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Grace is Graceful · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh Judy and I have um I think it's it's it's been a few weeks since we've been here, but we've been we've been in touch.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've been we've been uh paying attention and we've been listening in on on all the messages that have been uh preached this this month.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh so I'm happy to be joining in on that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the word in this theme that we have for uh for October, the word that comes to me when we're talking about grace is uh it comes to me immediately when someone talks about that.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's just something that's peculiar to me, something that I think about.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: But grace to me is graceful, and that's that's what I want to look at today.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we're gonna talk about.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, I give these titles to that make people go, oh, what, huh?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when we look at graceful, um, what are we talking about here?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about something that's elegant or beautiful.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know, I think most people when they think about it, they might think of a ballet dancer or something.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you say what is what is graceful, uh, you think I guess you think something like that, maybe a swan is graceful.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you think of something that's elegant, something that's beautiful.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the definition that we that that I found is graceful uh means uh to have elegance or beauty of form, manner, or speech.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Elegance or beauty in its form, in its manner, or the way that it does things, or in its speech.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why grace is the word, it's the message of the person who is grace.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and the speech is always is is always elegant or it's beautiful.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the word says to let your speech always be seasoned with grace.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let your speech be elegant, let it be beautiful.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So so all I have to say today are things that are beautiful.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And like I've told many uh many people uh before when I'm speaking, uh, you know, whatever I say about God, it's gonna be good.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's all I know about God.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I promise you, I will not make God look better than He really is.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's a funny thing, but but uh I've run into that.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where they're like, God is good, but He's not that good.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I like what Clark said one time.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just it's it it it it's something I think about probably every day, but but we're gonna find out sooner or later.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, well, in this life, but I know we'll find out more uh even uh after this physical body, but we will be absolutely amazed at how good God really is.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever any of us think about him, and we all think he's good here this morning, whatever any of us think, he is going to amaze us at how good he really is.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and he will uh do that every single day if we're just if we'll just look.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um in John chapter 1, we see this word glory here in verse 14, where it says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this word glory has been a thing that we run into.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've run into it for decades in Christianity.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a word that you hear mostly in Christianity.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's used all the time.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's glory.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: In some churches, it's glory.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's some churches, it's well, glory.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's glory, glory, glory, hallelujah.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's glory.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we know it's something wonderful and it's good, and we give you glory, and Lord, you are glorious, and and we know it's good, but but it seems like it's kind of hard to define.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then especially in times when we've been like, Lord, we we want we want your glory, we seek your glory, let your glory come.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what what is that?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost this hazy, nondescript, whatever is it?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And some say, some said, well, it's like a it's like this this this cloud that comes in, or or a pillar of fire, and others say, well, it's the manifested presence of God.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you look up the word and you see these words like uh like honor, splendor, uh, weight, weightiness.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we it's like we can almost grasp something there, but but really what are we what what are we looking at?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's hard to describe, but I will say when something is glorious, glorious, you know it when you see it.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know it when you experience it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you look out over a beautiful vista, you might get a certain feeling.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know it when you see it, it's glorious.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: A definition that I have of the word glorious is that it's splendid, it's awe-inspiring, and it evokes feelings of delighted admiration.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when they say we beheld his glory, whatever they were talking about here, we saw something splendid.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: We saw something that was awesome.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It inspired awe.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and what we saw in him, the glory of the Father, we saw it in him, and it brought these feelings of delighted admiration.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is why sinners loved him, because nobody ever gave him those feelings, and they probably didn't know those feelings very well.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably why they were sinners.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever it was, when they saw him, they saw something different than they saw in the spiritual leaders of the day and the time.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: They saw something that was beautiful, they saw something that was elegant, they saw something that was that that that uh inspired awe and brought delight to their to their heart.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when I talk about grace being graceful, this is this is how I relate to it.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: That I saw something, when I fin when I when I saw it, just it hit me so clear and it opened up to me.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: It brought delight to me.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It brought this this feeling of excellence and beauty that I was looking at something that was so big and so perfect.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was like looking out over the Grand Canyon, only a billion times more glorious.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like wow.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And my Jesus, who I knew was big, who I knew had done a wonderful work on the cross, was this big in my life, when I looked at him through grace, I couldn't stretch my arms out enough.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was bigger than I could even imagine.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: He was just, he was just, he was just wow.