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Perceive - See - Know - God · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about seeing God tonight.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you might not hear you probably won't hear any scriptures or anything that maybe you haven't heard somebody say before, but but uh you know what I what I pray and what I expect and what I hope for is that we have a uh is a um an understanding of a reality of of of these things.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm all about, especially in recent years, I've been really strong probably the last year or two, um, about knowing the person of God.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to be to try to know him only theologically.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um the Bible is the written word of God.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not we don't uh we we don't ever want to discredit that and we don't.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've never exhausted its its its wisdom and I can it continues to to to speak to me, it continues to point me um to him.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's um uh it's what told me about the good news.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's what it it's it revealed it to me, or the Holy Spirit revealed it to me through the through that word.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But we did but it's possible to just know the book and not know the person of the book.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and really what our growth is, what we're growing in understanding is is really knowing the person of God.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing him the person of God personally, uh I want to say intimately, but people have made it almost a spooky, I don't know, almost a deep mystical kind of a thing.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: We want to simplify that tonight.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: God wanted to be known, he wanted to be seen, and he wanted to take the mystery out of this thing.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look at that that tonight.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to start off by saying this there's a there's a terminology that I've been hearing in the world a whole lot uh from people um uh in recent years, and it's something uh uh we were talking about it uh recently, and I said, Where's all this coming from?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing it all the time.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: People we know will use this terminology.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hear it on on on television, and and people are saying, uh, here's what it is.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: They say, I want to be seen.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I'm I didn't I've never heard I didn't I did I don't think I ever heard people say that until just you know not not that long ago.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I'm hearing it uh a lot.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I was asking Judy, I said, what does this mean?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh someone had had told us that I just I want I just want to be seen.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it a a number of times.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What what does that what does it mean?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we we talked about it and and and so I I got a feel for for what it means.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at it and I and I I I thought about it, prayed about it, and and and realized that basically there's four points I want to bring out.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I want and bear with me as I lay this out because ultimately what we're talking about is seeing him and being seen by by God.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the way it relates to people is that what what these people are asking for, maybe you've used this terminology, maybe you understand it more than I do, but but I see that that people uh ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden, they've had a they've had a need.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I see it in my own life.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I see I can my history uh becomes so much more clearer to me when I see what I was feeling the need for, and it and it actually explains some of the stupid things that I did uh because I had a had a perception, I had a need, I had a God-shaped hole in me.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and I needed to be uh loved, I needed to be known, I needed, I needed God, I needed to I needed God to see me.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he always did, but I didn't know that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I needed somebody to see me.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel like I got it from people.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I I was a very irritating child, I believe.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for a long time I thought my parents were just mean, but now that I'm older, I look back and I thought, I can understand how I must have just drove them nuts.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can't put it all the blame on them when I look back at it now.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I believe I was, and a lot of it was uh really um I I wasn't conscious of it at the time, but it it's totally clear to me now that I was looking for uh attention, and I didn't know how to get good attention.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I did, but it seemed like it was too much work.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I could have just obeyed my parents, maybe that would have been gotten some positive attention, but I went the other way.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed so much easier to just to just disobey than to live up to what they wanted me to do.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I got a lot of negative attention.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um and uh at least they saw me.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I felt like I was the unseen one out of the three of us in the uh in the family.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Probably the others felt like that way too themselves.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But but but anyway, um people want to be seen in a sense.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so what they mean by that I believe is they say that they want to be uh acknowledged and not ignored.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when they when they uh are with someone and they when they're with a group of people or with an individual, they want that person to acknowledge them and not look past them.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: They want to they want people feel like they want to feel like they're like they're important, like they count, like they're like they're worth worth your time, worth your attention.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: They want to be to be seen, they want to be affirmed by people and not indifferent.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it and all these are very close to the same thing.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: But um people are looking for a sense of of worth because because most of humanity feels like they're lacking it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to get it from people, and ultimately you can't get enough of it from people.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you get some of it from people, it's never going to really be enough.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but people are looking for it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got attention.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I did get attention when I was yip growing up.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was very painful attention, lots of pain in that attention.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I wasn't really getting affirmed.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of spankings, I got a lot of lectures, uh, I got a lot of and the way I took it was it just it continued to like beat me down until I I I I just you know just kept kept kept getting more lost and more lost and more in the dark.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um the people like to feel like f people like to feel like you have uh or people want people want others to make room for them.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to feel like they're pushed out, like they're not they're an outcast, like they're not as good as others.