The Great Exchange of Jesus

Praise God. So a little bit about myself and my wife. We. I was born in Brisbane. My wife was born in Melbourne, and we met up here, which is a huge blessing.

And I moved down there. We spent a lot of time, probably almost eight years in Melbourne, where we met a good friend, Lynn, Luke, over here. Who. Wait, we met up here? Oh, no, you were living down there?

That's right. So, yeah. But these guys. These guys have been a huge blessing to our life. And he just happens to be up here this weekend.

So I want to give a little shout out to my friend there. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't tell you what a blessing it is to stand in front of you guys today, because whenever you get to minister the word, it's a privilege. And I started out my first job outside of school as a tradesman, a fitter and turner apprentice.

Who knows what a fitter and turner is? One, two hands. Okay, great. Wow. That's.

Yeah, that's the normal reaction. It's all right. You don't have to know what a fitter and turner is. It's a metal trade where we make stuff, and it's very precise. It's not like a welding boilermaking job is kind of.

It's still accurate. No offense to boilermakers if there's any in the room, but fitting and machining is a little bit more precise. And I've sort of carried that attitude into everything I do. In fact, my son and I were having a really good chat yesterday about doing things right the first time. And the Lord does things right the first time, doesn't He?

He doesn't make mistakes. No one in this room is a mistake. He knows you, he sees you, he loves you, and he's not forgotten you. And it was a great. It was a privilege to be able to learn how to do things properly.

I believe that it's a character of the Father that we do things right the first time. We're not called to perfection, but we're called to excellence. And he says that the more that we become like him, he's perfect. Right. So we're walking a walk of faith where the intention is that we become more like a perfect God.

And so it's a privilege to get to stand here in front of you today because this is not where I intended to be for my job at all. I was the kid in school that, like, the piece of paper would stand there and, like, you could hear it at the back of the room shaking. So the Lord's done a work. Praise God. So I'm going to be.

We're share a little bit of our testimony as well at some point. But if I'm totally honest with you, I actually was preparing late last night because we were at a. I see a couple of familiar faces, actually, who was at the empowered conference last night. There's a couple. I feel like, yeah, there's a few faces around. So praise God.

That was a beautiful night last night. And so we got home quite late and I was sitting in bed looking at what I'd prepared earlier that day, and I just didn't have peace in my spirit. I'm like, this isn't. Ah, Lord, this isn't it. I don't know what it is.

So I sat there for maybe five more minutes and I was just praying. I'm like, lord, what do you want me to speak on tomorrow? What do you want me to share? And I just got nothing. And so isn't the walk of faith exciting?

You know, you're preaching at a church the next morning and you got nothing. So don't stress. The Lord did wake me up. I said, lord, I'm going to go to bed and I'm just going to trust your spirit and trust that I'm not the one that's carrying the weight of the responsibility of your word. That's you.

You are the word. And so I'm going to go to sleep and sleep peacefully because you said you give your children sweet sleep, your beloved sweet sleep. And I'm going to wake up and you'll have something to say. And so I woke up with this message in my spirit. This morning, literally, I was laying on my bed and I heard the Lord say, five things Jesus exchanged for our redemption.

Five things that Jesus exchanged for our redemption. Point number one, if you're taking notes, write these down. Point number one is he exchanged his glory. That's not that he left his glory or that he lost it, but he exchanged it. Mark.

Sorry. Matthew 6:10. It says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The will of God is completely unabated in heaven. Anything that the Lord wants to do, I could almost imagine he doesn't even have to speak it.

It would just be even, maybe even a gesture like some kings and princes can. Just a finger movement and servants go running quick. We've got to do something. How much more? The King of kings and the Lord of Lords, he's the alpha and omega.

He sits in the throne of his glory, and he would just give command. But then Jesus, sitting at the right hand of the Father. He's exchanged that for earthly presence, and that's for us.

The will of God moves unabated in heaven. And I want to draw your attention to the centurion servant story. Luke 7, 7, 8. Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed.

