Joseph Prince - Discover Your True Self In Christ
God looks at you and God puts his righteousness on you. The moment you believe on Jesus, God treats you like Jesus, amen? Your actions are not yet perfect, your thoughts are not perfect, amen? But until then, God does not look at you in your error, God does not see you in your sin. God does not see you in your shortcomings, amen? God sees you overlaid with the humanity of the Lord Jesus and overlaid with his righteousness. God sees you, in other words, God sees you in Christ.
As far as the world is concerned, it's going to get darker and darker, the Bible tells us that, the Word of God tells us that. Before Jesus makes his appearance, the world will get darker and darker, but the glory of the Lord will arise upon you and it will be seen on you. His glory will be seen on you and darkness actually allows the light to be seen in all its glory, like never before. The Bible says, he will cover you with his feathers. Throughout this year, and under his wings you shall trust. Amen, peace is not the absence of adverse circumstances. It's not the absence of challenges and battles. We'll go through this, this year, but we're not going through this alone. The Lord will be with us.
Even though you walk through, and thank God you're not going to walk and dwell. You're going to walk through the valley of the shadow. Remember it's a shadow, amen. A shadow of a tiger does not kill anybody. Amen, you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil, for he is with you, amen. And his rod and his staff, that's the nature of the shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. It's so good to know that we are facing this year with our shepherd. We do not know everything that's going to happen. We're gonna go right into it right now, praise God, and we see the Temple of Solomon, this is a picture of the Temple of Solomon from afar.
You see the gold trimmings and all that, but if you look at this... by the way, this is the most glorious temple. This year, we're going to see the temple of God being built, and I can see that all of us, the Bible says we are like living stones. Remember last week, we learned that all the stones of the temple that were brought to the temple, all the stones actually were cut and hewn on location from the quarry. They are brought out of darkness, just like you and I. We were all in darkness at one time. We didn't know God, amen, we are built stone by stone by stone by stone, and there's no sound of work at the temple, it's all hewn at the quarry, so that no sound of hammer or iron work is heard in the temple location.
Everything was designed in place, God has a purpose and a plan for each one of you, you have a destiny in God that no one else can fulfill. You are not an accident, amen, amen. If your parents may have an accident, according to them, or you were conceived out of wedlock, but the fact that you are there, God placed you there, amen. We don't talk about the means, the means can be wrong but God caused you to be birthed. Amen, God has a plan and you have a purpose in that plan, in that destiny that no one else can fulfill. No set of fingerprints are the same, amen. God designed it to be so. You are unique, you are precious, amen. And the Bible says that we are all living stones, God needs everyone, amen.
"We are being built up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices". Now drop down to verse 9, "But you are a chosen race," say amen. If people ask you what race are you, you say, "Chosen". Amen, "A royal priesthood". Not just a priesthood, but a royal priesthood. A king and a priest. In the Old Testament is to typify to us how they function, a king's word is power. When a king decrees, it's done. Can I have a good amen? A priest on the other hand, is someone who brings praises to God. He brings glory to God, like all of us, so we are king-priests. We go into God's presence as priests, and then we come out with power from his presence, to speak to sickness and sickness leaves, amen?
And to proclaim peace where there is disorder and where a storm rages, we can come in and bring the blessing of heaven into the situation. You're all royal priests. Amen, all of you are royal priests. That's why if you ask me, what does holiness, true holiness look like? Royalty. It's like you don't have to say that you are royal, Jesus was dressed like any common person, and by the hillside of Galilee, yet people flocked to him. He looked, you know, he doesn't look like the Pharisees, doesn't look like the Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day, yet people flock to him. And there is something divine, there is something royal, there is something, you know, that has a meaning of royalty.
There is a princeliness about Jesus, that's true holiness. You cannot stop, you know, greatness in a man, it just shines out. And there's humility, it's not that, don't come near me, I'm holier than you. It's not that kind of self-righteous, that kind of thing Jesus hates. That's why the self-righteous Pharisees hated Jesus, and cried out for his death, amen. Because Jesus made God so personable. You know, they wanted the people to go through them to God. But Jesus brought God to them, amen. Even to the sinners, to the woman caught in adultery, he did not compromise the law. He says, "He that is without sin, throw the first stone".