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it goes back to the old kids wishing they could sit at the at the cool table, you know, whatever, whatever.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, then you get older and then you don't even want to be one of those cool people, but but um but you're looking for it.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: People are looking for it in those times.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: People want to be understood and not misunderstood.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I can relate to.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now, how many of you think it's real fun to be misunderstood by somebody?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because they don't they don't see you or really they don't know you.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh things things will get back to you sometimes where people will uh will say something about you that you know in your heart isn't is really not right, they just misunderstood.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you and and and sometimes you can't do anything about it, but you know in your heart, right?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know if they really knew you, if they knew you, if they saw you, if they understood you, they wouldn't think that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what people do is they'll they'll they'll hear or see something and they'll create their own narrative, their own story about it, and say, oh, you're just this person, or you're just doing that, or you're just that kind of person, and you're much more complex than that.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and it's very common, and people do it, and and all if we if we look at this world, we look at uh we know there's a lot of anger in the world, we know that there's a whole lot that we've seen in our country in recent times, and um it's just amplification because of media and and and the noise that we're able to hear now, but but but um what happens, and I've I've I've I've caught myself doing it many times, what happens is is that that I can create a narrative about someone and say, oh, the only reason they're doing this is because of that.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I just simplify that person or that type of people or that group of people when in reality I'm not giving them or God enough credit, and and I'm I'm simplifying them while I am acknowledging my own complexities.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And really, um uh I do that out of a lack of curiosity, not really wanting to know and understand.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So to be seen means people say, I want to be understood, not misunderstood.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: It works the other way around, too.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we want that, and and and uh and not only do people feel a void or a want or a need for that, but but it's something that that um I like to be conscious of giving.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, bear with me, we'll start talking about Jesus here in just a moment.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: But but uh I'd say a couple of months ago, I was walking into a Walgreens uh near where I live, and uh and and somebody was walking across the uh parking lot trying to get my attention, saying, hey, hey, well, when I looked over, I could tell immediately that this guy was gonna ask for money.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh a lot of times I'll just I'll I'll just do it.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just if I have have have some some cash in there, I'll give them a little something.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, but there's sometimes I don't want to mess with them.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm like, they're just gonna be troubled.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna, you know, you know, they're not they're not just gonna ask for money and go on.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I wonder that, you know, and so a lot of times I'll have this battle in my faith in my mind real quickly, like, should I do something or should I not?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or should I, and sometimes I just ignore.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just think like I don't want to mess with this right now, and so I just act like I don't hear him.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just keep going.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to, if I look at him, I think then I get hooked in and I get trapped, and I just don't feel like it right now.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to keep going.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I was headed, I just kept walking toward the store.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, hey, you know, he says, Hey sir.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kept walking.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, then I heard him say, Do you see me?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it hit me funny.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It hit my heart because I've been thinking about these things.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Do you see me?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized I'm making him invisible right now.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I stopped and I turned, and and he said it again.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: He got closer to me and he says, he says, I'm a person, do you see me?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he looked like a mess, you know.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I'm a person, do you see me?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You had to actually look through the mess to see the person in in some ways.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and I and I and on purpose I stopped and I said, I do.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know how and things go through your head really, really quick, and I thought for a moment I was almost, I was in his shoes.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, what would it be like to be?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, Nobody sees me.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I've been invisible, he said, here for the last hour.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we can and we can and we can uh uh justify it with reason.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: We were like, well, yeah, because you're bothering people, and you know, and there are reasons, you know, and and then you start, then you're like, well, you know, why are you in that condition?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and all these things can happen.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: There can be all these reasons, but for that moment I felt real good seeing this person that was being unseen.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, and he did want money, and I didn't have any cash at all.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, But I told him, I said, wait, and I said, I'm going to Walgreens, they'll give me cash after I buy something, and that's why I like to go to Walgreens because I come out richer than I right.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and so uh so uh he came out.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is, and it was just a couple of minutes, but I gave him I gave him time, and those those four points, actually, I looked back and I thought those were done.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I acknowledged him when I could have very easily not even acknowledged him.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: The guy wanted to, first of all, be acknowledged.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um second, he wanted to be infer uh affirmed and not have me just indifferent toward him.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I on purpose gave him attention, I made room for him, and and I I consciously thought, okay, I'm gonna do this.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is very inconvenient, I could be getting into a mess here, and but I'm gonna take a couple of minutes out of my wonderful life and make room for this guy, who would be so easy to not make room, make room for him in my life for this particular moment.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I spoke to him a couple of minutes and talked to him like a person and got a little bit more understanding of him.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: But that's an example of somebody that looks very invisible and wanted to be seen.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very extreme uh example, but you can see it in that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now what the heart of man has longed for?