Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / God and Sinner Reconciled

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God and Sinner Reconciled · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Come and get your love.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Come and get your love.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Come and get your love.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your goodness.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this opportunity to be ministered to by you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Father, your grace, the things of your spirit, they make us complete.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: They make us well.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: They make us whole.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: They make us big and strong from the inside.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: They give us the situation of heaven on earth.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, we thank you for the joy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this season.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for all that it means to us.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you, Father, for this opportunity to look at you, to hear from you, and to be impacted by your goodness tonight in Jesus' name.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing that since for I guess since the month began.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I think I started doing it before Thanksgiving.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, in fact, I know I did.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And some people didn't like that because they're still defending Thanksgiving, and I love Thanksgiving too.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But but I thought, well, Christmas comes so quick and it goes and and then it's gone, and plus it kind of is a joyful season, and it sort of helps to redeem all the tough things from this year.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um but anyway, I love what I some of the things I really love about Christmas, um, as I've noticed in listening to the music really, is that a lot of the old uh Christmas songs um really have some deep meaning in some of the lines, and they talk about a really a finished work and what Jesus did.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing about this season is everything about Christmas, when you listen to the type of music, the songs about uh about Jesus being born and the purpose for him coming, um and everything that's set on the Christmas cards and everything about it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you notice, it's all talking about what God has done, what God has given, and what he's done for us.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing about Christmas demands anything from us.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing about Christmas puts any, puts any demands or any pressure on us.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing about Christmas talks about what God wants from us.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything about Christmas talks about what God has done for us.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and that's the way it is.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and I love that about it because that that really shows a clearer picture of the heart of God with him.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: He is love.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: What he is about is all about all about us.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's why it's good, that's why it's smart to make to make to make it all about him from our end, but from his end, it's all about us.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Love is that way.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Love gives, and that's what what we're here for.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're created.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted people, he wanted somebody so he can give who he is, give his love, his goodness, and his abundance.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so in this finished work, there's something I want to talk about that's so important to me.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I call it, I call it wealth.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've this there and I want to talk about peace, and I want to talk about peace uh in three dimensions in our life.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important, and and and listen to this because it's very, very powerful, it's so important to me.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of times you just hear that word peace, and you think, well, peace is good, peace is nice, but it's you know, it's just it's just peace.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: There are many more important things than that.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have found out that there's really not, not for me.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um somebody who looked for peace for many years and worked for the worked for um inner peace, even for many years as a Christian, as someone who has found a good degree of that, um, you find that it's it's a that peace is a wealth of uh or a blessing that I wouldn't trade for anything.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's no kind of money, no kind of situation, no other kind of lifestyle or anything that I would trade for waking up every day and going to sleep every day with this perfect peace in my heart.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's it's heavenly.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about that uh tonight.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so, first of all, we start off with a uh um a verse of scripture in John chapter 14.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what we're talking about is God and sinner reconciled.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the this is the peace that that uh Jesus is talking about in John chapter 14.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, uh verse 27.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not as the world gives, do I give to you.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And let you not let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to back up to the beginning of that again.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Peace I leave with you, and my peace I give you, not like the world gives.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there's two different kinds of peace here.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I've given you mine.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not giving you the kind of peace that the world has given you.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um because there's two different kinds of peace.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm giving you something that's different.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you something that's bigger than that, I'm giving you the same peace that I have.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of peace is that?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's the kind of peace that the Prince of Peace carried within him when uh when there was a storm in the Sea of Galilee, for instance, and he was just, he could just rest in the back of the boat.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: When everybody else in that situation was sure they were going to die, one man had a perfect peace in uh in a uh uh a situation of life despair.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, that's the kind of peace I'm gonna give you, that even when there's a storm, you'll have that peace.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: That in the worst of situations, if the worst that life has hits you, uh you'll still have that.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in another place he said, in the world there's tribulation, but in me there is peace.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So be of good cheer.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have overcome the world.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: How did he overcome the world?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: With a peace that's bigger than that.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're talking about is not some small little nice uh you know fringe benefit of our walk with God or our salvation.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is big.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the this is this is, if not the biggest part, it's um at least a word that describes the biggest part.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: The righteousness, of course, is right standing with God, so there's no condemnation.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have that freedom, we have a relationship, peace and joy.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, that's what the kingdom is.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, the kingdom's within you.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is something you carry in you.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't do away with all the tribulation in the world, but he says, I've done something better than that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've given you something bigger than the trouble that's in the world.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've given you something where you can still have peace, where you can still be of good cheer, even though uh the things in the world are not cheerful.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the peace that he's talking about, the peace that that he calls his peace, and the peace that that's not what the world gives, is a peace that that's not dependent upon uh upon situations.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: The peace in the world is depend is is is the absence of conflict.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: When things are when there's not trouble going on, when you're not when you're not in a uh a horrible situation, when when nobody's mad at you and you're not mad at anybody, when uh uh you know your your your your money is at peace, your your body is is is is well, uh you're not sick, you're not struggling in some way, you're not you're not uh having a a conflict with another person, uh then we have peace, but it's always a temporary peace because something else can rise up.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens in the world, the re reason that the world gives it and then takes it away, is because situations come and go in life.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we and a storm might might rise up in our life, and we we may weather that storm, and and we'll be like, well, we're glad that's over.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I feel a whole lot better having, you know, that I've I've gone through that and I'm not having to deal with that anymore.