There's no compromise. Yes, stone her, but only those without sin is qualified to throw the first stone. And the one without sin is him, and yet he did not. He could, but he would not. They would rather, but they could not, they had sin. Oh, the beauty of our Lord Jesus. No wonder the Father says, when he came out from the waters of baptism, "You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased". There's no one that brought such joy and delight and pleasure to God's heart as Jesus. The Bible says he is more precious, more beautiful than 10,000. It's an expression of no one compares to him. Amen, he is altogether lovely. But the Lord Jesus is your shepherd, he will care for you. When he is kind, it's not softness.
Softness and sentimentalism doesn't help people. When you are sentimental, you're not helping people. Amen, you get soft, when sometimes a child needs to be corrected, you are soft, you get sentimental. Oh, you know, "This child is so hard to get, this child finally, you know, in my older years, I got this child, so I dare not correct the child". No, no, the child becomes spoiled, amen. So softness is not good. Sentimentalism is not good, but Jesus, when he's kind, he's truly kind. It's the kindness of God. When we are soft, we sort of hide it, we are just being kind. No, no, you're not being kind, you're afraid. That's different.
When Jesus is humble, he washed the disciples's feet. It's like a prince stooped down, there's royalty there. And yet, there's glory. But he's humble, but there's beauty there. Can you see it? Amen, when he's humble, he's not servile, you know servile? Servile is like, like, whoa, he belongs there. He's a servant. No, there's no servility in his humility. When he is firm, amen, he doesn't hurt. He's altogether lovely. May we be like him, no wonder the Bible says God's desire is for all of us to be conformed to his image. That's how true holiness looks like. Praise God, so the purpose for calling you, we got stuck at the royal priesthood. "A holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies..."
And the word excellencies here is moral excellencies. That's how true holiness looks like. People look at you and they see the moral excellencies of who? Not yours, but, "Of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light". They look at your life and they want to be like you, amen. They want to live the kind of life you have, even rich people... remember this, being rich is not a matter of possessing lots of money, amen. There are poor people having lots of money, but they are still poor, amen. Poor inside because the riches of God's wisdom and the moral excellency is not there. So they are always striving to prove themselves, always striving to make another million, always striving to have to show themselves that they can do it or things like that, that's insecurity and that's not true wealth.
And today, I'm telling you, God is going to bring you to a greater place of prosperity but prosperity by the Bible's definition, this year, amen. And the greatest prosperity is to know him, and to know him more and more. So the gold that you see... show them the gold again. The gold that you see inside there is a picture of all of us. The stones, actually the stone is overlaid with cedar wood, the humanity of Jesus. Wood speaks of humanity, and cedar wood is incorruptible wood, amen. Not subject to decay. That's why you can find a cedar wood, cedar tree even for a thousand years, amen, it's like the California redwood, amen. And you find that after you are overlaid, you're overlaid with gold. And that's divine righteousness.
God looks at you and God puts his righteousness on you. The moment you believe in Jesus, God treats you like Jesus. Your actions are not yet perfect, your thoughts are not perfect, amen. Your words, it's very obvious many a times, it's not perfect. So we are not perfect, we are still not perfect, and one day when Jesus comes again, yes, we will have a new body that is not subject even to error, amen. But until then, God does not look at you in your error, God does not see you in your sin. God does not see you in your shortcomings, amen. God sees you overlaid with the humanity of the Lord Jesus and overlaid with his righteousness. God sees you, in other words, God sees you in Christ.
God sees you in the gold. By something for the church to see one another also, because we are inside. The world outside only see the stone. Amen, now, all this design, God made David know, David, the father of Solomon, David, the one who killed Goliath. David had God's hand on him when he received all the design and the layout, the blueprint of the temple. Amen, the Bible says in 1 Chronicles 28, "David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers," say chambers. "The place of the mercy seat," say mercy seat. "And the plans for all that he had by the Spirit..." It's not just a figment of his imagination. "I think I'll just, hm, I feel like designing a temple".
No, no, it is not something out of his own heart, it is something that God gave him by the Spirit. Even the blueprint for the house, can I have a good amen? "And of the courts of the house, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things," God told me that, "I want my people to step into my treasuries and possess them this year," amen. For so long, you're not possessing your possessions. There's still a lot to be possessed and God wants to bring you to a bigger place, amen. So he says, notice, this is all from God to David through his son.
