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The Power of an Endless Life · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_00: And I am excited to be here.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Judy and I both are.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Feels like it's been a while for us.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: It's just we've um been here and there and everywhere it seems.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Summers, summers get like that.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's so good to be here, and I'm excited.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, the challenge for me is I can see and and feel, and I have all this excitement in me and this truth that bubbles up and all that, but the challenge is you want your words to do it some kind of justice.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever feel like that, that you know the beauty of this thing and you know what it feels like, and you know how wonderful it is, and it's just yeah, it's it's just it's just good.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And I and so I I I I pray and I really do trust that the Holy Spirit um he can speak to hearts while I'm doing my best to uh uh put verbiage to this beautiful gospel.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh didn't Brett do a good job uh last time?
1:17
SPEAKER_00: He when I hear when I hear Brett speak, I just I I have a little bit of envy.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, gosh, he he's so succinct and so clear in how he speaks about the the good news of of God.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: It was just it was just beautiful.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I want to get right into this this morning.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: And and I love the music.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Um I love the second song where it's talking about the the how how it's the power that that rolled the grave.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna look at something this morning.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at the at the resurrection part of this, because it's really big, and I don't think there's there's enough talk about it.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot about the cross, we talk a lot about the blood, and we talk a lot about the name, and all those things are powerful, important, all a big part of the important part of this one big love of God and this graciousness of God that we that we have.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that he rose from the dead speaks something to us.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, I want to talk about, I want to give us the definition of saved.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And most of us know it.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of us have heard this, but but but the definition of saved, it's uh it's the Greek word sozo, and very simply it means to save, to heal, to make whole, to protect.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And that's the literal meaning of the word.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not just talking about you get to go to the good place when you die.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: It encompasses uh a saving, a healing of the soul, uh, uh a made whole of your of your inner man, of who you, of who you are, a completeness, a fullness, a saving of something that may have, that was lost, a saving of something that was blind, a saving of something that was in torment, possibly, but it was saved, it was delivered, it's healed, it's protected, it's preserved.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh and with and with that definition, I want to read a verse from Romans chapter 5, verse 10.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And it says, For if while we while we, or when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved or made whole through his life?
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, without doing having to do a big Bible study on it very simply, that life that he's talking about, that life of God lives in you and me, right?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: We carry this.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And and, you know, when we talk about these things, a big part of my my heart, my motivation is I want it to go past a beautiful theology into a reality that has an effect on our everyday things.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And I like the effects that I'm seeing so far in my life.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: We shall be saved or made whole or healed.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: We shall be protected by that life, this thing called life, resurrection life, eternal life, the power of an endless life that that is a part of who we are.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: We even sang about it a lot this morning.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the grave's defeated, death has no claim on us.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: We we believe, we know that we're living eternally.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna outlast all of this stuff that's going on, all these temporal things.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: And really uh it starts to give you an eternal perspective that elevates you above the temporary things, so you're not just trying to do like a lot of people do, just trying to fight and win these short games when God's playing this beautiful long game, that you have eternal life and you're living forever.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: And like David said, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: We are saved through that life, through that something that we carry.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: And as we get into this, I hope to give a good picture of that.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: When we look at this, first of all, let's let's understand and realize that life is stronger than death.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: We see that in the resurrection, don't we?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Life is stronger than death.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the Bible says uh that death is swallowed up by life.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: We see that in the resurrection.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Um it speaks something to us.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us something in that resurrection.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: And it causes us to look not just on the temporary things, but look on the eternal things, the eternal life that we carry.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: I want to go to Matthew 16, and here's the here's a uh a story here where we begin to see Jesus pointing to the eternal life to his disciples.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And uh right after Peter blurts out that revelation that you're the Christ, the Son of the living God, then Jesus, it says that Jesus began to tell his disciples that I'm going to have to go to Jerusalem and I'm gonna suffer many things by the chief priests and the scribes, and I'm gonna be killed.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm gonna be raised again the third day.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: He's telling them about something.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm think about this.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be raised again the third day.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be killed, and then I'm gonna be raised again the third day.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's when we see the reaction, that's almost like they did so many times, it's almost like they missed it.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: You ever look at that?
6:37
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder?
