Conia [00:00:17 – 00:00:49]
The last time I got to be with you, we were talking about Memorial Day. And we had gone from Memorial Day message to day after week after Memorial Day message to now we’re in the third part of our series. I think I’m going to wrap it up today. I make you zero promises to that effect. We’re gonna work on it. We’re gonna work on it. We’re gonna see if we can wrap it up today. But we started out with Memorial Day, and we started about why we even have Memorial Day to begin with.
Conia [00:00:49 – 00:01:22]
And if you haven’t seen those sermons, then go back to our YouTube channel and you can see them there. You can find them all in their entirety, and you can find them in the messages only. And there’s a podcast format also in our YouTube. Podcasts are coming on all platforms. Soon, soon, soon. But go back and check out the last two. I’m going to recap just a little bit for you, but not a whole lot. There was a lot there, and we can’t do it all again because then it would take us three more times.
Conia [00:01:22 – 00:01:51]
So we started out with Memorial Day and why we had it. And it’s a. It’s a rabbit trail. If you’ve ever read the. If you’ve ever read the book, if you give a mouse a cookie, that’s. That’s kind of the way my brain works. And so if you haven’t read that book, go get it for your children, your grandchildren, or your favorite niece or nephew, because it’s fun and adorable. But we kind of just one thought leads to the other, leads to the next, leads to more.
Conia [00:01:52 – 00:02:55]
So we did that, and we’re looking about, why do we do that? And we talked about, greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend. And then, why do we have these memorials? And we talked a little bit about that in the history of memorials, why God says that we should have memorials, why those are important, why it’s important to remember what’s been done for us, that God has done great, great things for us, and that the memorials and the feasts were commanded. It wasn’t just, oh, this is a good idea. It was a, remember this so that you can actually get it in your heart and you can really understand God’s heart for us. So that was a huge kind of a thing to realize that those memorials, those feasts in the Old Testament were purposeful. They were meant to be joyful, but they were also meant to remind us of all the things that God had done for us. To bring it back into reality for us. So that’s super, super, super important to really get in your brain.
Conia [00:02:56 – 00:04:04]
Why is it that God wants us to have these memorials? All right, now, then we talked a little bit about things that people have done for us and why honoring the things that people have done for us is important even in our secular life. So we talked about the freedom that we have because of those that have gone before us, that died to give us that freedom, who fought to give us that freedom. We talked about the women’s suffrage movement and how women fought to get us the right to vote. And so we must, especially as women, exercise our right to vote, because people fought for that for us. And we also, we got to walk in our freedom that we have because of all the people who have given their lives. And here again, the origins of Memorial Day. So we went on and we talked about walking out what people died or suffered or sacrificed to give you. And we talked about the parents that go to great lengths to be able to send their children to college.
Conia [00:04:04 – 00:04:54]
And so walking out what it is that you went to college for because that parent went so far and sacrificed so much so that you could do that. And that if we choose not to walk in what someone died to give us, it’s very dishonoring. And we talked about that. So we looked at 2 Timothy 1:5. I’m reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother, Eunice, and now lives in you also. There’s things that get passed down to us that is honorable and that benefits us. And so we need to be able to walk in that thing that we’ve been given. And we went ahead, we said, Isaiah said, your people will rebuild the ancient ruins.
Conia [00:04:54 – 00:05:28]
You will be called a repairer of broken walls and restorer of streets and dwellings. So even if something may have skipped a generation, you still can build on those ancient things that were laid out for you generations ago. And then we talked about what the Bible says about honoring and remembering what God has done. We talked a little bit about that. You don’t want to forget. You want to be obedient. And you can’t be obedient to something if you don’t even know what it is. So we got to remember the things that God has done for us.
