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Leaving Law-Law Land (Part 1) · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of what kind of glorious good things are we gonna speak and hear about God today?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, it's gonna be good because if we're talking about our Father, it's nothing but good.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a scripture in 1 John 3 that it's one of those that for a long time I wasn't quite able to be convinced exactly of what was being talked about.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the verse where it said that he that is born of God cannot sin.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it said he that's born of God does not sin, and he cannot sin because his seed remains in us.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I it it sounds really good and positive, but I couldn't quite figure out exactly where it placed.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Was he saying that somehow him being in us causes us to not ever mess up at all?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Does it get to get us to the place where we don't sin?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, if we're born of God, we don't.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then I know you know we would teach it and we would hear teaching where we say, well, what it means is you don't uh you know you don't just keep sinning all the time.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You you decrease your sin.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, I that that sounds pretty good, but I don't know.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then uh you know, people would talk about, well, legally, it just means you don't sin.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess there's uh you know I anyway, here's here's what has happened to me.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what what happens as we behold God and we're really seeing who he is, we're actually coming to a knowledge uh of the reality of the person of God, our Father.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we start, and we really do start to understand our Bible.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: We start to understand the scriptures, at least it makes more sense to us.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I've noticed is that if I if I just look in the context of it and see, you know, what was the guy thinking when he when he wrote, it it all seems to fit and it makes perfect sense.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to look at 1 John chapter 3 today and look at a few verses, and some and quite a few questions get answered here right now.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's some beautiful, beautiful things here uh in this passage.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start in 1 John chapter 3, verse 1.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful verse.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've quoted it, I couldn't, I couldn't imagine how many times I've quoted this verse.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, verse 1.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 3, 1.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, what kind of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the world does not know us because it didn't know him.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I like to try to get in the mind of the writer here.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's thinking, just think of this.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of love is this?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That we're called the children of God.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and and the world doesn't know us because it didn't know him.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: First point I want to make today is when we read the Bible, and we read in the New Testament, there are a lot of references about don't love the world and the world doesn't love us, the world did not love Jesus, um, be separate from the world.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: What we think of in our modern American Christianity, we think the world is sinners.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: What the church world would call sinners.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you think the world is the gay community, or you think the world is is the liberals, or you think the world is the, you know, somebody committing some kind of is people in prison, or you know, people doing, doing people not like us in church.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we think that's the world, and and we want to not be like the world, so we try not to be like the world.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've I've been around churches where not being like the world was you don't dress like the world.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: What do you dress like?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, some of them would dress like you just came in on a covered wagon, and that's a good way of not being like the world, you know.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um some of them would don't go to, you know, you you would you don't don't play cards, don't, don't drink, don't smoke, don't, some of them would even not go to the movie show, you know.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's their way of not being like the world because in their mind that was the world out there.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But but in the Bible, it's really easy to see if you look at it, the world that they were talking about was really the church of the day.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when Jesus said, the world, he said, the world will not like you because they didn't like me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who did not like Jesus?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Was it sinners?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I can't I can't think of one sinner in the Bible that didn't like Jesus.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: When I talk about sinner, I'm talking about non-church guy that that that obviously was doing things that people knew that they were guilty of, like a woman in adultery, or like a thief like Zacchaeus, or you know.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and even Samaritans and demoniacs, they all seemed to really like Jesus.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, the world hated me, therefore they'll hate you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the world that hated Jesus was not the non-church center people committing transgressions, world.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Who hated Jesus?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who were the ones that wanted to have him crucified?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who were who were against him, who were always trying to trap him, who were always trying to trip them up, who were always trying to make them look bad, who were working against him.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that world out there, it was the the the religious world.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's really what the Bible is talking about.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he says this, he's saying, he's saying, the world, the world does not know us because it didn't know him.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he's contrasting something here.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, think of this, we are the children of God.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus came and introduced the concept of a wonderful father, didn't he?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people didn't get it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't get Jesus.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he got crucified because he called God his father.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was the sin of blasphemy.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he says, think of this, we are his children.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And there are people in religion that don't get this because they didn't understand Jesus.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't understand this concept of a father and child relationship, a father and offspring.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and because they don't get that, they don't get us.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say today, you know, when we when we're talking about a revelation of that kind of love, as we come into a knowledge of his grace, his goodness, and his love, there's there's a lot of people that don't, they don't connect with you.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, people, good people in the church world.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's too much.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's greasy grace, it's hyper grace, it's yeah, God is love, but, you know, all that kind of stuff.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And why don't they quite get it?