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God's Community · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_00: I love the last song we sang, that he was a lover before time began.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh in in continuing on with our table talk, see the table, table talk?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that clever?
0:19
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not podium talk, it's table talk.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And um, continuing on with that, I want to get into really, I guess, the what I think is the basis for this whole talk about community and relationship and that those those kind of things.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: And the basis of it is the way that God made us.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, he was a lover before time began.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
0:41
SPEAKER_00: It means that not only did God so love the world, did he so love us before he gave the Son, but before all that we know as creation was created, God was love, and God was loving, and God, and love was happening.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you know, the Bible indicates a triune God and talks about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: God is one, but this thing that we try to wrap our head around, this three and one, that, well, it's because Father, Son, Holy Spirit are so one that it is one God.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And um, in fact, in the beginning, you know, it says that uh in the beginning Elohim said, God said, which is a plural word, let us make man.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: And essentially he's basically said, and and let's include him in what we're doing here.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Let him have dominion over, you know, over the works of our hands and so on.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So there was this that love was already in operation.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Love was already happening, and it was out of that love that all of this beautiful stuff that we call creation, including you and I, were uh were brought forth from him.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And love was going on.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: And we find in the beginning, in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, an interesting thing here.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: That God had created man to be included in all of these things.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: And he says in verse 18 of Genesis 2, then the Lord God said, It's not good for the man to be alone.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I'll make a helper who is just right for him.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, God looked upon this and it says, It's not good for man to be to be alone.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, we know some stuff happened with that knowledge of good and evil thing, with taking of that tree, and I point back to that often.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: But but, you know, even before that what we call that act of disobedience was done, before the wrong thing was done, something had to be going on inside that would cause them to be willing to do that that wrong thing.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: And I've heard it suggested that Adam, who was not alone, who were never alone, and I realize in my life, even before I gave my heart to the Lord and my life was was was changed, I realized looking back, you know, God was with me that whole time.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: God was loving me that whole time, but I was oblivious to it, so I felt alone.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I felt separated.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And so here's Adam with a God who walks in the garden in the cool of the day, but he's feeling alone.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And that word alone, he says it's not good for man to be alone.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: It's the word, it's spelled bad.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: It's bad to be, uh, but it's I'm sure it's pronounced bod.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: It's a Hebrew word, and it says it says it means to be alone or by itself, apart or separated.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not good for man to be apart, separated, to feel alone, not man to be by itself.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And I think I can use that picture because we know that's a common thing.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I I know it's something that I've experienced, I know it's something that I see a lot of times, and people will talk to me, and maybe they've got a crisis going on, a situation, and they're they believe in God.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: They believe in Jesus.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: There are they are a believer.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: And they get into situations and sometimes they feel like it just seems like God's not here.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: He's not working.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: It's like he doesn't feel like he's close.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Look what's going on here.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, does he does he even care?
4:05
SPEAKER_00: I know I've prayed that at times in my past.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, God, are you seeing what's going on?
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Do you care?
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I call a separation mentality because it doesn't feel, it doesn't seem like God's near you.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't seem like he's Emmanuel God with me.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: He seems like he's on a cloud somewhere or on a high mountain or something.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, a lot of my Christian thought for a long time was essentially how to get him from the mountain to where I'm at, or how to get him to draw near, or how to get me nearer to him, something.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Because I felt separated in spite of what I knew some of the Bible scripture said.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: And and the fact that God made us to be with him, to be involved and to be included in him and in what he's doing and what he's all about means it shows us why inherently we have this thing where we want to be included.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to feel separated.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: We don't, and the extreme version of that is to feel like the outcast.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm I'm very, if you know me uh very much at all, I'm very laid back.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can just take stuff or leave stuff and all that, and and you know, um, it doesn't, things don't don't seem to bother me.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: At least what I call little things don't seem to bother me a whole lot.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: And and and if you guys that are close to me and you guys want to have some kind of a gathering and and I hear about it and you didn't invite me, I probably didn't want to go anyway.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: But at least give me the opportunity to say no, at least ask me.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: At least try to include me.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't like the oh, so you guys did that last night, huh?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't know about that.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: And you know that that that that feeling, we we we have that.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: I I you know I remember um I took my my granddaughter to the park one time.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: She was about five years old, and and and as the way she was, she would always meet a friend, always make friends immediately.