Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Consolation in Christ

Transcript

The Consolation in Christ · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Come and get your love.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Come and get your love.
• 0:09
  unknown: Come and get your love.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the message that I have tonight.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what I was reading this weekend, I come across this verse and this word jumped out at me, the consolation in Christ.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen a couple of reactions, because we've had a major event going on.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, some of you haven't noticed, we did have an election, or maybe we're having one, who knows?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: An election in this country, to those of you who don't know where you've been.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But but I'm uh I'm seeing uh basically two different reactions among my Christian friends.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are some who are really in torment and they're really up in arms about it.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's another that, you know, I'm see I'm hearing a lot of others are saying, saying, well, you know, Jesus is the king, you know, it's it's uh, you know, he's the king of his kingdom.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um nothing can stop what God wants to do.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we don't trust in men, they're saying, you know, we don't trust in men's systems.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not the politics that we trust in, it's it's Christ that we trust in.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, well, glad to hear that finally, after years of this other stuff, that where you where where the other day you were so infra, we got to stop this if we don't.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: This horrible thing's gonna happen and all these whole like, oh, so now everything's gonna be okay because of Jesus, huh?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and so but anyway, so we've got both of those.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and the latter, at least what they've done is is they're they're focusing on on the spirit and on truth here.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and what we're gonna look at, I've got a beautiful, beautiful uh message.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: This gospel is beautiful, it's powerful, I'm in love with it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just uh there.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: To try to even preach this thing, this beautiful gospel.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: How does how does it get done?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: There has to be a Holy Spirit talking to you, you know, while somebody's up here trying to do justice to this powerful, beautiful thing.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit somehow is able to talk to the hearts of people, and I love that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I love that we can rely on him.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um we're gonna look at what we're gonna see is a few things.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see identity.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna find a consolation in and in our in our identity and and who we really are.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um we'll see um clarity in some things.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of joy in this.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to begin.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I wanted to say this.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: What we'll see that we also have we have the secret advantage in this world.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got Jesus, you've got the Spirit living in you.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit Himself, uh, you know, I could I could just go off and teach on this, but he uh so many things that the Word says that he is, and He does.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: He He leads us and guides us in all truth.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's called the Spirit of truth.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Truth.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: There is truth to be known and heard and made aware of in the Spirit.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: It says that He was given to us in 1 Corinthians, he was given to us so that we might know the things that have been freely given to us.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, that He will take of mine and He will glorify me.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He will glorify me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what I see Him doing in my life, and I've seen him He's been doing it for many years, is that He He keeps showing me how boundless the boundaries of Jesus are and how how how big He is, and I still have I can't see the ends of Him anymore.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where I used to see a big Jesus, but I could still see the end of it.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he's really big, but he doesn't go this far, and he doesn't go that far.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well I found out that he's bigger than all of that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: What a powerful, what a beautiful name it is.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lady was uh talking to me one time quite a many years ago.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: She was she had jury duty and it was a it was uh a major crime.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it might have been a murder case, but she was she was she said, I'm nervous about it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: She says, I'm one of just a few people that the fate of this person's life, this whole situation, is in my hands.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling the burden of this responsibility.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and honestly, it's I'm I'm kind of uh stressed about it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you of all people are the one that has nobody to worry, worry about.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You're a born-again Christian filled with the Holy Spirit, and you said you're gonna know.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: You have the spirit of truth in you.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's the other ones you might want to be concerned about, but you're gonna know.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You have the way of knowing.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we really do.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have have have the spirit of knowing.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh, you know, as you as we know him and grow in this, we we we know him more.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: We know that spirit.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 2, verse 1.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Paul writing here.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, if there be any, if there's therefore any consolation in Christ.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw this word because I thought, I want to bring consolation to this.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe most of us here who we voted for didn't didn't win.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's consolation in in this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: If there's therefore any consolation in Christ, if there's any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and mercy.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, consolation means comforting.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: If there, if there's any consolation, comfort.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about this, the consolation.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, well, maybe you don't get this, but you have this.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's like, you know, sort of like a consolation prize.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Only thing is our consolation is so much bigger than what maybe somebody thought the prize was, the big prize was.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, something that I have tonight will bring, if it's the word of God, if it's truth, it will bring edification, exhortation, and comfort.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and if there's any comfort in love, it won't bring anguish, it won't bring anger, it won't cause stress to you, right?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It won't make you hate people more, right?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: If it's truth, it'll bring edification, exhortation, and comfort.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any comfort of love, he says, if there's any fellowship of the spirit.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now these are beautiful, flowery words, but think about the beauty and the power of what the writer's talking about here.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: The fellowship of the spirit.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of things that we, even at the world can do it, but even as Christians, we can do it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: We can fellowship around different things.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can fellowship, and not all of them are bad things.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we can fellowship around Christ, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Having Christ, knowing the things of Christ, talking the things of Christ, and being able to understand what each other's talking about because we both know that person.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can also fellowship around football, you can fellowship around politics, you can fellowship around fishing, you can fellowship around lots of different things.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can join a group of a marriage group, and you know, all you there's different things that we can build fellowship around, but there's a fellowship of the spirit that all Christians uh do have and should have and should be aware of.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a fellowship of the Spirit.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's the Spirit of truth, and he always glorifies Christ.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: The fellowship of the Spirit, if there's any affection and mercy, then fulfill my joy.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, fulfill my joy by being like-minded.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like-minded what?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: By having a mind like what I've just talked about there.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: By talking about the comfort of love, the fellowship of the spirit, the consolation in Christ.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Having that same love that I just talked about, the love of Christ, being of one accord, and being of one mind, because we're talking about the fellowship of the spirit.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not that we don't have different opinions on different things, and we all, you know, we're we're very diverse, very, very, very diverse, but there is that one place of the spirit where there's where there's only one spirit, and he speaks in one a particular way.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um by that I mean not that he might not sound one way to another, but his he will always be glorifying Christ and all of it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of one accord and of one mind, and let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now pay attention, I'm gonna be a little deliberate because this is beautiful.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If we get it, we sometimes we gloss over these things just because it's like, oh yeah, it's a beautiful word of God.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or we look at it and it's just uh aspirational.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I should try to be more like that.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're talking about.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about what we got here.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the fellowship in the spirit.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But in lowliness of mind, or humility is what that is, right?