Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Approval That Empowers
Transcript
- 0:07SPEAKER_01: All right.
- 0:08SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Jesus, how many know that Jesus was, I don't know, for lack of a better word, pretty radical.
- 0:17SPEAKER_01: He was, he, he was, he, he, he broke boundaries.
- 0:21SPEAKER_01: He he uh didn't come to start a religion.
- 0:25SPEAKER_01: He didn't, he came to impart or to release life to us.
- 0:31SPEAKER_01: And everything he did was to that end.
- 0:33SPEAKER_01: All the things that he said, all that he demonstrated, his whole purpose for coming, being born in the fashion of a man, dying the way he did, everything about him, it was all about that we would have that life, this thing called life and life more abundantly.
- 0:49SPEAKER_01: And we're still even trying to, we're still learning what that even really means.
- 0:53SPEAKER_01: I mean, we can we can try to educate ourselves about it, we can look up the Greek word and all that, but it but we find that as we're walking with God, that we are learning more and more what this thing called life that Jesus was talking about really means.
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if how much how many of you have just pondered this and thought about it, but what where does this go?
- 1:16SPEAKER_01: What's he talking about?
- 1:17SPEAKER_01: What is it, what does it ultimately look like?
- 1:20SPEAKER_01: Well, the clues that I get from the Spirit are that it's really, really good.
- 1:25SPEAKER_01: It's really, really beautiful, it's really, really perfect, whatever that is.
- 1:33SPEAKER_01: Uh it's a, it's, it, it, it, it's, it brings fulfillment to our existence.
- 1:41SPEAKER_01: And that thing is living, that thing called life, or that person, you might say, called life is living within us.
- 1:48SPEAKER_01: And we want to look at some things that Jesus said in the in the New Testament today.
- 1:53SPEAKER_01: And look about, look at freedom, look at life, look at something bigger than what we can experience just by just by being educated about our Christian religion.
- 2:04SPEAKER_01: I want to start in John chapter 8.
- 2:08SPEAKER_01: And in John chapter 8, Jesus is talking to some Jewish people here, and he makes this statement that many of us are familiar with.
- 2:16SPEAKER_01: He says, You'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
- 2:18SPEAKER_01: How many are familiar with that?
- 2:20SPEAKER_01: You'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
- 2:23SPEAKER_01: And instead of saying, Oh, well, give us this truth, they said, free?
- 2:26SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about, free?
- 2:28SPEAKER_01: We don't need to be made free.
- 2:29SPEAKER_01: We're descendants of Abraham.
- 2:31SPEAKER_01: And Jesus tells them, he said, No, I'm not talking about that kind of free.
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: He says, He says, Really, you're still slaves.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: And he says, and he describes in verse 35 the difference of what he's talking about here.
- 2:42SPEAKER_01: In verse 35 of uh chapter 8, he said, a slave does not abide in the house forever.
- 2:47SPEAKER_01: Now, he said they were, they were, uh specifically, he said, you're still slaves to sin.
- 2:52SPEAKER_01: Well, we know that they were slaves to the law, and actually slaves of the law, and this is what they were dedicated to.
- 2:58SPEAKER_01: And if you're a slave to the law, then you're going to be a slave to sin because the strength of sin is the law.
- 3:04SPEAKER_01: And he says, so you're really slave.
- 3:06SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about whatever you're defining as free.
- 3:08SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about this other kind of free.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: He said, because a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
- 3:15SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about two different ways of existing here.
- 3:18SPEAKER_01: He says, you're abiding as a servant right now.
- 3:21SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm talking about another kind of free.
- 3:23SPEAKER_01: Not like you guys are doing as you're serving, but I'm talking about the life of a son.
- 3:30SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: He said, So he's talking about another level of free, crazy free, I say sometimes.
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: But we see a difference here that he introduces between a servanthood and a sonship.
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: In fact, in Hebrews chapter 3, uh, he talks about Moses himself.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: He says, Moses was certainly faithful in God's house as a servant.
- 3:55SPEAKER_01: His work was an illustration of the truths that God would reveal later.
- 4:00SPEAKER_01: But Christ as the Son is in charge of God's entire house.
- 4:03SPEAKER_01: Two different things.
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: See, one of the big, big, big differences that we see from Old Testament to New Testament, BCAD, before Jesus came, and now that now that that's happened, uh, we see a lot of changes, but one of the big ones that some people miss, it's this is a big one, is there's a different approach to God.
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: Now, people before that, they they knew God in a sense.
- 4:32SPEAKER_01: And let me let me say it this way.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: I had a conversation with somebody one time, and I and I like to bring up the scripture in John chapter 1 that said, No one has seen God at any time but the Son who's in the uh bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
- 4:46SPEAKER_01: So, so I would make a statement that sounds like like they didn't really know God at all, but through Jesus we do.
- 4:52SPEAKER_01: And there's some truth to that, but then people could argue with me, and they said, Well, I mean, people did know God.
- 4:58SPEAKER_01: I mean, Moses talked to God as one face-to-face.
- 5:01SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's pretty big.
- 5:03SPEAKER_01: You read some of the writings of these people, you know.
- 5:05SPEAKER_01: Job said, I I I talked about you, you know, I heard about you through the hearing of my ears, but now my eyes see you.
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: And I've changed my mind.
- 5:16SPEAKER_01: We read the writings of David, and they were very profound.
- 5:19SPEAKER_01: And so I can't say that they didn't know God, but they knew him in a in a different way.
- 5:24SPEAKER_01: Their approach was as a servant, just like Moses, who was uh the most, the Bible says that he was the most humble man that ever lived.
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: Of course, it was Moses that wrote that, but in Deuteronomy.
- 5:42SPEAKER_01: But as great as the as the life and the ministry of Moses was, and he's revered, even by God in a sense, he approached God as a servant.
- 5:54SPEAKER_01: He was faithful as a servant.
- 5:56SPEAKER_01: So before Jesus, God was a God to be worshipped.
- 6:00SPEAKER_01: And they did worship him, many worshiped him.
- 6:02SPEAKER_01: He was a God to be served, he was a God to be obeyed.
