Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The All-In-One Gift

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The All-In-One Gift · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What I love about this season is that you're going to get Christmas cards, you're going to sing Christmas carols, and every one of them will talk about the love of God, the goodness of God, the gift of God, and what he did in giving that gift, how God and sinner were reconciled, how uh, you know, how long lay the world in sin and error pining until he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: A thrill of hope.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: A weary world can now rejoice, because now has broken a new and glorious morn.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Are we ready to go?
0:36
SPEAKER_00: We've got something special for you, um, a little bit different this morning.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, Judy and I are gonna do a uh a tag team.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: We've put together a message that uh uh uh with some object lesson to it.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We want to really drive something home here uh this morning.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna go ahead and let you start.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to imagine your favorite person in the whole world.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Just imagine that one person that you just adore, you love, you you love to be with.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna give you a couple of scenarios.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Is it me?
1:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a couple scenarios, okay?
1:14
SPEAKER_01: So you have found the perfect Christmas present for this particular person.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: It is awesome.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, awesome present for this person.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: It's something that they would love, it's something that they would find useful, it's something that would make their life better, and you just know that they are going to be blown away by this awesome, awesome present.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: And it's expensive.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: It's expensive, but money's no issue.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: You have all the money in the world, so you you purchase this awesome, awesome present, you wrap it up, you place it under the Christmas tree, and now your first scenario is that wonderful favorite person walks in Christmas morning, walks right past your present, and doesn't say a word about it, just goes about their day as if the present wasn't even there.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: So you, as the giver, I just want you to think how that would maybe feel.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Second scenario, same favorite person, same awesome gift.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: The person comes in on Christmas morning, they see the gift, they acknowledge the gift, but they don't open it.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: They just let it sit under the tree, and as time goes on, this the present sits unused under the tree.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: How, as the giver, would you feel?
2:39
SPEAKER_01: Third scenario.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: The person comes in on Christmas morning, they see the present, their eyes light up, and then they say to you, I'm sorry, I can't open it.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: I I don't deserve it.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: I talked behind your back last week, you know, I yelled at the the clerk at the grocery store, and they just start listing all the reasons why they don't deserve this awesome gift for you.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: So, how would you as the as the giver feel?
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Next scenario, same favorite person, same awesome gift.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: They walk in Christmas morning and they open it, they even thank you for it, but they never wear it, never use it, never put it on.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: Let's say it's a tool that you got them, they never use it, a pretty um outfit, they never wear it.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: It just sits in the box all day long or all year long.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
3:43
SPEAKER_01: Again, as the giver, what are what is your what are your thoughts?
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Last scenario is they open the gift, they love it, they even wear it, but then they start saying, you know, it'd be better if you changed it just a little bit.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: And they start manipulating your gift and making it into something that it never was.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, I'm making a parallel here.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: So uh we're thinking about God giving us his most favorite people on earth, the most awesome, awesome gift.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: He knows that we will love the gift, he knows it'll be good for us, he knows our life will be better if we receive it.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: But because he loves us so much, he gives us free choice.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to open it, we don't have to receive it, we don't even have to care about it.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: But he's given it once and for all, and this is what we celebrate at Christmas.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the things that I I found kind of interesting about this all-in-one gift, let's say this is Jesus, because this is the gift we get at Christmas.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: There's so much involved in that one gift.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: There's so many, let's say, smaller gifts that are included in this big gift.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we just don't realize it, we don't think about it.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: And so this morning, I'm gonna hand out some gifts to each of you.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna open it inside is a gift.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it maybe it's something that God is saying specifically to you, and maybe it's for someone else, but we're all gonna open them and then we're just gonna talk about each of these little gifts.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is being the all-in-one gift, the scriptures that we have that talk about how this one gift is actually an impartation of many gifts.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, something I quote often, says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So in Christ, in this one gift is every spiritual blessing.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: So you have, and and and and and so every kind of blessing that there would be that God could give spiritually is all wrapped up in this one one gift.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, most of us will, in fact, most of us, probably all of us here would say, Well, we know that we have Jesus.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Some people say, if I got nothing else, I got Jesus.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you've got Jesus, then you have what's in that gift.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: You have every single spiritual blessing.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 says it, I I like it even better the way he says it.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: It says the same thing, but he says, God's divine power has given to us everything, everything that pertains to life and godliness.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: So what we're looking at, looking at this this morning, and there's not, and we're not gonna go real, real deep here, but we're gonna focus this morning.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pay attention to something that is right in front of our nose this morning, that that he's given to us in this gift of himself, he's given to us every single thing that pertains to life and godliness.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like life is out here, but we got this Jesus over here.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: With with Jesus, you have everything that you need.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: So when this gift was given to us, it was a gift that fit us perfectly.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: It was exactly what we needed, it was exactly what would fulfill us.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, 31 says, What shall we say to these things?
7:24
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
7:27
SPEAKER_00: He who did not spare his own son, but he gave him instead, and he delivered him up, how shall he not with him, with the gift, freely give us everything?
7:41
SPEAKER_00: So what we're looking at when we got this thing that we say, we have Jesus, a gift was given to us.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Isaiah 9 is the verse for Christmas.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: I saw it when we walked in this morning.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: What came with the son?