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: We can say it's the love of God, and it is, but let's break it down in this way what is it like to be seen by God?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's so beautiful, it's so wonderful.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have a story of Hagar, right, in Genesis chapter 16.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And she gets kicked out of the house.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's not worth anything, she's not worth Sarah doesn't want her in there.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham doesn't care either.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: He'll whatever Sarah wants, that's fine with him.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's already used her, really, you know.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and she and she's and she's she's kicked out of the house and she's out there in the desert.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: She's far away from me.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can see her.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she's about to die.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Her and her child both are about to die, and nobody cares.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham and Sarah would never know.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They have no idea whatever's gonna happen to her.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know what happened.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: She could die out there.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: They don't care.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter to her.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're indifferent toward her now.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: She's gone, she's out of their life.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: If she does die right there, it's not going to change their life at all, it's not going to affect them at all, or anybody else, probably for that matter.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's out there all alone in the desert, and try to put yourself there just for a moment.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're in a situation, and we've all been in situations, or uh you probably have, I know I have, where I felt almost like in that desert, where I felt like I feel so alone right now.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel so helpless, I feel so, so, so hopeless.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the more that you that you you grow in the in the knowing the person of God, you don't feel so helpless and hopeless anymore.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: It gets better and and it doesn't last that long.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that's always good encouragement for for for us as we're growing.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But she's out there and she feels like she's all alone.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's got nothing.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: She's tried everything she can, and she's about to die of thirst, and so is her boy.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that God opened her eyes and she drank water, and not only that, but God talked to her.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: God, in all these things, something's going on now.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: God talks to her, and not only does he let her know that he hears her and sees her, and he's doing something for her, and he cares about her, and he's right there with her when it doesn't look like anybody else is with her, but says, even your child is going to grow up and he's gonna be great, and he's gonna become a great nation.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and all these things are going.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So now she has a future.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, really, if you look at this, the whole miracle of seeing the water that saved her life at that moment, that was probably the smallest part of that whole thing, because what she says in verse 13, it says, Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: After that, the Lord who had spoken to her, she said, You are the God who sees me.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: People say, I want to be seen these days.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: You are the God who sees me.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she also said, Have I truly seen the one who sees me after in all of my life?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now, understand, she was in that situation.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: She was, many would say she was being mistreated by Sarah.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not only that, but if you think of the culture of the time, how women, even a woman who's not a slave like she was, are subculture, I mean subjective, uh, and not only that she's a woman, but she's a woman's slave.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't matter.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and nobody sees her.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody does see her, what do they see her as?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: She's a slave, she's somebody to be used for you.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so here's God.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sees her, somebody sees her, somebody cared for her, somebody helped for her, somebody helped her, somebody didn't come to use her, somebody didn't come just for what she could do for them.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody came that cared.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody cared, and when she thought nobody knew she was out there, she found out somebody sees me out here.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: That'll take you can take that home right there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna, I got better stuff than this, but but but if you've got nothing else than that, you go out of here knowing God sees me everywhere that I am.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what what I want us to do is we we all will nod our head and say yes to these things because we know that they're true, but there's a depth of knowing it that we can have.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's a depth of knowing it so that when you're uh in a situation that's not so pretty, and she was in a situation that wasn't so pretty, when you're in a situation like that, you have an awareness that you are acknowledged by God.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not just that God is just with there, is is in you, is with you, but doesn't know what's going on.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, I will never think that again.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will never think God doesn't know, I will never think God doesn't care.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I will never think God is not doing something about this.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Ever.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've been seen by God.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: This kid who tried to get attention, who wanted to be seen, who felt like he was not seen, didn't feel like I was really seen in most of my situations for a long time in life, has found out that God sees me.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And look at Hagar.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was we were talking about this today after the morning service.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, I would like to, somebody, I would like to know more of the story of Hagar.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had never thought of this before.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't care, I didn't even see her really.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But after reading this and looking at this, and we were talking about this, and I thought, I would like to know what happened to Hagar's life.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: It must have been pretty good.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some good stuff happened to her.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't die in that desert, we know that.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: What did she do?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, we don't know, but whatever it was, she went knowing that God sees me.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: She was a different woman.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: She probably never felt helpless and hopeless like that again.