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: But then down the road there's usually something else, and it's just another thing and another thing and another thing and another thing.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so many people have an up and down situation where because and it's totally tied to the circumstances.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: If the circumstances are smooth, we feel like there's peace.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: We feel like oh, we're doing okay.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if the situations are not smooth, then we're not at peace, because most people are more connected to what's going on around them than the one that's in them.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the storm on the Sea of Galilee for those twelve disciples, the storm around them also became a storm inside them, a tempest going on inside them.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: With Jesus, the storm around him did not change what was happening inside him.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we see a great picture of Jesus who had something bigger inside him, which was called peace.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that peace inside of him actually became the peace around him.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: What was inside of him actually was able to calm the storm.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the word says, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we always want to look at that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is where it's all where where where the power of God is.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's in our lives, it's not in in changing things around us.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times in our um in uh what we'd call carnal thinking or temporal thinking, is we feel like if we can just change the situation, we'll be happier, then we'll have peace, and then you know I'll be able to sleep at night, I'll feel better.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: If I can, so a lot of times we'll resort to control or or intimidation or something, whatever we can do to try to fix our our situation.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the the world, the the world's definition is a peace that is uh that is the absence of conflict.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: God's peace is not the absence of something, it's the presence of something.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's the presence of Him, it's the presence of the Creator who's bigger than everything else.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's He's wonderful.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Peace is not the absence of something, but the presence of something.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: In Colossians chapter 1, verse 19, says, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to pause right there.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: What we're looking at right now is the first dimension of peace that I want to talk to you about.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: This first part is peace with God.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: This peace that Jesus talks about, that He's given us, first of all, we have peace with God.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: This relationship where there's no condemnation, where there's reconciliation with God.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, um the the definition of peace, and I think we went over that there, but we didn't talk about it, but the definition of peace comes is uh is uh the Old Testament definition is a Hebrew word, written in the Hebrew language, of course, and it's the word shalom.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've all heard that word.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And its literal meaning is wholeness or completeness or wellness.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, um, Jews greet each other with that word shalom, shalom, and it's not just, hey, peace, really, like we might think, it means be well, be complete, be whole.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh may it be well with you.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so it gives us this picture of completion and wholeness.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the definition, you'll even find out that it includes like um prosperity, healing, and all that.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a it's a situation of fullness in your life, that's shalom.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the Greek word that we see in the New Testament that we're reading right here in these words is the word I pronounce it, Irene.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's where the name Irene comes from.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it means, look at this, it means to join or to set as one again and to put at rest.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's it's it's kind of like this.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm walking around and I'm balancing, let's say I'm balancing this thing on my head here, and I'm just walking around in the house here, you might be a little nervous and I'm going to spill that thing.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because and the thing's not at rest, and neither are you.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: But what this word literally means is Irene, when you look it up, um, uh, it means to to uh excuse me, it means to join or to set at one.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we look at peace, um at the definition of peace, we're looking at a reconciliation.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is what makes the peace.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's peace with God.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've been set at one.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have been joined together with God.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: He has made us one with him.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why there is a peace there.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a separation.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: When we have the sense that God is out there, God is up there somewhere, and then it's like, will God reach down his hand and do something?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Will God hear from his lofty heights of heaven?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we have that.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's it's hard to have a peace because you just don't know.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're just not, you still feel alone in that sense.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: But knowing that Emmanuel, God with us, that he has made peace with us and he's joined us.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he did it of his own initiative, of his own idea, of his own of his own uh own volition, where he came and joined with us while we were yet sinners.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And his character, his heart, his love in doing that joined himself to us.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: He joined himself to us in our sin and in our death, and stayed joined with us in his resurrection and his ascension.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he did this, and it worked.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: What he did was he made us one with him, and that's why that's why it's so good to look at truth and understand this thing that you can never be separated from God, and nothing can separate you from the love of God.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing you do because you've been made one with him, and it therefore it has nothing to do with how good or bad we are.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you can always have peace.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't see, in in my life, this the reality of how of God's character brought a liberty to my life because I realized after some years I was never going to be able to do enough to make myself perfect, complete, or whole.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't get rid of enough flaws and weaknesses.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I could I just I could work at it and work at it and work at it, but there would always be something wrong because the flesh is made incomplete in itself.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can't fix it.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, you can't, this can't be fixed.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can't make it whole, you can't make it perfect.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: The perfection comes because God joined with me, and that's the only perfection I have.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul was realizing when he when when he was when he was really asking God to take care of something for him, take, remove something is what he said.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, My grace is sufficient for you.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And after three times, Paul finally gets it and he says, Oh, he says, Okay, I can now rejoice in my weaknesses, because in my weakness God's strength operates best.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I can humble myself and I can go ahead and accept the fact that that in my flesh, he says in Romans 7, there is no good thing.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be able to make this flesh good, but I can enjoy the goodness of someone that loves me.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there's power in that because then that power changes us.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: What does that do?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: That same graciousness that God has gives us, when according to our standards, we're undeserving.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: According to God's standards, we're not undeserving because his standard is based on his own heart.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: He loves us, has nothing to do with how many points we've earned.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's his standard.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we see we see his standard and we see that we and we can receive of his graciousness, then we have a graciousness to give.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that makes us a better person, if you will, or at least, you know, we're more we're we're effective in more positive ways, but it also brings peace to our hearts because we've we're we're we're one with God.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing that you can have as many flaws as I have, make as many mistakes as I do, even commit sin, according to, if you were to go by the letter of the law here.