8:00
SPEAKER_00: One more verse, 1 Corinthians 3 21 says, Let nobody boast in men, because all things are yours.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: So what we're looking at this morning is we're looking at some of the many facets of this all-in-one gift.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: If this is, you know, you know what an all-in-one type of thing, you know, I've like, for instance, in our office we have an all-in-one office machine.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: It copies, it faxes, it prints, you know.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Um it's all in one.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to have a bunch of different ones.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: We have this one that does absolutely everything that we need.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And so with Jesus, he's given us exactly everything that we need uh in this life.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: But people aren't aware of it, or they don't focus on it, or they don't, or they they forget about it.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Many have never even heard it, many don't even know.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: So we want to look at that this morning.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: So go ahead and open your gifts.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: These are the gifts that are included in the big gift.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: And uh Father told us to present these to you today.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody get the gift of the kingdom of God?
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Eternal life.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we're gonna start with this one, and we're gonna talk about all of them, but I like this one first because it kind of helps with the understanding of the rest of them.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: So um, Rick has done this illustration before, but I'm gonna do it just a little bit differently.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: So in the beginning, I'm gonna use this ruler.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, God created the temporal world.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: So let's say that this is the temporal world, because in the temporal world we have time, so it has a beginning and it has an end, and it has like all the time, like let's say this is where Adam and Eve were, and this is where Noah and the flood was, and so all these things are in the temporal.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: In the temporal world, what you see, what you feel, these things are what is reality to you.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Now, who created this temporal world?
10:05
SPEAKER_00: God created the world.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: God, right?
10:07
SPEAKER_01: God is outside of the temporal world, creating the temporal world, and he's also within the temporal world.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: So let's say this whole building is where God is.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: This is the eternal, okay?
10:22
SPEAKER_01: This is this is eternal, and sometimes people will say, Well, when I die, I'm gonna go to eternity.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, eternity doesn't have a beginning, it doesn't have an end.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: So it's always there, it always has been there, always will be there.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: So God is in this eternity place.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus died to give you access to.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: So all these gifts that you've received in Christ come from this place, not from this place.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: So in uh in the temporal world, we are subject to the law of thermodynamics.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about this before.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: When you place an apple on a table for over a period of time, that apple is going to disintegrate, right?
11:15
SPEAKER_01: That's just the normal, natural way in this temporal world, things fade away and they die.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: Let's say in the temporal world, if there's leprosy and you touch someone with leprosy, you get leprosy.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: That's the temporal laws of the temporal world.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Well, when Jesus came and he touched the leper, he didn't get leprosy.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he gave healing because Jesus was operating from this world into this world.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: And his whole purpose of coming, you know, think about him, for three years, he's traveling with these disciples and he's talking to them, and he's giving them parables and stories, and he's saying, This is what the kingdom of God is like.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: This is what it's like.
11:59
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come with ocular observation, but this is what it's like.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like a mustard seed, or it's it's like uh a treasure in the in the field.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: But he's he's talking to these people about a world they weren't familiar with.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were born or created, they were connected to the eternal.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: But in that love, they were given a free choice if they wanted to go on their own, which they did decide.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: They said, no, no, no, we'll we'll decide, we'll go with, we'll do what's good, we'll avoid what's evil.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: And they disconnected from this eternal realm, and it became hard, and it and it became fleshly, and all they knew, and it's what most people all they know is this temporal world.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: It's temporary, it's passing away.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Eternal is never passing away.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And it's a gift.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom of God.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: So in it, and when you receive Jesus, this is like the awesome, awesome, incredible gift that you've been given.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't know it, you don't get to experience it, right?
13:16
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't think on it, you don't remember it, you'll forget and just start living in the temporal where everything is temporary, becomes big.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about it, your problems in this world compared to this, they're so so small, right?
13:32
SPEAKER_01: So God, Jesus came to give us that kingdom of God, that eternal life is yours.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: And and remember, somebody gave that was given to us as a gift.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: It was his it was the father's good pleasure to give us this kingdom.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: What's the best way that you can give joy to the giver of the gift is to enjoy the gift.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And and if you're wondering, you know what I can do to please God, enjoy the gift.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: This is good news today.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the gift today.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy it through the rest of eternity.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, anybody get the gift of forgiveness?
14:10
SPEAKER_01: Everybody gets it, but you got it this morning.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: So um, in Psalm 103, 12, it says, as far as the east is from the west, which is infinite, right?