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: She probably did encounter some some challenges in life, I'm sure she did, but but she knew something that God sees me in my situation.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: God sees me where I'm at.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Also, not only does he see you in that way, but to be seen by God means that we are affirmed by God, that God knows who we are.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know so many scriptures where he affirms us.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says we're, he calls us friends, he calls us brothers, he calls us his children, he calls us uh his bride, he he calls us holy, he calls us perfect, he calls us complete in him.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: He calls himself one with us.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's he has affirmedness.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are accepted in the beloved.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's all over the word of God.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: How can you, it'd be hard to not know this thing just by reading your Bible.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that person is affirming and you feel that affirmation.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 1 Corinthians 13 says, For now we see only reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Shall see.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this, even as I am fully known.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: That came first.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: We know he knows us.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And our growth is, I love this because this says that I am coming to know him exactly the way he knows me, and he knows me fully, completely.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because he sees me.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's nobody that sees me, that that sees me like he does.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my wife probably sees not probably for sure, she sees me more than you do, not just in time, but she knows things that some of you don't even know.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: She sees me, and you know what?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: She still likes me.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when she'll say something good, she affirms me.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: She'll say something good about me, and and this and listen, for a preacher, this is a good thing, because I can't tell you how many situations I've seen when the preacher is such a superstar up here, but then you talk to the wife or people that know him behind the scenes, and they're not they're not saying he's that great all the time.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: But God sees you and affirms.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's no condemnation to him.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: He gives to all men liberally and upgrades not, or he doesn't find fault with you.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's what's he doing?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's affirming.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You ever been in a situation I uh this just came to mind.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I remember uh a situation where um I don't know, it felt like like everybody turned on me in one day just for that situation.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was a situation, and it was like everybody was was against me, or sure seemed like it.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I went home and I'm feeling like I'm all alone.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh God, I hate this.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then I thought of somebody I wanted to talk to.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I called my called a friend, and it was uh it happened to be it happened to be John Bevere.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I called him because I knew he would affirm me.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, you know who will validate you.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, when you're when you're feeling like they're like you got some problems with with issues with people, like, well, I know who will be on my side.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so so we have those people that we know all the time.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: One of them that we always have, who will always be on your side.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Cool things, he's not against he's not he's not against the other side either.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's for them too.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love that about God.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you can all if he's for them all the time, you know he's certainly going to be uh for you because you're a lot better than them, right?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: We will know even as we are fully known.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: God knows us.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Understand.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: They told Jesus, you know, they called him a blasphemier, they called him a sinner, they called him a liar, they called him uh dilemma.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Demon possessed, and he says, Well, there's one that knows me, or one that bears witness of me, that will I listen to.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's why in him there's no condemnation.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live up to anybody else's standards because we're affirmed by him.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, that means we don't have to live up to any standards.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you don't have to, but you'll find yourself continually getting better, right?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because what you're receiving from him, the affirmation, the acknowledgement, the goodness that you're getting from him, you're going to give that because what we freely receive is what we freely give.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know that when I when I'm around people that are very hypercritical, judgmental, it's like everything that comes out is.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I feel bad for them because I know what's happening to them.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's what they're hearing in their own ear.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they're receiving in their own mind.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they're they're they're receiving judgment and condemnation upon themselves, so that's what they have to give.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel sorry for them.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I feel bad.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get angry at them.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I feel bad.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, I wish you knew.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because you're feeling like you're not enough.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're feeling like you're not good enough.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're feeling like you're like you're behind.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're feeling like you just ain't got it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're feeling all that all that lack, and that's why you're putting that same thing on other people.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: God affirms us.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And also we know that God makes room for us.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a very obvious uh verse of Scripture, John 14, verse 2, where Jesus said, In my Father's house are many mansions.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: If it weren't so, I would have told you.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I go to prepare a place for you.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: He makes room.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you to myself.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this, so that where I am, this is what I like, so that where I am, there you may be also.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what his prime motivation was, it wasn't just to stop you from sinning, it wasn't to just make take all the evil out of the world.