Beth Moore - Redefine
Now I wanna show you these are my three most recent Bibles and to tell you where I got the theme, you've got to know that I have a brand new Bible. Now, this is the one just prior to it, and this is the one just prior to it. And before this, there were a couple that I had that have been given to my daughters. Now let me tell you a little bit of the history here because I didn't even think this was odd but on my birthday last week, I tweeted a picture of me and my brand new Bible and I said, "This will be my dearest earthly possession for about the next six years".
And I did not think about how oddly that would come across until people just began asking all over Twitter, "Why six years? Why six years? Why have you set a time limit on it"? And I found it so interesting. I thought, "You know what"? I started to try to answer it but I knew it would take several posts to do it and then I thought, "Well, I might write a blog post on it," and then I thought, "No, no, no, no, I have to believe that this was chosen, this setting, for exactly this time. I always believe it's significant". And what I'm gonna do instead is that I'm gonna make it part of the lesson and I'm gonna tell you why I do that. Because just in case to anybody in this room, this is of any help whatsoever, just listen to this through with me and see if this lands anywhere.
Now, what they all have in common is that in the front of them I always write a letter to God. You'd find it right here, you'd find another one here, and you'd find another one here. It's the very first thing I do when I get a new Bible: I write to him. I dedicate my years that I'll spend in it to him. I ask him for all sorts of things. I mean, all sorts of things. I mean, I want him to thrill me with these words, thrill me with these words. So I mean, it's just like asking a lot. Every single one of them. And so here's how it's gone. It's this one which is my oldest one that I brought with me. The prior ones from that are in the hands of my girls and this particular one was one that I started using on December 15 of 2004 and I used it all the way 'til October 12 of 2011.
So roughly about seven years. This was my previous Bible that I have used just up until the 15th of June when I got this on the 16th. So I went right from this one to this one. Now, I gotta show you something because I think this is so interesting. I don't know if you can tell it 'cause I think this one got a little smashed down in my luggage. But do you know what's interesting here? From here to here, something huge happened and any of you who are young teachers know what I'm talking about. Because in the time that I spent in this Bible, something marvelous happened and it was called "Bible software". So in the time I spent in this Bible, every Scripture I look up, I was doing in a hard copy.
During this Bible, I always had it open on my desk, but I did not look up every single one of them. Why? Because I'm bringing it up on my screen. I can bring up seven different translations over in the margin of my Bible software. So, and I thought it was kind of tragic. So what I'm trying to do now is that every time I do something on my Bible software, I'm trying to do it here too because I thought, "There's just something lost there when you're not"... I just think that heaven and earth has to just crack wide open when you open up your Bible. Maybe that's weird but it works for me. Anybody? Anybody?
So this was going on while I was in this particular Bible and here were just a few things. Kept writing Bible studies. I used this one from October 13 of 2011 to June 15, 2017, and during this period of time, one of the things that would be tearstained on this Bible is that both of my daughters, both of my daughters went through tremendously traumatic events that caused great, great sorrow and mourning in our family. Many, many tears. Ravines of tears, floods of tears, poured forth in this particular Bible.
God unmistakably, during this particular period of time, called me to start being very deliberate about sowing seeds of his Word in other fields. I didn't have to give up the fields that were so precious to me but that I'd have to throw the doors wide open and what he really placed upon my heart was the more different the better, to start saying yes, to start nodding your head yes. And if people don't understand it, you'll know that you're obeying me, you go where I send you, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what it's like. It doesn't matter what they believe. You take what you believe to be true out of my Word and you take it there and do what I told you to do.
And so that became a big part of the journey in this particular Bible. I can also tell you that God taught me and he is still teaching me tremendous patience through criticism and when to keep my mouth shut and not feel the need to take up for myself. Does anybody relate with that one? And because it is my nature to say, "Let me explain". But when you finally get to where you realize they do not want an explanation, they want this to be true and for God to just go, "You know what? I'm hearing this when I want to hear this. Shut your mouth. I tell you what, Beth," anybody know? Anybody know what I'm about to say? "You can either take up for you or I can". Somebody need to hear that in this house. Somebody need to hear it.
