Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Influence and Expression of Grace // Part 2: The Christ-Heart in Us

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The Influence and Expression of Grace // Part 2: The Christ-Heart in Us · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:08
SPEAKER_00: It is well.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, um how many of you are familiar with an old, old hymn with that same topic.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: It's called It Is Well With My Soul.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm trying to remember the story right, but there was a man named Horatio Spafford that wrote the old the old hymn, It Is Well With My Soul.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Any of y'all know the story about that?
0:33
SPEAKER_00: About how he wrote that?
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Some of you do.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful story.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Tragic but beautiful.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Very, very shortly, the the story is that he had he had had a lot of tragedy already, and he had gotten through that.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: But um, I mean the Chicago fire had burned down his property and so on.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Later on, he he uh he and his family were traveling to Europe and uh he was and they they were put on a ship and and he was uh going to follow them because of some situations that he was involved in, and he was going to get on another ship and and come behind them.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And uh the ship that his family was on uh went down in the middle of the ocean and he lost it, he lost his family.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: And uh he knew about it, he'd heard about it, and he's he's on the ship, and he's the ship's making his its way across the Atlantic, and when he gets right about to the place where it happened, his eyes were on God, he was looking to God.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's heartbroken, he's lost everything, his world is gone, it's crushed, and you can't you can't even imagine really how that would feel that he somehow standing there on that ship and looking out over the water and at the sky, God ministered to him and he began to cry out, It is well, it's well with my soul, it's well with my soul.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at something like that, you think, how could that, how could in a situation like that, how could it ever be well with your soul?
2:07
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like Jesus said, with man it would be impossible.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: But with God, it's totally possible.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: And and and we're looking at the divine influence of God upon our heart, and there's something about that that makes the difference with everything.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Only the divine influence of God could cause you to rejoice in situations as horrible as what we just what we just described.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And that we all deal with our stuff in life, and sometimes it gets hard, and thank God, aren't you glad?
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that we know something of Him, we know the love of God.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad we've always got somebody with us?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: I know in one of my hardest times in life, I remember afterwards just marveling at how good God was in getting me through that.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And and and I remember one time saying, People don't feel sorry for me for what I've gone through.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: I feel sorry for people that go through those and they don't know God at all.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: They they how where do they find their strength and their joy and so on?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: We we're we're always grateful for the presence of the Father in our lives.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And as we look at these things this morning, we we remember that we we always have someone to look at.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that last song.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Our eyes are upon you.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into this.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: What I'm gonna do now, I'm gonna tell you right now, because last week I lied a little bit.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: I didn't mean to, but I said this that last week was the first of a three-parter, but I had forgotten how our schedule is, so I will be here next week, but but today will be the end of that two-parter.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: We're making a two-parter, and I'm gonna try to try to uh put it all together uh this morning because next month is April and that's Easter, and we as a church, we've got a theme that we're that that uh we're all going to be speaking on uh with all the different speakers, and so I'll be here next week and kicking it off, and and we're gonna be talking about the voice of the shepherd.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh that'll be our theme for for April.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: So this will be the part two.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: There will be no part three, but next week will be a part one of a four-parter that we're all putting together.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Is that clear?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: The influence on the heart.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that this that Jesus said that the Spirit of God Himself would lead us and guide us into all truth.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit would lead us.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: So when we're looking at the influence, and and and I've called this today the Christ heart.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna we're we're we're we're talking about that which lives in us, we're talking about that which beats inside of us, we're talking about that which is eternal, eternally with us, and and it goes beyond what we can think up in our head, what we just what we can read, it goes beyond all the fears and all the noise, and it goes beyond all the uh uh the sins and the condom.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: It goes against every, it goes, it's bigger than everything, and it's a heart that we have, and it's such a uh a big thing.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: But this this heart that's in us, that's placed in us, it it has an influence and it has an expression.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: In Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26 and 27 is a promise uh that I love to refer to a lot from the Old Testament, talking about us and talking about our day.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will give you a new heart.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, when I look back at where I once was and how I once was, I thank God for that heart transplant, really.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I he will give you a new heart.