Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / One Way: Part 2

Transcript

One Way: Part 2 · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Independence Day.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big deal.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes freedom more than God.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: God, in fact, right from the very beginning, he's always given us freedom.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what love does, right?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't control.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Love gives freedom.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave us freedom of choice, actually, in the Garden of Eden.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We made a bad choice, but he had that covered.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: He had a plan the whole time.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But he loves, I think that's probably what he loves about this country the most, is that we we try, we we we're we're based on the idea of individual freedom.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and that makes the choices we make um so much more powerful.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, if if we steal, we won't get our hand cut off like we like in some countries.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We won't get we won't uh be killed for doing certain things that some countries uh do because they try to control the behavior of people.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if we choose not to steal, if we choose not to uh do harmful things to people, we do it out of freedom and out of um uh some goodness that's in our heart.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: God loves freedom.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um this morning we're going to talk about freedom from a particular thing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of a part two um going on from from last week, where we talked about um uh one way.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and really when we get down to it, this one way comes down to the way that God offered to us from the very beginning and always has and always does every day.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that way it's Him.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've said before you life and blessing and death and cursing.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Choose a life that you may live, and I am that life.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's beautiful and wonderful, and we enjoy the fact that we we have chosen that life, and we're learning more and more um the life that we have.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about the particular thing this morning, and it's it's really freedom from shame.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that entered in right there in the book of Genesis when we made the uh a choice that wasn't good for us.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's funny when you do this thing right here, it's like all of us know.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've if if if if you're very young, maybe you don't know, but but this was something I used to see, y'all.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: This means how do we all know that?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And how does that even mean that?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get it, but but but my dad, his big finger, would do that to me a lot when I was young, and I knew what it what it what it meant, and I would do something that wasn't good, and it would be he would be shame, shame, shame, or shame on you, or or he'd say, I'd be ashamed if I were you.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one time, and I love my dad, and he was, you know, he was doing what what a lot of the the world um tries to use to make us better.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Try to put shame on us to make us better.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I remember one time we were sitting in the backyard and I was getting a getting a talk, and and it wasn't all, I mean, I must have drove him crazy.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was not a very obedient child, and and I I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with me, but I just I just wasn't.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um when he told me this I'm this is true.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I when he said don't do something, what it what it what the way I took it was don't get caught doing that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he would even say it, he'd say, I better not ever catch you doing this, or you can catch you doing that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, I'll try my best, you know.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And but but we were sitting in the backyard and and he was getting on me about some things where that where I'd come short and didn't do what he said or what he wanted.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I said, Do I ever do anything good?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was I was like a 12-year-old boy.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and and he said, Oh yeah.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, how come I never hear it?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I said, how come you all you you you always talk to me about the things I do wrong?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what his explanation was.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he said, he pointed out there was a hole in my jeans right here.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh back then that was a shame.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, now you pay extra to do that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but that was a shame.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said, it's like that hole in your pants there.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, that one thing wrong, it ruins the whole the whole thing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You couldn't wear that to church then.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is how long ago that was.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: He said, and we not that we went to church either, but he's like, he says, you know, that that those pants are ruined because you've got a hole in the knee.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the rest of them's good, but that one thing wrong ruins the whole thing.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that was his explanation to me.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's kind of uh what I um uh grew up with, and uh so I know this whole the this burden of carrying shame for uh you know all of my younger years for sure.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I had that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's a definition that somebody gave of shame, and I think it says it very clearly.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Shame is the intensely painful feeling of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love or belonging.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I see this a lot.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, any Christian that you talk to, everywhere where we go, any Christian will say God loves us.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Any Christian will say they are loved by God.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it's funny that when you talk about love as much as I do, and as um as deeply and directly as I do, it's it's it you find out that that people have a really have a hard time actually receiving that or believing in that kind of love.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: God can't be that good.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God loves us, but they all have those things.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: They always put that big butt in the way, and it's and that's that stops it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was a I did that on purpose.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the the the so but but they they they have a problem with that.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it really is deep-seated within within humans, is that there is this thing in so many of us where we believe that we're not we're not worthy of that kind of love.