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes I do things where it's just like, God, I was totally wrong.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't ever want to do that again.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, there's absolutely no condemnation because the war with God is over, and his spirit is not striving with man.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: In Christ, God and sinner were reconciled, and peace with God and man was made.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Peace with God and man once and for all.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: God is not in this bad this cosmic battle of good and looking and waiting to destroy evil men and all that.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: He came to save evil people such as you and me.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how we got the idea because we go to church now or we've quit some habits that we think that we're good and the other kind of people are are bad.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're all the same.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You want to I'll show you that in a little in I'll show you that and I'll talk more about this.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But when you look at when you look at what God did with uh look at the adulterous woman, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And here's these Pharisees, they obviously believe they're in a better position because they can judge this woman.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna they're not afraid they're gonna get stoned with stones.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're taking her to be stoned and killed with rocks.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they take her to Jesus, and so here they are, you know, thinking that they're doing real well, and this woman deserves to be to be killed because of because of what she has done.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus do?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: He makes them all equal.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, what you know, the one with no sin cast the first stone.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: He basically says, You guys are all a mess.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Even you guys.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is you're all the same.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And God looked at a world that was all the same.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They were all sinners.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: They were all blowing it, they were all missing it, and they were all blinded.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he did a wonderful work.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate this Christmas that God came to earth, came, born in a manger, did what he did, was crucified, rose from the dead, gave the Spirit Himself to live inside us, and it changed us and gave us a new nature.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot take this out.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're one.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've been united with God, and that's just all that it's ever going to be.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now let's just enjoy it.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: In all of our weakness and all of our flaws and all that we do wrong, let's enjoy the goodness of God.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: God knew what needed to be done, and it worked.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: What he needed to do was to get with us.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And getting with us would take care of, first of all, that would take care of everything that God wanted, because what God wanted was to be with us.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be with us.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what love is.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Love wants to be with you.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to want to be with someone.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not even God.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there's peace with that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we go on here, and he says, so it pleased him.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: It look at this, look at the heart of our Father.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: It pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: God has made peace with mankind.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whether this things on earth or things in heaven, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind, the word alienated means you were not partakers.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: We were not partaking of this goodness of God, this love, joy, peace, and everything else that he is and has.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: You were not partakers, and you were enemies in your mind because of wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to stop right there just for a second.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: This point here.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: We were enemies in our mind because of sin or wicked works.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Adam has a transgression.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: In his shame and his fear, he hides from God.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: God came to walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Adam was the one that hid.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Adam was the one that pulled away.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Adam saw the separation in his mind because of his transgression.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And mankind's been doing that ever since.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why most religion, and even non-religion, self-help things or whatever, it's all about making you get be better, making you do better, making you perform better.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's trying to be better and be better and be good enough and be good enough.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can just get smart enough, and I can just get a handle on these things, and if I can just get more willpower over these things like that, then I'll finally feel complete and whole.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a myth.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: It never ever happens, ever.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the peace that the world gives.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so there's always that separation thing that you're you're never enough, you're not high enough, you haven't attained enough, like God is still demanding something else from us, or if he's not, you'll demand it from yourself.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing was meant to be an organic life with God, that God would be our life, he would be our joy, he would be our answer for everything.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, but now he's reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present us, watch this, holy.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in church we sing a lot of songs about how God is holy.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember any songs about how we're holy.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just a just a thought.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a truth that that that I find people don't uh so many people don't grasp it that we are holy.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you think Jesus said, Be ye holy as he is holy.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't giving us something to do.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, we take that and we all we think it's something to do.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's telling us to go out and do something and become something and be holy.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, be holy as he's holy.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: See, God doesn't have to try to be holy because he already is.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, he wasn't giving us something to do, he was giving us something to be.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you be holy because you've been made holy.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's done this to present you holy, blameless, and beyond reproach in his sight.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like me saying, Um, Glenn, I want you to be Glenn.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I'm trying.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to try.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: When you wake up, that's who you're gonna be.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: In all of your whatever, goodness and badness and flesh and glory and whatever that is, whatever it is, you're you're you're you're that person.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to try, you just are.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: But what if he woke up and didn't know he was Glenn?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then he needs some mind renewal.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: He needs to be, he needs to be reminded and taught of who he is, and hopefully it comes back to him.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, be holy.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, these people that were that were living up to these religious standards or trying to live up to these religious standards, he says, just be holy.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he talks about about sanctifying, about, about how he sanctifies him, he presents you holy, he presents you blameless.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, this union with God, when I got to the to to see that there truly is, because of the heart of God, the the and the and the work and the intention of God, there really is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can't you can't hit me with enough of it.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can you point out things that I do that are not good and are not right?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you'll be able to find that.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's not that won't be that hard.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell me about them and you can blame me and all that, and I might either thank you for them, or I'll just say, oh, I'm gonna have to pray about that or something, but I will not feel condemned about it at all.