Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Liberty and Justice For All

Transcript

Liberty and Justice For All · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a good morning?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it a good morning?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Life is good.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got, you know, life has things that you deal with.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking about this on the way here.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's there's things that that come up in life, things you have to deal with.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're hard.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: But but um if you just zoom out and look, life is good.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: God blesses.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't God good?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're dealing with something tough, God can still be good in spite of the of a of a negative situation or a seemingly negative situation.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: His goodness is something that we experience uh because we're experiencing him as a person, a personal God, a personal father.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's what we want for everybody here.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the good news, the gospel, is to espouse people to Christ, right?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not to feed us a doctrine, so we can create a doctrine box, a dogma box, and say, now this is what we believe, and this is who God is.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody has a thought that's outside of our box, they must be wrong or a heretic or something.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God is much bigger than that, isn't he?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And God is personal, and God is love, and God loves you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he cares, obviously, the gospel reveals that he cares about humans more than anything.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world to make sure that we were able to find find our way home or be brought home, however it worked.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we're falling deeper and deeper in love with God.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we're as we do, we're learning more.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm learning more of how he is, who he is, and it's it keeps getting gooder and gooder.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I I know it's funny I say it that way because it sounds more correct and better and better somehow, but he gets it's good.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um and I'm loving, loving the walk with God, loving the adventure, loving, loving beholding his beauty.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it do something to you?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I want to talk about this morning, and uh, and if uh anybody uh listening here today or online uh or catches this on video, I want to deal with um the idea of uh that people have as a God being a judge and his judgment.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, a common idea, even if we have a uh a belief in grace, there's still a common idea because of some traditional things that have been given to us that God is good, God is gracious, God loves us, uh, but he's still got something cooking on the back burner there for us at the end of this thing, you know.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's gonna be really bad for some people.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about judgment.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about uh about that and and maybe dispel the idea that anybody might have of God.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we gotta, we it it doesn't benefit us to see God uh in a uh very traditional sense of a judge.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I picture a judge behind the judge's desk, and and so many people see that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's a God that's that's that's it's judging, he's judging, he's looking, he's watching, he's judging, he's he's kind of like Santa Claus.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's making a list and checking it twice, and he's gonna find out who's naughty and nice, you know.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's a whole lot better than Santa Claus in that respect.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: People people used to accuse me because I said God was good, God wants to bless you, and they say, Well, you're just making God out to be a Santa Claus.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I found out he's a million times better than Santa Claus, because he God doesn't make a list and check it twice, and he's not trying to find out if you're naughty or nice.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: He already knows you, he knows your heart, and he loves you, and he knew you before he formed you in the womb, and you've always been precious, you've always been valuable to him, and he understands your weakness, and he's touched by the feelings of your weakness.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: He sympathizes with that because he understands it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't excuse it, he doesn't need to excuse it, but he understands it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he still knows who you are.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he knows who you and I are more than we know who we are, and we're still learning who we are, really, and learning who he is.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea that he's a that he's this he's this judge, it gives it gives people a sense that he's a little bit separated, he's a little bit aloof, he's a little bit cold, if not a lot of that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and it's hard to have a very intimate, loving, sweet, good, trusting relationship if that's all he is.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the big things that that changed for me was when he became not just God, for one thing, and not just a judge, but he became a loving father.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to some people, he's a loving bridegroom.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's but he's something good like that.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh John chapter 12 is where I want to start and get into this.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to uh begin reading in verse 44, and it's talking about judgment.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Jesus cried out and said, watch this.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So point number one here is we see Jesus saying, if you believe in me, you're not just believing in one man that you're looking at right here.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: What you're seeing is a direct reflection of the Father.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you believe in me, you're believing something about God.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you see in me, you're seeing about God.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you believe in me, you're believing in the Father because we're one and the same here.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm I'm the expression of the Father.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So what you're believing in, when you look at me and when you believe in me, it's not just me doing this on my own.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're believing in the Father who sent me.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's behind all of this.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, verse 46, I want to read.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I have come as a light into the world, so that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we we know that Jesus came to show us, declare, and reveal to us the Father.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: He is the exact image of the Father.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I like that the Bible says, talking about the law and the old of the Old Testament, says it was a shadow of these good things to come, which was the revelation of the Father through Christ.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: It says, but it was not the very image of those things, but Christ Himself being the exact image of what was to be revealed, the Father.