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one time um when I really just started to, when I when I when I after I had seen this revelation of the goodness and the grace and the love of God, where I was thanking God for, I thought, God, thank you for your love.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I could see it, and I was like, I was like, you know, and I said, and I know I don't deserve it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not worthy of it, but you are so good.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a correction.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know how uh I know it's God because it it's it interrupts my thoughts, and it's not something I would have thought at all.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: It totally corrects it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it and and I heard, and I said, Father, I'm I I know I know I'm not worthy of it, but you're so good.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for loving me the way you do.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and I heard these words.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I heard him say, say, son, I have very valid reasons for loving you.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, that took me to another level.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I never would have expected that.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I have very valid reasons for loving you.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly, to this day, I'm not sure what those are, but he does.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So there's things about not only does he just love me because he's supposed to, because he's God, but something about me he likes too.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: With all my holes in my jeans, with all my flaws, night, night, night, everything.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have a I I've I found a list of flaws, and this is it's it's it's not an exhaustive list, but it's just that but there's there's a lot of words.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we have that that graphic, but the but but you can think of all kinds of things that are that are that that are that are wrong, personality things and and and so on.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, um it we know if we just look around, um everybody would agree that you know that everybody has quote flaws.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I would like to do away with that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I find myself correcting myself when I when I say things like that, because um in the beginning we were created as weak and foolish vessels being uh if we're not connected with God.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: God was was intended to be our life, was to be our source, our resource.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was intended to be the source of everything for us, our life, our protection, our sense of well-being, everything, our uh our provision.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: God was God was that.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he made us that way.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't make us capable of living by ourselves.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: He made us because he is love, and love by its very nature wants an object of love, wants somebody to give that love to, wants somebody to give his goodness to.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're here on this earth.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why humans were created, because love wants an outlet.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we were intended to be from the very beginning.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that in Jesus as he shows us what a son looks like.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the father loves the son.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, whatever the son asks, the father does.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he knew that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't trying to just faith things up, he knew something about his daddy.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: He knew that love and he knew that he was loved.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew that it had nothing to do with uh with with our own goodness.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I like when one guy called him good master, good teacher, good rabbi.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Why do you call me good?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's none good but my father.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we know that Jesus is good.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody lived a sinless life, and he did, the Bible is clear on that, so he didn't have what we would call flaws, but he but what he was doing was he was direct he was directing to the father, and it's like what he's saying is, it's not because of my goodness that I do these things.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because it's my father's goodness.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so he he made sure to deflect the idea that it was on the individual person, is why he was so blessed and why God favored him so much.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, no, it's because of the goodness of the Father, and that's what we that's what we uh uh uh have.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we look at when we use this this this language about flaws, I hope you can get this and just and remember this all the time.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I say it once in a while, but perfection is not the absence of flaws.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: We were created to be with God, and without God, we are just weak and foolish vessels.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the strength to do everything that we're supposed to that's necessary.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: God was intended to be our strength.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I said when I say we don't have it, I mean if we live separate from God, if we live without trusting him, without knowing him, without being dependent uh uh on him.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have what it takes.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we all have turned to God, because we needed something more than ourselves.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: We needed him, who is perfection.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Perfection is not the absence of human flaws, perfection is the presence of God's perfect love in the midst of our quote flaws.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when you think about it, we're we're not even really flawed in that sense.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a song that says something about, I love your perfect imperf all your perfect imperfections.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you could look at it that way, that's how it is.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't made to be to be everything to ourselves.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't made to be able to do everything right, we weren't made to be able to measure up to anything or to attain uh all the things that we feel like need to be attained outside of God because he's our source.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in the book of Genesis, we see that whole thing with that with that disconnect, with that separation.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And God never, God doesn't like it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: God's a connective being, and he created us to be connected with him, and we we pulled away from him, didn't we?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: We pulled away when we chose the the knowledge of good and evil, therefore putting everything upon us instead of upon God.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where all and all religion has been has attempted to try to reach God and try to relate to God in some way.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why most religion actually is based upon shame and fear, because that's just what the world, that's just that's the spirit of this world.