Monday 3 March 2008

Invading the Impossible - Part 7

I actually transcribed this 2nd message that Rob brought to City Church International after "Invading the Impossible - Part 6" because of the way they were numbered. However it appears that Rob actually brought "Part 7" first before the church worshipped. It must be THE shortest Rob Rufus sermon ever at about 20 minutes! However in reading it through you can see how incredibly stirring it is and how wonderfully motivating to worship. I transcribed the notes on a very quiet night shift and actually sat motionless for half an hour just meditating on the fact that Jesus Christ is exalted to the right hand of the Father and has poured out the Holy Spirit!!

Here are the notes:

“Let’s go to Acts chapter 2. We’re going to go to four Scriptures to prepare us to praise and to worship. Last week we looked at the wonderful news that Jesus is exalted to the highest place as a Man. He was God and He is God and always will be God but He gave up equality with God and took on the form of a Man. He never gave up being God but He made Himself nothing and took on the form of a Man. He was exalted to the highest place after the victory of the Cross and the Resurrection. He was exalted to the highest place and all authority in heaven and earth was given to Jesus through the victory of the Cross. The Bible says in Ephesians 1; “God has put all things under His feet and God has appointed Him to be head over all things for the church”. FOR US. There is a Man in heaven called Jesus who is exalted above everything His Name is above everything. Every knee must bow at His Name in heaven and on earth and under the earth. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. ALL. He is exalted – He has all things under His feet and He is the head of all things. FOR US. For the Church!

That revelation is the basis for the outpouring of the Spirit. As you worship Jesus today – not to try and get Him to be exalted but have a revelation right now that He is already exalted. Everything is already under His feet!

I have a cough right now but that cough is already under His feet. Now it doesn’t feel like it is under His feet right now. How many of you have situations right now that they don’t look like they are under Jesus’ feet? But they are already under His feet! Well how come they don’t feel like they are under His feet? Well because they are under His feet in the realm of the Spirit – in the realm of revelation they are under His feet! It has already happened! He is not going to put them under His feet – but has already. This has already happened!

This flu is already is under His feet but it is not under His feet in a manifestation of the earthly. This cough proves that it is not under His feet in the physical – not under His feet in my experience or the natural. It is under His feet absolutely in the realm of the Spirit – Jesus has conquered!

So what is God waiting for? He is saying to Jesus, “You sit at My right hand and we will wait until Your enemies are made Your footstool”.

What is a footstool? A footstool in the Bible is a resting place for someone who is sitting on the Throne. Jesus said in the Gospels that the earth is His footstool. So what is worshipping at His footstool?

Worshipping God is worshipping Jesus Christ because He is already exalted to the highest place even though we can’t right now experience everything under His feet but which has already happened in the Spirit. As you worship Him and praise Him then God in the earth in your experience in the natural forces the enemy to bow His knee and be under your feet and under the footstool of Jesus Christ.


That is what praise is all about! (Acts 2:32) “God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of this fact, exalted to the right hand of God. He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you know see and hear for David did not ascend to heaven and yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”. They are already under His feet but in the earth realm all cancer is not yet under His feet but it is under His feet in the Spirit and as we praise and exalt Him the power of God falls and then cancer becomes His footstool, flu becomes His footstool!

When you praise God extravagantly God puts your enemies under His feet on your behalf that are already in the Spirit under His feet. (Hebrews 1:13) showing that Jesus is superior to the angels. “Which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation?”. How many of you have inherited salvation this morning? Therefore the angels are your servants ministering to you – the ‘heirs of salvation’. Angels are coming into this place to minister to you! As you praise Him and say you are exalted Lord – as you do that – everything that is under His feet in the Spirit is manifested in the earth realm in tangible, under-His-feet experience in the reality of your experience.

(Hebrews 10) – Do you have to be holy enough or good enough to earn the right to praise Him? How many of you know that God hates religion? How many of you know that in the last days the Bible warns that there will be terrible times (2 Timothy 3:5) – the Bible says there will be people with a form and appearance of godliness but who deny the power of the Gospel. What is that? Legalism! That is putting people under condemnation and under guilt and trapping them into all systems of doing things of keeping law, rules and regulations – God says, “I hate that! I started that under the law but I am displeased with that”. (Isaiah 66) – God says He hates the sacrifices and ceremonies and the law keeping – He says that is not the kingdom.

Christians today around the earth are not praising God with extravagance because many of them are held under a government of control, of legalism, of condemnation. They are not sure whether their sins are forgiven but I promise you your sins are more than forgiven – you are perfect in the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ!

Notice that God hates the law thing even though He gave it. (Hebrews 10:8) – This is Jesus speaking. “Here I am …”. He has set aside the 1st Covenant to establish the 2nd. Christians need to be established in the New Covenant – not only understand it but be established in it. (v10) – “I have been made” – it is already an accomplished fact – I have been made holy through the sacrifice of the one Body of Jesus Christ once and for all. That means you have been made holy once and forever – it is once and for all! You are sitting still when you listen to this because you don’t believe the Gospel – that is your problem! (v11) – “Again and again he offers the same sacrifice which can never take away sin but when this priest Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins He sat down at the right hand of God”. You are perfect forever because this sacrifice by this Jesus was all sufficient. ALL sufficient. You are made holy forever! Forever and ever! Nothing can change that!

(v17) – “Sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin”. THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO DO TO BE RIGHT WITH GOD, IT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE! He is exalted, everything is under His feet for you – now as we praise Him, He will bring it under His feet in manifestation in the earth realm. (Psalm 99:5) – “Worship at His footstool” – What is His footstool? Where He is making His/our enemies to be under His feet in reality and experience. That which is happening in the Spirit is happening in our life experience.

Songs: “He is exalted” – “How great is our God” – “Our God is an awesome God”.

1 comment:

lydia said...

Dan, I'm glad you put this up! I couldn't get to it due to a furious stomach bug going through our household......!!