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and I came to give light into the world.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's why John 1 describes him that way and says he is that light, and he gives light to all of us.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we beheld the exceeding brightness of his glory, and it was full of what?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Full of grace, full of truth.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what is that truth?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Truth about daddy, truth about the father, a loving father.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your father, your father loves you, the father loves the son, your father will hear, your father cares, your father will be with you, your father, your father, your father.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I came to bring a light.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was darkness.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: There was not a revelation of the Father.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked to people and they say, Well, old people in the Old Testament, there's Moses, there's David, there's different, you know, Abraham and all that.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, they there there was an there was a knowledge of God, there were encounters with God.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: They knew some things through their experiences and revelations that God uh had dealt with, but we don't see anybody calling him father.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you know, the Old Testament says, speaking of the life of Moses, that there was nobody more meek, nobody more humble than Moses himself.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, it was Moses that wrote that, I think.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it was in Deuteronomy.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But but but then Hebrews later on says, now Moses was good.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Moses Moses was faithful.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: But he was faithful like a servant is faithful in the house.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the son was faithful like a son in the house.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to bring a light into the Father.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you can say that Jesus has changed your mind about what you maybe maybe what you once thought God was?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Boom.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: How many know he didn't change God's mind about us?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: That before God gave, he already loved.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus didn't have to do something to make God love us.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: God already loved, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So he didn't have to change God's mind.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love saying that uh around how we say that around here.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And God, but but Jesus changed our mind about the Father.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, have you ever seen this verse?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 47.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is one, this has been in the Bible for quite a while.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: This verse has is not was not just put in the Bible last year.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't come to judge the world, but to save the world.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't hear that one preached a lot because you can't pound the pat pound the pulpit and have fire in your eyes and you know.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone does not, if if anyone doesn't, if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I don't judge him because I didn't come to judge the world, but to save the world.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would classify myself at a certain point in my life, certain time, as an unbeliever.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And my unbelieving was because of ignorance.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even have anything to believe in.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know, I didn't have any light.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So there was not, people say, well, you know, and the idea that, well, you rejected him all those years up until the a certain day, and if you would have died the day before, it would have been horrible for you.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, did I really ever reject him?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I never, I, I never, once I I I saw uh some beauty that could attract me, I and and I think I had to have help by the Spirit because He's the one that convinces us, and He's the one.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said Himself, no man can even come to me except the Father draws him to me.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I, you know, I the idea that I had of God, he was just a cold judge.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I believed he was real, but he was a cold judge that I was gonna have to deal with at some point.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was gonna have to deal with them at some point, and I didn't want it to be this point, right here.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Later on I'll deal with it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had a plan.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you ever had this plan when you maybe if you were an unbeliever, but my plan was a deathbed salvation.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: That was my plan.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I really had that, and I was, of course, I was young, but I I my plan was I don't want to, I don't want to have to deal with this God.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have to live according to all those rules.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can't live by those rules, but I do believe that you know what people were telling me about him, and he was this this judge, and he there, and you're gonna have to face a judgment, and you're gonna go one place or the other, and I was just like, well, if that's what it's all about, then I'll still just keep doing whatever I feel like doing.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh on the last day when I know that I'm about to die, I'll say this prayer that they say you gotta pray, and that's my ticket.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay for the rest of eternity.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was my plan.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I hadn't, I didn't know about God.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know he was good, I didn't know he was wonderful, I didn't know he was beautiful, and I'm so glad that I know and I'm becoming to know him more and more now.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, but he says, if you don't believe, he says, I didn't come to condemn you or judge you that way.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if you did, if you don't believe, it's not, you're not just just making me so angry, and I'm just like, I just want to throw you away.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you don't believe, he says, I come to save the one that didn't believe.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to judge you.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking for who's naughty and nice here.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Verse uh 48.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, briefly, I want to make a point about this.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you see that term last day, that means something that's very clear biblically that has been misconstrued in preaching and in the church.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it's so prevalent in American Christianity that when people think of the last day, they they're thinking of tomorrow, next week, next year, ten years, they're thinking of our future.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they like to say what they want to say is we're in the last days.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you know?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, look what the Democrats are doing.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're obviously in their last days.