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he has that effect, but his whole thing was, his heart was, for God so loved the world, and he wanted to be with you.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: God made room.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: God, who takes up all the room, made room for me and you because he wanted to be there.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when someone says, I want to be seen, what they're saying is, I want you to want to spend time with me.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to give me a little attention here, and we seek God.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: See, he wasn't too holy to do that for people that were sinners.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's because he's holy, it's because he's who he is that he even did that.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Holiness does not cause God to shun sinners, it's his holiness that makes him attracted to them.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's just good.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And to be seen by God means that we're understood by God.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: He knows our frame.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms 103, 14.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the weakness of our flesh.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: He knows our frame.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that we're but dust.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews it says that he's a high priest who's touched by the feelings of our weakness, having partaken of the flesh and blood.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of that.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: There again he says, you know what the old, what's the old Indian proverb?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he comes and he gets in our skin, he gets in our shoes, and he tastes death, and he becomes sin and partakes of uh of all that stuff.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's somebody that not only is we believe we know that he's all understanding, but to come and ex and and understand us in that experience.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things about being understanding people, or let me say it this way, to be understood by somebody.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like being misunderstood.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a situation where a man, a cr a Christian brother, who I liked, um, I found out he didn't like me and you know, like, and basically told me he said, I just can't fellowship with you.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're not, you know, that he used the word unequally yoked, even.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And be like, no, because you you you think this and you believe that, and you're just in the way that you see God and and and and interpret the Bible and this and that and the other.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave a couple of I'm like, how why do you think I'm that way?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: What you're describing doesn't sound like what I think at all.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, somebody told me about a Facebook post that you made, and and then I saw a part of a video and you said this.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't you say that?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I could have said that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but whatever that context was, I can tell you what I if you want to know, you can just ask me.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the person never did that, not once.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just got a got a little bit of information, made a story, and just says, I cannot fellowship with you.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, You you you you see me every week.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you could have asked me anytime.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: You could have talked to him.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you could have gotten to know me.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you might have even liked it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a mass murderer, I promise.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, you know.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: But but why, but the person did what so many of us do, is that he formed a judgment when he could have been curious and tried to really know.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: See, a lot of times people aren't curious.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we make this judgment.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: We create this narrative about somebody else or even another group of people and say, this is just why they do that.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we simplify them rather than be curious.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is one thing I love about my wife, and she helped teach me this a lot, is that is to be curious and try to understand why people do.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is one reason God can love everybody, because he knows our frame.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that we're that that that we're weak.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, now I see that what what the way this world is.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: When where did I cross this stupid line?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I get in my Christianity where I actually thought that I was one of the good guys and they were one of the bad guys?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're all in that same place.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't start liking me now because I got on the right team.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: He always liked me.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, I know because I know my father, I know him, and I know he doesn't like me more now than he did back then when I was on the wrong team, voting for the wrong people, and promoting all the wrong things and doing all the horrible, even blasphemous things.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: He loved me every bit as much now.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: He understood me.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I tell the story, shake in my face, and say, I do not believe in that God.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't it change God's opinion of me?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because he knew I was that way the whole time.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: He knew what horrible, ugly, stupid things I was capable of and loved to be the whole time.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: He understood my frame.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: He understood the weakness of my flesh.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: He understood why I thought the things I did and did the things that I did.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: He understood my brokenness and my dysfunction.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: He understood every bit of it.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: It makes it easy.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And part of the spirit of God in the book of Isaiah is called the spirit of wisdom and understanding.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of understanding.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: I love gaining the understanding.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: God, I want to know.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: God, show me.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm loving what's happening to me.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm loving that I'm seeing people in a different light.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing them in a light of love.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Does it condone anything?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, no.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many things that are horrible.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't condone, doesn't condone any of those things that I was doing or before, or even if I still do things that are that are uncondonable, he doesn't condone it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the person.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's really not that relevant.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the person.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: The only way he was going to change this person was by giving me what we're talking about.