Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Reverend Ben Coopers podcast, offers an inviting space for listeners to explore Christianity and spiritual growth with wisdom, humor, and a deep commitment to biblical truth. Through Rev. Ben's engaging conversations with guests, the podcast not only explores the timeless wisdom of the Bible but also tackles the pressing issues of life, faith, and hope in a way that is accessible, thought-provoking, and enriching. Whether you’re seeking spiritual nourishment, answers to life’s big questions, or simply a place to reflect on your faith, the Rev Ben podcast is a valuable resource on your journey.
In each episode, Rev. Ben guides listeners through profound theological reflections, personal stories, and practical insights drawn from the Bible and the broader Christian tradition.
Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
The Jesus Story - Part 2 - (CST2)
Title: Nothing Without Him – Discovering True Freedom Through Surrender
Here are your Buzzsprout-compliant show notes, crafted with clarity, emotion, and global reach in mind. Featuring ~500 words, 12 SEO-rich longtail keywords, and 15 impactful single-word tags, this episode is positioned to draw in those searching for lasting, soul-level freedom.
Freedom isn’t just an abstract concept—it’s the heartbeat of the Gospel. In this raw, authentic conversation, Simon and Ben explore the depths of what true spiritual freedom really means, beginning with a statement from Jesus that many overlook: “By myself I can do nothing.”
These words from the Creator of the universe carry staggering weight. If Jesus—fully God and fully man—admitted total dependence on the Father, how much more should we? The hosts unpack the tension between flesh and spirit, showing how Christ didn’t live sinlessly because He was immune to temptation, but because He lived in perfect surrender. That surrender is the key to the freedom our souls long for.
The conversation then draws us into the story of the woman with the issue of blood—a woman who had tried everything the world could offer and still found no healing. Her breakthrough didn’t come from proximity to religion or society—it came from desperate, faith-filled contact with Jesus Himself. Many touched Him that day, but only one drew power.
This story becomes a vivid metaphor for modern life. So many people today are burned out on church attendance, religious routines, worldly success, or self-help strategies, yet they remain spiritually empty. Simon and Ben boldly challenge listeners to move beyond performance-based faith and step into transformative encounter—the kind that only comes when we admit our need and touch the hem of His garment.
This episode also exposes how religion often controls, while Jesus liberates. It’s why He confronted the religious leaders of His day—they had distorted the Father's heart. Freedom isn’t found in self-sufficiency, image management, or external achievement. It’s found in broken surrender, in coming with nothing and finding everything in Him.
Whether you’re succeeding outwardly but empty inside, stuck in addiction, or just tired of going through the motions, this message is for you. Let go of striving. Drop the act. And reach out in faith.
Because true freedom doesn’t come when we have it all together—it comes when we finally realize we were never meant to do it alone.
Christian freedom through surrender, Jesus by myself I can do nothing, woman with issue of blood explained, gospel and spiritual brokenness, authentic faith podcast episode, letting go and finding God, overcoming religion with relationship, touching the hem of His garment, spiritual burnout healing, real freedom in Christ, faith vs control in church, dependence on God devotional
https://www.pastorbencooper.co.uk/
https://www.rbchristianradio.net/
Good morning world. Good afternoon wherever you may be across the globe. Thank you so much for sharing everything we do here. You're joining Simon and myself as we gather across the mics on this glorious day, because this is the day that the Lord has made. We shall rejoice and be glad. God is with you. There is always hope, but welcome to Hashtag Christian Straight Talk. We pray that wherever you are today, whether you're on holiday, whether you're working, whether you're at home, the realisation is that we are in a very critical place within the UK and God is breathing on us. He had you, he's with you, he created you and we are going to bring a very interesting subject. I don't even like to use the word subject. What am I talking about, Simon? Help me out, please.
Speaker 3:It's great to be back again, ben with you Amen, my friend. We're talking about freedom Ben. Freedom and um you know, we're talking about freedom ben freedom about freedom, you know, and uh, uh, it's, uh, it's freedom in jesus, it's freedom in christ. Exactly that's what we're talking freedom in christ. And this this, you know, what we're going to talk about today is another part of jesus's life, really the story of Jesus. We spoke about it last week.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah and we really.