14:24
SPEAKER_01: Eternal, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: And then in Colossians 1, 13 to 14, it says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his son of his love, which we talked about the eternal life, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: That's what you have today.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: If you ever want to get down on yourself or something you did wrong, you don't have to.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: All I'm saying is you've already been given forgiveness.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the gift.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: And this is something that I think is so important.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: I think we've probably talked about it before, but this is why your sins have been forgiven, your past sins, your present sins, the sins you'll do today, and the future sins.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: The reason is it comes from eternity.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: There's no beginning, there's no end, there's no past, there's no future.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: All of it has been given to you in Jesus.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he gave it to the whole world.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: But not everybody in the whole world receives it.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody in the whole world even knows about it.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, so it doesn't do you any good unless you say, okay, I'm gonna receive that.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: It's like the opening of the gift that you did today.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: That's the receiving of it.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: And remember what we're talking when we're talking about forgiveness.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: This is a gift.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift that was given to us.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: We don't buy it, we don't earn it, we don't get forgiveness because we're hard enough on ourselves, so we deserve forgiveness.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: We don't get forgiveness because we said 20 Hail Marys, or we don't get forgiveness because we we don't even get forgiveness because we decided to change and do better.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Remember that, please.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: The gif that forgiveness is a gift that He gave us in the package in Christ.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness has no strings attached.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, the good thing about these things is that is that these gifts affect us and it changes us, and we know it changes our behavior.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but the forgiveness is a gift, it's free.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Please know that all the time.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: I have a little illustration of this.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: It's um let me have told this story, but uh several years ago I was working for Hilton and I was in charge of receiving checks for the company, and there was a day where one of the checks was lost, and it all came down on me.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: And uh it was a check for like I don't know, 40,000, 100,000.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was a large, large check.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'm responsible.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: I get called into my boss's office, she sits me down.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: This is a very serious issue, Judy.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, anyway, I go home that day, I leave the office, I don't know if I still have a job or not.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: I'm in my car, driving home, and it just starts that negative talk towards myself.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: It starts.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: How could you do that?
17:25
SPEAKER_01: You're so stupid.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: Like you always do something to mess things up.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna lose your job, and you're gonna, and this familiar thing starts happening in my brain, and I'm starting to learn this stuff, and I stop and I say, No, wait a minute.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: God, you knew this was gonna happen.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: You forgave any mistake that I made.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: You forgave it.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm okay.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: If I lose my job, you're gonna help me find a new job.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: And you love me, you're not condemning me, I'm not gonna condemn me.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: And I just started thinking on the thoughts of God.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: What do you think about me, God?
18:01
SPEAKER_01: You think you think I'm pretty awesome.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm the apple of your eye, you say.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: You say I'm delightful.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, I received a gift I knew about in my head, but I wasn't actually wearing it in my life because I was allowing myself to bask in unforgiveness.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: I was allowing myself to just hold on.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be honest with you, there was a part of me that wanted to do that, liked it, that it just felt familiar, that if I be hard enough on myself, then I'll stop it.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: And it's it it's uh it's a lie, it's really a lie.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: In that moment when I received what God had given me and went with that over my thoughts, that's when it was lifted.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: And of course, y'all know stories like this.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: In the end, a couple days later, somehow the check was found, I never got fired, it all worked out.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: But it I'm just saying, in that that that propensity, and I don't know if anyone else has it, but if you think most people do, I think most people do, that propensity to not forgive yourself or to be unforgiving to someone else, it's really living below what you've been actually given.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And understanding that forgiveness is a gift.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says freely you've received, freely give.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: It's when you find out that that forgiveness has been completely given to you, with no strings attached, that you have forgiveness to give.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: He that has received it has it to give.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: He that's received mercy has mercy to give.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: And this is how the world changes through what God does it uh for us.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Anyone have righteousness?
19:50
SPEAKER_01: The gift of righteousness?
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Holy, holy.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: Good for you.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: We put that in there just to see if you were really going to look at the gift of righteousness.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: This is a great gift.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: I loved your definition of it, so why don't we righteousness is the ability to stand before God, walk with God, be with God without any sense of guilt, without any sense of fear, without any sense of sin or any inferiority.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: It's that right standing with God where you know you belong with him, but what this gift did was it was the it gave you this thing called righteousness.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: And it has nothing to do with your weakness or your goodness, has nothing to do with your failures or your successes.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Understand that's this is what this is, why this is so good today, is because we're talking about a gift here.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And this ability to stand before God with no guilt, without any fear or sense of sin, is a gift that comes to you.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And when you when you open it, when you receive that, when it becomes a reality to you, it changes how you walk every day.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: You know you can be with God all the time.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do anything to break the doors down to be with God.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: So we all have received this gift of righteousness, all of us have.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna say to you, Stacy, 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: You are.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: So if you call him something else, be aware of what's going on here.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and also uh Romans 5.17 says, For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: For all who will receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: That's important because notice it says, All who receive that gift, who receive it, open the gift and enjoy it, will live in victory over sin and death.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Why?
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Because you know that it's that that when you've Perceived righteousness or right standing with God, as a man thinks in his heart, so is.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: If you think you're righteous, you'll live like you're righteous.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: If you still think you're a sinner, you're going to live like a sinner and wonder why you can't stop.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: But we needed this gift of righteousness, and God knew what would be a perfect gift for us.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: And if you ever see Stacey doing something not righteous, just remember he hasn't received his righteousness that day.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: But he's got the gift.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: But he's got the gift.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: See, it's the difference between knowing it and receiving it.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Walking in it.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay, how about no condemnation?
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Anybody get that one?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: My favorite.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: This is Rick's favorite.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: This changed your life, right?
