Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Giving of a Gift

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The Giving of a Gift · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 9 is there's it's one verse there that I want to start off with, and this is um this is one I I love this verse.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We see it on Christmas cards often, um, and it's a prophecy about the birth of Jesus.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'll if you don't know what it says without even looking, you will as soon as you see it, you'll recognize it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look at that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Christmas cards, have you noticed that in this season, with all the the messages on the cards, with all the songs, all the music, all the sayings and and and uh phrases and verses that are, you know, uh plastered around and hung in the cities and in homes and in businesses, then in all the things that are said in this season, everything is extolling, speaking of the how what God has done, how good what he has done is to us and for us.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um it commemorates and celebrates that unto us a son was given, that Jesus came and he came to save us, and it it it it points us to him and what he's done.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And none of those things, none of the Christmas cards, the songs, the the phrases that we that we see uh all around us, none of them are pointed at us.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: None of them uh are making demands of us, none of them are asking us to do anything.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's they're all simply reminding us of the one who has done everything.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh tonight I want us, I want to I want us to look more at what, how everything that that that that that really is.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 9, the prophecy announcement in verse 6 says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, his name shall be called wonderful.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in this time, uh when you look at, you know, the you read in the Old Testament, there's there's a lot of, you know, there are times when you'll read about there's there's judgment that that happens there.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's there's a lot of there's there's fear, there's, you know, they struggled with with doubts, they struggled with uh obeying God, responding to God.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: They and honestly, they struggled with really understanding this God.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when we get over into the New Testament, announcing uh the beginning of the gospel of Jesus uh in the book of John chapter one, it says, No man had seen God at any time, but the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him to us.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He has revealed him to us.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that there again, that's one of the wonderful things about Jesus, is that in him that God is revealed to us, that we can we can we can know God, not just know about him, as many people in the Old Testament knew do things about him, but we can we we can know him, he'd be declared to us.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in because he's declared to us, then we would know him in a way that people did not know him before.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: One of these is his name shall be called.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is saying, what God does as as he, when this child is born, when this son is given to us, it's going to cause us to call him wonderful.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because of all his grace, because he's going to do what we could not do.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 says, what we couldn't, what the law couldn't do because our flesh was weak, God did for us.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and fulfilled all the requirements, he said, so the all the righteous requirement of the law, because of what he did would be fulfilled in us.
• 4:01
  unknown: Wow.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So there again, you look at the requirement of the law and you look at what um you know what comes about because of the fulfillment of the law, which nobody did until Jesus came, but it was such abundant blessing in every kind of way.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the unfulfillment of the law, which is what everybody did do until Jesus came, was a lot of heartache, a lot of sorrow, and a lot of pain.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus came and fulfilled that.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So right there, there's one thing that that we look at, we say, wow, he is absolutely wonderful, totally gracious.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we read this New Testament, there's a there's a there's a different tone because of the revelation, because of the knowing more that has been revealed to these writers by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um these they write these beautiful, wonderful things of God.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: They said, For the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we beheld the exceeding brightness of his glory, full of grace and and full of truth.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in John chapter, oh, I want to stay right here just for a moment.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: He shall be called wonderful.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: He shall be called counselor.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we look at this, I want us to, as we're as we're seeing this, we um look at it this way.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said that there was a mystery or a secret that was hidden, it was covered, it was veiled.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he said that that mystery or secret was Christ in you, the hope of glory.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but it's now revealed through Christ.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So there was all there was this mystery, there was a promise that the prophets would talk about, that the Father would talk about.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We'd get glimpses, we'd get hints of it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: He'd say, I'm gonna make a new covenant with you.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put my laws and in your heart and in your mind.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will be your God, you'll be my people.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: You won't have to tell everybody, know the Lord, know the Lord, because you're all gonna know me from the greatest to the least, because I'm gonna be merciful to your transgressions, your sins and iniquities.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll remember no more.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: His name shall be called Emmanuel, not just God for us, but God with us.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was this promise, this hope of glory.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3 told us that that it was the blessing of Abraham that would come upon us, which is the promise of the Spirit, that God would put His Spirit in us.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: It would come to pass in these days, that He would pour His Spirit out upon all flesh.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so these things were spoken of, but but it wasn't seen.