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Living From Wealth or Deficit · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: No greater love has a man than this than lay down his life for his friends.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Something's been impacting me lately, or something I've been becoming more aware of is it.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm you know how it is.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You you you you we're we're looking at some of these things that we've heard for a long time and we know, but we we continue to see more depth in it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And something about the willingness of the Lord to to win in that way, to give his life.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this is this is Palm Sunday, and and uh we were even Judy and I were talking about it on the way here, and I'm you know, what does Palm Sunday mean to you?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and we can say a number of different things, but you know, he came.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh I heard Sean Williams say it this morning that you know Jesus knowing that if he sets one foot in Jerusalem, they're there, they're they're there to kill him.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: He comes into Jerusalem with a parade.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, he is ready to do this for you, to do this for me.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And God is love, and God loves us.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and and uh I talk about it a lot.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you get, when you when you the more you see the grace and the graciousness of God, you you're more aware of his great love for you, and it just keeps going.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I talk about it a lot.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um people will even make fun of me a lot because I talk about it a lot, but I want to get into something today because there are questions that go with uh God's love.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I get them a lot.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I remember one time I was um doing a radio interview, and uh believe it or not, I was talking about love, and uh and uh the man asked me to define it.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially my answer was I can't.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's too big for me.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can't see the parameters of this thing.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than I can quantify, it's more than I can comprehend, but you know it when you feel it, and you know it when it's coming out of you, and you and you know what it what the experience of that love is, you know what the awareness of it is, you know when you're when when when when that's going on.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to describe because it's just so big, and you you or I, neither one of none of us know how big it really is, but I can at least uh have the idea that it is absolute, whatever that means.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh the man asked me to you know define it, and it's it's almost like he was, he was, and then he went on and asked more questions, and it was like he was wanting the parameters of it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, does love uh, okay, it's being nice to somebody, but what if they do this?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and those questions come.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to deal with some of that today because they're very sincere questions, and I hope maybe I can clarify a little bit of that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but people will say, like, you know, right when I'm talking about the love of God, like in a group setting or something, and people will, I've heard this question a whole lot.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what if somebody came into your house with a gun and wanted to hurt your family?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and I don't, you know, I don't know, do what you do in that moment.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying there is a love that is very effective and powerful.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It'll cast out fear for one thing.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It'll do so many things.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, people, you know, are we supposed to love uh uh Hitler?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, questions come up because people I think really, really want to define this.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times they're asking, what do, what do we do?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as we go through this, we're gonna read scriptures and we're gonna, you know, read a few verses here, and it's gonna talk about the beauty of love.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what we don't want to do, I for sure, what I don't how I don't want this ever to come across is I don't want this to be a command for us to try to love people.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because that will not empower us.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It'll end up condemning us, essentially, because we'll fall short.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to look at it like that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times that's where the confusion is because we want to, we see it in the word, and we see that it is a beautiful thing, and we want to try to love people, but um I think that that's not exactly accurate a lot of times in our thinking.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know how to do any of this stuff.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do know that the power of his love for us, his grace, and his love for us has a way of affecting us.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's affected me in a way that I'm I'm liking.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so um what Judy and I do when we're talking to people like that is we just redirect it and make it about rather than trying to love, let's talk about his love for us.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because he that has received grace can has grace to give.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: He that has received love has love to give.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so rather than try to tell people that we're supposed to love others, um, we don't want it to see it that way.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: We want we want it to always come from the source.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to read, start reading this morning from Romans chapter 12.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very, very beautiful, and again, as it's talking about love, and as it as it as it does, it there again, it would be easy to look at this as a command for us to try to fulfill.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to try to bring it a different way.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9 of Romans chapter 12.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love this, I love how it's worded from the uh the New Living Translation.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: It says, don't just pretend to love others.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Really love them.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hate what is wrong and hold tightly to what is good.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I guess that last line there is you know is saying it's you know, you don't have to like everything that that that is done.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: There are some bad and evil things that people can do.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it makes people evil, but people can do evil things.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it says, you know, it doesn't say you're supposed to like that.