For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, go. And he goes, and to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant do this, and he does it. Now, if a natural servant, a natural centurion, a natural man, can look at Jesus and go, this man carries authority.

I know, because I carry authority. If I say, go, and he goes, come, and he comes, do this, and he does it. How much more this man Jesus, the Son of the living God, Right? And it's not that he exchanged the authority that he had in heaven, but the glory that he sat in in heaven was changed because he didn't present on earth the same way that he presented in heaven, did he?

Jesus authority was recognized in the natural. So how much more in the Spirit, but in heaven? Isaiah 61:3.

Hey.

Isaiah 61:3. In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings, two to cover his face. With two he covered his feet, and with the two he flew.

And one cried to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, the Lord of hosts, who the earth, the whole earth is full of his glory.

That was the position he was in. And yet here he is on earth as a humble man. He exchanged his glory so that he could come for a specific purpose. I want to read Revelation 1:12, 17 to give us a bit more context of his glory in heaven. So verse 12 says.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke to me. This is John. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were like white wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like flames of fire.

Oh, hallelujah. The glory of the Lord Jesus has white, glowing hair. His eyes, when you look into it, are flames of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace. And his voice was the sound of many waters.

Who's ever been to the Grand Canyon? Oh, sorry, not The Grand Canyon, the Niagara Falls. I've never been there, but I can only imagine the sound of those waters. It must be humbling to say the least. Even the sound of a small waterfall, a small, you know, rushing river is imposing.

I know from standing on the bank of a rushing river. You look at that body of water moving past you and you think, I don't want to set foot in that rushing torrent of water. And yet the sound of the Lord's voice was the sound of many rushing waters. Hallelujah. Who knows that Jesus was sitting in glory and he left it.

Hallelujah.

He had in his right hand seven stars. In his right hand, not in both hands. Let me just hold seven stars in this hand. Out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

That's the glory of the Lord in all his glory. Sitting in in the heavenly realms that praise God. People got to walk with him, but not in that glory. Who knows that the glory of the Lord, the presence of God is so powerful that if we were to enter into it, we would drop dead. We know that by the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, the holiest of holies, only the Levitical priesthood could go in, only the high priest once a year to make sacrifice.

And he had to cleanse himself and go through that process of sanctification. God's presence is so holy, his glory is so mighty and so powerful. But the Bible says that Jesus was slain before the foundation of the earth. He left that glory to come to us, to come and rescue what was lost. John 17:5 says, and now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

So Jesus even identified himself that the position he was in in the natural was not the same position he was in with the Father. So there's a distinction between the two point number two. He exchanged proximity with the Father. He exchanged proximity with the Father. Jesus was described as being in the presence of the Lord from the beginning.

We just read John 17:5. He says, Glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had before the world was. John 1:1:2. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And the Word was with God.

John 8:58. Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. Hallelujah. He's the great I am.

He's the great I am. He was sitting at the right hand of the Father. He even again he identifies the fact that he is now no longer satisfied next to the Father. It seems like a simple thing, but I'm coming to making a point here.

We have to always remember the sacrifice that Jesus made. And yes, I mean the sacrifice on the cross, but the fact that he humbled himself to leave heaven. Just that simple act of sitting next to the Father and then knowing from the beginning of time. At some point I'm going to have to experience this separation. Experience the separation that natural man has to experience.

But remember, the Garden of Eden was never meant to be tainted with sin. So the earth that we live in was not the earth that God intended for us to exist in. I believe that the Garden of Eden was meant to be eternal. The Lord created us as eternal beings. And so we were never meant to know the curse of sin which leads to death.

So the separation that we experienced really began when Adam and Eve were thrust out of the garden. Because now sin separated what was holy from a holy God. But Jesus, knowing that from the beginning, reconciled himself to say, no, I'll go and I'll be the propitiation for their sin. This is foundational in understanding the fact that he loved us so much. The Father loved us so much.

