Gregory Dickow - The Great Exchange
Well, I want to share with you today about the great exchange. The great exchange. But before I do, I want to pray for you.
Father, I thank you for wisdom for every person. I thank you for favors surrounding every person connected here. I thank you, Father, for surrounding them like a shield with favor, with your mercy, with your grace. Father, I thank you that whoever is dealing with sickness right now would feel ease from their suffering, healing from their pain, deliverance from their sorrow, sadness, anxiety, depression. We bind all the forces of darkness coming against each and every soul connected here. And we plead the blood of Jesus over each person. And thank you, Father, that every person is coming into a days of increase, blessing, increase, favor, increase health, wellness and well-being, spirit, soul and body. In Jesus name, Amen.
Well, I want to talk to you about the great exchange and I want to begin with, a verse I shared a couple of weeks ago on Easter weekend, and it was in Philippians chapter three, verse ten, that I may know him, Paul said, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Now we focused on the power of his resurrection in the last couple of weeks. We focused on knowing him for the past couple of months. And we're going to we're going to get back to that part, knowing him. Because frankly, knowing the man, Jesus is first and foremost Jesus first, right? Then the power of everything else will start flowing in our lives. Jesus first. Jesus is the soul of it all. Jesus is the soul of it.
All right. But I want you to remember that in these three things, we have the power of knowing him, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering. I want to talk about that fellowship of his sufferings, because most believers have this wrong, and I really want you to get a hold of this. Most believers have this wrong because they don't interpret fellowship correctly, and the word for fellowship is the word koinonia. It's the Greek word koinonia, that is used here and in other places as well.
Now, the word koinonia, which comes from the word or translates into the word fellowship here, the fellowship of His sufferings. The word is used as an exchange, a form of exchange. Koinonia is where we get the word coin from. We use a coin to exchange one thing for another. And usually you use a coin to exchange one thing for the same value of the thing that you're purchasing. Usually it's a fair exchange, but in the case of Jesus death and what he gives us as a result, it isn't fair at all. It's completely slanted in our favor. And what a gift this is. And God doesn't do this accidentally, doesn't slant this in our favor. Accidentally. He slants this in our favor because he loves us so, and because he knows we could never obtain that favor in our own strength or power.
So when I talk to you about the great exchange, it's Koinonia. So when he says, I want you to understand or I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings, he's literally saying, I want to make the exchange. Whatever his sufferings paid for, I want the exchange for what those things paid for. So, for example, I'll begin to give you these. And this this might go really fast or go really slow, depending on how long it takes us for each one of these. But let me go through the exchanges that He makes with us and let's embrace the fellowship of these things. We must fellowship with the things He's exchanged. So he takes our sin.
Number one. Most important thing, He takes our sin and gives us his righteousness. Now, this is very important that you see that he exchanges our sin for his righteousness. That is a great exchange. That is a great deal for us. We give him, He takes our sin becomes sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, where he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. Now, we're not the righteousness of God in our own power or in our own religion or in our own holiness. But what Jesus is saying here, what the Bible is saying here, what God's word is telling us is go ahead in fellowship with that exchange. Go ahead and experience that exchange. Surrender the life of sin.
I don't mean that you never make mistakes. I mean embrace the fact that he made this exchange. You are no longer right with God because you're without sin, you're right with God because you've been given the gift of righteousness. The Bible says through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign in life. In this life, the Bible says. So this first exchange is what we need to fellowship with this, the fellowship of his sufferings. He suffered, becoming sin for us, so we would no longer have to be suffering the consequences of our sin. But instead we get to enjoy the righteousness of God. That is what it means to fellowship with His sufferings. I'm making an exchange, his suffering, becoming sin for me, so that I could enjoy the blessing of being the righteousness of God. Wow. That is a great exchange.
