Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Double Honor: the Cure for Shame

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Double Honor: the Cure for Shame · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like most things I talk about, it get it can be traced back to Genesis 3 with the fall of man, where everything goes south.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and we look at that, we can see we can see what our real problem was, or real problems are, and then we see what Jesus did to fix it.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to look at something tonight that's a part of our redemption that's really not highlighted a lot.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to look at Isaiah 61 and take off from a verse there.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at a few verses in here, a few of the many verses that deal with this particular this particular issue.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an issue that was dealt with in our redemption.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit of God's going to give us a good, good vision of that, a good ability to see that tonight.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: The power of the blood of Jesus, and they'll say they believe in that.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: To different people, it means different things.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: To some, it just means that you get a ticket to go someplace real good someday when you die.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: To some it means something more closer to home, also.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But also then there's there's less that know, but still many that have read and they see that uh by his stripes we were healed.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Matthew 8, 17, how he bore our sicknesses and our diseases.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they know that they know that he he bore that also upon the on the cross.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um will uh can bring out in from the word of God how he redeemed us from uh the curse of the law, and they condense that basically down to uh lack and uh poverty, sickness, uh uh death.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um but in that there's an issue I want to look at tonight that that we saw right from the very beginning when uh when man went with the knowledge of good and evil, they uh they experienced the right off the bat a shame and a fear.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that Jesus dealt with big time.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that gets removed in Christ, if we can see this.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that is is is is a is a root of so many things, if not all, of the issues that that has uh uh been detrimental to man.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we know there again that they were naked and not ashamed before they went after the knowledge of good and evil.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: They were naked and not ashamed.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: They get the knowledge of good and evil, they're naked and now they're ashamed.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: They try to cover themselves.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Their covering doesn't work, so they hide in the bushes.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't seem to help either because they still feel ashamed and they don't want to come out when God's calling to them.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then when God does call them out and he says, You must have eaten of that tree, that's the only way you could have could have felt this way because you've been naked the whole time and it didn't matter to you then.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You were not ashamed then, because I never said anything about it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in me.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so then what Adam does then, he still feels like a need to cover himself, he still feels uncovered, he still feels ashamed upon himself, and so then he blames Eve.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, nowhere in that story does it say that Adam was ashamed because he knew that he disobeyed.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: What it says was that their eyes were opened, they knew they were naked, and then they began dealing with that shame of their nakedness.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: They began to cover it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there was disobedience.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they weren't happy about that, sure they didn't feel bad about that, but what they were ashamed of was their condition, not just what they did, but their condition that they were naked, and they tried dealing with it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And man has uh been dealing with this and has tried so many, so many ways, and have tried to hide their shame in so many, many, many places.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: We see David in the Old Testament, um, he uh he uh has another man's wife, and then he goes to try to uh to cover it up and has the has the husband killed, and so he's trying to hide his shame that way.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: He gets he gets confronted by uh the prophet of God, and then you know David has to deal with it then.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he's trying to hide this thing, he's trying to deal with it, trying to cover it up because man tr man doesn't really know what to do with this shame, so they try the try the best they can.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Some can get buried in in their work, some can get buried in in success or are making money, and and sometimes that can be uh if if that's what your uh where your whole kingdom is at, then then you can just be uh a wealthy man with with, I mean a poor man with money.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: We saw a very, very wealthy man in the in the news uh this week, a very, very, very, very, very wealthy man that was as poor as he could be, um, and took his life, you know, and and uh, you know, what does it profit a man that he would gain the whole world but lose his soul and and and the soul issues are what what Jesus really uh came to deal with primarily.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we have this shame thing, and so people will deal with it with with maybe success or or lots of money, and and and if they're using that to try to cover their shame, you'll you'll you can see it because it'll never be enough.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing will ever be satisfying.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Some will go the other direction, they'll go in a in the opposite of success and and uh and and and even work and they'll go into addictions, they'll go into uh substance uh addiction, they'll go into sex addiction, they'll go into, they're doing something to try to deal with this.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them don't know what else to do except just to act out more of what is bringing them the shame in the first place.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: We see uh we see examples of that in the New Testament that we're gonna look at and talk about.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Isaiah chapter 61, verse 7 is a prophetic pronouncement of the new creation uh and it and he promises, he says here, that instead of your shame, instead of your shame, you're gonna have double honor.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of confusion, they will rejoice in their portion.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in their land they will possess double, and everlasting joy shall be theirs.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of shame, you're going to have double honor.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So right off the bat, I want us to notice here that he's he it's it's one thing to take the shame away.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to take away the reproach, but he says, not only, I'm not just going to take away your shame, I'm going to give you something.