Now, the reason why that lesson is still very much in process is because sometimes I keep my mouth shut better than other times. I know that somebody verbose in here can understand that. This is an ongoing lesson that I don't always pass. He has delivered me from a ton of fear and put fresh boldness in me in this particular book. I tell you, the mystery and the miracle that often happens when we realize that we've got so much disapproval. Let me tell you what good can happen 'cause many of you are going through this in whatever sphere of life and influence you may have. The one really good thing that comes out of it is that you begin to start getting immune to the need for approval because you know it's fickle when it could turn on you in a dime. Anybody?
And so it starts to do a really wonderful thing because it starts to help us break our addiction from people approval which is toxic. God makes very, very clear in his Word in Galatians 1:10, you can either serve man or you can serve God but you will not be able to serve both of them. He said you can either serve money or you can serve me but you're not gonna be able to serve both of them. So we choose because whoever we seek approval from, that is our master. That is our master. And we really only want one master and that is God. During this period of time, God moved Keith and I to the country and after two grandchildren had been born during this segment of time, our third grandchild, a wonderful surprise to us, was born in this segment of time. Many precious things happened there. And then just a few days ago, this one. Isn't it gorgeous?
See, I always wonder when I start in a brand new Bible, what in the world will I experience while I'm poring over this Bible. While I'm pouring my coffee on it accidentally, getting peanut butter on it from all the times I eat peanut butter in a hotel room while I'm studying for an event. How many tears? I don't want to be morose when I say this. What funerals will I attend? How many births and celebrations will take place in the course of my time in the Scriptures? What adventure is waiting for me in these unfurrowed pages? Because this is what I've come to say to you.
There is no tangible thing in your life more thrilling, more exhilarating, bewildering, sustaining, rearranging, challenging, comforting, pride-killing, troubling, hair-raising, God-praising, question-raising, history-staging, future-telling, flesh-quelling, life-giving direction-lending, more packed with wisdom for all kinds of living, more world-mystifying and demon-terrifying than the Word of the living God.
That is what I can tell you, that right here somebody, somebody with me, somebody with me, right here, right here in these pages I am swept back into a world of earth, water, and sky created ex nihilo, of flawed patriarchs grappling with faith, of angels and men wrestling in the night, of a burning bush and parting seas, of clouds by day and a fire by night, of conquest and Canaan rest, of crowns and kings, of triumphs and defeats, of prophets and warnings, of idols and exiles, of tears and fears, that all is lost, then promises and prophecies that God is not finished.
Then right about here, bone-chilling silence. Four-hundred-year silence. Then the sound barrier between heaven and earth is broken by the cries of a newborn echoing from a stable and I am swept into Bethlehem and there he is, Emmanuel, God with us. Wrapped in human skin and we are suddenly whirled and twirled into a world where pathetic, pitiful flesh and blood can find eternal life. Where a small man, sitting on the limb of a tree, gets an unexpected guest. Where stones of condemnation drop unthrown at the feet of a shameful adulteress. "Neither do I condemn you," this extraordinary man says. "Now leave your life of sin".
Where the hemorrhaging are healed, where the sin-sick can find the doctor and where one sinless man's blood saves whosoever will. Where the tomb of a dead man is found empty. Where grown men gawk as the Son of God ascends into the heavens. And then the spirit falls and all bets are off. And here, right here, every follower of Jesus that follows in those first followers' footsteps find themselves on the greatest adventure available to mortals, assigned with impossible tasks.
Royals we are, with insider knowledge, who appear to the rest of the world to be crazy peasants, loons, and you can sit around bored for the rest of your life, scrolling through social media if you want. But this found girl intends to spent her days lost in this book, and not in dead ink but in living, breathing ink that you can inhale like divine CPR and in a world of the walking dead, we become the dead brought to life in Jesus Christ. Can I hear somebody say "Amen"?
I want you to hear the words and you can turn with me there because I don't think you're gonna wanna miss 'em. Turn with me to Job 23. We have not yet gotten to the reason why we have our theme for the weekend yet, but we are getting close. Job 23, verse 8: "Behold," he says, "I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, and I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him".