Speaker 3:The Lord took us to a place where a realisation of Jesus' early life. You know, 20 years, amazing, wasn't it? He spent as a builder, as a carpenter. That's a transit driver.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a because A carpenter. Well, they reckon that. I've spoken to a couple of people this week and they reckon that a carpenter, in them days was akin to a builder. So Jesus was a builder, you know. Imagine, you know, coming around and building your extension or whatever. But that's what he was. If he was alive today, that's in the flesh. That's what he'd do, wouldn't he?
Speaker 2:That's exactly right the king of glory, the king of kings and the lord of lords. Yeah, the story of jesus and it, it. I feel very emotional this morning because of the power of the greatest name in heaven and earth, the wonderful, the glorious name. God has given him, the name, isn't he the name which is above every other name? And at the name of jesus, every knee shall bow. Where do we start with this story?
Speaker 3:because it's well, ben, I think we have to start with. You know, he has a realization, jesus, doesn't he that? Um, he's come to do the will of the father. That's what it says. And if we look at john 5, 30 is a really interesting verse when he says I can of myself do nothing. Oh, now that how many?
Speaker 3:people do we see that think they can do everything themselves. Well, jesus, who's the king of kings, the lord of lords who's? He says I can of myself do nothing. He says I can of myself do nothing. He says, as I hear, I judge, and my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the father who sent me John 5, verse 30 he seeks the will of the father who sent him, so he was always looking to the father, that's really interesting, isn't it?
Speaker 2:because man is always looking to fulfill his will. So christ gives us a clear understanding that there is a human man to christ, because his will is different to the father's will, which could bring quite a deep theological stretch on that. By myself I can do nothing but hang on. Jesus, you are the creator of heaven and earth, because the bible tells me in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. And colossians tells me that christ is the image of the invisible God. Then I read in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verse 30, by myself I can do nothing. So even Christ has to come to the will of the Father, yeah, jesus.
Speaker 3:And he goes on to say in 31,. He says if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. What so he says in verse 31 If I just stay in my own flesh, then this is not a true witness, and ain't that true?
Speaker 2:in life. How powerful is that? That the creator of heaven and earth has come to this world. And the Bible says in John, chapter 1, verse 14-ish and the word became flesh. That's quite frightening, isn't it? Yeah, the word became flesh. The bible mentions the word flesh. What is flesh? Flesh is hungry, flesh desires, flesh is looking at what is around it. And the word became flesh and he made his dwelling among us. So here we have a very interesting text that Simon has bought. And in John, chapter 5, the back end of verse 34, I seek not to please myself. My fleshly Jesus, the man, Christ.
Speaker 2:Jesus the human me.
Speaker 3:So Jesus really had the greatest understanding of flesh and spirit. He had that great understanding of what it meant because he was fully man but he was fully God.
Speaker 2:So God steps into the flesh suit.
Speaker 3:He steps into the earth suit but he realises that hold on a minute.
Speaker 2:This suit has a tendency to want what the world is dangling in front of me. As that dark voice said to him in the wilderness, I'll give you everything.
Speaker 3:And it's interesting, Ben, isn't it? Because we were just talking and I was up doing a little talk in the City of London last night. Yeah, and Thursday night is the new Friday in the City of London last night. Yeah, and Thursday night is the new Friday in the City of London, and Thursday night from five o'clock. Well, I was down there at five o'clock and the pubs were absolutely heaving. It was a nice day. They were spilling out all over the place.
Speaker 2:Wimbledon was on in the background.
Speaker 3:There was everything going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's the flesh, that's the flesh, that's the flesh. The flesh is craving that all the time.
Speaker 2:Fulfillment that cannot be fulfilled from flesh on flesh, flesh with flesh. Because we are spiritual, because the Bible tells us, doesn't it? Before the foundation of the world, I knew you, I knitted you together. But as soon as we come into this world and we take on this skin of a human being, and even all the disciples and everyone that christ and god used through the writings of what we know as the bible, we see that they have real life issues, real life hardships, but with the power of God and the Holy Spirit, all things become possible to those who believe. So Christ is telling us very clearly, through this scripture that Simon has brought today the Jesus story, that I can do nothing by myself, I cannot seek my own will because it's not the word of the one who sent me. So that's really interesting, isn't it? That the word, the word, became flesh.
