Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Exceeding Goodness of God

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The Exceeding Goodness of God · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let us experience the glory of his goodness.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we worship and we sing and we feel that reality of the goodness of God.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We say in church that God is good.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be talking to other people about God, and we just say, He's He's so good.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to look at that exceeding goodness this morning.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We just sang, let us experience the glory of your goodness.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think a lot of people miss it.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: People, a lot of times they look at Jesus and they look at our salvation like on its um really on the basis of its like its lowest levels.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um for instance, we were um looking last time at uh Jesus removing our shame.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I want to look at Isaiah 61 um again.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of a foundational for uh where I'm at here on this topic.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But in Isaiah chapter 61, verse 7, the Lord speaks to us prophetically in Isaiah about the new creation that we are.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of confusion, they'll rejoice in their portion.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in their land they'll possess double.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Everlasting joy will be theirs.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we hear talks a lot of times in the church about, you know, I want that double portion this, double portion that, double portion anointing, double portion glory, double portion honor, double portion blessing, double portion power.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Here's concerning the new creation, he speaks of double portion, and he speaks of double honor here.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: He tells about us rejoicing in our portion.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells that, he says that instead of shame, we're going to have double honor.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this the shame would be taken care of.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 54 of Isaiah, he says, you will not be ashamed in that day.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You will forget the shame of your former days.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we see, as we were talking about last time, how he dealt with the shame.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how does he do it?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: How did God deal with that original shame of man that came to us from that first disobedience of going after the knowledge of good and evil?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what we experience immediately is the shame of our condition, where before that we had no shame, and man carried this shame.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: How did God deal with that?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: How did he remove that?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh even though we talked about it uh in depth last time, or more in depth, I want us to go to I uh Romans chapter 5, and I want us to look at something because so much of Christian thought and Christian activity in the body of Christ is about dealing with this issue of sin, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and there's a rejoicing in the fact that we can celebrate that you know Jesus shed our blood, shed his blood for the remission of our sins.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can we we celebrate that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But even in that, doesn't it seem like there's a lot of Christians that still struggle with this issue of sin, even in their Christian life?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: By that I mean not that they struggle with stopping sin as much, because under the law, if you if if you define sin the way that John does, that sin is transgression of the law, then all still commit sins.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: But but even though people know that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, they still make a big issue a lot of times.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: In the pulpits this morning, there's lots and lots of churches preaching about sin.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: In the pulpits this morning, there's lots and lots of people, lots and lots of preaching that's trying to get people in a congregation to deal with sin in their lives.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're making sin an issue.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to I want to show you something.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And while that is definitely a part of this whole thing, I mean, the the the what is defined as sin, um what um the curse of the broken law was dealt with there, all that stuff with around Moses and the law and the Jewish, all of that stuff was dealt with.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're looking at is so much bigger than dealing with old covenant law.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right here in Romans chapter 5, look at verse 12.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, just as through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death came by that sin, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the day you eat thereof you'll die.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: All men were dead in trespasses and sins.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Death came through sin, and so death spread to all men.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody sinned.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody went after the similitude of Adam.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we didn't, it was it was pretty easy because what we did was we chose to go with us instead of God.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So now we we're not living with the power of life.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're experiencing death.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody after that, everybody sins.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're carrying shame, carrying the effect of death that entered into this world, carrying the shame, carrying the fear.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Cain's ashamed, he kills his brother, the beat goes on.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: But until the law, until the law, sin was in the world.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was there since Adam, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law, or it's not accounted.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not charged to people.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what we look at.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: We make the work of Jesus only about redemption from sin, or even the curse of the law, is that we're we're focusing the whole issue on something that came many, many, many, many, many generations after the original problem entered into the world.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And from the time of Adam to Moses, it even says in verse 14, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sin was not counted against us.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We were sinning.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, we were missing the mark.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: We were making bad choices, we were, we were, we were doing things, choosing things, acting in ways that were not in accordance with life.