- 6:07SPEAKER_01: Now, in the new after Jesus, is he a God to be worshipped, served, and obeyed?
- 6:12SPEAKER_01: Yes, but it's a whole different approach.
- 6:14SPEAKER_01: And they approached him as a servant, and where it was a God who was to be worshipped and served and obeyed after Jesus with the revelation of Christ, it's not so much about how we worship, serve, and obey, it's about the revelation of a loving father to us.
- 6:32SPEAKER_01: That's a word that we don't see hardly at all in uh the Old Testament.
- 6:37SPEAKER_01: Certainly not by the people.
- 6:38SPEAKER_01: I think God called himself that once uh to them, but the people didn't call him father.
- 6:44SPEAKER_01: So this is a radical thing that Jesus is introducing when he talks about father and sonship, or I'll say, you know, so you don't get the male-female thing, you know, that that doesn't get in your way.
- 6:56SPEAKER_01: Children of God.
- 6:57SPEAKER_01: Even though the standard versions will say son.
- 7:00SPEAKER_01: We're talking about children uh of God.
- 7:03SPEAKER_01: And also he he he he combines this or he brings this into the idea of free indeed.
- 7:11SPEAKER_01: Children of God, sons of God.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: This has to do with identity, doesn't it?
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 17, uh, in fact, let me uh let me go straight to Luke chapter 3 here.
- 7:25SPEAKER_01: And we see the baptism of Jesus.
- 7:28SPEAKER_01: Now watch this.
- 7:29SPEAKER_01: I love this, there's something powerful here.
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 3, verse 21.
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized, and while he prayed, the heaven was open.
- 7:39SPEAKER_01: We're familiar with the story, right?
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: It comes, it's like he comes out of the water, heaven's open.
- 7:44SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, You're my beloved son, and you I'm well pleased.
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: Now, I want us to notice something here that we see, we sort of imagine this picture of the Spirit, and however you imagine it, lighting upon him like a dove.
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: Some people actually see a dove in their imagination, but whatever, he light, he descends upon him like a dove, but in conjunction with that, he speaks.
- 8:11SPEAKER_01: How many know the spirit speaks?
- 8:12SPEAKER_01: The spirit's not just a feeling, right?
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit's not a feeling.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit's not just an emotion in you.
- 8:18SPEAKER_01: In fact, we see over and over again in the Bible that the Spirit speaks.
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: We see a scripture in the Bible where it says, now the Spirit speaks express expressly.
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: We see a scripture where it says uh things that the Spirit saith.
- 8:31SPEAKER_01: We see, we see where he talks about now the Spirit says, the Spirit says, now the Spirit spoke, the Spirit told them, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaks, and he speaks inside of you and I.
- 8:42SPEAKER_01: That is the word of God proceeding out of the mouth of God to us.
- 8:48SPEAKER_01: And we hear that word of God.
- 8:50SPEAKER_01: You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: And then, if we know the story, immediately after that, then he's led out into the wilderness to be tested by the devil, right?
- 9:04SPEAKER_01: And we don't, and before we find out if he has, if he's going to pass the test or fail the test, he already, by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of truth, has declared and given this testimony that you are my child, and in you I am pleased.
- 9:30SPEAKER_01: Before he's tested, he's already got the approval.
- 9:32SPEAKER_01: How many know this are glad that this salvation has a front-loaded approval, that the approval comes first before anything else?
- 9:40SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 9:41SPEAKER_01: And we also know that Jesus goes out to the desert to be tested, and we know that he passed the test.
- 9:45SPEAKER_01: We've read the story, we know that he passes.
- 9:48SPEAKER_01: And the test was like this.
- 9:50SPEAKER_01: If you are the child of God or the son of God, then do this.
- 9:53SPEAKER_01: If you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, if you're the son of God.
- 9:57SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't have to bite because he already had the testimony.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: He already had the word, he already had the truth, and he could have said, Where were you when I came out of that water?
- 10:06SPEAKER_01: Didn't you hear the testimony of the Spirit that I am, that God is well pleased with me and I am his son.
- 10:14SPEAKER_01: So I don't have to turn rocks into bread to prove anything, to prove that if I am the son of God.
- 10:19SPEAKER_01: I don't have to do a swan dive off the top of the church building to prove that I'm the son of God.
- 10:23SPEAKER_01: I don't have to bow down.
- 10:25SPEAKER_01: I don't have to be forced into worship to prove that I'm the son of God.
- 10:30SPEAKER_01: I already have the approval, and he passed the test.
- 10:33SPEAKER_01: And some of you that are scholars, you understand also that this is that this test of Jesus is very parallel to the test of Adam and Eve in the garden.
- 10:42SPEAKER_01: In fact, it was the same type of test or tested in the same areas, and where the first Adam fell, the last Adam, the last Adam passed.
- 10:50SPEAKER_01: And the difference was this: this testimony here.
- 10:54SPEAKER_01: The testimony, the word of God by the Spirit that said, You're my child.
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: And I'm pleased.
- 11:02SPEAKER_01: How many know that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus?
- 11:09SPEAKER_01: That prophetic word to you is the same testimony of Jesus?
- 11:15SPEAKER_01: That the word being spoken to you, among many other specifics that the Spirit might be saying, but overall, you are his child, and he's pleased.
- 11:26SPEAKER_01: And the importance of this is this that without that pre-approval, you will strive for empowerment.
- 11:36SPEAKER_01: And how will you how will you get it?
- 11:38SPEAKER_01: You'll try to get it by service, by worship, by obedience.
- 11:44SPEAKER_01: You'll try to get it by doing all those things they did before Jesus.
- 11:49SPEAKER_01: And and still we're never satisfied.
- 11:52SPEAKER_01: You'll try to get it through education, the education of your mind on these things.
- 11:57SPEAKER_01: And many people will do that and they educate their mind on religious things, and they sort of substitute that for the testimony of Jesus, the word that's alive in them, the person is living inside of them, speaking inside of them, loving them from the inside.
- 12:14SPEAKER_01: And releasing this thing called life or bringing us into more and more of the fullness of life.