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't understood, I should say.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why when Jesus came as the package of that gift, as the as the package itself, uh they didn't recognize it because they didn't really understand what the gift was because it was covered.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Look at it like a like a gift that's gift-wrapped.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I was a when I was a kid, sometimes there might be something I hoped for for Christmas.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in my house, it wasn't like a lot of them nowadays, in my house, we didn't always get what we wanted.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got Christmas presents, but I didn't always get what I really, really wanted.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I remember maybe once or twice where that really happened, but I'd get some good stuff, you know.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I would hope, I have a hope that I'd get what I wanted.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe there was a box that looked like it could be that, and I, but I wouldn't know because it was veiled, it was covered, it was wrapped.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a mystery, it was a secret, but there was a hope.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so but I didn't, I wasn't, I wouldn't know until the appointed time, which for us was Christmas Day, uh, unless there were there were there were a couple of years where my parents would be dumb enough to leave me alone in the house sometimes, and I would, then I'd unveil a little bit, and you know, I'd first you think, I'm just gonna shake it.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna I'm just gonna just gonna lift it and see if it's heavy enough.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then then I then I'm gonna shake it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then, okay, I'm just gonna open a little corner here.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, no.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so then you you unwrap it and try to wrap it back up, and to this day I can't wrap a gift that looks looks like anything.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: But um my Christmas had some mixed emotions that went on sometimes because of how I was.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But but but it but but it was this gift, and it was this hope of glory or hope of glorification for us.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus and what he did, he was the unveiler.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: He he opened that, he unwrapped that gift for us.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: They said, we want to see the Father.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Look at me, you'll see the Father.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: He revealed the Father to us.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave that the gift, became the gift, and revealed the glory that was that was that was hidden in that gift.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about that gift uh in a little more of a way than we than we think of usually.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, unto us a son is given.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're really commemorating in this season is that Jesus was born.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was born as a baby and he laid in that manger as the as the Bible says.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that was the beginning of something, certainly not the end of something, right?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he grew and he came and he in his 30s he did a work and he shed his blood for the remission of our sins.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross as the final sacrifice for our sins.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: He tasted death for every man.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: He rose again and defeated death, and then he ascended to the Father.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in that working, what happened was that he became the gift, gave the gift, and unwrapped this gift once and for all.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that gift, which was our hope of glory, now became our glory, our glorification, as Romans says, those of us that he has justified by the sacrifice of the Son, he has also glorified.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so he did that.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he took, he shed his blood, and he died on the cross as for the remission and the sacrifice of sin.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um, there was more to it than that, because a lot of us, a lot of us we look at what Jesus means to us, and to a lot of us it means we got a ticket to heaven someday.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Which is wonderful, we do.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's wonderful to have that security and that peace knowing that because of what Jesus did, so we can celebrate that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he did more than just shed his blood and die.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: He uh rose from the dead, defeated the power of death, and but but even after he did that, he said, you know, I'm I I I gotta go to the Father.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in John 14, he but he was telling his friends before he uh died.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You know, it's better for you that I go away.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go away.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna be sad about it.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but it's better for you that I go, because if I don't go, then the comforter doesn't come.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Holy Spirit that he talked about, and he said, It's better for you that I go.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was a it was a whole work.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was the the forgiveness of sins needed to be done.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: That had to be done.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And what he did, look at this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is what's wonderful too, is that he took that whole sin, sin issue out of the way, putting it up on him, and Galatians 3 said nailed it to his cross.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now sin shall have no dominion over you.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be intimidated by it, you don't have to be condemned by it anymore.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's wonderful.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I call him wonderful just for that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: But but he but he he didn't he didn't just finish with that.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to live in us.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Though I go, I will come to you.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he said in John 14, he says, he says, the world doesn't know this comforter that I'm telling you about.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but you know him because he's been with you.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: But he's gonna be in you.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was him, the Spirit.