He loves you so much that there was nothing that he wouldn't give for you. Nothing he wouldn't give up for you. Yes, his life. But the presence of a holy God, a holy Father, we sing about it all the time. We, we sit in church and we say, lord, we just want your presence.

That's the thing that we desire to be in your presence and in your glory so much. That's the very thing Jesus had to come to a point of deciding. I'm going to leave it for your sake. That humbled me this morning.

Micah 5:2 says, Jesus is described as being from old and from everlasting.

It's a beautiful thing to be able to say that you live for the Lord. And I'd question you and say, to what extent have we consecrated our lives to the Lord? My wife and I have had the huge privilege, as Pastor Gwen was mentioning that We've been at Dr. Rodney Howard Brown's church for the last three years and we've sat under his teaching, sat under the ministry there in River University. And, and it was a, it was a wild ride. There's no, no place quite like the River Church.

Yeah, the pace that they have at that church is next level. It's like seven days a week. There are things happening and we had the. We had the privilege of serving in many of the different departments. I ended up being sort of the leader of the chair set up.

I know. That's super exciting. Chairs. Wow. It's a lot of chairs.

Thank you. Thank you. It is a lot of chairs.

And as a student, there were many serving requirements. There was ministry of operations, which is. Sorry, yeah. Ministry of helps, which is during service time. Every time there's a service on.

During the week, which is six days of the week, there's a service on. You don't have to serve every service, but there was a minimum requirement of service that you had to do for the school. Then there was ministry of service practicum, which was outside of service time, outside of school time. We would go and we would serve in the church and help in any way we could. Whether that was cleaning bathrooms or whether that was landscaping, whether that was whatever.

Whatever was needed. Chair set up. Doesn't matter. You go and serve.

There was conferences where two meetings a day, seven days a week or eight days from Sunday to Sunday, and there's no time cap, and it's Pastor Rodney. And so services might run four and a half hours. And it did something in me that the Bible says that we're to die to ourselves, that we're to be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord. Jesus said in John 12:24, unless a grain of seed falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Now, he was referring to himself that he was about to die, and he was about to be resurrected again and produce much fruit as the firstborn brethren.

The firstborn among many brethren. But I ask you today, have you truly died to yourself before you mentioned that word before. Crossing over. You're crossing over into a new season. You're crossing over into new heights with the Lord.

You're crossing over into things maybe you've never stepped into before. Some of you might be just around the corner from a promotion, but you're stepping into a new level. And I ask you today, have you consecrated yourself to the Lord that no matter what the world brings to you, whether it's a blessing or a curse, you. You say, lord, I don't care what it is, I'm still going to live for you, and I'm going to live strong because your son died to pay the price. Your son died so that I could be redeemed and reconciled to you.

He paid the ultimate price. It's our reasonable service.

Reasonable service to be a living sacrifice to The Lord. What would abundant service look like? What would extravagant service for the Lord look like? I know for myself, when the Lord first called us, I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't know.

I was like, man, this is. This is different because I grew up Baptist, and, yeah, I'm not. Yeah, walk out of church, like, depressed every Sunday. I was like, I'm sorry, Lord, but I grew up Baptist. And so I didn't.

I didn't really know about hearing from the Holy Spirit. I knew about praying to God somewhere up there, but I didn't know a relationship with him. I didn't know intimacy with the Father.

And I believe there was one time that in that Baptist church, who knows what the Holy Spirit will take. Any moment he gets, if you give him an opportunity to move, he'll move. And there was a. There was one night at this Baptist church where we were just worshiping. And it seemed to me like a normal service.

Like, I had my Sunday hat on spiritually and we were just worshiping, and all of a sudden it just shifted. The presence of God swept through that church. And I didn't know it at the time, and for a long time I didn't realize it, but the young lady I was with at the time, we were just weeping under the power of God, under the presence of his spirit. Like, I'm talking snot coming out everywhere. And I couldn't make sense of what was happening.