Anybody just got... I don't know where you are in this? I look to my right, I don't find you. I look to my left, I don't find you. I look straight ahead. For the life of me, I cannot find you. I look back behind me, I still cannot find you. But I know you're at work. I know you're at work. And listen to these words in verse 10: "But he knows the way that I take". Listen, somebody's just going, like, "God, I don't know where you are, I don't know where you are, I don't know where you are".
But here's where life comes to us. He knows where you are. You may not know where he's working but, girlfriend, I wanna promise you, based on the authority of the Word of God, your God knows where you are and he knows the way that you take. And it says, "when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside". Listen to verse 12. This is what I want you to hear: "I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food".
He'll bring you forth like gold. That's what I just kept thinking about was the edges of those gold pages. You see, not much shine in here. Not much shine in here. But here's what happens when you get you a brand new Bible and all that gold starts rubbing off those edges, every bit of it, it rubs off those edges, rubs right on you. And when you treasure his Word more than your daily portion of food, it is what... listen, I've done so much wrong. I've done so much wrong. But that very verse is why I'm in the Scriptures eating it before I ever eat a morsel in the morning, because I wanna treasure this more than my daily food because I wanna come forth as gold. When I have no idea what he's doing, I wanna come forth as gold. Does anybody know what I'm talking about today?
This is gold. This is gold to us. What's very awkward about a brand new Bible is that you don't know where anything is. You have to really teach from Genesis and Revelation because nothing is in the right place. You cannot find the Gospel of John to save your life, and Jonah may drown for all you know because there's no finding him at all. And you've forgotten there even is a Haggai but, see, that's part of it. Because I want to go into the Scripture and find comfort but I don't wanna get comfortable with the Scriptures.
I wonder if anybody is letting that land with them tonight? Why do I only wanna use one for about six or seven years? Because by the time I know how to anticipate which side of the page that particular verse is going to be on, by the time I don't even have to look at it, to turn someplace, look down, I've got it all marked, all ready to go, certain stick-notes in place, I've got it all ready right there, by the time I can do that almost by rote, I'm done. I'm done with that one. And it's time to get a brand new one because here's what I'm gonna tell you.
So, teachers, please listen up. I don't know, I'm hoping this means something, that some part of this means something to somebody, but I know, surely, that there is a teacher here that needs to hear this, because here's the thing. I push to keep the adventure in it. For me in regard to Scripture, over-familiarity is my enemy. Anybody? Over-familiarity is my enemy because it's a delusion. And it's one reason why, after years and years and years of using King James, I moved over to the NIV. Years and years and years of the NIV, I moved over to the ESV. The CSB has just come out and it is spectacular.
These formal versions are gorgeous in the Word of God but when I start being able to anticipate how a verse is going to be said, it's time for a new translation because I want my adventure, I want my adventure. Do you know one reason? Because we're getting very close to our theme for the weekend. Okay, so when I ended using my last Bible I was reading through the book of Isaiah and I was at chapter 42 on the first morning that I had my new Bible. The next day was chapter 43 and I gotta tell you something and I'm hoping they can pull in the camera a little bit tight because, you see, when I started reading this, nothing was underlined.
Well, all of the sudden, when I started reading, all of it was, like, brand new. Can you believe he said that? By the time it got to the next day and it was Isaiah 43 and I was reading along the way and it gets there to about 18 and 19 and it's a brand new Bible without a single mark in it, and it all of a sudden says: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert".
Let me tell you something. The reason it wouldn't have moved me before, I would have long since had that marked. Long since. I had that marked since the first year but it wasn't marked this time. So I pulled out my pen and I said aloud to God, "I receive that" because it was a brand spanking new word. Some of you think, "You know what? I need revival in the worst way". It might be the best news you ever heard that really what you need is a new Bible.
And I need you to know and trust I don't make any money if you get a Bible here this weekend. Not a dime. Nothing invested in it except that I'm gonna tell you that this is the greatest adventure of your life to live life on planet Earth in this post-modern day, finding life and breath of God through the Holy Spirit being revealed in these pages.