Conia [00:05:28 – 00:06:39]
And here again, you can go back and you can look at all these things in the last two weeks, and we talked about communion. The very act of communion is an act of a memorial. And in Luke 22:19, do this in remembrance of me. Bring it back to your awareness, bring it back to your consciousness that Jesus died. He gave his blood, He. He gave his body in sacrifice for us so that we could have a free life, a peaceful life and everything that God wanted us to have to begin with when he created us initially. So this restoration that Jesus brought to us so that we don’t have to go through all the sacrifices and the suffering and penance for the things and the sins that we’ve done, we talked about the inheritance that Jesus died to forgive us, and we’re going to pick up just after this. And so the inheritance that Jesus died to give us, first and foremost, eternal life.
Conia [00:06:40 – 00:07:16]
Eternal life. And that’s a huge, huge thing. Obviously, I don’t even know how you could begin to quantify what eternal life means to anyone, because we don’t even know the scope of that. We can’t conceive of the scope of that. You know, God took Abraham out to visit the stars and he took him to the beach to count the sands. And that’s just Abraham’s family. That’s just the generations of people that were going to come after him. Eternal life is never ending.
Conia [00:07:17 – 00:08:23]
It can’t be counted. Jesus died to give us something that is never ending, can’t be counted, and is guaranteed. So adoption into God’s family. And I hit a little bit on this last time, I’m talking a little bit more about it. Adoption, Old Testament adoption was truly an honor. You know, I think that maybe because of where we are in our society now, that adoption does not have near the connotation that it had in Old Testament times, if somebody was not pleased with their blood family members, they would go and seek out someone to adopt into sonship that would be worthy of inheriting whatever they had. And that adoption actually carried far more weight than being a blood relative. And so that is us being adopted into sonship is even greater than being born of the blood.
Conia [00:08:23 – 00:09:15]
So we’re both. Isn’t that wonderful. But being adopted into God’s family, being seated at the right hand of God, it is such an honor that Jesus died to give to us forgiveness of sins. We don’t have to pay, we don’t have to sacrifice, we don’t have to sacrifice bulls and lambs, we don’t have to pay out of our own coffers a penance for the sins that we have committed. Jesus took all of that. He became sin and was crucified so that we could be clean of our sins. And that’s an amazing thing. Holy Spirit Jesus died to get so the Holy Spirit would come to us.
Conia [00:09:16 – 00:10:10]
That’s an amazing thing. Gets to walk with you, in you, through you, in every single day. It’s a comforter. If you go back to the movie Pinocchio and we talk about Jiminy Cricket and always let your conscience be your guide, well, we got something better than just our conscience. We’ve got the Holy Spirit who knows everything that God knows, everything that Jesus knows, Holy Spirit knows and will lead you and guide you and direct you and also comfort you whenever you need, in what, however, you need to be comforted. It really is dependent on, as we’re going to see, walking out, living in what Jesus died to give us. He died to give us a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We get to walk in that kingdom.
Conia [00:10:10 – 00:10:51]
We are citizens of heaven. We are ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven here in the earth. And the kingdom of heaven cannot be shaken. He died to give us hope, a purpose. While you’re still slaves, you don’t have hope and you don’t have a purpose. Your purpose as a slave is to just do whatever the slave driver tells you to do so that you don’t die in the process. Well, Jesus already died and he gave us a purpose that is far, far beyond anything that we can really readily recognize. We have to step into it and we have to walk it.
Conia [00:10:52 – 00:11:32]
So that brings us to today. So how being restored to God through the death of Jesus allows us to live well on the earth. It’s not just about getting to heaven. And that’s a concept that a lot of us have a hard time with. First and foremost, and raised in certain ideologies and certain theologies, it was, you got to get saved. There was a lot of fear. Oh, and you should know where you’re going if you were to die today. So that’s.
Conia [00:11:32 – 00:12:08]
It’s not a bad question. It’s just not the only question. But if the only question you’ve ever heard is do you know where you’d go if you died today? That’s a start. Well, there’s more after that. It doesn’t end there. You don’t just get your train ticket and hold on until it’s time to go. That’s not what we do. As a citizen of heaven, I now am able to partake of all that God wants for me in the here and the now, on earth as it is in heaven.