Speaker 3:Jesus clearly knows that I can't do anything in the flesh.
Speaker 2:No, I can't do anything in the flesh, the lamb without blemish.
Speaker 2:So it was already prophesied in the book of Exodus that Christ will be this lamb, this perfect lamb, and John confirms and brings that prophecy up to speed in the Gospel of John, the lamb of God. So then we travel back all the way back to the Old Testament. That this Jesus, that John is looking at the Jesus story. He's tempted in every way. The word became flesh and made his dwelling. He lived among us, jesus, in this flesh suit that he created from the earth, that we became from the first creation of man. Christ stepped out of the dressing room of Mary through her womb and he became flesh, but he did not waver in the flesh.
Speaker 3:No, because he knew his destiny. He knew what his destiny was, Jesus, didn't he? He? Knew where the Father had sent him. But he couldn't drift away at all from the Father, otherwise he'd be in the flesh. And so you imagine that you'd be tempted in every single way. That's the truth, but he had to stay with the father. And it's the same for us every day. We're tempted in in all sorts of in every way, every way and?
Speaker 2:and see, the thing is, simon isn't. Isn't it true that the more we are honest and we are open with open conversation, as the great writer writes a wretched man am I. The more we are open, the more we become free. But the more I say that, oh, I'm pure, I'm, I don't have awful thoughts, I'm really holy and I'm and, and everything is wonderful and everything is well and I don't have fleshly itches and I'm okay, and I'm lying to myself and I'm lying to everyone around me rather than saying God, help me please.
Speaker 3:Do you know what and this is something that we've talked about before on this platform is that the church in general invites you to put on this facade that everything's great. A Hillsong suit, oh, everything's great, everything's great. I'm blessed and highly favoured.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a Bethel suit where I'm singing, I'm dancing, I'm dancing in the rain. I'm singing to Abba, I'm dancing to Abba.
Speaker 3:Everything is great and wonderful, but we're all lying to ourselves, aren't we? If that is the situation, we're lying. We're lying to ourselves because the church, as the leader, looks out, the Lord should show them the broken vessels, the broken pieces, the broken pieces there, and they should come in the church and go.
Speaker 2:Father forgive me, I have sinned and fought. The scripture says all have sinned and fallen short of thy glory. And the Bible says the lust. Each man is drawn away by his own lust, His own lust. So there is something in every skin that we live in that is tempting more times than we talk about.
Speaker 3:And we mentioned the scripture this morning, didn't we? In Galatians 5, 1,. Paul says it's for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Speaker 2:So don't go back so where do I? Find the freedom, simon? Where do I find it? In Jesus? In Jesus, because he set us free, so don't go back. So where do I find the freedom, simon? Where do I find it? In Jesus, in Jesus.
Speaker 3:Because he set us free. Once he set us free, he's saying stay close to me, Don't go back.
Speaker 2:But look at that.
Speaker 3:Don't go back to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Speaker 2:Don't go back.
Speaker 3:Don't look back like Lot's wife. Don't look back. Don't look back like Lot's wife. Don't look back. Don't go back. You've been. Why do you want to go back there? Because the flesh is pulling you now. If you're not in the word, you'll be in the flesh, won't you? The flesh will be coming.
Speaker 2:Samson and Delilah. An anointed Nazarite Nazarene, when you look at what he is calling on his life. An anointed Nazarite Nazarene, when you look at what he is calling on his life. He was called, he was anointed, but he loved the treacle. He loved the goo of the flesh he loved it.
Speaker 3:And the Bible tells us, doesn't it? The Bible shows us these examples, and if we don't heed them, or listen to them, or see them, and don't listen to the words of Jesus, this is he's saying stay, close, stay close to me.
Speaker 3:Keep walking, he says, doesn't he? He says keep your hands to the plow and don't look back. You know, he makes it very clear because if you look back, your thorough is going to go all over the place. You're going to go all over the place. Oh, keep your eyes in the front screen of the car that you're driving. Oh my lord?