So on that morning of the 17th, after my birthday on the 16th, when early that afternoon I had been given my brand new Bible, I sat when my quiet time was over and pulled out every single one of my stick-notes. And those stick-notes had been pulled out dozens of times over those nearly six years but there's always a new stack just waiting to get stuck in this page and that and I sat there and pulled out stick-notes and cried and cried and cried like a baby.
But there was one in particular that stuck out to me and it was that one that God used to start stirring this particular theme and it says this on there: "Anybody tired of your pattern defining your person"? Anybody in the house just really tired of your pattern defining your person? Because you and I are gonna discuss what it is that defines us because if you can get down to what defines you, you will be able to discover what is motivating many, many decisions.
Part 2
Would you turn with me to the book of Ephesians and the 5th chapter. You and I are going to be quite a bit in the books of Ephesians and Colossians. The books are similar in many ways, Paul telling the churches in Ephesus and Colossae some of the very same things. Now, Ephesians is going to be two chapters longer, so obviously he has a lot more that he's gonna say to the church of Ephesus than the four chapters that you would find in the book of Colossians, but there are portions of it that we are gonna camp on that are gonna show us our theme and that are very similar between the two, but said just differently enough to be spectacular and gorgeous.
Ephesians chapter 5:8-10 that say these words, "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)". Is that gorgeous? The fruit of light, if you wanna know where is it, that I want my life to be... do you want it to be good and right and true? Because that's fruit of the light, and it says, "And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord," for at one time you were this, but now you are this.
Colossians. You're very close to it. Would you go with me now to Colossians 1, verses 21 and 22? "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him". I have to go ahead and read 23 because it just must be read. "If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister". Look back at 21. "And you, who once were this". Verse 22, "He has now this".
In Christ, we've been completely redefined. The more we realize that, the more we live out of that, because what we are most convinced defines us, is what will most motivate our decisions and most motivate the things that we do and our behaviors and our attitudes and aspects about things. It matters not just that it is true, but that we know that it is true. That we have been wholly and completely redefined.
Now, let's think about in worldly terms and in the English language what it means for something to be redefined. Okay, for instance, the word "nice". You may or may not know that the word used to mean "silly, foolish, and simple". It was not anywhere close to the compliment when we say, "She is such a nice person". That truly meant she is an idiot, so be careful if someone from this event introduces you later to someone and says, "Oh, listen. You are gonna love her. She is the nicest person".
You know. You know. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the word "silly". Well, "silly," in its earliest use, meant things that were worthy or blessed and then it sorta slid into meaning that which was weak and vulnerable and then more recently into what was purely foolish. How about "awful"? You probably know this one. Awful. Awful things used to be things that were worthy of awe. You can hear it every time you say the word. "It was just awful". That meant that I was full of awe over it. That's why there would be sayings.
If you read some of the old, old, old books of the saints in Christ you might see them refer to the awful majesty of God. They didn't mean it was terrible. They meant that it was something that would strike awe in you, the word "awful". The word "fizzle". Now, I don't know if this will make the cut to TV or not, but I just think you ought to know that the verb "fizzle" once referred to the act of producing quiet flatulence.
See, you did not know this when you came. Some of you thought, "Why have I even come this weekend"? There you go. You did not know what to call that and now you do. And American college slang flipped the word's meaning: to refer to failing at things. Meat. This is the last one. Meat meant anything solid. It did not mean animal protein. These are words that changed in definition. These are words that were, over the course of time, redefined. Now, I wanna do something. I found this interesting in my studies preparing for you. I found it interesting to just look up what the word "define" means. I would love to have just looked up "redefine," but re- just means do it again, so just define.
I wanna bring it up on the screen, and I want you to look through it a little bit with me so that you can let it lock down, because through the course of our time together parts of it are gonna jump out of that definition and into our study of the Scriptures. Look at the word that it comes from in Latin: definire from finire, which means to limit or to end. Finis is a boundary or an end, so the very virtue of the word meant to limit something into something you could somehow define. Does that make sense?