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the foundation of what the kingdom of this world is built on.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a way that seemed right.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: You said it looks good.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do that, let's go that way.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the the the result, the fruit that came of that was shame and fear.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: They looked upon their nakedness, they looked upon their insufficiency, they looked upon their weakness, if you will, they looked upon their condition and they were ashamed of it because it didn't measure up.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when they heard the sound of God, they pulled away and they hid themselves because they didn't feel worthy of being with him in his presence.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: They hid from him out of fear.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Shame is the intensely painful feeling of believing that we are flawed.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we see right there in the very beginning of our beautiful Bible.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: We see man believing that he was flawed and therefore unworthy of love or belonging.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we embraced the shame.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: We saw something about ourselves and interpreted that in a way that God didn't see.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say it this way.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was afraid I was afraid, so I hid myself because I was naked.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you that?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you that you were naked?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Have you eaten of that tree?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You've been naked the whole time.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: I never said anything.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't hold that against you.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do anything.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to love you.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to be your everything.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you you were naked?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't me.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: What told him that was the knowledge of good and evil.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: This world's system, the knowledge of good and evil, which is man on his own without help.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I won't leave you helpless, I won't leave you comfortless, I won't leave you alone, I won't leave you orphans.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: The comforter will come.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful song we sang today about about our comforter.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they felt shame.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: There was fear.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens then?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not only are they disconnected do they disconnect from God, but Adam and Eve.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: When they first got together, Adam looks at her and he says, Hey, you're flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are one.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: But now, with the shame and the fear, the woman did it, not me.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're two now.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're not one.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not me, it's her.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So there's blame.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's always blame, it's always somebody else, right?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Always something, blame.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was that disconnect that went on.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And mankind suffers from that.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have all of our wars and all the things and all the hate and the anger and all that that goes on.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: We sang that song.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got touched this morning about when we were singing about America.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: America.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the lion says, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with the brotherhood from the sea, the shining sea.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'd love to see that.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I long to see what all that stuff happens because that's the way of the world.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way that it seemed right, and it wasn't.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: It made it hard for us.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It made it horrible, it made it painful, fearful, shameful.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: But there is still one way.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I am that way.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And those two ways are what we see when we look at Galatians 5.17 when it says, For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul gave us a look into his life before he knew Jesus in Romans chapter 7.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And here he is.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's this guy.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's a Pharisee.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's a really strong, strong guy in the church, and he's doing it right, and he's excelling above all of his peers because he's so zealous for it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he's, I mean, he's working hard at this and he's doing the right things, and he believes in it so strong that he that people that are preaching this Jesus gospel here, like they need to be killed.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he he's he's believing it, and he's and he's and he's and he says, as far as as far as the keeping of the law, I was a Pharisee.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody does it better than us.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in Romans 7, he goes, Let me tell you what it really looked like.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: The things that I wanted to do, I couldn't do.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: The things that I didn't want to do, guys, I was still doing it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: He looked good on the outside, but he says, you know, in reality, he says, the things I didn't want to do, I couldn't find the power to not do it anymore.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what I really wanted to be like, what I really wanted to do, I couldn't find the power in that law to do what I really wanted to.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he writes in Galatians, he says, that's why you can't do what you want, because there's those two ways are contrary to each other.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's only one way to do this walk in the spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're two separate ways.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can and and if we if we remember that, somebody was telling us um uh last week after after I was talking last week, uh the first part of this, they uh they learned how to stop arguments in their family.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: They said every time somebody started complaining, they said, that's the wrong tree.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's the wrong tree.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they were using it that way.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were using a little bit of shame.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe they shouldn't have done that, but but but but they were recognizing that there are two two two different ways of living, two different ways of life.