- 12:19SPEAKER_01: See, he said it's the spirit that makes alive, right?
- 12:23SPEAKER_01: The spirit that quickens.
- 12:24SPEAKER_01: It's the spirit that gives life.
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: It's the living, breathing, life, living one inside of you and I, and there is a testimony, and it starts out with, you're my child, and I'm well pleased.
- 12:40SPEAKER_01: And that's grace message 101, right?
- 12:45SPEAKER_01: And it's the approval of the Father, is what empowers the Son.
- 12:50SPEAKER_01: Jesus went out into that desert with that approval already.
- 12:54SPEAKER_01: He was already approved, so he didn't have to do any religious thing.
- 12:59SPEAKER_01: He didn't have to do any of those things to become who he wanted to be, because he already was who he was.
- 13:07SPEAKER_01: And we see that in the in the new covenant, we see a revelation.
- 13:11SPEAKER_01: That it seems like people are, some people are struggling for decades trying to reconcile themselves with this idea that I am God's child and he is pleased with me, and I'm right where I'm supposed to be because I'm right in the middle of him.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: And this is who I really am.
- 13:31SPEAKER_01: And they they spend time trying to convince themselves of their ide of their identity.
- 13:37SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the reasons is because, sadly to say, that we have been inundated, many of us, for so long, with false doctrine.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: By that I mean contrary to what we're saying right here, right now.
- 13:54SPEAKER_01: Contrary to you're his child, and he's well pleased.
- 13:58SPEAKER_01: And we've heard so much about the things we're supposed to do, and all the things that it takes, and all the things that we'll get if we fulfill certain obediences and certain worships and certain forms of worship, and and if we serve, when we serve, we come so service-minded because we think that that's what it's all about, and somehow missing this simple, profound truth that we start with on square one.
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: Boom, you're his child.
- 14:29SPEAKER_01: And God is pleased.
- 14:32SPEAKER_01: And if you could see that, that would knock away so much of anything that says, Well, what else do I need to do?
- 14:41SPEAKER_01: It knocks away the questions of to get my prayers answered, maybe I should do thus and so.
- 14:48SPEAKER_01: It knocks all of that away because it starts, it begins with union with the father, relationship, where the prodigal son does not come to the house to come and serve, which is what he did in that story.
- 15:01SPEAKER_01: But once he got there, what did he find out?
- 15:03SPEAKER_01: That the father would not have a servant.
- 15:05SPEAKER_01: He said, No, you're not going to live like a servant here.
- 15:07SPEAKER_01: You're my child, you belong in this house, you're going to live like one.
- 15:12SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see in the good news.
- 15:14SPEAKER_01: That's what we see with Jesus bringing it to the people in everything that he did, everything that he taught, and the way that he lived and died.
- 15:25SPEAKER_01: We can go to John chapter 4 and we see a story of a Samaritan woman at the well.
- 15:33SPEAKER_01: And we know that he had to go there and he sat down to rest from his journey.
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: And at noon, here comes this woman to get water.
- 15:41SPEAKER_01: And Jesus asked her to give him a drink of water.
- 15:47SPEAKER_01: And they start having this discourse about water, and you know.
- 15:52SPEAKER_01: In verse 13, John 4, Jesus answered and says to her, Well, whoever drinks of this water, the water that she's drawing from the well, you're going to thirst again.
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst.
- 16:05SPEAKER_01: But the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.
- 16:12SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the spirit here.
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you something that will spring up into everlasting life.
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not the kind of stuff that someone like her talks about much.
- 16:24SPEAKER_01: Nobody does.
- 16:24SPEAKER_01: They're not talking about this kind of stuff.
- 16:27SPEAKER_01: Now, Samaritans were very similar to the Jews.
- 16:30SPEAKER_01: They were, they actually they both believed in the same God.
- 16:32SPEAKER_01: They just had some differences in their ideas about one of them was where to worship.
- 16:39SPEAKER_01: And that was a big thing to them.
- 16:41SPEAKER_01: But still, what it was mostly about was how to do it correctly.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: How do the scriptures tell us?
- 16:48SPEAKER_01: What are we supposed to do?
- 16:49SPEAKER_01: How do we do this?
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: How do we do it?
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: What does God demand?
- 16:51SPEAKER_01: What does God require from us?
- 16:53SPEAKER_01: All those kinds of things.
- 16:54SPEAKER_01: How should we serve him best?
- 16:55SPEAKER_01: What kind of people should are we, should we, should we try to be?
- 17:03SPEAKER_01: And he tells her that I've come to be a life giver.
- 17:06SPEAKER_01: I've come to be a thirst quencher.
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: I've come to give something.
- 17:10SPEAKER_01: Now, now, while I'm learning of this life, I have learned a little bit.
- 17:14SPEAKER_01: I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and that's why I'm crazy about this.
- 17:17SPEAKER_01: That's why I just talk about God's life and his love and his goodness, and I know, and some people they'll make fun of it, and Rick's just like, God loves, and God is love, and God loves you, and God loves me, and God loves that.
- 17:28SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I am, I can't help it.
- 17:30SPEAKER_01: I'm so turned on.
- 17:32SPEAKER_01: Something has happened to me.
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: I've tasted something, and when I talk about love, I'm also talking about life because they are one and the same.
- 17:40SPEAKER_01: Because where is this all leading us to?
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, what is this whole thing really about?
- 17:46SPEAKER_01: Is it all gonna be about throughout all of eternity?
- 17:49SPEAKER_01: Is it all gonna be about, well, you've got the correct doctrine and you've got the wrong one?
- 17:53SPEAKER_01: Is that what it's all gonna be about?
- 17:56SPEAKER_01: In fact, we have an argument here that she wants settled by Jesus, right?
- 18:01SPEAKER_01: We go down to verse 19, after he's told her about, yeah, you know, I know that you've been married five times and so on.
- 18:08SPEAKER_01: And she says, Well, I perceive you're a prophet.
- 18:10SPEAKER_01: Tell me something.
- 18:11SPEAKER_01: Settle this once and for all.
- 18:13SPEAKER_01: This thing's been going for hundreds of years.