22:43
SPEAKER_00: I walked for decades before I finally opened that thing under the tree.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: It was sitting there for so long.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: But but this is when you understand, this goes along with the righteousness too.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: There's that that it's a gift.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: There again, it's if it's based on my my perfections or my flaws, then I don't get it.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a chance for it.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: It had to be a gift.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: It had to be a gift of no condemnation.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: And so when I finally opened that gift, it changed me.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: It just, I mean, it it changed me so much it drives some people crazy.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Because you cannot condemn me.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a gift.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And I do lots of things to be condemned for.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can you can it's it's not hard.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: You can look at me and point out things that I should be condemned for, but I will not be condemned because I got me a gift.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: I really have never met anyone like him.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm his wife, obviously.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: I live with him, I'm with him 24-7.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: And he does not receive condemnation.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: It's like how and and you know what?
23:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I do it because it's sort of how in this world I kind of train that you motivate somebody.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Just give them a little bit of condemnation, it'll get them moving, right?
23:58
SPEAKER_01: But Rick, I get I and I don't mean I'm not doing it on purpose, but I do it.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: It's like it comes out of my mouth and it just hits them and falls right on the floor.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, I'm just left with my little condemning thought that it didn't work.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: But you don't receive it, and I think that's really amazing that you don't get defensive, you don't fight back, you just don't you don't have to if you're not condemned.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: People people fight back and want to prove their right and put prove their position because they feel that condemnation and they're trying to get it off of them.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: But when you know the gift, and see there again, these are all things that are under our tree.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: And and you know, I used to think that I would finally arrive to a place where I didn't feel the condemnation.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh the sense of inferiority that I wasn't living up to it, uh living up to the standards.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh I thought I would get it, I thought I would finally get that feeling once I got better.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Once I got rid of a few things and and and did a few things better in my life, I thought that that would relieve that sense of condemnation that I that I carried on me.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: But that's a myth.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: There's no way to ever get to that place.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: It had to be a gift.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: It had to be a gift.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh Romans 8.1 says, There is now, therefore, no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: You've received this gift, you've received no condemnation.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: One time Judy was talking to the Lord, she told me this later on.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: She said, She said, I was talking to God about you.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And I just said, Lord, I think he could use, I know there's no condemnation, but I think he could use just a little bit this time.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: Every time he speaks, and then I'm asking the Lord just for a little bit.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: But it's wonderful to wake up every day and not have any of that and know that God digs me, stink and all.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: And the thing about condemnation is it's a tool of the carnal, so it doesn't produce life.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: It it can work a little bit like you can condemn people and they'll do what you you want them to do.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Or try with their willpower.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: But it it product in this world really produces death, right?
26:11
SPEAKER_01: If you really want someone to change, don't give them condemnation because you're actually keeping them stuck in.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Give them righteousness.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: So so either just zip or speak life into them, speak life, and that's such a more valuable uh thing to give them.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: If you really want to see uh and the other thing is, is if you stop, this is what I found.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: If you just stop, don't do it, somehow God has a way of doing it in a different way, or maybe a different time, or or it's actually you get to witness eternity working rather than your small method.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you why that works.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: If you if you can receive the the fact that you've got no condemnation from God, now you can be close to him, now you can listen to him, now he can instruct you, now now you can hear God and he can talk to you because you don't have that barrier of your of your insufficiencies and your flesh and your stupidity and your your unspirituality.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: You don't have that barrier anymore.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter about all that.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: He gave the gifts so that there would be no barrier.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: And so when you have no condemnation, God can now work with you.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: God can now speak to you and do the changes that he likes to do.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: You can be mates.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Me and God, we'd be mates.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: How about a counselor?
27:38
SPEAKER_01: Anyone get the Holy Spirit?
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Counselor?
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Often one.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: This uh I really love this scripture.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: Um Jesus is speaking.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: This is the amplified version, which I really love.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: It says, the helper, but the helper, and in parentheses it says, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselor, strengthener, standby, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and he will help you remember everything that I have told you.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: So we have a counselor.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus even said in the book of John, he says, When you go before men, don't even worry about what you're going to say, because somebody will be with you.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Your father will be with you, and he will give you the words to speak.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know when I've gone through the toughest things I've gone through in my life, and I was hurting and it felt like my world was crushed, I had a counselor.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: I had somebody to talk me through, I had somebody to walk me through.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I won't leave you alone, I won't leave you hapless and helpless and hopeless.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you the comforter, the counselor, the standby.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: You'll always have me with you all the time.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: And when you and when you can receive it that way, there again, receiving it is the key.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: That's why we wanted to use the opening of the gifts.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Because receiving it is the key.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Instead of going around with the with the thing left under the tree and just saying, well, God never talks to me, or I never hear God, or or I just don't ever get any direction or all that.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Open the gift and believe with faith that you've got somebody that cares about you, somebody that wants to talk to you, somebody that wants to help you, that's got your best, because he really does.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: And when you see, it takes faith, doesn't it, with everything with God, because we're not talking about natural things.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about supernatural, eternal things that are more real.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And so we we operate by the Spirit.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: We believe with our with our heart, and we receive that we have a counselor.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: And if you believe that, then as a man believes, so is it.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh then you then you start.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been there.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I've been to the place where I say, God, I just can't hear you.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm spiritually dense, I just I just can't hear.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm uh and and and God told me, He said, I am big enough to get it to you.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: I can talk to Balaam's donkey and he can hear me.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: I can talk to the rocks and they'll cry out.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's not about your stupidity or your heart of hearing, it's about my ability to speak to you because I love you.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: There again, it puts it all on him.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: It's the gift.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, we've heard this quite a bit, and I've said it myself, is I've done all the right things, but I'm not hearing anything.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: And I it's almost like I'm doing everything right that I know to do, and I'm expecting God to then speak to me in the way that I want him to speak to me, in the way that I know.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: It's like having a relationship with a vending machine, though, rather than a person, right?
30:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: Because you're you're you're demanding it be one way instead of being in a relationship with an actual person who you know takes a breath, who who who you know listens, who brings other things into play to help you hear what he's trying to say.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: So to remember that that it's a person, not a vending machine.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: And he cares.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: And he does speak, and then when he does speak to you, um believe him when he says it.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, go with what he's doing.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Because he's got your best in mind.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: He's so good.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, the mind of Christ.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: Anyone got the mind of Christ?
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, this was also from the Amplified.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: For who has known or understood the mind, the counsels and the purposes of the Lord, so as to guide and instruct him and give him knowledge.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: But we have the mind of Christ and do hold the thoughts, the feelings, and the purposes of his heart.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: And that's 1 Corinthians 2 16.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Remember, God in the Old Testament, he promised that he was going to give this gift to us someday.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And he did it with Jesus.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm gonna put my ways, my thoughts in their hearts and in their mind.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give that to them.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Who has known the mind of the Lord?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, he said, he said, My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: But then he says, But God reveals them to us by his Spirit.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, he's given us, the Bible says, we have the mind of Christ.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we have the mind about the Father that Christ uh revealed to us.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: We know that he's loved, that he loves us, we know that he's for us.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: We don't think, you know, when when we were carnal, we thought all kinds of crazy things about God.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: But when with the with this mind of Christ that we have, the Holy Spirit, really, we know God, or and we are knowing God, coming to know God.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: So, and we also, because of the mind of Christ, we know not just the things of this world, but with the mind of Christ is how we become to know the things of the realm of God, the eternal.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: I think in the religious world, you study the Bible, you learn everything you can, you get degrees, and that makes you uh intelligent, superior, whatever.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: You have the best knowledge there is, but only in this world.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: In in the mind of Christ, in the spiritual, you have if you never even graduated from high school, you have access to more than they do in the natural.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: No, there's nothing wrong with having degrees and being really smart and all of that, but it only will lead to death in carnal reality, in this reality.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: But God has the knowledge that will bring to life things of life.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: In other words, expanding, expanding, growing rather than depleting, depleting, dying.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: That's why you don't have to worry about anything you might face in this life.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of ugly things out there that could that could come our way.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: But you don't have to worry because no matter what you walk through, no matter what you deal with, you will have, and it goes along with the counselor, this thing.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: You will all you will have that the ways of God to help you and to lead you.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: You'll always have that with you.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's a lot of times we're we're trying to figure out a problem, and it's like, well, do you know what we're gonna do yet?
33:53
SPEAKER_00: And you just have this confidence, like, no, I don't, but but we will.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: We will.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: So you just keep walking because you know that you carry within you the mind of Christ.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And one scripture says, and you know all things.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: So you have that, you carry that capacity.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful gift that we carry the the one that knows everything, and so you always have that access.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like now we've got Google.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said last night, what did we do before Google?
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, we just didn't know.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Now we've got access to to know everything.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit like that.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody get the gift of joy?
34:28
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay, two joys.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: These things have I spoken unto you that my joy.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus speaking.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, These things I have spoken unto you that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
34:46
SPEAKER_01: So remember, in this carnal world, even unsaved people have joy, right?
34:52
SPEAKER_01: They can be happy, right about whatever, but it always comes to an end, right?
34:59
SPEAKER_01: The joy that Jesus gives us access to is eternal.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: No beginning, no end.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: It's everlasting joy.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: It just bubbles up, it's there no matter what your circumstances are.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about um the evergreen tree the other day when we were driving.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: When you're when you're driving, you see all these trees are dead and brown and whatever.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: And you notice that the evergreen tree is still green, it's still got sap in it.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: It's regardless of the season, regardless of the situations, it's still got life in it, it's still got its joy.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: It's inside, it's not subject to the temporary conditions of the outside.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: That's happiness and sorrow.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: But joy is something that keeps you going all the time, and that's and and that's when it doesn't matter what your situation is, but you carry the joy of the Lord that's in you all the time.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: And the joy of the Lord is your strength.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And the next one goes along with it.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And these are words that we see a lot at Christmas time, the the uh uh Christmas cards.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: The next one is peace.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: And anybody have peace?
