Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Growing Gracefully

Transcript

Growing Gracefully · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I am excited about the the whole series of grace fully, full of grace.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um does anybody know what today is?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said October October, somebody said.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it marks the to me, it beg marks the beginning of the holidays because October, November, December, um, October, I happen to have a my birthday happens to be in that month, our anniversary's in that month, we got family members, we got friends here who's who who who were born in October, so there's a lot of celebrating there.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, then we have Thanksgiving, and we have Christmas, the New Year's comes, but wait, there's more.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just so you know, October, whatever you want to call it, Recttober, October, it um it has a whole lot of holidays.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are reasons to celebrate every single day, and I want to give you some of them.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: October today.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did anybody know that?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the International Day of Older Persons.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, somebody shout.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if we had any old people here, but but some people are celebrating that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's International Music Day for music lovers and musicians and appreciators.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's all kind it's it's uh World Vegetarian Day, National Homemade Cookies Day, National Hair Day, and it's International Coffee Day for anybody that likes coffee, Joey.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's one that's the first day of October.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Look at all the celebration.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: October um 2nd, National Custodian Day.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: World Farm Animals Day, World No Alcohol Day.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I heard some groans, I heard some cheers, I don't know.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: National Name Your Car Day.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is tomorrow.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: These are things to celebrate and do tomorrow.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: National if you haven't named your car yet, tomorrow.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Be thinking about it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow's a day and have a big celebration.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's Ricktober is a day to celebrate every day.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: October 3rd, National Mean Girls Day, Techie's Day, Boyfriend Day, October 4th, Taco Day, National Taco Day, National Cinnamon Roll Day.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it goes on.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, okay, it gets better.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Look it up and and and plan your celebrations, and uh the holidays have begun.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Happy rick happy October, guys.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm excited about this.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Growing gracefully.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, um, it's something that um we did not come up with this title um for the series, uh Judy and I didn't, but it's something that we've talked about a lot um in recent years.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um about uh growing gracefully and living gracefully.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um we talk about living graciously.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um that goes together.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think of growing gracefully, that doesn't that doesn't that sound like it's a it's growing in the Lord, growing in maturity in the Lord without hardship?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's graceful, without clumsiness, without stumbling along, without groping to try to find your way.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a growth that's more graceful.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think of it like this, you know, uh I like to say, you know, God's not trying to make grass grow by pulling up on it, right?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that pulling up, that's like by making demands upon it.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, grow.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with you?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: You've been a Christian all this time.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: How come you're still like that?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, grow.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I used to kind of think like that.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like he was put, you know, like the way that we that we grow is that we put demands on people and make them feel bad for how they are right now, so they'll want to grow.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't make things grow by pulling on them.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: He makes things grow by giving to them, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: He'll give them water and sunshine and nutrients, and and he does that by giving.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Bible talks about everything that God supplies to us.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So really the focus is upon that.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can if we can be um aware of that, and I'm gonna talk about that, our our growth uh today, and hopefully I give I can give you something that, or present something that really makes you feel good about being right where you're at and excited that with an expectancy of growth.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're God's garden.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what God's doing is He's really revealing to us what He has given to us, and we can enjoy the nutrients or the supply that God has given us.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna start in John chapter 14.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit is gonna come.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna leave you, but the Holy Spirit will come.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 14, verse 18.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, and and and I love this particular translation of it, he says, I promise that I will never leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I will come back to you.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about coming back in the form of the Spirit.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Soon I will leave this world and they will see me no longer, but you'll see me because I will live again.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll come alive too.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when that day comes, you'll know that I'm living in the Father.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: You will know, you will know.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: You will know that I'm living in the Father, and that you are one with me, because I'll be living in you.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You like that?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: It says, You'll know.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You will know.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Growing gracefully is us coming to know, not try just trying to know.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: See, I love, I love the the truth of the gospel because the more I grow in it, the more I become accustomed to it, and the more I'm aware of it, and I'm uh and and and I'm seeing it, it it really makes the growth much more graceful.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's much, it's it's real organic.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, it's really relational.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we talk a lot about feeling one with God or close to God, and God is near, and you feel like you really believe it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You feel it in your heart, you really, you really begin to believe more and more and are aware that God is with you, he's for you, he loves you, and it's not just something you're trying to do or trying to believe, but it becomes a reality to you.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, when that day comes, when that I'm giving you the superior, so there's a supply right there.