Number two, He exchanges our pain and our sorrow and our sickness, and he gives us his healing. I love what Isaiah 53, verse five says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. You see the exchange here? He's doing this for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace fell upon him. You see, he was chastised for our peace. He took the chastisement. He gives us the peace. And it says. And by his stripes, we are healed. You see, by his stripes, the whipping that he took on his back. And this is an Old Testament prophecy of what Jesus fulfilled on the cross by his stripes we're healed.
So the ultimate plan of God is not just divine healing. It's divine health. It's no longer living in the grief and sorrow of our guilt and our shame and our mistakes. And God confirms this, by the way. He confirms this for us, that it happened on the cross by giving us first Peter, chapter two, verse 22. And let me read this to you. He committed no sin. Realize that he committed no sin, but he became sin on the cross. Why? To take the suffering so that we could take the blessing and take the health. And take the salvation and the healing and the blessing. All of that. He says he committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled, He did not revile in return when he suffered. He did not utter any threats, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.
I want you to see this. It says, when he was reviled, he did not revival and revile in return. He revived in return, but didn't revile in return. You caught that. But he says when he suffered, he uttered no threats. In other words, when he suffered. He took the suffering to make an exchange with us, to exchange our pain for his healing. So he took the pain on the cross and gave us healing. What a gift. It goes on to say in verse 24, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. What a beautiful exchange.
You see, this is where we need to live. We need to live in the fellowshipping with the things that he exchanged for us to have. If we reject the gift of righteousness, we're making his suffering to be of no worth and of no value. He took the suffering, so we might as well take, he became sin for us, we might as well take this gift of righteousness and realize we've been given it and walk in the power of it and walk in the freedom of it. He takes our pain and exchanges it for his divine health and wellness, spirit, soul and body. It's not just physical pain, the emotional pain of stress or PTSD or anxiety, depression, fear, illness, chronic illness. It's an exchange he made. Take the deal. It's a good deal. Take the deal. It's a good deal. Don't give up this deal. This is a great deal.
Number three, it's tucked in the next verse here. As I was studying this, this popped out at me. He exchanges our failed leadership for his leadership and guidance in our lives, he exchanges our leadership. You know, we're not very good at leading our lives without the great shepherd. We're not very good at making it to God's destination for our lives without the guidance and without the shepherd Jesus in our lives. Watch what he says in verse 25 of this chapter. It says, For you were straying like sheep. That's how most of us were. We were straying like sheep lost. The blind leading the blind. Right. He said you were straying like sheep continually, but now you've returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.
You see, he's our shepherd. He'll lead us beside green pastures, who lead us beside still waters. He'll restore our soul. He'll guide us in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. All that's in Psalm 23. It shows his leadership, him shepherding us and leading us. He exchanges our failed leadership for his successful leadership. I love what the New Living Translation says about this verse. Once you were like sheep who wandered away, but now you have turned to your shepherd, the guardian of your souls.
Wow, I love that. And how about the new American standard version? You are continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Or this one in the message. You were lost. That ought to just nail the coffin in our own ability to save ourselves. He said you were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now, he says, you are named and kept for good by the shepherd of your souls. I love that, he says You had no idea who you were or where you were going now, though, you're named and kept for good by the shepherd of your souls. See, this is our fourth exchange here. Here is another exchange in this version. He takes our old identity. We had no idea who we were and where we were going. And he exchanges it for his identity.
Now we know we're sons and daughters of God, and now we know we're on a journey and a walk with God. Now we are sons and daughters of God. First, John 3:1 says, Behold what manner of love. Wow. Behold. What manner of love is this? That we should be called the Sons of God. And such we are because we've accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In 1 John 4:17 He tells us as He is, as Jesus is, so are we in this world. Wow. Get this He exchanges our identity with his identity. We were lost. We had no idea who we were. We had no idea where we were going. And now we know we're sons and daughters of God. And now we know we're on a walk with God for the rest of our lives and for eternity. Whew.
