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Do You Hear What I Hear? · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_00: What I do know is I especially love the season.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: And have you noticed that there is a sound that that comes with it?
0:17
SPEAKER_00: And this sound is a sound of heaven, it's a sound of God.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking during worship, and that you know, that last song especially just it speaks so much to me.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: I've known you as a father, I've known you as a friend all my life.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: You've been faithful.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: And I just I begin to cry at the goodness of God because I know that I am somebody that was sitting in darkness.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: I was ignorant and uh oblivious to any kind of goodness of God or even really the concept of who or what God was.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And uh somehow in that darkness, the the darkness didn't prevail.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: A light came, and in the sound of my confusion, and the sound of all the lies that I was hearing, and that seemed like I was being bombarded with, that were bringing such oppression and a sense of futility and hopelessness in my life, somehow through all of that, there was a sound of heaven, a voice of God, if you will.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: And when I say voice of God, I don't mean there was an audible verbiage of anything, but but the goodness of God started to come through.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: And it began with me actually believing in him and believing the gospel message that Jesus did what he came to do, and that was the way for me.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And that sound of heaven, the sound of God, the sound of love, the sound of goodness, of really of grace and graciousness and all the good things that we know about God began to continue to break through the uh the darkness and the ignorance and all that that I had, and it started transforming my life, and it has changed me and it has blessed me, and and I I, you know, just like the song says, all the days that I am able, I will I will sing and tell of the goodness of uh of God, because it's the most amazing revolutionary thing that anybody can experience in their life, and you want everybody to have it.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: And I love the sound of Christmas because there's a certain sound from heaven that comes.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we see it in the in the in the Christmas story.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: But there's a certain sound of heaven that comes, and it reverses the sounds that so many of us are hearing that comes from the world today.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: I think of there was uh, you know, there's a story of the Tower of Babel where there was a confusion of things, a confusion of noise and confusion of languages and all that, and you know, they all were of one tongue, and then there were many tongues, and there was all this confusion and separation and division, and everybody went their own ways.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And then we come to the book of Acts, chapter 2, and the Bible says there was a certain sound from heaven.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And we needed that sound.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: That sound needed to come to the earth.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And there was a certain sound from heaven, and the Bible, and it was accompanied by a tongue of fire.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: If you read that, it's singular.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: There was a tongue of fire, and it was a portion to each of those that were in the room.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And it was one tongue, one sound, if you will, that came, and it reversed what happened at the Tower of Babel, because in this instance, people were coming from different languages and coming from different places, but they all heard a certain sound, and they said, We hear you declaring the wonderful works of God in words that we can understand.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: And in Christmas time right now, I was thinking that maybe there's not one place this morning that's that's preaching on this Sunday morning that's not one place that's not talking about God giving.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: God giving a gift, God being gracious to us, God coming to us, God wanting to be with us.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: It's a time of God's graciousness, his goodness, and his love.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that anybody, I don't see how anybody can get the Christmas message and preach a message of what you're obligated to do, or what some standard that you're supposed to be trying to attain or reach or something.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: That's not in the Christmas message.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Everything about it is about God being good and giving.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when we look at the uh at the Christmas message in Luke chapter 1 and verse 28, it talks about we see it, we see a sound basically being introduced to the earth here.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And this is when Gabriel comes to Mary.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And it says, And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice, highly favored one.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is with you, and blessed are you among women.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: You're favored, God's with you, and you're blessed.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good message, right?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: That came from heaven.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Gabriel brought that from heaven to the earth to the to the young lady, and he says, You're favored, the Lord's with you, and you're blessed.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that message, right?
5:13
SPEAKER_00: But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered, what kind of greeting is this?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, it says that she was troubled at what he said.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: I would have thought maybe she'd be troubled by seeing an angel.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: How I don't know how big, I don't know what, but but to see, but she was troubled by what he said.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: She was like, What kind of greeting is this?
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Who comes telling me that I'm blessed?