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you double honor.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see that when we look at the work of Jesus.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very quickly, other verses, another one in Isaiah chapter 54, verse 4, uh, for instance, he says, Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: You will forget the shame of your youth or your former condition.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to forget the shame.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is he going to take it away, not only is he going to take away reasons to be ashamed, but you're going to forget the shame and you're going to be overwhelmed with double honor.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 10, verse 11, New Testament, Paul says, for the scripture says, whoever believes, believes on him, shall not be put to shame.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we talk about believing, we know there's a scripture that says, you know, you say you believe in God, well, the devils also believe, and they tremble.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So when we're seeing faith and believing in Christ and believing in God in the New Testament here, we know we're talking more than just believing the fact that he exists.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about trusting in him.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about putting our weight on this thing.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in our faith in him, belief in him, putting our weight on this thing, I am a living testimony, as so many people are, of how he not only redeems us and removes, redeems us from shame and removes it, but how he crowns you with double honor.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to read Hebrews chapter 12.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as we uh before we go there, I want to give you some instances of where Jesus gave double honor, where he gave honor instead of shame.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's there's so many.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites is this little short guy named Zacchaeus.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Zacchaeus was a thief, and he was also seen as a traitor because he was a tax collector for a woman, but he was uh for a woman, he was a tax collector for the Romans, but he was a uh but he was a Jew, and so he was hated by his countrymen.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was, of course, he was looked down upon by his by the religious people around, the what this what we would call today church people, but uh he was uh he wasn't accepted there because everybody knew that he was a he was a low-down thief.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And how what how did he deal with that?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's pretty obvious that that Zacchaeus just kept staying in that profession.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So he's looked down upon, he's he's he's uh he's seen as a traitor to his fellow Jews, his fellow countrymen.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's being used by the Romans, he's uh but at least he can make some money.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he he's nobody's gonna like him, everybody's gonna hate him.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: He'll be all alone in life, but at least he's gonna have some money.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but he's a little short guy.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that might have had something to do with how he how he felt about himself.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever it was, he had nothing going for him except he could get this money by collecting taxes and stealing from the people, and he just kept doing it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we see later that he would admit that he had been stealing money.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knew he had been, nobody liked this guy.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And here comes Jesus walking down the street, and there's a whole lot of people around him, and you know, Pharisees are there and everything, and Jesus has this multitude of people all filling the street as he's walking down the street, and there's so many people there that this little Zacchaeus has got to climb a tree, right?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's so many people, he's got to climb a tree just to see this guy.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like you ever, you're, you know, like trying to see a parade sometime, and you're, you know, you're not up at the curb, you're way back deep somewhere, what you're trying to find something high that you can climb up on, step up on a bench or something so you can you can see whatever's going on down there.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Zacchaeus finds a uh a tree and he climbs up in this tree just because he wants to see this Jesus.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks up and spots him.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now think of this, and he honors this man because out of all the people here, out of all the people in the street, including these good moral Pharisees, he chooses Zacchaeus and he says, Zacchaeus, I want to hang with you tonight.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: May I let's I want to come to your house.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to eat with you.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: He, out of all the people there, he honors this thief.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus, he's like it.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, you can come to my house.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: He jumps down, and him and Jesus go off to the house, and there's other people following, they're watching, and other people are in the house there with them, and they're having a party in there because there's lots of people around, and and and all these people are in there and they're talking, and we don't know everything that went on in that house that night, but we do know something happened to Zacchaeus.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Something happened to him that he just didn't need the money the same way he did before.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Something happened in him because he stands up and he says, Hey everybody, I got one thing to say.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if I've ripped off anybody, I'm gonna pay you back, not just pay you back, I'm not just gonna give it back to you.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just gonna pay you back with interest, I'm not gonna pay you back double, I'm gonna pay you back four times what I've taken from you.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever's left over, I just want to let you, I just want to let it put it out there, but I'm giving half of it to the poor.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need the money anymore for what I was needing it before.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus gave him honor.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: This man who carried shame, Jesus gave him double honor, and he forgot to be ashamed anymore.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's not he's not ashamed.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And because he was as he was not ashamed, he didn't have to use the money for what he was using it for, to make something of himself.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: He had been honored, so he didn't need it anymore.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: He had what every man was looking for.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: He had the honor.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, uh, you know, and here's the Pharisees.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He never went, he didn't invite himself to their house.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was one one Pharisee's house that he went and ate at, but the Pharisee invited him, the Simon the Pharisee.