Next level Christianity: "My Life" - Identity with Christ

It's good to be here with everyone here in Garneville. Oh, I know I know many of you, but not everyone My name is David Zutoma From New Jersey, but I spent a lot of time in Iowa. I'm almost like one of you Maybe not maybe not but growing up and I was here for VBS many times over the past years and I kind of thought I was just the VBS guy because they kept inviting me back for VBS and When you turn to the VBS guy, there's not a lot of movement, you know, there's not you know, it's you don't graduate but then I Was at a youth conference and I saw Owen Brandt and he said Dave you got to come back to Garneville I was like, I'm just the VBS guy.

He goes. No, I'm gonna talk to uncle John We'll get you back and I didn't think Owen had that kind of power. But Here I am here.

I am I graduated from the VBS to the conference So no inflatable props behind me, but hopefully still be able to bring out some truths from the scripture So just to get my wife says give them an introduction and this is to tell them what you're gonna do So hopefully this weekend I speak twice today one time at the hymn sing tonight And then I speak once tomorrow and I want to go through the upper room ministry So that's the portion in John's gospel and I'm gonna start in verse in chapter 14 Although technically it starts in 13 and I want to go through each chapter and I want to take one verse From each chapter and use it to gain interest For you to garner interest more into I want to call it the next level Christianity I'm I'm doing like a modern translation We all grew up under the upper room the upper room teaching and so I got to change it up This is called next level Christianity and hopefully there are individuals here or are desiring the next level You say no, I'm quite quite comfortable where I'm at. No, this is something for everyone This is obviously if you're young desiring what's next in my Christianity What will the Lord have me to do give me something to obey give me truth being hungry for it the next level My my and it's not only for the young I think my grandma can't have a right to so-called old people bogeys There's any bogeys here next level Christianity for you, too. There's no there's no retirement.

There's no resting place There's no just saying hey, I'm done here. I put in my time. I chopped salad the conference for 40 years.

I'm done No, there's next level Christianity to the day you die because it takes a whole life to offer a whole life It takes an entire life to offer a whole life to Christ And so as we go through the next level in John's gospel, I want to speak in John 14 15 16 and 17 and in each one of those chapters I want to bring out something that the Lord Jesus said was his That he wants you to have as well and in John 14 in this section We're going to look at his life and he says my life because I live you will live also We're going to talk about what it means to be united with Christ and then in John 15 He's going to speak about my joy being in you and that your joy might be complete and John 16 He doesn't use the words, but he talks about going to his father I want to talk about the father tonight to him saying the father and going to the father what that means and tomorrow In John 17, we will talk by the Lord. Jesus says I sanctify myself my Sanctification my holiness and what that means to you. So If any of those interest you we expect to see you back.

I see a couple uncles of mine here I don't know. Hopefully I've run the the advertisement here for Garneville Oh, and I don't disappoint Owen and we get you back for all those meetings. Let's turn to John 14 John 14 We're gonna read a couple of verses here John 14 and we'll start reading at verse 16 our verse for consideration is 19 and 20 But we'll start reading at verse 16 and he says here.

I will pray the father and he shall give you another Comforter that's the Holy Spirit That he may abide with you forever Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not neither knows him But you know him for he dwells with you and shall be in you I will not leave you. This is an unfortunate translation, but I will not leave you as Orphans, that's what the word comfortless is here. You can look it up and verify that for yourselves I will not leave you as orphans as children without parents That's important.

I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you Here's our verse yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but you see me Because I live You shall live also Because I live You shall live also then in this next verse. This is one of those verses that's like a knot and I don't hear a lot of people trying to untie it So the fact that I'm going to attempt today might be foolishness on my part But we will attempt What is union with Christ? We don't hear a lot about it He says because I live you're gonna have my life You will live also and then he says these verses this truth here at that day.

You shall know that I am in my father you are in me and I am In you now, just remember those three things That's what we're going to speak on and then this final part he that has my commandments and keeps them He it is that loves me and he that loves me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and Will manifest myself to him and then just look at the last verse of this chapter and he says this but that the world may know that I Love the father and as the father gave me commandment even so I do Arise, let us go forth May God bless the reading of his word when people ask you What type of believer you are? How do you respond? Over the years we've been given some some good ones. Haven't we I meet people Suleiman yeah Christian are you we've seen we've seen the building my friends always said everyone goes there with a prom dress on What kind of Christian are you I would always say I'm a non Non-denominational believer my friends were good at math and they didn't know a numerator or a denominator And so it's kind of lost on them. I just didn't they just kind of looked at me like strange guy strange guy and there would be other times where People would accuse me of being a fundamentalist anybody here You can always tell them there's something fun about it.