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Who comes telling me that I'm favored?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Who comes telling me that God's with me?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like she thought that was a foreign type of greeting.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, it was, in a sense, because it came, it came from heaven.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And uh from what I see, it apparently it must not be what she was used to to hearing.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know what church she was going to, but I know two or three different ones that she could have been going to, and none of them I don't think I would have enjoyed, you know, with what I know about God now.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she could have gone to the Pharisees, their church, and I don't think they were telling anybody good things about themselves, and it didn't seem like they were saying much good about God.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: But to say that she was favored and blessed and God was with her, the Sadducee church, I mean, they didn't even believe in a resurrection.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, see, anywhere you go, I don't think you're hearing much good news.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And she hears good news come from heaven, and it's about favor, and it's about blessing, and God's goodness.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And verse 30, and the angel said to her, Don't be afraid, Mary.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: She was troubled at the saying.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever met someone who's troubled at words of graciousness, words of grace?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: You ever met someone that when you when you try to tell them the grace that you have found in God and how free it is, and how big it is, and how undemanding it is?
6:59
SPEAKER_00: And there are uh there are a lot of people that love Jesus that are kind of troubled by what we're saying here.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: There are people that are, I'm just gonna tell you nothing but good things about God today.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: And there will be people that that that get a hold of this and they're gonna be troubled by it.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Not not the majority, but it but it happens.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And they're troubled because they're there's they're they're they're not they're not understanding something completely.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: They're not they're not accustomed to hearing such a good sound, but I'm gonna tell you that the the sound of heaven is a good sound, it's a life-giving sound, it's a redemptive sound, it's a it's a reforming sound.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: It'll change things, it'll change you, it'll change things around you from changing things inside of you.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And the angel said to her, Don't fear, don't be afraid.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Were any of you ever afraid of hearing about a love that makes no demands on you?
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you weren't.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: I I was.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: I liked the sound, it sounded good, but there was something about me that's still like, ah, a love that that's wide open with no restraints.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: What kind of people would that produce?
8:18
SPEAKER_00: It scared me a little bit.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: A grace that's free, a grace that that comes and there's no obligation, there's no part on my part at all.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: That's just that opens it up to anything.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: You're saying anything goes, you know, those kind of things.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: And the angel or the voice from heaven, if you will, at that time said, Don't be afraid, because you have found favor with God.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas, people.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: You have favor with God.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: God favors you this morning.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 2, verse 10, we have another instance of an angel talking to some people.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Here again is the announcement that Jesus has been born, and this is the angel talking to the shepherds.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Luke chapter 2, verse 10, excuse me.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Says, and the angel said to them, Don't be afraid.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: There it is again, don't be afraid.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful message.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: The sound of heaven comes and he says, It's good for everybody.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: This is good news for everybody.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: This is news of great, great joy.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: This is not news of any kind of burden that God's putting on you.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: This is not news of any kind of obligation on your part.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I've got news of great joy.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a sound from heaven, and he tells them not to be afraid of it.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 of Luke 2 says it says, and then the angels all around shouted this phrase: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will toward men.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Heaven's sound was that God's has God has good will toward mankind.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: That God's not upset and angry with mankind.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: He loved mankind, so love that he gave, and unto us a son was given.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: I just think it'd be a great idea to just put out some billboard and say, God's not mad at you, God's not angry with you.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, wouldn't that be wonderful?
10:30
SPEAKER_00: But there's a sound that goes contrary to so many of the other sounds, and it's a sound of liberty, and it's a sound of freedom.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and there's an instance where Paul, and I believe he's talking about himself, uh, being caught up to heaven, caught up into paradise.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: And he said he heard things.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 4, it says, how he was caught up into paradise, and he heard inexpressible words which it's not lawful for a man to utter.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've heard people refer to this and they're they're like, woo, I just wonder what it was.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I want, you know, it must be something none of us have ever heard before.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Some, you know, some thing that you can't even say.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: He said it was not lawful for man to utter.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at that, and you know, if it was not lawful for man to utter, now think about that.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: What what what would he be referring to?