I was like, lord, what is this? I don't even understand. And for a long time I didn't. But I look back now, and I understand that the Lord did something in me. And I believe he put the least amount of fear necessary to know that if he spoke to me, I'd be obedient.

And I've always had a heart to just. To just honor the Lord and to do what's right. The Lord's given us a consciousness in our spirit to know right from wrong. You know right from wrong. You know when the Lord is leading you to do something and you ignore it.

You know that sin is sin, and you know that God is good. You know when he's saying to you, hey, I need you to take this thing and I need you'd to burn it on the altar because it's not of me. We know that it's a consciousness we have because his spirit is alive on the inside of us, and we need to honor it. And that comes down to fearing God enough to know that we don't fear man who can kill the body, but we fear God, who can throw our soul into hell.

So when the Lord first spoke to us in a significant way about moving to America, he prepared us all the way with small steps of obedience. We moved from one state to another state, and that was the first step. We moved from working full time to working part time and studying full time, which I started studying a teaching degree as a high school teacher taking my trade, and I was going to be a manual arts teacher. And I was like, I've got my career sorted. Praise God.

You know, secure job, everything's going to be sweet. And I got three years into that teaching degree. Yeah, almost done.

And as a family, when Covid was happening, we. We had decided that we were not going to partake of any vaccination requirements and that sort of thing. And so that meant that I wasn't able to go into public schools. So that meant that I wasn't able to finish my degree. I wasn't able to go and actually do the PRAC placement.

That would mean that I could qualify to be a teacher. And so I'm sitting there, still going to classes, still sort of like, well, don't know what this looks like, Lord, but here we are. And we went to a conference, and a man of God spoke over me and he said, the Lord sees your heart for ministry. He sees your heart for ministry, and he wants to honor it, but you're going to have to make a choice, a choice between a career and ministry. And I said, praise God.

Sounds good. Let me just take that. I'm going to put it on the shelf and see what the Lord does. Not to. Not to throw it away, but just to just.

That's just what I do with prophecy. Pray into it. Three hours later, I'm not finished my degree yet. Three hours later, I get a phone call from the school that was like, in our minds. Five years down the track.

Once I've got some experience under my belt and I'm like, I've got some public school education. I'm ready. Maybe one day this private Christian school where my kids are going, maybe one day they'll have an opening and I can potentially apply and hopefully I get the job.

The head of the department calls me and offers me that job. Three hours later, and I hung up the phone. I said, obviously I'm going to speak to my wife and let you know. And it took me maybe five minutes, and then the power of God came all over me and I was like, oh, this is the decision. And in that moment, I could not reconcile myself because of the beautiful word of the Lord.

Hey, there's a decision coming. You're gonna have to make it. What felt like five minutes later? Here's the decision. How can I ignore God?

How can the King of kings and the Lord of Lords be speaking to me through his. Through his servant? And then I turn around and go, no, I think my plan's better. I think I'm gonna stick with teaching. Lord, obviously, we didn't do that.

I fear God enough to know that when he speaks clearly, I better be obedient. And so we phoned and we turned down the job. And two days after that, I got a phone call from some friends saying, hey, we want to offer you an associate pastor's position at church.

Come on. Obedience is the principal thing that leads to the. To the blessing of the Lord. It leads to open doors of opportunity. His will for your life is important because there's people that are waiting for you to step into the exact thing that the Lord has for you to do.

And it's their salvation that's dependent on your obedience. Come on, somebody. You're important to the kingdom of God. If God didn't need you here the moment you got saved or the moment you fulfilled everything he needed for you to do, you'd be in heaven with him.

So if you woke up with breath in your lungs this morning, you can know without a shadow of a doubt, hey, God's not done with me yet. Hallelujah. Someone shout, God's not done with me yet. Come on, now. That wasn't loud enough.

Yes, come on. God's not done with me yet. Hallelujah. He's going to use me. He's going to use you.

Do you believe that? Come on.

Point number three. Jesus exchanged riches to come here and to rescue us.