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: We missed the mark, erred, sinned.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam and Moses.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: But remember that sin was not counted against man.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, there was not a checklist against us, there was not a report card against us.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We were just dead in our condition.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: We were dead in that condition before there was a law.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and nevertheless, even though there were sin was not counted against man, in other words, the reason for our problem was not because we had a long list of offenses that we committed.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The reason for the problem was that we were all existing after original death that entered into this world.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we were living in that death, but there was not a report card of sin against us.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: When the law came is when that started.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all following this?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a problem way before the law.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It says, until the law, sin was in the world, but sin's not counted where there is no law.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, death still reigned from Adam to Moses.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: From Adam to Moses, there was still death.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you didn't have to have a specific directive like God gave Adam and then disobey it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: You were just going to miss the mark on your own.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't have to do the exact same thing Adam did.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: You would do other things.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who is a type of Him, Jesus, who was to come.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes on and talks about, it goes on talking in the framework of law.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to bring this out because what we do, we've made Christianity and put it into this small circle of something that when what was really was going on was much bigger.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And because we put it in the small circle of just deliverance from that the sin that was spelled out in the law of Moses, then what happens is that everything still becomes that.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: The preaching can't help it.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It still becomes about sin somehow because it's all centered around that law.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll say, well, yeah, we're we're forgiven, we're redeemed from it, but we still got to try to get you to stop doing it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about stop doing these things.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we even many times in our churches, and it's happening this morning in many churches, we know it goes on, is that people are being presented a message in a way to where they feel like there's an accounting of sin being put against them and they're born again.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sin's not imputed where there is no law.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a time from Adam to Moses where there is no law.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that law was really only given to the Jews.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews lived and died by law.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Gentiles indulged.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that law was given for a purpose, and we have it for us.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: We have it in our scriptures, we have it as a picture for us.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says that they were given as an example.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And God gave that law, and what we see is Paul says that law was given so that sin could become, could, could look exceedingly sinful.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: We could see what the real issue, what the problem was.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was sin that brought that death into the world, but the law could not fix that death.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: It just revealed, revealed that man had a problem, had an issue that he could not fix.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And death reigned.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: There was death in the world before that law came.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, after that law, Jesus comes to the Jews and he takes care of their little law issue there.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: He takes care of the Jewish law issue and fulfills that law, becomes the final sacrifice for their law issues.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Shedding of blood, the whole types in the shadows, the whole picture, the final sacrifice, the spotless lamb, and we can go on and on and on.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul spells it out to the Hebrews, to the Jews, all about how Jesus is the final thing, it's over, it's done, the law has been fulfilled, and now it's fulfilled in everybody that's been trying to fulfill that law, it's fulfilled in everybody.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a done thing.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: But but that was just a small part of this whole thing.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: When we go, we go back to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, and we looked at this last time, we see that how Jesus does so much more than that.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're redeemed from the law.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, all sin is forgiven.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: There is no accounting of sin.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because of Jesus.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God for that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like the woman I uh I talked about that that I heard the preacher talking about, and and uh he was praying for uh people were coming forward for prayer, and one woman, she was just totally, you could tell she was just totally afraid, and she came up and she was just came up and she was carrying such shame in her life, and and uh as the man was preparing to pray for her, the Lord was speaking to her, and and he says, he says, Sister, he says, the Lord just showed me that you have this, you've been, that there's there is a horrible sin that you've committed in your past.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she just started boo-hooing and breaking down.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, you know, she's already carrying this shame, and now this man of God is gonna call it out in front of everybody.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, and I say, God, what did she do?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he told me, I don't remember, he said he doesn't remember.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he told her that, and her face looked up and began to relax and then began to light up because she realized for the first time how true it was when God said, Your sins I will remember no more.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I will remove them as far from you as the East and the West.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now that should be a once and forever settled thing for the believer.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was that big.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the law was not the big issue.