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now there's Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and but we understand they're the same God that just manifests in different ways.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was God that manifested the Father in certain ways.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the physical incarnation of that, and the Spirit is God dwelling in us.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just God, there's only one God.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and and so Jesus did that work because the gift I want to look at tonight is the gift that truly keeps on giving all year round, day after day, moment by moment.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's the gift of God with us, God in us, God one with us.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in that we call him, this second word, counselor, because Jesus would talk about him.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: The comforter, he will lead you, he will guide you, he will reveal truth to you.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you won't have to worry about what you're going to say in situations because he will tell you.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: He will take what's mine, he said, and he will tell it to you.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He'll comfort you, he'll speak to you.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah said, There'll be a voice talking about this gift.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be a voice in your ear saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, whether to go to the left or to the right.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have a guide, you'll have a leader, you'll have a counselor.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I put the two words together and I call him wonderful counselor.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I had never, I've always known this was in the Bible.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that was part of who he was, but but a number of years ago when my lovely first wife died of cancer, this is when I started calling him personally my wonderful counselor.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because my world was rocked and shocked, and I needed help.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I needed a counselor.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I had one.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: I had one, and he was wonderful.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I can testify to you that that that counselor that I went to, I had one.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, see, I knew beforehand that I had him to go to, to speak to, that he was with me always.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have to go find one.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I did, and for me personally, I didn't even have to go hire one.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now everybody's in different places, and and and if you need to seek counsel from from people that'll help you, I'm not against that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we all um can benefit from what other people tell us uh many times.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: But in that instance, I knew him as I knew him, and I knew that he knew how to guide me through this.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he could lead me through.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he could tell me what I needed to know.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he knew how to comfort me in my grief.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he did.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he really, really did, and he did it in such a wonderful, wonderful way that it shocked everybody around me.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he was a wonderful counselor.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we've dealt with people since then.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with somebody that's in the same situation as has lost his wife, also to cancer at a very relatively young age.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh even and he's a good man and believes in Jesus, going to heaven and all that, but he doesn't he doesn't know him that way.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he he feels helpless, he feels alone, he feels hopeless.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: He he totally says with his own, he says, I feel lost.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so and it's sad, but it doesn't have to be like that because we've got a counselor, we've got somebody that knows, we've got somebody that cares, we've got somebody that loves us every minute of every day, knows the best for us, and he knows how to get the best to us.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is a gift that we carry every single day.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And even though there's tribulation in the world, Jesus said there is, but he says, but be of good cheer.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good life, have a good time because I've overcome all of that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I've had hurt and I've had grief, and we all have in certain ways, and some in harsher ways than others, but life is hard sometimes out there.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said there's tribulation, but you can be of good cheer.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've given you something.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've overcome that world.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the way he overcomes it with is with the gift of him with us in us, who is the gift of the Spirit, who manifests in love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, perseverance, faithfulness, self-control.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I call him wonderful.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know him as my counselor.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you will never be without one.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: In all of your times when you're confused, when you don't know what to do, please remember you've got a counselor.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You've got someone who cares and someone who knows.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is a gift to have in life.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because before I knew him, and and really before I knew him this way, often I felt alone and hapless and helpless.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I will not leave you orphans.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I won't leave you comfortless.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: That word is orphans or fatherless.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you alone, I won't leave you hapless, hopeless, helpless.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I will give you a comforter.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it says another comforter.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like me.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's been with you, but he's going to be in you.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He said, I won't leave you without help.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have a gift.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I celebrate the gift that he's alive today.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: He was given to us, he gave himself to us, and he gave us the gift of life.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a part of abundant living, is that we always have him who is wonderful, we always have him who is our counselor.