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus accepted and he went to the house, and and um, and and and Luke chapter 6 says they were, you know, he was reclining at the table, you know, they'd have that table on the ground there, and they'd eat on eat eat like that, and he's he's he's on one elbow and he's he's he's leaning back and and eating.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a woman comes into this Pharisee's house.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is this is Pharisee, this is super Christian, if you will.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't Christians, but in our mind, the way we would relate to that, super believer in God.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and and she comes in and she's and and everybody knows she's got a real bad reputation with men.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's a prostitute, you know, and so everybody knows knows her.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: They see her on the streets, and they're just like, You don't want anything to do with her, step across, step on the other side.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't talk to her because she's unclean, or as people might think you're doing, you're, you know, you're you're doing something wrong.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody got it want anything to do with her.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: She walks in to these people's house.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Moral living people.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she walks in, and the whispering's going on.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: What's she doing here?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Simon, who owns the house, like, why does she think she could even come into a home like this?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know how how some Christians talk?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these are probably worse than most Christians, the way the Pharisees sound.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they they believed in trying to keep everything pure and holy, and you know, had had all that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they probably thought they had a pure and holy home, you know.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this woman comes in, defiling it.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And she walks past everybody with all the whispers and all the looks and the nerve of her coming in, and she's crying, and she walks up to Jesus because she has been forgiven many sins.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she walks behind Jesus while he's reclining there at the table, and she walks behind him, and she and the Bible said that she's standing behind him, and her tears are falling on his feet.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so then she bends down and she starts wiping them with her with her hair, and then she starts rubbing his feet with this oil that she had brought in, this costly oil that they say was worth a year's wages, you know, and this is all this is all she has, and and she she's she's she's pouring that out that out on him.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then the guy that owns the house, Simon, he's like, Well, I knew he wasn't really a prophet.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: If he were really a prophet, he would know what's going on.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: He'd know what kind of woman she is.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he obviously doesn't know because if he knew, he would not be letting her touch it, touch him the way that she's doing.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: This woman has been forgiven much, so she loves much.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Said, I've been sitting here in your house all this time.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't offer me anything like that.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't anoint my head with oil like you normally would do when you welcome someone into your home.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't, you didn't wash my feet like you would do when you bring someone into your home.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't offer anything like that.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: He said, and this woman who's been forgiven much, she loves much, and so here she hasn't stopped crying.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: She hasn't stopped, stopped kissing my feet and and and rubbing them with oil.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So she's been forgiven.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then he looks at her and he says, he says, Go in peace.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be ashamed anymore.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and then in one of the other gospels, what did he say about her?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This, what she has done tonight shall be a testimony, shall be a memorial to her throughout all the generations.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it is.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about her right now.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: What she has done, how Jesus honored her.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at this woman, we don't look at her.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we know her past, we know the story, but we don't look at her and go, ooh, we revere her.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: We just feel like she's, we feel something, we feel like she's well, we don't know what she looked like physically, but we feel like she's beautiful, at least on the inside, because of how she was responding the way that she loved Jesus, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: We memorialize her.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of look up to her, don't we?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Christians want to emulate this woman sometimes.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, I wish I loved Jesus that way.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to, you know, and and he says this will this will be a memorial to her.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she's this woman is preaching to us even tonight.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do to her?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't he didn't just take away her shame with by the forgiveness.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He went further than that.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: He gave her honor in the front of all these good people here.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of your shame, you'll have double honor and you'll rejoice.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Everlasting joy.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, now go in peace.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Your shame's gone.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've given you honor.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was a Samaritan woman who would go to the well to get water.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of the few things she had to do to go go to town and do.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not go to town, but go to go into the public, but she would do it in the heat of the day when everybody else was having siesta because she didn't want to deal with people.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: She carried shame.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: She carried shame because she'd been married five times.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So she's feeling the sense of failure about that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even make a marriage work.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: If she goes to a counselor, a counselor probably says, Well, maybe it's not the men, maybe it's you, you know.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it was.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I'm sure that wouldn't have made you feel any better about yourself either.
