The Gospel According to DMX
Movement Live Notes
This week, most of us have heard about the passing of Earl “DMX” Simmons. DMX was a person who used his struggle to fuel his music. He was a person who knew and understood his purpose and a person who, very openly, knew Jesus. Many of us are familiar with his music and his style of rapping. He was often viewed as aggressive or hostile. Even in his songs about God, you heard hostility, but the hostility was never towards God. The hostility was always towards the flesh and towards the struggle. Not with God, but with the struggle of knowing man, “I'm sick, but I need to be healed."
Some of us don't have a problem with our sickness, and we should. The mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God. But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:8-9 says, “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” If you are in Christ, Jesus, you can never be in the flesh. How can you be in the Spirit and in the flesh? You can respond to the flesh. You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ, respond to the flesh. You don't live in it. Remember what Romans 8:9 says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” If you are a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in you.
In other words, DMX could respond to his flesh. You and I can respond to our flesh, but we are not in the flesh. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in us, that should be some good news. The question that I have for you all, brothers and sisters, is, do you belong to Jesus Christ? If you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you belong to Jesus Christ, you've got to have confidence because He is the living hope. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. The body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If we have truly been delivered from bondage, if we've genuinely been freed from sin, redeemed, and set free. If He truly is the Passover lamb, if He truly is our Savior and our Redeemer, then we’ve got to understand who we are in Christ Jesus. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11) That is good news!
If we keep reading, Romans 8:12 says, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Listen, brothers and sisters, it does not matter what you are struggling with. We just have to acknowledge and identify our struggle. The problem with many of us is, in our Christian arrogance, we refuse to identify our sin. And the one thing I can say about DMX, he knew his struggle. That’s where the gospel has truly been applied in the life of the DMX.
So many of us miss the beauty of the gospel because we don't want to identify our sin. We refuse to identify sin; we become "holier than thou," we trust our own reasoning when scripture cautions us not to. Proverbs 3 tells us, trust in the Lord. Not our own reasoning. Our thoughts are not His thoughts. Our ways are not His ways. We cannot trust in our finite thinking. We cannot trust in the man or system. Scripture says, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not onto your understanding," our finite, human comprehension. Brothers and sisters, trust in the Lord. The greatest deliverance we could ever have is to believe in Him.
As you process this message, think back over this past week and ask yourself a few questions. Have I trusted my own reasoning? Have I trusted my own knowing? Am I trusting my own reasoning at this moment? Can you see pride in your reflection? If so, will you take a moment and tell the Lord that you need Him? We all need Him. This is what DMX cried out, just as you and I ought to cry out to Him, Lord, we need You.
Go in peace, brothers and sisters.