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: We have argued about this, fought about this, we've been separated over this among so many other things.
- 18:21SPEAKER_01: She says, verse 20, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that in Jerusalem is where the place that we ought to worship.
- 18:29SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you'll neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
- 18:36SPEAKER_01: You worship what you do not know.
- 18:39SPEAKER_01: We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.
- 18:41SPEAKER_01: He says, You don't even know what you're worshiping, but you're worshiping.
- 18:44SPEAKER_01: So this woman was a worshiper.
- 18:47SPEAKER_01: I strawling suspect she was devout.
- 18:50SPEAKER_01: She was serious about God and wanted to know what's the right way, what's the right place, who's right about these things.
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: And he essentially tells her, it's not about either one of those.
- 19:00SPEAKER_01: You guys are are barking up the wrong tree.
- 19:02SPEAKER_01: That's the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
- 19:03SPEAKER_01: You're missing the whole thing.
- 19:05SPEAKER_01: But the hour is coming.
- 19:08SPEAKER_01: When you won't do it like that.
- 19:10SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take all that stuff away and I'm gonna give you something better.
- 19:13SPEAKER_01: I came to give you life.
- 19:15SPEAKER_01: I didn't come to give you the right doctrine.
- 19:19SPEAKER_01: I didn't come to choose a side.
- 19:25SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, he could have said, here's what he could have done.
- 19:29SPEAKER_01: What if?
- 19:30SPEAKER_01: He says, Samaritan woman, you're gonna be real happy with my answer.
- 19:35SPEAKER_01: You know what?
- 19:37SPEAKER_01: You guys have been right all the time.
- 19:38SPEAKER_01: It is this mountain.
- 19:40SPEAKER_01: It's not Jerusalem.
- 19:41SPEAKER_01: What if he would have said that?
- 19:43SPEAKER_01: The woman would have got real happy.
- 19:44SPEAKER_01: She would have got, I knew it.
- 19:47SPEAKER_00: Woohoo! We're right! Ha ha! Take that, Jews.
- 19:52SPEAKER_00: We're right.
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: We're right.
- 19:57SPEAKER_00: We're right! Yay!
- 20:01SPEAKER_01: We're right.
- 20:04SPEAKER_01: But she still would have been just as miserable.
- 20:07SPEAKER_01: Still would have carried the same shame.
- 20:09SPEAKER_01: It had no effect.
- 20:11SPEAKER_01: Any of those things has no effect on her life, how she is inside.
- 20:18SPEAKER_01: She needed something more than that, than the correct place or the correct doctrine, if you will.
- 20:27SPEAKER_01: Correct theology, I should say.
- 20:29SPEAKER_01: Because technically, the correct doctrine is the gospel.
- 20:35SPEAKER_01: But you know what I mean.
- 20:43SPEAKER_01: See, she was worshiping.
- 20:45SPEAKER_01: And I look back at my own life and I think of I spent the first 20 years of my Christianity worshiping, serving, and obeying.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: I was very devout.
- 20:57SPEAKER_01: But I dare say that I barely knew who I was actually worshiping.
- 21:03SPEAKER_01: I was serving very, very hard.
- 21:05SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was working hard at this.
- 21:07SPEAKER_01: I was devout.
- 21:08SPEAKER_01: But I barely knew the one I was serving.
- 21:11SPEAKER_01: Why?
- 21:11SPEAKER_01: Because a servant doesn't abide in the house.
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: You've heard the old adage that you don't really know someone until you've lived with them for a while.
- 21:20SPEAKER_01: Huh?
- 21:20SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, see, you don't know them.
- 21:22SPEAKER_01: A servant doesn't live in the house.
- 21:25SPEAKER_01: But we serve and we serve and we serve and we serve, and we try to obey, we try to obey, and we try, we try to fulfill all these things.
- 21:32SPEAKER_01: And we're so far, we're so far removed from what it's really all about.
- 21:37SPEAKER_01: We're busy doing all these things and we're trying and we're arguing over things, and it should be this, and it should be that.
- 21:42SPEAKER_01: Well, I interpret it this way, and you interpret it that way, and I believe God's on my side, and you believe God's on your side, and we have all of these things going on, and we don't realize that we're all so far removed from life that He's talking about.
- 21:56SPEAKER_01: So many of us are quibbling and fighting over bones here.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: When Jesus is standing here with this good, delicious, thick ribeye steak called life, we're all over there.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: And we still got our human, our pride and our shame and our intellect and all this, and all that tree of knowledge of good and evil that seeks to make one look wise.
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: We're over here trying our best and putting God in this somehow.
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: But it's a God that we don't know, or maybe I could say barely know.
- 22:33SPEAKER_01: But we're serving and obeying.
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: And I did that.
- 22:38SPEAKER_01: And I and I'm so crazy about this word of life that speaks love to me, because ultimately, this is where all of our existence is going to be forever, right?
- 22:50SPEAKER_01: And you can be abiding in that to a good degree now, and in ever-increasing measure throughout all of eternity.
- 22:58SPEAKER_01: You don't have to just wait till you die to know any of this.
- 23:02SPEAKER_01: Because it's to be experienced now.
- 23:04SPEAKER_01: The Spirit is alive within us now, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, the same spirit that shall be with us forever and ever, the same spirit that will always be a part of who we are as our identity.
- 23:18SPEAKER_01: And forever we experience in ever-increasing measure this glorious thing called life.
- 23:25SPEAKER_01: And you've got a clue that it's beautiful.
- 23:28SPEAKER_01: And it is a love that we're looking into and we're learning about.
- 23:33SPEAKER_01: And if we're giving ourselves into it, then we're tasting the beauty of it.
- 23:42SPEAKER_01: But see, there's traditions and there's things that push against us, and people, do you know there are Christians that are actually afraid of the idea of an unconditional love?
- 23:59SPEAKER_01: Oh, they'll they might be okay with the terminology.
- 24:03SPEAKER_01: Some people aren't even okay with the terminology anymore.
- 24:05SPEAKER_01: Afraid of it.
- 24:06SPEAKER_01: Why?
- 24:07SPEAKER_01: Because it gets in the way of their worship here or worship there.