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Humility, let everybody esteem others better than himself.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, don't do things by vainglory or selfish ambition.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, he says, with with us in this fellowship of the spirit, we're different.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what we want to look at at identity.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're different.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And while the world is all trying to get something for themselves because the world feels like they can't afford to lose, only we are the ones that have so much abundance, have such everything going for us, have such fullness of life.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: If we just know it, if we're just aware, we've got it.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: People are wanting more of God, you're drowning in it if you can just see it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but but he says, and because you have everything, you can give anything.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But in lowliness of mind, let all of us esteem others better than themselves.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in some dimensions, that's kind of easy.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, some of us we can do it with some people in our family.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We love them, and it's like, okay, like I I can, it's not hard for me to think I want to put Judy before myself.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in fact, I honestly, I'm telling the truth, I'm I'm more happy when she's getting things that she wants than than than me.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm more happy when I see her get blessed.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm that's just how that is.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's not that hard.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: My kids are that way, you know?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather put them before me.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people that that that are close to us that we love, it's not so hard.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there are other others that maybe we think they just don't deserve it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're evil.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But everybody esteem others as better than themselves.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Put them in a position better than themselves.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I won't spend a lot of time on that, but but just go read 1 Corinthians 12 sometime, where he says, What how do we do it?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, This is the way of Christ.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We as believers, what do we do?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, those members, those parts, those people, if you will, that we esteem to be uh worthy of less honor, we give them more honor.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're not like the world.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Of the spirit, we do it differently.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at that's Christ.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's what he always did.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Those that that the rest of the world, and particularly the church world of the day.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: We think of Pharisees, Sadducees, and there were others, but it's that was the church world of the day.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was the that those were the church, that was the church Jesus went to.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was his custom to go into synagogue.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: He was a part of the church.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh uh, but it was it it was it was the ones that they esteemed were not worthy of honor that Jesus gave more honor.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why 1 Corinthians 12 says that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why can we do that?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're Christ in the world.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that either, that Jesus, that got this whole thing started with one.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the Christ.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: But his ministry on earth did not stop just with his ascension to the Father because He because He came to us in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's called.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery is Christ in us.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is in the earth right now, he's in the hearts of me and you.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's in these earthen vessels, right?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is still ministering, Christ is still speaking, Christ is still doing his goodness, he's still loving the world that he came to die for.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's still proclaiming peace to all men.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's still saying, he's still prepared with the gospel of peace that the war, the striving between God and man is over.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas is killed.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all decorated yet?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got some friends already jumped in.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: You might as well.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it goes so quick if you want to do all that work.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe in it, that's okay.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But but uh uh giving more honor to those that we seem to be less uh less honorable.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So think about that.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So think about those in the world that are just that are the most deserving of no honor right now.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And apply this.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: No?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're done.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, he says, he said, have have this same mind esteeming others as better than our than than ourselves.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're full, it doesn't take you down one notch.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You've got plenty to give because you've got an endless supply coming from the Father, right?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we can continue to give it and give it and give it and not be afraid of losing.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if God be for us, who can be against us?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he says that each each of you look not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's like uh we will look at something here, but you know, a lot of times our consolation, our power is being who we are to the world.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and and and it's and it's too easy and too subtle uh too often to get pulled into carnality because of so many different things.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we forget what our real power is.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: We forget who we really are, and and and and when we forget who we are, and we start playing, we start acting like the world does, then we're robbing the world of what they really need.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we used to think a long time ago in the church, we thought acting like the world was smoking, drinking, and cussing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus said, the world will hate you because they hated me?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Remember?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, people, a lot of people like that one because they're hated by a lot of people out there in the world and they think they're doing something good.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: But look at what world Jesus was talking about.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What world hated Jesus?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: The church world, the religious world.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why did they hate him?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of reasons.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of them was that he was he was too good to people that didn't deserve goodness.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: One reason was that he wouldn't take a stand that they wanted him to.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: They kept wanting him to.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, here's an adulteress right here.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Moses said, Take a stand, Jesus.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't condemn you.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Kill this guy.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: At one point they said, if he continues, all of Israel will follow him.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus, come on, I want to eat with you.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to have a good time with you tonight.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was a friend of sinners.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: He'd go into the sinner's house and say, Come on, why don't you confront these people, Jesus?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: They don't deserve for you to be honoring them like this.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are standing at the back wall.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're not even honoring us.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: We deserve it.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're deserving of more honor, and you're giving us less less honor.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way the kingdom is.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, look not on our own interest, but also for the interest of others.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what James said?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Why are there strivings and wars among you?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Talking to church folk folks.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, because of the lust that's in your members.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are always wanting stuff.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're always fighting for your own stuff.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: In Corinthians, he was talking about, why are you guys fighting in the church?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: I hear that there's all these things going on.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're even taking people to the Babylonian, not literal Babylon, but you're taking them to human beings, taking them to the world's court.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Humanistic, all this to this stuff.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're taking them there and you're suing your brother and sister out there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, why don't you just take the loss?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you feel like you can't afford it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what you have.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can just give it.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: They ask for your coat, you ask for your shirt, give them your coat too.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all that kind of thing.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do that unless you know what you've got, unless you know who you are.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: That you're here because you have freely received to freely give.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So look also for the interest of others.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you start doing that, it's no longer us against them.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not at war.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not fighting a war between good and evil.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: He took care of that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: He took care of that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: He so loved the world.