SWYC 2015: Christ Our Righteousness

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GYC Southwest

Morning Devotional

Virna Santos

Victory in Jesus: Why?

If you would please bow your heads with me.

Dear Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for blessing us with such a glorious, beautiful Sabbath morning.

And Father, as this day goes by, May we be mindful of your presence.

And father as I Share the words that you've given me to share with your people.

I pray, Lord, that you just keep me hid behind the cross.

And may all the hearts here today be touched and changed.

3 words, Simple, direct, victory in Jesus.

We need to understand the why, so our what can be powerful.

We need to understand why we need victory so our lives can be powerful.

Well, Webster Dictionary tells us victory, the word itself, victory means an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, a game, or other competition.

Some synonyms that was given was success, triumph, conquest, win, favorable result, landslide, superiority, supremacy.

When we hear those words victory, and specifically victory in Jesus, it gives us somewhat of an idea of what our condition is.

So in Understanding why we need victory, we need to understand what is our present condition and why we need it.

You see, in John 3, if you would turn to there, please, with me turn to John chapter 3.

In this story that we are going to read together today, and actually before we start here, I wanted to make sure I get everyone's permission that every morning this weekend we are going to take a journey together.

We are going to journey together through God's Word in understanding victory in Jesus.

In chapter 3 of the book of John, Jesus is sitting down with someone by the name of Nicodemus.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Isn't it amazing that Nicodemus acknowledged who Jesus was?

He did not want anyone else to see him talking with Jesus the way he was an inquiring of Jesus Verse 3 Jesus answered and said unto him verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The 1 thing that Jesus did hear, brothers and sisters, was acknowledge that our first birth, there was something wrong.

In our first natural, earthly birth, something was wrong.

You know, we live in a society today that you will hear, I'm born this way, there's nothing you can do about it.

My father was like this, my grandfather was like this, and so I'm like this.

For many years in my life, brothers and sisters, I said to myself, I'm born this way.

And that's when I left the church and lived a life that was not intended by God.

For 20 years, I identified as a butch lesbian.

If we take note in this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus and Nicodemus, Nicodemus actually begins to open up to Jesus.

And he innocently, innocently asks Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old?

He says, can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and Be born?

And Jesus clarifies and he says, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again.

What excuses do we have, brothers and sisters?

What excuses do we make for our condition?

I say, I used to say, I was born this way, there's nothing you can do about it, and God made me this way.

We actually blame God for our condition sometimes, don't we?

But Jesus simply, simply appeals to us and says, be born again in me.

Sister White says, she says, the idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in man by nature is a fatal deception.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

Of Christ it is written, in him was life and the life was the light of men.

The only name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

It is not enough to perceive the loving kindness of God, to see the benevolence, the fatherly tenderness of his character.

It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of his law, to see that it is founded upon the eternal principle of love.

Paul, the apostle, saw all this when he exclaimed, I consent unto the law that it is good.

The law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.

But he added this, brothers and sisters, Paul said in the bitterness of his soul, anguish and despair.

Do we understand our condition today, brothers and sisters?

Paul continues, He longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain.

And Paul cried out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death.

That we must be born again of the water and of the spirit.

And our righteousness is but filthy rags, brothers and sisters.

There's a deception going on in humanity today.

We want to get all the answers before we can accept truth.

It's human nature to want to understand, to want to be clear.

But then where does faith come in, brothers and sisters?

Victory in Jesus: Temptation, Where Does It Come From?

I'm glad we're here again together this morning.

The Lord brought me back to San Francisco after I was rebaptized in 2009 with my sister.

And he kept me away from San Francisco for about 3 years.

You see, I had become a political activist for the LGBTQ community for nearly 20 years in San Francisco.

And I was living my life out loud and proud.

And after I had adopted my daughter, my ex-partner, who gave birth to our daughter at our home, a law had passed, the AB 25 law, which afforded same-sex couples to adopt each other's children as their own.

And so under that particular law, apparently it was reported that I was the first to have filed for adoption under that law in the state of California.

And so NBC News got wind of that and the newspapers and I was all over the place.