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: It says hate what is wrong and and hold tight to what is good.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, don't just pretend to love others, really love them.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I wanted to read this because another question uh that came up recently and and and I and I've heard a number of times from someone sincerely wanting to navigate this thing.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um someone said, When I try to love other people, I end up just being a people pleaser.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I really uh felt for the for the for the person when I heard that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I know that would be easy to fall into.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So so I I want to talk a little bit about that.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And part of the answer to that is that um when we're trying to fulfill love as a commandment from God, it's for one, it we don't get empowered by by the law.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get empowered by commands, we don't want to see it as a rule, as a law.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we can end up just doing things like that, but being a people pleaser when we're doing it out of that command because we're doing it out of our willpower, we're doing it out of our carnal strength, really.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there's another way of operating, there's a way of flowing and being motivated by and being powered by uh by the nature that we have of love.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really what we have.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: We do have the nature of Christ.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh sometimes it might be hard for you to see because we've got all this other stuff.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said last week, we're children of God.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: As He is, so are we.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we are we are having an experience in weak flesh, you know.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we're we deal with this, we're trying to navigate this, and this flesh wants things, and so uh we we we deal with that.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we have we are oriented with the love of God.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is there that we have that.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so we always want it to be directed to that, that there is a love that comes from God to us.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what's working in our lives, that's what's affecting us and changing us.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's when I finally began to start, at least, to fall in love with God and to enjoy God and to actually believe that He is a wonderful God.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why we like singing the songs that we do, because we're seeing more and more how wonderful God is.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he continues to amaze us as that is revealed to us, and it gets better and better, and we feel so much more communion and fellowship with him, and we we feel ourselves falling more in love with him.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's his love that has that effect.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: We know the Bible says that this is the love I'm talking about, according to according to 1 John, not that we loved him, but that he loved us first.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that was our first love, and that's how everything comes.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you talk about the love of God, we want to we we want to make it about his love for us, not just how we're supposed to love somebody else.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make that clear, because it's easy to think that when you read some of these scriptures and when you talk about it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 here says, Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 says, Bless those who persecute you.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't curse them, pray that God will bless them.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that this these are beautiful sentiments, but they're not always easy for even the most well-meaning people to do sometimes.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16 says, live in harmony with each other.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And don't think you know it all.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Never pay back evil with more evil.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um the standard versions say it more like, as much as is possible.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Live in peace with all men.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so there's there's trying to love by a uh by a demand that's made from from Scripture, and then there's the nature to love that comes from knowing actually that comes that that flows through us as we know that the the love of God.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you're trying, you're doing it, you're you're looking at it as it as if it's a command, and that can lead to people pleasing.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And here's here's why that that that that happens.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: That that's when you start feeling like a doormat, and that's when you try to love, and you start, and you can get feel like you're depleted.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how often I've heard people say, well, I've tried loving people, um, it it doesn't work, or it didn't work, or they just end up ended up using me and using me for a doormat.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and the reason is when we try it from the flesh, um we only have so much to give.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we get we get depleted.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that we'll we'll do that a lot of times, when we're operating from the flesh, we're not operating from fullness, because that fullness comes from God.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: The awareness of that, the revelation of that.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: When we're not doing it out of a heart that's full, by that I mean you have tasted that the Lord is good, it has affected you in a way.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I talk about that so much.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I even wrote a book called Fullness.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, because that was the only way I knew to describe it, because I when I started getting the revelation of God's grace, I felt more complete.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I felt more full, and I had never felt like that.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like, oh, I'm not climbing some holy hill all the rest of my life.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not on this yellow brick road trying to find something, you know, at the end of it, and it seems like most people never get there.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: They end up dying somewhere on the path, you know.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I call it that carrot on the stick.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But when you see the finished work, when you see what he didn't understand that, and you start to see how much he really loves you, that fills you because you've come home.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're loved.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're loved by God, and you find and you start to realize that that's what you've been looking for all your life, and that's the one thing that satiates you and satisfies you, and your heart starts to feel full, and you and you're able to operate out of a place of wealth, a wealthy spirit, because you've got abundance of grace that's been given to you.