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody say it one time, said that the sinner's prayer, you know, we've got the sinner's prayer, and the sinner's prayer should be wow.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: That when they hear the gospel, when they hear the message of God, his grace, his goodness that's shown to us on the cross through Jesus, his life and his death and his resurrection, they should look at that and be able to say, Wow.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Should not be afraid, would not say, Oh, I don't know.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I need to think about that.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: If they could see it, this is why we're all about grace, because grace is all wrapped up in the work of Jesus, the part, the heart of the Father, the personality of God, the manner of God, the speech of God, the form of God.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It brings a praise and an admiration from you.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh also there in John on down there it says that for the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're talking about the glory here, what are we looking at?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we see a definition right there, don't we?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: When we saw his glory, what we saw was grace.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Grace and truth.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, when we're talking about how big this is.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: But what about?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the glory was like the manifested thing.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what about like I've been in services where where where it's like like like clouds of glory come rolling in and people fall on the floor.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have too.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've led those services.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've led services, I've I one in particular where every single person fell on the floor.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen miracles, I've seen blind eyes open, and it is amazing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's awe-inspiring to see those things.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not demeaning that at all.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's mind-blowing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you this that when we're talking about the grace of God, the heart of God, the goodness of God, it is so much more impressive than any of those experiences or things.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not to push the others aside, but I'm just saying this is so much bigger and better that a lot of times in the church we set our sights, uh, our sights low.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Moses was in a place, remember, Moses was in a tabernacle of meeting, and there was a pillar of cloud standing right there at the doorway.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as Moses is standing there looking at that pillar of cloud.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're in a church service, and this cloud comes, stands in front of you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses looks at that and he says, Lord, show me your glory.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Show me your glory.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And most of us in the church world, we would see that cloud come rolling in, and we go, woo! And that's it, it would be amazing.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: It would be totally amazing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know, but Moses has seen that every day.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, But that's not it.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's not enough.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Show me your glory because I need more.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm going to lead these people in, I need more than what I've seen and heard.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll cause my goodness to pass before you.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses stands there in that crack in the rock, and and and and however that happens, God causes all.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, All of my goodness to pass before you.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: There again, that glory equated with the goodness of God.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: The goodness of God, something you can see, something you can experience, something you can feel.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't, I can't prove this, but at some point in Moses' life, he got this revelation, and he, you know, he did write the book of Genesis.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was standing in the cleft of the rock and he saw all the good, all of God's goodness, Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, and he sees that and he goes, Wow.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Awe-inspiring, splendid.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: We see the gracefulness as we talk about this, the gracefulness of Jesus in his death, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: A death where he could have come off the cross, a death where it would have been so easy to defend himself, especially with someone who was trying his best to let him go.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But he died gracefully.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Gracefully.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: We see in his life he lived gracefully.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: He dealt with people gracefully.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't condemn you.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to your house.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, I want to be with you.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: In spite of everything everybody's saying, they're calling him all kinds of names.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying he's condoning sin, he's a friend of sinners, he's got a demon, he's this, he's that, and the other.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: He gracefully did his thing because of something, someone he knew.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: He knew the Father.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was graceful toward me.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to get into is how God is really graceful to you, with you, and how he's been graceful with me, and how that gracefulness has actually made me more graceful in life.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I have this thing we talk about living gracefully or gracious living.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you might call it abundant life, but it's something that we're experiencing more and more simply because of the clarity of God's beauty, his goodness, and his grace, and it does something.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It does something to us here.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: He was grateful to me when I, before I ever called on the Lord, I was a proud, ugly teenager, doing very self-destructive things, and I remember somebody talking about God, basically trying to convince me that I needed to give my life to him.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I do not believe in him.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was getting angry arguing with this person, and I shook my fist.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was about 19 years old.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I shook my this fist at heaven, and I said, God is not real.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's made up in the minds of humans to try to keep people contained.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is just a book with men in it, it's full of errors.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had never read it, but I said it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, and God is not real.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I said, I do not believe in him.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if God is real, he can strike me down right now.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: But he's fake, he's not real.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I said.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And years later, when I look back at that, you know what?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, God didn't strike me down.