Speaker 2:do you know what he said in in in the gospel of luke? Gospel of luke, chapter 5, verse 8. Now, this man that I'm going to speak about knew jesus. He walked with jesus, he was called by jesus, but when jesus was revealed to him in this area that I'm going to read out, this is what he says luke, chapter 5, verse 8. When simon peter saw this, he fell at jesus's feet and he kneeled and he said go away from me, lord, for I'm a sinful man.
Speaker 2:There comes points in our lives where we, when I say really meet jesus, what I mean is it's not that we've not met him before, but suddenly we realize the corruption of the earth suit, the corruption of political agendas, the corruption of the world, and suddenly Christ reveals himself to us not to condemn us, because that was done through the cross of Calvary, because the scripture says that he's wiped out the legal indebtedness because of the cross of Calvary. So legally he is gone and he's been washed away in the blood of Jesus. But quite often what we find is that we become like this man that said Simon Peter saw him and fell at Jesus' feet and he said Go away, lord, because I'm a sinful man, the physical me, suddenly realizes that I am a wretched man of mine. But because of his holiness, because of his holiness and his favour and his love for us, he will never leave us nor forsake us. So the Jesus story is with us forever and a day. It's with us.
Speaker 3:And it's with us. Yeah, and the thing is so. We have been saved once, but sanctified. We get sanctified every day because we have to come to the cross, every single day. Don't we Pick up your cross and follow me? We have to come to the cross and say Father, forgive me.
Speaker 2:Deny yourself.
Speaker 3:Forgive me for what?
Speaker 2:I've done wrong.
Speaker 3:This is what I've done wrong. This is what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:This is what I'm thinking, this is what I want to do. What do you mean? What you want to do? But you're a churchgoer, you shouldn't think like that. But hang on, let me remind you what jesus said very clearly by myself, I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just. That's very powerful on its own, for I seek not to please myself, but the one who sent me, so that throws religion and the church going issue out the door and and if you think you're doing something in secret, think again, because the you know the.
Speaker 3:The word says clearly that every nothing is hidden from me.
Speaker 2:Nothing is hidden. He sees our thinking and the Psalmist. The Psalmist says this, something that is really powerful, before any word that you spoke. I see it before any physical press. I knew the path you would walk. So there is nothing new under the sun. There is nothing hidden from the eyesight of the burning god of israel. And god says in the old, in Deuteronomy, chapter 6,. He says my anger is burning against you If you come out of my commandments. My anger burns against you.
Speaker 3:Very interesting point you brought up there, and I think it's something that we should stress that while we're under the umbrella of the safety of Jesus and staying close to him it's only when we step out of that we get wet, don't we? We get wet, we get soaked in the world's rain.
Speaker 2:We get soaked in the world.
Speaker 2:The world is raining on us, the world. We are under the umbrella of Christ, under the covenant, under the protection. But if I come out of the umbrella, how do I do that? How do I do that? Do I leave church? No, do I leave God? No, I don't leave him, because nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. It's when my lifestyle doesn't live according to the word of God and my flesh kicks in and my head kicks in and I do something that the world wants me to do. But Jesus is making this very clear through the New Testament I am doing what the Father's will is.
Speaker 3:So if we don't, if we do our own way, it's going to go. It's a train wreck, it's a crash. Proverbs 16.3 says this to me. It says commit to the Lord whatever you do our own way. It's a train wreck, it's a crash. Proverbs 16.3 says this to me. It says commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. So we don't think, god, this is a great idea. I'm going to go ahead and do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We say is this your will, father? And if it is his will, then, mate, you'll see the doors open like no, like nothing else. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. All of a sudden you go. How?
Speaker 2:did I get here? How did I get in here? How did I get in this place? That's happened to me a couple of times this week.
Speaker 3:How am I here, someone like me, how am I in this place, speaking to these people?
Speaker 2:how did I get here? Because the journey with Christ, the journey of destination, is different when God anoints and God calls and God leads. Suddenly we find ourselves in positions that no man can open them doors. But they are ordained and they are of God. So we will find ourselves in certain callings and certain areas of life that can only happen by a complete and absolute revelation or a God move and God opening the door. That has no handle. But we are finding we are living in a world, in the West, where we are opening and we are like cutting the doors off to make things happen to get into other rooms, when God is saying I don't want you in that room, that door is locked for a reason. Yeah, what are you doing? What are you doing? Trying to open that door? What are you doing opening that door? I don't want you out there, yeah, but Lord, I want my flesh, I want to build a ministry.