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: This heart that God has placed in me, and it's his heart, is what he's talking about.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: This heart is it's it's it's like it's gold.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's everything.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: It has changed everything in my life.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Just by him putting that, and that is himself, his spirit, his heart.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll put a new heart in you, I'll put a new spirit within you, I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, or I'll give you a soft heart.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: I will put my spirit within you, and I'll cause you, this is the influence, I'll cause you to walk in my judgments, and you will keep my judgments and do them, and that's the expression.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: I'll cause you to walk in my in my statutes, or your Bible might say commands, or my what whatever.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Um when we look at this, I had a uh a pastor try to tell me one time that I I wasn't understanding grace correctly, because grace was simply empowerment, and it's empowerment to keep the laws of God.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And in this pastor's mind, the laws of God were the I guess basically the 600 and whatever laws in the Old Testament, like like, yeah, we're not under the law, but we're under grace, and now grace empowers us to keep all those things.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, I'm really up a creek because with all this power that I have, I'm still falling short of that.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And and and really, I remember thinking that myself, and even preaching that myself.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And I would I would say grace is the empowerment to keep all those things, but then I had to stop and look, and I'm like, I'm still falling short.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm not able to keep all these things, but now I've got all this power and I still can't do it.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Where's my help?
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Where's my hope?
7:17
SPEAKER_00: It's I it made me even more hopeless.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And the the the laws or the statutes that God's talking about are the laws of of his heart, not the not not the the rules of the Mosaic law, which the Bible in the New Testament is clear was a ministry of death or a ministry of condemnation, but the ministry of the Spirit, this new heart that we have is a ministry of life, life and peace.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And so what does the New Testament uh teach us?
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it, Paul reiterated it, that all the commandments hang on this one two-part thing, right?
7:55
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Love God, love people.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And the way Jesus taught it, he says, when you're doing one, you're really doing the other.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Right?
8:05
SPEAKER_00: He said, and all the commandments hang up on that, uh, hang up on that.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And Paul explained it a little bit just to make it real simple for people.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: And he says, in other words, if I love, I'm not gonna steal, I'm not gonna covet, I'm not gonna, you know, it's just it's it's really simple.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: So it's that one thing.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, the Old Testament had that law, if you will, love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your might, and all your strength, but but people still uh couldn't keep it without the grace.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll make a new covenant, I'll put a new spirit, I'll put a new heart in you, and and this new heart is the influencer or the empowerer that moves us more and more into the Christ-likeness, as far as that goes.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, what most of us will say, and it's it's totally fine, and it's good and it's exciting, is that we may feel like we still got a long way to go in this, but that can be exciting.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be condemning, it's like, oh, I can get a lot better.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna go, this is gonna go places here.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of room to to to to uh to operate Christ-like, and I'm talking about in his love, in his nature.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Um uh there's plenty of room, so so that's an exciting thing.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but most of us can probably also say it has had a great deal of influence already, and we have noticed that change, and we notice in that change, and I kind of I do it this way because uh on the stage because it's like it's moved me from certain places and certain positions and certain ways of seeing things, and the spirit has led me, and the spirit has moved me to where when I look back at a certain time and I look at myself now, and I think, you know, I have changed.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: My mind has been influenced a lot, it has changed a lot.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: First of all, like I was talking about last week, it changed how we what we thought about God, right?
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Now we now we can absolutely just be in love with him because we see something that maybe we once didn't see, and he's altogether lovely and he's good, and and as far as sins and and and iniquities, I forgot, he says.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's totally true, and right in my.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I have it in my in my in my notes here.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: That's a big, big thing, and it's a hard thing for the mind to grasp.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: God can do anything.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: How can he forget?
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Because he can do anything, right?
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Of course he can forget, but it's his nature that does that.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not just because he says, I'm gonna magically make myself just forget for the purposes of this, that, and the other.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: I guess he could do it that way, but it's his nature that Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says, love doesn't count sins against it.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh one translation says, and it hardly even notices when anybody does anything wrong.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: I got that.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: But this is the heart that's influencing us.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: It has come to us to influence, it has worked changed, and it's still like the wind that has blown and it's come from someplace.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said nobody knows where, and it's going somewhere.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Where is it going?