36:08
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, good one.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: Again, people in this world can have peace.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: If everything's going right, your family is healthy, you can have peace if your job is going well, but that stops, the peace leaves.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: In the eternal and what God has given to us, it means whatever situation you're in, whatever circumstance, there can be peace.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: You're you're you have a lifeline to peace.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: It's a peace, the Bible says it passes understanding.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: So it's not natural peace which comes and goes on circumstances.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not tied to what's going on.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: It's something that's eternal and you carry with you no matter what's happening.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: What what it happens is is people don't, they can't, when they look at you, they can't tell if you're going through a bad situation or a good one because you have this peace about you no matter what.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you like the bad thing that you might be dealing with, but you have peace.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And that that peace is that same thing that causes you to rest when there's a storm in the Sea of Galilee, when everybody else going through the same thing thinks they're going to die.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: It's all these things have been given to us, and he said, It's my peace I give to you, not like the world gives.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: Because the world just has it temp, just gives these little temporary bursts based on situations.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I give you an everlasting peace.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: It's not fake, it's not phony, it's not pretending.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: Pretending is in the religious world when you're just operating out of this.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: It's actual, powerful, huge peace.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember when Jesus was with the woman at the well and she wanted water and he said, I can give you everlasting water.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, that you'll never thirst again.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Why could Jesus say that to her?
38:00
SPEAKER_01: Because he's coming from this eternal place where there is no beginning and no end.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: She is thinking about the real, the water, the reality of water in this world.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about something above and beyond.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: Patience.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Anyone have patience?
38:18
SPEAKER_01: You do have patience, don't you?
38:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we want.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: But do the cowboys play early today?
38:25
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to try your natural patience with this.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: So we want to push this along here and finish it up.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: I have just one scripture for patience, and that is love is patient.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: And that's from 1 Corinthians 13, 4.
38:41
SPEAKER_01: And you've heard a lot in the world, don't pray for patience, because God'll test your patience.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: Like he's going to give you these really hard lessons so that you can learn patience.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: I think that's ridiculous.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever been through hard situations like that, does your patience get better?
38:58
SPEAKER_01: Or does it just show how little you have, right?
39:03
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't uh if God is not giving you hard circumstances to train you in carnal patience.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work that way.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: There is a supernatural gift that you receive that provides the patience in that.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: I used to think it was a fleshly learned discipline.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God's trying to work treat teach me patience by putting me through this hard thing.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Remember, it's a gift.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: It's it's something they just put under the tree, and he says, Here you go, son, you've been needing this for a long time.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: Just take it.
39:35
unknown: I'm glad I'm glad I've got that.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: I am too.
39:40
unknown: What I want, I want it done yesterday.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: You want it, you want to give me the patience I want it now.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: And it and it's a gift, and it changes you and it makes your life better.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh there was a time nobody would have ever called me patient.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: I was a total opposite of that.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: But it's a gift.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's not a fleshly quality, it's a gift.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: Kindness.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: anybody get kindness?
40:04
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: You are kind.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Now this one seems like a little weak one here, doesn't it?
40:11
SPEAKER_01: It says in Romans 2, 4, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness?
40:16
SPEAKER_01: And then it says, His kindness leads us to repentance.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: It's good.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: Kindness is powerful.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: If you if you're if you if you have received this this gift from God and you operate in it and you you enjoy it, um, and you you can kill people with kindness, but not literally, of course, but you but but um you know the Bible says that a kind word, or no, it says a gentle word.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: That's another way, we'll talk about that one.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: But kindness is something to where I've found that there again, when I talk about these things, every one of these things I was total opposite of at one time in my life.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: And and and that I've received the gift of kindness from the Father.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: The first thing is knowing that the Father has kind to you, that he's always kind.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: I used to say, oh, God took me to the woodshed, or God, you know, boy, we're in line for a for a whipping from God and all that, but in reality, I've never seen God anything but kind, gentle, patient, and good to me.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: These are things that he has given of himself to me and you.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you know my husband, you know that he's a little bit of a goofball.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: And a little bit of a goofball.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: And on Facebook, I think it was like last week, he posts, like sometimes he posts just like, have you seen them like just ridiculous?
41:38
SPEAKER_00: No, those are yours.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: You hack my account.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: No.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, anyway, a couple weeks ago, we had just come back from my parents.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: We were at my family in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: He posts a picture of Saint Nicholas with a really big forehead and look like a Klingon.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: So he says something about St.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: Nicholas being a Klingon.
42:05
SPEAKER_01: My mother reads it, and my mother is like diehard Catholic.
42:11
SPEAKER_01: She's totally offended by this post.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: And she's quick to tell him on the post, like she's saying, like, oh, you know, um That's not funny.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's mockery.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're mocking the saints, and and it's because you don't understand the importance of saints, and and she's upset because a lot of Rick's friends are laughing and and making more jokes about it, and she's just totally like, you don't understand the Catholic ways, and it's supposed to bring you into union with God.
42:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's sh she's offended.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: So I am like, my mom knows that Rick is just joking, he's a kind-hearted person, he's not mean-spirited.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: So I construct this little paragraph that I want to write back to her saying, Rick knows.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a little paragraph.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, as little as I did it.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, he knows what an icon is, and he's not being mean.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: And so I make this whole explanation of why Rick just has a goofy sense of humor.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: And I show it to Rick and I said, Can I post this?
43:20
SPEAKER_01: And he says, No.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, let me handle it.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: So a little while later, I see on the post Rick said to my mom, he said, he said, Mom, I'm sorry.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'm not very thoughtful.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: So then she comes back on a little while later and she says, I forgive you.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: Basically, she's saying, like, let me explain to you the intellectual, you know, origin of this icon, and and I forgive you.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: So then Rick he deletes the post, so it's no longer there, no longer.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: And then Rick says a bit later, he gets a personal text from my mother saying, I'm sorry I got offended.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: It was very funny.