• 17:32
  unknown: You know.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and she still wants the men.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: She still has a need in her life, and so she's still still still so she's living with a guy now, but she's not bothering with marriage anymore.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I if if I marry somebody, it'll be a failure.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I do is a failure.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's carrying that shame.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows her history, knows her story, knows her path, knows what she's doing right now, and she doesn't want to deal with it.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: She's carrying shame.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: She don't want to, she doesn't want to be seen by people, she doesn't want to have to talk to people, she doesn't want to have to listen to them, she doesn't want to have to answer any questions, she doesn't want to hear them whispering.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So she goes that she goes there in the heat of the day just to get her water, and here comes Jesus meeting her on purpose at that time of day.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we know the whole interaction.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: He begins to honor her right off the bat by saying, you know, give me a drink of water.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, You guys think we're not clean.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: You guys don't drink after us from the same vessel.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: He just sits there and talks with her, and he talks with her spiritual things.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Talks with her spiritual things about what it is that says the day is coming and now is, he says, even that day, the time is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that day he made a worshiper.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because knowing all that she did gave her no dishonor, but gave her honor.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And something happened to her, just like Zacchaeus.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Something happened inside her where she forgot, she forgot to be ashamed.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because she gets up and she goes running into town, telling everybody, hey everybody, hey, all these people that she didn't like being around because of how she felt around them.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why is she running into town, knocking on doors and telling everybody, because she forgot.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: She forgot the shame of her former condition.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Come and see a man who knows everything about me.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you ought to see him.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now she doesn't have shame because at that moment it's not about her anymore.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: She was she was hiding from the people of the city because it was everything was about her.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's not about her.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just like it was before we got the guard the knowledge of good and evil, naked and not ashamed.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: She's still an imperfect woman.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: She's still weak.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: She she's still, you know, vulnerable.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: She's still but now she's naked and not ashamed in a sense.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: She forgot the shame of her youth.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And she runs all the people.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, What are you doing here?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're always hiding from us.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: She says, You got to come and see a man.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he knows everything about me.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: He knows everything.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't hide it from him.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even care if I hide it from him now.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: He knows.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he treats me well.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Come and see a man.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing we know about shame is it always makes everything about us.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is why people, it's it's really called self-consciousness, isn't it?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's that feeling you get when you don't know what to do with your hands.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: You you know you're just because right now you're just totally thinking about you.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know when you're in those moments, you can do it in business, you can do it in the theater, you can do it in sports, you can do it on sales calls, you can do it preaching, you can do it, you can do it just uh interacting with with people.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are moments that that maybe you have felt self-conscious where you're thinking, how do I look?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: How am I coming off to these people?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: How what are they thinking about me?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's those moments that uh, you know, uh you see basketball players where they start get into this zone where just every not everything they put up just goes in.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you and there's a couple of times I've heard the sportscaster say, he's unconscious right now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what he really means is he's not self-conscious, he's not thinking, what if I miss, or what he's just he's just he's he's not even it's not even about him.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: He just whatever he puts up, it's going in.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like that in in certain times where you you uh where you just you it's almost like you're invisible, still weak, still flawed, still vulnerable.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: You could still mess it up, but it's not about you.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: You almost feel invisible, and you feel like you're in a zone, you feel like you're in another place.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so this woman she wasn't wasn't thinking about what do I look like.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: She just ran into town.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: What what are they gonna say about me?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was not an issue anymore.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: She was unconscious, she was telling them about a man.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus doesn't care.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes him.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you money anyway.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to give you money if you like me.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to give you money if you if you accept my apology.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, whatever, I'm going to give it to you.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because it wasn't about him anymore.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what shame did.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: That whole issue of Adam and Eve, their eyes being opened, it was self-consciousness, where their eyes were open to themselves.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everything became about them.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So they spent so man has spent all of his days from that time trying to cover and fix and make something better out of him.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to deal with this inherent something that some of them don't can't even put a name on it, but it's called shame.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's what makes people tell lies.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can use my own self for an example.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are lots of times I, if I told you some kind of a story, some situation I was in it, I could I would always put myself in a little bit of a better light than maybe it looked to other people.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was more the hero of the story.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember, you know, when I first, I mentioned when I first started my church back in the back in the late 80s, and I uh, you know, I I came out and I preached to nobody for three services.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, not one person walked through the door and I preached.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't, I mean, I spit and I sweated and I, you know, I preached, preached that word to that back wall.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the fourth service, two elderly ladies came and I felt like I was Billy Graham, you know.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and then then it began to grow.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then after about a month or two, uh, we had about 30 people sitting out there.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just feeling good.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, man, I am succeeding here.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: But after a while, 30 people didn't seem like very much.