11:06
SPEAKER_00: It's going to the same place it came from.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's it's it's it's the the expression coming from us is is looking and will look more and more and more and more and more like Jesus Himself, with that Christ heart that's been embedded in us.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: No wonder, I repeat this a lot, but no wonder creation is longing to see the manifestation, or let me say, the expression or the revelation of the children of God.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: This whole world that we're looking at, and it's like, oh God, what's gonna happen now?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Nuclear war, oh, there's this, oh, there's another strain of this, there's all these things, all these people are doing this, and conspiracies and this, and what, and, and, and, what, and, and all of that.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Look at all that stuff.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: No wonder.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Creation itself is longing.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: One translation says, standing on tiptoe to see the glorious sight of the children of God coming into their own.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: We're being influenced, we're expressing, we will continue to be influenced by this heart, and we will continue to express more.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And whatever it is, I love the verse that says it, whatever it is, it will look like him.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: You ever read 1 John 3 when he says, Behold, what manner of love is this the Father has bestowed, that we would be called the sons of God, for we will be like him when he appears, or when he is revealed or made manifest to us.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: For we shall see him as he is.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's not just talking about some future physical thing, because we're beholding him now.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: We say just now about our eyes are on you.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, but we see Jesus, we see him crowned with glory and honor.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: When the heart turns to the Lord, we behold and we see Him.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: We see the glory of the Lord, and what's it do?
13:02
SPEAKER_00: It changes us, it influences us.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: For we shall be like Him when He is made manifest, when He is revealed, for we shall see Him as He is.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: And then the next verse says, Beloved, it does not yet appear what we shall be.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: In other words, maybe you don't see it yet.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it doesn't look like that right now.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: But we shall be like Him.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: We're being influenced to express.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: And I love that it's a normal, natural thing as you operate more in Him, as your mind is upon Him, as you incline your ear and continue to tune in more and listen to that still, small voice that continually speaks in the midst of all the world's noise.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: The influence continues and will.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 10, uh it's it's quoted from another uh prophecy from Jeremiah where he says, Afterwards I will give them this covenant.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: I will embed my laws into their hearts, and I will fasten my word to their thoughts.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I will not ever again remember their sins and lawless deeds.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: I will not remember.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Saying, Know the Lord, know the Lord.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Why?
14:36
SPEAKER_00: Because they're gonna know me.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: They will all know me from the greatest to the least, because I will be merciful to their transgressions and their sins and iniquities.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I'll remember no more.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: That tells you something right there about the Christ heart.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:56
SPEAKER_00: The Christ who looked upon who looked upon the world before before there was anything.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him, for without him there's nothing that was made, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And in the beginning was Him, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And God, Him, He what did He do?
15:22
SPEAKER_00: He loved it.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let there be light.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Merciful, good, absolute.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: We we know this.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: We're coming more and more to know the good.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: It's it's all it's everything seems to be about the goodness, the love, the grace of God.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's hitting, it's it's it's hitting our minds.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: It'll hit the mind.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I've noticed in my travels, and I've been blessed to see something in the years that I've been married to Judy, because Judy operated, she worked as an actress, so she worked in a field where there were, she's she's got lots of liberal friends, and so I get to get around them.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: I get to get around people that are, I mean, they're at war too, just like the Christians are, but they're on different sides.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: When I say the Christians, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about or them somewhere out there.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: But but I get around it, and when when I talk about these things, I I don't know that I've had any resistance from what we would call the sinners.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: But I have had it from some others, because it hits our mind, it hits the religious mind funny, doesn't it?