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what those people are doing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Read the news.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta be in the last days.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we can we construed this whole idea, this whole picture of what the last days is.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't ever done it yet, do just a little study.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take a whole lot, and look at what the last day, the last days, or the last day is that they are talked about.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: It happened a long time ago.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a day that Jesus was talking about when they when they talked about the end of the end of the age.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It's coming, and Jerusalem's going to be destroyed, and the temple's coming down, and all that stuff, and and it did.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the last day of that whole thing with Moses, the the all that stuff that they were doing, that that whole thing that God had spoken of through all the prophets in the Old Testament that that day was coming, and Jesus brought it in and it came.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what are we in now?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the new day.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the day of Jesus Christ right now.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the new day, and the day of the righteous burn brighter and brighter.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the light is shining brighter, and you're seeing more and more of the glory and goodness of God.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it good?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I see, no, are y'all aware that this light that is shining, it's bringing people into a knowledge of God's love and his goodness to such a degree that we are actually falling in love with our Heavenly Father more and more.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than fearing a judge.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's this love and grace thing that we talk about, it's bubbling up all over the world.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are preaching a very strong and clear message about it, and it seems so radical.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Others, it's bubbling up.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Others have a very traditional message, but you see it keep trying to come out.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and this thing's happening, and it's so encouraging, it gives me so much hope to see where this thing is going, where this thing is headed, because I believe, I think I've caught the vision of our Father when he says that the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of his glory.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do with the verses where he says, he says, in that day, he says, I'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and they will all know me.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And nobody will be telling his neighbor, no the Lord, no, the Lord.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: They're all going to know me because I'll be merciful because I'll be good.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be merciful to their transgressions, because they'll know me, because their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, isn't that done in Jesus?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus did come and there and brought a judgment, but it's a whole different idea than what we may we may have.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, to talk about, you know, if you're concerned about, well, my words will judge him at the last day.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that last day came and it happened, and what God said was going to happen, happened, and all those who believed him did not perish in that last day.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: But a couple of historians say that it was, it could have been upwards of over a million that did perish in that last day.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: When all of that came down, and that fiery, that fiery burning, and the elements burning with a fervent heat, and all that, that Peter said, It's coming, it's coming, and it did.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And because they did not believe Jesus, they were partakers of the worst part of what happened in that last day.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You you you need to believe me.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to believe me.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus cried over them and he said, He wept over them.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I wanted to, I'm trying to gather you into my uh under into my under my wings like a hen with her chicks, but you've you you you you wouldn't have me.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 49.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: For I've he said, I've not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command of what I should say and what I should speak.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, verse 50, that his command is everlasting life, not death, not destruction and damnation for you, but his command.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus came, he says, I came with the words of the Father.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I know what they are, I know what his command is.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know what his command is?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Everlasting life.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: What if you're struggling with it's everlasting life?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: What if you don't believe?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I come to give you life.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I come to show you something, I come to give you light, I come to reveal something to you because the word has been spoken.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: God has commanded the word out, and that's what brought Jesus into the world, that his command was everlasting life for us.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said in another place, he said, I didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I came that you would have life.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was a command of God.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I came.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lo, it is written in the volume of the book, Jesus says in Hebrews, I come to do thy will, O God.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I come to give life.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he preached it and he taught it, and he lived it, he demonstrated it, he gave it, and he died on the cross.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that by one man's offense death came to all men, but by one man's righteousness, the free gift of life.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So John chapter 8, verse 15 says this.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You judge according to the flesh.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I judge no one.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, if I did judge, or I do judge, my judgment is true because I'm not alone, for I'm with the Father, the Father's with me.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I didn't come to judge, and not in that sense.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: He said, But if I did, it would be right because the Father's with me.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we see some examples of his kind of judgment.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the a point I want to make is that we have an idea of what judgment is.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we as humans have all become judges.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways or degrees, uh we we couldn't help it.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's what that's what we see with the fall of man in Genesis.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: We see uh right off the bat that what happens with Adam and Eve is they take the knowledge of good and evil and they become judges.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: They judge themselves.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We judge ourselves.