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: He'd giving me the love that I was looking for.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know to ask, I want to be seen.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Even when people say that I want to be seen, what they really want is this love that we're talking about here.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, this is where it gets good.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, God says, I want to be seen.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is he needy?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, not at all.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different kind of wanting to be seen.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be seen because of for your benefit, for our benefit, right?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can see very plainly he wanted to be seen.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 1, where it introduces Jesus to us, says, No man had seen God at any time, but the Son who's in the bosom of the Father, he's declared him to us.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: He said in Isaiah, he says, Your eyes are covered, says you're blinded, said you're you're in obscurity.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, But the day's going to come.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to open the eyes of the blind, and you shall see, and you shall know, and you shall rejoice.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: You will see.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 1 says, Now we see him.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now we see Jesus crowned in glory and honor.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted us to see him.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he offered to Adam from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: We rejected it.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was offering, he's offering us the tree of life, which is the Spirit of God.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the Spirit do?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why did He come?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: He came to reveal Himself the Father to us.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: He came to take the glory of Christ and reveal it to us.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about that.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: The revealer, the revealer, the unveiler.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: God says, the curtain's down.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: They said, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, That's why I came.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you see me, you've seen the Father.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I came to declare him.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be seen.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to hide in the mystery of clouds.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted us to see him.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this beautiful restoration that we have in Christ is we have what was offered to Adam in the first place.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be seen.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be seen.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it benefits us.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I get to, where I want everybody to know.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, I want everybody to be able to enjoy God and enjoy life, even if there's challenges.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to see someone?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: It means you acknowledge them.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't ignore them.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do not neglect the gift that's within you, the word says.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is this gift?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's Christ in you, the person of God, the hope of glory that's in you.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's really the glory and the lifter of our head now.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was the hope of glory when he was hidden from the ages.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hidden, not seen.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: But he's now been revealed, Paul says.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's now been unveiled to us.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now we see.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: As it is written, I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God we know enough to not stop there because the next part says, What?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he has revealed them to us by the Spirit.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to be acknowledged.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: For your benefit.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: In all your ways, acknowledge him.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Be directed.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you're in the desert, like Hagar was, acknowledge him.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because Hagar, probably before then, didn't even know that God saw her at all.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we acknowledge that.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: When we hit a bump in life, acknowledge him.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: What does that do?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, it gives you that sense, that awareness that God is with you and you know you're in the safest place you can be, that everything's going to be fine.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to be affirmed for your benefit, not his.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: As he affirms us and says we're holy and we're perfect and we're and we're beautiful and we're his and all that stuff, he said we also affirm him.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon verse 6 says that the sharing of your faith becomes effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing, good thing that's within you.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is why it's so important.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's spreading because God's revealing.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: There has never been that I've known of, and that I know of, and I have studied church history quite a bit, a time when grace as we're seeing it now, the love of God, the goodness of God that we're seeing, and and we're just now barely at the hole of this rabbit hole here, just thinking, where does this, how, how deep is his love?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and or sent generationally, now in history, people have.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can read old old books and see all for through the through the last couple thousands of years.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: There have been individuals that have seen these things.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as it's spreading the way it is, and it's happening all over the world, it's not the majority by any stretch of the imagination, but it's spreading around the world.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and people are starting to affirm the goodness of God.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas, you know, for a time it was all about some of these other things.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about his justice?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: What about his judgment?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't do this, and God won't put up with that, and God's gonna do, and all this stuff, and and and things are shifting.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're not affirming those things, we're affirming him, his heart, his character, his nature.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is good.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: I heard a preacher say not too long ago, and it just it's a simple statement, but it just hit me like I knew that this was true, and it opened my eyes to something.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, every one of us here are at some point, we are going to be absolutely amazed one day at how good God really is.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: We will be amazed.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: We will find out he's better than even our imagination would let him be, certainly more than our theology might have let him be.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we will be amazed, and that can be nothing but a good thing, right?