11:26
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are certain things that are acceptable to men, to humans on the earth.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Some are religious, some are not religious.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things that are acceptable in certain religious circles that that's not acceptable.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Like some of the things I'm saying today would not be acceptable in certain things, in certain uh places.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, when you look at this, you can see that whatever it was, whatever he heard in heaven, it must have been okay to say it there.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: That sound must have been lawful in heaven, even though it was not lawful to men.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some examples.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our best example of this.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: How many know that Jesus did and said many things that were unlawful for men?
12:16
SPEAKER_00: But he was springing the sound of heaven.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: And the things that he was saying were right.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: The things that he was saying, it was absolutely lawful in the kingdom of heaven.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Because it was the sound of heaven that he brought.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus coming to the earth as Emmanuel, he was the fulfillment of that prophetic word from Psalms that said he sent his word to heal them and save them from their destructions.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus did the unlawful, and uh, I made a little list of things here.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by number one, denouncing religious leaders.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: That's not right.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: That's not good.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: They didn't like him doing that, did they?
12:54
SPEAKER_00: It's not right for you to do that.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: They said, Well, you were born in sin, and you're teaching us?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to do that.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by touching lepers.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by healing on the Sabbath.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by talking to women who are who were strangers, some had bad reputations, and some were of a different ethnicity or different race.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by speaking about eating my flesh and drinking my blood.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by wrecking the temple.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by eating with sinners.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by skipping ritual washing.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: He did the unlawful by forgiving sins.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Only God can forgive sins, they told him.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And they would say sometimes, why must you insist on doing what is unlawful?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Why must you insist on breaking the Sabbath?
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, Jesus, we're trying to give you a chance here, but you just keep doing and saying that which is unlawful.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: By what authority can you do these things?
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm doing what I see my father do, and I'm saying what I hear my father say.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: What I'm hearing and speaking is the sound of heaven itself.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, what's a higher authority than that?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: The sound of heaven is a beautiful sound.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible says, Blessed is he who hears the joyful sound.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: I have been blessed because of what I hear.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a Christmas song that says, Do you hear what I hear?
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that speaks to me.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: I like how, you know, I hear Clark will say once in a while, if you could see what I see, you would feel what I feel.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm talking about.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what I see?
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what I hear?
14:48
SPEAKER_00: There's a certain something, there's a word of God, there's a sound of heaven that comes, and it brings life to the soul and brings light to where there was ignorance and there was darkness.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And the ignorance of God that I once had, the light broke through and brought the sound of heaven to me, and it caused me to fall in love with a daddy, a heavenly father, my father.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And I can say with full conviction, simply because of the liberty and the sound of heaven, that it come to me to say, I and my father are one, and I feel it, and I believe it, and I have a knowledge of it.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And that didn't, that came to this ignorant young man that had no true concept of who God is, and the living, breathing spirit, that life-giving voice that comes with that spirit revealed to me.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: A good, gracious, wonderful, loving Father.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, with every breath that I'm able, I will tell of the goodness of God.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I'll sing of his goodness because that's the only sound that I hear concerning God and the things of heaven.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: I love that I see no darkness in him, nor shadow of turning at all.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: I see, I hear, I hear no condemnation, I hear no fear from God that I'm going to do something wrong.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I have more fear about that than he does.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: But that comes from the sound of man.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: That comes from the sound that's that's like it's unlawful, Rick.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: You can't do this, you can't do that.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm still hearing that coming from people, brothers and sisters in Christ.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Rick, you can't do this, you can't do that.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm only doing what I see here, see Daddy do, and uh, and I and I'm saying what I'm hearing.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's a sound that comes from heaven, and it's the sound that's working and speaking in your hearts.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking to with someone um just the other day that's really in a bad place emotionally and mentally because a lot of hard things have come down on him in life, and and he just he can't see, and he's feeling you know, a sense of hopelessness.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: He says, he's he says, uh, he says, he says, Rick, I look around, all I see is death and darkness.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you try to convey the sound of heaven, and sometimes it's really hard for people to hear.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: And finally, all I could say is I gave him examples of how the sound of God here and there just began to come through a little bit.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And it got my attention and I said, just do this for me.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Listen for that sound.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: Listen for the sound of someone that created you and someone that loves you and really cares about you and where you're at right now.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to hear.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: I know things get loud and messy and noisy, but there is a certain sound that I know you can hear because we're every one of us are made for that, made with that ability to hear a certain sound from heaven because in him is life, and that life is is is to be imparted and enjoyed by everyone to every one of us.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: The sound of heaven is a sound of bigness, goodness, and love.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: The sound of heaven does it breaks through all the things and all the questions of the legalities and the illegalities because this transcends all of it.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: It speaks of life and it goes into life.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: That's why when the woman, uh Samaritan woman says, says, says, you know, are they right about it or are we right about it?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Which which one's got the right place and the right way to worship?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: And he says he essentially says, it's not about any of that, it's about worshiping the Father.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Introduces that concept to her about Father.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Why?
