You are invited to stop striving in your own strength and instead rest in the completed work of Christ. By choosing to sit in His finished grace today, you allow His nature to flow through you naturally. Start your spiritual journey by trusting Him to carry your weight rather than walking on your own.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
*Christianity* starts by "sitting down". Welcome to our Real Church online stream. My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the pastor at Real Church. And you guys, the church body, make it fun to for me to be your pastor.
And if this is your first time watching our online stream, I guarantee that you will walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Today, we're starting a new series. We're gonna be going through the book of Ephesians, and we're gonna split it into 3 parts. Sit, walk, and stand. So today, we're gonna be talking about what it means to sit in Christ, and it's vital for us to understand these things in order in order to live out the victorious Christian life that he's called us to live.
So the Christian life starts with sitting. Let me pray for you. I'm just gonna pray scripture. I pray I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and "seated him" at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above every rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in this present age, but also in the 1 to come.
*Father*, thank you. And I just ask that, Lord, it would be you speaking through me, your words. And because if it's you speaking, then everyone listening, Lord God, if they're hearing your voice, it will it will touch something in their heart, Lord. They will walk away changed for eternity, Lord God. Because when you speak, the mountains move.
When you speak, everything shifts even in our lives. So I thank you, Father. And I pray every distraction is is removed in the name of Jesus. Just every single distraction and just that that we're engaged as if we're hearing from you. In Jesus name.
Amen and amen. So once again, the Christian life starts with sitting. I wanna I wanna read 3 scriptures to you. Ephesians-1:20, and you heard part of this in the prayer. It says, he, and it's talking about God the father, exerted when he, God the father, raised Jesus Christ, the Son, from the dead and seated him, everybody say seated him.
Go ahead, you can say that, yeah. Seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. So God the Father seated Jesus, the Son, at his right hand in heavenly realms after he raised him from the dead. And then Ephesians-2 verse 6, it says, and God the Father raised us up in Christ and seated us. So say, seated us, Say, seated me.
Right? Seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. And then Ephesians-2 verses I'm a read 8 and 9. For it is by *grace* you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no 1 can boast. So going back through those 3 scriptures, what we see is the *father* raised up the son from the dead and seated him by his right side in heavenly realms.
But then, he also seat raised us up and seated us seated us by we're seated by the right hand of the father in Christ Jesus, and it's by grace, not by works. Right? This right here reveals the secret of the victorious *Christian* life. We don't begin Christianity by walking, we begin Christianity by sitting down. And Christ our Christianity itself began when the Father seated Christ by himself in the heavenly realms.
And Christianity begins for us when by faith, by I guess by faith, we see ourselves seated by the Father in Christ Jesus. The problem is, most Christians mess up here. Right? It's it's so easy in this world because we have this performance based mindset. We think, wait, I can't sit down until I walk.
I can't *rest* until I work. I can't complete a task or complete a goal with putting in all of the effort. I must begin by effort then get to the goal. Right? And naturally, that's what we think.
But Christianity is so counterintuitive because in Christianity, if we begin by trying, we get nothing. If we begin by putting all of our effort in, we miss out on everything. And the reason is because of this major principle. See, Christianity begins it doesn't begin with do. Christianity doesn't begin with do.
It begins with done. Did you hear me? Christianity doesn't begin with do. **Christianity begins with done**. And that's why in Ephesians-1:3, it says, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
Did you see that? Has blessed us. It's past tense. We must see what he has done for us in Christ Jesus. From the beginning of our life with Christ, the Father is inviting us to sit by him and enjoy the "finished work" of Christ Jesus, what he's already placed in us.
See, walking implies effort. Say that again. Walking, right, walking implies effort. But God says we're not saved by our works, but by grace, by getting what we don't deserve. So we're saved by trusting in Jesus' word, trusting in what he has done and what he has not done instead of trusting in what we do or we don't do.
And until we do that, we're really not a *Christian* Because until we do that, we're still trusting in ourselves and not in Jesus Christ. See, we must get to the point where we say, I can't save myself. I can't do it myself. But God, you save me. Apart from you, I realize I can do absolutely nothing.