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're missing something here.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh well, see the title of my message is Leaving La La Land, like that clever title.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: There again, I made it up myself.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: L-A-W-L-A-W, not Hollywood, but but La La Land.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a place to dwell.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, people, you know, you can you can live in this world where there is still some legalism, and it's la law land, and it's a little leaven sometimes, but it's a little leaven that can leaven the whole lump, and it's still la-la land.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's there's being in Christ, where you're in relationship land or grace land, and uh and and and you're in Christ, and and and you have the father-son relationship.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and the world doesn't get it because it's two different worlds in a sense.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, and one of the differences is like this.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I you know, over here in law-law land, it's you have more of a contractual relationship with God.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: By that, you know, a contract, a business contract, it's based on limited liability.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you if you do this, then I'm obligated to do that in a contract.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't fulfill this, if you don't do that, then I don't have to do this.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen some of that in our uh in some church teaching, I've heard it a lot in my time, where it's like, if I don't do this, then God's not obligated to do that.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have to bless me, not if I don't do that.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have to give me favor.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have to approve of me or be pleased with me, not if I don't do this.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's contractual.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And while a contract is based on limited liability, a communion with the person of God is based on unlimited reliability because it's a love relationship.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Another difference is that over here in La Lawland, there's more of a judicial kind of a mindset going on.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: God's a judge.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I've talked to people, I've talked to people from Graceland over here, and you know what I sound like.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: God is love, God is love, God is love.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And my friends in law land, they're like, oh yes, he is.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I've often said, but he's also just he's also a judge.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's he's love, but he also, what's the word they use?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: He also is um he's he he's he's he's just and so he has to do this certain things to sin.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's a contractual thing, and it's judicial, and they think of God.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a very warm, loving thing, it's a God that they're they're devoted to, a God that they worship, a God they're committed to, a God they're very serious about, they're very devout, and they really mean business, and they really want to serve him well.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they talk a lot about that stuff, a lot about serving him.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And because he's a judge.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's up here on his judge's bench, and he's always dealing with it with us, and we're always the ones that are that are at risk of being guilty of something that will always exist in this land, law law land.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have Graceland, where as opposed to instead of a judging judicial relationship, we have a loving relationship.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have daddy.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the prodigal son, who living in law lawland, says, I am not worthy to be called his son, but he comes home and his daddy says, Come home, wear the ring, you belong here.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a loving relationship, and what you did doesn't change daddy at all.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if he had a judicial relationship with that, with his father in that story, then that the story would not have turned out as pretty as it was, and we wouldn't we wouldn't like the preaching of it.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there's two different lands that we can operate in.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm talking about leaving law all that completely.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to give permission to people.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: If there's still some of this and some questions and all this stuff, I hope that that the Holy Spirit will will speak to us and make things clear that that we have every right to be free from that.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's not our home.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: We don't belong there, we don't owe it anything.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh next verse in 1 John chapter 3, verse 2.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he's revealed, we shall be like him because we'll see him as he is.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or the the the word there is when he's made apparent.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: When we when we we see who he is, we we really uh we we know him or start to know him, he says, we become like him.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's just like 2 Corinthians 3 that says that when we behold, when the veil is removed, he's made apparent.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: When the veil is removed and it's it's removed in Christ.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this grace land that I'm talking about over here on this side of the uh of the platform, this is also in Christ.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: La la land, judicial relationship, contractual relationship, it's also in death.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we pass from death to life, we know because of some fruit that abounds.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's also in 1 John because we love the brethren.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about the fruit here in just a moment.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is a fruit, and that's something that when you're over here in law lawland, you're afraid that that doesn't bear fruit.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's hyper grace.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what'll happen if you live over there.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: You all have heard it, right?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you live over there in hyper-grace land, you're all gonna sin.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna burn the cities down, you're gonna do all kinds of stuff over there.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, when he appears, we we shall be like him because we'll see him as he is.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3, we know, tells us that when the veil is removed in Christ, we behold the glory of the Lord.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say that's the goodness of the Lord, and we're changed into that same image because we become reality.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: We become what we see because what we're seeing is our father.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when you see who your father is, it gives you insight into who you are.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I did a few years ago, I started getting into the ancestry DNA thing, you know, and wanted to see, especially on one particular side of the family, and I saw it clear.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I found out the lineage and I found out where we came from, and I was like, I found out about me.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because I found out who my daddy was.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, I just so you know, I knew my natural father, but I didn't know what his what country they had come from.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um then the next verse says, and everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Very quickly, I want to say two things about that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: What that means is over here is where you see these things, and this is where you see yourself pure and clean.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: You are accepted in the beloved.