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: It says, we see where we make room for him.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love this out of the message translation.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, it says, We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he's already thrown open his doors to us.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about giving somebody room, like I gave the homeless guy attention, gave him room in my life there, even for that for that moment.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: God has, we know that he's made room for us.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what's what's the rest of that?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the what's what's the completion of that relationship?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: We throw open, we make room for God.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let him be there all the time.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Awareness is what we're talking about.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is why worship is so good.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because in worship, it compels you almost to put your attention on God.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are many voices in the world.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many things that can get our attention, but in all our ways, acknowledge Him, affirm Him, His goodness.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Please affirm His love for you every day.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say God loves me, but don't say God loves you, but because when that big but gets in the way, it negates.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's so big it covers what we were talking about in the first place.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: We throw open our doors to God, and we discover at the same moment that He's already thrown open His door to us, and we find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand, out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Please look at the Father when you look at Jesus and say, See what he's done?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Adulterous woman, Samaritan woman.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Samaritan woman says, Come see a man that knows me.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Knows me, knows everything I've done.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: You guys know things I've done.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys have this judgment and this story in your mind that made you not want to have anything to do with me.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the same things and even more.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he on purpose wants to spend time with me.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Come see somebody that thinks I'm worth something.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Come see a man that wanted to sit down and talk with me when everybody else walked around me.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Come see a man.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we say to the world.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Please understand this for yourselves because the world can fall in love.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: They can.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many that can fall in love with your Jesus if they could just see him as he is.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason that they're saying, uh, we don't want church.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be like you.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want that that Bible.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want that gospel.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because they misunderstood him.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why did they misunderstand him?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because so many of our preachers, we've misunderstood him.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they've heard us say things.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: When I say us, I mean the church at large, they've heard us say things that they knew were not right about God.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it hurt their opportunity to know him.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when Peter cut off that servant's ear, what's that symbolic of?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: It kills their ability to hear.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: And all Peter was trying to do was take a stand for Jesus.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we can take a stand for Jesus, but we're killing people's ability to hear.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or hindering it for sure.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: What does Jesus do about that?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: He heals the hearing.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: He heals the hearing.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do with this woman in adultery when people are got a got all have a rock in their hand and they're ready to kill the woman?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he wants to set the woman free from her sin.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: He gets the church people, which is what they were, they were the church people.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: He gets them to drop their rocks.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Their condemnation of her, their judgment of her.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Their narrative of what she was she wasn't worth living.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't see a person.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: They saw a stain.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: They saw a hindrance.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: They saw a black mark on their community.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: They saw a bad example that they don't want others following.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: We must get rid of her.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they saw.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't see a person who had hurts, who had reasons for doing the way she did, not excuses at all, but reasons that Jesus alone understood.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: He did it with every single person, tax collectors, right?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he's doing.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus is a little guy.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not only a little guy, he's a tax collector.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know what you do with tax collectors, what everybody does with tax collectors.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: These guys, these traitors to their own Jewish brothers.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: They did nothing with them.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't invite them to their house.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't go into a house if they were invited.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: They want nothing to do with him.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: They don't like him, they hate him, they're mad at him.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Hey, Zacchaeus, point points him out of everybody there.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a throng of people here.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: I see you.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge you.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: I affirm you.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go into your house and let everybody watch.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because to him, Zacchaeus was just as important as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, who.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Luke wasn't there, but the others.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he already had Matthew.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew was the same guy.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew, not the same guy, but doing the same business.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew was a tax collector too.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't like him.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody liked Matthew except Jesus.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: So what did Matthew do?