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says the Spirit, the Spirit will speak to us, the Spirit will bear witness to us, and says, by the Spirit, we we bear witness with that spirit, and it causes us to cry, Father, Abba, Father, Daddy, my father, you are my father, and I know who I am.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's the plan of this whole thing about Emmanuel.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus coming to us, God in flesh, God and man joined together in one God and sinner, reconciled, showing the goodness of God and the heart of God, saying, Don't you get it?
19:49
SPEAKER_00: All I wanted to do was just be one with you.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: This has been the whole the whole idea the whole time.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And you've been in darkness and you've been in confusion and there's been noise and there's been all of these things.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: And he says, But I'm breaking through that.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to let it rule and reign.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing a sound, and that sound has been here.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's been here loud and strong, especially since the coming of Jesus and the day of Pentecost.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And that spirit rings in our heart and it's speaking to us and it's calling us to absolute liberty and absolute freedom.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I loved Brett Bicker's message talking about who we know we've been called to liberty, but how how free are we are we called to?
20:28
SPEAKER_00: How much liberty is this?
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, it sounds like heaven.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think if we even just get a get an idea, an imagination of heaven, somehow we we do imagine uh a place and a life that's just absolutely wonderful, beautiful, and good, and there's no darkness and there's no ugliness and there's no none of that thing.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what we imagine, and and I think, and I believe it's true.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: I believe it's absolute life.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ and in the Holy Spirit in our lives, there's absolute life speaking to us, and it's speaking to us, and it's it's revealing truth to us, and it's and it changes our minds because it makes us so much bigger and makes us so much alive, and it does, it does begin to cast out fear.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice the sound of heaven, it seems to always bring that sound with it that says, do not fear, don't be afraid.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of what God might think of you because He has a very favorable opinion.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: You've got favor with him, he loves you.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I did this, and so that so what's not lawful for man is lawful with God.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: When he when the when the word comes to Mary through through Gabriel, he says, You're gonna have a child.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: He'll be called the Son of the Most High.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And Mary's like, how can that be?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done what it takes for that to happen.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Something bigger than you will happen.
21:59
unknown: The whole
22:00
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit will do this.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Because what's hard for you, what's impossible for man, is not impossible with God.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 12.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: This is the end of the book.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: If you don't already see this and you're confused about the book of Revelation, here's something that just really opened it up a lot to me.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Instead of looking at it as some future cataclysmic angry God something, you know, look at it for what its title really says.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: It is the very first line says, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what the sound really is?
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that what's really opening up power and love into your life?
23:01
SPEAKER_00: The revelation of Jesus Christ.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: So we can get a picture of it here.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: And he says in verse 10 of Revelation 12, I heard a loud voice in heaven.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: There's that sound of heaven.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now, salvation strength.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say now.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Now.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's heard the sound of heaven say, now, salvation strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at, let's, let's look at look at them one at a time.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Now salvation has come.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Has salvation come?