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've got an abundance of love that's been given to you, you've got an abundance of peace that's been given to you.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't work it up, you didn't just try to try to have peace.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe you did.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know I did for many, many years.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Tried to have peace.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Never truly succeeded.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I began to succeed at having peace with just a revelation, with just seeing that it's finished, he's it, his grace is so finished, his grace is sufficient for me, and Jesus is more than enough for me.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got him, so I've got everything.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I quit living from a sense of lack or or living from a deficit mentality.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I felt wealthy in my soul.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're wealthy in your soul, then you've got you're able to give freely.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not giving from a deficit.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of times people will be like, well, I'm trying to love people, but you're you feel like you're giving from a deficit, and it's like it's a sacrifice and it's a chore, but you want to do it because you know it's a good thing, it's a beautiful thing to do, and also it's commanded, it looks like.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you you so you you try to do that, but you can, but but when you do it from a command, it's really doing it from uh from flesh.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the and the problem with that is that it it tires you out, and it can make you feel no good because you'll fail sometimes in trying to walk in this love thing that we keep seeing here.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not what we're doing.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're not giving people a command to do this.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: God knows your frame, he knows that you're butt dust, and he loves you, and he also knows how it works.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: He knows it doesn't work by him commanding us to do something, it all works by him filling our hearts with his love.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good word there.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we do it out of, so we do it out of out of out of nature, which simply comes from knowing the truth.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's just it is good to preach the gospel.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Good news about God.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: What's good news?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: God's good, that's good news.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you, that's good news, unconditionally, that's good news.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, no boundaries to it, no limits to it, no demands put upon it, no caveats, nothing.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: To me, that's good news.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the way my brain works, if you put one little caveat, one little butt in that, my brain would go there to that butt and say, Ah, that's why I'm no good, and that's why I'm disqualified, and that's why I can't be blessed, and all that stuff.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way I know my mind has done.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I look at the beauty of this gospel and I don't see any of that.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not anymore.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that is an unlimited love.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a love that I can't quantify and I can't define.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if I know that love, believe in that love, therefore have received that type of love into my soul, I have a sense of fullness, and then I'm not loving you out of a deficit of my flesh or a command.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is a fullness of heart, an overflow that happens, and it's more natural then.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how it's supposed to be.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's why there's no condemnation in Christ, because he wants it to be natural.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he knows that it becoming natural simply comes from revelation.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he likes revealing himself to us, and that's why I think he really smiles on good news preaching and teaching.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: If it's revealing his goodness, I really feel the smile of God upon it.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can feel the freedom of it when we're singing about it, when we're listening to it, when we're talking about it with other people.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a beauty in it, there's a freedom, there's a fullness, there's an abundance in it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we operate out of that, out of a deficit or out of a command or out of our own flesh or willpower, that's where people get into these things where you hear terms of like codependence, where you're giving.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've heard people say, I've given, I've given, I've given, and I didn't give back.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and people, and then people can get used a lot of times.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what this person that that I heard mentioned, you know, becoming a people pleaser.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what they were getting into.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We hear about toxic relationships.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk a little bit about that this morning.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what we hear, you know, certain toxic people, abusers, uh, controllers.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um the word narcissist is out there uh uh a whole lot because people are dealing with people, and and I and I and I think a lot of these, I think some of these I don't even want to get into this.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's not that there's not hard things, and some people are harder than others to deal with.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I don't think it's like I don't think that there's a narcissist, either you're a narcissist or you're not.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're all somewhere on that spectrum in some way or another.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: But some people may be more extreme about it, and they can be they can be hard.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to just create this, this there's this certain type of person called a narcissist, and it's almost like there's some kind of an alien being that just is beyond redemption, and that's never the truth either.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um but but we deal with people, we and some people are are are are are hard.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I was thinking about this and I thought, have I ever actually been in a relationship with what I hear people calling narcissists?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I don't know, but let me give you an example of what I think may be the closest.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had a um a couple who were associates in a church I was pastoring, and um I had just started this this was I'm this is my first pastorate.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm young, I'm um, you know, full of spit and vinegar, and I'm you know uh got all kinds of ideas and visions and all that, and and um and I had these people who very early on became a part of my church, and they were very experienced and older than I were I was, much more experienced, been around the world basically.