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's a supply he's given us.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I won't leave you orphans.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna have to figure this out on your own.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have to try to become something that you're not, or aspire to something.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you something, and you guys are gonna know.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna make demands of you.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna demand that you know, I'm gonna give you something, and you will.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you myself, I'm gonna give you the Spirit.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like that he says, I won't leave you helpless, or I won't leave you orphans.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you by yourself.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You won't have, you won't be alone, you won't have, you won't be fatherless.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um we were talking with people last night and we were talking about our evangelism.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about graceful, and I oh, I don't know if you did you guys, I loved, loved your message on evangelism, Matt.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Loved it.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's graceful evangelism.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and I notice my evangelism becomes more graceful because I can talk to people in the world, and you know what?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: People in the world, um, they need to know the same thing people in the church are are needing to know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: They they need to know God's God's with them, that they're not alone.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: They need to know that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I like my evangelism is more that way.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be they'll be in their situations, and I'm like, well, do you know that you're not all by yourself?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that God really does care about you?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that God's your father and God loves you?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know God's, you know, God's God's the answer for all this, and and and and and can you put your trust in him, your faith in him?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it's about, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And see, that's natural, that's organic, that's graceful, and it should be.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because every human, not just, not just whatever religion you are, every human was made to be loved by their father.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, see, that's that's that's that's more much more graceful.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I won't leave you orphans, you have a father.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: You won't be alone.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So many times that he would talk about the spirit, he'd say, uh, you won't even have to worry about what you're saying, what you're gonna say.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody will be with you.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, everything about growing gracefully is all according to his supply, not ours.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's part of the thing that's kind of scary to a whole lot of us when we first start to look at how gracious God is, is we become so accustomed to thinking that it's about us.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking that we're the ones that are trying to rise up to the uh to a position or rise up to an occasion.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're the ones trying to climb this holy hill and trying to get to the top.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're the ones trying to break through the veil so we can get to that place where the called the holy of holies.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's always us.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's always us.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be that prodigal son that finally wises up and gets smart enough to make the right choices and and and will ourselves to get back to the Father's house.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we think it's all about us, but when you listen to what Jesus says here, he says it's all about the supply.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: The grass only grows because of what is supplied to it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you don't know this, when you don't know the goodness of God, when you don't know the grace of God, the love of your father, um, it's not graceful.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, it's very tough.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can anybody relate to that?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we you know, what it seems like whenever I talk with people, you know, around here, we're telling our stories of how we came to grace.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: The story before grace was not really as pretty as a story after grace.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because the story before grace was full of our efforts, was full of our trying, was full of struggles, wasn't it?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not that God didn't bless, not that God may not have been good in certain things, but but compared to the gracious living or the graceful living that you're experiencing now, it was it was much, much harder.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And many of us got worn out.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And all we wanted to do was be Christ-like.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: All we wanted to do was please God.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Our hearts, our motives were good.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with our motives, I don't think, but we just just didn't know the the goodness of God, and we you know didn't realize when Jesus said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light, we didn't realize how easy that he really meant it was.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying life is always easy, because sometimes life can hit you hard.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But thank God for grace, especially in those hard times, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: When you're dealing with something.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you can you can live and go through hard times much more gracefully when you know God is good and he's with you and you're not all by yourself in this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can go through that so gracefully, much more gracefully than you can if you feel like he's a God that's far off and he's demanding.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because in those times you feel like you're alone.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I promise you won't be alone.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you can feel alone if you don't know the truth.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what you know a lot of people would call an orphan identity.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's an identity thing where you feel like you're by yourself.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're trying to get to God, you're trying to connect with God, you're trying to please and appease a God, and it's kind of this orphan mentality to where it's like you when you really need God many times, you'll feel like you're by yourself.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you start hoping God will answer a prayer, or you hope God cares, or you wonder, Master, don't you care that we're perishing here?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's a feeling of being separated and and and alone.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And an orphan identity does uh uh does different things, it has a sense of never quite being good enough and has a sense of never being fulfilled.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I've talked about my story and mentioned that many times of how I felt that no matter how much I did, even as a believer, uh I never felt like I was quite good enough, never could get quite there, never could get to the top of the mountain, and I would try and I would climb and I would do all of these things.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And people in the world, we we we do these things where we we're trying to fulfill this something, we have a sense of need because we're not we're not full, we're not satisfied, and we're still groping for things and looking for things and trying to trying to trying to find validation of ourself and trying to create an identity for ourselves many times.