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[0:00] Okay, well, if you will take your sheet, we are looking at these 33 things, 33 blessings that have been compiled by Dr. Louis Barry Chafer.

[0:11] And I want to remind you, fellas, that these are all true of everyone who has come to faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, whether they know it or not, whether they believe it or not.

[0:30] All of these things are true, and they all occur at the same time when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

[0:41] Every one of these 33 things become a true reality for you. Whether you know it or not, and let's face it, how many of us knew these things when we came to faith?

[0:56] Some of them, many of them, I didn't even know existed until years later. As I was reading them in the Scriptures and started to sink into this sodden brain of mine, some of these things, it was a wake-up call.

[1:13] In other words, guys, we don't know how rich we are in Christ. We don't know how much He has provided for us. But we have an obligation to try and find out.

[1:26] And, you know, if somebody left you a great sum of money and put the money in the bank and put it in your name, but you didn't know it was there, and you weren't told that it was left to you, you wouldn't get the benefit from it.

[1:46] And yet, it belongs to you legally, and it's yours. All you have to do is be aware of it and claim it, but you don't even know that. And that's, sadly, the truth that exists regarding a lot of people who are in Christ.

[2:02] They have no idea how rich they are, how wealthy they are, until they really delve into these things. And I call them DOAs.

[2:13] And that doesn't mean dead on arrival. It means divine operating assets. That's what they are. These are divine operating assets.

[2:24] When you know these things, and you can't appreciate them, you can't enjoy them if you don't know them. And when you know them, it gives you a new sense of appreciation of how rich you are in Christ, and a brand new appreciation for all that is involved in what Jesus did for you.

[2:44] It's just an amazing thing. And, guys, let me add this, too, because this is really, really important. These items that have been set forth here, and all of the Scripture verses that go with them, are true whether you feel like it or not.

[3:05] Because the truth of your position in Christ is not determined by and not decided by how you feel about it.

[3:18] These things, if you are in Christ, are true of you whether you feel like it or not. Feelings are fleeting.

[3:29] They come and go. And there are a lot of times when I don't feel like any of these things. When I get up at about, well, it's usually between 3 and 4 in the morning because my bladder beckons, and I stumble off to the bathroom.

[3:49] I don't feel any of these things. I don't feel any of these things. I just want to get rid of last night's coffee and get back to bed. But it's true whether you feel it or not.

[4:02] So, guys, you need to take to your spiritual bank what you know intellectually to be true and not what you feel like is true.

[4:21] Because feelings are fickle. Feelings come and go. Feelings are brought about usually by the things that are happening in our life at the moment that causes us to feel a certain thing.

[4:40] But these truths are to be tucked away in our mind. And this, guys, this is what Paul's talking about in Romans 8, I believe it is.

[4:53] When he talks about the renewing of your mind. It's not the renewing of your feelings. It's the renewing of your mind.

[5:04] It involves the intellect. It is the thinking process. And how do you renew your mind? You renew your mind by taking in truth which pushes out error.

[5:26] It is replacing wrong thinking with right thinking. That's the renewing of the mind. That's making, remaking your mind over and over again.

[5:39] And you do that on the basis of the content and the truth that you take in. That's why, guys, that's why I harp so much on information.

[5:51] Information. Someone has said, this is the information age. And never have we been so devoid of true understanding as now when we are covered with the information age and yet there's so much lacking.

[6:11] And it's kind of a strange thing, but it's true. So this is a mental process. And nobody is saying that you're saved on the basis of your brains or your intellect.

[6:23] But we are saying that it has to go through that intellectual challenge. That center whereby you assess, you receive information. And what do you do when you receive it?

[6:36] You evaluate it. You process it. You go through a number of steps asking yourself about this information. Is this valid? Is it true?

[6:47] Where did I get it? How can it be verified? Is it just somebody's opinion or what? And you reach a conclusion. And then in that conclusion, you tuck away in your mind and heart and you have just renewed your mind in one little area there.

[7:09] And we just go through this process over and over again. So all of these things that are here are things that you very probably don't feel.

[7:20] And I remember someone years ago that had been led to Christ a few days earlier and they came in and were talking about their decision and so on.

[7:35] And they said, well, I just have one question. And I said, well, what's that? And they said, well, there are a lot of times when I just don't feel saved.