Speaker 3:But this is such a good idea for you, Lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but, lord, why don't you follow me Jesus? Follow me, lord, and I'll show you the way Jesus. I will.
Speaker 3:When Jesus says I am the way, the truth Very interesting, very interesting, how many people suddenly jump on a plane and dot off to another country.
Speaker 2:God's calling me across the other side of the world. Hang on. What about your neighbor? What about your?
Speaker 3:street that's in front of you. What about this?
Speaker 2:place? What about this place? Jerusalem is where your eyes are focused on.
Speaker 3:What about solon and gamora in this place? Oh, we don't go there.
Speaker 2:The church won't go into solon gamora. Oh no, we can't go there. We've got to go into a nice holy huddle where we can wrap each other up in a load of old rubbish and stroke each other's backs when actually god says go into all the world.
Speaker 3:To this place, which is absolutely Desperate, spiritually Broke, exactly.
Speaker 2:Desolate. There's an interesting there's two sides to the cross. The side of the cross that I'm going to talk about is the side of Lucifer, and those that are in that world are serving foreign gods, and the foreign gods have everything to do with the flesh, that culture and everything, and it's being fed, and it's fed with adrenaline. And what's next? The new car, the new TV, the next massive pay rise, the next ivory tower, the next business, the next, the next, the next party, the next, the next, the new car, the new TV, the next massive pay rise, the next ivory tower, the next business, the next, the next, the next, the next party, the next, the next, the next. But with Christ you won't find none of that, but you've got to leave all that at the cross of Calvary. The biggest challenge any human being will find in their life and it is a challenge is to follow. Jesus Is to follow.
Speaker 3:Jesus and I always ask the question you know what's different about this peace you get when you follow Jesus? You know, and really I could only say this you know I don't find peace in a 65-inch flat-screen TV. Although it's very nice, it doesn't give me peace does it. No, I don't find peace in my nice brand-new motor vehicle that I've just bought. I don't find peace in that. I don't find peace, everlasting peace, in anything. No eternal rest.
Speaker 3:No eternal rest in anything but the Word of God and my relationship with Jesus Christ, who leads me to the Father.
Speaker 2:And what that does is by being led to the Father. It recognizes that materialism and the world has no spiritual value because the material world that we have to our fingertips is trying. It feeds the flesh and the flesh is external when there's an empty vacuum. That can only be filled inside, because the Bible says greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. What's in the world? Lucifer is in the world, the physical is in the world that we see. But there's another dimension, there's that spiritual dimension where Christ is this realm, where the power of god is this, this place that the human eye cannot see, where science cannot enter into, where we can only go to because he is the door and, and we mentioned it, and in john 14 6, he says this Jesus said he's talking to Thomas.
Speaker 3:He said to Thomas he says I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So he's saying I'm the way, jesus is the way, I'm the truth and the life. If you follow me you'll see the Father, that's correct.
Speaker 2:Isn't it interesting that he's talking to Thomas? Yeah, doubting Thomas, doubting Thomas, yeah, and he says I am the way, the truth and the life. He says I am the door. Well, when Christ came back for Thomas, the scripture says the windows were bolted, the doors were locked for fear of the audience around them. Christ doesn't need a door to come to us, but we need a door to get to him, because he is the door. Christ comes from that spiritual dimension that the human being cannot get to, but without Christ.
Speaker 3:Christ opens the door to the spiritual realm and listen, these pictures, I want to just rip them down and smash them up, to be honest with you, and that is not blasphemous. It's not blasphemous Of Jesus with a little lamb make a mould. You know, it ain't the proper Jesus that we read about, you know, because he came to confront authority, didn't he? Ben you? Know in John 9 and 10, he's given it face to face with the. Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day.
Speaker 2:He is strong, powerful, he takes no messing about, he does not allow the authorities, even though he put the authorities in position. And do you know what I love? I've got to try and remember what that scripture is. When Christ is from the garden, it's somewhere between the garden and the cross and he says to the authorities and to the priests and every religious leader around him at this point you've got one hour. You've got one hour to do what you're going to do and then it's over. That hour of darkness was where they beat him, whipped him, they'd done everything to him. They had one hour.