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: One actually is a way that leads to death, and not just someday.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: People are experiencing it now every day.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're experiencing the pain of death day after day after day.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a way.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we want to know.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is the good news.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't begrudge the fact that Jesus said, I'm the only way.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just be glad there is a way.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said, There is a way.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way to the Father.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way to that one who once again becomes our substance, our life, our source of everything, our source of strength, and certainly our source of love, everything.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: But as long as we walk this other way, um, we're going to deal with this and with this shame and struggle, struggle with how a holy God can love someone like us because of the shame.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I got a bag of props here.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So right here, I'm wanting you to put on my vest of shame.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we got this.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: We found this out of the wheel store, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we can stain it really good.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we got these stains.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: We got these stains, these stains, and so this is this is my vest of shame.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is me, I'm flawed.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I got stuff wrong with me.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the stuff I really don't want you to see.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it, it's too obvious.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't hide it.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some of this stuff is secret.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what am I gonna do about this?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is my vest of shame.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I live my life with this.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've even even as after I came to Christ, I kind of still wore this thing because I still I still kept trying to get rid of the stains.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We would talk about how how you know Jesus is gonna come for a bride without spot or wrinkle.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: He certainly can't come for me like this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I would hear preachers say, well, what that means is we got a lot of washing and ironing to do.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh yeah, we do.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I spent years trying to get rid of these stains, trying to get rid of my flaws, trying to make myself better, trying to, if I could just, if I could get rid of this one and get rid of that one, I'll I'll I'll be a good Christian.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be, I'll have favor, I'll have blessing.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: God, God will approve of me, and and stuff, good stuff will happen because of that.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I could just, if I could get rid of these flaws, I thought that was what we were supposed to do as a Christian.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that's what the Christian life was.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that's what the journey was with scrubbing this.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I heard one preacher say one time, he says, When when you when you stand before your father when you uh you know at those gates or whenever you get to heaven, he says, God's not gonna say how many, how, you know, how many how uh how many great works did you do, how big was your ministry, this, that, the other.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: What God's gonna say is, Did you get the sin out of your life?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the preacher said.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what his whole idea about this was that when you get to heaven, God's gonna say, All right, I want to know, did you get the sin out of your life while you were down there?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And people believe that stuff.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we think about it all the time.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Most revival is based upon, or used to be, based upon that thing.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was it was getting people to to cry about all their stains.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: People always pointing them out.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: What the church needs to be doing, because we got this stain.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: What we ought to do, here's what's wrong with Christians today.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: All we the the all that preaching was the ministry of condemnation, disguised as gospel, but it was the wrong tree.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the ministry of can con ministry of of uh of sh of death is uh condemnation is the ministry of death.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, what am I gonna do about this?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I got here's what I'm gonna do.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like these stains.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got the antidote.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, much better.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Much better.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: You think you think God will like this?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: This looks better than that.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: No stains on me.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then they hear the sound of God in the evening, in the cool of the day, and even though They've got their fig leaves on and they've covered their shame, it doesn't work, does it?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because they hear God and they still feel the shame because it's inside, and they feel the shame and they go and they hide from him.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what people are doing.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe if I hadn't known about the love of God in any way similar to what I know now, I would have run to him so much sooner.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that I pushed away because I was scared of him.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And why was I scared?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because of this stuff.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he couldn't approve of me.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that there was just too much about me that was wrong.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: There was too much that I had to get right about me, and I knew I couldn't do it.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: See, God is everything.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is why he made this new covenant, so that it takes all of the work off of us, and he says, Let me take care of that.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: See, in Ezekiel, it gets really good.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: In Ezekiel chapter 16.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, let me read this definition first.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: This was by a a famous uh Catholic priest who really knew a lot about grace, named Henry Henry, Henry Nowen or Henre Nguyen or something like that.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, he says, as long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know why?