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm starting to get around some of these other pastors in the area, and they're like, Well, how many people you got there?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, close to 50.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't say we had 50, but stretching it a little, because in my mind, 50 sounded better than 30.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I would just stretch it enough.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just reach out there and try to grab that 50, and even if I didn't have it.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and then the church would grow a little bit, and then, you know, and then pretty soon there's 50 people sitting out there.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't feel, and it feels real good at first, but it never doesn't feel like enough.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still carrying shame.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still carrying shame.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: At first, when we hit that goat, we hit 50 people, I'm feeling pretty proud.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't last so long.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: That same pride also brings that shame.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's two sides of the same coin.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because after a while that wasn't good enough.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so how many, how many of y'all have?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, you know, maybe we had 50 something, 55, 50, or 50, oh, getting close to 70, you know, because 70 sounded better, and I I wasn't ashamed of 70, but I was ashamed of 50.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then 70, when we got 70, 75, you know, well, we're getting we're about 100, getting, I didn't say 100, about 100, you know, give or take, 25 or so, you know.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because 100 sounded better than 75, where 75 once would have made me feel good, 75 now doesn't seem like it's much.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was ashamed.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what one thing shame will do is that too, all the time.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: You you ever notice that no matter what you attain, if you're if you if the shame hasn't been been uh really removed, is that no matter what we do, we'll keep moving the goalposts.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking, and and it's one thing to just want to do better and to do more, and it's one thing for man that wants to achieve and all that, but when you're feeling ashamed all the time, when you're feeling like it's never good enough, and you're never good enough unless you unless you do more, we're talking about something else.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus dealt with all this.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to get into the best part of this here.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 12, we see how he does it in the redemption.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: We saw how he dealt personally with people in these instances that we uh saw in the New Testament.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, the writer says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, the shame, and has sat down the right hand at the right, has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: He endured the cross, despising the shame.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: That word despise means to look down upon, to actually to see it as inferior or small.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he looked at the shame and he didn't see the shame as a good enough reason to not do this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't see the shame as something that was big enough to stop him.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, verse 3 says, For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and faint in your mind.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at this for for just a minute, because we know that his crucifixion was painful.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: We know that it was bloody.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've you know, I've I've been, you know, in places where we're watching movies of Jesus and his crucifixion, and I'll hear people start to cry, you know, because it's it's it's it's horrible to think that your Savior went through this degree of pain and torture and and and bloodletting and all that.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that we we're we're aware of, but we don't highlight it as much, or a lot of people don't, is the is the shame that he that that he experienced because crucifixion was was was special.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's other ways to execute somebody.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: They could hang a man, they could stone a man, they could they could throw him off of the cliff, they could they could thrust him through with a sword or a spear, they could, they could behead a man.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um there were many ways to execute a man, but crucifixion was special.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Crucifixion was safe for the most horrible ones because they didn't want to just execute, just get rid of them and kill them, they wanted to humiliate.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Crucifixion, the main purpose of death by crucifixion was humiliation.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and in crucifixion, it was what and the Romans crucified.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: This was one reason the Jews wanted to take them to the Romans, not just to their own tribunals and and and try to have them stoned or something that the Jews would have done to them.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to take them to the Romans because the Romans crucify.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they wanted Jesus to be an example.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the Romans were going to make an example, and that's what the what crucifixion was all about.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in normally in Roman crucifixion back then, and and actually the the what the what the what they hung them on, it could have been a uh a spike or a stag.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus had a uh the the word cross is used there, and they had a cross beam and all that, and so they would hang them on that, but sometimes these men uh they wouldn't, some of them wouldn't die for days.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they'd leave them hanging there for days.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they and and and then sometimes, even after they died, they would let them, they would leave them hanging there dead for days.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So and people would could walk by and see these men on crosses, and these are these are uh examples, you know, you don't ever want to do anything like this, you know.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they didn't just experience the pain, they're still hanging there in shame.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even after they're dead, their body is still hanging there in shame.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, think of this.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: So here he is, and all he's done is give honor to people that didn't think they deserved honor.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: He went around doing good, healing all that were oppressed to the devil.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: He loved the unlovable, he loved the unlovely, he healed all that came to them, every time people came to him for him, the Bible said, and he healed them all.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: He just gave.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And here's and they have him arrested, and Pilate's talking with them, and he says, Well, what's he looks out at all the sea of the Jewish people there that are there for that festival?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What shall I do with Jesus?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: What'd they say?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Crucify him, hang him on a cross, humiliate him in front of everybody here, crucify him.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't behead him, don't just kill him, crucify him.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they begin the whole process.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And look at every all look at all the mockeries, look at all the shame that they put upon him.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you say you're a king.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: How about a crown?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know that was painful and it was bloody, but it was mockery, it was shame.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then they take him out and they're parading him, you know, and of course they've beaten him to a pulp now, and they take him out, and all these people, many are hating him and mocking and jeering.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are still those who are crying who love him.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: But he's that he's being paraded now down the Via Dolorosa, and he's and he's and and and and everybody sees this man in shame.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the guy that many thought he's the king, he's the Messiah, he's the one sent from God, he's the son of God, some of them say.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And here he is wearing this stupid crown of thorns that's inflicting pain on his head and blood running down his face.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but they've plucked out his beard.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: So here he is, and his face is all mangled.