And as I had shared with you, the conviction that the Lord brought upon my heart when I started to search for God, and I had no, at first, I had no intention of changing anything about who I was and who I thought I was born to be.

And so the Lord worked it out in a way that, after I was rebaptized, along with my sister in 2009, He moved very swiftly.

We signed up for ARISE cross-training, and that's where we met JR and many other brothers and sisters who are here today.

And after that, he had me move away from San Francisco.

You see, sometimes I realize that the gravity of sin is, will equate sometimes to how God will extract us from that environment.

And so for 3 and a half years I was away from San Francisco Bible working, volunteering, and away from the LGBTQ community specifically for almost 3 and a half years.

And just this year, earlier this year, the Lord made a way and called me back.

And I suddenly recalled the story of Moses, where God told Moses, go back and get my people.

And it was a very humbling experience to think that God wanted me to go back to San Francisco to get his people and reconnect with friends that I love so dearly and I pray would be in heaven with me and all of us that on that glorious day.

But I was also praying to God for a job that will afford me time to take off and not worry about my finances or my rent and looking for a place.

Well, it so happened that from certain circumstances, which I will share with you tomorrow, that my best friend and who's been my best friend for almost 20 years, and her partner as well, asked me to live with her mom in San Francisco, and to be a companion and to assist her mom with day-to-day stuff, reminding her for her medicine and when to eat on time.

And I said, I would love to help you guys out.

And She goes, well, you know, because mother knows you already, I think it will be a really good situation for her and we'll just charge you real cheap rent.

And I'm thinking, Lord, let it be like just maybe $500 a month?

And she says something and she goes, yeah, we're thinking of just asking if you could pay $200 a month.

And then she said, then she said, would you mind paying maybe just contributing like 50, 40, 50 bucks a month towards the gas and electric.

I said, I'm going to have to think about that.

No, no, of course, of course, that's fine.

Because I was asking God, God, I feel this pull towards San Francisco.

Being in San Francisco will make me closer to my daughter.

Maybe about 10 minutes away versus 2 and a half hours away.

Her mother and I, her birth mother and I, we split up actually when she was only 10 months old.

And the Lord has been leading and guiding and repairing our co-parenting relationship as well.

At the time I was rebaptized with my sister, my ex-partner legally married another woman.

And so this is where my daughter resides.

She has her birth mother, her stepmother, and her brother, who's 4 years old, because my ex-partner and her wife, also artificially inseminated with another sperm donor and got pregnant.

And the Lord led at 1 point that I had to surrender my daughter, not necessarily to them, but to him.

I caught this little girl with her eyes wide open, and I'll never forget that day.

And I've always been there for her, and she calls me mama.

Currently at this time I get her 1 weekend a month and 1 month in the summer.

And I recall 1 time, I think I'm kind of diverting here because I told you I was going to, I was going to, I got a job, so I'll get to that in a minute.

Shortly after my rebaptism, I was with my daughter.

At that time when I got rebaptized, when she was 7, God's number.

My daughter, 7 years old, she was at the coffee table, coloring in the coloring book.

And I was having that experience of Jesus asking me, Vierna, do you love me?

And my gaze went over to my daughter, and I felt the Lord tell me, there's something you need to do.

And so I called my daughter on my knee, to sit on my knee, And I held her so preciously, and she's just looking at me, playing with my hair, and I said, baby girl, you having a nice Sabbath?

And I said, sweetheart, I know you probably don't, won't understand this, but I need to apologize to you about something.

And I'm probably going to have to apologize to you sometime again when you get older." And I said to her, I said, sweetheart, I'm really sorry, she don't have a dad.

And it's a reminder to me, every Father's Day, she has no 1 to give a Happy Father's Day card to.

And I apologized to her, she said, with the biggest smile on her face, mind you before this time I had started taking my daughter with me to church every Sabbath.

And during that time my custody with her was every week.

And so every other Sabbath, she was with me at church.

And she smiled so big, and she said, Mama, don't cry, Mama.

I held her for the longest time and her poor little hands rubbing my back, comforting me, my daughter comforting me.

I know God has a special plan for her And she loves the Lord.

I took her to camp meeting 1 summer, and she came so excitedly to me.