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know where I'm going to, I know who I'm going to sleep with at night, and it's God.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I wake up in the morning with, and who's with me, and who cares for me, and he's not trying to make me ashamed or feel bad about my shortcomings.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's loving me, and he's speaking to me, and he's comforting me, and he's encouraging me, and he's leading me, and he's guiding me, and he's very patient with me.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're aware of that, this relationship becomes sweet.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like a lot of people in the big, big, wide body of Christ don't, they have a hard time connecting when we talk about relationship with the person of God.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: So many people are in love with an idea because if you don't know, to some degree, if you don't become convinced to at least some degree of how good and loving, absolutely loving, with no conditions, if you don't know that God is that way, then you're not in a relationship with Him.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're in a relationship with an idea of a God who's not always loving, or a God who loves but.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're in love with an idea of a God who may be vindictive, a God who may be punitive, punishing, a God who maybe holds an account of wrongs that you've committed.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: When the Bible is very clear in 2 Corinthians 5 that get that that the Bible says God has reconciled, made peace with the world and to himself, not counting their sins against them.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's given to us that same word and ministry of reconciliation, or the word of peace.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians, it's called the gospel of peace.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts with peace between God and man.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably the first message we really see about Christmas is that God brought peace.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what he has done with this gospel is us who are enemies in our minds, when we see this gospel, it changes our mind, and that's called repenting.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: It changes our mind before we start seeing how absolutely good God is, and we need that.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the prodigal son, right?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how good his daddy was, even though he was a grown man.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: He had never learned how good his daddy was.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why he he took the inheritance and ran off because he thought that's the only way he could he could be happy.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: We find out later in the story, he could have had the whole thing and stayed at home and enjoyed it.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he came, he came back to daddy's house hoping to be a servant.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And daddy says, I wouldn't have that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I won't have it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how much his father loved him.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how good his father was.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't he didn't really see that until he saw how good the father was to him when he was at his worst.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: When he saw how much his father still loved him when he was at his worst, then it changed his mind about his about about how his dad was.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: See, neither one of those sons knew how their dad was.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: One stayed home, one stayed in the house and served him faithfully.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't know how good his dad was either.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Neither one did.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: When we see like the prodigal son, how good our father is, now the son, the prodigal son, he could have relationship.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: He him and his dad, he could enjoy his dad now.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what his dad wanted all the time.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You could have had anything you want.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I have is already yours.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first part of it, that he he makes peace with man, peace with us.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: God is not mad at anybody, he's made peace.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: When he prophesied that and from the through the prophets that my spirit will not always strive with man, that was fulfilled when Jesus came and did his thing.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: For it's God working in us.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are there a lot of things that God that God uh hates and doesn't like?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: All this these horrible things that are going on that are hurting us and destroying uh you know the uh mankind, and of course he doesn't like those things.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: But he loves people.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 26 we get to the second part of this.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 26, verse 3 says that God will keep you in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the second part of this is so we so we talk about God, God and us being reconciled, having been made peace.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: The second part I want to look at right here for a few minutes is is having peace, not with God, just God, as we established, but having peace with you.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Having peace with yourself in all of your frailties, in all of your flaws, in all of your shortcomings, having peace with you.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: God came to live inside of us.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, Christ in us.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Inside of us, we have the human soul.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Without the knowledge of God, without knowing God, the human soul, which includes our mind, is all by itself.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like Adam going from choosing the tree of life and choosing the tree of knowledge of good and evil, all on his own now.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: And with and without knowing God, we're all on our own.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And all and we have and we make our own calls, our own decisions, we make up our own logic, our own wisdom, and mankind has done that for thousands and thousands of years.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And man feels very alone.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is why people, this is why people uh suffer so much inside, why people will cry themselves asleep at night.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some will actually take their own lives, some will, some will, you know, it's just there's there's there's turmoil in everything going on because life, life is, is, is hitting us, and on our own, it's it's we feel so alone, and sometimes it gets so deep where it's it goes into hopelessness.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: We don't ever see it getting any better.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no peace in that.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what you do, you can't do it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: How can you have peace?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, you'll notice this in your life if you look at it.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Peace always happening, is always happening in here when your mind is lined up with the spirit that's inside you, or it's in agreement with it.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking what the spirit inside, your spirit knows everything.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that spirit I'm talking about, it's God's spirit in us.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is this union.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: He came and joined us.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's him living in us.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have a Christ heart inside of us.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have the mind of Christ, the Bible says.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Spirit who is alive, who's the creator, and he lives in us to be our lover, our counselor, our guide, our father, our everything that we would ever need in life.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's all in him.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and and so in these situations, when we're not in agreement with with what he's saying, we're going to have turmoil.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not an indictment on any on anybody at all, but it's it's it's it shows it shows how simple it is to have peace.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do when I start feeling feeling that stuff?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say, Father?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just what do you say?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'll believe him, if I'll agree with him, it happens every time peace just comes into my heart.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's a guide, he's a counsel.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he'll give me direction, and that'll give me peace about something I'm dealing with in my life.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I get no direction, just an assurance that God's with me.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: That God's totally right here in the middle of this whole thing with me, and that somehow it does administer a peace inside.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: He keeps you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you see the picture there?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: This lady got this girl got a glass of wine on her head.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: How would y'all would y'all feel real comfortable if I walked around and walked through the house with a glass of wine on my head like that?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Be like, uh, you know, Rick, maybe you shouldn't be doing that.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you'd feel better if you'd be more in perfect peace if I set it down on a table.