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Over here is where the approval of the father empowers the children.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Over in La La Land, you're always trying to gain the Father's approval, and they're always, and there can often feel like there's a gap because as much as you're trying, there's always something else to do.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's always some more act of obedience that you need to fulfill.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's something else.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's the key?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: What am I missing?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, you know the commandments.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I've done all that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: What else am I lacking?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm lacking something, I'm missing something.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in La Lawland, there's always this sense of missing.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're not quite there.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's always more you have to do.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not winning enough souls, you're not giving enough, you're not praying enough, you're not attending enough, you're there's something you're not doing enough, it seems like all the time in La Lawland.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because that place is a place of lack, that place is a place where where you never get you never get the abundance of life that comes from the loving relationship, that comes from being home with God.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you see yourself clean, but you do also bear fruit.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what people in La Lawland are afraid of.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're afraid that if you come over here in Graceland in Christ, that you won't bear fruit.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no condemnation or pressure pushing you to do good.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you do bear fruit.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we get into something here.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever commits sin commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the King James has the uses a good uh translate uh translates it well because that word lawlessness is the Greek word anomia, and it literally means sin is transgression of the law.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now that bothered me when I read that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how can it say I don't sin?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know I do transgress that law sometimes.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sin is transgression of the law.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever commits sin transgresses the law.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 5.13 says, Oh, please get this.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But sin is not imputed where there is no law.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever commits sin is transgressing the law.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is la la land over here.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot to transgress over here.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: But sin's not imputed where there is no law.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 6 of 1 John 3.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever, I love this, whoever abides in him does not sin.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever abides in him does not sin.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever sins doesn't know him.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: What do they know?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: They know law.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And why are they going to sin?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's lots of sin here.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of transgression of this stuff.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of law to transgress here.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever sins does not know him.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: But whoever abides in him does not sin.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Little children, let no one deceive you.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: He that practices righteousness.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read verse 5 there.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I missed, I skipped verse 5.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: It says, You know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's lots of sin over there, because sin is transgressing the law.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing this?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of law over here, so therefore there's a lot of transgression that can occur.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, there's a lot of sin over here.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And why, that's why over here, if we're in a realm of this or kind of church or or atmosphere where that, what what sin is often preached about.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because sin's a big deal over here.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in a lot of places, sin is the central thing.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the prime directive of being in law land is to try to get you to stop sinning.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because we see you in la la land and you're transgressing the law.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And come on, quit it.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Stop it.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Stop it, guys.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do better.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Dang, we need a revival.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta call, crawl up to the altar and start crying and promise God you'll do better.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we need over here in La La Land.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Make some vows to God.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, work up your willpower and say, God, this time I mean it.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to sin anymore.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of that going on over here.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sin is very central here.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: You get scared because over there you don't talk about sin very much.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, ah, you're making light of sin, are you?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But in him, we don't preach it so much because in him there is none of that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, No, we're not making light of sin, we're making really big of Jesus.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: For this reason, see, because sin is a transgression of the law, and everybody that sin is sinning is transgressing the law.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this was the reason that Jesus was manifested that he would take away sin.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: For in him there is no sin.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a matter of where you're living, and the Bible uses that terminology a lot, doesn't it?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Abiding in him, he in you, you in him, he that is in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said it all the time.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not over there, in here.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Seated in heavenly places in Christ.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Risen together with him in Christ.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go down there.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got to worry about verse 6.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get this right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: This guy I'm skipping around too much.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So whoever abides in him does not sin.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because whoever sins living over there has not seen him or known him.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in the beginning.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might think you do.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I can speak for myself because I know the difference here.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we like, we we talk about, you know, ever since I came to know the Lord, but but you can still have an idea of him, but still living in that land of law.