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And now they're punching him in the face.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Punching your Savior in the face.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's not humiliating enough that a man punches you in the face, but they're and they've got him blindfolded, and they're saying, Prophesy, Jesus, tell us who's hitting you right now.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mocking him.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you say you're a prophet?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Prophesy.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who's punching him right now?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: They they hoist him up to the cross, and all the pictures show a man with a loincloth on, but the Romans weren't that dignified with their these men that they crucified for the sole purpose of humiliation and torture.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: But he, your savior, hung there totally naked.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was how they crucified men.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't leave any clothes on them at all.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, in some cases, they would they would pierce the private parts of the men with a stave or a spear.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I mean it was just absolute as humiliating, anything they could think of, totally humiliating.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um they didn't do that to Jesus.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't see that he do that.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: They actually they they pierced his side.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't hang there for days.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't hang there for a long time.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: He died in the afternoon.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: We know that in the Sabbath.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't even have to break his bones, he gave up the ghost and they took him down before the Sabbath started.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he hung there in shame and he endured the cross.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they they mocked him on the cross and they said, You say you're saying say you're the son of God.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: If God wants anything, if he's got anything to do with you, why don't you just come down off the cross now, right now?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just use your power and just come down off the cross if God will have you.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he could have.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Angels were ready, watching him, watching their creator being mocked mocked, and shamed in front of the ones that he loved.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he could have, but why didn't he come down?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because it says right here, he did it for the joy.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: The joy that was set before him.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: He endured that cross.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: He resisted and did not come down.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, This shame is smaller than the joy that's set before me.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to wrap this up with the best part of this whole thing.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is powerful.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: We look at all this that Jesus did for us.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: We look at the price he paid in all of this.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that the Bible says he did it because he so loved the world.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I think in the minds of most people, they still think of it as more of a mercy mission, more of a work of pity, to where it's like, well, you see, he's this, he was, he's this awesome, perfect God, and and he had he had mercy upon us, pitiful little flesh creatures here.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and while that's true, absolutely true, it was so much bigger than just that.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was a romance.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was in love.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: We see the picture all the way, all the way through this.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: We see we see that God, uh He's He's our relationship with Him is spoken of in different ways because there's many facets of this relationship, different ways of relating to God that are all wonderful and powerful.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's our Father, you know.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: In one place he says, I no longer call you uh servants, but sons.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Another place he says, I call you my friends.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um but in many places he's referred to in the revelation of the New Testament that Paul gives us and John saw on the on the Isle of Patmos is that he's the husband and we're the bride.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in, you know, Paul was speaking in Ephesians about a man and a woman, a normal man and a woman, when they get married, he said the two become one flesh.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, this is a great mystery, but I'm speaking about Christ and his church.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said in 2 Corinthians, he said, if he that is joined to the Lord becomes one, is one spirit, not two.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul told the Galatians, I have espoused you, married you to Christ.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: I brought you to your bridegroom.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist called Jesus the bridegroom.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: John on the book of uh John uh in the uh on the Isle of Patmos wrote in the Revelation what he saw.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the angel said, Come, I'll show you the bride, the lamb's wife.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: So what we see is a marriage.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: We see a, we see, we read the Song of Solomon.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: What are you seeing?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're seeing, you're seeing the Lord and and and this one that he loves, that he came to save and become one with.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: In John 14, he says, he says, so that where I am you may be also.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be with us.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of that in our in our place.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you get a picture of that in the book of Hosea.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: You see a prophetic picture there where Hosea marries a sinful, prost uh loose prostituting woman, and and and and and he's committed himself to her, and she won't even receive it at first.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: She's carrying shame.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he's loving her with a committed love, and and as God is revealing this whole plan through this story, uh, in the middle of that story, he says, He says, Just like you, my people, you have gone after so many other lovers.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I will allure you, and you shall be mine, and you shall return to me.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you will no longer call me Baali, which or which means Lord or Master, but you will call me Ishi, which means my husband.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're seeing a romance here.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're talking about God so loving the world, when we're looking at Jesus says, so where I am, you can be with me.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to want to be with some because to someone because that's what I told Judy, you know, after a while, you know, I said, I know, I know one thing.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what to do about it right now, but I know one thing.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't want to be apart from you.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Look at that romance with Jesus and us, his bride, and look at, you know, even in Ephesians, we would see where the Bible says that he would present to himself a glorious church without spot or blemish, as a as a as a as a man nurtures his bride and nurtures and waters her and so forth.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we would read that and a bride without spot or blemish or any such thing, and we would, and we used to think that what that was was we would we would tell the church that what's happening is we're in the time of cleansing and preparation and we're getting ready for Jesus.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: So come on, church, get it together.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to get all these spots off our clothes, get the sins out of our life, get get ready for Jesus.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because, and and and I would start throwing in all this other stuff, like, and because Jesus is not gonna be unequally yoked.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: He tells us not to be unequally yoked, so he's not going to.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, so so if we're gonna if we're gonna ever be really one with him and married with him, we're gonna we're gonna have to be as he is.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: So come on, church, start acting like Jesus, you know.