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you might say, while I'm going around with that with that wine glass, or you might say, uh, Rick, why don't you set that somewhere?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Set it somewhere.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason for for that picture is because where it says he will keep you in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on on you on him.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: That word stayed is an interesting word.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you look it up, I would I really loved it when I saw that definition.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: That word stayed means to set on or to be held up by or propped up.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's just like putting something on a table whose mind is set on him.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what that does is it it brings peace.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you see in the picture, you see the relationship between the table and the and and and and the glass there, that they're they're they're in conjunction there.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: They have a relationship there that has and and the the wine is not out there on its own.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in danger.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the glass is not in danger of being broken, the wine is not in danger of being spilled.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is stable, it is steady, it is set on him.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you set your mind on him, you're putting it, you're putting it on a stable place.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're putting it on something that is bigger than you.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you don't want to hold that glass of wine at the end of a stick.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: You want to put it on something that's much bigger, and it'll be steady and stable.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the peace that we have inside of us is that everything about you, your mind finds the way to trust in him in a way that you can set everything on him.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to know everything.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: The carnal mind wants to know everything because it thinks if I can figure this out, I can fix it.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about fixing it.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's about having, it's about the joy of having someone bigger than our thoughts and our ideas always with us who really knows best.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens then in this relationship, you start to enjoy trusting this one who cares for me and you and who knows what's best for us and knows how to get us there.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: But even in even in dealing with the problems of life and the issues of life, the best thing is that he keeps you in perfect peace before the issue is resolved.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation or peace is better than resolution.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: We always think that human thinking that resolution will bring us peace.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: But God gives us reconciliation.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't, he hasn't resolved all the problems that are going on on the earth, hasn't even resolved all the problems that I deal with in life.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he's reconciled my heart, first of all, with him, and I'm at peace with myself.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And a big part of that is that I'm I'm I'm comfortable in my skin in a way to where I don't have to be perfect, I don't have to look good, I don't have to show off, I don't have to defend myself, I don't have to fight for my right to be right.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you just don't have that because you're you're you're you're set on something else.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm out there all by myself, then I've then it's all me.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say something that that that puts me down, then I feel like I might want to just defend myself and throw it back in your face, you know.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no peace in that.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't have peace about me.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says something about me and I'm all on my own.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, I better I better make myself better.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Either I'll either I'll either I'll I'll work to try to be a to try to make myself more perfect or more better, or else I'll just defend how I am and just say, well, I'm the one that's okay here.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's you guys that don't know.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and we all that stuff goes on.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that all those things come from a heart that's not at peace.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's this beautiful, wonderful peace with God to where you can be you and you can be weak, and you don't have to know everything.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and what you're doing is just you're enjoying uh the fact that you have someone with you.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have a father living inside me.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have a counselor living inside me, I have someone that's gonna be with me throughout all of eternity.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that we're trusting, trusting our whole eternity to be with God.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: But right here in the little here and now, why not trust him that same way today?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why not enjoy that same God that you're going to live with forever and ever, who is with you now, forever and ever, Emmanuel, God with us.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's better inside of us than sitting on a throne in front of us somewhere.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: He loves us from the inside.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: He is the source always of peace.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when we set our mind on him, Father, what do you say?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: It brings our mind at peace, and this is what he wants.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have peace inside of us.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Peace in any situation, and peace with who we are.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I used to fight so hard to be better just for so many reasons.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wanted God to approve of me, wanted people to approve of me more.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you look at where I came from as a as a as a young person, feeling so inferior and feeling like I was such a mistake, and feeling like, I mean, I can re I we talk about this.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I remember being being a a young man and a teenager in that that age age span where I thought, I felt like everybody else was more or less normal, and I was below that somewhere, and I felt like, boy, I'd like to be normal.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was what an ambition I had that I could just be normal, you know.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started, then after Jesus came, I started getting some stabilization in my life, and I I felt like I was at least getting normal, and then I thought, well, I don't like this normal either.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is isn't all it's cracked up to be.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we are who we are.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: We all got our weirdness in us, we all have our stuff, and we're we're uh we're all very ignorant of a lot of things, but we can we can be at peace with that and enjoy that.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I like the fact that I found out I don't have to know everything because somebody does know everything.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody that's with me and somebody that cares.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where our perfection is.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: So much more you could talk about that.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the third part is peace with others.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2 says something great here.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For he himself is our peace.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, these are just what three verses we look at tonight.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Four four verses we looked at tonight.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible, especially the New Testament, the Old Testament has a lot to say about it too, but that word peace is all over the place.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Set at one.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Me and my heart and my mind are set at one.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace, and he has made us both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to give you the context here, here, if you when you read this chapter, he's talking about Jews and Gentiles, which is essentially you Jews and everybody else in the world.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: You Jews are the, you know, you're special, you guys got it, you guys got Abraham and Moses and the covenants and all that stuff, you Jews, and and says, and and so you Jews know that you're better than everybody else.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Even the the other ones who claim to be Jews or Jewish, like Samaritans, they didn't even count them.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're unclean, you got it wrong, we're better than you.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're so much better than you, we will not have anything to do with you.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: We will not touch you, you're unclean.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: We certainly will not drink water after you like Jesus was asking to do.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and so they were they were that way.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that was their issue.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was their big issue.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you had, if you had um Facebook back then, if you had CNN and Fox News and all that stuff, these are the things that would be talked about day after day after day.