- 24:15SPEAKER_01: The idea of an unconditional love kills this.
- 24:20SPEAKER_01: And maybe, and it's hard for us to kill what we've had because what has almost worked is hard to get is hard to let go of.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
- 24:34SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about religion.
- 24:35SPEAKER_01: What has almost worked is hard for us to let go of.
- 24:39SPEAKER_01: It's the same as in the in the in other realms in life.
- 24:43SPEAKER_01: People have addictions that almost work.
- 24:48SPEAKER_01: It's coping mechanism, makes them feel good for a little bit.
- 24:50SPEAKER_01: It almost works.
- 24:53SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work, but it almost works, so they they don't want to give it up.
- 25:08SPEAKER_01: That thing that the Spirit is speaking to you, that thing that the Spirit's leading to you, leading you, leading you to.
- 25:15SPEAKER_01: It's your traditions that you're still getting stuck to, and it's making that spoken word that's speaking to you, it's making it ineffective.
- 25:23SPEAKER_01: See, those things are what we deal with.
- 25:26SPEAKER_01: And I had so much of that for 20 years, and I really didn't come to where I feel like now I know him.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: Do I knew all about all about him?
- 25:35SPEAKER_01: No, he's so big.
- 25:38SPEAKER_01: But I've tasted something, so I know in comparison to where I was before, I know I know him.
- 25:45SPEAKER_01: I don't know anything about any, I mean, I don't know everything about any of you guys to you, but some of you I know pretty well because I've been around you and I know you.
- 25:53SPEAKER_01: Do I know everything about you?
- 25:55SPEAKER_01: No.
- 25:55SPEAKER_01: It's the same way with God, but but but what I know is real.
- 26:00SPEAKER_01: And when I gave in to love, when I let God's grace be sufficient, when I let him love me with no conditions, and when I let him be approved of me, even when it was hard for me to approve of me, I tasted and saw the Lord's goodness, and I began to know the God of the living.
- 26:25SPEAKER_01: Whereas before, I was serving, worshiping, and obeying a master.
- 26:32SPEAKER_01: And I called him that often.
- 26:36SPEAKER_01: Even when I would say Lord, my mentality was master.
- 26:38SPEAKER_01: You ever read in Hosea where he says, you know, the day is coming when you will no longer call me Baali, which means master?
- 26:46SPEAKER_01: You won't call me that.
- 26:49SPEAKER_01: Because freedom's gonna come.
- 26:51SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be free from all that.
- 26:53SPEAKER_01: You're gonna come home.
- 26:56SPEAKER_01: You're my child, and I approve.
- 27:01SPEAKER_01: Worshiping, serving, and obeying over here.
- 27:04SPEAKER_01: What am I doing?
- 27:05SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to get in the house.
- 27:07SPEAKER_01: Trying to get me a seat at the table.
- 27:10SPEAKER_01: Get more anointed, get more favored, get more blessed, get more approval.
- 27:16SPEAKER_01: Climb the ladder, climb the holy hill, washing my hands because it's only He with clean hands and a pure heart.
- 27:23SPEAKER_01: And I'm keep trying to get this pure heart.
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: I'm trying, God, I'm trying.
- 27:27SPEAKER_01: I'll get there.
- 27:28SPEAKER_01: Don't give up on me.
- 27:30SPEAKER_01: And the God in my mind was saying, keep trying, because I got some really good stuff up here, so hope you make it.
- 27:40SPEAKER_01: But the pre-approval gives us New Testament terminology, which tells us that we've now come to Mount Zion.
- 27:49SPEAKER_01: We're already on the mountaintop, and there's no footprints that lead.
- 27:52SPEAKER_01: You look back, you don't see your footprints on leading up to the top of this hill because you didn't climb this mountain.
- 27:57SPEAKER_01: You were put there.
- 28:03SPEAKER_01: See, being a servant doesn't keep you from worshiping, it doesn't keep you from serving, it doesn't keep you from obeying.
- 28:08SPEAKER_01: In fact, the whip will keep getting cracked, and you'll keep trying it, thinking that that's going to work, because it almost works, or it feels like it does.
- 28:18SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus said in verse 23, speaking to the Samaritan woman, but the hour is coming, and now is.
- 28:26SPEAKER_01: I think he said this because he was about to go to the cross, but also he was right there right at that time.
- 28:32SPEAKER_01: When the true worshipers, true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, because the Father is seeking such to worship them.
- 28:40SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
- 28:41SPEAKER_01: The Father is looking for that.
- 28:44SPEAKER_01: He's not looking for you to do it in this mountain or over there.
- 28:49SPEAKER_01: He's not looking for you to figure out what's the right thing.
- 28:51SPEAKER_01: He's not looking for you to get in there and figure it out and find the secret, find the clue.
- 28:56SPEAKER_01: Well, here's what God wants.
- 29:00SPEAKER_01: I've been in this thing for a long, long time.
- 29:02SPEAKER_01: I have seen so many ministries built on.
- 29:05SPEAKER_01: I found the secret, I found the clue, I found the hidden treasure, I've found the thing in the Bible.
- 29:10SPEAKER_01: You know me, you'll do this.
- 29:11SPEAKER_01: It's the priestly prayer, it's the Jabez prayer, it's this prayer.
- 29:14SPEAKER_01: And it's not that they're not good things, but it's just that it's if you'll it you'll do this, it's not, it's, it's, that, it's the tithe, not the tithe, it's the it's the tithes and offerings, not the tithes and the tithes, offerings, and alms, and then somebody else said, No, it's about the first fruits.
- 29:26SPEAKER_01: It ties in enough, it's about the first, and all these things, and then you worship, it's worship, worship three times a day, but then somebody else gets another revelation.
- 29:33SPEAKER_01: They got a deeper secret, it's not three three times a day, it's seven times a day while I praise thee.
- 29:37SPEAKER_01: And so we just keep trying to, which one is it?
- 29:42SPEAKER_01: Serving, trying to get in the house.
- 29:46SPEAKER_01: And in truth, in spirit and in truth, says, You're my child, and I approve.