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't see it in binary terms like human beings do, who have eaten of the knowledge of good and evil.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the binary terms.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: The good and the evil.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you can do many things as the Pharisees.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everything they did, they did in the name of good.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: But they were so wrong in being right.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's the Spirit.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's the way of the Spirit.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's the knowledge of good and evil.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's right and wrong.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: There is right and wrong.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's the Spirit.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the knowledge of good and evil.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: With right and wrong, honestly.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we know Jesus did the right thing, but come on, honestly, we know what the adulteress did was wrong.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus offered the tree of life instead of a judgment of good or evil.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: We know Zacchaeus was a thief.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: What he was doing was wrong.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus didn't offer him the fruit of that good or evil.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to condone or condemn, which is what that tree does.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's another thing, the kingdom.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's who he is, there's life, there is love.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: That beats everything.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: That trumps.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, excuse me, did I say that?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: It trumps everything.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, But everybody esteem each other better than themselves, and look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, going down to verse 13.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Same chapter.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Because it's God.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's God working in you.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's God working in you?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's God working in us, the church.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're working in you individually, and he's working in us as the church.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: To will and to do is good pleasure.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That means he gives us the desire, the want to.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: See, all of you are here on this Sunday night to hear this guy, of all people, for one of the reasons has to be you're willing to gather here and give up your time to come here.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: You come to meetings like this.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And why?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have the will.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: You want to hear.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You want to fellowship around it.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: You want God's stuff.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: You like it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to grow in it.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: You want to see it clearly.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the will.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you get that?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: God gave you that.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got that will.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I used to have another will.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Being here anytime, this was the last thing I wanted at one point in my life.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But God works worked in me, causing me to will something else.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: To will and to do, to give us the ability to do what He what his good pleasure is.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we're talking about His good pleasure, let's remember who He is.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one that came because He wanted to be with the world.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We sang that beautiful song.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: There.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't want heaven alone by Himself.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: So He brought it to us.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: He came to be with us.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is L-O-V-E.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: He just wanted to be with you.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: While you were yet sinners, deserving of no honor, He gave you more honor.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: He gave you absolute, complete honor, glorification, just like a prodigal son made you the highest of the high, the head and not the tail above and not beneath.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm glad that I was good enough and God saw fit to do that for me.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, really.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't believe that for a minute, do we?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: We came just as we am with but one plea.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and that that Christ has not changed.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's still that same way.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and and now that I'm on the good side, now that I'm the Christian and now I'm a better person, it's not like God says, hey, now you're on the right team.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm I'm I'm gonna really love and bless you now.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: He loved me just as much when I was on the wrong team.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, in him, there are no two teams.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's not binary.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: He whole he loved the world.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says things like that all the time.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who's who is my neighbor?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, it's there's more than you think.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: How about the Samaritans?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, we have nothing to do with them.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're wrong.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritans had their way, they mess up everything.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, We'll bring, we'll come back to that in a little bit.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, God's working in you both to will and do his good pleasure.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So do everything without murmuring and disputing, complaining and disputing.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now this is not, when we're looking at these things, this is not a work for you to do.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is not, okay, you, okay, church, try to not complain anymore.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And try to not to try not to argue.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is complaining and arguing, is what this is.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Try not to argue, try not to complain.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's not, we're not talking about soul things right now.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the spirit.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about fellowship of the spirit.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: What spirit?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Christ.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Think of Jesus.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Think of Christ.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: That spirit of Christ that's in you.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: That one that in your times of stress, it gives you peace.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: That times of when you're feeling angst, he speaks something that comforts you.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: That Christ who has nurtured you, that spirit of Christ that has that has been been patient with you, that has cared for you, that has loved you.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That has never condemned you, that has never pressured you, but has nurtured and loved you and cared for you and been patient with you and did what he does so well out of his absolute beauty.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness, love is who he is.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: You do you do you do you do you do you see the Spirit of Christ in the earth today complaining and arguing?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: We see a beautiful love of author of love that is authority.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: We see someone that's in the earth today, and he's working in us, and he's working for us, for in us, for our good, because everything he does in our life makes it better for us.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a testament of that.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's an effect that that which we freely receive gets freely given.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that same water, that same spirit that has done so well with us, does something in the world that none of man can do, that none of this humanistic stuff that calls us to pledge loyalty to what they're doing.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we all I've voted, I've got I got one vote.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have strong opinions, there are things that I want and I don't want in this nation.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We all do.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I understand that these are opinions of mine, and I understand that those are man's things.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Those are humans' things.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way they're doing there is another kingdom.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell, I can tell when we get too wrapped up in this stuff, you start feeling the bad weather.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: What's the bad weather?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the flesh.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: The stress, the anger, the frustration, sometimes even moving into hatred.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the fruit of the spirit.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a telltale sign.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what you know, it it hit when I see that, it's like, why am I standing in this rainstorm?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can come into Daddy's house.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's love, there's joy.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel wonderful.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel powerful.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel at peace.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now I see clear.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens in the spirit.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we have that fellowship.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing this?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: This thing is perfect.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: This thing we have is perfect, not imperfect.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever man does is imperfect.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: What we have is perfect.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, so do all things in the spirit of Christ, is what we're saying.