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews and the Gentiles, the Jews and the Samaritans, always, you know, it's always how, and and and one station would be talking about how the Jews are right about everything.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other stations would be talking about how the Gentiles are right about everything.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: But but they all but they have that conflict going on.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh today it's not so much Jew and Gentile or Jew and Samaritan.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Today it might be black or white or whatever color, it might be, it might be red state, blue state, it might be mask, no mask, it might be, what are some of the other ones?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Gay and straight, it's whatever.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever way.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed what mankind is really, really good at doing is dividing into groups in our in our mindset.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's those people.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed when we're talking about somebody who's different or believes different or thinks different, we we call them them.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a unity, and there's not a peace because there's never a peace where there's not a sense of oneness to some degree.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why God had to bring this sense of oneness to us, oneness with Him.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: And He wants oneness with our soul and our spirit, our mind and our spirit.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: He wants us agreeing with Him, think in the thoughts of God.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those will always bring you peace.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: What things soever are good, lovely, pure, of good report.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Think on these things.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Where do they come from?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things of the Spirit.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: They'll always be of good report.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never go and ask God and say, God, this trouble I'm in, what can I do?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: And God's going to say, you know what, you're just in deep trouble.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get that from God.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: You will always get comfort somehow from going to Him.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: You'll always get peace every time.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so here we're looking at these different people, these others, and men we're so good at putting.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: We do it in Christianity.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something I noticed that, and I don't know if you've uh seen this yet or picked up on this yet, but but there's, you know, there's lots of in Christianity, most of us, it's really cool because I think we all will agree on what we're talking about at Christmas time, that Jesus was born of a virgin, he was born in the manger, he came to came to save us from our sins, he shed his blood for our most Christians of any stripe will believe those things.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: He rose from the dead, all that.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much for us to celebrate together, so much for us to fellowship around.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: But we also know that there's also these other tangents of beliefs that people have.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some people believe this about the end times, some people believe they believe something else, some people believe this about prophecy, some believe it's already fulfilled, some people believe different ways that what the importance of baptism or communion or something, all these different things, and it goes on and on and on.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when people, I get I've gotten around Christians a lot and over the years, and will say, well, these people, you know, they they sort of believe that that the book of Revelation has sort of already been fulfilled.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, oh yeah, those are the whatever, the preterists.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you put an is or they believe in ism, then it becomes some those people, and it's almost disparaging.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but but people do that.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's it's just natural.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: People have just, humans have done that.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um why?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well for one thing, humans without the knowledge of God, we always want to make us the good ones.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: We always want to make us the better ones.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus even then was would would talk about loving your neighbor, and they're like, okay, who's our neighbor?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why do they ask who is our neighbor?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're looking at which ones do we not have to count.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's saying, love your neighbor.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you don't mean everybody.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell us which ones are our real neighbors and we'll we'll love those.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes to the furthest extreme.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: He goes to the ones that they hate the most.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: He goes to the ones that they despise the most, the ones that they won't even go around.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if they're traveling, they would go around their territory because they didn't want anything to do with them.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan woman told Jesus this.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: She says, You guys have nothing to do with us.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he picks those.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, How about that?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: How about the Samaritan?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's your neighbor, telling the story of the good Samaritan.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, you guys are our neighbors here.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are one here in a sense.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, when it comes to the world, peace on earth, he himself is our peace, back to the top, who has made both one, and he's broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, or that word is the hostility.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do you know when Paul was writing this, do you know what that wall of separation was that he was talking about?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a story in the book of Acts, uh, 17, I believe it is, where Paul got in trouble.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that I mean, Jews almost they wanted to kill him right there at the temple because he brought his friend Trophimus with them, who they thought was a Gentile.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he brought him past a certain wall in the temple.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: See, now in the in Herod's temple in those days, Herod's was, he he he had some things added to it beyond what the first temple had.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: He had this grand temple.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was the grandest building of all.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you read history, uh the buildings, the building of Herod's temple was two and a half times bigger than any worship place in the whole world.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and it had these other courts.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the first court that you would come into, you go through this um through this gate, and you'd come into what was called the court of the Gentiles.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was big.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: It could hold a lot of people.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody could go in there, Jew, Gentile.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that was as far as the Gentiles could go, there was another wall.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it was about five, four or five feet tall, five feet tall, I think it was.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and there's another wall there, and Gentiles were not allowed to go past that.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a wall, it was a place where only Jews could go.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and and so that you couldn't go through the court of the Gentiles.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: Archaeologists have found, they would have these signs, these 13 gates around, and and and archaeologists have found a couple of them.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what it basically says here is that Gentiles cannot pass through here under penalty of death.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why they were willing, they're willing to kill, they were they were they were ready to kill Paul and Trophimus, because he took his friend through that gate, past the court of the Gentiles and into uh more of the courts of the Jews.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the next court, if you just want to know what it is, is that the women's court.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the treasury is.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the women Jews could go, but then there was another wall after that, and they couldn't go through the next gate because only Jewish men.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they just had all these partitions, these walls, and that wall between Jew and Gentile was a wall of hostility.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hostility rang up because Paul and Trophimus walked through that gate into the to the next court, and that was and that that warning of hostility that you will die if you if you go past here.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't do this.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: And why did they even have a court of the Gentiles?