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: They knew all the who's who and the charismatic zoo of the day, and and just I mean, they they were they were they really had a lot that could be an asset to me.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: My problem was in that time was that in with the insecurities that I had, I I realized later on that I leaned really, really heavy on them to the point that that I felt like I I got to feel like I needed and wanted their approval with things.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there'd be things that I knew that I wanted to do and felt the leading of the Lord in, but if they had other ideas, I would always give over to that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and after a while, I mean, they basically were controlling things, they were controlling my decision.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now I was the one that gave myself over to that, um, but that's the way that that dynamic was working.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew it, and I'd and I'd feel so yucky about it sometimes, and even when I would speak any of you, I don't know if any of you preachers have experienced it, but even when I would speak, I was so aware of what they might think of this.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do they approve?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm the pastor of the church, I'm the one I'm praying, and I'm getting a message from God and all this, and I should have this this this full freedom and joy of preaching a uh a message of good news.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm wanting to know while I'm speaking half the time that that are are they okay with this?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I could I could feel if they disapproved.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and and it just it hindered me, it bothered me uh uh a lot.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and finally, somebody, somebody that I knew, uh a minister friend from uh that from outside the church pointed this out to me.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he could see it plain.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: He came in and he's he's he he could just see it really, really plain.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he pointed it out to me, and it and it it was really a blessing to me because I saw it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh my goodness, I've just let myself come deeper and deeper into this thing, been very, I don't know what you call it, codependent or in a toxic relationship or being controlled or I don't know.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I was that I was it.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was in it, and and and it wasn't healthy, and it wasn't healthy for me, and it was certainly wasn't healthy for my church.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to talk to them about it, had to deal with that, and I had to change how the relationship was going, and I said it's not going like this anymore.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in that situation, they wouldn't have that type of relationship with me.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I was going to do what I wanted to do, regardless of what they said, then they didn't want to have that relationship.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: They just wanted one where they were like this over me.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we parted ways.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And they left and and started their own thing, and you know, some of the people in the church went with them, and and um and so we had that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there was there was pain there, there was anger there, there was yuckiness there.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just I was like good riddance, and I just didn't didn't didn't like them.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you mention their name, I'd get this going on inside me.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and every once in a while I would try, I would like I'd be like, now you're supposed to love people.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to I don't wanna have a schism in the body of Christ.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I would I remember uh calling calling the man up one time and I'm talking to him, and you know, you know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's kind of let's let that go.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's bury the hatchet, you know, kind of talking like that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and it sounded it started out real good, but somehow over the phone, he stood, I don't know, somehow he was so good at it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: He started controlling me again.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I felt myself coming under him somehow again.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I catch that, and I'm like, you know, somehow we ended the conversation, and I remember I looked at my wife and I said, Don't you ever let me call that man again?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Every time I talk to him, this happens.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so, so um, you know, you don't have to be uh best friends with everybody.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we went our separate ways.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say this, and and and it's been and and well, I'll tell you how it went.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we go our separate ways, and that was that was good.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we couldn't uh work together at all, and uh but what I did deal with was I didn't like what was happening in me because I had this bitterness in me.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I didn't need to be his best friend, and I didn't have to need to call him and say, Why don't you come back to the church and let's make it work?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't going to work, but I had this thing in me that I didn't like, and I and I was uh and I I talked to God a lot about it and I prayed about it and a lot, and and anyway, I'll just make it short.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: By dealing with it with God, um eventually that got healed.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: It went away.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it got to the point to where when somebody mentioned this person's name, I didn't feel that, you know, uh, these memories would all come back and it'd be horrible, and I'd just be wanting to like say some horrible things about the person.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's that started to go away, and eventually it got to where when someone would talk about them, I could have a smile because I felt differently about them.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's just part of the healing that can happen with God's love for you.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it did get to the place where I can remember that I knew I had a breakthrough because when I ran into him one time, like I would, like it would happen every once in a while, when I ran into him one time, I really genuinely felt compassion for him and a love for him, where I just wanted to run up and give him a hug and really meant it this time.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I had run into him before, and I might have given him a hug or a handshake or something, but it wasn't that I really meant it.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of those kinds like, hey brother, how you doing?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Good, me too.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I I could tell that God had done something then.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was many, many years ago, and now we we talk to each other, and it's like, you know, it's it's it's there's totally no, we, we, we, we nothing like it was back then.