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: We judge with this with this with this skewed idea of whatever it is, and we judge ourselves by whatever, by some standard we have in our mind, or we judge ourselves by comparing with somebody else, and nothing ever good comes from that, does it?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can always find somebody, somebody that's worse than you at something, but you'll always find somebody that's better than you, too, at something.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so you'll either get shame or pride, and neither one of them are any good, but people, but but but people judge, and they judge, they they judge even without knowing it.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: They'll judge how you look, they'll judge by your by your by how dark or light your skin is, how tall you are, they'll judge by your the by some of your nationality, they'll judge by by what you what you think about spirituality or politics or something.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's judgments that are going on all the time.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because of that knowledge of good and evil, we're taking it, we're taking it.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes beyond just observation.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: But but but we take it to the degree to where we actually categorize people.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, the there's a you know, the word for the accuser or accusation is the Greek word categorio.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we categorize everybody.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're one of those.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: The church world is notorious for it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: You run into another fellow Christian, totally believes in Jesus, loves the Lord the best way they know how, and you can talk with them, and you can say one thing that's out of the box of their dogma, and then they know that, oh, you're one of those, and you're in a category.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a name, there's always a name for everything.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're one of those people.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're one of those pre-this or post-that or something.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're, you know, they believe in this ism.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're one of those ists.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are raptureists, there are non-raptureists, they're an inclusionist, they're an exclusionist, there's an issue, an issue, an issue, there's all kinds of ists.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Dispensational is.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, it goes on and on.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: But but there's all these categorios, these categories where people, uh, they we we put people because there's a natural judgment that we have learned ever since Adam and Eve, and everything is judge, judge, judge.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we think that God's judgment is kind of like ours.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And because we have a knowledge of good and evil, or we have had that knowledge of good and evil, so we put things in those categories in ways that are differently than what our wonderful everlasting Father sees things.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we we categorize and we make judgments.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Judgments, and we assume that God is judging the same way.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: We assume that his judgment is according to the knowledge of good and evil that killed us.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: When he's alive forever.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we assume as those that were dead in trespasses and sins with that knowledge of good and evil.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: For even before the law, death came upon all men through that knowledge of good and evil.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the gall of us to think that God is judging things and judging people the same way that we do, or we have, is actually ludicrous when you think about it.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: We see an example of these famous examples.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can just mention them, but there was, you know, the woman caught in adultery.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: That one's a good one.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: We always can bring up.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: He brought a judgment.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: What was his judgment upon her?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were asking for a judgment.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say, Jesus?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he, of course, we know he told her, I do not condemn you.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was a judgment.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a different kind of judgment because it doesn't, it doesn't, the balances don't weigh in our mind.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't weigh in their mind.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: These were humans that were trying their best to serve God the best way that they could figure out, the best way they knew how.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they thought that she was worthy of death.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: She needs a judgment.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: If this gets judged correctly, then what happens is that the scourge is removed from among us.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: The bad example is no longer here, and we got to get rid of her because if people see her get off scot-free, you know what will happen?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody will want to commit adultery.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I hear it in the church world.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about those people?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I give them grace.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of message does that send?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Grace.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you can't be, you can't, you can't love somebody that's gay.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody will turn gay.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of message does that send?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: John 4, we see him leaving Judea to head to Galilee, and the Bible says, but he needed to go through Samaria, a place nobody else goes, and Samaritans have already been judged in the minds by people.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they thought any time they can be judged by God.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because they believe wrong.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Among other things, but that was a big one.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, they believed in, they believed in the same God that the Jews did.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: But they believed some things differently.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so they couldn't get along.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: They couldn't be together.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jews don't go to Samaria.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's unclean, it's unholy.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I will not soil myself, I will not taint myself with Samaritan soil upon my shoes.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going that way.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why would they taint you?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because they believe something different.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do they believe in God?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: But they believe something different.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible said, well, Jesus made it a point to go through Samaria and he treated them differently.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we know in one instance, a couple of his disciples, they're ready to bring the judgment on them.
