- The word Christian is spelled C-H-R-I-S-T Christ. I-A-N, in. Christ in you. Living his own life through you without any help or assistance from you. Because Jesus Christ does not need your help to be Jesus Christ. All he needs is your availability. And what a difference, because soon I learned that instead of me breaking my neck trying to be good and trying to be holy and trying to get power and trying to overcome my identity crisis and get rid of my sin, I soon found out that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross and when He rose again from the dead, He rose again from the dead to live a new life in me. You know it's like, it's like taking a bunch of small, green peas. Puttin' 'em out on the table and then deciding that you wanna have split pea soup. So you get yourself an ax to split the peas, and go. (exhales) Hey God, there's go to be an easier way. (grunts) And God says there is, why don't you quit trying. Because what most people do is they look at their sins and they say, ah, I got hate in my life. And they go out there to chop away at that hate. And they bang and bang and bang, and after about five years they get rid of the hate only to discover they have jealousy. (inhales) And they go over here and bang away at the jealousy. (groans) Only to discover that they envy. Oh my! And they go through their whole lives chopping away at sins in their lives, wearing themselves out. Or the folks who say, you know I'm trying real hard to crucify myself so I can be Christian. You ever try to crucify yourself? Try it. Imagine that there's a cross behind you, okay? And I got some big spikes and a hammer, and I'm gonna crucify myself, so I take the, put my hand up on the cross, and I take the spikes and I run my hand into it, and then I nail the spikes into my left hand, so now I have my left hand nailed to the cross. Can you explain to me how with my left hand nailed to the cross, I'm gonna get the right one up there, or how I'm gonna nail my feet? You see, of all the forms of suicide that you can commit, you can not crucify yourself. You can shoot yourself, stab yourself, poison yourself, drown yourself, and with some ingenuity you can hang yourself. You can not crucify yourself. Crucifixion must be performed by an outside party. Nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus was nailed to the cross, the Bible says he took your sin and my sin and put in up on the cross with him, so that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross you and I were too, all of our sins. And once you understand that, then you're on the way to solving your identity crisis because then you understand it is the simple process of coming to Jesus and saying Lord, I hereby renounce all rights to myself and I give you the right to own me, to run my life. And the Bible says that Jesus Christ then takes up residence in you. And begins to fulfill his destiny and his purpose in you, rather than you trying to be like him. And it will change the way you pray. Oh God, Lord, I'm so weak. Oh Jesus please give me more strength and more power. Have you every prayed that prayer? Have you ever asked God for more strength and more power? Let me see your hand. You ever prayed that? That's a dumb prayer. (congregation laughs) It's wrong. Because when Jesus Christ got up out of the grave, Jesus Christ said all power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth. And Hebrews chapter one says Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of His power. When you invite Jesus Christ to take over your life, where does Jesus go? Where does Jesus go? This is a Black church meeting, you can answer back. (congregation laughs) Where does Jesus go. 

- In your heart. 

- In you, right, Jesus comes in you. What else do you have in you? 

- Power. So why you praying for more power? Oh God, Lord, I need more love. So much hate in my life, oh God, more love. (chuckles) (congregation laughs) 

- Another dumb prayer. God is love, and when you trust Jesus to take over your life where does God go? (congregation murmurs) In you. Therefore what else do you have in you? 

- Love. 