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, that was my that's my my experience with dealing with with somebody like that.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um you your life won't include everyone, but you can feel about other human beings, no matter what kind of person they are, you can still feel about them the way that God feels about them.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this all comes because we get a heart that's full.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when God loves you and you're confident in that, you don't have to prove your worth to somebody else that's impressive to you.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in those early days, with my insecurities and things like that, I just I felt like I had to prove myself.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I needed somebody's approval.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted their approval, I wanted their friendship, I wanted, you know.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out the way to get their approval is just do anything they say.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that, you know, that couldn't last forever.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing anything?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Telling you stories like this, yes.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: But in all of that, there's all there's there's all these things.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: My whole point in all this is that when we talk about the love of God, it's not following a rule to do that.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find, through the good news, you find the fullness of God that only comes from a God that's wonderful, from a God that loves you, and that perfect love, it casts out that fear.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And a big fear that you'll that that people deal with in these fleshly insecurities that all of us taste in some degree or another.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: A big fear is the fear of man.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do they think about me?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do they like me?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do they approve of me?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: How, where do I stand in all of this?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: What's my ranking?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, all these things are not just, they're not just you, they're not just happening to you.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Humans deal with this as we're walking in this, uh having this experience in this with this with this weak flesh.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is what gives us the freedom.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: The truth makes us free.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, of course, God loves you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're his child, you're his, you're you're his creation, you're his offspring.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: You look like him in reality, and you're home in him, and there's a fullness in him that we have.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And really, it all goes to what we're celebrating this week and the next.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the death and then the burial and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and everything that he did brought that fullness.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you when you begin to see that grace and really start to believe it, how many know what I talk when I'm talking about?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you you can tell something has happened when you a change happens when you believed that his grace was sufficient for you.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And like we sang today, in Christ alone, I love, don't you?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love being able to stand on that, that in Christ alone is where everything is.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's where my righteousness is, that's where my identity is.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's in all of that, it's in Christ alone.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes the the the attention off of your flesh, your abilities, your inabilities, your flaws, your strengths, your weaknesses, all of those, those, those, those fleshly outer things that do not define you.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because who you are is a child of God.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: You are born of the Spirit of God.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: You are not just flesh, you're a heavenly creation that has come forth from God, and you are complete in Him.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to uh take communion.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to begin to wrap this up here, that a way to deal with people in this place of fullness that we live is we're able to look at people not from a place of trying to be something, not from a place of deficit, not from a place of wealth.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the musician, yeah, thank you.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can go ahead and start to come up.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um not from a place of wealth, uh, excuse me, not from a deficit, but from a place of wealth where you've got so much to give.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the way Judy and I say it sometimes is like you're coming from a place of being big.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we're when we're in these insecurities of the flesh, and we've all dealt with them many times, is that we feel like we're coming from a small place.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And many times you feel like some people are just bigger than you, or your situations that you're dealing with are bigger than you.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you can come from a place of wealth and abundance, because in truth, you're very, very, very rich.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you're always going to be loved.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you're always, no matter what people say, you're always going to be approved of.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And one way that helps me with other people is seeing what God has done with me, it helps, it has, it seemed like I know that it has helped me to understand what the human condition deals with.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I can see, even like the example of the friend that I gave a moment ago, I look at people now, and rather than see them as just someone that's bad, that's selfish and has bad motives, and maybe that was all there.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you have a way when you're looking from a place of wealth and fullness, you can look at humanity, look at other people, and rather than see them as an enemy, and this is why he said, bless your enemies, pray for them.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than see them as just an enemy, you can see their fears.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love that that's happened to me, that I can see more uh the fears and insecurities of a human who may be doing some bad things.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture said, hate the bad and hold to that which is good.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to like or approve of what people do.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you can see the beauty.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: The beauty of a human that's doing some bad things.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, you're seeing through the eyes of your daddy.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's your very nature.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start to see these things, that's just your true nature taking the ascendancy and coming out.