Conia [00:12:10 – 00:13:07]
We are bringing heaven down to earth. We are experiencing what God wants us to experience the way he wants us to experience it, so that if we do it if we do what he laid out for us to do. The idea of death, human death, actually is just a transition. It really is an address change. It is not a heart change, it’s not a spirit change. If we are walking in everything that God has for us, we’re simply moving to the next phase, but we get to walk in everything he has for us right here and right now. And the more we understand about it, the more of it that we can walk in. I compare this to Kate Middleton and when she married the prince, she became a princess and she has access to the crown jewels.
Conia [00:13:08 – 00:14:19]
But if you don’t know that you have access to the crown jewels, if you don’t know the crown jewels even exist, if you’ve never seen them, then you don’t know what to ask for. She gets to go and she’s going to an event and she’s got to get dressed up and she’s got to get in her Spanx and got to make sure she’s wearing the right dress. But she gets to partake of the crown jewels as part of her inheritance, as part of her rights as a princess to the crown, she gets to partake of those exquisite pieces of jewelry that she gets to wear and enjoy. But if she didn’t know they were there, and if she didn’t know that she had permission, then she wouldn’t even ask to wear them. So you have to know. You have to know what’s available to you, and then you have to know that you have permission, and then you gotta go say, hey, that’s the tiara I want today. I want the one with the sapphires and the diamonds in it, because blue is my color and I really would enjoy wearing that. Thank you so much.
Conia [00:14:23 – 00:15:06]
Walk in it. And that’s what I wanted to talk about here today. Live free from guilt and shame. If we are not living free of guilt and shame, then there really is no point in Jesus having gone to the cross if we are locked down in guilt and shame. It’s the guilt and shame that he paid the price for. He’s already purchased our ability to live free and for us to go, ugh, I just feel guilty and I feel shameful and I feel. I feel. I feel that it really does disrespect what Jesus did for us.
Conia [00:15:06 – 00:16:18]
And not only that, it kind of makes God sad. It doesn’t bring him joy. He wants to watch you, your freedom in your delight, in your living free of guilt and shame. Just like we like to watch babies who delight in the toy that we just gave them, or in the experience that they had, or when they light up when Daddy comes home and he comes in the room, that’s exciting, that’s fun, and that’s leaving free of guilt and shame. And we delight in that God delights with when we live free of guilt and shame. And God showed this to me one time that I was not living free of guilt and shame, that I was living in kind of this guilt of Jesus having gone to the cross for me because of the way I interpreted it. You know, you see the movies that show the horror that Jesus went through that none of us is going to have to endure. But I had also been raised in your actions get your consequences.
Conia [00:16:18 – 00:17:04]
What you reap, you sow. And so I was very convicted that if my actions had consequences that I had to pay for. And then I felt guilty that Jesus paid for my consequences. And Jesus was like, kania, if you feel guilty about it, it kind of negates the whole thing. So we cannot, when we look at the crucifixion, when we look at all that Jesus went through, we cannot internalize that as, oh, my gosh, that was terrible. We have to internalize that as, oh, my gosh, what a sacrifice he made for us. Look how much he loved us that he would do that for us. So there’s nuance in how you look at it and how you define it.
Conia [00:17:04 – 00:18:03]
So make sure when you’re looking at the crucifixion, you’re not looking at the horror of it. You’re looking at the love of it, because that’s why he did it, is because he loves us. There is, therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. You accept Jesus Christ, you’re not walking according to flesh anymore. You’re walking according to your spirit and what he’s placed in. You get up every day, reset your buttons so that you’re walking according to the spirit and not your flesh. Renew your mind so that you can do that. We have peace with God and within ourselves because of what Jesus did.