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: He shall be called.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: They will call him when that son is given.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: They'll call him the mighty God.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be testimonies.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be saying, God is mighty, God is powerful.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the world hit me with something strong, but God was bigger, God was stronger, the mighty God.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: They'll call him the everlasting father.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not just that he's gonna live a long time, that God's gonna live forever.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Always, always did live and always will.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: But he's that word is perpetual.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: He will, he will always be your father, a perpetual father.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You will never be fatherless, you will never be not cared for.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's very important to me because I had, you know, if you ever knew, if you know my story about it, I I lived fatherless in my life for quite a few years.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the one who's wonderful, he became not only to me anyway, he became not only a heavenly father that we call him, but he came like a became like a natural father.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I began to be aware that he was there, that there'd be those those times he would say, he would say, son, do it this way.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Son, I got this.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I like what we see here.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is God.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I will be handling all your problems today.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will not need your help.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So have a good day.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what Jesus said.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's tribulations there.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are problems out there, but be of good cheer.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good day.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've overcome that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be handling all that.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's so true.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we grow in the knowledge of this.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: We become more confident in him in our lives.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: We become more trusting, and that's just a good thing.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it gets better and better, but he's an everlasting father.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: You get, you know, Isaiah said that this work of righteousness that we have, this salvation we have, he said, but he said the work of righteousness would be peace.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the effect of righteousness would be confidence and assurance forever.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing him, having this gift is what gave this guy who was once a young man with a severe inferiority complex a feeling of confidence and assurance, and none of it is in confidence and assurance of me.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can boast in my weaknesses because somebody has got me.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody cares.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody will always be with you.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: He'll be called the Prince of Peace.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You'll always have that.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um go with me to John 14.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you more about this gift.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest things that I want to look at here, that can cause celebration in your heart, that can give such confidence and assurance, is knowing that you have this counselor, this this one who cares, this voice that will speak in your ear, saying, This is the way, walk in it, whether to go to the left or to the right.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes, even if I miss the turn, he says, That's okay, we'll still make it turn out okay.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that about him, that he's bigger than all of our weaknesses, he's bigger than our mistakes.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's just good.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the more we learn of him, the more we find this out.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus said, He says, All you guys that have been working hard at this, you're heavy laden and you're burdened, come to me, I'll give you rest.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Come and learn of me.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, he said, because I'm meek and I'm humble.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll find rest for your souls.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: We find out this wonderful counselor is mighty, he's strong, but he's very gentle and he's very patient, isn't he?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I hear, there's a lot of things I hear people talking about other facets of God, and and and I don't know about a lot of that, but all I know is this one that I've come to know and am coming to know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know him in some of the ways that people describe him.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like if somebody were to tell me, yeah, Brett seems like a nice guy, but boy, there's another side, he is a horrible, you know.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't know him that way.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: The one I know is just, you know.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like that with God.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people try to tell, oh, yeah, but God is this and God will do that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, I haven't seen that.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's just been patient with me.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's been good to me.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's been so gentle to me when I haven't even been gentle on myself.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in all his gentleness and his goodness and his patience and his kindness, he was very powerful in his working.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: You relate to that?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: But he's given us what we have.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: We carry this gift, and it's it's the voice.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's the voice of the Spirit, which is the good and truthful leading and guiding of the Spirit.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something for us to to look upon and have confidence in because a maturity is knowing this.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts with knowing that God's good.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: I find that people that aren't convinced that God is good as revealed by the Spirit in the Word, they feel like they have a hard time finding the voice of God.