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in that land of law, I can tell you, compared to what we talk about now, compared to what I experience now, the knowledge of Christ was very, very small compared to what I'm talking about now.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he was more of a judge.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was a little more aloof, he was a little more cold.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of my prayers were, God, don't you care?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you, God?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see what I'm going through?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you feel that separation.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: You don't feel that warmth and that union and that closeness.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's found in him.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now we get into the fruit of this.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Little children, let no one deceive you.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: He that practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are you gonna practice?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna practice righteousness?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Practice righteousness.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Think of this.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: See what our minds will do.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: If over in Law Lawland, we we twist that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That means something else.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: What we say that means when we're in la la land, and we say practice righteousness means do everything right over here.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: In la la land.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: But what is that?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's not practicing righteousness, that's practicing law.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Practicing law.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Over here, we practice righteousness.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do when we're practicing righteousness?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking the truth.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whatsoever things are good, pure, lovely, of good report, things that are praiseworthy, virtuous.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are the righteousness of God in Christ.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: He that knew no sin was made to be sin for me, so that I might be the righteousness of God in Christ.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Practicing righteousness.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Reckon yourself righteous unto God.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Reckon yourself as alive from that dead place.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Practicing righteousness.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Practicing righteousness is looking and and and Paul uses the word in Romans 5.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Reckoning.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Reckoning yourself alive unto God.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Reckoning yourself righteous.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Reckoning that God, and reckoning the truth that God approves of you, and it's that approval of daddy that empowers these children.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you got the first Adam, chooses a tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is this stuff over here.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's Allah.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do good, don't do bad.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he's afraid and ashamed, and he doesn't have empowerment.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's hiding from God.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's afraid and he's ashamed.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's feeling small.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when you feel small and you don't know God, what do you want to just do what you can come up with to try to make yourself feel big?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he's doing those things.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's an ignorance there.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's something that the man does not know.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: How many know Jesus is called the last Adam?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: The last Adam comes along later.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's baptized in the river Jordan, and a voice comes from heaven.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Daddy's voice speaks, and what does it say?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is my son.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love him and I am pleased with him.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then it says, and then immediately Jesus went out into the desert to be tested by the devil.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love the fact that the approval came before he was tested.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I love that the approval came, that the father already approved of the son before we even know if he's going to pass or fail a test.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he goes to be tested with the approval of daddy.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the test is if you're the son of God, do this.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the son of God, do that.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the son of God.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't bite.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do a swan dive off the synagogue, he doesn't, off the temple, he doesn't, he, he, he doesn't turn rocks into bread.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't bite on any of that because he already had the approval.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to do anything.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: In La La Land, there's lots of stuff for you to do.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to please God, if you're going to appease God, if you want the blessing of God, there's stuff here to do.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to start, you'll spend your life, you can spend your life trying to do it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: All Jesus needed was one reality.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he would repeat it to the disciples, he would repeat it to the people.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: He would say, The Father loves the Son.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I and my Father, we're one.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're me and my daddy.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing that we get from truth.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in him, this side of the platform.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, guys, over there.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: But this side.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: In him is truth.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no lie.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And in him there's no darkness at all.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what we get is that same thing.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we start to feel it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: We start to experience it.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: We start to enjoy it.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're feeling tight with our daddy.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're feeling loved and we're falling, and we have fallen in love with him because we have left law law land.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in him there is no sin at all.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we're weak and foolish vessels, and we're human, and we blow it, and we fall on our face, and we we we make mistakes and we do all kinds of things.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I act selfish and I feel bad about it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: All those things happen.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we're living in him.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in him we live and move and have our very being.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And la la land doesn't have because if that still had, if I still lived over there and I did those things and I had a moment of selfishness and I flew off the top of the hand, off the handle, and I did, you know, whatever it is and all the stuff that we do.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: If I lived over here, it is hell trying to get over it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll vow and I'll make promises because over here in La La Land, it's all about me and my strength and my willpower.