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we feel shame, we we somehow feel compelled to put shame upon others.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: We will be filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their right place.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying, everybody, everybody should be ashamed.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs to be fixed, everybody needs to get it right.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with them?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're flawed, they're doing bad, they're doing wrong.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: People that are, quote, flawed, people with spots, people with with weaknesses that we have, somehow we're so we're we're we're so adept at demanding that other people get rid of theirs.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the way of the world.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you know, we had it with Adam and Eve.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the devil.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've had that one in this in the church a lot too.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, I've got something.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a I've got an antidote for the the spots and the fig leaves.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, before I do that, I got my I got my I would think I got my notes here.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you about these uh about what works in this right way.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a story.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was about 12 years old again.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I did a lot when I was 12.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I was a pitcher in the in in the little league.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I was uh I was I was I was pretty good at that age.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one of the better pitchers in the league, probably one of the top two for sure.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was not having a great game.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the umpire wasn't giving me the close calls.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'd think I threw a strike and for some reason he thought it was a ball, and he kept calling, and I was getting frustrated and I was getting mad.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I was letting him know.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and the more frustrated I got, the more mad I was.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was mad about the umpire.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he why is he cheating?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was convinced he was cheating.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it didn't take long.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was convinced that he's cheating, and he's doing this for the other team, and there's nothing I can do about it, and I kept getting more frustrated, and the more frustrated I got, the worse, the worse my pitching was.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh eventually, finally, my the coach pulled me from the game and put somebody else up there, and I was in the dugout, and I was just so mad, and I was I was being as vocal, I was being loud, and I was cussing as much as I felt I could get away with at that time, and directing everything at the umpire loud enough so he could hear me, and I was I was in the dugout and I was just ranting and everything, and the coach said, sit down and be quiet, and and so I did, I would do that for about five seconds, and then I would start again, and I was pushing it just to get, I was trying to get away with as much as I could because I was mad.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm this whole thing, and as far as I was concerned, the way this whole game was going was was nobody's fault except the umpire.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so the next inning when we came up to bat, the um the coach wanted me to go coach third base.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I run I walked across the field and put a helmet on, and I'm standing there in foul territory by third base.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And while the other team's warming up and throwing the ball around, the umpire takes off his mask and he starts walking down the third baseline towards me.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm scared.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm ashamed because it's not me and this umpire anymore.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is an adult and a kid.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's coming towards me, and I have said all these things, and I have just gone off and uh and said everything I could about him, and he's walking towards me, and he's gonna say something to me, and I'm just I won't even look up.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking down because I'm scared and I'm uh and I'm really I really know that I've been a really bad boy and I'm about to get what I deserve right here in front of everybody.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to me and he stood right next to me and he quietly said, he said, Rick, don't be mad at me.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I know I'm not good at this, but I'm doing the best that I can.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he says, I wouldn't, he said, I would, I wouldn't try, I wouldn't try to sabotage you.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you're he told me, he said, you're my favorite player in this league.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: He said, he said, you're gonna play in that all-star game and I will be rooting for you.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as he's talking, it's it's breaking my heart and it's melting it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because this guy, this guy, he could have, I mean, he had he was in the position, he had all the leverage here.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: He was an adult for one thing, but he was in the right and I was in the wrong, and he could have I was a I was I was a real hothead anyway back then.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was just I I was I grew up kind of an angry child and I was a kind of a hothead, and and and if he would have chewed me out loudly right there, probably half the people in the bleachers would have applauded him because I was just being a jerk.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and but when he stood there and he spoke, so only I could hear him, and the things that he said, it broke my heart, and I felt instead of anger and hate for this man who was working against me, plotting against me, and cheating me, it's immediately turned to love and respect.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Bible says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, and that's what he did.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: He had every right in our minds to do a lot of other things.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: He could have chewed me out and got that and won that whole battle between him and this snotty kid.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: He he could have thrown me out of the game.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I thought might happen when he started walking toward me.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: He could have filed for disciplinary action against me, and I might not have played the rest of the year.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had all the chips.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he used another tree, he used another kingdom, he used a Jesus way, he used love.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he he loved me.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: To this day, he that guy who I had done done nothing but horrible, said nothing but horrible things about, it didn't change how he felt about me.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And by how he did, this angry boy's heart immediately changed.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's walking back to home plate, and I'm thinking, I really like this guy.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: It changed.