44:12
SPEAKER_01: Basically, that's what she said.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: So he says.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: Kindness leads to repentance.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: She repented.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: But I guess that illustration is just I wanted to explain, he just was kind.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: He didn't need uh he didn't need her to understand where he was coming from.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: And what she were saying, it was it was all right and good stuff, but but you you get to where you're starting to play ping-pong, and some well, I'm right because I said this and I'm right and I'm right.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't understand.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: And who cares?
44:42
SPEAKER_00: Kindness is the gift.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: And so when you've received the gift, then you can give the gift.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: And it makes the world wonderful.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: I asked Rick yesterday, I said, Rick, what makes you have a successful day?
44:55
SPEAKER_01: Like what makes you feel successful?
44:57
SPEAKER_01: And he said, if I am in the operating in the spirit, like that to me is a successful day.
45:03
SPEAKER_01: Which is if I've been kind, if I've been felt, you know, loving, if if I've had entered into this eternal realm, I feel I've had a successful day.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: It's not so much on what I achieved or what I accomplished, it's that I engaged in these and received these gifts of the world.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about entering the eternal realm, it's not mystical and and and and and or anything.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: It's we're talking about the thing, we're talking about the things of this realm, the joy, the peace, the love, the kindness, the goodness, the patience, the peace.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: If I can live a day like that, I've had a successful day.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay, faithfulness.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: Anyone got faithfulness?
45:42
SPEAKER_01: Yep, Linda?
45:43
SPEAKER_01: For he has said, I will never under any circumstances desert you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake you, or let you down, or relax my hold on you.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: Assuredly not.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 13, 5.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's a gift.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful to you.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one scripture says, even if we are not faithful, yet he abides faithful.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: That's because it's about him.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: It's his gift to you.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: There have been times when I didn't act so faithful, but he was always faithful to me.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: And it makes us that type of person.
46:20
SPEAKER_01: Self-control.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: Good one.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's uh translated sound mind, but it also can be translated self-control.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: That's 2 Timothy 1.7.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: And then Philippians 4.3 says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Self-control is not willpower.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Willpower, you can accomplish some things.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: You can even quit some habits by willpower.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: We all have different degrees of it in different areas of life.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Some have stronger willpower in an area than others.
46:55
SPEAKER_00: And what that does is a lot of times it makes us feel like we're better than you because, like, well, I quit this habit and that habit when I became a Christian.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with you?
47:02
SPEAKER_00: It's willpower and it's still flesh, but there's a self-control that's a gift.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift, and it's called it's one of the fruits of the Spirit.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: It's because we have the Spirit of God in us, his ability gives us the self-control.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: There again, with all these things, walking in no condemnation, walking with a God who digs you and is all for you, that does something in you.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: It changes you where pressure, religion, and and uh condemnation uh can't do it.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: All it does is either it either puts you down and gives you a sense of inferiority spiritually, or it gives you a sense of pride because you think you're doing something good.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: Right.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: But self-control is a gift.
47:41
SPEAKER_01: In the carnal world, we say there's a a couple kinds of flesh.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: One is like the weak flesh, one is the really strong flesh, which we call the USDA choice flesh, the good stuff, and then just like the average flesh, right?
47:58
SPEAKER_01: So even the USDA choice flesh, even the strongest flesh, only accomplishes death.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: Even the strongest and has limitations.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: And so at the end of your life, when you're you're you're thinking over your life, you're not thinking of all the things that led to you know this carnal death.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: None of that means anything.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: But the access that you had to life, that's what you're walking into.
48:24
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're come, you know, that's what you're coming from and into.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: People get frustrated because they fail with the in the areas of self-control.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: Open the gift and understand God's given me something.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: I've seen people delivered from habits, pornography, and different things, when they finally realize it's not about my strength, it's about this thing that God has given me.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Jesus overcame it for me.
48:47
SPEAKER_01: What happens when it's about your strength is then when you fail, you feel shame, you feel condemnation, you it just goes down deeper into the and you'll give up.
48:56
SPEAKER_01: So okay, gentleness.
48:58
SPEAKER_01: We're almost finished.
49:00
SPEAKER_01: Gentleness.
49:01
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
49:02
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying this, he says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, from for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is one kind of like kindness, where it seems like it's a small gift, like it's a kind of like one of the weaker ones that that that that he gives us.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: But but we're talking about how he is.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: So we're not talking about anything weak if we're talking, if he says, This is how I am, I'm I'm gentle and I'm meek.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, uh a scripture you shared in your book on the fruit of the spirit, which she has brand new, got her stuff, games, children's books, Christmas presents are down there if you need them.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: But um, and your book's doing really well.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: People are getting a lot of good reviews and feedback.
49:44
SPEAKER_00: But in her book, she mentions a verse that has to do with this, and it's out of Proverbs.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: It says, Um, a gentle answer turns away wrath.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: Where something that seems weak, it's powerful enough to overpower anger, which looks strong, and people get angry because they're trying to be strong, but a gentle answer will overpower that.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:07
SPEAKER_01: See, in this carnal world, they don't you don't esteem gentleness, but in the spirit, the gentleness is very, very strong.