Number five, He exchanges our cursed condition for his blessing. He exchanges our curse condition for his blessing. You see, many of us, we have conditions in our body or in our health or in our minds that were passed down from generation to generation. People have said, they ask on insurance questions and questionnaires when you filed to get health insurance or life insurance, they ask you, who do you, does your family have a history of blood disease, heart conditions, cancer, liver disorders, etc., etc.? Why do they ask that? Because they know it's passed down genetically from generation to generation. And those are things are all listed in the Bible as curses Because of Adam and Eve's sin, they cursed themselves. God didn't send the curse. They brought it upon themselves just like he doesn't send anybody to hell. We choose to go there when we reject Jesus by rejecting Jesus as Savior and by rejecting that He's the Son of God, we sentence ourselves to hell.
My point is, is we have physical conditions. Maybe you have diabetes, maybe you have heart conditions, maybe you have had cancer, or you're afraid of those things happening to you. You're young. You're afraid you're going to get those things because your mother got them and your grandmother got them, your father got em, people deal with this stuff all the time, and here's what we got. We got a blessing from the exchange here. The exchange that Jesus makes here is the exchange is our cursed condition and our genetically dysfunctional heritage and he exchanges it for the blessing. And now we are part of the royal blood line of Jesus. He's interrupted the cursed bloodline that you got passed down from your family and we're not blaming anybody at all is because of Adam and Eve. But Jesus interrupts it and he gives us this new bloodline.
We're redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and we're no longer cursed. We're blessed. Listen to what the Bible says about this, for Christ has redeemed us. Galatians Chapter three, verse 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. How did you do that? He says. For cursed is one that hangs on a tree. So many people fail to realize one of the reasons Jesus hung on a tree is not because he deserved it. Why wasn't he electrocuted? Why wasn't he? Well, they didn't have that technology at the time, but God chose the perfect time. And he'd already said hundreds of years ago, about thousands of years earlier, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.
So Jesus was willing to die on the tree, on the cross so that he would become the curse in exchange, so that you and I could have the blessing. So Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Verse 13 Having become a curse for us, for cursed is one that hangs on a tree. Look at verse 14. And he redeemed us in order that the blessing of Abraham, the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might have, by faith, the promises of the Spirit. Wow. The great exchange. What an amazing exchange. When you realize that everything that was passed down to you that's cursed, it no longer has power over you. The curse stops with you because it's stopped by Jesus becoming it on the cross.
Now you can say I'm blessed with Abraham. I'm blessed with the resurrected Jesus and blessed with the Jesus in heaven, not the Jesus on the cross. It's because of the Jesus on the cross, I'm delivered from the curse and I'm exchanging my curses for his blessing. What a deal. Again, take the deal. It's a great deal. And number six, he exchanges our poverty for his provision and for his abundance. Listen to what this verse says in 2 Corinthians chapter eight, verse nine, He became poor. Jesus became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. And then he says, for you know, the grace of all. Actually, to back it up one verse for, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich. Here's how his grace works. It's the great exchange. It's the grace exchange. For, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? He says that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, for our sakes, he became poor. That we, through his poverty, might become rich. Whew. Now, what does becoming rich look like? Because that's what so many people misunderstand. Or abuse. But what does becoming rich look like when he becomes poor so that we would become rich? How about rich in family? By going to heaven and having a heavenly family? How about rich in relationships by having a Heavenly Father? How about rich in joy by having the joy of the Lord as our strength? How about rich in peace by having the peace of God protect and guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus? How about all of the promises of God being Yes in Christ, in Him, all of the promises of God are yes? 2 Corinthians 1:20 says.
How about whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe you have received them and they shall be granted you? Mark 11:23 and 24. Maybe that's what he means by He became poor that we would become rich instead of being full of sadness and sorrow. He makes us rich. Instead of being impoverished in impoverished by depression, we are enriched by joy. How about John 15 seven Abide in me, my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you wish and it will be done by my Heavenly Father. John, Chapter 15, verse seven. This is God's idea. He Himself became this to make the exchanges you see we're truly fellowshipping with his sufferings when we accept, when we receive the gifts, the free gifts of grace that he gives us through his suffering in exchange for his suffering.