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's many voices out there.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And many of that, there's many of them, many of them seem like bad voices, but many of them seem good.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and a lot of times they can seem even, you know, right.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a voice of the Spirit that gives us this confidence and this assurance, and it makes you feel good in your skin.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I remember about 20 years ago, I realized when there was a real need for people to understand or at least recognize this gift, that we have the voice of God living in our life, the word of God living in us.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said it this way.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody who cares and wants to lead and guide us.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: About 20 years ago, there was this thing that it started off in the world, and the technical people brought it up.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: There was going to be this problem that they've just they they began to just call Y2K.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: All the computer issues that were going on, that were going to happen, or possibly could could happen because they weren't able to handle the the millennium calendar change.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh all this talk was going on, and I don't I didn't know anything about that.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't a technical genius or anything by any stretch of the imagination.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know computers much, and and but in my spirit, I just had such a peace that I just thought, I just I just kept I in my spirit, I just like, I don't I don't know if that I don't think so.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't know, so I didn't say much about it either way.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: But but then church, the church got a hold of the church world got a hold of this Y2K thing and made it even worse because then they started adding all this religious stuff to it and all this prophetic stuff and and brought in eschatology somehow into it, and the end of the world or the rapture or something was all tied up in this Y2K thing, and God was doing this and that and that, and it became a big church thing.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and everywhere I'd go and speak, I'd get cornered by people that were pushing this Y2K, and oh man, what a what a what a uh you know hard things are about to happen, and it's God doing this and that.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I didn't know, so I wouldn't say anything for a while, just kind of like, oh, really, you know, and but finally, you know, one guy had me cornered and he was telling me all this stuff, and and and you know, he'd heard, have you heard this teaching, and you need to you need to buy this book and you need to listen to this guy because he explains all this Y2K and what God's doing in it and what's about to happen in the world because of this and all that.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And while he's talking about it, I just finally, I just said, I said, Father, talking to God, I said, Father, is is any of this going to happen?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard so clear, just so sweetly, I just heard him say, no, son, it won't.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I stopped the guy and I said, just a second, I said, Did you ask God about any of this?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh no, well, no, but but but you know, God gives us wisdom, and so, so, you know, so we this is why we were buying all these generators and doing all this and all this, all this stuff, and I just thought, but you didn't ask God.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then it hit me, I thought, why don't we?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: All this stuff's going on because we've heard voices.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them made a lot of sense.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: But we had this counselor, this leader, this guide this whole time.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so after that, everybody that would start talking to me about it, I would always ask that question.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Did you ask God about it?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there, and I would realize that every single time they'd all say no.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of hit me funny.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, why not?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it even you know, even took me a while.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of felt in my spirit that I knew the answer, but I finally just asked him point blank, and I got a clear.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that was all I needed to know about it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know how all this stuff works, and they're saying, oh, you don't understand.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: See, computers are this, and they they have to do this, and they and I'm like, I don't know about that, but all I know is none of that's going to happen.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew that.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it came and you know, nothing happened.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it got, I mean, it was getting worse.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not only were our computers going to give us problems, but as it got bigger, I don't know if y'all remember this.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was everything.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your cars weren't gonna start, your lights, you wouldn't gonna have utilities, you were gonna, your spoon wouldn't work, so you couldn't eat your cereal.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything was just gonna be affected by this thing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And none of it did.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and I and I thought, and I saw how, and I saw over and over things like this would happen that a lot of us, and some of them were kind of well-known people seen as leaders in the body that were that would jump onto these things.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, Romans 8.14 says, those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, and that word is huyos, which means the grown-ups, the mature sons of God.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I thought, there is a need for people to remember what we have here.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are at we have an advantage.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me one time, they were on a on jury duty, and they said, they said, I'm I'm really nervous about it.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Rick said, said, you know, somebody's life is in my hands.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: How do I know I'm gonna make the right decision?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you of all people don't have to worry about that.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: You've got somebody that'll tell you.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You've got the Holy Spirit.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but there but see how people do.