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: And so she's playing on the the things they have there at the park, and I see her, she's playing with a girl, and then there's another girl that wants to join in.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And and and the first girl that she had befriended quickly, she told the girl, she says, You can't play with us.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: And so I watched that girl walk away sad while my granddaughter and this other girl were having a good time.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So I I'm sitting on the park bench like a good old man should do, and I called her to me, and uh and I said, Nicolette, and I said, I said, let that girl play with you.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: I said, because you know how it feels when they do that to you at school.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: And she turned around and she says, Come on, you're my best friend, and she, you know, she included the girl, but but it's the most horrible thing.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And he and and even when you grow up, I now I don't think I'm being sexist here at all.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: But and I have asked women about it, I brought it up, and many of them say, Yeah, that's very, very true.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's it's it seems like sometimes it's hard for three to operate in harmony together.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: It's like there's there's there's there's there's often one that just feels like they're like the third wheel, or you know, and anyway, what I'm talking about is we don't like that feeling.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: We don't, we were meant, we were supposed to be included, first of all, with God and with each other.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And we we something feels off, something is wrong, something is horrible when we we feel that separation.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: And so we were we we were made for that, to be part of this unified thing with God and with his creation and so on.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: But we've got an Adam here who's feeling feeling like he's by himself.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: And Colossians 1.21 is something I I quote often, which says that we were alienated or separated in our minds because of those bad works, and and God has drawn us near in Christ.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: So there's a restoration, there is a salvation, and as I get into this, I want to I want to really um help maybe clarify, I think, what our salvation really is.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Because I think that a lot of the the modern uh genetic modified ideas of Christianity, we've made it primarily about something that it was never primarily about.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: So I want to look at that because this is what this whole thing is.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: It's really about us being made whole.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we see Adam, who God says it's not good for him to be alone, so I'm gonna give him a helper.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make him a helper.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: And we know how the how the female came from man and uh came from within the human, and it became male and female.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh um he gave that helper.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And it goes right along with John 14, verse 16, where Jesus is saying to us, I'll pray the Father, and he will give you a helper.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: He'll give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 18, he says, I won't leave you orphans, or I won't leave you comfortless, or I won't leave you alone, or I won't leave you helped helpless.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: You will not be alone.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: You won't be what Adam was feeling in the Garden of Eden.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: So I made the male and the female there for that, for that unification, or that companionship.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: He says, But I'm gonna give you myself, my spirit, the Holy Spirit, the comforter.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you orphans, I won't leave you alone.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: I will be with you always.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And so you we so we have that.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: We the first part of our restoration is that we are united, we are uh in connection, we are we are in relationship, family, fellowship with God, and he says, He will be with you always, and you'll always have that, and you'll never be separated.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And we know he says things like, I'll be uh you know, I'll be with you forever, lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I will never leave you nor forsake you.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: And he says all of these things, telling us, you will never be alone, you'll never be isolated.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: We were talking this morning, I was talking with uh a couple of people this morning and and and talking about that feeling of isolation.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And that's what mankind has found.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting how with all the billions of people in the world, how many people feel like I'm all by myself in this?
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Especially in certain situations.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Even as you uh as you believe in God, if you have a separation mentality that is not with you, when you have a problem sometimes in this world, it feels like the weight of it's all on you.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: And that's where stress and worry comes from, because you're trying to figure this out and you're trying to carry this load.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: And and you know, I've even heard people talk about, and I try to put it on the Lord, but it just keeps coming back on me, and I and I and I don't know how to shake it.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And and it's it's because they're they're they're accustomed to feeling like it's like it's all on them.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And we we were not created to feel this like a like we're separated.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: We're not we were not created to feel like we're we're isolated, like we're we're all alone in this thing.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about in my life.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh I was talking this morning to some people, and we were talking about how now there have been times in my life where I thought I wanted to.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: There was there was a time, one time I was an associate pastor of a church and I got my feelings hurt, and uh I remember going home, I just I just I just left in the middle of the day.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: I just like that's it, I'm done.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm done for the day, I'm going home.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And I went home and I talked to God.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Father, I've got a plan.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna move my family to the mountains where there's no humans.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And it's just gonna be us and you, God.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are gonna worship you and we're gonna have us a good old time, you know.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: But I am done with people.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I, you know, have you ever been like that where you just felt like I am done with humans?
12:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's usually when we're hurting because of humans.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: These imperfect, wonderful, beautiful humans.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and I had that, I just thought it just the more I thought about it, the better it seemed.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And I was convincing myself this is real, this is what I want to do.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Father, it's gonna be me and you in the mountains, and we don't have to have all these people around messing it up.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: And I really believed that I felt I that I heard God speak from within me and say, and and remind me that, well, if you don't love people, you don't really love me.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: That's scripture.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And I said, God, I really think I can.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: I think I can love you without loving these people.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: But to this day, the joy that I get from my community of family and friends and and all the people that I get to be involved with in life, the riches and the treasures of that is is so so so wonderful.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: I am.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I remember another time when I was pastoring a church, and um, and you know, as I'm building that that church from from the ground from the ground zero, and over time, it seems like people that I would give uh responsibility to, like oftentimes eventually they would somehow turn on, or it felt like they turned on me, it felt like they would hurt me.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And so some so we'd get mad at each other, and then one time some of them left and started another church, and you know, there were a few instances where there were hurts involved, and my my uh oldest child, who was a young teen at the time, said, Dad, she, you know, because the children watch this stuff, and they watch this stuff and they feel like I'm watching these people do this to my mom and daddy, and and they don't like it.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Dad, why don't why do you keep trusting people?
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And I said, And I said, Christy, I I I could, I said, there are two options I have, and I've thought about them.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: I said, one is I could just make sure I never get close enough again to where I don't get hurt, and I can just protect myself, and that's one way to do it.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: I said, and then the other is to go ahead and keep my heart open, and go ahead and let myself get close to people, get vulnerable at times, and risk something happening.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And I said, but that's the way I choose because I want to keep my heart open.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: I I, in fact, there is so much blessing and goodness that comes from connecting closely with people, and uh, but there's a risk.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: And I said, and will I get hurt again?
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Because it's a very imperfect world.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
14:53
SPEAKER_00: God will be there with me, and he will help me, and he will heal my heart if it gets hurt, because he's done it every time.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: And so it's gonna be gonna be good.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: So there's that thing where sometimes we feel like we we we feel like I just don't want any community, but then the truth is in our hearts we really want that.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: We were created to be uh uh a part of that.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus went on to say in John 14, when he said, I won't leave you orphans, he says, a little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Because I live, you're gonna live also, and at that day you will know something.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: You'll know that I'm in my father, and you're in me, and I'm in you.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: You're going to know you belong, you're included.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: This was a whole heart of the Father.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to breach that separation mentality, and I wanted you to know that I'm in you, and you're in me, and we're never leaving, and you will not ever be alone.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: You're included in this whole thing.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 68 makes a statement that tells the heart of God, which says, You're the father to the fatherless, you're the defender of widows who can feel very isolated and alone.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: This is God whose dwelling is holy.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: In verse 6, it says, God places the lonely in families, or some Bibles will say he places the solitary into houses.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And so we see here this whole heart of God here, and I'm looking at our salvation, the purpose of salvation, and what it really does to us, what it's really all about, is to bring us into the sense of union and oneness, like we were created to be with God, and that is part of the making making whole.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, I grew up in our home was was was very dysfunctional in some ways.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of hesitate to say this because I don't want I don't want I don't want people to feel sorry for me or anything like that.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: God's been wonderful to me, and I love life and love what love what um just love everything about knowing God and everything.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm a happy guy.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: But growing up, I felt very um isolated.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: I always felt different.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: How many of you ever felt different?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see?
17:06
SPEAKER_00: How many people?