He exchanged riches. Second Corinthians 8, 9 says, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might become rich. Now, I'm not a Bible scholar, but I'm getting there. If we look at the Greek translations of the word rich, both instances of the word rich in this scripture, the first instance, where it says, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich. So this rich is speaking to Jesus.

Speaking. Speaking about Jesus, the state that he was in before he came to the earth. That word is plusios. I think. I think that's how you pronounce it.

And that means wealthy, figuratively abounding with. So Jesus was abounding with. Even if it was figuratively, he was abounding, he was in glory. Like, what did he lack? There's no lack.

In the kingdom of heaven, they put our most precious metal on the floor. We cover it. Like in the Old Testament, they would take the most precious metal that we have on earth, gold. Right. And cover it in things, make solid things out of it.

That was the most. That's the most precious thing we have. And in heaven they're just like, chuck it on the floor, put roads in, make roads out of it. That'll do. And the second instance of that word, then the verse continues and he starts referring to us.

Yet for your sake he became poor, that through his poverty you might become rich. That word rich is not the same word used in the first instance that says generally abounding in figuratively being filled and wealthy. The second instance is pluteo. To make wealthy, to be increased with goods to be made. Or to wax rich.

Literally. Literally to wax rich. To grow in goods, to grow in statues. Financially.

Don't let someone convince you that. Oh no, that was a. That's to do with spiritual things. God was rich spiritually, but he became poor spiritually. Okay, does that mean that he was less God on earth than he was in heaven?

No, he was fully God on earth, but fully man. He cannot be less spiritually rich than he already was. Come on, somebody. So for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty we might become rich, bountifully supplied, increasing in goods, being made rich, wealthy. Hallelujah.

Proverbs 19:17 says, he who has pity on the poor, love lends to the Lord, and he will repay back what he has given. Who knows? To repay back something that you give to someone else, you got to have something yourself. Come on, the Lord's got enough that whatever you could give, whatever amount of money, whatever amount of time, whatever amount of resources you could possibly ever give to the kingdom of heaven and to the. To those who are in need, he has enough to repay it.

So he's rich. He is a wealthy, abounding God. There is no lack in his presence. Jesus sat at the right hand of the Father in glory, where there's crystal seas and gold that apparently I think is see through somehow. I don't even know how that works, but no lack.

And he left that to become a man, to become poor. Was Jesus poor on the earth? No, he was well cared for. But when you compare that to the riches of heaven.

Hallelujah.

Psalm 50:10. For every beast of the forest is Mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. Verse 12. If I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world is mine and the fullness thereof.

There's nothing that the Lord doesn't have access to. Psalm 24:1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. So supply is never limited in him who knows that. That means your supply is not limited.

Come on. Your supply is not limited because who's alive on the inside of you? Jesus. Thank you, Lord. His poverty is what translates to our wealth.

Can you catch that?

That verse is so clear. He left riches. He left affluence and abundance so that through his poverty, through his sacrifice, you would become rich materially. Let me ask you this question. If pastor Glenn's got $10 million, hallelujah.

You got to add a J into the hallelujah. Pastor Glenn's got $10 million, and I have a thousand dollars. Who can do more for the kingdom of God? Ecclesiastes says, money answers all things. Does that mean we make money in idol?

No, absolutely not. It's a horrible master, but it's a wonderful tool. It's not money that's the root of all kinds of evil. It's the love of money that's the root of all kinds of evil. So I'm telling you, the kingdom of God is executed on this earth through people.

And God wants his people blessed. He wants you blessed. I don't care if you're in the worst financial state you've ever been in or if you're prospering. He has more for you. He has more coming to you as you're obedient to his will, because that's the thing he wants you blessed in.

In all things.

In all things. He wants you blessed.

Beloved, I wish that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. So if your soul is prospering because you've been redeemed of the Lord, all the other things, you can't refer to that then as, oh, he wants me spiritually rich. No, he said, even as your soul prospers, so all things then refers to material increase. But remember, it's not ours, it's His. We just release it.