See, the Christian life is based on this principle. Ready? Complete dependence on *God*. When something has been finished, only when something has been finished do are we able to sit down and to rest. So the question then is this, what does it really mean to sit down?
Think about that. Well, in order to walk, we have we we we to move forward, we carry our own weight on our legs. We carry our own weight on our own muscles. Right? We're exerting energy.
It it, over time it exhausts us and tires us out. But in order to sit down, we have to trust our weight, we have to trust what we carry to something else. We have to trust it to the chair. So we sit down and we let the chair carry our weight. We're trusting something outside of ourselves to carry our weight.
In the same way, spiritually, to spiritually sit down, we have to trust someone outside of ourselves to carry our weight, to carry our burdens, to carry our insecurities, our inadequacies, to carry our good and our bad. We have to trust him completely and totally. We have to rest all of that on Jesus. We let him carry that weight and stop carrying it ourselves. And this is a principle that God put in from the beginning of time.
Think about when God created day and night. It actually doesn't say he created day and night, it says he created evening and morning. And in the Hebrew calendar, when they start a day, they start it from when the sun goes down, they start it from the evening. Why? Because man is created to work from *rest*.
And then, also think about the 7 days or 6 days of creation. *God* created and he worked hardcore, you know, doing all of this that we see for 6 days. He worked, but then on the seventh day, he rested. It's called the Sabbath day, the seventh day. When did he create man?
Well, God created man on the sixth day. So God works and then he rests. God's seventh day was man's first day. God's finished work, his day of rest, was man's first day. Man started from God's rest.
We are created from the beginning to start from *God*'s *rest*. It's because of God's work that we can begin in God's rest. Let's look at *John-5* and verse 17. It says this, and this is Jesus speaking. It says, Jesus said to them, my father is always at work and to this very day, or I'm sorry, my father is always at work to this very day and I too am working.
So God the father was at work causing his plan to happen. Jesus, the Son, was at work causing his plan to happen. But then there came a day when Jesus finished all of the work that they had planned on the cross. Jesus nailed to the cross the very last words that he said was this. He said, Tetelestai, which means it has been finished.
It will continue to be finished. It is finished, and will always be finished. *Jesus* finished the work. See, God has done everything in Christ Jesus, and we simply sit in what he has done. We sit in his finished work by faith.
We must see ourselves seated with Christ. *God, remember Ephesians-2:6*, it says, God made us to sit, or God seated us with Christ. See, work is not ours but his. It's not that we work for God, but that he works for us, in us, and through us accomplishing what he wants to do in the world, and he gives us his position of rest in him. His sons finished work to his sons I'm sorry.
His son finished the work, and to us, his son, Jesus Christ says, please sit down and rest in me. The Christian life here's another principle. You ready? The Christian life continues just as it began. Not that we carry our own load throughout our life, but we trust Jesus to carry the load.
Now what I'm about to tell you is huge, like what this this next sentence is vital for you to understand for the rest of of your life, and and it's vital for you for maturity to continue to grow in him. And I don't know if I could build this up enough, which is why I'm building it up right now. So you ready? Sit on the edge of your seat, here it goes. **every new spiritual experience** you will ever have begins by accepting and sitting in what God has done for you.
Did you catch that? Every single new **spiritual experience** you will ever have begins by accepting and sitting in what God has done for you. I'm a read this to you. It says, how can I get rid, like, maybe you ask yourself this question, how can I get rid of this anxiety and fear? Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work.
How can I trust him more? Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work. How can I be more on fire for Jesus? Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work. How can I experience more revelation of him?
Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work. How can I, how can I be more effective, a more effective witness for Jesus? Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work. How can I receive more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Sit and rest in his presence, in his finished work.
Everything, every new spiritual experience as you mature, every single 1 begins by you accepting and sitting in Jesus' finished work. The Christian life is not about what you have to do in order to receive, but about what he has done and what he has already given. And I'm about to read you some verses just rapid fire. We're not even gonna put them up on the screen. Right?