Speaker 2:But religion is still living on the back end of that one hour. Religion is still beating christ, whipping christ, pushing christ out of the churches. But jesus said you've got one hour. Religion has finished after that, that 60 minute hour that Christ spoke about. But religion is still trying to go on and it's going on in the satanic realms. Now Christ has saved you. Whoever you are across this earth today, god is with you. And Christ said to religion and the order at that day you've got one hour to do what you're going to do. That hour is finished over 2,000 years ago and the kingdom of God is alive. Religion is dead. Follow Jesus the Jesus story. Simon said he is the door. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Speaker 3:And next week, ben, we're going to talk about a father's story, because it's a story that that's not, that's that it's never really been told or expanded on. That you don't see it that often, um, but you don't do it. You know what you said there. Ben is very powerful and you said Jesus stood strong. And he stood strong against the crowd as well, ben, didn't he? Because if we look in Luke 8.40, do you remember Jairus' daughter had died? Oh gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And do you remember the crowd said to him there's no point in going there, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead, it's over. There's no real point in going there, she's dead, she's dead, it's over. There's no real point in going there. And if he was a crab pleaser, he would have gone. Yeah, I can't problem, let's go back to church. Yeah, let's go back to church. And no, he said no. And he went to the house of Jerry's, took with him Peter, james and John, and the daughter became alive again didn't she?
Speaker 3:And it's the same. Remember in Mark 10, 46, where he's on that road to I think it's Jericho, I think I'm right in saying and blind Bartimaeus called out to him, do you? Remember he called out to him and said Jesus, jesus. And the crowd went don't worry about him, he's a blind man Isn't that interesting.
Speaker 2:The blind man see him, yeah, and the crowd that was physically walking with him couldn't see him, couldn't see him. There's a lot in that text.
Speaker 3:And he dismissed the crowd and said I want to speak to this guy and we asked him what he wanted. He wanted to see. I want to see, yeah.
Speaker 3:I want to see, I want to see, yeah, I want to see, I want to see and also in that Luke, round about that 840, it was the woman with the issue of blood, wasn't she? That's right? Yeah, and this woman, she tried everything, she spent all her money, she'd been to every single physician, snake oil salesman, whatever. Nothing could do it, nothing could do it. And what did she do, ben?
Speaker 2:She said I've got to get to Jesus, I've got to touch the hem of his garment. If I can just touch the hem, I will. I will be Healed. I will be if I can touch the hem of his garment. Power in jesus. Everything is in jesus forgiveness, hope, life, repentance um redemption, salvation and glory favor.
Speaker 3:Do you know what? It's the same really in the world. You know when people have tried everything sex, drugs, rock and roll the grandmother glitz everything. None of this is working. I've tried it all. It's not working.
Speaker 2:It's not working. I've tried it all.
Speaker 3:She's tried everything, she's been to every physician, spent all everything and she finally comes to realization that if I can touch, jesus is the only one.
Speaker 2:What does she have to do? So at this point in her time? She is weak in her physical being, she's tired, she has no money, she has no one around her, but she finds this strength where she has to crawl on the floor. I've got to get through the crowd and there are many of you that are being crushed by the crowd of life. You've spent everything, you've tried everything and now you're on your hands and your knees trying to crawl through the crowd of society and life, the cogs of industry. Everything has gone, nothing else is left. But I've got this one thing I can do If I can get through below the calf level of the human being, if I can get to him and touch the hem of his garment.
Speaker 2:And Jesus stopped in the crowd and he said who's touched me? And his disciples and the church goers went. What are you talking about? You're surrounded by people. People are barging you and knocking you and they'll carry you in the strength of the crowd. And you said who touched me? Jesus went. Virtue has left me. There is a transition of when someone touches him with their heart. There is a move, there is a transaction that the church, the church was surrounding him and the church was physically touching him, but it wasn't touching him with its heart. If you are hungry for Jesus, you might be in the crowd of business, you might be in the ivory towers, you might be in the lowest part of your life, you might be caught in addictions, you might be caught in temptations, but your heart is ready to touch jesus. Your heart is ready, because when your heart is ready, there's nothing else left ben, that's powerful, you know.