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Follow that advantage that we have, that power that we have is Christ in us.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do things in the spirit of Christ.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in the spirit of Christ, you won't hear Christ complaining and arguing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: He will give.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he will give and he will give and he will give.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this whole thing's talking about here.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is our true power.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Our true power, even to change society.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have prayed.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have been with the Father.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have talked with the Father.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: I am excited today.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited with the church.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited at what God is showing us in the days ahead.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Do all this so that you may be blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Aha, see, it says they are.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they are.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this whole world is.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: I bet you some of us aren't so perfect either.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but it's a crooked and perverse.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes, there's a lot of things to hate.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things to dispute.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things to complain about.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: But our power is not in that.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the thing we want a fellowship around.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want a fellowship around the power of Christ.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, be blameless and harmless, and be children of God in this generation.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just be another somebody on another part of the world system.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we're on the good side of the system, but it's still the world system.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Still that same tree.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, children of God, we're different.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Jesus, God, for God so loved the world so that all humans could become right-wing conservative Republicans or left-wing radical Democrats or something.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: He had a whole bigger thing than all these puny little humanistic things going on.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says that you may be children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you and I shine as lights in that dark world.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: A dark world.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it dark?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: People are blind.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder there's so many horrible things.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder there's so much hate.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder there's so much so many so many stupid agendas that are going on.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: In all kinds of directions.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because darkness is on the earth.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And gross darkness is on the people.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna do?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Cry?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our lights come.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: The light has come.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: We shine as lights in the world.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Our light has come.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Read it.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and the glory of the Lord is risen.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: You've been carrying this thing.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's risen upon you.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and the people shall come.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: The people shall come to the brightness of your rising.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: That light.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Christ in you.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Kings will come to the brightness of it.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sons and daughters will burn, will come from afar because of the light of what we've been carrying.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: This little light of mine we used to sing about.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I love it because he says, because it says, I'm going to let it shine, but it's not a little candle hiding in there somewhere.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: This thing is a sun.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You says, you pay heed to the word until that the day dawns inside you.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: That day star rises in your heart.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: The sun of righteousness arises in you.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: The real stuff, the power stuff, the glorious stuff, the pure, absolute, pure God Himself rising in us, that we have received into our heart, into our soul, changing our minds and that which is pouring out into the world, the wisdom that comes from above, not the wisdom of this world.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want to show you something tonight.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Among whom you shinest lights in the world.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let me should let me give you a little picture here.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: If, let's say I've got right here, let's say there's this big round white globe light turned on, shining.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: See it?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Big round globe light.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you walk in a room, you see that thing right there, like you know what it is.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody has to tell you, you know what this is?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: You say, it's a light.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can see it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: You see it plainly, it's a light.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think, no, it's a dark.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a light.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can see it plain.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a light.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a light.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a light.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: But let's say you have that same light, and even though it's turned on, you throw a blanket over it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now what's under there?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Something round?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Throw another blanket on it, you know.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here's some statement Jesus made.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, that light that's in you, he says, if that light in you be darkened, then how great is the darkness?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because this light could light the room.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, but if if it's darkened, if it's covered, then how great is the darkness?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because the light in you is darkened.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so and so we see all these references.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to do it tonight.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a couple.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that we are the lights and the light of the world because there's only one light.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: But we as lights are part of that one true light.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: He is that light, first John.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean John chapter 1 says.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: He is that light that comes into the world.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: He is that light that shines in the midst of that darkness.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: He is that light that Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 5 when he said that God is the one, the very one who commanded the light to shine in that dark place, and light was, has now done that same thing in our hearts in order to give the light of the glory of God.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is your identity.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is who we are.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got the real stuff.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is my consolation.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know why I'm here on the earth.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know I am.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I am a light.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: A light of not taking stands for Jesus and tell people what I think Jesus wants, but showing being.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Jesus said, if you've seen the Father, you've seen me, because the Father's in the Son, and the Son's in the Father.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as He was, he says, I want that same unification for them.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just as you and I are one Father, I want that same oneness for them.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: With them.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't just.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: The church world hated that.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Had him killed.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: It says the world will hate you.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: The adulterer world, the thief world, the people outside of the church, the sinner world, criminal world, all these you don't see any of them hating Jesus.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: None of them.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we in the church got it backwards.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: We want that world that loved Jesus to hate us.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And many times the world that hated Jesus, the religious world, which is still a part of man's system.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Religion is a man-made thing.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the religious world to love us.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 5.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hear ye, hear ye.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's identity.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is just identity.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just identity.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Something that can make your heart rejoice as you see it.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we really?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are we a bunch of winners or losers?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or what are we here?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are we the are we the bastion of truth?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are we the keeper of the flame?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are we the are we the fighting soldiers for the cause of Christ?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are we really here in all that?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you want to use any of those terminologies, bring it down to this.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: What are we?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're the salt of the earth.