So his poverty translates to our wealth. Point number four. He gave up a perfected body.

There's a big difference between a glorified body and a natural one. Amen.

Big difference. John 17. 5. And now, Father, glorify me with yourself, with the glory which I had in you before the world was Philippians 2, 6, 8, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it, consider equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form.

He humbled himself. He left what. Whatever the glorified state is that he was in, whether you want to call it a body or whether he was a spirit, whatever it was, he left that state to become the form of you and I. Now remember, the form that you and I take in a sinful world is not the form that he initially created. He initially created perfection because God doesn't make mistakes.

He does things right the first time. Hallelujah.

And so his glorified body is what he exchanged so that he could come live as a man and then sacrifice that body so that yours could live.

Romans 8, 3. God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Exodus 20:6. This is beautiful.

One of my favorite classes that I took when I was in Bible school was the tabernacle of Moses. And that sounds to a lot of people that might be like, wow, that's really boring. A bunch of instructions like, what are you talking about? No, but the tabernacle of Moses is so rich. There's so much symbolism, so many types and shadows of the covenant that the Lord was establishing of the coming Messiah that it was pointing to.

And we're just going to do a little bit of a study very quickly in Exodus 26, and it's talking about the coverings for the tabernacle. Exodus 26, 1:14. It describes four layers of material that were to be put over the tabernacle. This is the tabernacle of Moses, not the temple of David.

So remember that this was just like tents and stuff. These guys would pack up and move and set back up. Pack up and move and set back up. So it was material and posts and things like that. And they had the outer court and.

And then they had the temple area itself and the inner court and then the holy of holies, right? And we have different pieces of furniture in each one of those locations. And then over the top, there were these four layers of skin of material. The first layer, which was the closest to the tabernacle itself, which would be the innermost layer. It was linen, different colors of linen.

The second layer was goat's hair. Often it was black. Black goat's hair. And this symbolized something. Then over the top of the goat's hair, there was ram skin dyed red.

And then over the top of that There was an outer durable layer of skin, often from badgers. I believe it was badger skin or something. Like you might be thinking, what in the world does this have to do with anything to do with why? Why does it matter that there were four layers of skin over the tabernacle and meeting. What the heck?

And I was thinking the exact same thing. And I wish that I could teach this as good as the man of God taught me.

But see, each one of those things has a meaning. God's never. He never does things by accident. He's very intentional. Because that first inner layer was an expensive material, beautiful linens, and that represented the righteousness of God and Jesus holiness, covering the place where we would meet.

The next layer, the goatskin, often it was black, represented sin and the fact that Jesus became a curse for us. That beautiful, rich, expensive holy material was covered in darkness, covered in wickedness.

The next was the ram skin, dyed red, which represents the blood, the sacrifice that he poured out for the remission of sins. And the next was the plain skin over the top that represented his humanity. Because he looks like. Just like you and me. On the outside, he looks just like you and me, but on the inside, he's a holy God.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.

He exchanged that glory that he had in his body sitting at the right hand of the Father to come and be like mortal men.

But praise the Lord, if he didn't do that, we would have no hope of redemption. We would have no hope of washing away our sin. Not just covering it, washing it away. The final point, and this is the one that hits heavy, is that he lost or he exchanged the Father's endearment. He lost fellowship.

Imagine sitting in glory, sitting in the temple of God next to your Father, reigning from generation to generation to generation from eternity past. And now you're thrust down into this imperfect world that wasn't even meant to be imperfect. It was meant to be a beautiful holy sanctuary where. Where almost like a garden from a house, you could just walk out and come back in, come up from the presence of the Lord and go out into the garden. That's the world.

That's the sort of how I imagine it must have been like, because there's a separation between earth and heaven, the heavens above, the earth beneath, right? And then even the difference between heaven and hell. We know that the Bible talks about that great gulf fixed. And we cannot cross from here to there or there to here.