6:38
SPEAKER_00: It's like another time in the book of John, you know, he says, he says, I've told you that I'm going away.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: He said, but your hearts are filled with sorrow, and none of you asked, asked me, where are you going?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: He said, You should have asked me, because this is good.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: That's not the end of the story that I'm gonna go away.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you would have asked me where I'm going, he said, let me tell you.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going because it's better for you that I go, because if I go, the Spirit will come to you, I will come to you.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Christ in you, the power of life, the power of resurrection.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, see, that just that just becomes, that's just like, oh yeah, that's great.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: We got something great and powerful and wonderful.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's look at how this works, how it delivers us, how it establishes our wholeness, and that that type of dominion in life by Christ Jesus every day in our everyday situations.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus tells them, This is what's going to happen to me.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: They somehow missed that last part.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be raised again the third day.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Another example of that.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Judah.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: I said, Do you ever wonder how they missed it so much?
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And I know they didn't have the spirit like we do, so we can pick up the things of the spirit we hear.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: But there's one time he says, Um, he's talking about somebody's gonna betray him.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, one of you's gonna be going to betray me tonight.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: He said, and it's the one that I dipped my bread in his dish.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And he does that with Judas, and he says, now go do what you gotta do.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And all the disciples watch this and they think, oh, he sent him out to go feed the poor or something.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And he just told them, you know.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: It's funny how they missed it.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: But he said, I'm gonna be killed, but I'm gonna be raised again the third day.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: And they don't, it's like they don't hear.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, No way, this ain't gonna happen to you.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be raised again the third day.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: And when Peter jumps up and does that, Jesus says in chapter in verse 25 of Matthew 16, uh, he says, For who whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Now let me let me let me tell you that the verse right before that.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is it's the famous verse where Jesus says, Get thee behind me, Satan.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: You're an adversary to me.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Because you're you're not thinking about the things of God, you're thinking about what men think about.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you can see the things of God, you'd be right with me on this, but because you're looking at it through the eyes of a man, you're against what's about to happen to me.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know one of the great reasons that Jesus was not against what was about to happen to him was because of the joy set before him.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: He had life.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: He was gonna be he was he was gonna be alive.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: The grave was not gonna hold him.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he didn't fear it.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Just like that storm on the Sea of Galilee, right?
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Why was he asleep in the boat?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: He didn't fear the storm.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Why?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Because he was doing just what he said he was doing at the beginning.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: He was going over to the other side.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: So it didn't matter if it was sunshine or a storm, he's going to the other side.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: The weather was irrelevant to him.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: And here's this big thing that looks so big in the eyes of man, because it looks like it conquers everything and overshadows everything, and it and it causes such fear in every dimension of people's lives.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, I'm going to walk right into its teeth, and I'm coming out alive.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal to us.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: And he's so he says, You're thinking of the things of men, not the things of not the things of God.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Because this this statement here, whoever desires to save or make his own life whole, or preserve his own life, or heal his own life, sozo, save, is still going to lose.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: But whoever loses or gives up his life will find it.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Why?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a life of Christ, there's a life in Christ, and then there's then there's a carnal life.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: And when you're alone, when you don't know Christ and you're not aware of the goodness and the reality and the power of that life inside of you, then we feel very, we still feel helpless.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: We still feel alone.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: We still feel orphans.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And and I don't want anybody here to feel like that.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus told the disciples that, you know, when the night he was going to be betrayed, he said, You know, you're all going to leave me.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Not just one, but you're all going to leave me tonight.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: He says, but I won't be alone.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I won't be alone.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: The Father will be with him.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: He would still carry in a body that can die, given a human, mortal body, if you will, a body that could bleed, a body that could die, but yet in that body carried within him a life, that he was not alone.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible said that that same spirit that raised him from the dead dwells in you, and it'll even quicken you, your mortal body.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: That same life.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've always contended with this for a little bit while because I see it plainly in the scriptures, like it's the exact same thing that raised him from the dead.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: That thing we point back to 2,000 years ago.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: It rolled back the stone.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came out of that, walked out of that thing, and it says we have that exact same thing.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: But why is there a contention with it?