23:32
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating it right now.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Salvation has come.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: You will call his name Jesus.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: God is salvation, or God saves.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Salvation came with Jesus.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Now strength has come.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: How many have been empowered by the life of Christ inside of you?
23:52
SPEAKER_00: How many have been changed by that?
23:56
SPEAKER_00: How many have been made bigger?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of our God has come.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Has that kingdom come?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it way back then when he first began to speak.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: He said, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Change your whole mind about it.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Now it's come.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And the power of his Christ has come.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: The power that has done the most for me has been the word of the Lord.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: That certain sound from heaven that breaks through the ignorance of our hearts.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Why?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: For the accuser.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Because the accuser of the brethren, the accuser, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Well, won't that be wonderful when that finally happens?
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can tell you, for all practical purposes in my life, that I lived with an accuser.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Was it some little horned being sitting on my shoulder, or was it in my own mind?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I think it was, I didn't need a demonic entity.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: My own mind gave me enough problems, my own ideas about me and God.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But it was the accuser still.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: No matter how you define it, there was an accuser.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: And that accuser kept telling me that I wasn't good enough and God didn't like me, and God was disappointed in me, and all those things that I thought of God, and if there isn't God, he sure wouldn't like someone like me, and I just got a lot of changing to do, and there's just so much about me that's not good, and there's so much about me that's not right.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: And then even after I became a Christian for a while, there was still I would struggle with these things, and then I heard a certain sound from heaven.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Something I talk about a lot, where God told me I'm not demanding anything from you.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, whoa, where'd that come from?
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Straight from heaven.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: It interrupted my thoughts.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: My thoughts were going this way, and the sound of heaven says, I'm demanding nothing from you.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: What?
26:05
SPEAKER_00: I love you with an unconditional love with no limits, no boundaries, no matter what.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: What?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: What if I never change this about me that I've been working on for so long?
26:19
SPEAKER_00: What if I never get up to that standard, and if the sound of heaven says, What standard?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: My love is that standard.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm not waiting on you to become a future better version of yourself.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: That was the sound that broke through.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's a sound of heaven, it's a sound of life, it's a sound of love.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: And that love, that's why I preach nothing else but love.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Because the love casts out the fear.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: And that right there just does so many things.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: And I have a vision that it'll do so many things in this world.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: But he got cast down.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I said the other day, I feel I think it's really been decades since I've actually heard the accuser.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: The sound of heaven has really done what the Bible said it would do, and there is no condemnation.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: To this guy who still breaks biblical laws according to the biblical laws, if you want to go through all of that, not that I'm trying to be a bad person.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: I want I want to be good.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: I want to be good to you.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: I want to do the best.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: But I just got these Rick Mannis ways sometimes.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: It just mess up and flop so much that it's just it's comical sometimes.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: But the sound of heaven keeps the condemnation out of my life.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: This is a big change from where Rick used to be.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: And I owe it all to the word of the living God.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: He's been cast down, and that's what's happening.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: This is why we gather.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: This is why we give the messages that we do.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Because in Christ, we want to bring the sound of heaven the best way we can, in the in our very imperfect way, I know.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: But if you listen, you listen, not as an accuser, if you listen as a hearer, you'll hear a sound of heaven.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: And it'll cast down the accuser.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: You know what the word accuser is in the Greek?
28:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a Greek word categorio.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: What's that sound like?
29:01
SPEAKER_00: Category.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: It puts you in a category.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: It'll put others in a category, and all that stuff goes on.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: But it's in Christ.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: That sound is casting that down.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: I want to finish this message or this part of the morning with a poem I came across just the other day.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Somehow I found this just in reading.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's a poem from the 1800s by a man named Frederick William Faber.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: And it says this there's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: There's a kindness in God's justice, which is more than liberty.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: But we make God's love too narrow by false limits of our own.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: And we magnify its strictness with the zeal God will not own.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind, and the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind.