Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Third Cord

Transcript

The Third Cord · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: This month is a um has a has a lot of things uh going on.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I have a birthday tomorrow.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: But today Oh thank you.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: But uh even more important to us today is our actually our anniversary of twelve years and we uh so we um wanted to speak together and share with you together today and um talk about the the bond of love that we have seen with God in our lives and then also uh take it to where it applies to everybody no matter what your uh situation is or who you are and and ultimately that same love to the to the whole world.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um When we got married, uh one of the scriptures that I asked to have in our wedding vows was Ecclesiastes four twelve.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it says, though one may be overpowered, the two can defend themselves, a cord of three strands is not easily or quickly broken.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that third chord is something that has been a a mainstay, has been a common theme in our life, and it's come back many times.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, um that third chord we would say, of course, is it's it's it's God.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's God in your life, it's it's love, uh, him who is love in your life.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when we first met each other, um I know from my standpoint there were many things about her that um uh I was attracted to, but if she did not have that's that God element that was attractive to me, and for me, it was that I quickly discovered that she saw God very much the same way that I did.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: She had already had begun a grace journey as I had.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we talked about God, that common cord, um that was what really bound us together.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say our the whole foundation of who we are as a couple is is is built on that.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: For me, I remember um as I was getting to know him, he would speak to me in a way I I don't think I've ever been spoken to that respectfully, that graciously.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember being on a walk one morning and I was on the phone with him, and he's he was telling he was just talking to me so kindly.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember telling him, You're the way that you're you talk to me, I feel like you're watering me.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like I feel watered by your choice of words, what you're saying.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I kept feeling like God was smiling the whole time.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I remember like he loved the newsboys, and at the time they were like my favorite group.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: And um I don't know, you knew that Italian food.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: She asked me, did I like the toilet roll over or under?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say that, dude.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I said, over.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you wear your shirts inside out?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we were like, okay, you don't have cats, do you?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Match made in heaven, yes.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, I had not been married before.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, living the single life, sometimes there's great things about it, and sometimes there's like really challenging things about it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: And one was just that I had to do everything myself.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I really longed for a person to share my life with.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, but at the same time, I was nervous to share my life with someone who I'll just say it couldn't handle someone like me.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and and yet here was this person, so so kind, so gracious, and so loving that was available to me.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that that really I felt God's smile.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: I felt like I was the one that was blessed because I um But we don't want to present ourselves as these like perfect.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, no, no, we get mad.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: We have gotten mad.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: We have fights.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we're normal.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're maybe more than normal, but um but this is where the third court has really blessed us, has been one of our um most profound, I don't know if you call it a secret, but it's one of the best things that we've utilized in our marriage.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So when we're seeing things from totally different worlds and different perspectives, and and when you're doing that with someone, you you can get to where you're just not getting anywhere with each other.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: One wants you to see their perspective, the other, and I want you to see my perspective.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I'm convinced that if you can just see it my way, everything will be all right.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: If I could just say it one more time in maybe a different inflection, then he'll agree with me.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then he'll understand.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, what comes down a lot of times is we say, let's go to the third chord, let's pray, let's let's talk to God.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and that has been our our secret.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: It has worked every time is that we come to our common bond, our common cord, which what happens then is that, see, that cord is that which binds people together in the bond of love, as Colossian says.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're and what can happen in relationships, and not just marriage, any level of relationships, is that is that people get a sense of separateness and separation.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's it's a lot like what we see in the Garden of Eden after the fall of man.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, before that fall, um, Adam looks at his wife and says, You're flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: We are we're the same here.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're one.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: But then after the fall, he pulls away and separates and tries to save his own skin.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, thank you.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he and then he's like, No, it's her.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And now he's got somebody to blame, and there's there's an enemy, so to speak, and and and he can put the blame on her, and that's where the separation goes.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that was that's never anything that's in God's heart.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was never the best intention, the eternal purpose of God uh was that, as the Bible says, all would be one, and that comes in that bond of love.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have we're so thankful, thankful that we have a third cord.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that for that reality of God in our lives that that always binds in that perfect love and it and it makes it beautiful.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you can have two fallible people that can see sometimes things so differently, and then there's that third cord, that bond of love, that it doesn't get broken.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it binds us together, and it's made this thing a beautiful thing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I I I love celebrating um the 12 years that we've had together.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um, our friend Teddy spoke about this in her grace perspectives.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Her husband and her had an issue that was on one was on one side, one was on the other.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: And there's this element of dominance and capitulation that comes into play where um, you know, we've had people say, like, well, I just have to capitulate, you know, to the dominant um person.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: In the it doesn't have to be a marriage, it can be a a friendship.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that is uh a lie that there has to be a dominant and a uh a uh one on the top and one on the bottom.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And what she said in her situation is they just decided to do nothing.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't take uh one of their ideas, they just laid it on the table.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And later, God showed them a plate um some way to to address it that didn't wasn't either one of their ideas.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a whole new uh idea, and it was a win-win.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a lot of times what we're looking for is how where is the win-win, Lord?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you have Rick's chord and you have Judy's chord, and we both have our own ideas.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: We come from different places, we have different woundings, we have different strengths and talents, but we're just two separate chords in some ways.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: But this third chord that's between us that we both value and have high uh esteem for, that third chord, if you're if you're um braiding them together, it's taking you somewhere.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's taking you towards love, towards something that says, I see you both, I love you both, and I have a wind for you both.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just a matter of kind of waiting for that or or having the faith that there is something that you can't see at this moment.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's that's what we've uh also noticed either in situations like that together or even in individually, that when you come up against hard things in life, no matter of what nature they they they are, um, we will do this.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say we, you know, I can remember one time getting bad news in the mail that I owe thousands of dollars for something I didn't even know about.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm like, I I can't do this.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: How this is too much for me.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then we go to the third chord.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: We go, we go to we go to God, what do you say about it?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he's always, he's always the reality, the answer.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's always there.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the best thing about it is that you know that you're not alone.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And in any conflict that we've had, it it's not, it's not, it wasn't me versus Judy.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was, it was, we're not alone.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have somebody in our house, in our life, in our in our hearts that's here, that is our counsel, that is our comfort, that is our wisdom, that is our guide.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh invariably we go to that third cord, and he just somehow opens up understanding and and and and and wisdom, and it's there.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this is why, you know, I think my evangelism with with with people in the you know out there today is is the greatest thing I want them to know is you're not alone.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: You've got somebody, you've got a source, you've got someone with you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when we're talking about relationships, that third chord is that binding uh together that we have.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: We um somebody, there's a there's a quote that um I I've heard before it goes something like this.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Beware of any Christianity that acts as though the world is full of enemies to be destroyed rather than neighbors to be loved.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I heard an amen.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody agrees with me on it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the but but but if you you notice it's it can be easy to slip into that kind of thing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there again, just like Adam did with Eve, you can see an adversary, you can see someone on, you can see the other.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's them.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: And if we look at the eternal purpose of God and we see his heart, and we see that so many of the separations that that are in our minds are separations that we have made, and they're not in the heart and in the mind of God.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so God is that this is why something else I've noticed too, that whenever uh whenever I had um an offense with someone, somebody did something that just felt, you know, I just felt it was totally wrong, and they they'd hurt me, and they'd uh and I would wonder uh back then why aren't you dealing with them?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like he didn't even care to deal with them.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: God, like he was like God didn't even care.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like all he wanted to do was deal with me and get me to a good place.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Not that maybe he wasn't dealing with the other side of that, but it was never uh it was never about fixing the other people out there around me.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was about him dealing with my heart and getting me into a good place.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and as he would do that, then I wouldn't see that person as the other, as an enemy or a them.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And everything about God, it always comes down to who he really is.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: God is love.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what holds us together, even here as a church, right?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've got these, we you know I like that we're trying to cultivate a place where you can there's room for you to think.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's room for you to for us to talk about the things that we think that God is dealing with.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I think this is a special kind of church, actually.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's a church where we're trying to make a safe place where people can be curious, they can ask questions, they can consider other ideas, and and no one's going to throw them away or just hate them because they're thinking a little differently or outside the box.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times we kept our thoughts close to our chest because we do we don't want to be um thrown away.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: We were afraid we would become one of those people.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: So we just would be like, we'll just say what everyone else is saying.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like what Clark, um, Clark's the founder of the church, and also Matt and Leslie, like their hearts are for us to be free and really be free to come and go as we please, and also to be free to think as we please.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that there's room for you here.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's room for all of us.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And we feel like this third cord is how we do this without getting offended by other people's thoughts or um a little bit afraid that people might be going down a rabbit hole, you know.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: This third cord, this thing of love, is what trumps the um the questioning.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, I don't know if you've ever felt this way.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever been on social media and you're reading somebody's thoughts and you feel almost like a a threatening in your heart.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how could they think like that?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you're you're you're almost like your nervous system is going threat, threat, threat, threat, threat.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, I don't know what's wrong with them.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm cutting them out, you know.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: But really, there is um a place where this third chord where you can find where you connect with even the person who is the farthest from you.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can let that lead, it's a beautiful thing.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying it's easy or everyone is in the place to do that at this moment, but if you could just believe that that's possible, if you could just look to like there's a place where I can acknowledge and see their good, that how God made them was good.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: That God, that God is, is it God can be with them and in them and as He is with everyone.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's a verse in Colossians chapter two.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it says um from the Passion Translation, it reads this way, Colossians 2 2.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: It says, I'm contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together in love's fabric.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: There's that third cord again.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Threads make fabric.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cord.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: This will this will give you access to all the Oh gosh, this is good.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Woven together into love's fabric.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Fabric.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: This will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of his great mystery, Christ.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because our spiritual wealth is in him, like hidden treasure that's waiting to be discovered, heaven's wisdom and endless riches of revelation knowledge.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of times you can make Christianity where it's about things that are so shallow compared to the depth of God's wisdom and character and love, which is the real power to actually change and save a whole world, uh, which is what's doing.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna talk about say, I'm talking about restoration of all things.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: But but we if we make it for listen for moral if we make it about morality, for instance, which is a big thing.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: People uh think, I think, a lot of times that Christianity or religion is supposed to be about morality.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And while morality is a good thing, obviously there is such a thing as good and bad.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: There is such a thing as good and evil, but when you're led by that, we miss the true riches.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens then is we become, we have the others.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, with you know, you you see somebody or hear someone that believes something about Christ differently than you.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've had that, that danger, danger goes off.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're one of those.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's dangerous.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I've sometimes I felt like I had to fight it because they're going to ruin all of Christianity if somebody thinks that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I've come to find out that God is a whole lot bigger than that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And his fabric or cord can wrap around all of that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And there's many ways to think.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's many, there's many, many, many people that are in their place in this walk and in this journey.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And God gave us these minds to think and to process and to come to him.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, like Paul said it when he was talking on Mars Hill, he says, He gave us space to grope for him that we may seek the Lord and find him.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we have people that are doing that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And just like us seeing God in each other, and even if you can have a different idea than me, I can see God in you.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that would, that's that's a big change that happened in my life because I used to think it was about what see what I'm seeing wrong with you.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because I thought it was about God correcting everything that's wrong with us.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: But like the word said, that our faith becomes effective by the acknowledging of the good thing that's in us.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that your vision can change to where you see the good in someone.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't see so many adversaries and those people and the others anymore, but you see neighbors.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I think for me, I did used to feel like, oh, I can see that that person doesn't understand.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it kind of bolstered my um ego.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh other people I would see like, oh, they know so much more than me.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was judging it, and uh I remember you saying it just takes two carnal eyes to see what's wrong with people, but it takes a spirit of God to see what's a treasure in people, you know, and to to recognize that and acknowledge that.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was first traveling with you, um, Rick had already been traveling for many years, and uh, we go to kind of the same meetings over and over, and I was being introduced to these people, and we would leave a meeting and I would sit in the car and I'd be like, oh, they really need to learn this, or oh, this one doesn't know about this yet, or can you believe they said that?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Rick would never respond.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like he wouldn't join me.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember after a while, it's just like he just loves them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it, he's not looking to fix anybody or like bring uh correction and you know, have everyone think like we do.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: He just left them where they were at.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it was such a um a lesson for me um to see that in you, and it it shut my mouth.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: It really did.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as we acknowledge that that core, we acknowledge that reality of God in our lives that we're not alone and God in others uh others' lives, we we we see beauty and and we get, we get, we sort of start to get a God's eye view and we see people differently.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that when that started happening to me, that was a scary thing to my my religion, the way that I thought it was supposed to be, because I had a type of Christianity where it was a few of us and then a whole bunch of uh a whole bunch of enemies, basically, that needed to be conquered.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh over the over time, God starts to give you his vision.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: You start to see more, and uh, and it's about acknowledging him.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll direct your path.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's about the acknowledgement of God, and the acknowledging of his goodness is where you can start to see that in other people.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the mystery that's been hidden from the ages.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's how Paul wrote it.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's a mystery, a secret that people did not know that was hidden throughout all the ages, and it's Christ in you.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul talked about it himself is that we know he had a big Damascus experience and all that, but the way he described what had happened to him later was it pleased the Lord to reveal the Christ in me.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Christ in me.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Paul said that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: The Christ in me.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't out, he wasn't having this revelation outside of himself.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: It was that he was seeing Christ in himself.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and it and it and I feel like I my uh my default Christianity when I got into it was the type of Christianity that had so many separations.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't done this, you're you're one of those.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you got you got to do this, and if you're if you believe this, you're one of those.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't believe that, you're one of those.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there was all these separations to where for a while it felt like there was just a chosen few, and I'm thank God I'm one of them.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we but the but in Christ, all the lines, all the lines leave, and you see Christ in other people.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what draws you together in love.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's ultimately, whether whether we you know it or not, that's ultimately where creation is going.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um you've experienced that just in friendship in people that you've known.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: You are totally reading my mind.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: I do this all the time.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is why we're good at this.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say, do you guys know that we have a podcast?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: We do this all the time.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Go to Rickmanis.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: We don't ever tell you about us.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: We got our uh website, go there sometime to rickmanis.com and we got all our stuff.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell The reason why is because when we're here, we're here for Grace Church, not here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: For ourselves.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to tell a story because this is one of the most profound things the Lord has done in my life, even before I met Rick.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I had a friend today, she's one of my favorite people on earth.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: And when I first met her, uh I'll just say it like this: I felt threatened by her.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was, I was afraid.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we came from two different, very different backgrounds, very different ways of looking at things.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: And her style was very big and upfront.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: And my style was very conservative.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we did not hit it off.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: And that is an understatement.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: We did not hit it off.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: We were, I guess, as close as you could call enemies to each other as you could be.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: But then the intention, my intention was never to cause harm.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was more to protect myself.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: But when I saw my protection of myself harmed her, it brought me to tears.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I felt horrible.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I went to her and I asked her to forgive me.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a deep hurt.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't a small thing.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: And she said she would.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: And over time we we kept like being in the same group together.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Usually it was a Bible study.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: And she has had the same experience as I have, but this is my experience.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her, Lord.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her, Lord.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, she said the most profound thing about you.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: What she's saying is so inspiring to my heart.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's making my heart leave.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think she's brilliant.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're doing something.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like her.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it was sort of this I feel like it's such a loving thing the Lord did to help me open my heart, my self-protected heart.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason my heart was protected was not because I was an evil, bad person.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was just I'd been harmed, I'd been hurt.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: And to trust someone was a really big deal for me.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought it would come by another person who was very, you know, kind of inching their way.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: But instead I went to the waterfall.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like a waterfall in my life.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, and she says for her her own experience that she too would be in the Bible studies.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: She'd hear things I'd say and she'd be like, she knows God, like I know God.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we were both discovering grace kind of in a similar time frame.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: And she had room in her heart for someone like me that fights instead of relaxes, you know?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: She had some room and some time for me to be me and for her to love me as I am.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: I remember her saying, but I saw God in you.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's the third chord she saw.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: And here's the thing is when you're in your flesh, you are it, you want your way.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: You believe you see things right.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: But if you know the third chord, there's this idea like, what if maybe God has something better?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe God has a a way of seeing this that I don't see.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can submit to that, if you can put down your armor and just look for that, he shows up in a remarkable ways.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say she's my favorite one of my favorite people in the world today.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you started to say favorite, then you looked at me.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're my favorite.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're my number one.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: But today is her birthday.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: She's back.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Happy birthday.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Happy birthday, Tiffany.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: So um, thank you for always being there and supporting me and getting me ready for this guy.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been awesome.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: The third chord works in your most intimate relationships.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: It works in every level.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: It works in your friendships.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: It works in your umans, it works with people no matter what level.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it also works with those people out there, those the ones I, you know, uh Christianity has such an opportunity.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Christ has such an opportunity.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: In this world that we live, I know we're all we all know that there's so much divisiveness and so on going on.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Some are relishing it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, some are just all in and like, yeah, but but it's there, and and so many people are very concerned about it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there's an opportunity for Christ in us to be a blessing to this world and to bring in what we call the third option.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because we always say there's there's one person's side and another person's side, there's the left, there's the right, there's the black, there's the white, there's the rich, there's the poor, there's there's there's there's something.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's the third option, and that's God.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's the third chord.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's love.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we can put our banners over us and say we're fighting for this and we're fighting for that, for that.