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Transcript

The Vision · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this morning I we got something called titled the vision.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Where are we going with that?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: We can do a lot of things.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: What is Rick going to talk about a vision that he had or a vision he heard somebody else had?
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Or you know, we talk about, you know, we have a vision for our business, for our church, maybe for our family.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: The word of God says where there is no vision, the people perish.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Some versions I've read will say where there is no heavenly vision, the people perish.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we talk about people having a vision, a goal, a purpose, know where they're going.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: But this morning, we're going to talk about somebody else that has a vision, and we call him God.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And he has a vision.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And it's a glorious, powerful thing that I want us to look at this morning.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: So let's get right into this.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I want to start off in Habakkuk chapter 2, in verse 2.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: And the writer says that the Lord answered me and he said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, so that he may run who reads it.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: For the vision, verse 3, is yet for an appointed time.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: So he's uh God's talking about this vision, this particular vision, he says, make it plain.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: We want people to know what it is, so that people can know what it is and they can go straight for it.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: And he says, that it is for it is for an appointed time, and it will speak, and it will not lie.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's going to happen.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: He says, and though it tarries, if it waits, if it looks like it's it's you know not happening, he says, just continue to look for it, wait for it, because it will surely come.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: It will not tarry, it will come.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So whatever God's vision is, it's happening.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Right?
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's gonna stop it.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna stop it.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: My weakness is not gonna stop it, and my greatness is not going to make it happen.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: God's vision is bigger than every any any individual.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And he says, it's going to happen.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's no country, no nation on earth that's gonna stop this.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: There's no political party that's gonna stop it.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: There's no forces, there's no forces for the church or against the church or whatever.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: It is not going to stop God's vision from happening.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: It will not lie, and it will surely come.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And that vision is stated very clearly in verse 14 of the same chapter.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And it's repeated also, we see it in Numbers chapter 14, verse 21, almost the exact same words.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: But he says, But as truly as I live, says the Lord.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: You believe God's alive?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: As truly as I'm alive, says the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: There's a vision.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: God says, it's going to happen.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Now think of that.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is beautiful.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: We can put it on our refrigerators, we put it on our dashboards of our car and all that.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful poetry.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: It's a great, a nice little thought to think about.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: It'll put a smile on your face, but stop for just a moment and think about that.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Think about the reality of that.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think a lot of the church really expects that.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people have a theology that it's just going to get worse and worse instead of better and better.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Or they might see that this is something possible, but they just can't see how it could ever happen, and it seems so remote.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: So apparently there's got to be some cataclysmic event that just completely changes everything and and and uh and uh you know does a whole 180 or something, and then somehow that's going to happen, but it's it can't be in the present, the way that things are going now.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna I'm going to disprove that.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to show you that not only will it happen, but it's happening right now.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: As truly as God lives, all the earth, think of that, will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Now think of this.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: When I think of that, I I look at a picture, you know, when you when you see a picture of the earth from space, like people that have been to the moon, and you can see the whole earth from space, or maybe uh uh, you know, uh uh one of the satellites the uh telescopes they have up there, whatever, but you see this beautiful, this planet's beautiful, isn't it?
4:51
SPEAKER_00: It's this beautiful blue, mostly blue planet, and it just it doesn't look like any other planets that we've seen so far with our technology.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Most of them are big rocks, they look like.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: But this one's got this, this one's just so beautiful.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: And if I were from another planet and I were cruising by, I would like, wow, I want to check that, I want to be there.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: I want to go down there and look at that.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Because it's this beautiful planet, and it's interesting, I get this feeling every single time I see that shot as I look at how beautiful, it looks so peaceful.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: It looks exquisite.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: But then I remember as you know, that on the surface of that planet, there's there's there's war, there's violence, there's bloodshed, there's killing, there's there's anger, there's hatred, there's all these things that are going on, and something that looks so beautiful and so peaceful.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: And we know that the reason that it's going on there is because at the heart of the human condition is the condition of the human heart.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And and the things that that are that are being that are being carried in the hearts of humans are bringing about all of these things.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And it's been bringing it about ever since we made a choice to go with the flesh in the Garden of Eden.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: It's been happening ever since.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And we had those two choices.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: We had one, we could go with the Spirit, which is God.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: We can go with the other way, the flesh, which brings brings death.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's why God said, Oh, Adam, you ate of that tree.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: You chose that.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: He says, It's gonna be hard for you now.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And we see the first thing that happened was they were afraid and they hid themselves.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: And really, the root of all these things that we see that that look so horrible and so ugly, it has a root to it.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we're we're we're we're we're we're we're hoping and praying and fighting against a lot of the manifestations that are going on, but God knows what to do about the root of this thing.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And he's certainly done it in me, and he's done it in many of you, and he's doing it in ever-increasing measure because his vision is coming to pass.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in 1 John that the world is passing away and all the lust of it, but he who does the will of God believes in him, abides forever.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: There's something decreasing and something increasing.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe it, maybe you're paying more attention to the news than you are truth.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 11 again gives us more of this, and he says, and then the seventh angel sounded.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: There's the vision.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: There's the vision.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: How's it gonna happen?