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, I just tell you, I know this.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't even upset him.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: He already knew me.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, for what I know about him, if anything, he's like, that boy doesn't have a clue of what he's going to be doing someday.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's big.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's not scared.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's not jealous in a selfish way like people think.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's jealous over you.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: He cares about you.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: He wants the best for you.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: But he was graceful with me.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in all of my all of my lifestyle, through all of that, God was graceful with me.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking that God hates me, and I'm thinking that God's waiting for me to become a better person and all this.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I look back at that now and I think, God was so graceful with me.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I could go for so long just talking about all these instances where God was good to me when I was at my worst.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: After I became a Christian, um I I felt like I got into that place where I was right.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was right with God, and it changed me.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I dropped a lot of bad habits just immediately.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had one of those radical conversions where stop so many things just in one day.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't long where I got into working because I was, I felt like I was in the place where I finally wanted to be.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was right with God, and now I'm here in this place, and now I'm working.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what to do.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll work, I'll stand on the street corner, put me out there, I'll preach, I'll pass out track, I'll pray more, I'll do this, I'll do everything.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll quit sitting, I'll stop doing that, I'll break this habit, I'll anything.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll throw away the TV, I won't read magazine, I mean, I'll do anything.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my my Christianity became not graceful, became very clunky.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, what else do I need to do?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what else do I need to do to measure up?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd look at you and you could do something real good, like you could pray two hours a day.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, so uh I was telling Judy on the way here, I said, you know what I used to do?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I used to try to emulate that because I thought that's what I'm supposed to be.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you're living this thing totally out of your head and out of your and out of emotions, and so I'm I'm I'm setting my clock where I could pray for 15 minutes, and then when the alarm goes off, I can stop, and then the next day I would set it for 20, then 25, trying to work my way up to two hours because Sister Holiness can pray two hours.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm trying to become a street preacher because I got somebody that loves doing that, and he can just talk to anybody, strangers, and he was so smooth and eloquent, and I was always so scared, and it was so clunky, and it just like it and I and I thought that God wanted me to be like him.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you have all these instances to where you're trying to be something, you're trying to do the right thing, and it's clunky and it's and it's confusing a lot of times.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have questions, we have all these debates, don't we, going on in Christianity?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does God think of this?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are we is it okay for us to do that?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: What should we do?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And all that, and it's totally not graceful when you describe it that way, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And what else do I need to do?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I missing something?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why is God not answering this prayer?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you're and and and and and I'm living these years in Christianity, which is a lot better than what I had before, at least for me.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it was clunky, it was confusing many times.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was hardship involved in this relationship that I'm to be having with God.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried and I tried, and I remember one time just laying on the floor and crying, and I said, I said, God, I said, I would do anything for you because I'm trying to please and appease.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I'm not, it's not a graceful relationship at all.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not living gracefully, I'm always striving.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, God, I would do anything for you.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I meant it with all of my heart.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was trying to vow and I was trying to promise because I was just, I was trying to get somewhere.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Some place of high favor, some place where of blessing, some place where my prayers would get answered, some place where I'd feel like God was completely blessed and pleased with me.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Really, some kind of mythical perfection is what I was looking for.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm laying there and saying, God, I would do anything, anything.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I promise I would.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard the voice of his spirit speak to my heart, and it was so graceful and so sweet, and he said, I know you would, son.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking for that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you were just always so graceful.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was being ungraceful.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was being striving and clunky, and the whole time God was just a gracious one.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: One time I said, I'm I'm saying, God, I don't like all this carnality I have because I was I had some idea, I just didn't want to have any earth stuff in my life.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to be holy, angelic, Jesus-like, and I'm trying to get there and I'm working, and it's harsh and clunky.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that word keeps coming.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the best thing I can think of.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But but I said, God, change me.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be like this.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to keep going back to these old patterns I keep seeing in my life.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm take it away.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it, you don't like it.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Case closed, take it away.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, and there again, I there was another moment there where I heard the voice of the Spirit speak to my heart.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Son, he said, he said, I could take that stuff away right now so easily.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but it doesn't change your life.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What I'm doing is I'm weaving my ways in you.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm walking with you.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look back at that, I thought, you know what?