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And and and and I and I felt like I was the black sheep of the family.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was sort of the outcast because uh, I don't know, my siblings seemed like they were just more appreciated than I was.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's true.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: It may not have even been true, but it can seem like it, and then and if it seems like it, nonetheless, it's just then that's your reality.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: And um, and I and I and I grew up feeling like that.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And and and and it was something that was with me.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: It was a big part of my my uh mentality uh for a long, long time.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And even it carried over into my Christianity, and I'm always trying to connect, and I'm always feeling like I'm even so I remember uh uh uh pastoring pastoring over in in Titusville back in the the 90s, and here's these people that were coming to my church, I pastored, um, knowing that I was a pastor, and they'd get up and get dressed, and they would come to hear me, and come to that because they wanted to be with me, and they come and they'd want to hear me.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: And and I I remember one time stepping down, and I went back to walk towards towards my my office, and I just started, and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, you know what, none of these people really like me.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: See, that was something I carried with me from childhood, and I it was just hard for me to believe that I really connected, like they really were with me, like they really liked me.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: And I would feel very much like a lot of times, like I was having to prove my worth, like I'd have to prove that I'm worth you, you, you, you listening to and getting with my vision and following me and being with me, and and and and then later on I talk about when I really found out that God loves me, that's when a great leap into wholeness started happening in my life, when I really believed that his grace was more amazing than I ever thought it was, and that God must really, really, really love me.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And somehow I believed it.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And once that happened, a change started to where it liberated me, because now I've got more of a sense of wholeness.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And I and it liberated me to where it didn't matter really whether you thought I was great at this or not.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: It didn't really matter whether you believed in me or not, because I already got that belief in me from my father, from my daddy, and I was I was already starting to believe that, and it was giving me a sense of fullness or wholeness.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: So it didn't matter if you believed me because I believed in you, because I knew that that same love that I had found out about it was true for you too.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: God loved you, and God believed in you, and God created you to be included, and you are included in him.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: And your desire is fulfilled in knowing the truth, and that truth makes you free.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Now we look at uh Luke 15, and here I am again talking about Zacchaeus.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: I love that little guy.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: I relate so much to this little guy.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Um actually that's in chapter 19, but first I want to look at 15, and we see a picture of salvation here.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: And first of all, it starts off as saying, then all the tax collectors in verse 1, all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: You've seen that pattern in the Bible, right?
20:19
SPEAKER_00: The sinners would come to Jesus, the sinners were drawn to Jesus, the sinners were drawn near to Jesus.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know we all know this on a certain certain level, and we like the fact that Jesus is good and he's love, and even sinners can come to him.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: We we all like that.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: And then the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, Look at this man.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: He receives sinners and he eats with them.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: He lets them sit at the table with him.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And that word received uh means he just he actually welcomes them to himself.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: When you look it up, you'll find that word welcoming.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: You'll find the word he uh actually even validates some things when I've looked at this word it says he includes them.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Look how he includes them.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Sitting at the table.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: And the way I picture it, I don't know if this is exactly accurate, but I picture these are the religious leaders, you know, that should know all the all the should know everything or most about God.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: I picture them kind of standing around the back wall, and Jesus is like, come here, come sit here, here's an empty seat, come sit with me.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: And he's welcoming the sinners into what he's doing right here.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, I it does it what you know, here's you hear this sometimes today.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: What kind of a message does that send?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: That you would do that?
21:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I wonder, Jesus, are you at least telling them to change their ways?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Are you at least getting them to change their lifestyle?
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting them to stop doing what they're doing?
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you are you are you I I hope that's what you're Doing, but we don't see any of that in the Bible.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what the conversations were a lot of times, but whatever it was, they were, they didn't like how he was talking to them, how he was treating them, because he was welcoming them, he was including them.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: It looked like he was validating them.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus tells three parables.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at these three parables, he's teaching them, telling them about salvation and what it's all about.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: And he says the first parable was there was a woman that had ten valuable coins and she lost one, right?
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And she searched all the house.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: All the house.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've lost things and I've searched part of the house.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: I'll look in a drawer and I'll say, Judy, where's the whatever?
22:49
SPEAKER_00: And she'll say, It's in the drawer.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, it's not there.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: So then she comes to the drawer, and guess what happened?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know what happens?
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, she didn't tell me I had to dig under something just to find it.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: So I've never searched the whole house.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to imagine what that is.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: But she searches the whole house.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: I can see couch cushions thrown around and stuff, you know.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: She searches the whole house and she finds it.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And then it says, when she finds it, she goes to all the neighbors around and she says, Come on, I'm throwing the party.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: What for?