7:41
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus prayed or taught his disciples to pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: We can rejoice even when we lose loved ones because we know heaven is wonderful and awesome and great and perfect, and no pain and no sorrow, no, you know, no hate, no.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, Here's the will, here's the vision, if you will, on earth, just like it is in heaven, that there would be no difference.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: It seems so hard for people to conceive in their minds, but something happens to us as the Holy Spirit is opening our eyes and revealing something to us.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm telling you this this morning because I can see it so clear.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: And it and it causes it, it seems it causes my inner uh heart to beat, and it's just it's it's become what I'm all about because I see it.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: I can look at the planet and I caught the vision.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: I've caught the vision and I know it's happening now, and I've because it's happening to me right now.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Something has been changing in me.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Something is that God's been doing that's been causing my fear to decrease.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: And by causing the fear to decrease, the tension, the anger, the the stress, the all those things are also decreasing.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Every bad thing that that mankind grapples with internally is decreasing because the world is passing away and all the lust of it.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: That he that does the will of God is abiding forever.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: On earth as it is in heaven.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, just to show you something, you know, Isaiah chapter 9 says that the government will be upon his shoulders, talking about the coming of Jesus.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: He says, and of the increase, somebody say increase.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Of the increase of his government and of peace.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: That means it was only going to increase more and more and more when Jesus came and established his kingdom and did his thing.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: This thing was only going to increase.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: And if you look, we see that it has increased numerically.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: If we look and see what's going on now, we can see that that it has increased.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Something's happening now as far as this whole revelation of grace that's going on.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, historically, individuals have seen these things.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: But there's never been a generation that's where this is happening all over the world, where something is happening in the world, where we're finding our place of rest in God and seeing that amazing grace in a way that allows us to just enjoy God finely and let life happen to us.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't the end of that thing, because what that then opens you up to is it opens you up to receiving a love that we that that our mind cannot fathom, and a love that's totally without any conditions, without any limitations, without without any any caveats, anything, a love that just goes beyond all the borders of our mind, and it opens us up to be able to receive something like that, and it's healing hearts and dysfunctions.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Something is happening, it's increasing.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: We're getting revelation that's going beyond a lot of the surface things that we've dealt with.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, just in my Christian lifetime, and uh in two months I'll celebrate 40 years of pulpit ministry.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Wow, how did that happen?
11:10
SPEAKER_00: It was, you know, people used to always call me young man in church, and something changed.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And I don't, and I and you forget.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I do.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: In my brain, I'm still 29 or something like that.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And I and I I still, it's a little shocking when I'm at a store and some young person says, uh, can I help you, sir?
11:31
SPEAKER_00: They call me sir.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, uh yeah, I'm older than you.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but all this is this is happening to us, and it's opening us to this love.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: And then that opening up to that love, it's changing us, and we're becoming part of that vision.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Because goodness is happening.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Let me just show you some statistics here, and and I'll read them from the screen because I don't know if if everybody that's sitting back there can can read it.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: But this is to show you the increase of his government and of peace, that it's actually manifesting, and just to show you that it's not necessarily getting worse and worse and worse.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Maybe things are even getting better than you think.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Just a just a few stats, and you could you could go search this stuff out, and you can find so many more than this.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: But but just one poverty has been declining for 200 years, the world poverty rate.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you listen to certain things, you'd be convinced that it's getting worse and worse and worse.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: But actual uh numbers will tell you that it's been going down for 200 years.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Every day, 200,000 people are lifted above the poverty line.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Not every week.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: That means today, somewhere today on the earth, there will be 200,000 people whose income rises above the poverty line.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow there will be another 200,000.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: It's going that direction, not the other way.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Every day, over 300,000 people get electricity and clean water for the very first time.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Today that's going to happen.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow there'll be 300,000 more.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: It's going that direction, not the other direction.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: In 100 years, the U.S.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: life expectancy has gone from 47 to 79 years.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: It's going that direction, not the other.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Death by war has been declining since 1946.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Now there have been spikes.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: We've had wars and stuff like that, but the overall trend is there are there's less death by war now than there was before.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing people tell me we're the most violent time there's ever been.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: This is the most horrible time.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: This is the most, you know, uh the number of violent deaths has down 35% since the Middle Ages.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: That's a big number.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: If you look all through history, you'll see this this reflects a trend away from barbarism, away from so many things that once were normal.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: We forget where we've come from.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, other things that have become nearly nonexistent.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Human sacrifice.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: It was widespread.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Religions believed in it.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh slavery.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh I read one statistic in this where it was like just some years ago, there were like a hundred and something nations that that had legalized slavery in the whole world, and now there are three.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: It's going that way.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Of the increase of his government and of the increase of peace, there will be no end.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh lynching, of course, something like that.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Almost non-existent now, where it was once more prevalent.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Rape and domestic abuse rates are falling.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Something, something is, things are manifesting in that direction just to show you that it doesn't necessarily have to go worse and worse.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of times, see, we're we're exposed to so much information now that you get a different picture.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And the picture's always going to be something ugly, right?
14:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's horrible when we hear about a minister who who you know falls into you know sexual immorality or or doing something immoral and just like, ah, you know, what's good, what's wrong with the church these days?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: It seems like all the preachers are like that.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a very few in comparison, but but the rest of them aren't going to make the news.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, tomorrow you're not gonna read, well, in the news today, Rick Manus was faithful to his wife and he didn't steal any money.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, that doesn't make the news, but it gets attention.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: But there are a lot of things going on.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Just wanted to show you that, just to show you that it doesn't necessarily have to get worse and worse.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh something is happening.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: When God planted his kingdom through Jesus in the earth today, he planted that kingdom.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, here's something about the kingdom of heaven.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven is like putting putting a little bit of yeast in three three lumps of dough here.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: He says, it's just going to keep going until the whole thing gets yeasted.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: He said, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I'll plant that thing in the earth, and he planted it in one man.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: It was Jesus, and he was the seed.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: And then on the day of Pentecost back then, it went to 120 of them.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: One seed became 120, and then just a couple hours later it came 3,000, and it's been increasing ever since.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Numerically and in depth and identity and in knowledge of the glory of God.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: I know it's happening because it's happening to me.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
16:26
SPEAKER_00: We are growing in the knowledge of the glory of God.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And God was saying that.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: God said, it's going to happen.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And he said, and it's not going to stop until the whole earth is covered with it.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: That excites me.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you some good news.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: I've said this before up here, but but but we are not on the precipice of losing the things of God on planet earth.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's going to stop this.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what things that are getting knocked down maybe needed to get knocked down, some things that we were clinging to.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: But there's a revelation of God, and the world is being set up right now to really uh they're not looking for religion, and neither are we.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: But there's a reality of God that's doing something in the hearts of people that is very genuine, very real, and it's very lasting and very personal.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And a world that says, looks at you Christians and says, I don't want to be like you, they'll see this goodness of God.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: They'll see this goodness of God.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of this.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: How has that ever happened?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me show you how it uh how it all went catty wampus in the first place.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: We chose it in the Garden of Eden.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Let me go ahead and show you Yoda.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I know, I hope you're not offended by the ugly picture of this guy.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: But he he makes this statement that I just feel it's so kingdom, uh, but it's but it's but it's so truthful.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Fear leads to anger.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, fear is the path to the dark side.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we see what we see in the world.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that happened when we chose carnality in the Garden of Eden was we were afraid, we were ashamed and afraid, and we veiled ourselves, hid ourselves from God.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: We were afraid.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Now think of this.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Look what happens immediately.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Before this happens, God brings a wife to, makes a wife for Adam, and Adam looks at her and he's like, he sees them as one, clinging to her.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: He's like, You are flesh of my flesh and you're bone of my bone.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: But then after the fear thing comes in, and then it's like, Adam, why did you eat of that tree?
18:42
SPEAKER_00: He looks at the one that he thought he once called her flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Now she's separated.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't do it, she did it.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: The woman you gave me.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Now they're not one anymore, see?