I think fun about being a fundamentalist and then there's There's always these a unique ways in which we describe who we are it's an election year so I'd love People I'm God's elected candidate, you know Step back, they're not sure When they approach me, you know, they want to know a color. They want to know you're from New Jersey That's not possible, you know, I'm sure everyone that's comfortable not language here in Iowa, but not in New Jersey All these ways in which we describe who we are as believers and sometimes they get so fanciful And then we say oh, okay, just keep it simple. I asked my mom in the way here I go.

What do you say mom? She was I tell people I'm a Christian I believe in Jesus Christ in the resurrection And I believe he's coming back one day and then he died for my sins and I said did you give him the rest of the? Gospel to like it was like it was seems like she was preaching at them you know Christian when it's used in the Bible sometimes a bit of a statement that's a It's not actually it's not actually used in a So when people ask you What kind of Christian are you? What do you say? Let me encourage you from here on out To say what the Bible says, right? They said about John Bunyan that when you pricked him, he bled diddly everything about him was Bible oriented Bible language Bible idea So the next time someone asks you What kind of Christian are you? over a hundred and fifty times in the Epistles and Here probably brought up one of the first times. This is the truth of being a Christian you are incorrect You are in Christ In Christ, you said if I said that I'd have to explain it. Amen Amen, right to be able to tell someone something Roaming doesn't pull you into the graces of people who are recording To be in Christ over and over again We've heard it from Ephesians 1 in him.

We have redemption the forgiveness of sin in Christ All things are passed away. We're going to read over and over again first Corinthians 1 and him He has placed us there in Christ. And so when someone asks you from now on out Forget the fundamentalists forget the non denominators.

You tell them I am in Christ because That is what the Bible says and as soon as you start saying that and believing it and dwelling on it That will change your Christianity So when we come to this message here on union with Christ There is this principle that I would like to bring up first that the Lord here in speaking to the disciples He says because I live you will live and So it's a life principle a life principle many of us go through our Christian walk And we're we're constantly seeking to do something for the Lord to pay him back and that may last for a while But you'll tire out some of us are looking to constantly show Okay I want to show others that I love him and that too will find out that actually is Secondary not secondary that leads on to this but you have to start living life because of the life that's within you That's what the Apostle Paul says for me to live is Christ It's the life that's within me that now is is emanating out is is showing forth Exactly who I am as someone who is in Christ the Apostle Paul says here about union with Christ. He says in Galatians 2 and 20. I have been crucified with Christ Yet I live it is not I but it is Christ who lives me and I live by faith in the Son of God Love me Salvation is not about relocation.

It's about transformation It's not about an addendum to my life. It's a new life It's not what I can do But what God is doing through me and so as we look at this scripture Let us let us come to terms with that union with Christ is his life What's the famous line from a CT stud? I asked John I go if I say something you think anybody would answer in the audience Not sure. I'm sure he goes.

There's some people here from the western part of state. They might but Only one life will soon be passed Only what's done for Christ Laughs and We start looking at our lives and you know what? I bet you there have been many men who get up on the platform and they say don't waste Your life if you're 20 if you're 60 if you're 70 wherever you're at There's someone here who's 94 don't waste your life. That's the wrong way about it Don't waste his life Your life is gone, it's wasted it's dead and buried six feet under From the day you got saved that day that you chose between heaven and hell that was the easiest decision you made every day after that you chose between heaven and earth and You choose not to waste his life Because he lives you will live this union with Christ that we then have and then we show Let's go through these three phrases I have 20 minutes and we will go through them fast and hopefully set a foundation for you to take from here the truth of being in Christ will lead me to the next level because as as John tells us in his gospel He must increase and I must decrease do not do not put that in the opposite order for all of us that are trying to clean up our lives get the meeting on time and and and Dressing better and and reading and all that we're doing and all the while Doesn't start with me.

It starts with him increasing So of me being in Christ leads him to increase and you know what he'll take care of the rest I will be pushed out of the way Now the opposite way. I just create a vacuum for anything else to enter into my life. I Empty myself of me.