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, because I have a lost coin and I found it and I'm so happy about it.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: So let's have a party.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: She says, I'm making the cake right now, and you know, you guys can bring the salad and the chips, and I got the meat, and you know how it goes.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: And they, and, and, and she's and and she might have it might have cost her ten coins to throw the party.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but she found that one.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus made a point to say there was a celebration.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And in all those parables, there was always a celebration.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: And so he's telling us about the father's heart.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is what his heart is.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, He wants to bring that which was lost home.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus said, Because I came, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And what has been lost with mankind?
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Identity, for one, our sense of being united with God, our sense of being included, because often because what religion makes a big deal out of the bad works, right?
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Out of the behavior.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes a primary thing.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: And they'll point at your behavior.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: We've got to get the behavior right.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's a that's a that's a primary thing.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: In fact, because of your behavior, don't you know what you deserve?
24:38
SPEAKER_00: And so you've got to change the behavior.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, my salvation when I came to him, it wasn't based upon what I now see on grace, even though God graciously just received me and it my life was changed, but essentially, if I remember correctly, my sinner's prayer was basically promising God that I'm gonna give this a good go and I'm gonna try my best, and I'm sorry for my sins, and I'm gonna try not to do it anymore.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: And God met me in that.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: And I failed quite often at not doing it anymore.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: And that bothered me a lot.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: And I in fact, some people told me that when I fail at not doing it anymore, you know what they would say to me?
25:28
SPEAKER_00: They would say that I'm still in relationship, but I've broken fellowship with God.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Have y'all ever heard that?
25:35
SPEAKER_00: I broke fellowship.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: But wait, he'll never leave me for sake.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, technically, you still got a relationship.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: You're still his child, but he just don't want anything to do with you right now.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Until you come to Daddy and apologize.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Like this third parable that Jesus told about the prodigal son.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Remember the prodigal son came home to daddy, and when he came home to daddy, daddy said, Son, I need you to promise you'll never do that again.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what he said?
26:08
unknown: No.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't say that.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: He said, Give me some time.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: All right.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Give me some time where I can learn to trust you, and I can see by your actions, and you'll be on a little bit of a probation.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: And when I see that you really mean business and your life starts to change, then I'll welcome you back.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he said?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: No, we know that's nothing like that.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told that story on purpose.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: But the the but the whole thing that I needed was the opposite of what I was being offered in some of these messages, that I'm breaking fellowship with God.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So there again, what's it?
26:43
SPEAKER_00: It's on me to make it right with Daddy.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And I look back at that and I'm just I almost laugh and I almost cry sometimes at the things that I would do because I would come bawling, crying, begging, I mean, feeling it so deeply because I didn't want to be separated, I didn't want this exclusion, I didn't want to be isolated, I wanted to be back with God.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: And I would cry and I'd promise God, I ain't gonna do it anymore.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I know I said that last time, but this time I really mean it.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: And those those kinds of ideas, they actually work to make us get lost again.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I came to take that which was lost, that lost coin, and bring it home.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Notice he said, she searched the whole house until, in other words, she was willing to do everything.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: We sang about that this morning.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: She was willing to do everything to get that coin, not just a little bit.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: See?
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't come, he just said, okay, I've made a way now, I'm done.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Now it's up to you.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: He did everything to make sure.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything about the gospel message tells us these things that we're sharing this morning.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: The second parable.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why do I like the sinner so much?
28:26
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because I'm looking for the lost.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for the one that's feeling the most isolated.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm I I came to find that one.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: My heart is, I want the one that feels alone and undeserving.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I want to repair that.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: I want them to know that they've got a place with me.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And in all of his interactions with people that we see, and it seemed like all his interactions were with people that were the were that seemed to be the lowest of the low.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: They were the outcast, they were the isolated, they were the ones not allowed in church.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: They cannot feel comfortable in church because of how they're living.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes and does the opposite because he said, it's not a see religion seems to have a way of enforcing more isolation.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: You're in the club if.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't fulfill all that, then you're out.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And that's one reason we know Jesus didn't come to start a religion because it brings more of that.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: You're on the outs.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: How many people have I talked to over the year, Judy and I?