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't, he wasn't as stressed about my situation as I was.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't as stressed about me being perfect, he wasn't as stressed about me getting all these things right.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't as stressed about me getting this, quote, flesh stuff out of my life as I was.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: See, I was assuming that he was.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I kept hearing that he was.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: God wants you to get rid of this.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: God wants us to do this.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we ought to be doing, here's what pleases God.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're we're it's not graceful, is it?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: But God the whole time was graceful.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a word about that, if I can just throw that out there.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's some bad seed in the ground.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Shall we go out there and get rid of all that bad?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the master says, No, let the good grow.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love this.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let the good grow.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: See, the master was graceful about it.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The other, we gotta get rid of the bad the bad seed, gotta get rid of the tares.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, I'm not worried about it.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: The good is growing.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And after a while, when the good has grown more, I think we can separate those tears.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be easy.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be so different looking.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: There won't be any confusion about it, there won't be debates about it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: It won't be hard to do.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just let the good grow.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, let's say you got you got two neighbors who live across the street from you.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them are trying to get their grass to grow.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is out there on his hands and knees and he's pulling on the blades of grass because he wants his grass to grow.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the other one's next door, he's got a water hose and he's a sprinkler and he's watering it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which one is more graceful?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I have the idea that God was always trying to pull, come on, come up higher, come on, come on.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: People would give prophetic words.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yay, thus saith the Lord, come on up, drop all your flesh, do all these things for me.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've given everything for you, you've given nothing to me.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the room.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, I'm sorry, God.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: See, in our mind, he wasn't a graceful God at all, but he is graceful, right?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: We see that.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible even says all flesh is like grass.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible also says in another place that God is watering us, he's nurturing us.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 11, 28.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: In the message, the Bible uses these beautiful words.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Are you tired?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard this.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you tired, worn out?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was me.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Believing in a God that was not graceful.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not knowing a grace that was so beautiful, so elegant, so sweet, so loving, graceful.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Been there.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Been there.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're in religion, if you're burned out on religion, then leave, you know, leave that thing.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying leave Christianity or not even necessarily have to leave your church always, but but come to him.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Get away with me.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love this.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll recover your life.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is a graceful God right here.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Come away with me and you'll recover, you'll recover your life.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: This was my situation.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: This was my situation when I finally laid on the floor and I said, God, I quit.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've done everything.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what else to do.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And his spirit spoke to me and said, Good, are you done now?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like almost like he said this very same thing.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now come away with me.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let me show you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let me recover your life, and I'll show you how to take a real rest.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Graceful.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Walk with me and work with me.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Watch how I do it.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's graceful, imparting gracefulness.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's as much as I'm going to do.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Graceful.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because it ceases to be graceful after a couple of steps with me.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced, I love this, little unforced rhythms of grace.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: You finally come at rest in your soul, peace in your heart, and you become comfortable in your skin.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ah! Sought that for years, decades in my life.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can honestly say, thank God I'm gonna grow more, and it's always gonna be, it's always gonna get better and better, but I've come to a place where I understand what it is to be comfortable in my skin.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I was trying to please everybody else or trying to live up to some other standard or emulate something, somebody that looked good, it's I like being now, I like being stupid, clumsy, making lots of mistakes, Rick Mannis.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Totally at peace with that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Walk with me and work with me.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you the unforced rhythms of grace.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I won't lay anything heavy on you.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: See, you can dance when you don't have an anvil on your shoulders, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus told the religious leaders, says, You guys, you says, you're putting all these heavy burdens on people, and you're not doing a thing to lift them off of them.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: They can't dance, they can't sing.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love the grace of God that has been revealed to us because it has brought a freedom and a likeness to me.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I like going to some of these churches that I go to, and I've heard this uh on a few occasions where people have said, Rick, it's like you have given me the freedom and the license to enjoy God and enjoy life right now, today, just like I am.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful, graceful living, being who you are.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that you don't, that you don't want to change.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry when I do something, some, uh, something, something wrong, something bad, but there's totally no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