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was, if there was no law, we still had a problem.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: If there is no accounting of sin before Jesus comes, we've still got a problem.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our problem is we pulled away from God, separated from God, living on our own, uncovered by God, trying to cover our own self, alone in that sense, in death, in sin that we couldn't get the best of, kept making harmful to choice choices, kept being selfish, kept killing, kept all these horrible things that come from the original death that manifest, first of all, in the self-consciousness and the shame, bringing fear and all manifestations of self-centeredness, which could be called sin.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: But if we had no law, that's still there.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So all the stuff about the sacrifice and all that, that was great for the Jews to finally realize, hey, this has really been taken care of.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: We see here in Hebrews 12, verse 2, where it says, We look at we're looking unto Jesus, who's the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: He'd given us a picture of Jesus suffering and putting up with so much shame and hostility against him.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked about that before, but we look at this.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's going to deal with the original problem.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Before there was a law, man was living with this shame of that decision.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the shame that came about because of the way that we've gone.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I say it all the time, don't I?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: We were naked before the fall of man, but we were not ashamed.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our condition could still be good, even though we're naked, weak, vulnerable.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: He chose the weak and foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom says that we want to try to become sinless in our actions, and wisdom says we want to try to become without flaws.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in the church, even we've taken this thing where uh of the of joy for Jesus here, to where we used to preach about how the Lord is He's gonna come back after church without spot or blemish, wrinkle, or any such thing.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we say, come on, church, get it together.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do some washing and ironing, get your life clean.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus ain't coming for a spotted bride, Jesus ain't coming for a wrinkly old bride, Jesus coming for a pretty bride, a glorious bride.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, we've got to get ourselves gobbled up.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, let's get our life cleaned up.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, and then we'd come to the altar, Jesus, we want to be with you, Jesus.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd swear and we'd promise we're gonna do better, like we always do.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to come up to him.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, I would even, I'd even say sometimes when I was when I was younger, I'd say, I, you know, I thought I was so smart putting things together here, and I'd say, you know, Jesus, the the word tells us not to be unequally yoked, so he's not gonna do it either.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: He ain't gonna marry a bride who's messing around like we are.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna marry a bride who's just like him.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to start being just like Jesus.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, we're trying, Pastor, we're trying.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what we saw was that Jesus, in doing this, enduring the cross, despising the shame, in other words, counting the shame a little thing, looking down on that shame and saying, You're not big enough to stop me, even though it was very big, it was horrible.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: We see that he did it for a joy set before him.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what he did for us through that whole crucifixion was not just a mercy mission, even though it was very merciful, we know that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a mercy mission, it was a romance.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: God was in love, has always been loved.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: He told us in in the Old Testament, even in Jeremiah, for instance, he would say, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've never stopped loving you, Adam.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I never stopped loving you, man.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Even when you when you when you chose, when you turned your back on me and you chose something else, I never stopped loving you.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved you with an everlasting love, for God so loved the world that he did what he did.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: He gave his only begotten son.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and so why did Jesus put up with not only the pain, the blood, but the shame?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, there were many ways to execute a man.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can behead someone, you can hang someone by the neck, you can thrust them through with a spear, you can stone them.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can throw them into a bow, throw them off of a cliff, you can you can execute people many different ways, but crucifixion was special because it wasn't meant to kill, only it was meant to humiliate, to shame.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I got real graphic about what that is, and when you look at that, and and and we need to look at it sometimes because we see that not only did he just shed blood for our sins, and he was, and he went through torture and pain, and and and it was a bloody miss, and he was beaten to a pulp, and by his stripes we were healed, and all those wonderful things.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: We know that, but we don't pay a lot of attention to the humiliation that he endured because he was going to also not only bear our sins on the tree, not only bear our sicknesses and our diseases, according to Matthew 8, 17.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God he did all that, but he also took upon himself our shame.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just take away the shame doing that, he did something else.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way he was going to deal with our shame was not just remove it.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's what we do when we make it law-based.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a lot of us all we know is, well, he took away my sin.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he took something away, but where's the double honor he promised?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: How come so many Christians are still walking around with their head low and still feeling like, oh, I don't measure up and I'm not good enough, and I pray that I get more spiritual, pray that I can know him, pray that I can hear him, pray that I can believe him, pray that I can trust him, pray that I can, and they're still walking around with this spiritual inferiority complex, and we think, wait a minute, he, you know, you're still walking with something he dealt with, and maybe you don't know the double honor that you really have, because once you know the honor that you have, you'll forget how to be ashamed.