But I want you to pay attention to the past tense. *Romans-6:4, you were buried with Christ. Romans-6:5, you have been united with Christ. Romans-6:7*, you have died with him and have been set free from sin. *Ephesians-2:5*, you have been or you have been made alive with Christ.
*Ephesians-2:6, you have been seated with him in heavenly realms. Ephesians-1:3*, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. This is all past tense. We have to quit trying to earn it and realize what we already have in Christ Jesus and sit down and receive by faith what God has already done. The grace he has already given us.
The grace he's already given you. And these this only comes to pass in our life when we learn to sit. Is there a time to walk? Absolutely. There's a time to walk.
See, we can't walk out this in our daily life in this world until spiritually we see ourselves as reality seated with Christ in heavenly realms. And next week, we're gonna talk about a lot more of what that means to really walk this out practically in our daily life. But once again, you can't practically walk this out until you you see what God has already done in you. It's vital. For instance, all of this is already done in Christ Jesus, And all of Christ Jesus is in you.
Because Jesus is God. Right? And God is infinite. So question, God is infinite and all of him is in you. Like, infinity divided by 2.
What is infinity divided by 2? It's not half infinity. It's still infinity. Because infinity is it's infinity. It keeps going.
It's it's endless. So then what's infinity divided by 1000? It's still infinity. What's infinity divided by how many Christians are there in the world? 2,000,000,000 claimed to be Christians, and I'm not sure how many are actually know Jesus, but let's just say 2,000,000,000.
Infinity divided by 2,000,000,000 is still infinity. That means that if you've received Jesus, you have infinity, you have all of him, all of his goodness, all of the stuff that he did on the cross, all of all of his patience, all of his kindness, all of his love, all of his self control, all of him inside of you already, you already have of every spiritual blessing at your fingertips. What if we sat in his presence and realized that we're in him and he's in us, all of him? So we have to see this with spiritual eyes. We have to.
In 1 Corinthians-1:30, it says this, it is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. It's not our work, it's God. God put us there. We believe it and receive it by faith. For instance, if I were to let's see.
Is give me 1 second. I'm gonna get a piece of a piece of paper. I'll be right back. Perfect. Had to get a something off off, offset for for this analogy.
So this piece of paper right here, you see it? Piece of paper. Okay? All of us are in Christ Jesus. Right?
So this this is what it's showing. If I put this piece of paper in this Bible. Right? You see it for a little bit, but now it's in the bible. Now all you see is the bible, you don't see the piece of paper any longer.
Right? Now if I were to burn the bible, not saying you should burn a Bible. Right? But if I were to burn the Bible, then the Bible itself would turn to ash. What would happen to the paper?
The paper would turn to ash as well. Right? The history of the paper has become the history of the Bible. The present of the paper has become the present of the Bible. And the future of the paper has become the future of the Bible because the paper is found in the Bible.
In the same way, we are in Christ Jesus. Jesus' past has become our past when, as far as the Father is concerned, when he sees us. He sees the past of Jesus, the goodness of Jesus and not us. When he looks at us right now, he sees our right standing with him. When he looks at us in the future, he sees a bright future because he sees all of the potential of Jesus in us waiting to get out.
We can't overcome sin by our own strength. And we can't overcome sin by our own strength either before we become a Christian or after we become a Christian. We might think that we, you know, we we we can and we might think that we can put our effort in, but really it's just the the sin is changing forms. It's only by Jesus' strength and trusting in him, sitting in him, that we can stop sinning in our daily life. Let me give you an example, because this happens to all of us.
Let's say your boss or your friend or enemy or your spouse or whatever, even your kid, they start screaming at you and belittling you and and yelling at you and and joking about you in front of other people to make you feel bad and make themselves feel feel good about themselves. And and, you know, instantly as a good Christian, you you feel this anger rising up in you and you want to lash back out, but you know that you shouldn't. So you you clench your teeth together, you purse your you you you you keep your lips together, you you kinda tense up a little bit and and you try with everything inside of you not to to say anything and and maybe you you you don't. Right? Maybe the the the situation passes and you kinda feel good about yourself because you made yourself be kind.