That's that's that's that's Eastern meditation You're doing yoga. God bless you, but but stop it's not it's not about emptying yourself It's filling yourself with Christ. Let him increase for this next level of union with Christ He lives and I live also this first statement that he says you shall know that I am in the father That's what he says here first and and he sets up this great picture and I'm gonna talk about three greats He says you shall know that I am In the father and we've learned that in John I and the father are one He says there earlier on and all these pictures of him being in the father and I don't want to give away I'm going to come back to this later the greatest prayer in our Bible The greatest prayer that we have in the Bible is in John 17 where the Lord Jesus We call it the high priestly prayer.

He prays to the father and it crescendos. I was about to jump for the hoop It crescendos with this. He says that they might know that I am in you that you are in me and that they might be made one in us and that the world might know that you sent me, you know, we use that verse all the time because Wilma and Hilda can't get along in the meeting right and they're they're at loggerheads and all they're they're mad because of parking spots and Because of snack time at the hall and some brother gets up and goes the Lord Jesus said in his prayer We might be one Hilda Wilma you get along now Right and Frank and Bob can't come to terms with how to count the money in the back room and we evoke John 17 I get along brother be one.

That's what the Lord asked has nothing to do with that Okay So if you're still if you're still at odds Wilma and Hilda You you're not it's not because of this scripture because of something else that you have a problem with use the right unity passages Here the Lord Jesus in John 17 his greatest prayer crescendos with this He says father put them in me Put them in me the same way. I am in you Put them in me that we might be one and if if they know that Then the gospel will flourish the world will know that you have sent me We often wonder what hinders gospel activity what gives place to revival as we were hearing in prayer last night. It's just this to be in Christ We'll let the world know that the father has sent to be in him Vindicates his request to the Savior.

Was it granted people will tell me that the prayer of the Savior there unity. There's Methodist I'm sure there's there's Presbyterians around here. There's a there's there's there's there's good holders and bad haulers, right? I don't know.

There's all variety of Christians You say all that they might be one No, the Lord has made us one because he's placed every believer in Jesus Christ into the Sun. This was the greatest prayer Here that the Lord said the way that I'm in you the father the way that we are together Let them be in me that same way and the father granted that because 40 days after Calvary What happened the spirit? I've often read that verse in 1st Corinthians 12 and 13 Were baptized into one spirit and we were made to drink I always thought that was someone getting baptized and was held under too long and the water went in their mouth You understand what the Paul saying there. He says we were baptized into one spirit Then we drank see when you drink something it goes on the inside and when you're baptized into something, it's all around you You see what the Lord was saying here.

This is the way to the father He says the way that they are all around me the way that you are around me and the way I am in you and You and me let that be true of us Let that be true of me and those who you have given me and so this unity finds its finds its great picture in This the greatest picture that we have of being in Christ is the Son and the Father. There's a lot of pictures though. I See a lot of note-takers.

That's good. I I think that's that's admirable because rarely do we remember what anyone says I I'm gonna do a test later on but think of all the great pictures of being in Christ There's the picture of a body in 1st Corinthians 12 of a head in a body. There's a there's a botanical picture of Branches and a vine being together in John 15 and one the one can't survive without the other There's a bride picture in Ephesians 5 that to become one and this is a great mystery Speaking of Christ and the church There's a bread picture in John 6 I remember that difficult saying the Lord Jesus says unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood He says but if you do that, then I will be in you and you will be in me All these pictures.

There's a building picture in 1st Peter 2 Stones living stones built up into a building with Christ as the chief cornerstone All these pictures show us of the oneness that has believers We are now in Christ, but the greatest of these pictures the high watermark is What we see in deity is what we see of the Son who says father. I am in you They are in me I Am in them the first reaction from the human heart when you hear about identity with Christ is this I ain't no robot I don't want to be some marionette doll. I want to have my personality my identity I want to I want people to see me.

I don't want to lose who I am I'm not going to be lost in this mist of just having no longer any Identity it what you're telling me Dave is is leading me to think that I'm just there for the controlling and the Manipulation to have someone else's life inside of me is just to be manipulated and and and what if it's not? What if I never what does it even matter? Why does he even need me and my individual fingerprints my unique DNA why? What about the greatest life that's ever lived here on human earth? Just looking at John 14 the Lord says the words I speak unto you whose are they The father he says the works that you see me do whose are they? They're the father's he says if you knew me you would know the father and If you see me You see the father I Would agree with your argument if those verses didn't exist, but the greatest life that's ever existed on terra firma Greatest identity that has ever been known to man Did not speak his own words did not do his own works Did not think his own thoughts Did not have his own image Instead he had the father's through and through and through so if you're looking to be the greatest pinnacle of your identity It's in Christ It's in Christ It is not to remain in control of your own life In fact, John tells us that love your life lose it ate your life gain it That's just what he's getting at here as he gives us these great things about the father It's getting to the truth of the father over and over again It's the son's desire that we understand something about the picture in the father It's the son's desire that we see identity is wrapped up in this Knowing the father being in the son because the Lord Jesus says no man knows the father Except the son and he to whom he reveals him. Where does he reveal the father in him? It's in him. It's in Christ.