• 25:34
  unknown: Why?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because they weren't very nice.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: They rejected Jesus.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, go find us a place to sleep tonight.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So they go asking people, nobody wanted to put Jesus in his bunch up.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it said, for one reason.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was headed to Jerusalem.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, well, if you want to run with them, run with them.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to run with us, us.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're going there, you can't stay here.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: They rejected Jesus.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: They rejected him.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: So his disciples said, Let's call fire down, let's burn them up.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what you want, right?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: If they reject you, don't you want to burn them up?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You don't know what spirit you're of.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: You think I'm like you guys.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I want to do.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not what I came to do.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to do that to anybody.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I came to give a light.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be a light.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not the kind that incinerates people, but let's be a light.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mark 4, he makes his dangerous journey across the sea to the Gadderenes, Gadera.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: To see somebody that nobody in his right mind would want to go see.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a judgment that happened there because the man, the man was justified, maybe not vindicated for any bad thing that he did, but was made just, was made right.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he was in his right mind.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the people didn't like it.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't right.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: What about in uh the book of Jonah?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that one.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jonah was wanting one kind of judgment to come that they deserved.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they heard about God and they turned to them, and and and God had had mercy and brought goodness to them.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Jonah gets all mad and says, That's it.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that you would do that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I didn't want to go tell them.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I wanted them destroyed.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because they deserve it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Those Ninevites of the way they act, the way they've lived, the way they've done, it's not right, it's not fair.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just forgive them.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And God says in Jonah 4.11, and should I not pity Nineveh, that great city which are more than 120,000 people who cannot discern their right hand from their left?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: These people that are in darkness, these people that are in ignorance, should I just wish to destroy them with some kind of judgment because they've done these bad deeds?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you see that they couldn't discern their right hand from their left?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't say that the bad things they did were good or right.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't, maybe.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: But God said, But shouldn't I have mercy on them?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Since they don't know, they can't see?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what God came in the form of Jesus to do?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Was to come to a world that couldn't see, a world that didn't know the right hand from their left, a world that purported to know God, but they really did not, and they needed to know God, and they needed light to come into a darkness, and Jesus said, I didn't come.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you're in darkness and your deeds are evil and you're doing works of darkness, you are.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: So should I come and destroy you all because of that?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or should I not care about you and love you and bring you light that's gonna bring you into life?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's a kind of judgment.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: We know uh Romans chapter 5 says it beautifully, right?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: It says, by one man's transgression, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, by one man, Jesus, by his righteous act, did judgment come to all men, resulting in justification of life.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it is a judgment, but it's a whole different kind of judgment.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the judgment, see, I think what a lot of Christians want, what they think would be very convenient, was that if any day now, if God would just, you good ones, you're good.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of you guys, off the earth.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Boom, now it's all good.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us that are on the side of good, and they're like, wait a minute, I thought we were on the side of good, weren't they the bad guys?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a very easy, convenient idea.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: But he could have done that many, many eons ago and been justified by that kind of thinking.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: But what he chose to do was he so loved a world that many of us would have thought deserved that kind of just judgment and obliteration, but he so loved the world that he brought his son to bring a judgment.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's by one man's transgression.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, or more so, because it says in that chapter that the gift of righteousness is not like Adam's transgression, it's supersedes it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: But by one man's unrighteous act, judgment came, resulting in condemnation.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, if you don't believe, you're condemned already.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're already living in that.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I came to bring you light, to bring you out of that.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: But by him, judgment came, a judgment came that resulted in justification of life for us.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Justification of life.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, there's a a different kind of a different kind of judgment than somebody that's that than the idea that that you're bait, that you're that you're that that all of mankind is going to needs to be judged by by the balance of the scales.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then it gets into just good works, which the Bible reveals to us that all have fallen short in that arena.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if we want to go by works and we want to judge by the rule and judge by the law, then there's no hope.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: All of us just lose.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it has to be a free gift.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: A free gift.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 11, was a prophecy concerning the coming of Jesus.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 3, he says that this one who comes, the Messiah, the Savior, he will delight in obeying the Lord.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: He will not judge by appearance or make a decision based on hearsay.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: He'll give justice to the poor, and he'll make fair decisions for the exploited.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: He'll give justice to the poor.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I want to bring out to you is God, you know, he said, My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we put our own ways and thoughts on God.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I hear people say, Well, here's what God would want to do.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've even heard people talk about, well, if Jesus was here, here's what he would do to those people.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, he never did anything like that to those people.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wouldn't put up with it.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: He was with with people that were known to be what could be easily called sinners, I don't, I just see him being nothing but good to any of them.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see one that could be easily classified as a sinner, caught in the act, that he was harsh to or against, or the closest thing we find is church people that he would knock heads with, right?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the only ones?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the thieves?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the prostitutes?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the Samaritans?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the Gadarenes?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Was it who was it that he was knocking heads against?