16:40
SPEAKER_00: It just I've had it in myself.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: It's hit me funny a lot of times.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: It's hitting me funny now.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: There's things I'm being influenced as I'm looking at God and I'm looking, and I'm like, as much as I say he's good, as much as I, as much as I I say that I that I totally embrace this, there are still, I still see influences that God's working in me right now, and I'm like, uh, God, really?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Because this messes up a lot of things for me.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: It starts moving us in different ways.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: It starts, it starts, it starts influencing me, and it starts, it has, and I see it, I can see it and feel it trying to do more now, where it's it's it's it influences my ideas of God and his wrath.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: When I saw that he that how much he loved me and what the grace of God did and what the gospel really speaks to me, it it had it had to change something about my ideas of wrath and punishment and vengeance and judgment.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And as I as I as I continued in and I look at that and I and I'm learning the heart of God and it's influencing me, and I'm like, this is the heart, this isn't just your heart, this is the heart you put in me.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling this.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not feeling vengeful and wrathful and I'm much less judgmental than I used to be.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
17:57
SPEAKER_00: We have this heart in us, and it's doing something, it's happening to us.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And I and I think I've also found out that the more you just go ahead and go with it and just let it do its thing, it always steers you in a good way, a right way.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: The only time it's it's scary is to your it to the religious mind if we've got any religious things stuck in here, and I've had many, and like I said, even now I'm stealing some things, and I'm like, oh God, I don't know.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: But I'm excited about talking about these things because we can have a sense of adventure about this.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: I haven't in this influence that's going on, I haven't been steered into something hurtful, something bad, something wrong.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: It's only made me better, it's caused me to walk more in the statutes, which is love God, love people.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And and when I look at how I once was and how judgmental I was towards those that weren't in my my Christian club, and how at war I felt that I was with those who were not in my Christian club.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Those something has happened in the influence where the walls, I've seen them come down, and I've seen the lines of separation disappear, and I'm having this this this love for them, and I'm like, I'm like, God, your heart is influencing me, but then in one ear I've got some Christian brothers saying, ah, what are you doing?
19:25
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that, you can't bless them, you can't, you're compromising.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the word says, ah, come on, Rick.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: That's not love.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: If you love them, you'll tell them the truth, Rick.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: You ever hear that one?
19:38
SPEAKER_00: You ever say that one?
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have said that one a lot, so I know where that.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: I heard it just a couple of days ago again.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while, when you're talking about grace, and especially when you're talking about grace applied, or you talk about the father's heart to the whole world, that's when it's like, you know, say, well, God loves them just as much as He does me and you.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God loves them, but how many of you notice that the influence, you're, you're, you, you, you, you, you're starting to lose your butt.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's a good thing, right?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Something has happened.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: I noticed over time, like I'm not saying so much God loves us but, or God loves them but.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: He loves me unconditionally, but he loves them but.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, come on, he doesn't love everything everybody does.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about that.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about people, not what they do.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Like I said last week, I love my new grandchild.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Love her?
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just she's luscious, just can't get enough of her.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Do I like everything she does?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: No, she pooped in her diaper while I was holding her.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I held her close to me and she spit cottage cheese on my shit.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Do I like everything she does?
20:57
SPEAKER_00: No.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: But that's got nothing to do with how I feel about her, right?
21:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly not gonna throw her in a pit of fire because of what she did.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not gonna think of how I can destroy her because she's doing things I don't like.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: What I'm talking about is things we we we start, we're we're seeing God different.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: In this grace thing, we're seeing God differently, and and sometimes I'm like, okay, I think I got a handle on this.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: I gotta I understand faith righteousness, and then the influence doesn't stop.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, this rabbit hole is deeper here?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
21:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's just going deeper and deeper into something beautiful, and it's it's so, it's absolutely glorious, and it's loving, and I and I love what I'm catching glimpses of, and I love what I'm seeing.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: He says, they'll all know me because I'll be merciful to them.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: So we see the Christ heart is merciful, and it's also Fearless, right?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And perfect love casts out fear.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: It's fearless.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you know God's not afraid of any of the things going on in the world?