I Sometimes think about the upper room ministry and the upper room ministry and these These these three pages right there There's more about the father in those three pages Than than all of that Here in next level Christianity over and over again We are introduced to being in Christ because Christ is in the father here as he says in this first line Being in him and this is a Spiritual work that means it's of the Holy Spirit Christ says I will send another comforter a lot of people And I don't I don't want to get into the the thing trees. I'm trying to understand this I don't know that it's meant for understanding the way that we do it logic the Lord Jesus says I'm sending the Holy Spirit so that I can come and dwell in you so that the father can be in You so that we can make our home in you the spirit of truth And he says you'll know him because he's just like me you say how do I know the difference between the Holy Spirit and Christ? I don't think you're intended to You say how do I know the difference between the Son and the Father they have different roles? But if you've known the Son, you've known the Father you see what he's getting at here What's the difference between me and me and in Christ? I don't think there should be a difference It's if my identity is still foremost Then I'm still valuing my life my will and so here the Holy Spirit comes and makes it possible for us To be in Christ because he's dwelling within us. I Got ten minutes He says next you are in me.

That's the second line He said I am in the father and there we have the great truth Getting to the truth of the father because we are now in Christ and Christ is in the father, you know being in Him is a matter that the New Testament is Consumed with it's over and over again that we read these great truths about being crucified with Christ Romans 6 being Buried with Christ Romans 6 being raised again with Christ Ephesians 2 Seated with Christ in heavenly places Ephesians 1 when he returns I Will return with him in glory This unity it's with with with Christ Over and over again. There's this incredible Security this incredible security that is now ours that I no longer have held to a standard of my own performance I Dread coming to conferences and bombing because then for the next week, I'm a complete loser You say no Dave you're not because your performance isn't based upon you you're in Christ and For the next seven days, I'm gonna say amen to that every day. It may not feel that way But it is true the Lord doesn't think any more of me for making my pilgrimage out here to Garner Villa and If I really nail it and you go away and go that's it in life Don't let him ever do another VBS man.

He's a platform man through and through That's not the point My security is in Christ now It's in him because I've identified with his death his burial his resurrection. I'm seated with him I'm coming back with him we did a VBS once about a About the tabernacle and the favorite piece of furniture for the little kids was the table because it had those two borders When I explained that I said if you had your juice cup on the table with two borders It's very hard for it to go off the table Double security. I said, you know your cups always going off the table your bread boys table after the littlest kids in the VBS They all said an appreciated truth, but I didn't appreciate it till I was like 33 Security comes.

What does the what does the scripture say in Colossians 3 that you are? in Christ Who is in God? That that that security not only that but we read here in John's gospel That that my sheep hear my voice and they have eternal life. None of them shall perish No one shall pluck them out of my hand. My father which has given me is greater than I no man Shall pluck them out of his hand.

I and my father are one There's that double security of being in Christ and being in the father Here to be in him you are in me to identify with what he has done You know for a while there. I was watching a lot of Hawkeye girls basketball Anybody else here? That's good. Look at that good Christian group only to Congregation like oh, we had double hands.

That'll get in the back. Oh another one. It's hard to admit it's hard to imagine sports metaphors from a place like this get you back to VBS, but For a while I was a girls Hawkeye fan, right? I thought they're Just the amazement of watching that girl Clark number 22 nail threes from midcourt I was sitting in my house there in March.

I thought amazing that when she hit that three I said she said I just hit the three and the other four girls around here They could say we just scored the other six girls on the bench who won't see playing time until 2026 They said we just scored Coach Jansen. She said we just scored all 15,000 at the Hawkeye Arena They just said we scored Joe Brandt sitting on his couch at home. Just said we scored All right, you say who was it true for and who wasn't it true for? Well, you see they all identified They all identified with the one woman there behind the arch number 22 and said when she did it we did it Thursday was D-Day when 71,000 Americans 155,000 of the Allied troops stormed Normandy went on to the beaches of Omaha and Utah and old and Juno and sword 80 years ago.