But really, the resentment for what they did is still there. You might have squashed the outward thing, but inwardly, the resentment is still there. By your own strength, it is impossible for you to not sin. What's the problem? The problem is you tried to walk before sitting down in Christ Jesus.
Maybe I can give you another example to kinda explain what I mean. Most of us are most of you watching, and and maybe we have people around the world watching. So translate this analogy into your language, but most of us watching, we we're American. Right? And 99% of us, when we're born, and grow up, we learn English naturally.
So now that when we speak when we speak English, we don't have to think about it. It's just natural. It's part of who we are. It just comes out. But if we try to learn another language, it takes a lot of effort to to get that language out and it's really hard.
We have to try to translate it and and work at it because English is natural for us. If we try to learn Chinese, it's almost impossible. We can do it, it is possible, but it takes a lot of work. Well, in in in a similar way, for us, right, we at first, we grow up in this world and and and we try to work at at not sinning, but we can't because it's not natural for us. It's natural for us to sin.
We have a sin nature. But then we're born again and Jesus enters into us. And and in John-1 it says, we've been born of God. We have God's nature. So if we try by effort to stop sinning, we're still focused on us.
But if we realize, we sit, we realize, wait, I have all of Christ Jesus in us, then we will not sin naturally because we're letting what's in us, our new nature, Jesus, flow out of us. Let me show you what I mean, what what it looks like. Let's go back to that example of screaming and hollering. Person screaming and hollering at you. You're walking into this situation and you know you're gonna be frustrated.
There's already a little resentment in there from what has happened in the past. So you pray, God, I can't do this. I can't respond in kindness. I can't love this person. Or even in the middle of it, as they're screaming at you, you immediately go back to your relationship with your father.
They're screaming at you and you start to try, you're like, wait, God, I can't. I realize that I can't be kind to this person. I can't love them in the way that you want me to love them. So would you love them through me? I need your grace right now.
And then you just sit down, spiritually speaking. And you realize when all of it is said and done, all of a sudden, you love them with a love deeper than you could have tried to do, with an effort that seemed effortless because it was God through you. You walk away from the situation a little bit dumbfounded. How did that happen? And you realize it was grace getting what you don't deserve.
It was mercy not getting what you do deserve. Yeah. I mean, because usually by our effort we do this. But when God, when we sit in his presence and let him work out of us and work through us, all of a sudden, we're exhibiting his nature through us. We're exhibiting Jesus Christ, and it's his love and his kindness.
When we understand whose we are, when we sit in his presence, we're able to do naturally what we should do because it's him doing it in and through us. Growing as a Christian always begins by sitting and not by walking. See, we have to understand that Jesus has worked all of himself into us, and then we work it out in our daily life by believing. *God* is waiting for you to sit down. When you quit trying to take care of your own sin, God will take care of it for you.
Let me let me let me give you another example. As a lifeguard, I don't know if you've been a lifeguard, but as a lifeguard, you're trained to to save drowning people. Now, if you have a grown man that's drowning, it would be dumb to jump in and try to save him, because in his fear, he doesn't trust anything. Even though you're trying to save him, he's going to pull you under and try to drown you. So there's only 2 ways to save a drowning man.
Number 1 is you hit him over the head, knock him out, and pull him to shore. Number 2, is you have to wait until he stops flailing, he stops, and he tires himself out to where he has no strength left and the only things that he can do is either sink or let you carry him in. Right? And so when he finally gives up, that's when you jump in and you save him and pull him to shore. In the same way, spiritually speaking, God is waiting for you to stop flailing and stop trying by your own effort to give up and let God pull you to shore.
Let him save you. Principle, every new spiritual experience begins by not by doing, but by sitting in what God has done. I'm gonna I'm gonna say it a little different way. Every new spiritual experience begins not by working, but by resting in Jesus' finished work. Every step forward of growth in Christ Jesus begins not by doing, once again, but by sitting in what God has done.
So let's learn to sit in the finished work of *Jesus* so that we can walk forward in this world representing him in every aspect of our life.
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