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll give obeisance to certain scriptures.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: They say, well, no, the Holy Spirit empowers you to do it.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: That made me feel worse because I was still messing up.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But now I've got the Holy Spirit who's supposed to help me and keep me from that.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I did have the Holy Spirit.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: But my problem was I didn't, I didn't what didn't acknowledge him.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't living in an awareness of him as he really is.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was still all about me trying to fulfill these things.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what law law land is.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And over here it's all about Jesus.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why, that's why, even though it gets criticized when you preach the grace and the goodness and the love of the Father, you're making it all about him.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes Christ-centered.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you realize what it means to have your very being in him.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in him there's life.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in him is where there's fullness of joy.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never find it over there.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never find it over there.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Only in him is fullness of joy.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Only in him is a peace that goes beyond understanding.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: When there shouldn't be any peace in your mind, you've still got it because you're living in him and you've left the land of law.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 8 says, Watch this one.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: He who sins is of the devil.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you preach that grace stuff, but then people still sin.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Say, well, what are you telling them?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you see they're still of the devil if they commit a sin?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: He that sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the devil is the accuser.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can read it this way.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: He that sins is doing this empowered by the accuser.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: For the devil or the accuser has sinned from the beginning.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he would not destroy the works of the accuser.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: If there's no sin to be accused of here, how is an accuser going to work against you?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I was in the land of law, oh man, I'm telling you, I lived and it seemed like that thing lived right here.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like there was a devil on my shoulder.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was, oh wait, Rick, you don't do this enough.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what you did, Rick.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Rick, and I'm just, oh, I'm sorry, sorry, Father.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry for that.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry for this.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry for that too.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's anything else, I'm sorry for all that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that's covered, and I hope my prayers will be answered now because I apologize for all of it.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm this dirty dog trying to be good.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to live up to what I'm supposed to be living here is what I'm thinking here in La La Land.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I love talking about the goodness, the grace, the love of the Father.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is really liberate.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: This was not just another doctrine I got a hold of.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: This was not another fad of Christianity that I jumped onto.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: This changed everything.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: This changed everything.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: The joy that I looked for for so long in la land, it happened here.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: The peace that I wanted so bad.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And tried everything to gain that peace, thinking that if I could get my ducks in a row there, I'd finally have it.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: The peace that I looked for, I finally found it right here, and I'm still a mess.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Still just goofy, fall on your face, Rick Mannis, you know.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I got peace.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got joy, I feel alive.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: It never happened that like that over here.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: If it, if it, if I ever had any sense of it, it was very, very temporary.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it was because of a deception I thought that I was doing well.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then something would happen, and I would realize I wasn't quite doing that well now.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday I was pretty holy.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Today, whoops, look what I did.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you can't live in peace that way.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Only in him.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he was manifested to get rid of all of that.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's Egypt swallowed up by the Red Sea.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 8, verse 44.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where Jesus talks about the accuser.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he told some of the leaders of that day, church leaders.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You are of you can actually hear the love in this.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think that he was just angry.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: I conceive the love in this.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're of your father, the accuser.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're a product of that.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: All this legalism you push, you don't enter into life and you don't let anybody else let in because what you're giving giving them does not lead to life.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: See, what you've been given, what you're speaking out, this came from the accuser.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is all weapons to be used by the accuser.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: When you put heavy burdens on people, he said, things for them to fulfill, they're going to fall short, and the accuser is going to be right there.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, so you're of your father, the accuser.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the desires or the works of the accuser is what you're going to do.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he was a murderer from the beginning.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: He kills.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't stand in truth.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know it looks like truth, guys.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus talking to the church leaders.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know it looks like truth, but that which brings accusation is not standing in truth.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is no truth in that accuser.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is a liar.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the father love it, father of it.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was in La La Land, I believed countless lies about me.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I believed them.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't worthy.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: God's not pleased with me.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Look what I've done.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: La La Land did that to me.