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, we're trying, Pastor, we're trying.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the way that it ever worked.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was never ever gonna work.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: He never was waiting for us to become like him.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the whole issue, the whole plan was he was gonna become like us, right?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was gonna come and live in our little ghetto.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was gonna come and roll in the same mud that we had on our clothes.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted to be with us.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why did he do this?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the joy set before him.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: What was the joy set before him?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: A bride?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was in love.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: He was in love, I'm telling you, when I'm talking this, this is not a God void without void of love.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is a God who is love.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And any romantic feelings we've ever felt for anyone is just a drink of water from the ocean of love that God had for mankind.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why He did what he did.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And look at this, and if you want to know when and where the marriage really, really, really, really is, we see it right here in this revelation, because we were joined to the Lord.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: We became one.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: That whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think Romans 8 says, nothing can separate us from that love of God?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Said, not not famine, not principality, power, not nakedness, peril, or sword, not even nakedness, our own weakness, vulnerability.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: So here we were, here he is.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, perfect, ugly, and filthy.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: What did he say he's gonna do?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give us double honor.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: So what's he do?
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: He comes down and he joins with us.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be with us enough.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: The only way I'm gonna be able to be with her, the only way I can be with her is to join her in her sin.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: He that was made, he, he who knew no sin was made to be sin.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: The only way I can be with her is to join her in her death.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: The only way I'm gonna be with this bride that I want is I've got to join her in that shame.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to come to her world.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to experience her life.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna become one.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't become one by us coming up and being like him.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: We became one by him coming and uniting with us in sin, in death, in shame.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the Bible says that we were crucified with him.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: That word with, together with is union, not alongside.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's union, oneness.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: We were crucified with him, we were we died with him, we were buried with him.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing about our bridegroom is that the grave couldn't hold him, right?
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he came out of the grave.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was resurrected.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's the Bible say?
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: We were resurrected with him.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because he didn't divorce us in that grave.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now that he came out, he's got a bride.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's got somebody with him now.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but he but he but he ascended on high.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he ascended on high.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Make room, heaven.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a wife.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: I brought a wife home.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Look, Father, I brought a wife home.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: This was the joy set before him.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: You don't think he brought us home?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think the Bible is very clear that says he made us to sit together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, buried with him, crucified with him, buried with him, risen with him, and made to sit together with him in heavenly places.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a bride.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing could put this asunder.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Once he joined us, this was the cool thing about it, once he joined us in our sin, our death, our shame, our grave, we also have been joined together with him in newness of life.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this thing will never be split.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have become one with him.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at this, at what he did for this salvation, and when you when you look at it this way, it becomes easy to realize and recognize, at least more fully, the depth that he could possibly have for us.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: He had, would you go get the communion stuff ready?
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever uh read or seen seen the play or the movie, um Man of La Mancha.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story about Don Quixote.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially the story is that there's this woman who who she's she's just treated like trash by men, and they just have their way with her, and she's just used to that, and she's just rough, and she's just she's foul and and she just lives that life.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this knight comes along and looks at her and he's smitten and he calls her Dulcinea, which basically means my sweet.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, What are you calling me that?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, what other name could you have?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Look at you, you know.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, you know, and she she's she's she's never been treated like she was pretty, or doesn't, you know, doesn't think she looks looks pretty or anything, and he's just like, You're the most beautiful thing.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, what do you want from me?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, only to serve you, you know, and he's totally in love, and she's like, get away, you're weird, you know.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: But he just keeps treating her that way.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the whole thing, people are trying to talk to her like they're normally used to talking to her.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: She says, she says, That's not my name.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Dulcinea.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: But she was given honor, and her shame left her.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a good allegory, a good picture of what Jesus did with us.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: My shame is gone because I'm loved with that kind of love.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is an everlasting love.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the love that Paul said in Ephesians 3 is the love that's that passes knowledge.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: When people say, Yeah, God loves us, but they're not, they're not looking into this.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I look at this, at this, what he did, what he went through, and how much he loved us to unite with us in that way.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm diving into a deeper depth of an ocean than I've ever been.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm at a level I've never been, but I still can't see the bottom of it.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a mercy mission, it was a romance.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when you see that, you have very little problem believing that God could love you right here and now.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that He has the best for you, wants the best for you, and actually has done the best for you.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but you can plainly see identity here.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can plainly see where we're at now and why we're really in the kingdom of heaven and where we sit there.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a very, very good position in the kingdom of heaven, and that is what sets us above the angels of self, because we're the bride of Christ Himself.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the angels are not over us, they are ministering spirits for us who are heirs of salvation.