But now this garden area that God should have had the pleasure of walking in the cool of the day, with all of his creations now tainted. And he can't go. He can't be in that area. He can't be in that place because sin's reigning now. Authority has been handed over.

And so he knows again, I'm going to have to leave this fellowship that I have with God to go for a time.

About the ninth hour, hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He experienced the separation from the Father for the first time. Can imagine the Lord turning his face away.

He bore the weight of our abandonment. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, for our sakes he was made to be sin who knew no sin. Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Galatians 3:13. But hallelujah.

Christ redeemed us from. From the curse of the law by becoming a curse for sin for us.

So righteousness and intimacy is now our portion. Notice with every single one of these things that we've just gone over, he exchanged glory, he exchanged proximity with the Father, he exchanged riches, he exchanged the body that he had, and he exchanged intimacy. Well, an exchange goes both ways, doesn't it? If an exchange happens, one gives, but one gets.

He left the presence of God. He left the glorified body he had. He left the riches of heaven. He left fellowship with the Father. Oh, hallelujah.

And he did it for us. He did it so that we would enter into the things that he exchanged, that we would enter into glory, that. That we would have proximity with the Father, that we would enter riches of heaven, that we would enter a glorified, healthy, healed body, and that we would walk in intimacy with the Father by the Holy Spirit. That's the great exchange on the cross. Hallelujah.

I feel the presence of God.

He left all of those things so that he could exchange it and give it to you. Oh, how beautiful. How loving is the Father towards us. Thank you, Jesus.

And his heart is not that it would stay with you because he traveled such a distance and he left so much. What he left was so precious. And he's come and he's made a way for us to now be intimate with the Father. How can sinful man enter into the presence of a holy God? Oh, it's by the Spirit, by the Spirit.

Because he said that he's washed us clean, washed us white as snow. The offerings in the Old Testament covered their sin. Like putting paint over wallpaper and just painting over it so you can't see it anymore. The blood of Jesus says That he's washed as white as snow. Washed it away.

That's ripping off the old wallpaper and putting new paint up. Brand new. Holy, sanctified to the Lord. He said, be holy as I'm holy. Come on.

He doesn't want you walking the same way the world walks. He doesn't want you talking the same way the world walks.

His exchange meant that now we can know and truly know that we know that we know that my spirit is redeemed. You have to understand, you are not your body and you are not your soul. You are a spirit born again of the spirit of God. You are a spirit, you live in a body and you have a soul. And there's a distinct difference between those three things.

It's your spirit that's been redeemed and perfected in Christ because what's born of God is perfect. It's our mind, our will and our emotions that we bring under subjection to our spirit with the help of the Holy Ghost. That's why the Bible says that we're casting down vain imaginations. Where are your imaginations? In your head, your mind, your will and your emotions.

That's your soulless realm. So by the power of the Spirit, we take dominion and authority over our thoughts, over our emotions, over our actions that play out in our physical body. Are you with me?

And he did all that. He left all that so that we could have that understanding, we could have that strength in our spirit. We can be empowered by the Holy Ghost and go out and say, hey, broken world, I've got something for you. I've got the true riches of heaven. I've got the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

I got the strength of God. I've got a body healed and strong because he died on the cross. And he said, by my stripes, you were healed.

And then he said, go lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

Baptizing in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. What a great God we serve. So I ask you again today, how sanctified and how consecrated is your life to the Lord? If he said go, would you go?

If he said stay, would you stay? Because it's not about doing what we did. We went, we sold everything that we had and we moved to America to go and do Bible school. We owned our home, debt free. We owned our cars.

Kids were in private school who were living the dream, not knowing that I was lukewarm, probably backslidden, whitewashed tomb full of dead men's bones. But praise the Lord, he came and he Met me and he said, hey, I've got better for you. Come up higher, come up higher. Come on. You're crossing over to the next level.

You're going into the next phase of your life. You're stepping into something new.

Oh, thank you, Jesus.