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: And some people have thought, well, you guys don't fight for anything, but we do.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: And his banner over us uh is love.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's how we endeavor to do and to keep our eyes on that, because uh I believe that love is the most powerful thing in this universe.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else could bring forth life except love and all the beauty that we see in creation.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Only love could do that, and it continues to do that, and it rains on the just and the unjust, and all the beautiful trees were created for every mankind, no matter if you've if you're doing good or not so good or what you're believing in.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: God's love and grace is over all of them.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have the cord on this side and the cord on the side, or the strand on this side, the strand on this side, but that strand in the middle is what we're putting both our feet into.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is what we stand for.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: That love.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's our that's our um battle cry, I guess you could say.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's a scripture that we're all familiar with.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Matthew 18, 20, and it says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell You you said something really um cool about that verse.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Traditionally, I had always thought of that as um, okay, if you have a small group, it's okay because there's two or three there, so let's have the church service anyway.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've usually heard it when people were apologizing for the small crowd in church or something.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, well, where two or three are gathered, there's Jesus, you know.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um or or or just maybe two or three would gather in a Bible study or something, and we'd say, well, there's two or three Jesus.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: And for and of course there's truth to that, but look at it this way, because uh because he wasn't talking about a church service, really, I don't think.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: But he but wherever two or three are gathered in my name, or they're acknowledging me.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Where there's acknowledgement of me, I'm there.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he's there anyway, but the manifestation of him, the stuff of him will will will manifest, and that sweet aroma will be there if there's an acknowledging of him.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that can happen.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't say what kind of people.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: He just said, whenever, whenever people are together, acknowledging me or in my name, I'm there.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: So they don't have to be like me.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: They don't even have to think like me, they don't have to believe like me.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: They can actually believe the opposite of me, and God can be there with us, two or three together.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the acknowledgement of that is is where the restoration works.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is where that third chord can be between me and some.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen it in my day-to-day things, and maybe many of you too.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we know that maybe somewhere in the back of our mind are uh where we don't think it's supposed to happen.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: But if you have, let's say you as a Christian are out there in your day-to-day business and you have a you have a dealing with a person who is a Muslim.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when you look at it from the view of the current events and the news, that person is an enemy.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're there together with that person, at least in my case, I don't feel like that with that person.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know we have different beliefs and and things, but but there's a bond there as God's creation, his children, if you will.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know religion doesn't believe in that, but that's the kind of religion that wants to separate people instead of let God be there in that bond of peace.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: But where you can acknowledge Jesus, he's there and you can see him in the other person.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this whole thing is going somewhere that's really wonderful and beautiful.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and it can include so many people in where they're at with their walk and in their thing.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And do we want people to know the beauty of Christ Jesus and what he has done and how he has unveiled the Father to us and all of the absolutely we want that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: But we're all in some place as God's wonderful, precious, valuable children that He wanted, looked for, were lost, maybe living as lost in so many ways, but he came to seek and save that.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: And what we see in the life of Jesus, and it's not hard to see at all when you read the Gospels, what we see him is we see him destroying every line and every barrier, and everybody was a neighbor.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Even the lowest of the low, the worst of the worst to those people he was talking to, were those lowly, defiled Samaritans.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Even a Roman centurion was a neighbor to him.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Even a Gadderene and Decapolis who's living in the graveyard, cutting himself, super traumatized.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: All those who were classified as immoral and sinners and actually had done immoral things, he saw no difference.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul, who was one of those people that were was a separatist, gets a revelation because of the third chord that came into his life.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And he's and he's the one that writes There's no Jew or Greek or male or female or bond or there's none of that in Christ.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's all done away in him.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: For in him, oh go ahead.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: We for in him we live and move and have our being.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: And this is Paul talking to the Greeks, right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: The Yeah, on the Mars Hill.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: He's telling them they're they're they have the unknown God, that that scripture.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he is he said, for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is Paul, the separatist, who thinks that those people who believe that way deserve to die.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, it was Saul who believed that.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: Saul of Tarsus, who would become Paul.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he's the guy that, I mean, he said, I was beyond my peers when it came to knowing and living the Torah, the law, and all that.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I was without peer without peer.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was beyond them all.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you had a Bible question in those days, he's the one you went to.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: He thought he knew it.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Better call Saul, is what they would say.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: But he said, I count all that dung.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Threw it away for the for the beauty and the excellence of knowing him.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, then he comes to these, these, these, these Greeks, and many of them were just Gentiles.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't even Jew.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: There were Jews there, but many of them were not.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and in fact, in this per this particular place, it was Greek philosophers that wanted to hear about this new thing that, because he was talking about Jesus, and he tells them, in him we live and move and have our being.