It's always a great opportunity to be able to stand in this place to encourage you from a text of scripture that I often think about with reference to our pastors. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12 and 13 the scriptures say, but we request of you brethren that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord. and give you instruction and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. I know you agree with me that God has brought together here at Calvary a wonderful team of shepherds who, week in and week out, are doing such a wonderful work for God. And we're given command, really, from the Word to really esteem them and appreciate them. And I know you do, and I just had a desire to express this this morning to them, that their faithfulness is deeply, deeply appreciated. And I know that's your heart. as well as mine. One time I came upon a story, read a story, a true story, I like true stories, about a man named Robert Cutshaw. Robert lived on Route 19 in Western North Carolina. He was a self-proclaimed mountain man, lived in a trailer there. and he had a little rock shop on the side of the road. That part of North Carolina is a place where people go literally on vacations and search for gemstones. That's not something I quite understand, but it's something they enjoy doing. And he would put semi-precious stones that he had found on that rock stand and try to sell them to the tourists that would come by. And one day Robert was reading that illustrious example of American journalism called People Magazine. And then he came upon a story about a man named Roy Wettstein who actually purchased for $10 the largest blue star sapphire ever discovered. It was 1,500 carats after cutting. It was valued at over $2.2 million. Soon as Robert read that, being the rock guy that he was, he got to thinking about what he called his big old blue rock. It was a sizable stone that sat out on his rock stand outside to sell to tourists. He'd have been happy if he got $75 for it anytime. But when he read that article, he got curious about it. And he found the phone number of a man named John Robinson. Robinson was a master gem cutter mentioned in the article. And he called him out in Dallas, Texas. And started to talk to him about his stone and his indelible North Carolina accent. And Robinson got irritated pretty quickly and he said, look, you got something valuable, just put it in a box, FedEx, ship it out here to me and I'll tell you whether it's worth anything. Just trying to get rid of Robert. Well, Robert didn't like that idea, so he got his revolver, and he got his brother Lemuel, and they got in their pickup truck, and they drove to Dallas, Texas, to John Robinson's house, and presented the big old blue rock to John Robinson, and it was just a matter of minutes that Robinson shook his head and declared it an absolute killer gemstone, estimated at 5,500 carats. After cutting valued at well over $4 million, Robert lived in a trailer on Route 19 in Western North Carolina. Robert had that big old blue stone for years. Robert had no idea the value of what he had, what he possessed. It's so encouraging that God that reminds us, encourages us to think about the value of what we possess. That little story's always sort of been a parable to me about this idea in scripture. And we have nothing more valuable, do we, than Christ. Christ is all. I'd like you to turn in your New Testament to Galatians chapter two to a single statement in this chapter. Paul's been talking to these Galatian Christians that he had reached with the gospel in places like Antioch, and Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. You remember those names from scripture. these are all towns in Galatia, and he was writing them about being very careful not to slip into a wrong view of salvation and sanctification, that somehow it was by works, it was by their labor. And as a climax statement, really, about avoiding that mistake, He gives us this summative remark in Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is like an intense beam of light coming to us out of the word, which is light. It's really like lightning in a dark sky. A magnificent summary of all that Christ, the living Christ, is to us as believers. And really what Paul is presenting here is a pattern of daily Christ-focused thinking and living. A pattern. And within this statement, there really are three compelling ideas about Christ-focused thinking and living as a believer, and I'd like us to consider those this morning, and the minutes that we have remaining today. The first of these statements in this remarkable text of scripture, telling us that Christ is all, is that I am crucified with Christ. In the language of the New Testament, this could read, I have been crucified with Christ. And the result of having been crucified with Christ is freedom in multiple ways as a believing person. Now we know that the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was an historical event that occurred over 2,000 years ago. He was the one that was crucified. He bore all our sins in his body on the tree. He subsequently rose again. So what does Paul mean when he says, I am or have been crucified with Christ? At the moment of your repentance and faith, all that happened then rushed into the present and you were perfectly identified with Jesus Christ and what he accomplished in that crucifixion, the moment you became a believer. On July 28th, my physical birthday in 1970, I was at a place called Camp Patmos. It's a Christian camp. I was in the middle of a prayer meeting of teenage guys who were themselves in the midst of a revival. I was not a believer. But as a rebel against Christ that night, Christ loved me. and Christ saved me and everything that occurred on the cross in its full significance rushed forward into the present in my life. And that is where we all find ourselves right now, today. The full significance of the cross is present in us and for us today as believing people. And what is it? that happened then and is happening now for us as believing people. We were freed from enslavement and we live within that freedom today. Listen very carefully to these words from Romans chapter six, verse six and seven. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. in that our body of sin, our older body of sin, might be done away with so that we would no longer be slave to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. We have been brought into this position of freedom in that we are not enslaved to sin as believing people requiring that we commit sin, making committing sin an absolute must. The Scriptures tell us in the same book, Galatians 5 verse 24, that we have been freed from passions and desires, our own corrupt nature, our diseased condition. We have been liberated. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires, that text of Scripture says. I don't have to give in to my own personal sinful desires and passions. I don't have to give in to the world. This book again in Galatians 6 verse 14 makes the remarkable statement that I don't have to give in to and be crushed into the mold of the seductive satanic system. I have been freed. But may it never be that I would boast, Paul writes in this verse, except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified unto me and I to the world. I have been, as Galatians 1 says, delivered from this present evil age. And as 1 John 2.15 says, I don't have to give in to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, which are the things of the world, the satanic system that the evil one is always trying to crush me into the mold of. I've been freed, I've been redeemed. from being a slave to those things by Christ's work. I live right now in that condition. And it's even more and better. Since I have been crucified with Christ and live presently in that reality, I am freed from condemnation by justification through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been declared to be righteous on the basis of his imputation. Listen to the words of 1 Corinthians 5 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our sin imputed to him, his righteousness imputed or put to our account." It gets even better. I've been freed from the fear of wrath. by virtue of what Jesus did on the cross and in the present reality I exist in. He is my propitiation, my wrath bearer. As 1 John 4 10 says so wonderfully, in this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins, the wrath bearer of all our sins. I don't live in fear and cower in fear every day because of the reality of my sinful condition. No, I've been delivered from that. Christ bore the wrath for all of my sins on the cross. Yes, certainly I may know and I need to properly fear the chastening and discipline of my Father if I sin and refuse to confess those sins, but I am not facing eternal condemnation. I am not facing a God who's frowning in an angry way and saying, I'm fed up with you, I'm done with you, you're full of sin and you deserve my wrath. No, I don't face that. None of us do. What value there is in the reality that I am crucified with Christ. I have been crucified with him. I live in that present reality right now. And even more, I've been freed from alienation from my father through reconciliation with him. Remember the words of Jesus from the cross in Psalm 22.1, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord Jesus somehow will never comprehend, bore all the alienation from God the Father that could be born for all sinful men of all time on the cross as Romans 5.10 says and assures us. For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled We shall be saved by his life. I live in harmony with God. I'm reconciled with God. I'm not alienated from God. Even though I may wake up in the morning and feel alienated, feel at a distance, or make blunders and do things I should not do, on the mercy and by the grace of God, I am not alienated. I am in communion with my Father, and it even gets deeper, and that I'm freed from satanic fatherhood by the cross. Hear the words of Galatians 4, verse 4 and 5. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them which were under the law. in order that we might receive the adoption of sons. Fatherly care, fatherly protection, fatherly provision, fatherly guidance. all absolutely guaranteed because I have been crucified with Christ and I live in the reality of everything that was achieved by the Lord Jesus Christ for me in his death by the shedding of his blood. These realities every day should fill our minds, fill our hearts, fill our souls to the point of overwhelmed and give us great joy. We have been redeemed. We're freed from enslavement. We have been freed from condemnation. We are not guilty. We're justified. We've been freed from wrath. He is our propitiation. We're freed from alienation. We're reconciled to him. We're free from a satanic father to a father who loves us and cares for us. And when you have an inclination to let your mind go to the darkness and to the depths and the things that are negative and wrong in your life and even in you, this is where your heart and mind should go. To what in reality is true in your relationship with God. I know the great comfort of Romans 8, 31 and 32, which says, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? I mean, if He's done all this, and He has, and we live in this reality, what would God our Father withhold from us? He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. because I've been crucified with Christ. We all have been. The third stanza of that beautiful hymn beneath the cross of Jesus says, I take, O cross, thy shadow as my abiding place. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of thy face. Content to let the world go by and know no gain nor loss. my sinful self, my only shame, my glory, all the cross. And since he died and I died with him and live within these realities, I then therefore, in Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15, 31, die daily. I deny myself, I take up my cross, and I follow him. This is the first great truth of Christ-focused thinking and consequent living. And added to that is the next statement. Christ lives in me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, the text says. We're talking about his real presence in us. Well, if that's true, then how is it the scripture teaches that Jesus now is seated at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us? We know that the Bible teaches this. But think of Colossians 127, where the apostle wrote, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Or in Ephesians chapter three verse 17, which says that, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. Both of these statements are reflecting the words of the Lord Jesus in John 15 verse 4 where he said, abide in me and I abide in you. So how does this happen? Well the answer is in John 16 verse 7 and 14. where Jesus said, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. He's speaking of the Spirit of God. And Romans chapter eight, verse nine, specifically says the Spirit of God is, and I quote, the Spirit of Christ. And Galatians 4, 6 says, and I quote, the Spirit is the Spirit of the Son. The Holy Spirit perfectly in person, in power, in every way and character represents the Lord Jesus as he dwells in us, his nearness, his presence, his intimate support every day. And by the Spirit he dwells in my heart. That's a beautiful word in the New Testament. It's a large, expansive term. It means all the inner, immaterial man. the spiritual person, your emotions, your will, your intellect, your conscience. It's exactly what 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22 says. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ anointed us is God who also sealed us and gave us the spirit in our hearts as a pledge. He's there. with direct access to your feelings and your struggles to make choices, your will, your thinking, your thought processes. Always active there. And most, most encouraging is what we find in 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10 and verse 16 where Paul wrote, but just as it is written, things which I has not seen, and ear has not heard and which have not entered into the heart of man. All these God has prepared for those that love Him." For who has known the mind of the Lord that He will instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. We have this capacity, men and women, by the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in us, the Spirit of Christ in us, to understand all the value, the benefits of knowing and walking with God through the revelation of God. And it even goes beyond this. We also, by the Spirit of Christ, are indwelt in our bodies. There's an impact on us physically. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God and are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. The Spirit then dwells your physical person. And so as Romans 6, 13 instructs us, as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God, not to serve sin, not to serve the flesh. What does this mean that Christ indwells our bodies? Well, from it and by it, through it, we experience healing at times. We experience protection. I've been protected in very serious automobile accidents. I've been protected from a tumor. I've been protected from heart attack. You experience it physically, hourly, and daily by faith. You are strengthened by the presence of the Spirit of Christ in you. You are not a normal human being. And by that I mean a human being who does not have the indwelling Christ. You have an advantage physically and spiritually. to live a daily Christ-focused life. Mean we live constantly thinking about the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and thinking about the reality that Christ is actually living in me, my spiritual person and my physical person. And that I also live by faith. in the Son of God, the third great truth in this powerful statement. I live by faith in the Son of God, that passage says, who loved me and gave himself for me. And we can look at this faith from two vantage points. The first is God's vantage point. Faith we're taught in Hebrews chapter 1 is assurance of things that are hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Faith is the opposite of self-dependence. Habakkuk 2.4 is quoted three times in the New Testament, one of those unusual Old Testament passages. And it reads, behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by faith, by trust, by confidence, by belief in him. The Son of God who is in us. Let's look at this faith from God's vantage point. One time in our home I was walking out of the living room into a den area and there was a stairway that went up right between those rooms in a short hallway. And as I came walking by, out of my prayerful vision, I saw my granddaughter, who at the time was very young, four or five years old, and she was a number of steps up the stairway, way further up the stairway than she should have been to decide to do a flying leap, but she did. And she spread out her arms and said, Papa, and there she came. and I was in the right place at the right moment and I was able to catch her. No doubt in her mind that I would catch her, that she would be safe. She trusted And when we think of God, this is really the key to faith. He is the one we trust. He is the object of our faith. What are his capacities? What are his capabilities? What is his willingness? What is his desire for us? It's great. He is willing. He is able. He delights in our faith. And really, the Bible repeatedly says, the New Testament, nothing is impossible with God. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now take it a step further. We can look at this faith from God's vantage point, who he is. and therefore whom we should trust. Well we can look at this from the human vantage point for a moment too. Really it is faith that makes our relationship with God real. It must increase, it must grow through understanding God by his word. Faith is confidence that waits. It's confidence that believes what it does not see. It's prayer that defies doubt and fear. It may be as small as a mustard seed, but Jesus himself said something that small can uproot a mulberry tree, can move literally a mountain range, can pull up and cause to wither away a fig tree. Great faith is shown by belief, though he is not visible. He has made promises that we must trust. And great faith is humble. Think of that centurion's servant who was sick near to death. And he said to the Jewish elders, please send for Jesus and bring him here to heal my servant. I'm not worthy to go to him. And when Jesus began to approach, he stopped Jesus and said, I'm not worthy for you to come into my house. Just say the words, you have the authority and you'll heal my servant. And Jesus said, I've not found so great faith in Israel. And the same thing he said about the Syrophoenician woman who had a little daughter that was demon possessed and she described herself as the dog under the table who would eat the bread crumbs compared to the Israelites who would get the primary meal and dish through Christ's ministry, she said, I don't deserve this, I know, but I'm begging you, please help me. And Jesus said again, I've not found great faith like this in all Israel. There was real humility there in that dependence on the part of these two Gentile people. And when you read the Gospels over and over again, a practice which is wise on a cyclical basis, you see the Lord Jesus healing physical illness, meeting material and monetary needs, overcoming impossible obstacles for people, eliminating dangerous and threatening circumstances, meeting spiritual needs, and addressing opposition. In summary, what you see is that impossibilities are invitations. They are invitations from God to seek Him, to pray to Him. Remember the wonderful promise in Hebrews 11, 6, the exhortation. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. And He, however, is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You know, our lives can be lived as believers. They can kind of devolve down into a simple system of ethics, right and wrongs, which we do. Our walk with God degenerates into this comfortable compilation of traditions that we kind of fulfill week in and week out. And the real presence The real life, the real power of the presence of Jesus Christ becomes a distant thought, only an occasional thought, where Paul says to us and encourages us, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It is Christ who is all. Christ today, Christ every hour, Christ our living Savior, our Master, our Lord, hear him. Focus on him. Believe him. For Christ. Is. All. Father. Take thy word I pray. And by thy spirits encourage the hearts of your people. May by your spirit this statement in Galatians chapter 2 become. Their Christ focused thinking. and therefore living on a daily basis we commit this word to you for thy glory in Jesus'