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: To leave that to come to a place where you find out you're lovable, where somebody thinks you're worth loving, when you fell on your face over there so much, you fall in love.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't help it.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: You fall in love.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: So whoever, whoever has been born of God, any of you guys, does not sin.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because his seed remains in him, and you can't sin because you're born of him.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you did things over there.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in this, watch this.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the fruit.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, how does that bear fruit?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: How does the message that you preach, how does that motivate people to live right and to do better?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: In this, the children of God and the children of the accuser are manifested.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the fruit.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not operating out of God.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Nor is he that doesn't love his brother.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is the message that you heard from the beginning that you would love one another.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: La la land never produces that.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Only this produces that manifestation.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what we're we're all growing in it, because our father is the perfect love.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we're learning him.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're learning who we are, and we're conforming to that reality.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're starting to listen to our true heart that beats down in the core of our being.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we're tasting sweetness in there.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you listen to it, because you're in a place of freedom, you can.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: What you find is that love starts happening.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, it happens to you, doesn't it?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: You find out you're worthy of love.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart opens up to receive it in spite of the fact that you may not have ever quite got your ducks in a row in La La Land.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: But because you're in him, because of him, because of his great love that was revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ to you, your heart can open up, just like the prodigal son, and say, Okay, Daddy, I'll wear the ring.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Put the robe on my hand.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Give me some cake.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Put the robe on my hand.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Put the robe on my back.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: The love happens to you.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the fullness of him that fills all in all.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we finally get full.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: We get a sense of fullness.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: We get a sense of being complete in him.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: We get a sense that even though outwardly we can just look like a mess, inside we're wealthy because we know that we're home and we know where we belong.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we're standing right here and we're living forever.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because this is my daddy and this is where I belong.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I am loved, and that la la land had nothing to do with this.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as we see that, then I start to be okay with Rick.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I talk about the accuser, the worst accusations, the most accusations, they came from right inside my own brain.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Those things you get relieved of.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're loved, you're accepted, you see yourself as complete.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you can accept that you know, I would like to do better at this and that and the other, and we all would, and that's great.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: But something is happening to us.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: God is happening.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation is happening.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Love is happening to us, and we're living loved, and we're enjoying it, and we're excited about it, and we celebrate it, we're like we're celebrating it together today.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then we start to see grace coming out of our mouth more than it used to.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: We start to see things and have understanding of people and the world around us through our Father's eyes, and we it makes us softer, it makes us more in line with the fruit of the spirit that's happening to us, and we have more love and joy and peace.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the fruit, this is the manifestation.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not whether or not you dress like this, wear your hair like that, how many times you go to church, how much you do this, do you not do this?
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still you abstain from this?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you abstain from that?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: It has that has nothing to do.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's artificial fruit.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the fruit that that could never produce, it never did for me.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: But this has.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the changes that are happening to me.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love the feeling that I get.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: I love that I feel so much less fear because something has been pushing that out.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that feels good.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: It feels good to be in rhythm and in harmony with your life, your own life and with God.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: You feel safe, you feel at home, all because Christ has come and showed us home and was manifested to take away sin and that place where only sin and accusation can live.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you have the freedom and the license.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: You feel the freedom and the license to not pay anything to la la land.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need it.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a little bit of la la land to keep you straight over here in Graceland.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a little bit of that'll mess you up.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're free to live in a new and living way that has been consecrated for you.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a wonderful life.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many ways you could say that.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's death and there's life.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's in Christ and there's in whatever else.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Father, what can we say about these things?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to you for your unspeakable gift.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: We love you.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for revelation.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for somehow breaking through our shield and our veils and our ignorance and our blindness and our darkness, but you have given us a great light and it's drawn us to you.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Show us more, Father.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just show us your ways that we may taste and eat of the goodness of God and the land of milk and honey.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: We give you all thanks and all praise for the abundance of life that you have revealed to us.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for now we're home.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you in Jesus' wonderful name.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day, guys.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Be blessed.