- 29:52SPEAKER_01: Free indeed.
- 29:56SPEAKER_01: And you know what happens.
- 29:57SPEAKER_01: You deal with maybe you've dealt with it yourself or you hear it in other people.
- 30:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but what about sin?
- 30:13SPEAKER_01: What about it?
- 30:14SPEAKER_01: There ain't none over here.
- 30:20SPEAKER_01: You need to read your Bible, you need to read yours.
- 30:28SPEAKER_01: For Jesus came to put away sin.
- 30:34SPEAKER_01: I approve.
- 30:36SPEAKER_01: I see, I felt even a little bit in the house right there just then.
- 30:39SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit.
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: I was with you, Rick, until you said that.
- 30:45SPEAKER_01: He came to put it away.
- 30:47SPEAKER_01: Had a pastor call Judy and I into his office after one meeting we preached, and first thing he said, he goes, Rick, do you believe in sin?
- 30:58SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, people do it all the time.
- 31:11SPEAKER_01: What is sin?
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: Miss the mark.
- 31:15SPEAKER_01: You're my child, and you I'm well pleased.
- 31:19SPEAKER_01: But that's not missing the mark.
- 31:21SPEAKER_01: This is missing the mark.
- 31:23SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said, You're a servant of missing the mark.
- 31:26SPEAKER_01: You're a servant of sin.
- 31:29SPEAKER_01: But you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free indeed.
- 31:33SPEAKER_01: Not that kind of free, like, well, we're Abraham's descendant, so we do all this stuff.
- 31:36SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm talking about freedom.
- 31:38SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about life here.
- 31:39SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about who you really are.
- 31:41SPEAKER_01: Do you ever get into this?
- 31:42SPEAKER_01: Do you ever just get quiet and just talk to God, or especially let him talk to you?
- 31:46SPEAKER_01: Just let him talk, just let the Spirit speak to you.
- 31:51SPEAKER_01: Oh, it'll blow out so many things out of your brain.
- 31:59SPEAKER_01: That have kept you from free indeed.
- 32:04SPEAKER_01: That have kept you from that place of now there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
- 32:17SPEAKER_01: I agree with that up to a point.
- 32:19SPEAKER_01: I know, I know, I don't know.
- 32:21SPEAKER_01: That's what we do.
- 32:23SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm I'm the one I've told you about Judy and I's intense discussion we had one time where she had to go and talk to God about me.
- 32:35SPEAKER_01: God, I know there's no condemnation in you, but I think he can use just a little bit.
- 32:40SPEAKER_01: That's what she said.
- 32:45SPEAKER_01: I love that.
- 32:48SPEAKER_01: Because it's like it's tempting in our flesh and in the spirit of our mind, it's tempting to trust us.
- 33:00SPEAKER_01: I remember many years ago I preached a message one time.
- 33:05SPEAKER_01: So I thought, I'm gonna bring balance.
- 33:06SPEAKER_01: He would let me preach every once in a while.
- 33:08SPEAKER_01: So I thought next time I preach, I'm gonna bring some balance because I see stuff to you all are doing and it's not being dealt with.
- 33:15SPEAKER_01: So I got up and I slammed some things.
- 33:19SPEAKER_01: Needed to be done.
- 33:22SPEAKER_01: And uh that week the pastor, uh, you know, talk I was sitting in the pastor's office talking to him, and he goes, he was so gracious.
- 33:30SPEAKER_01: He goes, Rick, he says, you know, I understand that it's very, very tempting to trust in the power of condemnation rather than the good news to change people.
- 33:41SPEAKER_01: And that's always stuck with me.
- 33:48SPEAKER_01: See, um a mind that hasn't seen this, that hasn't tasted and seen that the Lord is good, that's all we've got to work with.
- 33:57SPEAKER_01: So we keep trying to work with it because it almost works, or it seems like it does, but it don't.
- 34:03SPEAKER_01: But the thing that we see here that worked with Jesus and it works with us, and it's worked with me, and many of you know what I'm talking about because you've tasted and seen the Lord's goodness, as you find out, haven't you found out that the truth has really brought a freedom to you?
- 34:18SPEAKER_01: Did it make you do everything perfectly?
- 34:20SPEAKER_01: No.
- 34:21SPEAKER_01: But has it brought a freedom?
- 34:23SPEAKER_01: Has it brought more grace and joy and peace and all the fruit of the Spirit?
- 34:27SPEAKER_01: Hasn't that level risen?
- 34:28SPEAKER_01: Haven't you had more grace for yourself?
- 34:31SPEAKER_01: Haven't you fallen more in love with God?
- 34:33SPEAKER_01: And don't you have much more grace for humanity?
- 34:39SPEAKER_01: That's liberty, that's life happening to us.
- 34:44SPEAKER_01: And I like to just sit sometimes and imagine where this is going because I have read in my Bible that God's got a vision, and he said, As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord or the goodness of the Lord.
- 35:06SPEAKER_01: That's where this is going.
- 35:08SPEAKER_01: It's the Spirit that gives life.
- 35:12SPEAKER_01: I want to go to Romans 8 and wrap this up here, and I'm sure that I have read this passage before.
- 35:20SPEAKER_01: I do it a lot when I speak in different places because it's just so powerful and beautiful.
- 35:29SPEAKER_01: The approval of the Father empowers the children.
- 35:33SPEAKER_01: That's why it's important to know when we talk about the grace of God, we're not talking about just a movement.
- 35:39SPEAKER_01: We're not just talking about a camp in the church that they're into that while we're into this and you're into the other.
- 35:46SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the good news.
- 35:48SPEAKER_01: We're talking about something that's essential.
- 35:50SPEAKER_01: You have to have this to enjoy the freedom that I'm talking about.
- 35:56SPEAKER_01: You have to, you have to know that you're approved.
- 36:00SPEAKER_01: You have to know about that kind of grace.
- 36:03SPEAKER_01: Because when you know about that kind of grace, that's when you begin to know about the heart of your daddy.
- 36:09SPEAKER_01: See, the prodigal son didn't know his daddy's heart for a long time, did he?