She had been going to the early teen tent, the junior tent, some tent for the kids.

And this was at Central California Conference Camp Meeting.

But when she told me that, my heart fell out, and I practically fell flat on my bottom, because the first thing that entered my mind was, what would your other mom say?

Well, God has worked it out in a way that, my daughter did not get baptized that year, And we're waiting on the Lord.

My daughter's learning to wait on the Lord at such a young age.

And she's learning the work of faith in her own life.

Victory in Jesus: Living Victoriously

It's also the first day going down this hill.

And There's a lot of people down this hill.

There's a lot of people looking for God and they don't even know it.

There are people in this world waiting to see evidence of God's love and mercy.

What a privilege and honor it is to be a representative for God.

Regardless where you are, where you've been, what you've done, or even what you are doing.

Regardless, God has a purpose in your life.

So before I begin And before I cause any more confusion, and before we have 2 devotionals, let us all bow our heads in prayer, please.

Thank you so much for all who you are, just simply for who you are, Lord.

Thank you for bringing us here this morning, for waking us up, giving us alert minds and open hearts.

I just pray, Lord, that you Lift us up into thy presence today.

I have a couple of clarifications from yesterday morning, because people were asking questions yesterday, 1, in regards to my daughter and how that came about that I had to surrender her.

My daughter came to me and she told me, mama I'm having a hard time going back and forth.

I feel like I'm missing out on my brother's life.

So as I had shared yesterday, that's why I have her 1 weekend a month and a month in the summer and every other major holiday.

So people were asking how that came about.

And I have another clarification as far as temptation.

I've gotten to a discussion with a couple of brothers.

And you see, temptation, I, From how I've studied God's Word and what I understand, temptation is reflective of only something that needs to die in you.

We've given the enemy way too much power.

And some people ask, is temptation a sin?

And it's not that you are committing a sin just because you're tempted and that you recognize the temptation.

Temptation is something reflective that needs to die in you, die in all of us.

Sometimes the enemy can tempt us in our dreams.

And we just rise in the morning and we ask God to search our hearts.

Has anyone here, have you, has anyone had a panic attack?

Panic attack, anxiety attack, And you feel like you're going to die.

And you get this big lump in your throat.

And it was about maybe 3 years after I've already been in ministry.

And I was a volunteer Bible worker for a church.

Basically housed everyone that participated in the camp out that year.

And after our worship that evening and everyone had gone to bed, I had heard a rustling upstairs and people talking, socializing and all of that.

And all of a sudden, I just felt like if I continued to lay down that I was going to die.

And my daughter was next to me, asleep, sound asleep.

And I got up and I started pacing back and forth, trying to shake this feeling off.

I didn't understand what was happening to me.

I went to go get my jacket, put on my jacket.

I hung my jacket back and I was just walking back and forth.

I decided to take my Bible, I knelt down, and I started just paging through my Bible.

Eventually, I found myself outside trying to get rid of this sensation of being suffocated.

I found myself outside 2.30 in the morning grabbing at snow, trying to relieve the sensation and to replace the sensation with feeling really cold and I'm just grabbing at the snow.

And I'm panicking and I'm crying and I'm trying to, like, Lord, I don't want to die.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and I dialed a friend who was in Chicago, poor guy.

And we had promised each other at that time, during that time, that we can call each other whenever we need prayer.

And He said when he heard the phone ring, he knew it was me.

And on the phone, he's with me on the phone and he's saying, Vierna, look at your shoes.

I said, Yeah, yeah, I am, I am, I am, I am.

And then he was walking me through this thankful prayer to God, but nothing was changing.

And when he started to pray for me, I didn't even hear his prayer.

And I don't know if any of you have been in Lake Tahoe at night, on a clear night, and you look up at the sky and you see the stars, and it's almost as if you could grab the stars.

I look up at the stars, and the next thing I hear is, Vierna, I put the stars in the sky for you.

And the next thing I know, I was just filled with peace.

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Morning Devotional

Victory in Jesus: Living Victoriously

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Parts

Victory in Jesus: Why?

27m

Victory in Jesus: Temptation, Where Does It Come From?

22m

Victory in Jesus: Living Victoriously

47m

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