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we we we we do all these things and it's just and we we may overindulge in things, we may uh we there's all kinds of of things that that that we can that that happen in our lives and manifest in our lives simply because we're precious people that God loves and we feel like he doesn't completely.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we're trying to fulfill that proverbial God-shaped whole.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's real.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um really all people need is the knowledge of that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus came revealing, declaring a father, a father, which nobody called him father before that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: He came declaring a father.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you orphaned, you're not orphaned, you've got a daddy, you've got a father, you belong in the father's house.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I always think of that prodigal son when he comes home and how the daddy treated him and put this as you know, put the ring on your hand.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: You belong here.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Put the robe on your back.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Judy said the other day, she said she called it a robe of righteousness.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, I'm thinking, well, the Bible speaks of a robe of righteousness somewhere else, but this is another story.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I thought, no, it was the robe of righteousness or right standing, where like the father saying, You belong here.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you did all those things, you spent all the money, you did all, you know, chased all those things.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, But you're my son and you belong here.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that revelation, then what happens?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then the son, what does he do?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: He starts to enjoy the party.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now he can be at daddy's house, not afraid.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: He can be at daddy's house, not inferior, not unworthy, because he's done all of these things and he hasn't measured up.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's that's that's trying to be a Christian very ungracefully.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Always feeling like you don't quite please, you you can't quite appease, you don't quite measure up.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know that you just you've you've you've done bad, but maybe you'll vow to do better.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: He could have been in daddy's house with that attitude, but when daddy overwhelmed him with the truth about who he really is, who who the daddy is, first of all, and how the daddy feels about him, and how much the daddy loves him, and and what that means for him as a son.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: If I if I say this about you, then you're welcome here and you belong here, and yes, you deserve the party simply because you're my son, and I'm so happy that you're here.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then somewhere in that interaction, the son gets convinced that you that that the daddy's right, and he can start enjoying the party and eating the cake and and blowing the streamers or whatever they do, you know.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, verse 14.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some supply.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: The mature children of God, watch this, are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh the standard translations say something like As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they they are the sons of God.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for many years I took that, you know, you know, what is led by the Spirit of God?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lead me.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Lead me.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wake up in the morning, Lord, shall I get out of bed today?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lead me.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when I do, which way do I turn?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Lead me.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, want to be led by the spirit.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it becomes some mystical, almost spooky kind of thing sometimes with some people, because you want to be led by the spirit, because that's how that's how you become a mature, or it means that you're a mature uh child of God.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I like what it says here.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: It says you're moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the Spirit that Jesus said would be in you, and he said he would cause you to know.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: He would supply, he would feed you that, feed that to you.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so here he says, you're led by these impulses.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now watch.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: He describes what the impulses are.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about, get out of bed now, now turn left.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God can give kind of directions sometimes.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you hear here at times that God does that, but but that's not what he's talking about here.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and you did not receive the spirit of religious duty, leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's what ungraceful, growing growing ungracefully feels like, doesn't it?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: You just, how many have ever experienced that?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: That you did a lot of good as a Christian.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: You you you tried, you you prayed, you read, you gave, you did all kinds of things, but still didn't feel good enough.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone feel like that?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: All three of us.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, but we didn't receive that spirit.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it was something else doing that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't what God was doing, it wasn't what God supplied, it wasn't what God gave us.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Something else was doing that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: A lie was doing that, wasn't it?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Still feeling uncovered, still feeling naked.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: God, I'm trying.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: God, I'm sorry, God, I'm gonna do better.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, you know, I don't, I and God's like, who told you you were naked?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are you still eating of that tree?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the only way you can think like that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't, isn't God good?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this whole Jesus business here, with what he did and gave us, and he says, I'm giving you myself, I'm giving you the Spirit so you'll know.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be just on you.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you something, my precious children, so you'll know.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and you didn't receive the spirit that leads us back into fear of not being good enough.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how many of you have found out that you have tasted so much goodness of God that you can't go back into some of the religious ideas that you were once in, right?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was this, it was described, it was this, wasn't it?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was that fear of never being good enough, and you look back in that and you say, That wasn't it.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was me trying.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And us with our clumsiness, that's we don't grow very gracefully.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of start and stop, isn't it?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Gracefully, growing gracefully.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't receive the spirit of religious duty.