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: People have been so accustomed in the church to feeling alone, feeling like it's all on them, feeling like they're by theirself on this, and that having to protect themselves and take care of themselves when we've got a counselor, we've got a guide, we've got a voice that speaks in our heart and in our ear.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and and, you know, if a question comes that says, Well, I don't I don't know if I hear anything, and I don't know, it it don't matter.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's there and and he cares.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how does he speak?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like it sounds like you just hear a sentence, sometimes nothing.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just gotta you just kind of know.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just peace.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: He can he can speak audibly.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: That never happened to me, but it does happen.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: He can do anything.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: He can talk to your donkey and let the donkey talk to you.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't care.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he can let us know if that's what has to happen, right?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, you know, things kept would go on like that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And every every you know, three or four years or so, there'd be some kind of thing, some stars lining up in the sky, and then this is it, you know.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and people were would write these books, and the rapture was going to take place in 1988, and and and and the same thing, all these scriptures and everything put together.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, wow, that looks like this guy knows his stuff and all, but in the spirit, like, no, it wasn't going to happen then.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and and then, you know, a couple years ago there was the four blood moons, and and and people were talking about that.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: We go to meetings and everybody was talking about that.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know, I didn't read the book, and I didn't know about all that stuff.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd seen a few things that were written and people talked about.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, yeah, I see where he gets that, you know.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know, but in my spirit, I just I tell you, I just you just know, just have peace.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not don't but all but the Christians were like, oh, you know, Rick, maybe you're just not being vigilant.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not being one of those wise virgins that are looking out, you know, and being ready.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, those who know their God will be strong and do exploits.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I just you just you and God are walking together, and he loves you and he cares for you.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the blood moon thing came and went, and none of this, nothing, no, nothing, no big deal, of course.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: My whole point is that I I see that a lot of us as believers don't acknowledge the advantage, the gift that we have.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And rather than being made a laughing stock, we can represent Christ, the kingdom.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because the gift is the answer for mankind, and we carry that answer for mankind, and that gift is Christ in us, which was the hope of glory, but he is our glory now, and he's the lifter of our of our head.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why do people jump on that stuff?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a good easy way to tell.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because most of the time people jump on that stuff, they're motivated by fear.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And many times they're motivated by anger.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stuff that's going on out there that's that's that that people are choosing sides on, and they're motivated by fear and anger.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: That word's really it means discipline.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: It means it's a it's a mind that's at well, it's at peace, and it can process and it can say no or yes.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not it's not when it's moved by fear or wrath, you're not using all your faculties here and it here.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit, the voice in you, you find that it motivates by peace.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: It leads by peace.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: There might be trouble, but it but he'll show you where the peace is and what you know, what to do, and oftentimes it's nothing.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's another whole whole other thing.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're really talking about here is the gift that we have that's always there for us, to give us heaven on earth every day in a world with hell that's happening all the time.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So John 14.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've almost quoted all this, but we'll just read it since we're here.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Celebrate the gift tonight, guys.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Celebrate that you'll never be helpless and hapless.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Celebrate every day can be wonderful simply because of the one that's with you.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not all your situations will be wonderful, maybe.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he will be wonderful, I promise you that.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: When I talked about my hardest time in life, it was horrible.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but all the best thing I can way I can describe it is that God was wonderful to me.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was a horrible time, horrible situation, but God was wonderful to me.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a gift.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where would I be without that gift?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I could still be in sorrow, I could still be in depression, I could still be, you know, who knows?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you without someone like that to be wonderful?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're all on your own.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's based on your willpower.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I've already proven in my life past that mine's not that great.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, read John 14, but but thinking about that there again, remember, uh, there was a little story that we're familiar with where Elijah was running from Jezebel because she was going to kill him, so he ran off and hid in the cave.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and the voice of God, the word of the Lord, it says, came to him and says, What are you doing in there, Elijah?