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: They thought it was being inclusive, because the word did say that his house, that God's house would be a house of prayer for all, for all nations.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: So they had an area, but it was way out, it was the farthest part of the temple for the Gentiles, and they couldn't come any closer.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: You'd have the court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, the court of the priests, you'd have the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually you get to that.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why Paul said, you, and he said it in this chapter, you who were at one time were far off.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: You guys were in the farthest place away.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're now made near by Christ.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it says here that God, Jew and Gentile, that he's talking about here, he's made them one.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is no wall of that temple.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And even Jesus, remember when they were showing him the temple, what did he say?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Every bit of this has got to come down.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not one stone's gonna be left here.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's all gonna come come crashing down.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: He took down.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did he rent, did he tear the veil in the temple, but but every bit of that temple was destroyed.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those walls came down.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is our peace.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get this.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: This gets you excited about at least your own relationship to the world.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because our relationship to the world, when you see the truth, it becomes like God's relationship to the world.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Of which, if he doesn't love the world, then none of us ever had a chance.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because we've all been a part of it.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: He himself is our peace who has made those two, Jew and Gentile, one.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's broken down that middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from two, thus making peace.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: He has created one man out of those that were divided.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you could put Jew and Gentile on that wall.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: You could put black, white, brown, red, and yellow, divide those all up, which humans do in their mind anyway, to some degree or another.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can put Democrat Republican, you can put gay straight, you can put any, you can, you can it goes on and on and on.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Mask, no mask.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: How do we ever get something like COVID that affects everybody, can affect everybody, and we even find a way to divide on that?
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what mankind does.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: Mankind is good at that.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because mankind wants to be on top.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: We are right, you are wrong.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are good, you are bad.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: We are good, righteous, you are evil.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if we and and and what what that does is it poisons our thinking, and people start getting this idea that there's this good-evil thing going on here, that God, that God sees things in the knowledge of good and evil, and of course we're on the good, always, right?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've never met anybody that said they're on the side of evil.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: The ones, even that you might think are on the side of evil, talk to them.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: They say they're on the side of good.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: They think you're on the side of evil.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just there's there's there's there's misunderstanding because there's not connection, and people are not at peace with each other, and there's only one way that this happens.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: It got what God did worked.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was enough.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: When we have peace with God and peace with ourselves, and we're seeing things like God does, we're looking at a world and we're starting to feel about that world the way that God feels about that world.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not through carnal uh temporary eyes.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what mankind does in our own mind, without the mind of Christ, we're not looking through God's heart.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at life through a keyhole.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we do this a lot with with our situations.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you can be blessed in a lot of ways, but you'll have one problem going on or one bad thing that you deal with in life.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like you just focus on that, and it seems like your whole life looks like that dark space.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: And because you look through a keyhole, you're you're you're you're forgetting, you're not seeing all the heaven that's happening, all the goodness, all the blessing, all the thing that would make you smile when you wake up and be excited to be alive, all the things that cause you to rejoice that you that you have, but we look through a keyhole and we see this one thing that's just like, and it seems when you look at it that way, it seems like this is my whole life.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: My whole life is about this thing.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we look at the world through that keyhole.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll look at one issue and think that the one that's important to us, and we think this is life or death here.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is good versus evil, but God's seeing the whole thing here.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not looking at things the way human minds do.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like He has a di I'll say it this way, he has a He has a different view of events and time than carnal mind does.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because we look through that way a lot of times, we we we we can assume some things that that maybe God's not in agreement with.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: When we have the heart of God, when we are are in line with the heart of God, peace happens between you and people, whether it's individuals, whether it's just somebody that that's in your life, or whether it's another kind of people that think differently than you or look differently than you or are in another part of the world than you, you see not that there's not conflicts, not that things might have to be done in the in the military or or political realm or whatever, but uh above all of that, the only way that there is peace on earth, and there is, is that he's put that same, put himself in our hearts and given us a Christ heart to where we can actually love this world the same way that God does, who is willing to die for the worst of us in this world, so that the worst of us could know this wholeness, salvation, fullness of God, and be loved by God and benefit from that relationship.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: I tell uh I've been telling people lately, I you know, think of the worst person, the person that you think is the worst on this earth.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: Someone that you hate.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: It might be somebody that you're close to, or it might be a celebrity or something, or whatever, you know, a politician or something, but but think of somebody that you just think, ugh.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: When I think of that person, it's just like, uh, I can't stand the thought of that person.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then ask yourself, is that exactly how God feels and thinks about that person?