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Because it's like it doesn't look like it.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: It looks like some lesser version of something.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Because people are dealing with life and they're dealing with their with their struggles and they're dealing with their their hurts and their and their rejections and their fears and and and and do you like me?
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Is what you're doing going to hurt me?
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to destroy my life or my ministry or something?
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And if so, then I have to push back, I have to defend, I have to save my life, I have to protect my life.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: So I'll do certain things because I feel like it's on me to do so.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying is there's another source for you that loves you, that cares, and that knows, and is much more powerful than anything you try to do to preserve your life or heal it or save it.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Because all of those things you end up losing anyway.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Why are there wars?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: James said, why are there wars and fightings among you?
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it because of these desires that you have?
13:09
SPEAKER_00: He says, and you lust, and you lust and you fight, but you still don't have, you still lose.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: But people continue to use those those things of the of the flesh, which is just, when we say that, I'm talking about just the thing, just our own resources, our own wits, our own abilities to try to control things.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, Job was a bless his heart, God loved him so much.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Job, but a big part of Job was he was he was all he was a controller, also, right?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: And and controlling is comes because we're afraid.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to heal our life, we're trying to protect our life, we're trying to save our life because we we feel alone, even if we have a belief in God, we still may feel alone and we feel like it's on us.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: So we know what Job was doing.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: He was thinking, you know, he had his kids living in a trailer behind the house, and he's just and he's thinking, maybe, could be that they're sinning.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're committing sin.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: So just in case, I'm gonna try to keep the ducks lined up and I'm going to make sacrifice for them.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Not that I know they've done anything bad, but just in case, because if they sin, see, it'll bring bad things upon them, and this is the way I'll control that and protect that just in case.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: Because he was so afraid of it, and we know also in that story, he said it a little bit later on.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: He said, and it happened anyway.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: What he was trying to save, what he was trying to protect out of his own abilities, works, feeling that it was upon him to try to save his life, to protect the thing that was dear to him.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: He lost it anyway.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And if we if we look at it, we find out that that's going on and it's repeating itself over and over again in people's lives.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's not an indictment or a or or a condemnation at all.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: When you you think about it, you you you it's a it's it's not only in that sense is it understandable, but it's something to be pitied in a way, and God looks upon us and loved us, loves us, but loved us, and says, I want to save them.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Those who've been trying to save themselves ever since Adam.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna save them.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: I will be with them.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: I'll be their God, I'll be a father to them.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: They will know me, they shall live.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Because ever since Adam, what have we been doing?
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Trying to cover our nakedness.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: You see, there was a an accuser, a temptation that came to, when I say Adam or a man, I'm saying us, humanity.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: It comes to us.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: And what was that temptation we see in Genesis?
16:12
SPEAKER_00: The accuser says, basically, where is your God?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: You can't trust God.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he said, what?
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he just knows that something good will happen to you if you do this.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: You can't you can't really trust him.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Is that what people deal with a lot of times?
16:34
SPEAKER_00: I know we get questions a whole lot by people sincerely saying, I know what the Bible says, but I struggle with this.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Why do I still have such fear?
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Why, why, why is it hard for me to really feel that God is with me and really, really be aware that God is God is with me?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: You can't really trust God to come through for you, so you're gonna have to save yourself.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to heal yourself, you're gonna have to preserve yourself, you're gonna have to make yourself a whole person.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: You can't trust God.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: You're naked.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: You don't have anybody.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't have a father who cares and gives a thought about you and loves you and knows the best for you.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: This invisible spirit in the sky.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: No, it's all on you.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Look at you.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: You're naked.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Look what people think about you, look what's going on in your life.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Look what could happen in your life.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: You, what are you gonna do to stop that?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna cover it.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna protect it.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do my best.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And it's a natural reaction to those who feel alone.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: But we celebrate today that we're not.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: We're not alone.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: They all may desert you, but yet you're not alone.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: You'll never be alone, you'll never be orphans, you'll never be without the source, you'll never be without life, you'll never be, ever, ever, ever be without that that overcomes the biggest and baddest of them, even death itself.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: And as you grow in the knowing of that, you find you you can't you find where you don't even fear physical death itself, you have been released from that bondage once and for all, and you're no longer held captive by any of it, and then you get to be free indeed.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the revelation that's happening inside of you by the grace of God.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: You're naked, you can't trust God, you're alone.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Save yourself, you better do something, or else they'll destroy you.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Control it.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Manipulate it.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Fight it back.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Get in front of it.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, not to say we, you know, not to say we don't live and make plans and be wise and all that stuff.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: That's a given.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: You hear what I'm talking about?
19:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about looking and trusting in something that we know that we carry.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And I want what I'm wanting to do is I want to illustrate or show the power of this thing, how it really does.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Just like we saying this morning, it frees us.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: It frees us from the fear of man, frees us, frees us from the fear of death itself.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Frees us from the fear of losing because you you find out, if you ever put this to the test, that even when you lose, you end up winning.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Whereas the other way you can win a battle in the flesh, but you'll end up losing.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Because of the hurt, of the pain that you bring to yourself, to your whatever.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus gives us some teaching on that.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And not only did he teach us that, but he proved it to us.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 16, he says, whoever wants to save his life, you're gonna lose it.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: But if you'll give that up, if you'll lose that, for me, for my sake, because of me, because of me, if you'll lose it because of me, you're gonna find something that's bigger than your efforts to save yourself, to heal yourself, to preserve yourself.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And then right after that, after he tells them, I'm gonna be killed and I'm gonna be raised on the third day, and they're like, no way! We ain't gonna let it happen, we're gonna fight for you.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: He's like, So just three days after that, he takes a few of the guys, Peter, James, and John, he takes them to a high mountain.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: You know this part of it?
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Takes them to a high mountain.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I'm gonna show you guys something.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about here.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
21:03
SPEAKER_00: He stands there and he shows them his glorious condition, what it's really all about, what he really carries, what he's his power is that he's really doing this whole thing, and the power that'll let him go to the cross and be and let it be just like he said, and he's transfigured before them in this glorious reality that they weren't able to see before.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: They just saw a man that could die, and they were gonna fight for him.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: But he says, look at the truth here, and he shows them the reality, and they look and they see, and not only that, they see him talking with Moses and Elijah.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: What were they talking about?
21:47
SPEAKER_00: Says they were talking to, he was talking to Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, right?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Those that everything they said led and pointed to him.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: What were they talking about?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: The book of Luke says they were talking about the Death that he was about to die.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Talking about it.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: While he's transfigured, talking about it.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: That yes, reconciled through his death, but we'd be delivered.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: We'd be made whole.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: We'd be saved by that life.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Everything that they had that they were doing, all the ministry that they did, it wasn't something for us to go back to and try to live by that.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: They were all pointing to this thing that death would be swallowed up by life.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And here he is, life himself, in a body that can die.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And he says, now watch this.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going to that cross.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Drive the nails in my hands.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: I will rise again.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: You cannot keep this in the grave because death is swallowed up of life.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: And you know this thing about you too.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: You also know that you lay this body down, you continue to live on through eternity.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: You know this.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And that same life doesn't start when this body lays down.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: That's in you right now, today.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: And that which will deliver you from the grave is also the thing that delivers you from the men and the words and the and all the conniving that goes against you and all the things that are working and all the fears that you might have and how you're going to make your living and all these things that this same life is your source.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And see what I'm talking about, this life that we carry within us, it's a source of joy and peace, isn't it?
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Because you know, go ahead, put the nails in my hands.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm still alive.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Pierce my side, mock my name, nail me to the cross.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus shows us in that is disciples of mine, beloved of mine.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm talking about when I talk about my life in you?
23:56
SPEAKER_00: See what I'm talking about when I talk about you not being alone and you having a father?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: You having a life?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: You see what I came to do is give you something more than just topple the Roman army.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: I came to give you life and life more abundantly.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Life more than us trying to preserve a life.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Am I making any sense to you this morning?
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: See, we're not alone.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Look at we go to Hebrews, no, no, no, go to Matthew 27 and verse 41.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Here's Jesus hanging on that cross.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Even the ruling priests and the Jewish scholars and religious leaders joined in the mockery, and they kept on saying, well, he saved others, but he can't even save himself.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: He can't even preserve himself, he can't even heal himself, he can't even make himself whole here.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Look at him hanging there naked in shame.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: See when Adam tried to cover up his own self, Jesus says, Go ahead, strip me bare.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: He hung there, Hebrew says he despised the shame, or he looked at it and esteemed it as a small thing to him, compared to what?
