The ONE Thing God Is After in You: Understanding Your True Identity in Christ

Okay, I’m going to start off with your second state. What are the verses that describe your second state? Chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3. I’m going to read them. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we Jews, we Greeks, we Gentiles, all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and indulging in the desires of the mind. And we were, by nature, children of wrath, even as everyone else was.

Now let’s look at verses 11 and 12. Formerly, remember formerly, you heathen Germans in the flesh, uncircumcised, that which the Jews call uncircumcised, but even what the Jews had, their uncircumcision was not by God, it was by men, and therefore is of no value. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Alright, if I am an American evangelist, I preach that to you as individuals and tell you to get saved, but that is not what is being addressed here. This is a body of people. This letter was written to whom? To a church. Can you please tell me the name of that church? Would you, a little louder? Huh? No. No. What church is this written to? Oh, all right. Michael, do we have a revelation yet? What church is it written to? Colossians. No, not very good.  It was written to Constance. Listen to me. Open your hearts and open your eyes. This was written to a body of believers who gather in Constance, Germany.

You remember that just a minute ago I said to you that if you could just get a hold of this… get a hold of it, Danielle… this was written to the church in Constance. Or at least there are five brothers and sisters who are trying to make it in the city of Constance. Do you know what you were formerly? This is your second state, not your first one. You were dead. Trespasses had killed you. All of you. Sin had murdered you, killed you, all of you. That’s not all. Wrath had a child. Do you know who the child of wrath was? Death? No, that’s a good insightful word, though. You’ve been reading some good books, sister. Wrath had a child. Wrath had a child. Who is this child? You are a body of believers in Constance. Wrath had a child, and you were that child. Disobedience had a child. Now, tell me, who was that child? You were a child…you were the child of wrath, and you were a child of disobedience. It says it right there in the book. You were a child, a son, a daughter of wrath and disobedience.

Now what else were you? You look and see for yourself: what else can you find that you were? You were without hope. Boy, this is such a beautiful thing. In this world, you had no hope. In this world, you had no God. You are in Constance. You were a heathen. You weren’t just Gentiles, you were heathen. And I’ll tell you something else, even worse: you were Germanic heathen. Thank you, sister. I was a little reluctant to use this word. Barbaric, heathen, uncircumcised Gentiles. I don’t know how you could get any worse off. Oh, there’s a way to be worse off, but I’ll tell you about that later.

Well, you were uncircumcised in your flesh and in your heart. God had thrown you out of His commonwealth. You did not belong to the house of God. Your mother and father were wrath and disobedience. That’s what you were. That’s not what you were as an individual: that’s what you were as a people. And you know what happened? Let’s see, did we leave out anything? Look at the passage really quickly. What have we left out? I don’t want to leave out anything. You were without anything. You were without Christ, excluded from the household of faith. Aliens: aliens to God, aliens to His home, aliens to Him, alien to His Son. Just plain aliens. Thank you, brother, you were an alien. You were aliens, but you were an alien to other realms. You can’t even find it. There is another realm, and one of the hungers of your heart is that you can’t find it, and every person in this room has always been hungry for an unseen realm. But you were aliens.

Now, I hope I didn’t give you any sense of guilt? And Paul kept saying Formerly, formerly, formerly. You were, you were, you were. Nobody’s laying any guilt on you, but I also want you to know it’s…I would almost have you get up close to one another and hold on to one another, rather than stand there as an individual and hear this, just pull yourselves up close to each other and say, “This is what we were. It’s not what I am. It’s not what I used to be. It’s what we used to be. This is what we were formerly…before.” That helps. So, start off with what you used to be together, and be comforted by the fact that’s not what you are anymore. Now I realize we have two Italians here. I think my sister Ida has stolen my thunder here; she’s taken away my thought. Do you realize that you Germans are barbarians? Are you clear on this subject? If not, I’m going to get you clear. Do you know where the Roman Empire’s boundaries or frontiers ended? Right here. Where’s North? Does anybody know where North is? That’s North? Okay. Just a little way over this way were the Goths and the Visigoths, and this way were the Germans, the Germanics. Horrible people. Savage folk. Blood-drinking. Heathen. Good. I’m glad you said that. I wouldn’t have. Okay. In fact, the only civilized people were the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews. You were a bunch of blood-drinking savages.

I can tell you who the only people in the world are who are worse off than you were. More savage. More barbarian. Do you know? I will tell you. The Picts. The Danes. The Gaels. The Gauls. The Saxons and, worst of all, the Anglos. Now, there were some people who were working to be worse than all of you, and they will show up about 400 to 500 years later and scare all of you to death; every one of you. Do you know who I’m talking about?  The Huns… the Huns from “Hun”garia. Isn’t this wonderful? Us Latins are really looking good right now. This corporate mess: what we used to be.

Now, have you ever been to a pawn shop? Can you help me here? I’m sure you’ve heard of these things in your own language. P-A-W-N. What is it in your language? Well, I’ll describe it to you, then you can tell me. I have a watch that is worth one hundred dollars. Okay, I take it to the pawn shop, and he gives me $5. If I don’t come back and get it, he sells it for $20. But if I do come back and get it, I will pay him $200 for it. He really knows how to make money. Let me do that again.

I have a watch. It’s worth $100; he gives me $5 for it. If I don’t come back and get it within a month, he will sell it for $20. It’s his. If I come back to get it, I’ll probably have to pay $200 to get it back. 100% interest. I have just told you about your second state, but it’s not your first state. I’m not going to tell you what your first state was, but I will tell you this: Jesus Christ…by the way, that’s called redemption. When you return to pick up your watch and pay $200 for it, you redeem your watch. Jesus Christ came back into the pawn shop. Now what’s the word in German? Okay, good. Do we have any other languages we need to know? What is it, Bobby, in your language? Okay. Jesus Christ walked back…walked into the pawn shop, and He saw something that belonged to Him. Now I want you to get really clear. Jesus Christ walked into the pawn shop and saw something that belonged to Him. Previously. What was it, Danielle? What was it? He came to redeem. To take back. The church? Not exactly. The heathen barbarians who live in Constance. A group of them, not one. Do you understand, not one?

Now, brothers and sisters in Chicago, just keep listening, will you? And when you hear this, will you think in terms of Chicago? Eckhart, you think in terms of Atlanta. Think in terms of your brothers and sisters in, what town is it? Would you say it again a little louder? Which means something. The town of what? Okay, Abstatt. Okay, thank you. He walks into that room. He does not reclaim an individual. He reclaims a people of whom you are but a part.

Now, Constance, let’s all get redeemed at the same time, shall we? Don’t get redeemed individually, please. You are a people in a pawn shop, and you were once His. He comes into the pawn shop, and He redeems you.  Not with $5, $100, $20, or $200. He redeems you with His blood. Amen. A people in Constance are redeemed, paid for, and bought back. Once His possession; now his possession again. We’ll say Praise the Lord. Amen. Say it again. Michael, say it. Amen. Because Paul breaks out into one of his anthems: to the praise of the glory of the riches of whatever. To the praise of the riches of the glory that are in Christ Jesus. He has done these things to you, for you. The Father has come to redeem you. Now, the things that He accomplishes at this point are too many for us to ever understand within our lifetime, but I just want you to keep thinking in terms of a “corporate you.” He came in and got all the brothers and sisters in Constance.

I want to say one other word. I want you to know that it took me some real decision-making to come and bring these messages, but I also want you to know that I’m leaving this to you in Constance for number 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10 so they can hear this, and so they will know that they are part of those to whom the Lord Jesus walked into that pawn shop and got you back and paid for you with His own blood.