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, but if the salt loses its flavor, then how's the world going to be salted?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now look at this.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: We got this world here, and it's covered up by a blanket.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of seeing the light, like everybody could walk in when it's not covered, everybody says, That's the light right there.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: People are come to the light, people are drawn to it, Jesus said.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's darkened, if it's covered, what do they see?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Why if you throw a blanket over it?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you throw a blanket and it's got a picture of a donkey.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're a Christian, born again, got the Spirit of God living inside you, but you're all about the donkey's causes.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: When people come in and look at you, they don't see a light, they see a donkey.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's got an elephant on it.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: They don't see the light, they see an elephant.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the world sees.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: The world are surprised when when when we go to and we we go into the world on purpose on certain occasions.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: On purpose.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they start to see light.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot deny the perfection and the beauty of the love and the fruit of the spirit that resides here and comes out when they're around it and they talk to.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: They can't deny it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Against those things, there is no law.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's really nothing to argue with.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: The world has no argument about love, joy, peace, gentleness.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: All the things that the Spirit gives as food for the nations to feed these people, they don't find fault with that.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, You've got the goods.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Only ones that have ever found fault with that with me were Pharisees.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're the only ones I've ever heard accuse me of having too much love, joy, and peace.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, but don't be don't be surprised.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: They did that to me too.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: The sinners didn't, but we classify as sinners.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't think so.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: See, and a lot of times our mind gets twisted.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Gets subtleties of humanism come in.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's what puts the covers on us.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, there was, I'll give you another example here in a bit, but let's keep reading this.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're the salt of the world, and if the salt has lost its flavor, then how's it going to be salted?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: If the one thing that makes us so good for this world, if we lose that, he says, then how's the world going to get what we've got?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: If we just become part of the world, he says, How's the world gonna get what we've got?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, It's good for nothing, just to be trodden underfoot by men.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why when we run into people in the world, they're like, church ain't got nothing, church world ain't got nothing we want.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: They trot on it.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And just like, pshh.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, how dare you?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're the people of God.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're not, but they don't see it.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: They see noise, they see opinions, they see a lot of things that, you know, and sometimes when we talk with them, I'm just like, I'm I'm trying to defend my people.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: But some of the things they say, I'm like, yeah, I have to admit, we do that, yeah.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do a lot of that, yeah.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an excuse, but it's there.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's good for nothing.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: They just cast it, they cast it on the side and they just walk on it.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: They don't they don't see it as anything.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this salt, salt, this, this, this flavor that they need, they're not tasting it from us.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: We become something else other than this demonstration or reflection or the taste.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're not getting the taste of the purity of Christ that would change everything.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting more human stuff from us.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just more human stuff.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just more human stuff.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, I told you this was going to make me all a comforting consolation.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please, please, it's gonna get better.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not indicting any of us here.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are the light of the world.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: See, that should make you happy, right?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's you.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Identification.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting there and you're singing, yeah, I've been part of that.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's still not your identity, even if you've been doing that.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is your real identity.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're the light of the world.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're that light.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's had blankets over it.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're all, we've all been covered up.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're being uncovered more and more and more.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Had somebody give me a prophetic word many, many years ago, uh, uh a lady, and she says, she she calls me up and she says, What I see says, you're like one of those, and I think it's a are they called Metroyska dolls?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we call them stacking dolls uh in in Russia in that part of the world.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: They they they have, you know, you've seen those things, and there's like this big thing, and but you can take it off, and then there's a smaller one, and then there's a smaller one, and it gets all the way, sometimes they can get way down real, real small.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody said, That's what you look like to me.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like God is is taking these layers off of you, and you're like, Well, I thought that's that that was right.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that's who I was.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, I guess I'm not that anymore, and takes another one off.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, and it's like like you're in a place where it's like, what's all these changes?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says, God has taken you down to who you really, really are.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I then?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, now I see.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he was doing.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was taking me down to that one thing that was under all these covers of who I was and what my purpose was.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: All these things they got covered and covered, and when people looked at me, they saw all those things.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love looking more like this.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this light in us, he says, it's the sun of righteousness, and there is healing in it.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Healing for the nations.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's power, and honestly, it's simply the same sun, the same sunlight that healed this heart.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're the light of the world.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Neither, so, and neither do men light a candle and they put it under a basket.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: They don't light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a lampstand.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's talking, of course, he's talking about letting it shine.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, So let your light so shine.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let the light shine.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: How do we let the light shine?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see that.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let your light shine before men so they can see your good works.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: The Christ works.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, excuse me, I missed something, didn't I?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: They put it on a candlestick and they give light unto all that are in the house.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Next part.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father that's in heaven.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is a beauty of Christ.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is a Christ that can preach to the world.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: There is a spirit of God.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: This Jesus, this carpenter's son, this one they disputed about who he was.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's not real.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some say he's just a fake, he's a phony.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Some said he had a demon.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some thought, well, I think he's John the Baptist.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Come back.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some thought, I thought he was Elijah.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he was a great teacher.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: They might have thought different things, but whatever it was, there was a light that they came to.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it was, they knew that this one was genuine.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's our identity?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: That exact same thing.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Am I saying, here's your, now here's your assignment, go out and try to act like Jesus?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: This thing becomes more and more natural as we become aware of the light.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the sun rising inside of us.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's changing me and it's changing you.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing the growth.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God we celebrate the growth because this thing in us is just like what he said in Isaiah chapter 9.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, of the increase, somebody say increase.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: The increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: This peace in your heart and in mine, what's it been doing?