- So why you praying for more love? Oh God, I have such a short fuse. I keep blowing my stack all the time. Oh God, patience. Oh Jesus give me more patience Lord. (giggles) (congregation laughs) The Bible says the fruit of the spirit is patience. And when you trust Jesus, where does he go? In you. Therefore, what else do you have? Patience. And so instead of getting up every day and saying Lord, give me more love and more power and more patience, you begin the day by saying, Lord, I thank you for the fact that today you want me to show love, and you want me to exhibit your power, and you want me to show strength and patience. I don't have what it takes, but I thank you for the fact that you are patience, and you are strength, and you are love, and you are in me, so today I am going to trust you to be my love and my patience and my strength. And He pulls it off. And so I gave my life to Him. I now know who I am. I am God's son. I am a member of the Royal Family of God that puts me in the best family stock there is in all the world. I am a member of the Royal Family of God. I know who I am. Nobody else has to identify me. I don't wait for other people to tell me who I am. I don't need other people to define me. I define myself by virtue of who God says I am. I am God's son. I now know what my responsibility to other people is. All I ask of people that God brings me into relationship with, all I ask of them is that they give me the privilege to love them, whether they love me back or not is totally unimportant because I derive enough love from my relationship with Jesus Christ to love them without needing them to love me back. And the beautiful part about it is I've got the power now to pull it off. The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave Himself for me. That becomes the basis by which God wants to put together the new community to shape the world in which we live. So take people by virtue of their willingness to renounce all rights to themselves and hand their lives over to Jesus Christ to send you into a world that doesn't know who they are, with you knowing who you are. In a world that is not together, God wants to bring together a group of people who by virtue of their commitment to Christ will be prepared to lay their lives down for each other and show the world what it looks like when people really care. And then to send us into the world by the power of God to destroy the works of the Devil, hunger, poverty, war, violence, racism, prejudice, bigotry. And for us together as the people of God to become the examples that other people can look at and say, those people have been with Jesus. So when Burt Bacharach asks what's it all about, that's what it's about. What it's about is that God's got his own agenda, God's doin' his own thing. And so now when the guy comes up to me and says, What's happening Tom? I say got it together. Let me close with this illustration and we'll pray. The old Roman soldiers used to go into battle but they had a problem because the gear that they wore didn't fit. The breastplate was wacky, the helmet was wacky, and the equipment was loose on the body, and so the Roman's had to come up with a way to get the equipment on their body to fit snugly together. And so the Romans invented the girdle long before Playtex. And the girdle was worn around the waist, and it had straps onto it, and the straps were connected to their equipment, and then tied at their loins at the center of their body so that the equipment fit snugly on their bodies so that they could run into battle, which is why Paul said put on the whole armor of God and have yourself girdled with truth. Well, you see, you and I are like the Roman soldiers. We have equipment. We have mind, body, emotions and spirit, but they're all going off in different directions. My body wants to do one thing, my mind wants to do something else, my emotions are climbing the wall, and according to the spirit, according to the scripture, my spirit is dead without Christ. And so God says what you need is a girdle to bring that together, and the girdle is the truth. In other words, what the Bible is saying is bring to the center of your being truth in order to tie your equipment together so you can be a whole person having it together. And the question is who is the truth? That brings us back to Jesus again. Who says I am the way, truth, light. And Jesus becomes the person at the center of our lives that brings our mind, and our body, and our emotions and our spirit together, so that we can become a whole person. And as whole people, to go out into a broken world, and offer that world the healing of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. And I pray that if you have never put it together in your life, that today will begin the day in which you discover Jesus Christ and let Him own you. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you today for the privilege of meeting together. We thank you for your word, and we pray as the result of what you have said to us that none of us will leave this place the same. And we pray that you will send us into a world that's broken and divided and oppressive and violent and full of war to be your vehicles of peace, to destroy the works of the Devil, to the building up of your Kingdom. We ask it in Jesus' name. (pianist plays "Let God Abide") ♪ If you are a witness ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ If you've been converted ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ If you're sure you know him ♪ ♪ If He walks by your side ♪ ♪ You'll get the answer to every problem ♪ ♪ If you let God abide ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪ ♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪ ♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪ ♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪ ♪ If you let God abide, let God abide ♪ ♪ When loved ones deceive you ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ When friends don't believe you ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ When storm clouds arise ♪ ♪ And trouble betides ♪ ♪ You'll find Him standing, right by your side ♪ ♪ If you let Him abide ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪ ♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪ ♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪ ♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪ ♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪ ♪ Your pathway he'll brighten ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ All wrongs he will light up ♪ ♪ Let God abide ♪ ♪ He'll keep joy bells ringing ♪ ♪ Deep down in your heart ♪ ♪ Whatever betides you, he's there to guide you ♪ ♪ If you let God abide ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪ ♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪ ♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪ ♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪ ♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Within you soul, within your soul ♪ ♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪ ♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪ ♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪ ♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪ ♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪ 

- Can we stand together as we're dismissed. Our Father, we are grateful for the opportunity to share this time together. Now we pray that you will send us forth into the world to be the alternative. To be the live models of what you are doing. And we pray that the world will never be the same because we passed this way. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.