50:15
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me the other night and says, so that means that you don't get mad about anything?
50:18
SPEAKER_00: No, there's a lot of things we hate.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: A lot of things are evil.
50:21
SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to like them.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: But in all of this, we have this spirit of gentleness and bigness about us, where it doesn't freak us out and make us act stupid and religious and judgment.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, when a tree is growing, the fruit starts as a little piece of sap, and then it becomes like a little blossom, and then it becomes a real small fruit, and then it becomes a bigger fruit, and then a fully ripe fruit.
50:46
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people want the big ripe fruit right at the start.
50:51
SPEAKER_01: What happens is whenever you're you're condemning yourself or or judging yourself or other people because it's just sap right now, it's not the full-fledged fruit yet.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: You're you're you're killing it, you know, before it has a chance to actually grow.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: So, in this sense, it's good to be good to yourself.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: It's good for you to say, I see self-control starting to manage.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm seeing little bits of it, and just focus on that and be thankful for that.
51:21
SPEAKER_00: Celebrate it.
51:22
SPEAKER_01: It grows, it grows.
51:23
SPEAKER_01: That's the Philemon 1-9.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: Faith is affected by acknowledging every good thing that's in you.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: So as you acknowledge even the smallest evidence of patience, rather than seeing how far away you are with patience, if you see and acknowledge that's how God is with you.
51:41
SPEAKER_01: I see your little victories, I see them.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying, gosh, you have so far to go, you know.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you do, but you don't get farther by bashing yourself down.
51:53
SPEAKER_01: You get farther by watering it, like being good to it.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: The fact that we have so far to go and so much to learn, that's exciting.
52:02
SPEAKER_00: That means it's going to get so much better.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: And you talk about that in your book, too.
52:07
SPEAKER_00: I just want to mention one more thing about that I like about her book on the fresh fruit of the spirit, is that these are not things she presents as something you have to try to cultivate or or or or or or make happen in you, that these are given to you because they're of the spirit.
52:24
SPEAKER_00: They came when you got the spirit.
52:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay, last one.
52:29
SPEAKER_00: The greatest is who has love?
52:32
SPEAKER_01: Love.
52:33
SPEAKER_02: Julie.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: Um Jeremiah 31.3 says, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: And Ephesians 3.18 says, May you grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of God.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: Do you see eternity in that scripture?
52:53
SPEAKER_01: How high, how long, how wide, how deep.
52:57
SPEAKER_01: It's immense.
52:59
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, 1 Corinthians 13, 13, the greatest of these is love.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: It's bigger and deeper and wider and longer than that.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: It's all that.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: And understand this uh with in finality.
53:14
SPEAKER_00: When you open that gift, the greatest is love.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: When you see that aspect of Jesus and know that God digs you with no strings attached, with no requirements to open it, that it's been given as a gift, that no matter what, God loves you.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: That's all there is to it.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: What that does to change everything for the better about you and around you is the miracle.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: The greatest of these things is love.
53:44
SPEAKER_01: That's why Rick gets a lot of criticism for talking about love so much, because people are only imagining the love that's in this realm.
53:51
SPEAKER_00: Natural love, human love.
53:56
SPEAKER_01: This great love that is, you know, God's love.
54:00
SPEAKER_01: This is the scripture that I had for the whole um the whole teaching today is from 1 Corinthians 2.12.
54:07
SPEAKER_01: And it says, Now we have received.
54:09
SPEAKER_01: So everyone in here has opened a gift you've received.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, not this temporal, carnal world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: So as you go through your week this week, as you finish out this Christmas season, this awesome season, when you're driving, when you're doing some work at home, maybe washing the dishes, think on these things.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: Rather than the stresses and the anxieties that can come at this time of year, just put your mind on, oh yeah, I have this gift of love, I have this gift of patience, of kindness, and think on those things.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand up.
54:57
SPEAKER_02: Merry Christmas.
55:09
SPEAKER_00: I love this passage here out of Matthew 6.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: He says, What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax.
55:16
SPEAKER_00: Don't be so preoccupied with getting, just respond to God's giving.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: People that don't know God and the way he works, they're fussing over these things, trying to get them.
55:26
SPEAKER_00: But you know God and you know how he works.
55:29
SPEAKER_00: So steep your life in God reality, God initiative, and what God has provided.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about missing out.
55:36
SPEAKER_00: You'll find that all of your everyday human concerns will be met.
55:41
SPEAKER_00: Because we've got the all-in-one gift.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your goodness and your love, and I thank you for your, I thank you for coming the way that you did, born in a manger, to give us the gift, the unspeakable gift.
55:55
SPEAKER_00: May we celebrate it today.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit to help us all to be aware that it's a life changing thing, that we're conscious and aware of you all the time, that we walk with joy and peace and the goodness of God all over us.
56:09
SPEAKER_00: That and it's so tangible that people would look at us and say, What is it that you've got?
56:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, his name is Jesus, the all in one gift.
56:17
SPEAKER_00: So we thank you for this day in the name of Jesus.
56:21
SPEAKER_00: Amen.