22:09
SPEAKER_00: See, this Christ's heart, it'll come into conflict with a lot of the head thoughts and a lot of things that come into our ears.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh gosh.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: And in my travels more recently than any time I've in my whole life, the last couple of years.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: The last four years, maybe, I don't know.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: But last few years, I have had more Christians coming into my ears with tales of things, and every single thing, they're motivated by fear.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: It's like they're trying to make me afraid of something.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to make me afraid of this guy.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to make me afraid of those people.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to make me afraid of this and that and the other, using this protracted fear they call it.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: In other words, like, oh, if they just do this, it's all going to end up like that.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And I and after a while, it's like I'm just hearing fear, fear, fear, fear, fear.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And that that's that goes against the influence that's going on in the heart because it's well in my soul, and there is no fear, because perfect love casts out fear.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: And so in these times, what we're finding out, right?
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Right, what we're finding out is in times like this, where there's a lot happening, what are we doing?
23:24
SPEAKER_00: We're not losing heart.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: We're not losing faith.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: We're not losing joy.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: We're losing fear.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm seeing happening.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: There have been times I'm like, God, why am I so at peace right now?
23:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't like this stuff that's going on.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't say we have to like it.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't like poopy diapers, but I sure love the ones that do it.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: But why am I at such peace?
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Because it's as well in our soul.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: There's something bigger.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And we all have this same heart.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: And it's not, this is not, well, I wish I could get strong like that one so I could be like that.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: I wish I was where that person is, and I wish I could be stronger so I could think more like that.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: This is so this is given to every one of us.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of paying attention, like the last song that we heard.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Our eyes are on you.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: And when our eyes are on him, we're not we're we're not in that denial river of Egypt.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: We're not in denial.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at something.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: We know that there's real stuff going on, but we're looking at the goodness, we're looking at the glory, and we're looking at the bigness of God.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Why is God not not afraid?
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Because he's that big.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Could he be that big?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, there's a lot we could say about that, but we have to move on here.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Look at Colossians chapter 1.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Colossians 1, verse 21, where he says, talks about us, and he says, And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this verse here says so much, just right.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: This this clarifies so much.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: When I look at this, I can see the whole Adam and Eve thing and why he pulled away, why he ran, why he hid from God.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Because he did commit a transgression.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it was a disobedience.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: But that did not have to separate him.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: From the beginning, he says here, he says, we were alienated.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Why did I feel so far from God?
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Why did I feel like God would have nothing to do with me until I became a better person?
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Why did I think those kind of thoughts?
25:41
SPEAKER_00: My mind was messed up.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And I had a separation mentality, and I felt separated from God.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Why?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Because of me.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Because of my wicked works.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Just like the story we heard a few minutes ago.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: The young man was going to quit the seminary, quit, quit, quit the ministry, quit the whole, quit, quit the dream, quit everything, all because of what?
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Wicked works.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: And he felt separated.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Didn't feel like any good prophecy could be about him.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Why was he separated?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Anything that God was doing, anything that God was saying?
26:16
SPEAKER_00: No.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: It was by his own mind because of his wicked works.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And while we were all that way, oh, I love this.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: See, in this, you see the heart of the Father.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: We heard it, Chris said it uh while he was ministering in music here, that God has never stopped loving us.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: God has never changed his mind about us.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Mankind, humanity.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: God has never moved to a plan B.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: He has loved us with an everlasting love, he said in Jeremiah.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And that whole verse says, I've loved you with an everlasting love, yet you've not known me.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: You don't know that.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: He says, but now he has reconciled.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Brought the two and reconciled them, made them fit, made it right.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: He did it in the body of his flesh through death to present you.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Love this verse.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: To present you holy.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Say, I'm holy?
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Blameless.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: What sin do you have?
27:16
SPEAKER_00: God says, I forgot.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Holy, blameless, and beyond reproach in his sight.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: That's who you are.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, the only reason I included the next verse is just because there are some people that love to throw it at me and think that they've got me on the run.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Aha, Rick.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: It says, if you do something, if you continue, huh?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: It means you can't stop there.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: You can't, you can't, you can't change and go back.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: You can't backslide.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: You can't fall.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: No.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: You're only holy and blameless if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with that, Rick?