• 19:32
  unknown: Right?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave you examples of that, that Jesus dealt personally with people.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus, he honored him by saying, out of all the people in the crowd, I want to eat at your house, I want to hang out with you.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: He honored the man that everybody else looked down on and hated.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he honored him that night, and because he gave him double honor, with all these moral God-fearers around him, these Pharisees and all that, he didn't choose to go hang out with him.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I want to hang out with you.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: The one everybody knew they hated him.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: He was a thief, he was a sinner, he was a traitor.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus gave him honor.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want to sit under your roof, I want to eat at your table, I want to talk with you tonight, I want to fellowship with you.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in that dinner, the one thing that Zacchaeus had been using to hide his shame, because he knew he was not welcome in church.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what he's been doing, he knows he's a thief, he knows he's sold out, he knows his flesh was weak, he knows that he liked money more than anything else, so he just kept making more, just kept stealing more.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: He might be hated, he might be despised, he might be a traitor, he might be everything that they can call him, but at least I've got money.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: But after receiving glory, honor from Jesus, he says, You know what?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need this anymore.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: If I've stolen from you, he didn't just say, I'm gonna pay you back.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just say I'm gonna pay you back with interest.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just say I'm gonna pay you back double, triple.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pay you back four times.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling pretty generous.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need this stuff.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I got my honor.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to hide anymore.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need this to make me somebody.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has made me somebody tonight.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know who I am.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: He likes me.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever else I got left over, I'm just gonna give half of it away.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need it like I once needed it anymore.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: The woman at the well, ashamed to be seen in public after Jesus talks to her, gives her honor, even though he knows everything she's done, she's like, woo! She runs into town and forgets how to be ashamed, like she had been ashamed every day for so many years.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of shame, she got double honor.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was the double honor that for that took the shame away.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just take the shame away and say, There, don't be ashamed.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people think.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they're saying, I'm trying not to be ashamed, I'm trying to trying to believe that I'm somebody, I'm trying.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Man, when you know the truth of this, this is why we want to look.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: This that Jesus did something not just in mercy for us, not the mercy just just takes away the sins.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: The mercy just takes just says, I've taken away this and I've taken away the spots and I've taken away the blotch of sin against you and all this, but the double honor means he did something else.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: How did he honor someone?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: How did he honor us?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just on a mercy mission alone, he was in love.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was a romance, right?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was a romance.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be with us.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: He shall be called Emmanuel, God with us.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this this this this this humanity that he loved was never going to come up and be like him.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the so the creator, Almighty God Himself, who was in love, who so loved, loved.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was so loving the world, so loved, loved her.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: This dirty, whoring woman who slept in the mud and humanity.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: He loved her.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm gonna go get in the mud.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: If that's what it takes to be with her, I'm gonna come and be with her.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I will be made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I will join her.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I will become one with her in sin.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He who knew no sin was made to be sin.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Become sin.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not only will I just, I mean, he didn't even commit it to see what it felt like.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: He just became the whole thing.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: He who knew no sin became, I'll become one with her in sin.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna unite with her.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to be with her.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Calling her up to heaven is not gonna allow us to be here.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: She can't get here.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: She can't be like me.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be like her.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna become one with her in sin.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna become one with her in death.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna taste death for all of them.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna become one with her in shame.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He who had done no wrong, who did nothing but went around doing good and healing all that were oppressed to the devil, never turned one down.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't condemn, he gave honor.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pilate, what do you what do you guys want me to do with Jesus?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I find no fault in this man.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: What should I do?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Crucify him.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't behead him, don't hang him, don't stone him.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they turned him over to the Jews, to the Romans, because the Romans crucified.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews would stone you to death or kill you another way.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted this man humiliated.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: They took him to Pilate.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was already being tried by the high priest.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: They'd already found him guilty of blasphemy.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: But they wanted more.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted him humiliated in front of all of Israel.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Crucify him.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let him hang there naked, beaten and bloody in front of everybody.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they mocked him.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you say you're a king.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Put a crown of thought.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at this king.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're slapping him in the face, blindfold him, and slapping him.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tell him, tell us, tell us, prophesy, prophesy, Jesus.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who's hitting you right now?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's watching this and he's putting up with the hostility of sinners against him.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why is he enduring all this?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: The whole thing.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: We know the whole thing.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And how he's he's stripped naked.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have a loincloth.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: He is stripped, hanging there naked, everything before mankind.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Look how humiliating he is.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they even humiliated by mocking him more and saying, saying, if you know, come down off the cross.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: If God's with you, if God will have you, come down off the cross.