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Just in our, you know, we we we're blessed that we get to travel a lot and talk to a lot of people that tell me that they believe in God.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: But with their experience, I don't have a place in the community called church.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm living out there.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: And some of them are not living well, some of them are living in darkness because they've been sort of felt like they've been pushed into darkness, so they're going to act darkness.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: And some of them are not.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are lovers of God, but they feel like the community would not accept me.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: So we have all of that going on, and we're missing the whole heart and the mind of and the purpose of God and what salvation really is and the power of it.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says that the shepherd went to get that one.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: And remember, with all these things, the coin, that valuable coin that the woman looked for, it was still worth whatever it was worth.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: It did not become worthless because it was lost.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the mind of the person, it was more valuable than the nine that were in the box.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus is saying.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is why I do, this is why I'm so so much about this.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: This is why I intentionally am going to these.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel ignored, but I'm not.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want to gather you like a chicken would gather her chicks to herself.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, but I'm I'm I'm telling you, this is my heart, and this is why I'm doing this, guys, if you can understand it.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: This is why I let them sit at the table with me, because they're still valuable to me.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: They did not lose their value because they got lost.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: They're so valuable that I'm willing to turn intentionally to them.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Because my heart is to seek and save that which was lost, that which is isolated.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: They don't know who they are.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: They feel disunified with anything good like God.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want that.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: I want them to be home with me.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: But they're horrible people.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: He says, not to me.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: The coin is still worth what it was when it got lost.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: The sheep that got lost did not turn to a dis turn into a despicable creature because it was lost.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: And why do people do despicable things?
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Because they're lost.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me on that back row?
32:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting intense, aren't I?
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens to people that go camping, they get intense.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Dad joke number one today.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: But you see this.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what I'm doing here.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And notice also with every story, he said, there is great celebration.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: When that one who did, that sheep did not become despicable.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it became more treasured to me.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: I was willing to do what it takes.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: He left the 99 to find the one.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: And every encounter we have with sinners was about going to the one, wasn't it?
32:53
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus was the one, the Samaritan woman was the one, the Demoniac was the one.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, what are we doing here in this Gentile land?
32:59
SPEAKER_00: And there's graves here and all that.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Why are you taking us here, Jesus?
33:02
SPEAKER_00: We might as well just eat some, drink some goat's blood while we're at it.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I'm going to the one.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: I just told you.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: This is what I do.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: This salvation is a beautiful thing.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: The heart of God is a beautiful thing.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: It is a drawing in.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: It is a bringing home.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: It is a fulfillment of what we were created for.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: This desire to be in the community, to be a part.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the community of God, which is God Himself and His children.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Remember, He brought that one sheep, not just to the shepherd, but He brought it to the Shepherd and the 99.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would pray and He would say, I just pray that they would all just be one.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Not separated.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Pray that they'd be one, just like you and I, Father, are one.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the third parable.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: That wonderful story of the prodigal son.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: There again, what what what happened?
34:14
SPEAKER_00: There was a celebration every single time.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Why does he keep saying that there was a celebration?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: There was a celebration, and there was a celebration.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Because he's revealing the Father's heart, he's revealing his plan here for people.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: And when we go to that story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, I want to point something out to you that maybe, I don't know if you've caught this before.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: But in that story, we know what happened, and that when he goes to Zacchaeus's house, Zacchaeus does this thing, says this thing, and he says, he says, I just want to say that half of all that I own, I really, I want to give it to the poor.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give it to the poor.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: And notice he doesn't just say, Jesus, I'm going to do better.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to stop stealing.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: If you'll forgive me all that, I'm just going to stop stealing.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't say anything about any of that.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: He just says, I just wanted to give all, of all that I have, I just want to give half of it away.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, here, this is a man who's number one, he's a very short person.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe if he was technically a dwarf or whatever, but anyway, he was short.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: And there can be a sense of isolation for things like that, for the way that you look.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Your appearance.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: And then the things that he did in life because he's isolated from his countrymen, because he's a traitor that, you know, you know how he was.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: And then he was a sinner because he was a crook.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: He was stealing money.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Why is he stealing money?
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Because he's he's lost.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: He's not acting like what God created him for.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: He's lost.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: What's he doing?
35:40
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to get something for Zacchaeus.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody likes him.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: He can't do anything else, basically.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: And he, at least he's got money.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: You know?
35:49
SPEAKER_00: And humans that are have a sense of separation are lost.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: They're like, even when they indulge in things that are obviously not good, what are they doing?