- 36:12SPEAKER_01: So he said, Maybe I can be a servant, maybe I can serve him.
- 36:15SPEAKER_01: Maybe he'll let me serve him.
- 36:19SPEAKER_01: Maybe if I come to him as a servant, I'll get the benefits of living on his property, because even the servants live better than how I was before.
- 36:36SPEAKER_01: But when he came to live as a servant, he did.
- 36:39SPEAKER_01: I'm that prodigal son, because I came to serve him as I came to serve God.
- 36:43SPEAKER_01: When I came to God, I committed to him.
- 36:46SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was gonna serve him, I was gonna obey him, I was gonna worship him.
- 36:54SPEAKER_01: I don't know how long it took the prodigal son to get convinced of it.
- 36:57SPEAKER_01: It looks like it happens pretty quick.
- 36:59SPEAKER_01: For me, it took about 20 years to get convinced that daddy approves of me.
- 37:09SPEAKER_01: Somebody said this morning, said, Am I gonna have to bring tissues?
- 37:12SPEAKER_01: And I thought, I hope I don't, I'm not gonna try to make anybody cry.
- 37:15SPEAKER_01: But but but to hear those words, daddy approves of me.
- 37:19SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about a father.
- 37:27SPEAKER_01: You start, I I have I start looking into that.
- 37:30SPEAKER_01: What kind of love is this?
- 37:32SPEAKER_01: How can you love me like this?
- 37:36SPEAKER_01: You know things about me I haven't told anybody.
- 37:39SPEAKER_01: How can you love me?
- 37:43SPEAKER_01: If you give me a little time, I'll get a little better, and then I'll understand.
- 37:50SPEAKER_01: But if you love me like this, what's gonna stop me from being Hitler?
- 38:03SPEAKER_01: See, we have gotten, we have been fed so much crap about the depravity of your heart, about the ugliness of you.
- 38:13SPEAKER_01: And we believed it so strongly that when the Spirit speaks and says, You're my child, and I approve, we think it's heresy.
- 38:29SPEAKER_01: When we say that his grace is more abundant than anything that Adam did, it covers it all.
- 38:35SPEAKER_01: We think it's heresy.
- 38:38SPEAKER_01: Because we've so believed in how horrible we were the day we were created.
- 38:47SPEAKER_01: So believed so many lies.
- 38:50SPEAKER_01: Did you know Isaiah prophesied this, and he says, Your refuge of lies will be overthrown.
- 38:57SPEAKER_01: You've made a covenant with death and your bed in hell, and he says, I'm gonna overrun that.
- 39:06SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to uncover that refuge of lies that you've lived in.
- 39:10SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is saying, the truth will make you free.
- 39:15SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 verse 14 says it this way.
- 39:17SPEAKER_01: And the standard translation for you, because I'm using a different translation, but the standard translations will say something like, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
- 39:26SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 39:27SPEAKER_01: So what do we do with that?
- 39:28SPEAKER_01: Here's what I did for so many, so long.
- 39:30SPEAKER_01: Because I'm servant-minded.
- 39:32SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be led by the Spirit.
- 39:34SPEAKER_01: I get up in the morning.
- 39:37SPEAKER_01: Command me, Lord.
- 39:39SPEAKER_01: Which way?
- 39:39SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 39:40SPEAKER_01: Okay, left?
- 39:42SPEAKER_01: I mean, I do this stuff.
- 39:43SPEAKER_01: I remember standing on a street corner one time wanting to be led by the Spirit.
- 39:46SPEAKER_01: Talk to me.
- 39:48SPEAKER_01: Talk to me, Lord, command me.
- 39:49SPEAKER_01: I'm here to serve.
- 39:51SPEAKER_01: What do I do?
- 39:52SPEAKER_01: Do I talk to that guy walking by?
- 39:54SPEAKER_01: Yes, no, I don't know.
- 39:56SPEAKER_01: Do I go into that building?
- 39:57SPEAKER_01: I remember I would do these things.
- 39:59SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to be led.
- 40:00SPEAKER_01: I cross the street, walk into a building thinking, oh, God's got a divine appointment.
- 40:04SPEAKER_01: I walk in there, and I just looked so stupid, and everybody looked at me.
- 40:11SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm I guess not.
- 40:16SPEAKER_01: But I'm here to serve, tell me, command me.
- 40:18SPEAKER_01: We think of those terms a lot of us do, because we're servant-minded.
- 40:24SPEAKER_01: Servants don't abide in the house, so they don't even really know the master.
- 40:34SPEAKER_01: That's why I like this translation, the passion in this particular passage, because he says it this way the mature children of God, mature, those who have come to know some things, are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
- 40:51SPEAKER_01: What's happening to you?
- 40:51SPEAKER_01: What took me out of 20 years of that into the beauty and the joy and the life and the sense of fullness that I see now and taste now and want everybody to have.
- 41:02SPEAKER_01: Everybody to have.
- 41:04SPEAKER_01: What got me?
- 41:05SPEAKER_01: What happened?
- 41:05SPEAKER_01: Impulses of the Spirit, moving of the Spirit, leading of the Spirit, the Word of God telling me things, telling me things, telling me things.
- 41:12SPEAKER_01: Maybe I resisted for a while, but telling me the Spirit stays alive.
- 41:15SPEAKER_01: You know, the Spirit outlasts everything, He's alive.
- 41:20SPEAKER_01: When everything else is gone, love will abide.
- 41:23SPEAKER_01: And he continued to speak.
- 41:26SPEAKER_01: I don't know how it happened, but somehow he did what Jesus said he would do.
- 41:30SPEAKER_01: He will convince you of righteousness.
- 41:34SPEAKER_01: You are my child, and I'm well pleased.
- 41:37SPEAKER_01: Righteousness.
- 41:39SPEAKER_01: It happened.
- 41:41SPEAKER_01: What did that?
- 41:42SPEAKER_01: The word of God.
- 41:43SPEAKER_01: Because we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
- 41:48SPEAKER_01: It's the truth that makes us free.
- 41:51SPEAKER_01: And it's the truth that's speaking in you.
- 41:52SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's speaking in every single person.