So today you get to make a decision.

You get to make the decision to one, if you've never given your life to the Lord, you get to come back, come to him for time, the first, first time and say, lord, whatever this dude just explained to me, I feel it. I need your love in my life. Two, if you've known God, but you know you've gotten yourself into a place where compromise has crept in, where things that the world says is right, you've accepted and you've tried to intermingle that with your walk with the Lord. That's called sitting on the fence. That's called lukewarm Christianity, and God hates it.

He would rather you be cold or fully hot on fire for God, but the indifference is the place that he hates. Don't be indifferent. Decide to cross over to the place that God has for you, which is full of his glory, full of his intimacy, full of his healing and blessings, full of his increase and abundance, and full of intimacy with the Father. And three, if you need to consecrate yourself today and say to the Lord again, whatever it is that you want me to do, Lord, I'll do it. I'll go where you want me to go.

I'll say what you want me to say. I'll be what you want me to be.

Can you honestly say that today, just before you, as a church body, are going to cross over into the next phase of your existence, can you honestly say that you're prepared to do whatever the Lord asks you to do? And if not, if there's any doubt there, any fear that you need to get dealt with today, you can deal with it. It can be left on the altar and done with. And you can walk out of this building knowing, I know that I'm right with God. I know that if he gives me an instruction, I'll be obedient because he's a holy God.

And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God.

So if that's you. And I've had the privilege of doing this in many different places, on the street in America, in the hood where I was stepping over bullet casings. Not that it was a war zone, but I mean, there's druggies everywhere and gang bangers. And I look down and here's a bullet case. I'm like, shivers, Righto.

I've done this in jail ministry with mobsters and guys tatted up, sitting in the back, glaring at me, looking like they want to tear my throat out.

And you preach the word, and by the end of it, the sitting there weeping because they've encountered a true and living God. They've encountered a God that doesn't care what mistakes they've made, doesn't care what state you're in right now, doesn't care that you might have backslidden and messed up.

They meet the King of kings face to face, and they can't help but weep. I had a guy come down in jail ministry, and he said, I'll come here to make sure you're preaching right.

I said, sir, you're going to be blessed. We're going to preach the word. And for three quarters of that sermon, he was sitting on the front row weeping. And then he put his. He put his.

We're in prison like a whole bunch of other guys around. He puts his head on my chest, tears streaming down his face. He said, I'm just floored by the power of God.

You're not exempt. Every single one of us has to come to that place of decision, and that decision is now.

Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that you get right with God. Don't you dare let the enemy tell you that it's shameful to stand up and come to the front because they're gonna know what you did. No, absolutely not. God already knows what you did.

Who cares about the person sitting next to you? Because one day you stand before the Lord by yourself. Because he said, work out your own faith with fear and trembling. Before the Lord, you will stand there and give an account. And he wants to look down and say, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Take these gold, silver and precious stones that was the work that you did for. For me, and go and cast it at the feet of the throne.

Make that decision today.

So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's you, you've never given your life to the Lord. Maybe one day you did, but you've fallen away.

Or you want to consecrate the rest of your life from today to know that if the Lord asked anything of you, you would simply be obedient, laying down pride, laying down false humility.

If that's you, I want you to stand to your feet confidently.

Thank you, Jesus.

If there's anyone in the foyer, don't think you're exempt because you're not in this portion of the building.

Thank you, Jesus. Something else I believe very strongly is that years of anonymous altar calls have produced a generation of silent Christians. People that won't walk out the building and tell someone that, hey, Jesus loves you. We have the greatest gift the world could ever ask for, and they're waiting to be told. So if there's anyone else, your heart might be beating out of your chest because you know, I need to fix this, but I'm scared.

Perfect Love casts out all fear. He doesn't want you fearful.

He wants to wrap you in his arms and in his presence, and he wants to give you all of those things that Jesus, the Son of God, exchanged for you.

So if that's you, anyone else, stand up.

Praise you, lord. Thank you, jesus.