28:00
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: That says it even clearer here.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, we were once alienated in our mind by wicked works, but now in God and in the body of his flesh, what is it?
28:11
SPEAKER_00: He's reconciled.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: This man, you and God, you're gonna be tight, you're gonna be together, you are one, you're united, you're inseparable, nothing will separate you from the love of God, nothing.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: No wicked works, no nothing.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: You are reconciled.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: And you are presented, and you see yourself and you know that you're holy.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: When you see it like this, you know that you're blameless.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: You know that you're beyond reproach because it's Christ in you and you in him and the two, and you are one.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And why are you holy?
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Because the one who is holy has cut has come into you and made you holy.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: You did not make him unholy.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: When he came into you and became a part of you, he made you holy.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: And you will go around living and thinking and operating like you're holy, like you're blameless, like you're beyond reproach, if you continue in the gospel.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: What's he talking about?
29:02
SPEAKER_00: He was always talking about the gospel that he preached as opposed to a legalistic gospel that was all about you, your behavior, and your wicked works.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Now he's sitting what he's saying is if you if you go back to that, you're not gonna hear that you're holy.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna hear that you're blameless, you're not gonna hear any of those things.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: You go back to that, you're gonna go under the burden of that condemnation, and you're not gonna walk around, you're gonna be separated in your mind because of your wicked works.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: This gospel is the only thing that makes you feel tight with God and shows you the truth about you and Jesus here.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: This gospel, if you continue in this gospel, this faith.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to uh spend the the last few minutes here in 2 Corinthians 5.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Because the influence is showing us something.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Last week I talked mostly about how it influences us and how it brings a different expression about God, toward God.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: How we think differently about God.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Our expression is not, God, I wish I could love you more, I want to love you more.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Our expression becomes, oh God, I love you.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Our expression is not, see, I used to be thankful because, or I used to give thanks seven times a day because I read a scripture that said, seven times a day, well, I praise thee.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, oh, I gotta take that.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: That's the mandate that God's given me, so I'm gonna remember to be thankful seven times every day, and I would try that, but the influence has made a different expression, right?
30:52
SPEAKER_00: How many of you find out that that gratitude just kind of comes out of your mouth a lot more often?
30:59
SPEAKER_00: You ever just sometimes just well up and just feel like, God, I thank you.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm grateful.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: Wow, when you take somebody that like me, who lived in a place at one point in his life that wasn't thankful for anything, didn't think he had anything to be thankful for, and the spirit has influenced to where gratitude seems to come out a lot.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: This thing is bigger than me.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: This thing is bigger than you.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: This thing, this thing will take us places where we didn't even plan to go because we didn't even know where we were going.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: I certainly didn't know I was going here.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Someone that's greater than us lives in us, someone that's greater than us can influence us, and he's not scared of the weakness of our flesh.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: He knows our frame, he knows that we're but dust.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: But he's so big.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Not afraid of us doing anything wrong, nor is he afraid of the world doing wrong.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the world has been doing wrong for thousands and thousands of years.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: At least dating back to the Garden of Eden.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Things got to a certain point because of certain situations in the days of Noah, and after that he says, Oh, won't have to ever do this again.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna happen.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us to influence.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: I certainly see God different.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: I see you different.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see you differently than I once would see you.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: When I say you, I'm not talking about you individually, I'm talking about people.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: I see much more compassionate, much more understanding.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Where did I get that?
33:11
SPEAKER_00: There again, it wasn't because I don't feel like I educated myself to it, because I was resisting those things.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: There was a time I didn't think God was that way.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: But I'm grateful that my resistance has not been much of a match for the Christ heart that lives in you and I it's brought us to where we are now and it's taking us somewhere where we shall be like him.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: The love of Christ is compelling us.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing things with different eyes.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: We don't have the world's eyes motivating us, leading us.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And remember, when Jesus said the Spirit Himself will lead us into truth, that means this is what's going on.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you my my at least my own experience.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: The changes in the ideas I had about God were not just because I read the letters and it said God's good, because I used to read the letters and said that said God is good and God loves us, but I I didn't get it.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand it and didn't believe it the way I do now.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: I read it.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: I would preach it.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: I would say it says right here, God loves us.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit kept leading and influencing.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe God loves us more than that, maybe God's bigger than that, maybe God's gooder.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: The love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I love this, from now on, somebody say from now on, we judge no man after the flesh.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: We regard no one according to the flesh, even though we we have known Christ according to the flesh, we don't know him that way anymore.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation, old things have passed away.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Behold, all things have become new.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Now all things are of God.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Please.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Let the wind carry us.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: All things are of God who has reconciled us unto himself.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: He did this with us, right?