- 41:57SPEAKER_01: And I think through the preaching, the foolishness of preaching of the gospel, it helps us to open our heart to give in to love.
- 42:06SPEAKER_01: And even though it gives it goes against so many things that we may be holding on to, because I'll tell you one thing it'll get me, one thing you'll let go of, you'll let go of your anger.
- 42:17SPEAKER_01: And some of us don't want to.
- 42:18SPEAKER_01: Believe me, in my travels, I find out, talking to people, they're like, no, I'm hanging on to my anger.
- 42:27SPEAKER_01: Not at just certain little individuals, but but you know, current events that are going on in the day.
- 42:33SPEAKER_01: Because my anger is going to get us there.
- 42:41SPEAKER_01: The servant doesn't know the master.
- 42:48SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
- 42:49SPEAKER_01: So he says, talked about being moved by the Spirit, and then he defines what it is and isn't.
- 42:54SPEAKER_01: He says, and you didn't receive the spirit of religious duty leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.
- 42:59SPEAKER_01: So if you think it's that, and some people do.
- 43:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm being led.
- 43:05SPEAKER_01: I hear the story.
- 43:06SPEAKER_01: Yeah, God told me that I needed to do this and do that.
- 43:09SPEAKER_01: So I went and like Paul's writing this, and he says, uh, wrong tree.
- 43:15SPEAKER_01: You mistook the knowledge of good and evil for the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God's not leading you back into the spirit of religious duty because it makes you feel like you're never quite there, never quite good enough, contrary to the word that says, You're my child, and you am well pleased.
- 43:40SPEAKER_01: But you have received the spirit of full acceptance.
- 43:45SPEAKER_01: That okay?
- 43:47SPEAKER_01: The spirit of full acceptance enfolding you into the family of God, and you will never feel or You'll never feel alone.
- 44:03SPEAKER_01: You'll never feel helpless, hapless, and hopeless.
- 44:05SPEAKER_01: You will have a faith, which is a fruit of the Spirit.
- 44:08SPEAKER_01: You will have a trust in a daddy that loves you and has nothing but the best intentions for you.
- 44:20SPEAKER_01: Even though you don't understand everything that's going on, this kind of faith, you're okay with that.
- 44:29SPEAKER_01: Because you're alive and you're in the house and you trust.
- 44:36SPEAKER_01: In God We Trust is not a slogan where we do battle against half the world.
- 44:41SPEAKER_01: In God We Trust is the children of life, children of love, children of light.
- 44:49SPEAKER_01: Experiencing that which was ordained from us from the very beginning.
- 44:55SPEAKER_01: You'll never feel orphaned.
- 44:57SPEAKER_01: Why?
- 44:58SPEAKER_01: I want that, Rick.
- 45:00SPEAKER_01: I want that living water.
- 45:01SPEAKER_01: I want to never feel alone.
- 45:02SPEAKER_01: I want to never feel orphaned.
- 45:03SPEAKER_01: I want to never feel like I'm cast out.
- 45:05SPEAKER_01: I want to never feel like I'm cut up.
- 45:07SPEAKER_01: I want to never feel like I'm disconnected.
- 45:11SPEAKER_01: You'll never feel orphaned because here's what's happening to you, me, and everybody.
- 45:18SPEAKER_01: As he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying these words of tender affection.
- 45:25SPEAKER_01: Beloved father, Abba, Father, Daddy, I'm home.
- 45:30SPEAKER_01: I know who you are, and I know who I am.
- 45:34SPEAKER_01: And that's the place that you will live forever.
- 45:37SPEAKER_01: You've stepped into it.
- 45:41SPEAKER_01: Why?
- 45:43SPEAKER_01: Because the Holy Spirit makes God's fatherhood real to us.
- 45:49SPEAKER_01: As he whispers into our innermost being, you are God's beloved child.
- 45:54SPEAKER_01: Would you all stand up?
- 46:00SPEAKER_01: This is your identity.
- 46:02SPEAKER_01: This is my identity.
- 46:03SPEAKER_01: This is home.
- 46:06SPEAKER_01: Welcome home, church.
- 46:10SPEAKER_01: You've come to Mount Zion.
- 46:13SPEAKER_01: You've come to the city of the living God.
- 46:19SPEAKER_01: Jesus has you in this place.
- 46:26SPEAKER_01: The Spirit is doing his thing.
- 46:32SPEAKER_01: He's making God's fatherhood real and he's speaking.
- 46:35SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people say, How do I get this?
- 46:37SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 46:38SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I just want to go, just shh.
- 46:41SPEAKER_01: Listen because he's speaking.
- 46:45SPEAKER_01: And when he's speaking, I heard Clark say this one time.
- 46:48SPEAKER_01: And when he speaks, believe him when he says it.
- 46:55SPEAKER_01: And give in to it.
- 46:57SPEAKER_01: And say, yes, Father.
- 47:00SPEAKER_01: I'll go ahead.
- 47:01SPEAKER_01: Even though I've been feeding swine, I'll go ahead and wear the robe.
- 47:09SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father.
- 47:12SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
- 47:13SPEAKER_01: Even though I've got these dark secrets, I'll go ahead and wear the family ring.
- 47:20SPEAKER_01: Put it on.
- 47:23SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father.
- 47:25SPEAKER_01: I will not sleep in the servants' quarters tonight.
- 47:30SPEAKER_01: I'll abide in the house of my father forever.
- 47:35SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father, I accept who I am.
- 47:41SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father, I accept your love.
- 47:45SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father, I accept that I am loved by you now.
- 47:51SPEAKER_01: Though my situations are hard for me to understand.
- 47:58SPEAKER_01: By my spirit, I know.
- 48:04SPEAKER_01: And for that I give you praise, my Father.
- 48:08SPEAKER_01: I love you forever.
- 48:12SPEAKER_01: You are the lover of my soul and my salvation.
- 48:17SPEAKER_01: Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
- 48:26SPEAKER_01: We give you thanks in Jesus' name.
- 48:28SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 48:29SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 48:30SPEAKER_01: Welcome home, church.
- 48:31SPEAKER_01: Have a wonderful day.