Conia [00:18:04 – 00:18:46]
We should be walking with peace, walking in peace, walking with perfect, peaceful communion with God because of what Jesus died to give us. That’s one of the reasons that he did it. We’re not looking at God and going, oh, my gosh, he’s mad at me. He’s mad at me. He’s mad at me. Every time somebody says, now God’s mad at me, and God’s upset With me. I hear it was Creflo dollar one day was giving a sermon, and he was talking about people thinking God was mad at him. He says, honey, God ain’t even in a bad mood where you’re concerned, because you’d have to do it like Creflo does.
Conia [00:18:47 – 00:19:02]
But it really. That hit home with me. He’s not even in a bad mood where I’m concerned. He loves me. He’s not angry with me. He knows my shortcomings. He has grace for my shortcomings. He allows for my shortcomings.
Conia [00:19:02 – 00:19:30]
And we walk it out. We walk it out in peace because God loves me just like I love my babies. When they were not able to do the things that I knew they would be able to do eventually, I didn’t give up on them and go, you’re never gonna get this. I said, you made some progress. Let’s keep going. And as adults, we still make progress. You’re not behind. If I had a nickel for every time I had to tell somebody, you are not behind.
Conia [00:19:31 – 00:20:11]
You’re right where you’re supposed to be. Move forward. God doesn’t work according to a time clock, we do. God doesn’t work according to a calendar, we do. God’s ready for you whenever you’re ready, and he will accelerate you faster than any clock or any calendar. And he’s not limited to any clock or calendar waiting for you to be in alignment with him. We, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died to give us peace.
Conia [00:20:12 – 00:20:47]
And it’s Romans 5, 1 John 14:27. This is probably one of the more beautiful verses that we can quote. Peace I leave with you, says Jesus. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives to you. Jesus is making a huge distinction here between what you get from the world and what you get from Him. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He’s telling us again, there’s no trouble here. There’s no fear here.
Conia [00:20:47 – 00:21:17]
You don’t have to do all that. It’s not necessary. Jesus doesn’t want it. And God certainly doesn’t want it because he sent Jesus to die for you so you wouldn’t have to do it. We gain access to divine wisdom and guidance. Not just kind of access every now and then. Not just access once a week. Not just access through a priest that goes into the holy of holies and talks to God.
Conia [00:21:17 – 00:21:42]
We have direct access. We have a redline phone from us to God that says, hey, I need your help. I need the wisdom that you have. I need the guidance that you have. Help me, please. Boom. Immediate, unencumbered, unfettered access to wisdom and guidance. Embrace it.
Conia [00:21:44 – 00:22:21]
Embrace that wisdom. Embrace that guidance. Use it to your advantage. Here again. If Jesus died to give it to you, and you’re not using it, you’re not honoring what he died to give, to give you honor what Jesus died to give you by walking it out every single day. John 16:13 says, however, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. All truth, all. And that you know the Hebrew for all.
Conia [00:22:21 – 00:22:46]
All. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. The Holy Spirit will tell you things to come. It’s peace. It’s not a fortune teller. He’ll tell you things to come. Sometimes he’ll give you a word of knowledge of what’s coming.
Conia [00:22:47 – 00:23:14]
He will. He’ll prophesy, but sometimes he’ll just tell you. Things to come are peace. Things to come are joy. It’s wonderful. We can walk in identity and purpose. And we talked about this at the end of the last one, that when we are free, when we are no longer slaves, we now have our own identity and we have our own purpose. Make sure you know what your purpose is.
Conia [00:23:15 – 00:23:53]
Go to God, because you have one. If you’re breathing, if you are still taking breath, you still have a purpose in Christ, and you get to walk in that. First Peter 2. 9 says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him, for who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Not just light. Not just. I flipped on a switch and we got lights. We got studio lights in here.
Conia [00:23:54 – 00:24:15]
His marvelous. That’s a big word. It’s multisyllabic. Multisyllabic. Polysyllabic is probably the better word. Magnificent. Magnificent. It’s magnificent.