35:50
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus Christ, and he's given to us a ministry.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: The most beautiful ministry I can imagine.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: The most beautiful task, the most beautiful calling.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Not the ministry of judgment, not the ministry of hate, not the ministry of punishment, not the ministry of vengeance, not the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: He's given us the glorious ministry of what?
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Who's that ministry to?
36:25
SPEAKER_00: It's to everybody.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: The ministry of reconciliation.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is that, Rick?
36:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: He explains it in the next verse.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to him.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: I could name current famous figures right now, and it would include them too.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: Reconciling the world to himself, what?
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Not imputing their trespasses to them.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: I forgot.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Not imputing their trespasses to him.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: This is the heart of the Father.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: I once hated the world in the name of Jesus.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Something's happening.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling different.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing different.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm loving, not just you nice people that come to church.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm loving, feeling, seeing more, operating more, giving more.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: Something that's inside me.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Often to people that are totally against what they think I stand for.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: Turns out we're both against many of the same things.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: He's given us this ministry that doesn't impute the trespasses, and he's committed to us this word.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're hearing, the word of reconciliation.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: This is the influence.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Where is it going?
37:58
SPEAKER_00: The influence toward God.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: About us toward God.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: The influence about us toward us.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: It changes how we think about us and it changes how we look at the world around us.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: I can see it.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: The influence has given me the vision.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: I see something that God is revealing to us, and I'm seeing that the whole earth, he says, as truly as I live, shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: As truly as I live.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: When and how is that gonna happen?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: The Christ heart will do this.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a long, slow work, but it's doing something in me.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And I love what I feel, and I love what I see, and I feel strong, and I feel powerful because of this.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: And it truly has cast out fear of everything that the people are doing in this world.
38:49
unknown: Wow.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: Now then, we're ambassadors for Christ, as though it were God Himself pleading through us, and we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: With this word he's given us, be reconciled to God.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: What's the reconciling word?
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Part of it would be, you know, God forgot what you did.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Part of it would have to be his unconditional love and his grace poured out on mankind through Jesus.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: Because he made him to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand, would you please?
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, give God a praise.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he good?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he good, good, good, good, good?
39:38
SPEAKER_00: And the half has not been told.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Father, um, let this be my let's do let's do the altar call this way, right there where we stand.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: Right there where we stand, let us enjoy right now the heart that's been given to us.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And let us be thankful that something is working on the inside, something's happening to us, and we're moving and we're going somewhere, and things are changing.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: And if you've if if if any of us here, if if we've been a little bit frustrated by our rate of growth, hey, take heart, take the Christ heart, because greater is he that's in us than all this other stuff that's in the world.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: And just incline your ear.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Just say yes.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I tell people, just consider, if this is where you're at, just consider that maybe God is good.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Consider that maybe he loves you.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: And right now, where we're at, we receive the fullness and the goodness of God because he loves you without any conditions at all, without any any kind of caveats, without any demands.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God is that big and that good.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he loves you with it with all that, and maybe because of his goodness, he doesn't matter what you've done, even if you did it on the way to church this morning.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: God is with us forever and ever because of his great love.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: And he's making things better in you, in your heart, in your house, in your life, and in this world, because of the increase of his government and the peace, there shall be no end.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: That thing that was planted in the earth, it ain't going away.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: It will grow like yeast put into dough.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: Something good is happening in us and through us.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Father, we give you praise in Jesus' name.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.