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: None of those guys.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: None of them.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not one person that we would call a sinner.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Was he ever pushing against?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Was he ever against?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: The only ones we see is what the group in the Bible was called the Pharisees, but they were the church people.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: They were the best of the church people.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus didn't put up with only with the church people.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason was because they were so mean and extreme.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: They were like the worst thing that Jesus needed right there for the work that he was coming to do.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they were working against him.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, you don't let anybody go in, you don't let anybody enter into life, you don't go in yourself, and you put heavy burdens on people, and you offer nothing to help any of them.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you think you've got the words of life?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: I came that they would have life.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: I came to lift the heavy burden.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: The burden of sin, the burden of condemnation, the burden of oppression that you guys keep loading up on them.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Please stop.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please believe me when I tell you of a father who's not like that.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: And many of them believed him.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Many Pharisees believed in him.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you know that or not.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some didn't.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: With some it was just, it just was too unfair.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: They complained.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: They complained in Luke 15, they were complaining because they saw him treating notorious sinners good.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Treating them good, and it said, he even eats with them.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Eats with them.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: People could see us eating with a notorious sinner, and the first thing Christians want to know is, well, did you get them to change their life?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get them to stop doing that?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are they dressing different now?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing they want to know.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not like, did they find out God is good?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them something different to think about God?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them a reason to fall in love?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give a reason to open their heart that they can trust this God who might really love them and like them?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them that?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them a gospel?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them a good news or did you give them a bad news?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them a burden to carry?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Did you give them something hard to do that's hard for them?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you give them a burden that's light with the goodness of a God who loves you just the way you are?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you can trust him that he will sit with you in your mess and in your filth and whatever else you may be carrying that you just don't want everybody else to see about you right now.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you can trust this God because he didn't come to judge you.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: He did not come to condemn you.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: He came to give you light and life.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: He came to reveal a good Father who loves you and cares for you, and everybody that sees it flows into the goodness of God.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Welcome home.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it's all about right here.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're all weak, and we're all weak and uh weak, weak and foolish vessels.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're all weak, we're all uh having an experience of weak flesh.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Well, what's why do we have to have that?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: All this sin that goes on.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I even see it in my life, and I try to stop, but I promise God I'm gonna stop.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought that maybe the reason that God made us weak is so we can learn the depths of His grace for a foolish vessel, for a weak vessel.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes just can get a little ugly, selfish.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like it.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: We like righteousness, we like the idea, we want to do better.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Of course we do.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of course we do, it's built into us.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Me personally, I want to treat everybody just like Jesus does.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to, but sometimes I'm just too dang selfish.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll wish that I wasn't.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: But God's right there with me because He He digs me, He loves me, and I'm valuable and I'm precious in my mess.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the justice that we see Him giving is not a payback for bad deeds.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: The justice is redemption because his judgment, his justice is redemptive and restorative, not punishing, not payback for bad.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: The whole heart of our daddy, the whole heart of our father, not a judge who's looking to see who's naughty and nice, but a father who wants his children home with them.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's for redemption.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Restoration.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when Jesus says, go tell him all the good news.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: And times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he will send Jesus, whom the heavens must contain, until the time of restoration of all things.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: He'll give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited, for the exploited.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Fair decisions.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's fair?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: What was fair to the Ninevehes who were bad people?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But how did God see what was fair?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Here's what's fair to them.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be merciful to them.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because they don't know their right hand from their left.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: You go to Matthew 5, this is where I want to finish up.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have what's called the Beatitudes.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in verse 3.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, have you ever thought of what does it mean to be poor in spirit?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pharisees were those that thought they were rich in spirit.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've got it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're living it.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Jots and tittles.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are following this thing close.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Who would be poor in spirit?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: How about a woman caught in adultery?
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't seem like something very spiritual.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Full of spirituality.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: How about a thief?