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you start to feel compassion rather than being scared, rather than being defensive or offensive.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: These things that are changing in as we start to feel compassion, we realize some people have a need for self-importance.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that comes from insecurity too.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I see that, it gives me compassion rather than fear to the person.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're not gonna be my best friend.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, maybe not.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they will, but who knows?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know where it's going.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you can see what's going on in the world.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a there's a lot of things that can make us angry, and a lot of things are not good.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just giving you an example of something that comes from me.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I talk about me like this, all what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to tell you that there's this something that over over time, with beholding the beauty of God's grace, I've just noticed these changes that take place.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the changes are not in so much anything I'm trying to do.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I start noticing changes.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I look at humanity, even with all the horrible things that people do, and I feel pain.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: I feel sometimes the pain of humanity, and it makes me not hate what a lot of these humans are, when humans are doing things that I might hate.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I can see the preciousness in the narcissist, in the toxic person, in the controller.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when you get into when he says, pray for those who abuse you or despitefully use you, and and and it doesn't make sense because it's like abusers, really?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, you don't come under that.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, you take your power, you know.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes sense to the flesh.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not knocking it on uh in that way, but there's a love that causes you to understand, that causes you to be able to pray for those and pray for it with a real sincerity.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I read that scripture.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: We said, love people in sincerity, don't just pretend, because none of us want to pretend to do it.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the sincerity comes from the sincerity, the sincere love of the one who's loved us.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is there hope for humanity?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is there hope for the type of people that that I mentioned today?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, for God so loved.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime I've dealt with people that I've had to be careful with my language.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I say had to forgive, and in one sense, I did for my sake.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um in society there's sort of a movement now of don't don't forgive people because you're giving up your power and you know you're letting people off the hook.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: I understand why they say that, I think, but in my experience, when I've been trapped in a place of hurt by somebody else, pain, bitterness, I would could call it, I I've not found any other way out except to receive and be able to give that kind of love.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: All I can say is it's not demanded of you.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing there, right there, because forgiveness that demanded will not be real forgiveness anyway.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can receive forgiveness, that kind of mercy and love for ourselves, then we have a wealth to give.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the receiving of it is as simple as believing that God's wonderful to you and he's good.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And his love for you is totally without limits.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're always gonna be loved.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're always gonna have a fullness of all that you need in him if you can just see it.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're always gonna be secure in him.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the safest place that you can be.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how these things begin to be fulfilled in our life.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we can pray for those who have used us.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we can bless those who have cursed us.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we see ourselves coming to our true reality.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the best thing about it is not that we've let people off the hook.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: The best thing about it is how big we feel and how free we feel by that love that's been given to us.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, how to love others out there that are hardly love?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: It'll come naturally.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean to say.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: It'll come as we behold his goodness and his glory.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up, please?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to like to pray.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love the love of God?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever set your eyes upon?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was saying, you know, I just hate hate and I love love.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: My how I've been changed by this thing.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we not ashamed of the gospel?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like Paul said, not ashamed of the good news.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of the grace of God.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Father.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're really going to remember the death of our Lover, our Savior, our Redeemer, and with thanksgiving and open hearts.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: As we behold your goodness, I pray for the spirit of wisdom and understanding in knowing you, that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened to know the bigness, copiousness, the beauty, and the fullness that you have for us.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: For today in you there is no lack.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And let everybody here feel like a wealthy soul today.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let everybody know that your love is freely given and your fullness and all of your source and supply of life is freely given to each and everyone here today.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let everyone know, even as we go out of here later this morning, that we go out of here with a spring in our step and a song in our heart.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the fullness that you have given.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have found what we were looking for in you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that we rejoice in.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.