36:01
SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to get something.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Because they're lost.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: They don't.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: And religion makes the lost feel even more lost.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And he's not a he's not welcome in church.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows how he lives.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: He can't do that.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: He's not a part of anything.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: He's all by himself, and it's just him and his money.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: And at least I got that.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: But when he has an encounter with Jesus, he doesn't need the money anymore.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not things, something has changed inside the man, right?
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Something obviously changed inside the man.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus hasn't gone to the cross yet.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't shed his blood yet.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't died and resurrected yet.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: But he is that Jesus, that same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: He's the same Jesus that we that we know.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: And he's doing with these people the same thing he's done with me and he does with you and whosoever will.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: And you've had an encounter with him and it's brought a change.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: And Zacchaeus had an encounter with Jesus and it brought a change because the character of Jesus, the ways of Jesus, were exactly how it is now, exactly how it was then.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: And it was that encounter that brought the change inside.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, this man who was greedy, so greedy that he would not only take a job betraying his own countrymen, his own community, but he's on top of that, he's actually stealing from them.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: Because he's greedy.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: And he's got his heart's got this lust in it because he doesn't feel like he's got something.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to fulfill something that he was created for.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: And he went from greedy to generosity.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't need this anymore.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to do that anymore.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus says, I found it.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's not what I've had, it's this.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus makes this statement.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to Zacchaeus, Today, salvation.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say salvation.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Today, salvation has come to this house.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Because he also is a son of Abraham.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Why did he say that?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Because you know how the Pharisees were, they kept saying, Well, we're children of Abraham.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't need this.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: And we, you know, we're children of Abraham.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: And you know, John the Baptist said, Well, he can do that with these rocks.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Well, the truth will make you free.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, Ah, we're Abraham's children.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, so that was the big deal.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: That's what made them included in the covenant.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, he's also a child of Abraham.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: He's included, he belongs to.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: But he's been a traitor, but he belongs to, but he's been stealing money, but he still belongs.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't lost his value.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: He just needs to be found.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't need a whip, doesn't need punishment, doesn't need to be cut off so he'll learn the error of his ways.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: I came to find him.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: And that day Zacchaeus was found.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: That day Zacchaeus was brought to the sheepfold.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: That day Zacchaeus was united with him who is God himself.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: And Zacchaeus was united with himself.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: He became his true self.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: He was made whole.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: Because the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the definition of save, many of us know it's the word, Greek word sozo.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: It means to save, to make whole, to heal.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: I thought to save was to was to keep me from punishment forever.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: It's to make whole.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Primarily, make whole.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: I thought to be saved meant to go to heaven.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're gonna be, yeah, you're gonna, that's part of this whole thing.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: You were meant to be with the Lord forever.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're going to have.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: You've got it now.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, the resurrection says, even if you die, yet you shall live.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: And you'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: But it's not that we just go around unhole and then hold on to our tickets, so someday we get to be with God.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: He's with you now, and it's him with you now, is what your wholeness is all about.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: That you're made whole because you belong.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: You're included.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Today, sozo, today's salvation has come.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: The man had an experience of salvation.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: The man had an experience of being made whole.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what an encounter with Jesus, who declares the Father's heart to people like that.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: And by that I mean not just people just doing evil things.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: There are many many people we would classify as good that feel separated, isolated, alienated, not included in the covenant of promise.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Included with God.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: He was loving from begin before the time began.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: The whole part, let us make human and let them be a part of all of this.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: They get lost.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: And this whole salvation brings us home.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: And while we're all in a place of growing, learning, and continual beautiful healing that's taking place, there is a sozo that's happening.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, Peter said to receive the end of your faith.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: See what's where this whole thing goes?