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: He's the one that you worship and you don't even know it.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, and that's where he says, for he had God has said it that we would all grope for him until we find him.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's room for you all, he says, because it's in him that we all live and move and have our being.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: That third chord wraps around all of us.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: How great is our God.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, just like your own poets have said, you unchristian people, you, for we are all God's offspring.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's close it out now.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we have this beautiful verse that all of you have read in 2 Corinthians 5, 16.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's so powerful that in Christ he says, Therefore, from now on, of course, the therefore is because of Jesus.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: From now on, Paul, who once was Saul, the separatist with murder on his mind, in the name of God, because he knew what was right in those days, and it turns out he says, I really didn't.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: So he says, Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on and says, For if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: Old things are passed away.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, all things are begun new.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: And see, be careful with our idea of if I know we have our definition of what it takes to be in Christ.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And whatever you're whatever you think about that, whatever your uh your your your your belief and idea in on that.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Beware of separatist mentality.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say that.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Beware of that which wants to call something that Jesus has died for uh and cleansed by his blood, beware of calling it unclean or common.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or even as the Greek poets have said, we are all his children.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody sa somebody says, you know, I know that brings up a lot of things, but the main thing that we would like to bring up today is that God is that bond of love for us, for us, and for mankind.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can see where that takes us, that's the heaven on earth experience.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where God gets his vision coming to pass, where he says, But as truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory or goodness of the Lord.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, in that day, you won't have to tell your neighbor, No the Lord, no the Lord.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: So they'll know me.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: From the greatest to the least, they will know me because I'll be good to them.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: I will forgive all the transgressions and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're acting like that didn't happen.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: But that third chord is life and it's powerful, and it brings resolution in the most intimate of areas.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: It brings peace and wisdom and power in that love.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it does it here among us with each other.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: I love that we're free to think and express and say, here's where I'm at, here's where I'm thinking about God.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're all on this walk.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Mine might be a little different than yours, but we have this bond of love.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: We do have a cord that binds us together.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we can be very individual, very free, very unique to grope for God, to seek Him and to find Him, because I know that's what the hearts want.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be We can bear the fruit of the Spirit, which let's remember that's the prime thing of Christianity.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's the prime important thing.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I believe that's what Jesus died for, was so that we could have in our souls the fruit of the spirit.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: That would be peace, that would be joy, that would be gentleness, that would be patience.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: We never want to put our fight for morality or right and wrong above the fruit of the spirit.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: If our if our fight for things takes us out of the fruit of the spirit and into the fruit of something else, the fruit of the spirit's love, joy, peace.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: The fruit of something else is anger, fear, and hate.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that always comes eventually when we have the others, the others, the others.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: People have left here because they don't agree with some of the things being said, but we don't want to see them as the others.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: And here's the thing is people can disagree and leave us or not want to be our friends, and that's their freedom.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: And we give it to them, but we don't not love them.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like we feel like for our hearts to stay open to whoever disagrees or doesn't like us or whatever.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like my journey is coming back to the love of whoever's hurt me or whoever's caused, you know, division or whatever, that I can go over the pain and find the third cord with a strength and a vulnerability that only he can give.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: That really is our core value, isn't it?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we're being drawn to that love.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Would you all stand up?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: And let's pray.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you love the Lord?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't he beautiful?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't he perfect?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in our walk, there's there's there's so many questions and things that we don't understand because God is big.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: He's so big, he's too big for us all to fully understand, but but we can come to know him more and more, and we can taste and continue to taste that the Lord is good.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: And doesn't it taste like love?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't it taste like something that the world can't give you, but only God can?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a beautiful, perfect love, and it's something to be to be embraced because it empowers us.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, Father, I thank you for your goodness.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, what can we say about these things?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: You're altogether lovely and you're beautiful.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, I pray that that beauty would just shine upon people, even in their struggles while they're dealing with their day-to-day life.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are dealing with hard things right now, but they're not alone.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the third chord is there.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: And let that acknowledgement of you rise up from within their souls, that that peace would come upon them and joy in any situation, with any person or any circumstance.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I thank you, Father, for being with us.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that we're not alone, for you are with us.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: You are within us.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: You go before us, behind us, and all around us.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: You are our third cord.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: You are our third cord.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father, in the name of our wonderful Savior Jesus.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day, guys.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful out there.