[7:50] And I said, okay, well, tell me a little bit about it. And they said, well, after I came to faith in Christ and somebody who ever was read the Scripture to me and told me what this meant, you know, and the decision I'd made and everything, he said, I just felt all warm and good all over.

[8:11] And I just felt cleansed like I'd been given a big bath on the inside. And I said, okay. And he said, but now, he said, I don't feel that way anymore.

[8:26] What's wrong? I've lost a feeling. Am I still saved? And I had to try to explain to him as best I could. You are not saved because you feel saved.

[8:40] There are plenty of times when you go through things and experience things that touch your feelings and your emotions. You may feel anything but saved.

[8:51] You may feel miserable. You may feel doubtful. You may feel questioning and all the rest of it. That doesn't negate or discount at all the reality of your position in Christ because feelings are determined by what we are experiencing at the moment.

[9:11] And that's what makes us feel the way we do, whether it's happiness or sadness or whatever it is. It's always in connection with what we're experiencing at the moment. That determines our feelings.

[9:22] But this thing called salvation and these properties that belong to the believer in Christ are not based on how you feel or whether you continue to feel that way.

[9:35] They are based upon what God has revealed, the God who cannot lie. And, brother, this you can take to the bank.

[9:47] Your feelings come and go. So, your feelings determined by what you're experiencing at the moment. But your salvation is determined by your faith in Christ and the regeneration that he placed within you when you came to faith in him.

[10:03] So, it's a wonderful thing. Don't confuse the two. And probably the best example that I can get, and I really registered with me, I was talking somewhere. I don't remember where it was now.

[10:14] It was teaching. And somebody came up to me and he said, I got an illustration for you of what you were talking about with feelings and intellect. And I said, good, I can use it. And he said, well, I do a lot of flying.

[10:28] And he said, sometimes I get in situations where the weather is nasty and it's really cloudy and I can't get my bearings and I can't see.

[10:42] And I said, what do you do when you can't see? And he said, you fly by your instruments. You fly by what your instrument tells you about your altitude, about your direction and everything.

[11:01] And there are times, he said, I can well recall when my emotion and my feeling told me that thus and so was a certain direction or thus and so was about the altitude that I was at and I was sure of it.

[11:24] And I looked at my instrument and it did not confirm what I was feeling. It told me the opposite. But my instructor had drummed into me, don't trust your feelings, trust your instruments.

[11:42] And he said, that's really hard to do because this instrument is a mechanical gadget, you know. It's a thing. But I've got a brain, I've got a mind, I've got feelings and emotions and I have a sense.

[12:00] And the natural thing is to trust your feelings and your emotions. But you better not do that when you're flying.

[12:11] And you better check your instruments because your instrument is more reliable than your gut when you're flying. And I thought, well, that is a pretty good illustration.

[12:25] And I'm sure there are a whole lot of pilots who can back that up. So let's continue on, if we may. Item number, by the way, if you've got any questions about anything that we've covered so far or anything that you want to add, I'm determined, if I can, as I've often said, to scratch where people itch.

[12:47] And if you've got an itch, we'll stop and scratch it there. But I don't want to just move on and assume that we're okay. I think we've covered the first 16 or so, and we're on the next page.

[12:59] The circumcision thing, and boy, that's something that really registers for me. I think I probably told you guys about this probably years ago, but maybe it was a different group of fellows.

[13:10] Some of you may have been here. Some of you may not. But this circumcision thing is no big deal. No pun intended. It is probably the main reason why in the Jewish community, where there were Gentiles who were accepting of the God of Israel, they became known as God-fearers.

[13:44] And Cornelius, in Acts chapter 10, is referred to as a God-fearer. And it is explained of him that he was a Roman centurion, which is extremely unusual, because this man was a Roman army officer.

[14:05] He belonged to the group of soldiers that had invaded Israel and was occupying Israel under the auspices of the government of Rome.

[14:19] And the people in Israel, of course, hated that because they wanted their freedom. And these Romans would come by with their pagan deities emblazoned on flags and things like that.

[14:29] And it just drove these Jews crazy, you know, because they saw their land they saw their land desecrated Yeah, desecrated by what these foreigners were providing.

[14:45] And yet, this one individual, his name is Cornelius, this is Acts chapter 10, it's one of my favorite stories, had become a God-fearer, which means he had set aside and rejected all of the Roman deities that the Roman soldiers worshipped.

[15:00]  And he had embraced as the one true God, the God of Israel. Very unusual. And we are told that also he had contributed considerable sums