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty graceful.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's scary at first to some people because then your hands are empty.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do I do?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: How about just enjoy?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: How about just be fed?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: How about just enjoy being loved and enjoy the voice that's speaking to you?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's gracial, gracious, gracial.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's gracial, gracious and graceful.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we did receive, we have received, the spirit of full acceptance.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Complete, complete acceptance of everything, stink and all.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I like the picture about Jesus talking about that that that treasure in the field.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: He said, it's like this, the kingdom's like this, it finds a treasure in a field, so what does he do?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: He buys all the dirt around it too.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's willing to take all the dirt around it for the preciousness that you are.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you're the special treasure.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it very plainly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are his special treasure.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'll take all of it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take you and your flaws and mistakes and your dirt and your stink and all that, because you're precious.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're worth it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: You you you are worth it.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just like a little baby with stinky diapers.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're still worth it.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll take it, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't receive the spirit of religious duty leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Say bye-bye to that once and for all forever.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God that you've left that left that thing, I hope.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: But you have received the spirit of full acceptance enfolding you into the family of God, and you will never feel orphaned alone by yourself, or that it's all on you.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is graceful.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: For as, watch this, for as he rises up within us, this is what's happening.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: See, we're growing in spite of our weakness.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just seeing the truth, you can't help it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you see grace, if you I don't care what degree it is, if you if you're if you're if you're seeing and say and you're and it's and it's doing some changes, and you're like, oh, maybe God is that good.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even just starting right there, what's going on?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Changes are happening.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Happening, not because you were so smart that you figured this out.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in spite of what you were thinking before, I know that was that's how it was in my case, in spite of what I was thinking before, somebody else was still talking and rising in me.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And my head was so strong sometimes that I would like I bind you, Satan.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he's still there.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit was there.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's like kept talking.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the spirit, I love this.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love this language here?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, for as he rises up within us, that's what's happened to you.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you've seen this, if you've been changed by the love and the grace of God, come into a more graceful walk in a relationship, it's because this has happened and is happening.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: He said, for as the spirit rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying these words of tender affection, beloved Father.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: The same words that Jesus would speak.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: How did that happen?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: How did that happen when we thought all these things?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit makes God's fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, you are God's beloved child.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Unveiling.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here's who you are.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: What does that?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Something that God supplied, not that you came to.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: You realize how blessed you are?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: That the blessing within you, the anointing from the Holy One within you, has done just and is doing just what Jesus said, and growth has happened, and growth is happening.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it gets better.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to I want I want and I want to I want to I wanna I want to finish with this last passage in Ephesians.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read this to you, and I want to, and I and I want it, I want you to see an assurance in this too, because sometimes people are are they looking at this truth of God's grace and his goodness.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they're and they and you can sort of you can kind of get ungraceful with it sometimes by thinking that it's okay, here's this beautiful revelation.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's where it's at, but it's still up to me to try to get that.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what I tell people is just be willing to look at it or consider it because the truth is what'll make you free.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not putting it back on you.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're not putting it back on you.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's this wonderful revelation.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is where it's at.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now go try to figure it out, now go get it, now go try to decipher it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, hopefully, our our message is always pointing you back to the source, which is Him, and takes all of the religious duty off of you, and it causes you to enjoy the nourishment that the grass is getting, the sunshine and the rain, and that which is being supplied to you, that voice that's within you that talks to you.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why a lot of times I tell people when they say, I'm but I'm struggling with this.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I see it theologically, but I'm not feeling it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, and I sometimes all I know, all I can think of is just to go, shh.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let them speak, let them love you.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let it be well.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Peace be still.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to this morning give you an assurance and give you an excitement about what God will continue to do in your life, in spite of your weakness, in spite of your flaws and your mistakes, and in spite of your your density.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some of some of you might feel like it's just I'm just not as quick as some people.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've got these things in my life that keep battling against it, and it's and while I'm trying to trying to deal with this, I'm still trying to see God's love and his grace and all that.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to have assurance that that in the middle of what you're dealing with, God knows where you're at and he's right there with you.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a love that will help you, there's a grace that will help you.