42:12
SPEAKER_00: It's the saving, the making whole of your soul.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Something has happened to me and continues to happen where I have a knowing that I absolutely belong with my Father in spite of my failures, flaws, and weaknesses.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: And in that there's no condemnation in Christ, even though I'm very weak and I blow it and I mess up and I commit sins.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: None of us probably try to, but it happens.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: But it has no bearing because the wholeness has come, the salvation has come.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: We still feel united.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I'm separated and God has turned his back on me because I've sinned.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe it, I don't feel it.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: I I, in fact, I'm convinced by the Spirit of God that's not true at all, that he's loving me all the more to make sure that I stay in this sense of being with him and united with him because that is the real truth.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: And that sense of being united with God is what I was created for.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: Now I can be united with me.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to be ashamed of me.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to hide the real me so that you won't well, so that you won't like me and try to pre and and I don't have to project something else to be something that you'll like.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: I've come home.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: A wholeness has been happening to me, and I I'm okay with you seeing my my faults and and my flaws, and somehow there's not a shame in this anymore because I'm like Zacchaeus, I belong.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Now the Pharisees can still point things out about me, but I'm sitting here with Jesus.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
43:47
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows all of this, and the Samaritan woman who was living in shame, something happened to her, and she a change happened.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Sozo, salvation happened to her, and she forgets all her shame and goes.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Running into town, all these people that she'd been trying to avoid because she also has been in that place like I've been in the past.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, I don't want any people, I don't want to have any dealings with any people, but now she doesn't care.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not about that anymore.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: She says, Come and see a man that knows everything about me.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: And he likes me.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: And he's not ashamed of me.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: And I've come home today.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: So I can stand here in all of my weakness and all of my flesh and tell you, come and see a man, I have found the answer.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: And salvation came to that woman.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus said when she said, Well, she gave religious questions.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: Who's right?
44:44
SPEAKER_00: Are we right or is that group right?
44:47
SPEAKER_00: We say it's this mountain, they say it's over there.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: Settle the issue, and he says, it's not about any of that stuff.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: It's not about who's doing right and who's doing wrong and who's in and who's out.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: And he says, because the time is coming and now is.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Notice he said the time is coming because he's going to give his life on the cross.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: But he also said, and now is because something was going to happen that very day with that woman, too.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: The same, a salvation was going to happen.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: He said, they're going to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, in reality of who they are.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: As who they were made to be, and in their value, and in their lovability, and in the truth of their connection with the Father.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I came to seek that which was lost, and you've been lost.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: You've been in shame.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: You felt you've been living isolated.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: You've been alone, you've been separate.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing you home.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: You have a place with me.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: And the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happened to her.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: It was no longer about who's right and who's wrong, and this doctrine and that doctrine, this mountain, that mountain, they're in, they're out.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: She just said, it's all Him.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: And I got saved today.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: I was made, huh?
46:15
SPEAKER_00: I was made whole.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: And she was so whole that the shame was not apart.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: The isolation wasn't there anymore.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: She didn't have to feel apart from them.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: She didn't have to feel so ashamed that that group of people was better than her.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: She went to her and said, I got something that you guys need too.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: Until I found out you need the same thing I've been needing.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: You needed to be made whole.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, why don't y'all stand up?
46:50
SPEAKER_00: Salvation has come.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: Wholeness has come.
46:55
SPEAKER_00: Wholeness.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that why the message of God's love and his grace is so powerful?
47:04
SPEAKER_00: Because it allows us to come home.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: And anything that's outside of that, anything that's ashamed of God's love or his grace, it doesn't let us join.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: It still gives us disqualifications.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: And and the feeling of that.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: And God loves you.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I don't ever want you to feel like that again.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but what but what come on, Rick, but what about sin?
47:35
SPEAKER_00: What about behavior?
47:37
SPEAKER_00: Didn't you see the changes that happen whenever salvation, whenever the wholeness is felt?
47:45
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the whole life change in so many ways?
47:49
SPEAKER_00: So why do I want to preach about sin and try to pick the fruit off your tree when what you really need is the real life that produces the good fruit.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: And that life is in him.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: It's the truth that makes us free.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, I just feel so much love for everybody here.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: I really, really do, and I like how that feels.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: I love how that feels.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: I love that I that I feel a connection with whosoever here.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: They're my family.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: Some I know real well, some I barely know.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: But there doesn't feel like a separation.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that you found me and brought me home by removing that whole idea of being isolated and alone and different and ashamed and all that, and I thank you, Father.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: For your unspeakable gift of salvation.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: Today, we are the believers and the receivers of salvation.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: We, our hearts, have been made whole and continue to come even into a greater understanding of this.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: And the blessing is that, and that's why we come to places like this today.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: So all I can do, Father, is say thank you.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: It feels good to be home.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: For we have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: We've come to God.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: And I thank you, Father, because that feels really, really good to be home.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: So I thank you in Jesus' saving name.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: Can you all say amen?
49:32
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful floor today, today.