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's been increasing.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: As this light shines, it increases even more and more.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: For he is the Prince of Peace.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this gospel that we have, Paul said, if this gospel is covered up, this beautiful gospel, this light, if it's hid, who's it hid to?
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those that need it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Who's it hid to?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're not listening to it, they're not paying attention, they're not seeing light.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: But we got it.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: We got it.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying for the church.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying for the church.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said the other day, said, Well, so I guess what we do says the best thing is we pray for them that their eyes be open.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, that's a good prayer.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's biblical.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can let's do that.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: But first, maybe the church's eyes need to be open.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we just remember.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's easy to get pulled away and we forget who we really are.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: When we forget, we feel like humans.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then we start feeling angst and stress and frustration and anger and hate and all those things.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Martin Luther King Jr.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: said, Don't ever let another person bring you down so low that you hate him.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: That you hate him.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Stay the salt, stay the s, stay true to who you are.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 13, verse 10 says, Love works no ill to his neighbor.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, love is the fulfilling of all the law.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that now, and that knowing the time, understand the occasion, that the hour has come for you to wake up for your slumber.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I see as I'm praying for the church.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think, okay, I think we've been mesmerized.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've been we've been we've been put under cover, we've been under sleep, we've been looking at other things here.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm excited, I'm hearing it now, I'm starting to see it.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: People are starting to say, you know what?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about this anyway.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still on the throne, he's my king, his kingdom is still advancing, we are still the winners, da-da-da-da-da.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, maybe we're getting our focus back again.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, see, this kingdom that he says of the increase of it, of his kingdom and the increase of peace, he says, it'll never end.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: That means the kingdom of God, who we are, and our purpose, it's not on the precipice of being, being, going over the cliff and being destroyed.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's only going to increase more and more because it's greater than us or anybody else.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: It but but uh I like what we we heard someone say today is like says, you may not like how the kingdom's advancing, but it is.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not fragile.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: This kingdom is not fragile.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: This kingdom is not is not fragile, it's not based.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: On any human saving this thing.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Me or you or anybody.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: This kingdom is not fragile.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is so much bigger.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if we start feeling like it's fragile or on the precipice of some of losing or something, what kingdom are we really in?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have received a kingdom.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 13, Hebrews 12 says, we have received a kingdom that cannot be even shaken.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because this thing is big.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: This thing is strong.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: This thing is eternal.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 62 says, we have a strong city.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: The city of our God.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love being who we are.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I love being who we are.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm love.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited right now.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: My eyes are open.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: My eyes are open.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am awake.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are the salt of this world.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: We are the light of this world.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's me and you.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: We get to just shine.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do we shine?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just who we are.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do it.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think the light, the light that we're talking about tonight, I don't think it knows how it does it.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: It just, that's what it is.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: It does it.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is, right?
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, he says, and do this, understanding the occasion.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: The hours come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now, to be theologically truthful with you, the reason he's using this funny language, if it confuses you, he's talking about 70 AD.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: But we can it's it's we can apply it to our time right here.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our salvation is nearer than when we first believe.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: We know it's getting better.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Next, the night is nearly over.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: The day has drawn near.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: So let's lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's that mean?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: The day has drawn near.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: The scripture said, pay heed to the word until the day dawns and the day star rises in your heart.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Creation is in anticipation, looking for the manifestation or the revelation of the sons of God, the unveiling of the sons of God.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they looking for an unveiling?
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're veiled.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are they veiled with?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Humanistic things, that's all.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: But those are not who we are.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Those blankets are not us.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're just thoughts, they're just imaginations, they're just things of this world.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the works of darkness.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the things that bring darkness are the veils, the covers.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're the light.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're the light.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so creation is waiting for the unveiling, the revealing of the sons of light.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Creation is groaning.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: Creation why?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is what Jesus put on planet earth to fix that.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he seeded, he did it.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: What he did worked.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's finished.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: He gave the light.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, the kingdom is here now.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, don't think it's out there or there.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom's within you.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he would say, but it's like a seed.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Started in just him.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Got him into this world.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Planted that seed.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said, if I don't go into the ground and die, then I'll be a seed that abides alone.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: But if I die, there'll be many.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Day of Pentecost that morning, nine in the morning, there were 120 of them.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lights in the world.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: That afternoon there were 3,000.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: It multiplied every day since and has been doing it for thousands of years until it hit me and you.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: We became part of that.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: The light, the kingdom has advanced.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of his dear son.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have been translated out of the kingdom of obscurity, darkness, and translocated into the kingdom of his son, the kingdom of light.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the kingdom of light.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is here.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus ascended and sat down.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sat down, seventh day, rest, for the works have been finished and given to man.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, and now that it's there in the earth, watch it grow, watch it rise, watch it increase because of the increase.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thus says the word of God of the increase of his kingdom, his government.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: His government is this.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: His government is this.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had more peace in my life.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last 20 years, I've seen it just continue to increase.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because the day star keeps rising up.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing it.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: More of these veils are coming off, and I'm seeing it, and I'm seeing more and more.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is who I really am.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: I see it now.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: My eyes are clear.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know it.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: I see it so clear.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's no confusion about it.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is who we are.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, so therefore, let's cast off.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Lay aside.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: See the light here?
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: Got the covers on it?