Speaker 3:just let those, those words of Ben, sink in a minute, because that is the truth. I had a young girl last night, a beautiful young woman, come to me and said I'm going very quietly, I'm going down that route, I'm involved in peer pressure that's taken me into a black place where there's drugs and whatever. She was hungry to change and the only way she could change is by embracing Jesus Christ the only way.
Speaker 2:I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am that. I am the seven.
Speaker 2:I am's in the gospel of john. God is with you. God is for you and not against you. He sees your heart, he sees everything. He sees them tears as you commute into town. He hears your heart's cry as you're driving your beautiful car. He sees you at the desk when you're staring into the screen and you know what you are looking at cannot give you fulfillment.
Speaker 2:As you stand at the top of your ivory tower looking across london, and you feel empty, tired and exhausted. As you go back to the castle that you have built, and you drive and you walk up your pathway, as you open your door to your beautiful apartment, as you turn up to those houses, it can't fulfil. You're hungry for Jesus and Jesus is calling you because this is the Jesus story he's come to seek and to save that which was lost. I was lost, but now I'm found. See, he came to seek and to save. I wasn't birthed to seek him. I was birthed because of unconditional love. Jesus loves you. God is with you as you look out across the cities, as you look out across the fields, as you're in your hot tubs, as you drive your cars, as you look on your bank online. It can't fulfil the spiritual hunger that you have, so look what we've.
Speaker 3:This jesus is just incredible. Everything, he's everything. So he's done the will of the father. He gathered a team around him, he's. He leads us to the father, he confronts the authorities, he stands strong, but most of all, then, he's a savior of the world. He's the john free 16. He's john free 16 and we're going to dig into john genesis, chapter one big time.
Speaker 2:God said let there be light, the god that created the heavens and the earth. And in the book of isaiah, where it says god is stretching out the expanse of the heavens like a scroll. The universe cannot be measured by science and by mathematics, the speed that is changing by light. But god tells us he's on the other side of that light. He separated, separated light from darkness. He's the John 3.16.
Speaker 3:And John 3.16,. Ben is where Jesus is talking to a fellow called Nicodemus who couldn't quite get his head around the fact that he got to be born again and what was Nicodemus, he was an educated, he had liquidity, he had money, he had stature. He was a ruler of the Jews, wasn't he? He was a ruler of the Jews, wasn't?
Speaker 2:he. He was a ruler, he was a leader. He was a leader of religion. He was a leader. He knew the Old Testament, he knew he had the information, but the information hadn't been revealed. Because this right, okay, carry on, simon. I don't want to go too deep.
Speaker 3:And Jesus explains it to him, and we'll cut in here at John 3.14. Because he knew, he knew the word he knew. He knew yeah.
Speaker 3:He knew the books of the Bible. He knew the scriptures, didn't he? He says that and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And then he goes on, he presses this home with Nicodemus. He says for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but should have everlasting life. And he goes at him again and says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. No, but through that the world, through him, might be saved, saved you can't save yourself.
Speaker 2:I know what the scripture says, but that's after we are saved. After we are saved, then we recognize the scriptures that speak about salvation. Because the scripture says whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But I've got to be saved and called before I realize that Jesus is in existence, because I'm not looking for Jesus until he finds me. But I've not been lost. But the scripture says I was lost, but I was lost in the world. But I wasn't lost in the creation of the world, because he knew me before the foundation of the world. So Christ has always had us in his plan, in his plan. You were created for Jesus, by Jesus, by the god of this world, the god above all gods. And god said in deuteronomy, chapter 6, very clearly he said do not serve the gods of this world, because I am the god and I am walking amongst you, amongst the gods of this world.
Speaker 3:And in the Old Testament and we will expand this next week but in the Old Testament the atonement for sin blood had to be spilled, didn't it, ben?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:But this didn't happen just once. This didn't happen time and time again. It was a continuum for atonement. So the father's plan was to send his only son, and it says there he loved the world so much. One sacrifice, the greatest love story ever. But it had to be sinless. And Jesus, as we've already said, he battled with the flesh. He just knew that he couldn't do it in the flesh.