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: See, there are two ways.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: One is life, the other seems right.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: What would have seemed right was him to do every horrible thing to me.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Could have got back at me and been disciplinary.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody would have agreed that he was in the right to do it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: But wow, what did he know?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know to this day, but he chose.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, he chose this other thing.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't change how he felt about me.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized this man is not against me.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's just flawed.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: He just doesn't, he's just half blind, that's all a gentle answer that stirs uh turns away wrath.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 10, 12 says, hatred stirs up strife.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Love covers all sins.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: In Ezekiel, we have a picture of covering the sin.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel chapter 16.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, When I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's me, but that's you.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're old enough to be loved.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're old enough to open our hearts.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're old enough to receive this now.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've been through a lot of shame and pain, but we're old enough to get back to the hook to stand here in this Garden of Eden and say, you know what?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm eating of the tree of life.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm old enough for love.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: When I saw that you were old enough for love, so I wrapped my cloak around you, and I covered your nakedness, and I declared my marriage vows, and I made a covenant with you, says the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we were enemies of God, when all of our thoughts were on evil continually.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than doing what natural man thinks God would do.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is why they think God is so vindictive, vengeful, and judgmental.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they think they think you know they got this idea that he's got the big furnace just waiting for you, and he's gonna he's just looking for the opportunity.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I would think that at times.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was afraid that if I sinned and didn't confess it real quick, that God was going to jump on that opportunity to send me to hell.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I thought of him.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're old enough for love.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I came and I wrapped my cloak around you and I covered your nakedness.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do I still have spots?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it doesn't matter now because I'm looking pretty good right now.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this white linen, if you will, didn't come from us.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: For Revelation chapter 19, verse 8 says, and this is me and you.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: When he says he's that that he that he won that he would present, and he did, he has presented that, a bride without spot or blemish or any such thing.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that we would scrub ourselves clean, it was that he would put the white linen upon us.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that his linen would be the righteousness of the saints.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the verse right before that says, Come, for the bride has made herself ready.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so I always thought we got to keep working to make ourselves ready.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll be worthy of Jesus, you know, when he comes.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: But how did she make herself ready?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: The next verse says, It was given to her.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: We received it.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: We received his righteousness, his goodness, his perfection.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Perfection is not the absence of flaws.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got them, no sense even trying to hide them.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it's hard hard getting harder for me to even think of them as flaws because of course I fall short.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm too weak to get it right sometimes in myself.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: But when we look to him and we trust in him, this is why we we do have him, we do trust him, when we trust in him, we're covered.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter if I'm spotted and you're spotted anymore.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you you were spotted?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter because love overshadows all of it.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't make a big deal about those things anymore.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe maybe it'll do what that umpire did to me.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it'll do what God has done to you and melted your heart.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was given to her.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Would you guys stand up?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pray a quick prayer over you.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I sure love you.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful father, what a beautiful gospel.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Good news we have.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: No more shame.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be ashamed.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Be loved.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: The love will cover that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: You won't get rid of it by doing anything else.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your great love.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that it just begins to overwhelm us more than we've ever known.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that everyone here has a sense of knowing every time they wake up in the morning that they are loved.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: When they wake up, they say, Wow, I'm loved.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: When they wake up, they have a sense of fullness because the love of God causes us to dwell in that fullness.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3.19.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I thank you, Father, with doing what you can do.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Your comforter, your spirit that's with us and within us, reveals these things to us, and we walk free from any guilt or shame or condemnation.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, no more fear.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: But let the love arise up and let us experience it, let us enjoy being loved every day.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then let us have the fun of watching it pour out.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Pour out, irrespective of what anybody has done.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your perfect love in our lives.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: We love you, we celebrate you today in Jesus' name.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you guys.