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Lay them aside.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whoops.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lay them aside.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, put on the armor of light.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or let's say, let the light shine.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: How do we let the light shine?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just take off those covers.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Be who we just acknowledge who we are.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon verse 6 says, your faith becomes effective by the acknowledging of that good thing that's in you.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: The light.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: The light of man.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: The light of the world.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was a uh, remember there's a story of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman?
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: She asks this interesting question.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Binary question.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right or wrong.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews say that we should worship on that mountain.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: We say that a worship on this mountain.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Which one is right?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't confirm either one because it's essentially he's saying it's both of you are wrong.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Neither one of you are about that.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's nothing.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the hours now come when true worshipers will worship in spirit.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll worship in truth.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to worship out of truth.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to know the truth.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: The truth will make you free.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to worship in truth.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to know, he says, you guys don't.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know God.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the hours come when you now, now is, when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: They will be in that place.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: It won't be about this or that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those are both just, they're so low level.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're so nothing.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's no power in that.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like this.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we got these choices.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now this was important to them because to them there was so much division that they wouldn't have anything to do.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews and the Samaritans, this was a big deal.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: She said, the Jews swear they're right.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: We swear we're right.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's got to be right.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, there's got to be some absolutes here.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's binary talk.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the knowledge of what?
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: To good or evil.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even the good in the knowledge of good and evil is still not the tree of life.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we have.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're not here to stand up for the good in the knowledge of good and evil.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to be the tree of life.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that one tree is Jesus.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in the last page of the book in the Bible, there were many trees on each side of the river of life.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: And of these trees, Daniel saw it.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Many trees, same thing.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it says that, and our fruit, what is our fruit?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the spirit, not of flesh.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the spirit.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, self-control, patience, all these things.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, our fruit is for food.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: For food?
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: To who?
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: The adulteress.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: The thief.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some love for you.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some goodness for you.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: And our leaves are for the healing of the nation.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about your identity.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is how special we are.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is how special we are.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but Rick, what about yeah, I know.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that way too, probably.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: I might think the same way.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that's me thinking and feeling.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know also what the light is.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that his ways are higher.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: His thoughts are pure.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we have that mind of Christ in us that we can just draw from that.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what gives us the consolation right now.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: We know where we are, why we're here, and what we do with the salt of the earth.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the two choices had to be made.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, which one is it?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: He did this so often if you read about him.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: He never went to the binary options that they gave him.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was always something they had never seen before.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You've neglected the main things about God.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing all this right and wrong.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You've neglected the main thing, the love, the mercy.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about this?
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, You don't realize how small that is compared to what I came to give.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: You fighting over that, you're swallowing gnats.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're straining at gnats, but you're swallowing a camel.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's interesting.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this this morning, that we in the church have gotten so distracted by stuff that we are willing to rant and rage about a couple of issues mostly.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of issues that we're very passionate about.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm on your side on it.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like those things either.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: I hate them.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we rant on those things and say those that has got to stop.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have got to put an end to these things.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: But when you read like the seven things that are really an abomination to God, that stuff I hear come out of Christians' mouths all the time.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: Dissension, sowing discord, lying tongues, all this.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hear all this, all these things, feet running to shed bad news, you know.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: We don't, those are those are abominations.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: Those are actually more destructive to humanity, to us personally.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those things are destructive to us.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: Those things are destroying, those things continually get in our way.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: They keep giving us setbacks after setbacks.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not so indignant about those things.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way humanistic church is, we care more about what somebody else is doing wrong than what we're doing wrong.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really not about either one of those.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about who's doing right or wrong in any of it.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow we thought that we're good now.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: We thought that we're the good.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: There is no good.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's none good except our Father.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he's good to just those of us that are in church tonight, right?
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when we make those binary choices, in fact, you know, I was looking at one today that there are choices that we can make.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even God said, choose you this day.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: But that choice is either, it's a big choice.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's either life or death, which is knowledge of good and evil.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when we choose, when we only look at the knowledge of good and evil and neglect the powerful thing that Jesus really came to give us was life, then we're then the choices we're making don't really matter because they're both slop.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like this.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do we choose?
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do we want to eat uh, okay, there's there's this trough right here.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do we want to eat from that one or do we want to eat from this one?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Which one?
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's very important to me.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody tell me.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's important that we choose the right one here.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: Which slop do we eat?
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and the and the and the slop troughs, these are, this is all, this is, what's the difference between slop troughs?
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't show the next one yet.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: These slop troughs, what is what is what are we looking at here?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: We've got different choices of here, of here.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us in the church, we've got this powerful voice, the ways of God, that the Spirit that's speaking to us.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what's more important than anything that we we know Him.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Come and learn of me, because I have humility.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: Something that the world doesn't know and it doesn't offer.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Come and learn of me.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when you learn this, you'll have rest for your souls.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: He loves us and wanted us to have us.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: He died and did all this so we could come to rest.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not be at war.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: That we can be at rest with us and have peace with men.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because he does.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: He does.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: God is not fighting a war.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: He won.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's over.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's the Bible's clear now.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: What he did when he won that war, he reconciled the world to himself because that's what he wanted to do.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not counting their sins against them.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: And has committed to us that same word of reconciliation.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's the same spirit of life.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is who we really are.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the salt that I think the world has been robbed of for too long by religion and humanism in the church.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've been eating from slop troughs too much, honestly.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think men have been feeding the church a lot of slop.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think, especially, especially in this season that we've been in, there's been a lot of slop from different troughs.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: Our trough is better than your trough.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've been feeding on that stuff.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan woman believed that her trough was better than the Jews' trough.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, they're both just troughs, slop troughs.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do we choose?