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: How about taxpayers and thieves that are that are taking money from people and being that selfish and all that?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't sound very spiritual.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like people that are poor spiritually.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: A gathering full of demons.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like he's extremely poverty stricken when it comes to spiritual.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the ones that are disconnected.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the ones that just can't live up to any kind of standard.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those people.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those that don't even know God right now in any way.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's poor in spirit.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: But blessed are those because it's theirs, is the kingdom of heaven.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not because they deserve it by their actions.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: But a good loving father says, I'm going to make things just.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to restore them.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bring them home.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to know me from the greatest to the least.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to know me because I'm going to cause them to know me.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: And though they can't get up to my, they can't climb the holy hill.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be with them.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be in them.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be their God.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to be my people and they'll know me.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to put my ways in their hearts and in their minds.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to know me from the inside.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be that close.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the ones who are coming to church and they just can't seem to get it together like Brother Wonderful and Sister Holiness over here.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they just keep, they just, they just can't be as shiny as some of you guys are doing.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes walk out feeling bad because they know that their performance is like in the bottom of the class around there, around their church.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, spiritually.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I got something for you.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: I got something that's going to make you rich.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: All you need is the truth that'll make you free.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: You hear the truth.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe me, poor in spirit, you'll be very, very rich because this will demand nothing from you, but it'll give you everything.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me this morning?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who mourn, sorrowful, depressed, oppressed.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard living.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got something good.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm coming to bring a judgment that's going to make it good for you.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the meek, the humble, the lowly.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that fill the lowest of the low.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't live up to that Pharisee thing, so I just bailed out.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow we've got this picture like Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are the most spiritual of the whole bunch.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: There again, we're talking poor and spiritual, we're talking about destitute.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about people that hunger, starving, not having, but wanting righteousness.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, This is exactly what I've come for.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not to judge you, not to slap you down, not to condemn you for your lack of spirituality, your lack of worship, your lack of knowledge of the scriptures, your lack of good deeds, your lack of living the exemplary Christian life.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to judge any of that.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I came to give you something.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're the perfect candidate for what I'm given.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when he told the Pharisees, that's why I love hanging out with those people that you church people think need to be judged.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I eat with them.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I go after the one sheep.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: When it looks like I'm favoring the one more than the 99, that's why I'm going that way.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I've got is perfect for them.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's stand up.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes Judy and I were talking to people and they're like, I want to believe that God is good.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, help me, Lord.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a word.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes all I can say is, are you willing to consider?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just consider.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's where it starts.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: That maybe he loves you unconditionally.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe in spite of your struggles.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe in spite of how hard it's been.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe in spite of the situations that just keep hitting you so hard that you wonder if does God even care?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you consider that maybe God is sitting right in the middle of this with you and He's loving you and He's caring for you.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And He's better for you, and He's not condemning you, and He's not blaming you for any of this.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: But He's good, He wants to give you something.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about the gift, it's all about the giving.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: The giving, the giving, the giving.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please, when we think it's a judge, then we think it's about demanding, Him demanding.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's demanding.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what God demands of us.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we ought to be doing.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we should be doing.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what God expects from us.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we owe God.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's all that stuff.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's demanding, it's demanding, it's demanding.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's absolutely backwards, pagan, whatever you want to call it.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Wrong.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is about giving, giving, giving, giving.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: What about their behavior?
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're concerned about behavior, consider that maybe when the poor in spirit become wealthy in spirit, that the behavior might look better.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I want, I'm one, I want a lot of godly behavior.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's I think it's simple.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: Godly love.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see a world filled with it.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see a world filled with love, people loving each other and not scared of each other.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to see.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: I cry almost every day with those thoughts.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see it.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see it.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way it can be seen is we've got to receive from a good God whose heart is better than most of us have dreamed.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I love you, and I thank you for who you are, and I thank you for your goodness, and I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you, that we may know the hope of our calling and the excellency of who you are inside of us and with us and your great love toward us through Jesus, that great grace that abounded toward us in him.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the light that's come.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for opening our eyes.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for causing us to behold, and thank you for causing us to fall in love in ever increasing measure.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: We can honestly say, with all that we know within us, we love you, Father.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate your goodness and thank you for your amazing grace in Jesus' name.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day, guys.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: I sure love you all.