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: He threw open his doors.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: And God wants to be understood for the benefit of the people.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening to you?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: What God is revealing, and let it happen.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Throw open your doors.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't be afraid of it.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let it happen.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let God be good.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let Him be good.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says don't be unwise.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: But understanding what the will of God is.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not with just book learning, not with book reading only.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: The person.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all loved tonight?
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all feel loved?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: You feel affirmed, understood by God?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: He understands.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: He knows your frame.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: God wanted you to see Him because He wanted to be good to you.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do people reject God so much?
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why does the world reject God?
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: They don't see Him.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says if our gospel is hidden, it's hidden to them.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: If our what look maybe we should quit saying gospel.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should say what it what it what the real term is.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good news.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we would quit saying that we're preaching the gospel and say something bad while we're doing it.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we'd quit spitting out all that condemnation and judgment and belittling people, making them feel small, making them feel not good enough, making them feel like God's not pleased with them, what we ought to be doing, what you owe God is this and that and the other.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we would quit doing that if we would start using the term good news and realize that every time we get up here, what we are giving is good news.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: A work was done.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: God was revealed.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: God came in the flesh, took our death, took our sin, did what he did out of love for you.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just wanted to be with you.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're Zacchaeus.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget, you're the guy that got called out of the tree.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is why you're here.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get it sometimes.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I somebody asked me one time, says, Rick, but doesn't life seem so unfair sometimes?
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yes.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I'm here.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why I'm when I'm here when I got friends that never got there.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing the same things they were doing.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: They never really came to know God, and most of them are dead.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why not me?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing the same thing.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I here?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I enjoying God?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fair.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was Zacchaeus.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm here.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was called from that tree.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was acknowledged and affirmed.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not that he doesn't do it with everybody, but somebody says, Well, Rick, you're the one that acknowledged it.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're the one that recognized it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why me?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why did I acknowledge it?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I recognize it?
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even get that.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Rick, because you wanted to.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm not sure I did want to.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I was curious.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I've tried.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't find anything about me.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was in the tree and I got called.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was the adulterer.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Rick, I don't condemn you.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was the one that didn't see other people.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not only was I not seen, I didn't see other people.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Rick did what was going to benefit Rick in that moment.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if it hurt you, that's tough.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't see you as a person.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: I got seen.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I got loved.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so did you.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: Would you close your eyes right now?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pray.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Father, right now.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with life here.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with situations.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with relationships.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with people, and it's not always easy.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Dealing with money, our job, the people there, the bodily afflictions, the bodily challenges.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let it be clear by your spirit tonight.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let it be clear that we're seen, they're loved, they're cared for, and they're safe, and there will never be a moment that you're not there affirming them.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you're revealing yourself to us so that we can open up and receive and enjoy and walk in and live in and freely give this goodness that you will eternally be.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Father, right now, I thank you for goodness happening to people.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody with pain, sickness, disease in their bodies, let goodness happen to those places right now.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let goodness fill every vessel right now.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: The goodness of God.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let every heart prepare him room, open up and receive the king of glory in your physical body, in your place right now, in the test and the trial that people are dealing with right now.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let the goodness of God flow.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: As Hagar was in the desert, let it be known that God sees you.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to give you a hope and a future.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're safe, you're fine with him, and you're going to outlive every bit of this.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we give you thanks.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: What can we say to these things?
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: You are good.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: We love you.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.