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he could have.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Angels are ready.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Watching this whole scene play out, ready to stop at any moment.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he hung there and he endured.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because of not just a mercy mission, but for a joy set before him.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: When someone is in love, what they're living for, what they're loving about, what they're excited about, is he's about to have him a bride finally.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: This one who had been separated, this one who had gone her own way, he's doing something to make to make them united, one.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's becoming one in her humiliation, her shame.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Becoming one.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think when he when he when he when he hung on that cross, he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Common teaching is that God turned his back on him because of sin.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, my Bible says God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was God.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then why did he cry that?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's feeling the shame, the loneliness, the separation, he feeling what she feels.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he went and he did all of this because he was in love.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: We became one.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's when the marriage of the Lamb happened.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: The bride and the groom came together.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: When he joined us, and what God joined together, no man would put asunder.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Romans 8 says that nothing's gonna separate us from this love of God, not famine, not pestilence, not sword, not nakedness, not nakedness, principality, power, things present, things to come, nothing.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because he that's joined to the Lord has become one spirit.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've been joined.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't waiting to be joined.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't waiting to be united with him.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is so, so exceedingly clear.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, we have been united with him in sin, in death.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: We were buried with him, we were crucified with him.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: The thing about Jesus, the grave could not hold him.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who submitted to death, yet had the power of death over death.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: The grave couldn't hold him, so he comes up out of the grave.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when he comes up out of the grave, he didn't divorce us while he was in that grave.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: He still united with us.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: We came out of the grave.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible said, when he rose, we rose.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when he ascended on high, he took us with him on high.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, All the angels worship him, but he said, Who's he got with him?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a bride with them.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was the joy set before him.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I remember telling Judy when before you know before I said, All my numbers, I don't want to be apart from you.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's that mean right here and now?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna do?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: When are we gonna do something about it?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: All my numbers, I don't want to be apart from you.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I went hustling, trying to do all I could to be with him.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was a joy set before me.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I I I worked on that house.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: I got that thing up on the market, man.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I packed up everything, gave everything, and I could stuck things in my car.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I hightailed it down the floor.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had a joy set before me.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was a man in love.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy had to do so much more than that.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: He looked at the shame.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look what he put up with, look what he tasted, look what he felt, look what him who knew no sin was willing to do, to go through, to experience.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be passionately in love.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not just a little bit in love, not just a little bit merciful, not just a little bit kind, not just have some pity on us to do this.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have a divine obsession almost.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: A joy set before you.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: She gave the perfect answer.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't thought about it so much until later, but I asked her if she'd be my wife, and she said, I would be honored.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: I tell her now, I said, You gave me the honor.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've been honored.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm honored to open your door for you.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm honored to do these things for you.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's my honor.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we we we're we both get Jesus getting something out of this too.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's he loves this.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: But why do I not feel the shame of my youth?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I carried lots of it, more than a lot of people do.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I carried shame from the house that I was raised in, carried shame from the things that our family went through and all the neighbors knew, and how the police would come to the house because of all the fighting that was going on, and and carrying shame from the way family would act out.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Childhood, teen years, had this inherent shame about me that caused me to be so warped inside where I where I carried an inferiority complex and was became so wrapped up and obsessed in it, I became so paranoid about it that I actually was afraid that people could read my thoughts, and it scared me because I thought if they knew how I really was, they would hate me.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I put up fronts.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Where did that shame go?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere it fell off, somewhere it disappeared, somewhere along the way, as I received the honor that comes from God.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like that woman at the will.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot how to be ashamed.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot that I need to do things that that would cover up my shame and because of the honor.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I found out I've been loved, I've been pursued.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God he took care of my sin.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll celebrate that forever.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because what the real problem was was not that it just gave me a bad report card, the problem was the death that had entered into the world I was living in.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And my hero, my conqueror, our bridegroom, the champion, knight in shining armor, if you will, was willing to do that.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that, when you see it that way, then you see the price.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why he did it.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: You must have been worth something.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, I want to tell this story.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I don't butcher it.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: But how many of you ever heard the story of the eight-cow wife?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there was a uh uh a man in a in the in a land, and a man was visiting on this island, and they would all kept mentioning his name.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: They said, he said, Well, where will I get this done?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, go see so-and-so, you know, and no matter where it was like, oh yeah, he'll fix you up.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: He knows how to do it.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, every he heard all these wonderful things about this guy, and they said, Oh, yeah, he's this man, if he tells it to you, you can take it to the bank.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's a man of his word.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything he heard about this guy was was wonderful.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy was telling him about it.