So it's not Solomon coming up with this idea, "I'm going to build..." No, Solomon built according to the plan that God gave his father David. Even the little parts and all that, I can go on reading actually, even the service of the Levites and all that, all given by God to David. Amen, and then Solomon just adopted it. Okay, here's a good lesson for many of you who like, if you have a, you know, you have this deadline to meet. You feel like there's something that's... I want to talk about this a lot today actually because I feel that the people are getting more and more stressed, I don't know why. You know, I preached some time ago, probably in the year of restful increase, a lot on the rest of... but God wants to bring his people into a deeper rest. Many of us, we are resting, but we are not resting the way God wants us to rest, amen, praise God.
So, one of the best ways to get stress off your mind, worry off your mind, in your job or in the future for 2020, is to sit down before the Lord and say, "Lord, give me your wisdom and your direction, I need your help Lord," and start planning for your family or start planning for this year, not resolutions, I don't believe in resolutions because resolutions say, "I resolve". It's looking to men. No, no, I'm not, but God's vision for you for this year. I find that if I worry about a sermon the coming week, and God is giving me ideas here and there, what I do is that I have a book, amen, and this is my book that I'm using now. I have many, many, many books already at home like this, amen. And what I do is that I write it down.
Whether you are typing it or whatever, you know, on your laptop, your mobile devices and all that, I'm speaking generally when I say writing, like David, amen. You can, however you want to put it down, but once I put a sermon down, I put a verse down, it triggers off other things that God wants me to tell you all. I'm showing you how I apply it, so I will write down, if I get the first verse, only the first verse, I write down the first verse, amen, for the coming week. Or if I get a first illustration, the first thought, I put it down. Once you write something down, it is off your mind. You don't have to worry about forgetting it and all that. Amen, is this helping?
David does this, David write and God was in his writing. Pray to God for wisdom, okay, remember, don't put your finger there and say, "God, write". If something moves your hand, it's probably an evil spirit, because evil spirits love you to be passive so they can take over. God doesn't do that, God doesn't possess you in that way, amen. If you don't move, God will not move. You didn't come here today, God will not push you, he will not levitate you from the bed, amen, and put you in your shoes, amen. He will not do that. You choose, he will always respect your choice. Hallelujah, are you all with me so far? Now, let's look at the temple proper. Everything in the Temple of Solomon, I've used this verse for the Tabernacle of Moses, when I taught on it, but actually, it applies to the temple specifically.
In Psalms 29 it says, "And in His temple, everything says, 'Glory!'" Everything, every furniture, every article, the wall, the design, everything says, what? Glory, and this temple is not, listen, this temple is not a temple, a physical temple. I'm talking about all of you. Every part of it says glory. That involves every one of you. Are you listening? Then, let's look at this temple. There's an emphasis that's relating to the theme of the year that I want to call your attention to, and it says in 1 Kings 6, actually I covered this last week. 1 Kings 6, "And for the house he made windows of narrow lights".
Now show them my Bible, the narrow lights. This is the Bible I use, one of the Bibles I use at home, and it's from King James Version. It says, "For the house he made windows of narrow lights". And that's why I'm teaching from the Old King James, because that's the Bible I used in my study, when God first spoke to me about the theme of the year a few months back or last year. Notice what is windows of narrow lights, in the Hebrew, it is actually the word windows broad within and narrow without. The window inside the house is broad. Outside is narrow. In the temple, it is to bring light. In other words, inside broad within means it is cut off here on the right, cut off on the left, cut off in the bottom, cut off in the northward.
And so that the light comes this way, the light comes this way, the light comes upwards, it comes downward. It spreads the light in all directions. So the very first thing we need to have for this year is that the entrance of his words gives light. Let's not depend on natural light. Don't keep on looking at your Facebook for natural light. I want to learn how to eat better. I want to learn how to exercise better, there must be a latest thing, there must be something. And after a while, that latest thing is no more the latest thing, it's gluten-free, no, you need some wheat. It's fat-free, now you need some fat for your brain or else your brain will go concuss. And you'll have problems with dementia and things like that.