• 25:34
  unknown: Amen.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you keep company with me, you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's made me more graceful.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Where I used to be this intense, come on, we gotta get this done, we've got to do this.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when problems come up, like we heard this morning, we all there are problems that we deal with in life, but but it's made us, it's I'll just use my own self for an example.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I've noticed that it's made me much more graceful when problems are existing.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: That the stress level is way, way down from where it used to be.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can deal with it much more gracefully.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a confidence and assurance that the work of righteousness, when you see it for real, that it does.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it eliminates the stress.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: We were never supposed to have stress anyway.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't make it.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: We we're not even equipped to have stress.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell tell that medically.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Our brain and our our bodies were never meant to have stress in it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I become comfortable in my own skin, where I'm not, I don't feel needy.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't feel needy at all, don't feel lustful.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a lot of things it'd be nice to have.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things I may want to have, but there's a difference between having to have, being lusting and feeling less than, and feeling empty and hungry and thirsty and always needy.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: You feel comfortable in your own skin?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: You feel fool.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're graceful, you're not out trying to get.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say, I used to be concerned about do people believe me?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do they believe in me?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do they what do they think about me?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Are they okay with me?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Will they follow me?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do they believe in me?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, something has changed over this time.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: I become more graceful where you don't have to believe in me because I believe in you.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think God was that way with me, even when I didn't believe in him.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: He believed in me, loved me.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I become more graceful with the world.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Something the spirit of understanding has come in more.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Something that'll help you with this with other people.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for us to judge, but understand that life is hard, and most people are probably everybody is doing the best that they can with where they're at and with what they know.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it might not look like much and it might look ugly, but they're they're all trying to survive, and they're all trying to do their best, and what they need is love.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what this grace of God does that that brings us this love is it fulfilled, it filled my heart where I didn't need anymore.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it took away that inferiority complex that caused me to do all those things that I did.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: The goodness, the love, the grace of God brought fullness to my life, and I'm not looking anymore.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll behold the beauty and inquire of more.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it brings fullness to your life.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not afraid of the world today.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not afraid of what ungodly people are doing.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we as a church are coming to deal with them not less gracefully, but more gracefully.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are the best friends of sinners.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have a splendid sound.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have something that'll inspire awe, not hate, not repulsion.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of repulsion for Christians for those, and you say, well, it's all their faults because they love evil.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, but there's still something they can see in the church, glory in the church that causes the jaw to drop, that brings awe to a people that sat in darkness, to a people that were afraid, to a people that were listening to nothing but bad news from the religious leaders.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus walks in the scene and they're and they're and they're inspired because what they see in him brings delight, not repulsion.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: We have not come to Mount Sinai that caused us to shake and tremble in fear.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: We've come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: In the book of James, I love this passage.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love God?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: How many see the beauty of the Lord this morning?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: In him is light.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing less than life itself.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing less than absolute love.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing less than absolute light.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: When we say God is good, we mean it to the nth power.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: James 3 talks about there is a type of wisdom, a kind of thinking that brings confusion.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I had even in my Christianity for a while.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says, But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's peace-loving, it's gentle at all times.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Graceful.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's willing to yield to others.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you're walking into publics or whatever, and somebody's coming out and you're going in, is it more graceful to bump them with your shoulder?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or more graceful to step aside?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you do, right?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: You step aside and you say, Excuse me.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know some of those people might even be liberals that you're doing that to?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's full of mercy and it's full of the fruit of good deeds.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: It shows no favoritism.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: God was graceful to you and he was graceful to me.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't show favoritism because some people were nicer than I was.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's always sincere.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the effect that it has.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I see gracefulness.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: I see that Matthew 11 good seeds.