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: A God who is love, a God who is who loved someone like me or you.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: How could he feel so good about how I have been and still am, honestly, but feel so horrible about somebody else who's in the same boat that I was in.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: Pharisee and the adulterers were in the same boat.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You guys all sin.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't sinned, cast the first stone.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what he did was he he made them into one, says, You both need me.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're just as bad as she is.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're not any better.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: But they were religious.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were in the group, they were in the club, they were pursuing, they were seeking God, they were doing all these things.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, But you're both in the same, you're not any better because of that.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about us being one with God, when we talk about us being children of God and children of light and the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and how we're seated with him in heavenly places, and as he is, so are we in this world.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes people will say, Well, Rick, I'm a the Bible says not to think of yourself more highly than you ought.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: How do you believe all those things about yourself and not and not think of yourself more highly?
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: To think that we have his same nature, his heart and his character, that he that we are like him in those ways is not thinking too highly of ourselves.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: The only way we can think more highly is of ourselves is if is if we think we're better than somebody else.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's when we think we're of being more highly than ourselves, because Paul explained it.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: He said that.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, who are you?
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What did you receive that wasn't given to you by God?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't because you're so good or you're so special.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same grace upon everybody that's that's that's that's needed and and gets received.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at that, you know, somehow religion has made us feel like like we're on the good side.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have any sides.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't see the same lines that men have drawn in their minds, even in the name of God.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: God says, He loved the whole world.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, I love the Jews.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't die for the Jews, he died for the world.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, I love the ones who act right.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because really nobody acts right.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: And really, we're all a mess if you really get down to it.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're all we're all such a such a uh a feeble mess that just aren't, we don't do it right so much of the time.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: We still are still trying to find our way in things.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're still we're still so weak in so many things.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to judge somebody else?
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: How am I gonna draw a line and say, I'm good and you're bad?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: When I I need the same help that the worst person I can think of needs.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: And God sees it, God knows that.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't say, oh, I've got one remedy for the nice people and one remedy for the horrible people.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says they all need me the same.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: They all need the exact same thing.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what is it?
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: They needed him.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: They needed, really, they needed that love.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so my my heart of peace with mankind has given me a peace that's caused me to feel more like God feels about the earth.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a picture of God loving the world, but it's also a picture of you doing the same thing.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: For as he is, so are we.
• 57:53
  unknown: Wow.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: When you see this for what it is, when you see the beauty of the gospel, the beauty of his grace, the beauty of his love, and our our our need for it, how much we needed him and need him.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you such a heart of compassion and love for this world.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you see things differently.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love the feeling that that I have in my heart that I'm seeing increasing more and more, that I'm actually able to love that which I thought was so unlovely.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: And all I'm doing is doing the same thing God did for me.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: But you find yourself being able to catch yourself now when you start thinking more highly than you are, that you're actually better than some people.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: This world's just trying to figure it out, and so much of it is just lost and in the dark.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: But Merry Christmas, because Jesus brought love, peace, and joy to the world.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has come.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let Earth receive her king.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: Peace on earth now, and goodwill.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Goodwill toward men.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not the ones that are just like me, but goodwill toward men.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if people can have all their different ideas about end times events and how God's gonna wrap this up.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if time persists, and we continue on, the word of God says that of the increase of this government, His government, and of peace, and of peace, there shall be no end.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, this will continue to increase.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: There is hope for this planet.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: I myself would love to see everyone at peace.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: I myself would love to see the whole world loving each other and being at peace and not fighting over every fight, every war is about a dividing line.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve had it from the very beginning, right there, where we see it.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, they were together, they're together in the Garden of Eden.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: But boy, once they got that knowledge of good and evil, once it became on them, and then it's like, now they're not, they're not, you know, when God made them, he said, the two shall be one.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: But now that they've got that knowledge of good and evil, Adam says, Adam puts a dividing line.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, she did it.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: The woman you gave me, now they're not together.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's me against her.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't see those same lines.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: Human, carnal mind, we do that.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I love you.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for your wonderful gift, this powerful, supernatural reality of eternal you with us.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, for your how your love changes us.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the growth that's happening to us.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: Father, sometimes we would like things just we'd like even us to just be fixed.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_00: But let's enjoy the relationship.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's enjoy getting to know God.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, we thank you for that.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: The gift you've given us of yourself.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate you, the beauty of who you are.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: And let us let us have a sense of adventure and excitement from your spirit about about this peace.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_00: About enjoying peace with you every day.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_00: About us walking with peace in our hearts, no matter what the world does.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: Walking with this thing that's bigger than what the world is.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: And walking peace with the world that you love.