And how much, how much, how, how, how? The Lord will lead you. Chocolate is bad, chocolate is good, tea is bad, tea is good, coffee is really bad, coffee is really good. No, in the world, so you'll be confused eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, every time you sit down there, instead of opening God's Word, you're opening up to your Facebook to see articles after articles and all that. At the end, the result is what? You can tell it, ask yourself. Within your spirit, confusion. And many a times, you look at juicy stuff, juicy stuff, evil juicy stuff. Juicy stuff about this person, juicy stuff about that person.
And the celebrity lives his life, you know? Enjoying his wealth and all that, and here you are living by proxy. Live your own life, you are royalty, you are a priest, amen. You are God's people, amen, Jesus came to give you life and life more abundant. It's okay to watch a movie once in a while, you know, two hours, three hours, whatever, just for a while, you know, with your loved ones and all that. But don't live there. This is a real drama in life, okay? Are you listening? Instead of studying the Word of God, you are reading what, cynics. People who are cynical are saying... the Bible says, "Blessed is the man or the woman who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the cynic scornful".
They scorn at everything, they scorn at the Bible, they scorn at the church, they scorn at your belief and all that. Don't give them time that is so precious. Even more precious this year, 2020. If you are a cynic, I have no time for you. My life, my peace is too precious for you to take. God your anointing, God your peace. Don't let it, you know... Hallelujah, amen? Don't just sit down there and feed on these things, this garbage. You are not a garbage dump. Say, move on, move on, move on. Tell the garbage truck, move on, move on, amen. Don't sit behind that. And let people just dump everything on you, or better still, you dump on yourself by reading that every morning. I know there are interesting things to see, I understand that, amen.
If you want to follow man of God, amen, follow the teachings, amen, follow the latest biblical archaeology or whatever in Israel. Follow things like the edified, the strengthened, the built up. Not things that poison you and even have a physical effect on you, amen. Shine for his glory. Praise the Lord, let your families have light in all your dwellings when the world has darkness, amen. Let your mind be poised, be peaceful, be at perfect equilibrium, amen, when the world is being challenged in mental health, Reach out to them, love them, and bring them into wholeness. All the people said, "Amen".
I just want you all to know one thing that we are not dealing with religion, we are dealing with reality. The universe is created by God. Even the laws that govern science is created by God. What is a miracle? A miracle is something that when God suspends the natural law. God reverses the natural law or God accelerates the natural law. It's something out of the ordinary. We call that a miracle. And God does a miracle in favor of his people. It's for your favor. It's for your benefit, he's doing you a favor. And that's what he wants to do this coming year. To do you lots of favors, lots of favors.
By expanding time, by reversing time, by suspending or accelerating time, because he loves you. He is the Lord of time and space. For those who can take it, let me tell you this, both miracles were done in Cana of Galilee. You study the word Cana, it means to acquire, to get. You look at the word Galilee, from the word Galil, it means in a circle, in a circle, in a circle, a circuit. You acquire things God's way in a circuit, one step at a time. The secret of the winding stairs, one step at a time. Don't worry about what you can't see in front of you, just obey the Lord. He may prompt you to do something. He might prompt you to study something. He might prompt you, even your relationship with your spouse. You might be in a place where you feel it's breaking down.
How can I get this back? How can I redeem the time? Well, the Bible says you can redeem the time by becoming wise. Ask God for wisdom and he will show you one step at a time. Just do that, maybe God says, talk less, listen. Resist the urge to talk, just listen, just listen. Just listen, but how can just that one little thing... just listen. For some of you who are hearing God right now for your first step, just listen. Resist all the urge inside you to want to say something, to want to resist it, and just listen. I think that's a word for a number of you having challenges in your relationship with your spouse or even with your teenager or with your son or daughter.
Perhaps God is saying something else to somebody else. Well, just do that one thing, will you? Whatever he says to you, do it. And the Lord of time and space, you don't have to worry whether he accelerates or he suspends time or reverses time. You don't have to worry about the wider space and the bigger, and the larger possession. You don't have to worry about all that. Like what we did, even with this place, one step at a time. When the time is right, you realize you are in a bigger place, a wider place, greater possession of your possessions in Christ. Lift your hands all across this place, amen.
The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you throughout this year. The Lord favors you and your family throughout this year. And the Lord protect and keep you and your loved ones from every harm, danger, accident throughout this week. The Lord protect you from every strain of virus. The Lord protect you from all the powers of darkness. The Lord protect you and your loved ones throughout this week. In the name of Jesus, and all the people said, amen, amen.