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Which is Eliah, which means strength of God.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, strength of God, what are you doing running from that girl, you know, hiding from that girl?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he's like, he says, You know, I'm the only one been passionate about you, I'm the only one that's serving you.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I've just tried to do my best, and all this is happening to me.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh God says, No, you're not the only one.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, Come and stand on this mountain.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, and the Lord passed before him, and there was a wind that was so strong that it was breaking rocks off of the off of the mountainside, but it said, God was not in the wind.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: And after that there was an earthquake that was splitting the, you know, the the rocks in the mountain, you know, all this was shaking the earth, and it said, but God was not in the earthquake.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Notice it said the Lord passed before him, but God wasn't in the wind or the earthquake, and then there was a fire, and it said God was not in the fire.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Earth, wind, and fire, the elements of this world, said, but God was not in those things.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was a still small voice, and that still small voice brought him out of the cave and sent him on his way in a powerful way.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: But but there again, it's the circumstance God was not in those situations and circumstances, and he wasn't in the spectacular necessarily.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was the voice, and it's that voice that we we have with us.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Many times people want to be led by situations.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean to take more time to do it, but it just feels like it needs to be said.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I for when I went back in the late 80s to go and start a church down in Florida, everything was going wrong.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everything.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: The money was was going wrong.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: I got laid off, my car kept breaking down, kept pouring money into it.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was was going wrong, and people were saying, Rick, can't you wake up and smell the coffee?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: God is trying to tell you something.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily, I knew enough about the word that we're not led by circumstances, we're led by the spirit, and my spirit was saying, go.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: But everything else around me was saying no, no, no, no, no.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what and my friends, bless our heart.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're wonderful people.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: They cared about me, but that's all they could see.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: They couldn't see what was going on in here.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Only me and my best friend, the comforter, my father, we knew what was going on in here.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was saying, go anyway.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna go?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any money?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't have any money, you know.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: You gonna drive?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my car's broke down right now, you know.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know anybody down there?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows me.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a group ready for you when you go down and start that?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is Rick.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, God's saying no, but I knew God was telling me yes.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I continued.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm leaving on January 14th, 1989, and I'm going down there.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we did because before that, as we continued to walk with God, who said, Stay the course, son, it'll be all right.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: But what's gonna happen?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna make all this happen?
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have any other.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to know.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your counsel, I'm your guide, I got this.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need your help.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: I got called back to the place I was working, had a temporary, it was a perfect thing.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was a temporary job, more money in the lab.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was just perfect.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: I walked to the post office one day to check the box.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was a stack of envelopes from the U.S.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Treasury, a stack of them, because unbeknownst to me that I had been on unemployment some time back, and they caught it, and they were, and every one of them was a check for each week that they had underpaid me.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it was thousands of dollars.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: God's trying to tell you not to go.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's just telling me to go.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you never know, but you got a leader, you got a guide.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what's best and he knows how to do it.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: This whole your whole life is this way.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your whole life is with a leader, with a guide, with a lover of your soul.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Someone that really cares about you, oftentimes more than you care about you.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: John 14, verse 15, he says, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I'll pray the Father, and he'll give you another comforter, another, one like me.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that he will abide with you forever, always, every minute of every single day.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: You will always be loved.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never have one minute of your existence where you're not loved.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You will always be loved, you will always be cared about.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Even the spirit of truth that the world can't receive because it doesn't see him and it doesn't know him, but you know him because he dwells with you, but he shall be in you.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to leave you comfortless.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: I will come to you.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you, but the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, that word holy, look it up, it means pure.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: He is the pure spirit.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's absolutely good, wonderful.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: He is love.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: He will teach you everything.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: You got a teacher.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: The master is in you.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bruce Leroy?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, He will teach you everything, and he'll bring everything to your remembrance, all these things that I've said to you.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 16 is where I want to finish up here.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: He um he says, and see, all these things that he was saying, see, they didn't have the gift yet.