• 33:31
  unknown: Johnny Lingo.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Johnny Lingo, not Ringo, Johnny Lingo.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he was, and and and this man was telling him about it, and he said, This man seemed like quite a man.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy was saying, he's sitting there, you know, he's there in front of the bar and he's talking, and he's saying, he's saying, Yeah, he's this guy knows he'll fix you up and he'll, I mean, he's generous, and he's just, I mean, this guy is just, you know.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh while he's doing that, this boy kind of kind of laughs a little bit and he goes, Shut up, you know, and the guy's all right, what's the deal with this guy?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is he really the way you said or not?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh yeah, he is that way.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, well, why does your son keep laughing?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, you know, uh there's one thing that people laugh about him that said, you know, there's a he he he uh there's this woman that that's uh that he took for a wife and said, you know, the custom is that you give cows, you know, to the to the to the dad for the wife, and said, and uh, you know, this woman, nobody, no, nobody has even bit one cow for her.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he described her and said, she was skinny and small, she was hunched over, said her eyes were just slits, and she always walked with her head down and hair covering her face, and she was just said, uh, you know, she was nobody had even would even give one cow for her.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so Johnny comes to the dad and says, I'll give you eight cows.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a good woman, you know, a good woman, you might give six cows.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody had ever given more than seven cows, and that was for this one particular lady that everybody knew, and she was the top, you know, and somebody actually gave seven cows for her, and here's this ugly thing here, and he just goes, he gives her eight cows.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: He could have given one, and he could have got her.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, her dad jumped on that and says, but that's why everybody laughs.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's a wonderful man.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's just he's he every he's everything we said, but he gave eight cows for that woman, so everybody thinks he's a chump, you know, for that.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so he's he finally he goes to meet Johnny, and Johnny fixes him up with what he was doing.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Johnny, I gotta ask you something.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He said, I heard there's a story about you giving eight cows for a woman that when you didn't have to.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Why would you do that?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh while he's talking to him, you know, this beautiful woman comes out.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This gorgeous woman comes out, and she comes out and she hands him a glass of tea and and uh Johnny says, or he said, Johnny, who's that?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, that's my wife.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what happened to the one you bought for eight cows?
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, That's her.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, what happened to her?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody that nobody told me she looked like that.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, What do you think she would be like if I'd only paid one cow for her?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: She would live like she's worth one cow.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I paid eight cows for her.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: She got, she felt honored, she felt like she was worth something.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: She felt good.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Every time she walked in town, walked through town.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody could say, There's the woman that that was worth eight cows.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: When she walked into a store, everybody, the storekeeper, said, Excuse me, I'm gonna take care of her.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's the eight-cow woman.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: She started acting like one, because that's one thinks in the heart so easy.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: She started acting like one, started looking like one, carrying herself like one, holding her head up high.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: She was gorgeous and beautiful.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He said, I would have been stupid.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would have been a fool for paying one cow for that woman.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand up.