18:53
SPEAKER_00: So the fear has already started the separation.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: The fear has already started that one against the other going.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Then, of course, the woman did what the church has been doing ever since, just blaming the devil for it.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, poor devil turns and there's nobody else to blame, but but but all that happened.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: See, if we look at the root of this thing, you see what God had to fix.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: So he so he sent his word to heal us, comes to die on the cross, put his nature in us, and his nature is absolute love, that love that is changing my heart and changing yours.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Because there's only one thing that casts out fear.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: There's only one thing that beats this.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: There is no other way.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: There is zero, there is no other way.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: There's only one thing that casts out fear, and that is that perfect love that we're seeing, that we're tasting, that's changing us, that we're partaking of.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing that does it.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, I tried it, I tried it just by denying fear.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Fear, I come against you.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Fear, I cast you out.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Fear, stop it.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Fear, I speak against you, fear, uh, you know, and and and and none of that worked for decades.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: The word of God's goodness and his grace brought me to a place where I could accept a love that I didn't even know existed, didn't even know that's what I needed.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And the fear started leaving.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: I really started changing.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I fell in love with God.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, totally fell in love with the person of God for the first time, and I was absolutely convinced that He loved me implicitly, totally.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: I knew it.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And what surprised me was I started realizing that I'm loving people now that used to just and I can't help it.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's and it's almost to a place where it's like people are like, how can you put up with those people?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't help it.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: I like them, you know.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, don't you know they do this, that?
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know all of that stuff, but I just really like them.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just and what's going on here?
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Something changing us that's bigger than us, because God's got a vision, and something bigger than you and I are happening, something bigger than the whole church world, something bigger than the world, something bigger than anything that would oppose this, it's happening and it's not going to stop.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And if the and if the perfect love is happening, if that's what's being revealed to us, this is so exciting that we get to taste it, see it happening to us.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: That it's driving out the fear.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And when it drives out the fear, then where did that hate go?
21:36
SPEAKER_00: You've realized I I just don't have that much hate anymore.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: I got Christian brothers and sisters, they're they're they're like, join us and take a stand on this.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, but I just don't have that much hate.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, you know.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: People, well, Rick, you got to stand for something.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You gotta take a stand sometimes.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, maybe I'm taking a stand for the vision.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're taking a stand for.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: God's vision.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're taking a stand for love.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're maybe we're taking a stand for the only thing that's really going to work while we're trying to knock out the fruit of this manifestation and that manifestation of evil and darkness and all that.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: God's got a vision.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: God knew what the whole problem and the fix was in the beginning, and he gave it.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: It is done.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: It was Jesus, and we look for no other.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not just recruiting more people into church necessarily.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a nature, a kingdom, nature of God that was planted.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: If you look at it just for a moment, if you give it a chance, you can see it doing just what Jesus said it would do, just what the Father said it would do, that it would spread.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Perfect love would cast out fear.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: Finally, I want to look at a familiar passage in 1 Corinthians 13.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at it from the Passion translation, that version.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: But the way it says it gives the, lays the vision out so well.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, love never stops loving.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Please, please, please take some time with this.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Love never stops loving.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of us struggle with it still.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're like, I know that's right, Rick, but you know, just these things go.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: I I know.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: But it's not stopping.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: It's going to continue to roll.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: It's going to continue to speak to us.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: It's going to continue to help us.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: It's going to change us.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And by changing us, it's not that he's just trying to make us make other people's lives better.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It's making our lives so much better.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: So that when Jesus talked about the tribulation that's in this world, he said, there's trouble, there's tribulation in this world, but in me there's peace.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: So be of good cheer.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: I've overcome that.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: How did he overcome that?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: He gave us something that supersedes that.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: It's so much bigger.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: If you can catch this, if you can see this and you can look at the vision that God has for the world and look at things from a God's eye view.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: The perspective gets right.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And though problems are real, and though they can hurt and be painful, believe me, I know that.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: But in perspective, proper godly perspective, eternal perspective, spiritual perspective, which is what he's given us, it is so small compared to the eternal God, who we will be with forever and we are with now, whether in the body or out of it.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: And the forces that people are scared of in this world look so, so small compared to God, that just as it was impossible for the grave to hold Jesus because it just wasn't strong enough, it's impossible for anything, anybody, to stop this from happening.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
25:01
SPEAKER_00: His nature.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: This is how he's doing it.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: This is how he's doing it.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: This is what we look to.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: There are many things we can do, there are many things we can say, there are many gifts that we can operate in and all that, but let me show you the most excellent way.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Love never stops loving, verse 8.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: It's more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Love remains long after words of knowledge have been forgotten.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Our present knowledge and our prophecies are only partial.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: But when oh, you see the beauty of this?
25:43
SPEAKER_00: When love's perfection arrives, that's when the partial fades away.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: I have been so blessed by the ministry of the gifts of the Spirit.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: I've been so blessed by a prophetic word in season where I felt like I'm just going down the toilet, and then a word from the Lord be spoken to someone, and it would encourage me.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, ah, I can live another day.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: The gifts are powerful and important to us, but they're there to help us, to lead us to something that God's got that is so perfect that after a while you walk so so so enthralled and engrossed in the reality of this fullness of God's love for you and fullness of life that He's given you, that you don't need an encouragement as much as you used to, because the more perfect is coming, the more perfect is rising in you.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: When love's perfection arrives, the partial will fade away.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: When I was a child, not as mature, I spoke about childish matters.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: For I saw things like a child and I reasoned like a child, for the day came when I matured and I set aside my childish ways.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: What I'm thinking right now is there there are so many, so many things that that maybe are not bad things at all, maybe they're good.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: But if we can see clearly, we'll see that when it's all said and done, there is nothing else that remains.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: It is this love that put Jesus on the cross that was given to us, and it's the only thing that doesn't fail.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: If I'm struggling.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: God will help me.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: God's not mad at me if it's hard for me to get things right here.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: But he's leading me and guiding me and encouraging me into the way that his nature operates because that's when I experience freedom.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: That's when I experience bigness.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: That's when I experience fullness of joy.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: There is no other.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: What do we mean God's glory will cover the earth?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Do we mean some shining bright aura will visit be what are we talking about?
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, it looks look it's like this.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Moses was standing was sitting there talking to God, and there's a pillar of cloud right there in front of him at the door to that tabernacle, and it's not enough.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Because God says, Lord, show me your glory.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us, if we saw the cloud, we'd say, That's the glory.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't enough.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: He said, I need more than a cloud, I need more than this manifestation.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Okay, I'm gonna cause all of my goodness to pass before you, and that's what's happening right now.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: His glory, his honor, his splendor, is his goodness.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: I've had meetings where the whole this literally has happened.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: I sought it, I prayed for these kind of manifestations back in the day.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: I would read about where Solomon would, when he sacrificed and have that dedicated the temple where the priest could not stand to minister for because of the glory, and I'd see, you know, manifestations in meetings, and I think I want that and I want it strong, and I would pray and I would fast and I would do whatever.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: And there was a time I looked up, I looked up, and every single soul was laying on the floor.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Yes, powerful.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: But compared to the goodness I see, that is so partial compared to the reality of what we're hearing today.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 says, Because now what we're seeing is but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries, as though reflected in a mirror.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: But one day we'll see face to face.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: My understanding is not complete now, but one day I will understand.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: See, this is happening.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: It will be.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: But I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Until then, there are three things that remain faith, hope, and love.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: But love surpasses them all.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up with me?
30:26
SPEAKER_00: A vision.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, if you will, a world where one at a time, starting with me, starting with you, hearts are being made well.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Fear is declining.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Things that once caused us to react out of that fear, it doesn't happen anymore because this thing's increasing.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: We're teaching it, we're transferring it, we're we're showing it.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, This is how they're going to know.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: We're not distracted by the decoys.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Our eyes are on the vision, so we can run with this.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: If anybody there says, Rick, love is great, love is love is good, love is cute, but come on.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Then we're thinking of two different things.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Because if we think love is good, but we also need this, that, and the other, then we're thinking of man's kind of love, which is not nearly enough.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: But if we're talking about a perfect love, if we're talking about a love that held God on the cross, if we're talking about a love that has done and given everything that he's given for us, with no, with without upbraiding, without shaming any of us, without blaming any of us, and taking everything upon himself, and that kind of love that says, I am, I am dedicated to you for the all of eternity.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: I am not only dedicated to you individually, I am dedicated to this planet for God so loved the world.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a love that's bigger than all the artillery, than all the philosophies and different things and ideas of men.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a love that's bigger than that, then what else do we need?
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Paul, you know, people lost their minds last year, this COVID thing.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: It happened, it surprised me, but it did.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And I remember talking with some people, and we said, why is it that even Christian brothers and sisters are falling apart in this time?
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, there was so much going on, there were so many things, but it's kind of like when Peter wrote his letter to the church and they were going through all these hard times, and he said, and everything you do says, see to it.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Above all things, see to it that you love.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't speak this as a command at all, because a command won't empower us to do it at all.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: The message is not now go out and try loving everybody.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the message is.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: The message is love is happening, let's rejoice in it.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: The message is love is happening and it's increasing in us.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Let's enjoy this, let's acknowledge it.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: The message is God's got a vision of covering this earth with it.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: And can you see that if this stuff starts to happen more and more, as it surely will, that more fear declines.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, more hatred and more suffering declines.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I can see an end of war.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I can see humanity in love.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I can see it so easily now.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Because we can see God this morning.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Father, what can we say?
34:35
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for loving us.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your goodness.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we can celebrate that every single day of our life.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that it's changing us day by day.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: We're in a good place, the best place we can be.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: So we thank you in the name of our Savior Jesus.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.