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were being taught by Jesus, who was outside of them and talking to them.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, the Spirit is going to teach you.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to speak to you these things that I have said and you're going to remember.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 16, he says, He says, You I have things to say, but you can't bear them now.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit of truth, he will lead you and guide you, he'll reveal this to you.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus knew that they weren't getting it, and they weren't.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, but when you get the gift, the gift of the Spirit, when He comes to you, He says, He's going to teach you all this, He's going to show you.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus wasn't concerned that they were all mixed up about it and didn't understand it.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't even let them go to the cross if they could do anything about it.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: But he knew that they would get it later, because he was going to give the gift.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: The one that's going to be with them always.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I have many things, chapter 16, verse 12, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them now.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he's going to guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever he hears, that's that he's going to speak.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: When you study this, every every statement about the ministry of the Spirit to us and for us is a speaking, conversant act.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Every verb.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's about him speaking.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even here, King James will use the word show, but when you look it up, it means he will tell you, speak it to you.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever he hears, he will show you things to come.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: He will watch this.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: He will glorify me because he will receive what's mine and show it to you.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everything the Father has is mine.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I say to you that he will take what's mine and show it to you.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's going to show you everything that the Father has.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: He does it.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we grow in wonder, because, oh, I see more now.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's better than I thought.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I thought when I started, didn't I just thought I had a ticket to heaven?
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was good enough for me.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: But over the years, he keeps showing everything that he has.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to point out is verse 14 where he says, He shall glorify me.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to glorify Jesus?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we sing song, Lord, we glorify you.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean, you know, lift your hands and sing?
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean to think about him?
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it can include all of that stuff, but that word glorify means to render glorious.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the Holy Spirit will show you this, and he's going to render me glorious.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're hearing anything tonight, maybe the Spirit is rendering him, Jesus, glorious to us because of what he's done.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you about 20 years ago, the Spirit did a magnanimous work, a leap in my life, where my life made a quantum leap, if you will, to where my eyes opened in a way that I often talk about, to where I finally began to see in a big way how glorious Jesus really is in my life.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because until then, I didn't know he was going to handle anything.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he wanted me to handle it all, and maybe he'd give me a little help if I lived right, you know.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I saw how glorious he was, and I realized it's all about him.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't wanting me to be strong.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be my strength.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him more glorious.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't wanting me to carry the burden.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was going to carry the burden for me.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: It made him bigger.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: It made, when I saw his grace, it made him look better than I ever thought he was.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I get that?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm too stupid to figure that out.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit did just what Jesus said he would do.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: He rendered him glorious to me and it changed me.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was asking a group the other night, I said, I said, How does God humble you?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of a trick question because in the New Testament it doesn't say anywhere that God humbles anybody.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't use that terminology, except one time in Hebrews, where he only said that he humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the cross.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't humble men, and by that, when people say that, you know, you heard people say, Oh yeah, God's trying to humble me, and you know, I'm slipping and falling on my face in front of everybody at the mall.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: I guess God's trying to humble me.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, that doesn't humble you.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: It humiliates you.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it probably does the opposite work of humbling, uh, because what you probably do is try to get up and prove that you're not that stupid, you know?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Try to prove that you're better than that.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: But how does he, how does, how do, how does, how do we get how do we learn humility?
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: By the Spirit, not hammering us into humility, but by the Spirit rendering Jesus more glorious than we thought he was.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that lets us be small and him big.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: That causes the pride to melt away.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it causes goodness to just start happening.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not because we were demanded to be good, but because we saw how good he is.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is our gift.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: He gives us the ability to see these things, and that's why we have joy in tribulation.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, we glory in tribulations also.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: In these times we shine because that's when the joy becomes our strength.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: The peace passes all understanding.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing anything?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing but good news.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I promise you, I will not make Jesus look better than he really is.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: None of us know how to do that.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever I say about him, and I will do my best to tell his goodness, but whatever I say, it doesn't come close to how good he really is.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the half has not been told.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He will take of mine and show it unto you.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?