How about Philippians 4:19? My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory. Notice when he's talking about riches, when he's talking about abundance, when he's talking about you're no longer going to be poor, but you're going to be rich. Why would we limit that to just financial? Because so many people have a lot of money, but a lot of sorrow. You know, but when the Lord makes you rich, he adds no sorrow with it. You see, things God's way are wonderful. When you do things the world's way, you're going to suffer for it. When you do things God's way, He takes the suffering so that you can have the blessing. How about this verse, talk about how he made this great exchange, he took our poverty and I'm just quoting the verse, I know it's been abused. I know that if something in the word of God can't be abused, it probably is something that's not worth having.
Everything good that God creates, somebody can misuse it in the wrong way. But it doesn't mean we should be punished with never having any of the things that he paid for us to have. You understand? Listen to this verse in Genesis 24, verse one. Now, Abraham was old and advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. Who is the one that was old? Abraham? Who is the one that blessed him? The Lord. And in what ways was Abraham blessed? In every way. Does that include spiritually? In every way. Does that include emotionally? In every way. Does that include include physically? In every way. Does that include in my family? In every way. Does that include in my finances? In every way. You see, we have to stop limiting God to one way and realize the way God does things is he wants to bless us in every way because he did it for Abraham. So yeah, but that was for Abraham.
Okay, I'm glad you brought that up because I got one for you. Galatians 3:29. As we close and wrap this up, he said, If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise. In other words, the promise that God made to Abraham. The things that God did for Abraham, He's offering to do for you simply because we're in Christ. If you have been made to belong to Christ, if you belong to Christ. You're Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise. I like the new living translation, he says, and now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are His heirs. And God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. I don't know how you can screw that up.
Why am I a preacher? Because it's really not hard to do this. It's so easy to read the Bible and receive it and pass it on to others. I can't screw this up. I probably screw up a lot of other things. But this thing, I can't screw up because Jesus did it all. He says you are now his heirs. The heirs and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. You say that I belong to Christ. Just say that out loud. I belong to Christ. I'm his heir. And God's promise to Abraham belongs to me in Christ. Hallelujah. And what does that mean? Blessed in how many ways? In every way. Blessed in one or two ways? In every way. Blessed in three or four ways? In every way. Receive that blessing and fellowship with his suffering so that you can experience the great exchange. He did the suffering to make the exchange.
So that for sin, we have righteousness for sickness and grief and sorrow and sadness, we have healing, right. For poor leadership, we have his leadership. For old identity, we have his identity as sons and daughters. For our cursed condition, we have the blessing. For our poverty, spirit, soul and body, we have his provision, his wealth, his abundance. Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance. This is because of the great exchange. Let me pray for you. If there's anyone watching right now, you've never received Jesus in your life. Pray the simple prayer out loud then I'm going to pray for everybody else. Just pray this simple prayer out loud.
Heavenly Father, I invite Jesus Christ into my life. I invite Jesus Christ in my life to be my Savior. I believe Jesus died for my sins. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. From this moment forward, I am now a child of God.
Now, if you prayed that, would you reach me right now and get a copy of this book? It's absolutely free. You can download it anywhere in the world. If you're in the local area, you want to come by or we'll send one to you for anyone not in the local area. But you can download this anywhere in the world. Go to lifechangerschurch.com/salvation and this book will be made available to you absolutely free.
I just speak blessing over every one of you. I just speak a revelation of knowing that you're the righteousness of God because Jesus became sin for us, knowing that you are blessed in every way, because Jesus took the curse, knowing that you are healed and you are restored because Jesus took our sorrows and took our pain and took our suffering so that by His stripes we could be healed. I prophesy over you that you would experience the leadership of God in your life, leading you to the paths of green pastures still waters, restoring your soul, guiding you in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. I prophesy over you spiritual, physical, emotional, financial blessing in place of curse because Jesus became the curse I prophesy right now over you for your poverty. You have God's provision, God's abundance, God's promises, God's wealth, God's way. In Jesus name, Amen.