Conia [00:24:15 – 00:24:38]
It’s marvelous. It’s his light. Isn’t that wonderful? It’s bigger than regular light. It’s like. It’s like the best color light. It’s the one that looks the best on you. It’s his marvelous light. And it shines so brightly, but it doesn’t create a glare.
Conia [00:24:39 – 00:25:13]
It makes colors vibrant. It makes life good. Walk in his magnificent, marvelous light. Ephesians 2:10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in in them. This is what we’re talking about. This is what we are talking about. To walk in what God created for you to do.
Conia [00:25:17 – 00:25:37]
God wants it all for you. He wants you in peace. He wants you in restoration. He wants you in joy. He wants you in comfort. He wants it all for you. You simply step into and believe that that’s what he wants for you. And you’ll begin to walk in it.
Conia [00:25:37 – 00:25:59]
And it gets layered. It’s not I. Well, for some people, it’s I believe, and boom, I’m there. That’s a lot of people are that way. Some of us have harder heads, and it takes a while for it to kind of seep in there. Somebody compared my head to granite one time. I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not. But some of it takes a while to seep in there.
Conia [00:25:59 – 00:26:40]
So that’s why we have to renew our minds every day, because it takes a while for it to seep in and become a reality for us. We receive strength and grace for daily living. Second Corinthians 12, 9 says, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, y’ all. God’s sufficient means so much more than our sufficient means. Our sufficient means we just survive the day. God’s sufficient is always more and better than anything that you could ever even begin to imagine. His good. His good exceeds our great sufficient for you.
Conia [00:26:41 – 00:27:14]
Yeah, buddy. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And that’s not just saying, hey, I’ve got all these issues. That’s not boasting in your infirmity. That means I am boasting that Christ is in me even in the midst of these infirmities. These infirmities are not going to drag me down because I have Christ in me. This stuff can come on me all day long, and I’m going to overcome every.
Conia [00:27:14 – 00:27:53]
Every single bit of it. It is not going to bring me down. We become vessels of healing and hope to others. You know, healing sometimes is that laying hands on people, that Lazarus come out, that the growth of limbs that people have seen. But sometimes healing is just, you know what, you’re loved. It’s a heart healing, just like there’s a physical healing. Healing is possible. And it is
possible because Jesus died to give it to us.
Conia [00:27:53 – 00:28:37]
Isaiah foretold it that by his stripes, talking about Jesus long before Jesus came to the earth, that by his stripes we are healed physically, mentally, emotionally. It’s complete. Salvation is complete. Healing is complete. It is total second Corinthians 5:18 says, now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That’s the hope. That’s the hope. And you’ve got to remember, if you haven’t heard Pastor David preach on hope, hope is a confident expectation.
Conia [00:28:37 – 00:29:15]
Hope is not a oh, I wish. Maybe hope is yes. Hope is yes. We walk in divine provision and care because Jesus went to the cross for us. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, says Psalm 23. 1 Matthew 6:33 says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all. There’s that word, all again. All these things shall be added unto you, every single one of them.
Conia [00:29:16 – 00:30:08]
Jesus died so that God holds nothing back from us. We are relieved of all of our sin so that we can walk in the beauty and the light and the glory and the hope and the provision and the purpose that God has for us. We have unshakable confidence. Romans 8:31 Then what shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? God is omnipotent. He’s omniscient. He’s omnipresent. That’s all of it. And Jesus died to give you all of it.
Conia [00:30:09 – 00:30:55]
And if you don’t walk out what Jesus died to give you, that’s dishonoring to your brother Jesus, who went so far and did so much for you. Don’t leave that inheritance sitting in the bank. Don’t leave that talent on a dusty shelf. Don’t leave your abilities to help others resident inside you. Don’t leave that here. You have everything within you that Jesus died to give you. It is yours. It is your right.
Conia [00:30:55 – 00:31:00]
It is your honor. Walk in it today.