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is somebody that cares, I assure you, that will help you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've been in some heartbreaking times in my life.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God I have a daddy.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God I'm not alone.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it were on me, I'd still be trying to figure this out.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows if I'd make it through, I might just get disillusioned.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of feeling like I'm in a heavenly place in the Father's house.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a wonderful thing when you start to feel more and more that way after you have had an orphan idea and feeling like you're trying to get to Daddy's house or trying to climb to the top of the holy hill or trying to break through into the Holy of Holies and growing and living gracefully.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when you start to know, like, I'm in Daddy's house and I belong here, and I am safe.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And storms are raging sometimes and winds are blowing, but I'm not alone.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference between having an identity where it feels where you feel a separation, a God that's not always near to having an assurance.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Isaiah the prophet prophesied about this very thing here.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: He said that the work of righteousness being right, right in Daddy's house, belonging right here.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: The work of righteousness would be peace, and the effect of righteousness would be confidence and assurance forever.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you can walk and grow gracefully.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: It can be so graceful that people will look at you, they think you'll have no problems when the whole time you're dealing with hard things.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you're dealing with it with grace.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because grace has been supplied to you.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Jesus said he would do.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3, verse 17.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ, or trusting, is what we're talking about.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: The life of Christ will be released deep inside you.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Look at you.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, Rick, I struggle.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this, that, that.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: The life of Christ is being and will be released deep inside you.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the rest, if it hasn't happened yet, the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rest.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty graceful.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then you'll be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences, the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all of its dimensions.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: How enduring and inclusive it is.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: This extravagant love pours into you.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: This extravagant, and where's it being poured from?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Up there?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in you.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll supply.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll rise up within you.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: This extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not an orphan, not needy, not empty, not groping for something.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Growing gracefully because you're feeling full.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're satisfied, not because everything's going right necessarily, but you're satisfied because you and Daddy are together and you're home.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know you're safe even in storms.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Filled to overflowing with the fullness of God.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know the heaven on earth experience happens in here, not out there.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is, I don't think we have this up here, but I wanted to put this in.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading it this morning.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: The next verse, verse 20, says, Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, if the whatever doubts you have, there are really doubts about you.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's been my experience.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's times I used to apologize.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say, God, this ain't working.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it's not you because you're perfect, so it's got to be me.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever say that?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's got to be me.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're perfect.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're up there, I'm down here, you're far away, you know, all that.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the doubt, most of it really, was about us.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime we look at us and the frailty of our flesh, we, of course, it's going to bring doubt.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the gospel turns our attention off of us and on to him.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul meant by saying, by saying, he that is spiritual puts his attention on the things of the spirit and not on the things of the flesh.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people, if you ever, if you ever, if the if if you feel like if you if you you can read about God's love, but you still, it's still hard for you to believe that he can love you, it's because you're looking at you and all your weakness.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Could he really love this?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that makes it hard to believe for some people.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if you look at him and look at how beautiful and good and how far-reaching his love is, then you'll look at him and you'll say, Of course he could love someone even like me.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Look at him, he's wonderful.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to declare a wonderful father.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one you can trust.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all of this.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're growing, and you will continue to grow in rest.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you think he's good now?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're just gonna keep getting surprised, aren't you?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: He will outdo them all because his miraculous power constantly energizes you.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is supplying all the growth for you.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about him.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about him who is good.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love him?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I speak peace, be still.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: I speak rest.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: I speak to every child of God, every son and daughter of our wonderful heavenly Father, creator of heaven and earth, to stand strong and graceful in your robe of righteousness.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wear it well, rock it, it's yours.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Looks good on you, fits you well, belongs in you, belongs on you.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because you belong right where you're at.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And in the Father's house is where you grow like a weed.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you know you're there, you just start to grow like a weed because now you can behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire daily in his temple.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, for your goodness.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: You are what we celebrate.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you, Father, for our tomorrows are getting gooder and gooder on the inside because of what you're supplying.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you in Jesus' name.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.