that we wanted to trust in HIS righteousness in our lives. We asked that the law would be dead, but that we would be alive in Christ! Awesome..that never gets old to see new people seeking God, enjoying His presence, and receiving physical, emotional, mental, etc. healing from harmful mindsets.
Embrace grace. Trust in His righteousness. Go kick some devil butt.
If you are interested in buying a copy of this week’s audio CD, please contact Jonathan Jaynes at jonatikon@yahoo.com.