25:13
SPEAKER_00: The life.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, children of God.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I can bear the shame.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: I can bear the pain.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: I can bear the death.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Why?
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Because of the life, the joy that's set before me.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to show you.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you this new and living way.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: For life swallows up death.
25:41
unknown: Wow.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: What has God wrought?
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Did he just give us a ticket to the good place when we die?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Or did he give us life?
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Did he come to dwell in us?
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Is the mystery Christ in us that hope of glorification?
25:56
SPEAKER_00: That's not just a work that's gonna be granted to us after we lay down this physical body, but it's something that came to live inside of you.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: And he said, And I'll be with you always.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: He saved others.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: He sozoed others.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Why can't he save himself?
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is he could have.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Could have.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: If that were his motivation, if it were about covering up his own nakedness, then what does he do?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: He does call upon that legion of angels that's at the ready.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:33
SPEAKER_00: If that's what it's about, is for us to cover our nakedness, then that's what he does and shows us how.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: If it's about saving your own life, then he calls on him and it happens, and he shows us how to how to do that.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: But he went farther and he showed us reality.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You don't have to win these little temporal things here, because I've overcome the world.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: I've won the eternal battle for you, and you carry that in you all the time.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: In the world, there's trouble, there's tribulations, and see, and a lot of us we wanted a Jesus.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we wanted a Jesus who just got rid of all the trouble, all the trials, all the challenges, all the hard things that we have to deal with sometimes in life.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: We wanted that Jesus, but he says, I didn't do that.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: But I did something better.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I overcame all of that for you by the life that you have in you.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing this?
27:38
SPEAKER_00: So go ahead and rejoice, celebrate, have a party, be of good cheer in the midst.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Paul said it this way: we glory in tribulations.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: We're aware of the transfiguring that's happening inside of us.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: We're glory in the troubles because life swallows up death.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have to fear.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And we walk and we live our lives, and we walk through everything by the faith in the power of the resurrection of God, the life that lives inside of us, the power of an endless life is the words that Hebrews used in one place.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And rather than teaching us how to win all the temporal games, he gave us the victory in the big game that swallows up all of the others.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So we glory in tribulations.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: We have peace during the storm in Galilee.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: We have love when they persecute you and they hate you, and they say all manner of things against you.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: How do you rise up and you're bigger than all that?
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not trying to win the short game against them.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: You've already won the long game, so you can then give and impart with love, joy, and peace.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And this is when we are not just taking stands for Christ.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: Now we've been able to begin to become Christ to a world, a creation that's longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Why?
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Because all creation is looking for that life.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: They all are feeling naked, alone, orphans, and they're all fighting and they're warring and they're doing mean things and sometimes evil things just to try.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what are they doing?
29:22
SPEAKER_00: Trying to preserve themselves.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: So-zo.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And unaware of life, unaware of the power of Christ, unaware of the love of the Father, unaware that there's even a father who loves and cares.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: So, of course, they're going to try to preserve their life.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: You start to see this, you get the spirit of understanding, and you quit hating people and you start to pity people.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: You start to care.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Instead of wish evil upon them.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Because all they are is just Adam feeling naked and alone and ashamed, and are trying to fix that and trying to deal with that.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's mean.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: But mean is okay if it means I preserved me.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: If I save me, it's okay.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Whatever means necessary.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what's happening in the world.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Peace comes on earth when we've been, our death has been swallowed up of life, and we see it, and we're tasting it, and we're feeling it, and we know about it, and we're experiencing it little by little, more and more, and we're watching the power of resurrection win for us over and over again.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Just to throw out a personal example.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Um I've been in ministry over 40 years, been a Christian a little longer than that, been a human even longer than that.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: And I have had what you get.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Especially, anyway, I've had betrayals, like many of you have.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: I've had persecutions, I've had lies told about me.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Um I've had you know hurts, people coming against me, and why were they doing it?
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Because it was a part of them preserving whatever they were trying to preserve.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: And I'm very thankful right now because when I look back on that, I think in every case I could remember, I chose to let God deal with that situation when I had many other options to fight back, and it looked like I could win against these people.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: But you know, why was it that it says that Jesus is like a sheep led to the slaughter?
31:55
SPEAKER_00: He answered them not again.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Why did he he not retaliate because he had already won and he was going to show that victory through the life that he already had?
32:07
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't going to get a life later, he already carried it.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: And I can honestly say that in every single situation, without me getting into a verbal war or a slander war or anything like that, it was only one-sided.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Every single time I've been vindicated in every situation, and in many of those relationships were restored in a beautiful way, because life always swallows up to death when I could have made a mess of things trying to sozo myself.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: He saved others.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: He can't even save himself, they said.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Israel's king, is he?
32:53
SPEAKER_00: But he should pull out the nails and come down from the cross right now, then we'll believe him, see.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: There's a temptation, right?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Just like the serpent, just like the like like the devil in the wilderness tempting him, promising him things, these earthly victories.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: They said, if, if, if he'd come down from the cross right now, if he just pulled those nails out and come down, then we'll believe him.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Could you see a temptation?
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Said, there it is, Jesus, there's your chance.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm gonna show them something better than this temporal victory I could win right here.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna defeat death in the sight of everybody.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let every human for thousands of years continue to look upon what I did to death.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Not just what I did to the scribes and Pharisees, not just what I do to the Romans, not just what I no, I'm gonna show them what I did to death itself, because I'm not here to cause them just to not fear the Pharisees and the scribes.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to set them free from the fear of death.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna show them they don't have to be scared of this stuff anymore.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Come down from the cross, then we'll believe.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: He puts his trust in God.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're saying he puts his trust in God, so let's see if it's true.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's see if God really wants to rescue him.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said, I am the Son of God.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, let's see, let's see.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You're all gonna believe me, but I'm not alone.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: He did not hang there alone.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: In fact, our Bible says God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 2.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: And I want to land in this area right here this morning.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad you're alive forever?
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad you've got the victory over every little thing and every big thing and even death itself?
34:45
SPEAKER_00: This is the victory in Christ.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: This is the power in the victory in the name of Jesus.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: This is the victory in having a father who gives a thought, who cares and loves you and is so close and wanted to be one with you.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And when I say one with you, I'm talking about being a part of who you really are inside, united with you, so that you would carry life, this life of eternal life, with you all the time, and you would could walk with God in that way.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: And he he loves you because it was for freedom that we were set free.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: He loves you, so he didn't want you to be afraid anymore.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: And there was only one way to do it, and that was to deliver us from that fear of death.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And this is what does it.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: He loves you, so he wanted you to have peace and joy every day, the fruit of the spirit abounding.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: It's all nothing but good stuff.
35:35
unknown: Why?
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Because he wants you to have that heavenly experience with him, even in a world of tribulation.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: And there is a truth to it, there is a way to have it.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: I've never figured out how to stop the tribulation.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: If I could, I would have.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: I was raised in a movement where a lot of us we were trying to use our faith to stop every little thing.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: I even tried to get my grass to grow two inches and stop.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Dominion, praise God.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how much I wanted to make my life what I wanted it to be.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Now we live in a house that's got this big old oak tree that poisons everything.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Now we're hoping, trying to make grass grow and still can't do it.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 2, this is beautiful.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Since all of his children have flesh and blood, me and you, we have it.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus became human to fully identify with us.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: You think he doesn't know what it's like?
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Took on a body that could die, that could hunger, thirst, be tempted, have needs.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Know what it's like to be encased in weakness and the nakedness of flesh.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: He did this so that he could experience death and annihilate the effects of the intimidating accuser who holds against us the power of death.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say death, we see it here in overcoming even physical death itself, but we know that death has a taste and has a feel and has an effect, and we can feel it even in our day-to-day living.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: We know what it feels like oppression.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Orphan-like, alone.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: It's stressful, it's worrisome, it's frustrating because of the futility of it.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 8 says this.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: It says, for creation itself was made subject to futility.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: In other words, she would keep trying to cover up her nakedness, but yet never never really feel covered, never feel safe.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Notice Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Was that enough?
38:10
SPEAKER_00: No.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: They go hide in the trees.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Nothing they do is enough.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: So people seek and they search.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: Humans are on the look for something.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: Creation's longing for the manifestation.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: The freedom.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: The love, the peace, the joy that comes from carrying an endless life.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Remember the old song, Dallas Holmesong, Mock My Name.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Drive the nails in my hands.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: He did this so he could experience death and annihilate the effects the effects of the intimidating accuser who holds against us the power of death.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: And by embracing death, go ahead, do it.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you have?
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Is this what caused the nations to fight and to war and to tremble?
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Is this what held men in captive captivity all this time?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Is this what men thought they all had to bow to?
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you something, people.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: Put it on me.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's have it.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: And I'll show you something stronger than that.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: And when he defeated it and 40 days later ascended to the Father, he says, now, here you go.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Here's that same thing.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I will pour it out on all flesh.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: By embracing death, Jesus sets free those who live their entire lives in bondage to the tormenting dread of death.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: See, when we see the grace, the graciousness of God, which is the expression of a loving and wonderful Father, and we see that really.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: See it clear, more clearly, which I'm doing.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: Just learning to see it.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing it clear more clear.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: Revelation's happening.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: His life is taking the ascendancy, and what's he doing?
40:26
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus said the Spirit would He would glorify me.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Who is He?
40:31
SPEAKER_00: That's Christ in you.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: It's glorifying this life that's inside you, Him.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: But as we see this, and the more we see it, what's happening?
40:42
SPEAKER_00: That shame.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: How many know what I'm talking about?
40:44
SPEAKER_00: You notice the shame of your nakedness starts to diminish more and more and more.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: And that work of righteousness that Isaiah talked about, the work of righteousness would be peace.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Not fear, not dread.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Peace in the midst of all this horrible.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: The work of righteousness would be peace.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: And the effect of righteousness would be confidence and assurance.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Always, perpetually, forever.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love this victory.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: I love this life.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: I love Christ in you and I.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: I love what God has given.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: I love the gift of salvation.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: We're not orphans.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: We're not alone.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
41:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for you.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: We're not orphans.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: We're not alone.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: They're all going to leave me tonight.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not alone.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'll have a joy that's set before me.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: Because a stone's going to roll away.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: You'll see.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: Just hang around for three days.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: You'll see.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: And that resurrection, what I'm going to show you, that's going to speak to you every day the rest of your existence.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: That I'm with you.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: And you need not be afraid.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: As I'm not alone, you won't be alone.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: And you're not alone.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: You're not orphans.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: This is why that life, that spirit inside you, is having a reality that causes you to look up and say, Abba, Father, Daddy, you truly are my father.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: And as you are, so are we in this world.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: For the same spirit is a part of who we are.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, weak flesh.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Jesus showed us some weak flesh.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: This is him?
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Galilean, carpenter's son?
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Those who opposed him were going to prove it to everybody.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Those who thought he was something, they were going to prove it to those guys that this Jesus you follow and believe in, I'm going to show you he's just a weak flesh.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, try it.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm going to show them something else.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: And so that's when Paul says, Now, with that message, where's the scribe?
43:24
SPEAKER_00: Where's the wisdom of?
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Where's the wise ones in this world?
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Where are they at now?
43:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, kind of like the guy that the people that write books every once in a while that the world's going to end in this year or something, and then you never hear a peep again.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's saying.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Where's the scribe?
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Where's the wise ones that thought they knew something?
43:41
SPEAKER_00: After the resurrection, how come they're not talking now?
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Because life got the last word, and it's going to get it in your life and in your situation that you're dealing with right now.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Life gets the last word in this.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not alone.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: You're not by yourself.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: It's not on you.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to cover yourself.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: You're not naked.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: You're not alone.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: You're covered.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: You're loved and you're cared for.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your unspeakable gift.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for who you are.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, that you have caused us to see to you and to know you.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And we give you thanks from the bottom of our heart.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that everyone within the sound of my voice in this house and those watching online, I thank you, Father, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to cause us to know and be aware when we wake up in the morning.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: To the laying down of our head on the pillow.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: That we are not alone, and the life of God abides within them.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you, Father, for this reality and eyes to see and ears to hear.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: And that beautiful awareness that puts a smile on our face, a spring in our step, and the joy of the Lord upon our heads.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that it's given to these.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.