Speaker 2:He had to do it because the word says and the word became flesh, and it means very clearly that it became a human being with human feelings and human emotions and so jesus struggled in every single way, as we do, but he resisted all of that.
Speaker 3:Because that's the difference If he'd have given in, and if he was, and if he had sinned, he would have died for himself. Exactly, he didn't die for himself, he died for us, you know. And when he gave his only son, so he died on the cross for us. And you know, when he gave his only son, so he died on the cross. This is where he fulfilled his destiny, with the sin of the world on him and transgressions, and in that wonderful hymn, in Christ alone, it says and the wrath of God was satisfied.
Speaker 2:No one will ever understand what the wrath of God is. The greatest theologian, the greatest educator and thinker, we will never understand what the full wrath of God is. There isn't a book or a thesaurus or a way in the human language where we can actually fully understand what the wrath of God is. It is so powerful. It will wipe us off the face of the earth in a way that but the price. The price had been paid and the price stopped the wrath of God. What we've got coming next is the judgment of God.
Speaker 3:Well, we'll expand this. But if you've got a son or a daughter, imagine having to see your son and daughter die the most horrific way for the good of mankind. And here's the deal. If that happened, you'd always be connected to the son and the daughter, but there was a disconnect on that cross between the father and the son, which we cannot even go there.
Speaker 2:You can't even get there. You can't get there, you can't go there, you can't even get there.
Speaker 3:You can't get there. And so that's, you know, was Jesus' destiny was to die on a cross. But Jesus' destiny was not just to die on a cross, ben, was it. It was to overcome death. It was to overcome death, and he says it in. I'll just bang on this in a moment. He says it in Romans 6, verses 8 to 11. It says now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. O death, where is your sting? For the death that he died? He died to sin once and for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God, likewise you who also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but life to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So you overcome the death.
Speaker 2:I'm absolutely speechless this morning because of this Jesus story.
Speaker 3:This story could go on.
Speaker 2:It goes on for eternity, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:But I think, then, all we can say really is that… Jesus loves us and we owe him everything, and we are saved. He died for our sin, he rose again to save us and accept us, and that's a massive… the acceptance of us, the acceptance.
Speaker 2:While I was a sinner. He saved me While I was living in Sodom and Gomorrah smoking a cigar an arm of God came down, grabbed me, pulled me and said that's my son, that's my daughter, Get out.
Speaker 3:Get your, my daughter, get up, get your face out of the dirt, no matter what you think of yourself. I love you. You are a warrior. Look to the cross and see what God did for you.
Speaker 2:Gideon said I am the least in my clan. He accepted you.
Speaker 3:He separated you from the world. You're now his. He led you to the father and he's everything. And, as you quite rightly said, he's coming again in judgment, in glory, to judge the living and the dead. And his name, every knee will bow, every tongue confess it is Lord. It don't matter who you are, it don't matter what empire you've built for yourself, it don't matter what standing you've got. He's coming.
Speaker 3:When he comes, your knee will bow, your face will be on the dirt because it means nothing to him, whether you're Boris Johnson, whether you're Biden, whoever you are Putin, no matter who you are, when he lands on his earth, my friends, your face will be in the dirt.
Speaker 2:Every eye will see, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is glory. May God bless you. We're just going to put a comma on this because we're going to continue this. You can't stop the Jesus story.
Speaker 3:You can't stop the Jesus story.
Speaker 2:It never, never ends. It is moving all the time. God is with you. We thank you so much. Wherever you are across this earth, god loves you. Jesus has just gone to the cross, for all of us all have sinned and fallen short of thy glory, but through the power of redemption, through the power of redemption, that's it, simon.
Speaker 3:Come on say the last few words, my friend, because I'm done we just want to thank you again for listening to what we've got to say and what we believe the Lord is saying through us, and we want to encourage you to listen to next week's one, which will be on the Father's story, and it's the greatest love story the world has ever known and will ever know. It doesn't matter how much you love your wife, your partner, your dog, your cat, whatever. This is the greatest love story that we're going to really dig into next week. So, thanks again. We bless you and it's all about Jesus. That's all we've got to say. Amen, google Play, alexa, mixcloud, facebook, instagram and YouTube.