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gave us a covenant meal.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Look at it tonight as a marriage covenant, because what covenant really is, is two lives joining together.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: It can be two friends that want to cut a covenant together and say, my life is your life, and you know, my life is for you, and yours is mine, and what's mine is yours, and yours is mine.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: But but we see that same thing.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a covenant when man and woman come together, two are becoming one, Paul said.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's some great mystery, but I'm really talking about Christ and his church.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: We became one with him.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's not just over there, he's not just just at our assistance or at our aid.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have become one with this one who loved us enough to want to honor us with his name, right?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: The bride takes the name, and he gave us his name.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: He honored us with that.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: And people have called me all kinds of things, people have thought all kinds of different things about me.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: People have seen me do things that are shameful things.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't lie because I've done them.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been given honor.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I can live like I've got honor.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I can live with my head held high because God honored me.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, they did this with what they thought his family thought he was crazy at one time.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: They were calling him the religious people.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: They said he's a sinner.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they said he's possessed with a devil.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they said, Well, you're a Samaritan, you know, like that was some bad man.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: And really, just because he had been hanging out with Samaritans.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're just one of them, you know.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, There is one that bears witness of me.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's who I'll listen to.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: The father gave him honor when he came out of the river Jordan.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is my son.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: In him I'm well pleased.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was a once and for all deal.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: He goes and gets tested after that.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's tempted, and the temptation is, if you're the son of God, you would do this.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the son of God, do that.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the son of God, do something else.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he had no shame.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: He had honor from the Father.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so he didn't feel any compulsion to prove himself, to try to make himself look like anything.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to do a performance and show everybody that the angels would catch him if he did a swan dive off the church.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't have to turn rocks into bread right then.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to be forced into worship.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was who he was.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he told the Pharisees, how can you believe when you seek the glory, the honor that comes from men, but not the honor that comes from God?
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight we got it, and it was freely given.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to say one more thing before we partake of this.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is that in Revelation 17, the angel told John, he said, Come, let me show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: It says, For the bride has made herself ready.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: Come, for the bride has made herself ready.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you read that and you think, oh, so are we supposed to make ourselves ready?
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, because the next part says, and it was given to her to wear fine white linen, clean and bright, for her fine white linen is the righteousness of the saints.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was that covering.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: He was our righteousness.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's our everything.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when we look at this, what did he say?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Remember me.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: What are we remembering?
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're not remembering how many, how many marriages we've had.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're not remembering how much money we've stolen.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're not remembering, we're remembering him.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we remember him, we're looking at our own honor here that came from him.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking at our union, our oneness with him.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he said in John 6, unless you eat my flesh and drink my body, the true bread that came from heaven, you don't have me.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: What he was talking about says, you've got to have me one with you.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have me in you.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right now we have we we have the cracker in the hand.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's with us.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: In just a moment, it's going to be a part of us because we're taking it in.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and do that.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: As you took that in, it's like believing in Jesus.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: It now has become a part of your body.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is in there.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, drink this cup.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is the blood of my of the New Testament, the new covenant.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: The new covenant would be God with man together.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: He would be our glory and the lifter of our head.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the life of the flesh is in the blood.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's his life that we have.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Take it.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as you do so, we remember him tonight.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, many people, we were discussing the other day about, let's say you're in a small group and maybe there uh maybe there's people that you would not call believers in Jesus.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you single them out and say not to do?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's open to everyone, because what we're doing is remembering him.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: All what we're doing is saying, here's the one that you rely on.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to partake of this, what you're saying is, I'm remembering what Jesus did for me.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we when we when we do that, it's just like the woman at the well.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're forgetting, taking our eyes off of everything about us, and we're no in this moment we're not self-conscious.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're Jesus conscious.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: What's your name now?
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my name has changed because I got married to someone.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just like your name changed when you married me.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he honored us with that.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, Father, right now, I thank you for the reality of so great a salvation.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um my words are a feeble attempt to express your love.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: But your spirit can communicate to us, and I thank you for that tonight, for what you show us.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, that everyone here can go out of here tonight.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: With a song of joy in their heart, a spring in our step, your glory upon our head, and a smile upon our face.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's all about you.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for that we celebrate, for that we give thanks, and for that we always give you honor, for you've honored us.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you in your mighty name.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.