You can see it all over it: to determine or identify essential qualities or meaning of, to discover and set forth the meaning of, to fix or mark the limits of, to demarcate, to make distinct, clear, and detailed, especially in outline. And then, that third meaning: characterize or distinguish. This is all out of "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary". Define. In the Scriptures it didn't happen over time. In the moment that you were reborn in Christ and in the moment that I was reborn in Christ we were instantly, completely, and wholly redefined.
Now, I want you to do something with me. I want you to think of some words that can become defining: divorced, widowed, single, married, black, white, brown, senator, janitor, recovering alcoholic. Here is a big one: mentally ill, cancer patient, doctor, teacher, student, criminal, felon, felon. In a terribly dark and foolish time somebody here cheated on her spouse and that definition, adulteress, just keeps ringing in your head. Or let's swing on the same vine another direction, such as success.
That you define yourself by your stocks portfolio, oh, you done good, and you like your definition, and it's not good news to you tonight that that ain't it, because the Scriptures would say in the words of the apostle Paul all of that is nothing but dung compared to the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Colossians chapter 3. I wanna verses 9 through 12 to you. "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all".
In other words, none of the rest of those labels matter here. Galatians has a whole different set of labels that it says, "This is not what it's based on anymore". We are children of God, and we have been completely redefined, and it says in verse 12, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another," in love, "and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony".
Chosen. Holy. Beloved. I am chosen, I am holy, and I am beloved. Tell me three things that you are. The first one is what? The second one? And what is the third one? So, I have spent the whole week so fascinated by this, because I want you to think with me and be thinking tonight and be thinking tomorrow, think all next week, you just think about the breadth that those three words cover. Just let this sink into you. That if you got these three things, that if this became the truth about yourself from which you lived, that you knew these three things more than anything else in your life, you knew you were chosen, you knew you were holy, and you knew you were beloved, I'm gonna tell you something.
Listen, you cannot imagine what breadth that would cover, because just think about it. Do you know what chosen mean? Just think about what being chosen says to you and how at the very deepest part of us part of our innate human desire is to just be desired, to be seen and to be noticed, to be wanted, to be picked out instead of picked on. None of us just wanted Jesus to feel sorry for us and go, "Okay, you're on my team". You were the last one out there. I mean, what can he do? You're just like we, sort of, got swept in on the group pass. We wanna know that we weren't just a charity case to him, to know we were chosen.
See, this really begins to take a needle and thread to wound for every one of us in this room in one way or another, because if you've lived long enough you know what it's like to not be chosen, whether for a job, a position, something you thought, "I mean, I coulda sworn that God called me to that," by a man you were in love with. "I wasn't chosen". Listen, the Son of God who spoke the planets into orbit, who said, "Let there be light," and there was, picked you. Picked you. Billions of people on the planet. He saw you, knew you, and he picked you. Chosen.
Listen, the Son of God who spoke the planets into orbit, who said, "Let there be light," and there was, picked you. Picked you. Billions of people on the planet. He saw you, knew you, and he picked you. Chosen. Think what it means to be set apart as holy, because this is where my sanctification comes in. It's so important that it's part of our definition, because it tells me this is who I am now. The reason I don't live like I used to live is because this is who I am now. I am chosen. I am holy. That I'll be able to think about someone mistreating me, "Oh, you know what? You did not realize I'm holy. You cannot do that, because I am holy".
In the Old Testament priesthood the priests had a plaque right on their forehead, on their miter, or their priestly crown, and it said "holiness to the Lord". I would not be a bit surprised if when we get to heaven we find out that we bore a mark on our foreheads that we cannot see with our natural eyes, but the book of 2 Timothy says the Lord knows those who are his. And that we're told in the Scriptures we are sealed, and it would make perfect sense since we are the priesthood of believers in this day of the New Testament church, and we probably have a seal somewhere going "holy, holy, holy, holy". And when you're filled with temptation to do something unholy, just tap on your forehead, and the person you're being tempted with will think you are a nut and all of a sudden they will amazingly lose interest in what was unholy.
1 Peter 1:14-16, "Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the holy one who called you, become holy in all your conduct, for it is written, 'You shall be holy, because I am holy.'" It's a reminder to act like who we are. We are not common. We're extraordinary in holiness. We are beloved. Is there anything more important than that? Just beloved. Just beloved. Just beloved. There's no way to even measure the impact of being and feeling beloved or the negative impact of not. I want you to hear this, because this is what flows from it. These are the manifestations of someone who knows she or he is chosen, holy, and beloved.
Then he says and put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, see, because these things flow out of someone who knows she is chosen and holy and beloved. We will have compassion, we will want to be kind, we'll be freer with forgiveness because we know what it cost Jesus to make us holy. We'll have that meekness, which is power under authority, not weakness, and we'll have that love that bonds everything together in perfect harmony, 'cause, you see, the less we operate out of our chosenness, holiness, and belovedness the harder it is for us to be compassionate, for us to be kind, for us to be humble, to be meek and to be patient and to love. So much of our lovelessness is in our own sense of unloveliness, because you know what? Beloved people be loving. They be loving.
Number two is this: redefinition isn't just a better version of our old selves. Oh, this one is so important. Redefinition isn't just a better version of our old selves. This is part of what really drove this lesson for this weekend, because I am convinced, maybe based on my own experience and past and my own attitudes, that for most of us what we think God has done for us is that his Spirit coming to dwell in us simply made us better at who we used to be, a better version of our old selves, instead of the biblical fact that we have been made brand new. That we have been wholly redefined and not just repainted, recovered, or refurbished. No, we have been redefined. We are not just improved. We are reborn.
Somebody in the house needs to hear that. You and I are Neo-mes. Not Naomi, but Neo-me. New mes. I gotta tell you something. I did a little check-in reading on Moses, because he is exhibit A on what I'm talking about. Do you remember, if you're familiar with the story, back in Exodus chapter 3 when the Lord reveals himself to him through a burning bush that was not surprising by its burning? It was surprising by the fact that it did not consume the bush in which it was burning, so Moses goes over to it, and the Lord speaks to him.
"Take off your sandals, because this is holy ground," and he calls him. He says, "I've heard the cries of my people, Israel, and I am sending you back. You will go before the Pharaoh". Well, Moses immediately begins to argue with him and said, "They're gonna say, 'Who even sent you?'" "You tell them I am who I am. That the I Am has sent you to them". And he says the most interesting thing. He keeps arguing with him and in 4, verse 10 he says this to him, "But Moses said to the Lord, 'Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.' And then the Lord said to him, 'Who has made a man's mouth? Now you go, and I will be with your mouth'".
See, this is, I have claimed this so many, I need the Lord to be with my mouth in the worst way. You know, anybody know what I'm talking about? Because everywhere I go it's like there is two of us, there is me and then there is my mouth, and I need the Lord not to only be with me. I need the Lord to be with my mouth. He said, "'I'll be with your mouth, and I'll teach you what you shall speak.' But he said, 'Oh, Lord, please send someone else.' Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he's coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he'll be glad in his heart. And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth that I will tell you to say.'"
Moses did not need Aaron, but he had guts enough. I cannot imagine, I would have been more frightened to say this to God than to go before Pharaoh. "I couldn't speak before and even since I met you I still can't speak". That's someone in this room. You don't realize that all the things you say, "You know, I never have been able to do that," well, see, the thing of it is you've been redefined. How do you know what you can do and what you can't do? How do you know? Because here is the thing: you can do anything he calls you to do.
See, we've got this terrible fear that we're gonna mess up in front of people, and he said, "Do you know what? I am not interested in you doing it flawlessly so that everybody can be impressed with you. I'm interested in your obedience, because I'm gonna tell you something. I can enable you to do things you have not dreamed you can do".
Remember the definition to define: to limit, set a boundary around. When you and I were redefined in Christ those boundaries were mown down. You think, some of you, that when you traded the old life for the new that you had to come into a smaller space because of all the lists of. "Now I can't do this and now I can't do this and now I can't do this and now I can't do this," but I have news for you based on the authority of the Word of God this weekend. There are so many more that you can't out there in the world than there are in Christ. You have not begun to discover what you are capable of doing in the Spirit.