There's few of us who were there then When I used to talk to my grandfather, he would always say when we took the beach. He wasn't there You know, I could talk to my brethren here today to Matt and Leslie They both had representatives on that beach that day when we took the beach When we change the course of not only American history, but world history When we alter the outcome of World War two you say why is it that 80 years later? We could say when we did that Because we identify with the men and women who were Americans just like us who were Canadians We Identify with them my friend to identify with Christ in his death burial Resurrection and in his return and glory allows me to show evidence that I am in Christ this security that I have Of all that he has done is now made good to me is now applied to my life But I come into the good of it. Not only of him in me We will wrap up here soon, but that I am in you That's the last one.

I am in you We are in Christ and all that he has done All that he has accomplished on that April 3rd day between 9 and 3 in The year 80 33 all that he did I come into the good of when he rose again on Sunday I come into the good of that when he ascended back to heaven 50 days later I come into the good of it when he returns. I Will be with him in glory You see me being in Christ allows me to identify with all And to gain all that he has done Here the Lord Jesus says and I am in you You know the Bible this is where maybe people sometimes get Confused Bible makes a distinction Between us in Christ and Christ in us even think of Romans 8 very famous chapter Romans 8 says Any man be in Christ or to be in in him? there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and you go further down the chapter and Verse 10 tells us there about the fact that if Christ be in you Then the body is dead because of sin if all that is Christ Belongs to us when we are in him and all that is yours belongs to Christ when he is in you Let me say it one more time If all that is Christ belongs to you when you are in him and all that is yours belongs to Christ But he is in you In the Old Testament you had to give 10% and you had to give 1 7th of your week When Christ is in you he gets it all he gets seven days a week He gets a hundred percent of your income before and after taxes and anything you get back from that Anything that you get inheritance he gets it all everything because he's in you if Christ if Me in Christ makes me a member of his body And I come into the good of that then Christ in me Then Christ in me means this that my body is now the home for Christ That if you in Christ is about his body then Christ in you is about your body The Apostle Paul could say your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Your body all these things and I will close with this You being in Christ all that he has done I come into the good of Christ being in me It has this profound change on my life But I want to yield all that I have and all that is mine because I'm giving him back his life I'm not wasting it to waste it would be for my identity to be at the forefront But to live in the good of the fact that he lives and I live Is to return his life unto him every minute of the day every hour Every day of the week every dime that I get From now until I die. It takes a whole life to give back a whole life And so here the Apostle ends with this.

He says what does it all come to? What does it show itself in here at the end? We read these verses. It says this in John 14 He spoke here about He that has my commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he that loves me shall be loved by my father And I will love him and will show myself unto him being in Christ allows me to have an affection for things that would otherwise be Disgusting to the human heart to the to the unredeemed human heart These things I would have no appetite for but now in Christ I have an affection and a love for the commands of Christ for his will being done How does John 14 end? John 14 ends by the Savior talking about doing the commands of the father I would ask my audience here. How many times in the Bible does the father does the son say to the father? I love the father You must say oh it must be all over the pages of Scripture.

I must litter the New Testament No, only one time in your entire Bible did we ever get from Jesus Christ? I love the father and it's right here at the end of John 14 and what provokes it Because I do the commands that the father has given me to do We talk a lot about loving the father But let us practically go forth from here and just start by showing that we even like him by doing what he has asked us to do Loving him by being obedient unto his will by doing the natural things Spiritually and doing the spiritual things Naturally, I don't think there is a thing in your life by which you cannot do in Christ. There are sins Don't get me wrong. There are sins and disobedience, but sometimes we think that our jobs are to be done in the flesh No do them in Christ if I can pump septics in the Lord you can do anything in the Lord If you can you say I I bet you can duck hunt in the Lord You give them a fair warning five minutes that shows some grace and mercy to do things of the natural to stop Compartmentalizing our lives and then half the week we are in David and the other half I am in Christ But to take my life and in its whole Being to say I am in Christ It's greatest picture that the father The son was in the father That I am in Christ That Christ is in me and here in John 14 all so that we might know that life Life that we have is not our own So don't waste his life Don't waste it Stop stop yielding your members as weapons for the enemy for unrighteousness Stop glorifying in the things of this world if you're if you're caught up in things that are glorifying things for which Christ died stop stop yielding your members to unrighteousness, but instead Yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead You have the decision you have the freedom to do it Because you are in Christ, you no longer have to serve sin you can now serve the Son You can know the Father a son who's in the Father us in the Son the Son in us To reach that high-water mark.

What is it that we're not left here as orphans? We're left here as sons in order to show our identity can be encapsulated in those two glorious words in Christ