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's a scripture that actually has something to do with this.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 13, verse 9.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the context might have been different, but it certainly applies.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It's good that the heart be established with grace and not with foods that haven't profited us.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, we we in the church, we have been fed stuff from the world, and I've watched so many church people just pig out on some of that slop.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't come from Christ, it came from the world.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just here you go, church, here you go.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't profited us.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't profited us.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I feel great now.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I was concerned.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot of praying for the church, the body of Christ, Christians in the world.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've seen some slop that we as Christians have been eating.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've been seeing it not only not profiting us, I've been seeing it make people sick.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_00: Christians.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's been making them angry, it's been making them f afraid, it's been making them frustrated.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: That can't be the food that comes from God's table.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those foods have not profited those who've been occupied, occupied with them, occupied with them.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle, the things of the natural, have no right to eat.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't a trough.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Come and dine.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've set a feast before, I've set a table, come and dine.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, people say, Well, I can't because of this.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sure you can't.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to do anything.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to prepare anything.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've done all of it.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's free.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, come and dine.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to, tell the whole world, tell the adulteress to come, tell the fornicator, tell the homosexual, tell the thief, tell the abortionist, tell them to come and dine.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: I made a table for everybody.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them to come and dine.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have something to eat that we partake of.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it and the fruit food that is fed to us is the fruit of the Spirit.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: What do we partake of?
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: Joy.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: Love.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: All the goodness of the Spirit.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the powerful things.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the power things.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the world-changing things.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_00: They changed this one.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why will it change me?
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to use another tactic.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking to a believer this morning, had some very good, sincere questions about these types of things.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: And said, why is it that we want to put demands on a world that never worked on us, put a put a way that never worked for us on somebody else?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was only one thing that changed this heart.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was love.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't somebody telling me that what I was doing was wrong.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't work.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that ever since I can, I understood English.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I was doing was wrong, wrong, wrong.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: As I got bigger, the judge told me.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: The judge tried to tried to put me in something that helped me.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: The court system couldn't help me.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing could change me.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then somebody loved me.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody cared.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: His name was Jesus.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody was patient with me.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody nurtured me.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody loved me that didn't care what I was doing.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: He just wanted me.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: Of course there was a byproduct.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: Of course there were changes that happened.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_00: But have they never happened?
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them still haven't.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's some still some things that could bear some changing about me.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: You all know that as well as I do.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if those things never change, the love of God will never be separated.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I will always live a full life.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because the full life has come to you and me.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: See, when it says we have an altar that's different, we have a table that's different.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're partaking of something different.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're partaking of something different.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're hearing something different.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're hearing a certain sound from heaven.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that in Acts 2?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, believe it or not, the things that we're seeing going on in the world, this didn't just start in your lifetime.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: Read history.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing new under the sun.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: These things have been going on, not just in the political world, but in the world.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: There have been so many cycles and changes and ups and downs and revolutions and all these things go on and on.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: These are the working, these are the things that man is dealing with.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in all that thing, God is bigger than all of it.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: God is arms around the whole thing, if you will, while man is doing all these things.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when's he going to do something about it?
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: He did.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's him now in you.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's working.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: The light has come.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_00: The light has come.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're not waiting for it.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's come.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: Father, right now, I give you praise.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: Love your people.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let everyone enjoy the goodness of your love right now.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: Father, let there be an awareness right now of identification.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let there be an awareness of what we've got.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let there be a sense of great gratitude.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: What we have is so has been so wonderful to us.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: All our lives, you have been faithful.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_00: All our lives you have been so good.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for what you've given us.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we want for our people in this world.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we want every knee to bow.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let the light shine.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let the light, let the light, let the light let it shine in our hearts, let us enjoy, let us live in the fullness of life that overflows into a dark and perverse world.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be aware of the kingdom of God from henceforth.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be aware of the reality of Christ in this world.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be aware of what we're carrying.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be aware that we may be a blessing and not a curse.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: That we may be blameless and harmless, not harmful, but harmless, that we would be that which is edifying, building up, making right and making real.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: I give you praise, Father, for the wonderful work of Jesus on the cross.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in this gospel.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus did what he did for us.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus died and was buried.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: I believe he rose from the dead.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that what he did worked.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: I believe he did not fail.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that he rejoiced in what he did and he sat down, for it was finished.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he lives forevermore to live in us, to rise and shine, that it gets better and not worse, that the light grows brighter within our hearts, that we're more aware, and there's more joy, there's more peace, there's more goodness, there's absolutely more love.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: And kings and people shall come to this light.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: They will see the true light.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those who sat in darkness will see a great light.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: They'll see this light that we carry.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: It will not be darkness.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_00: They'll see that which is good for them, they'll see that which is real, they'll see that which fulfills, they'll see that which they have hungered for.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your wonderful, unspeakable gift.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving it to the earth.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate you, for unto us a child is born and a son has been given.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: The government is upon your shoulders, and of the increase of this thing and of peace there will be no end.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for giving us the privilege of being sons of God and welcoming us into the kingdom of light.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: We love you, Father.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you, we celebrate you, we thank you in the wonderful name of our Savior, our great Savior, Jesus Christ.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can you all say Amen?
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.