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The Temptation of a Mixed Gospel · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: The letter to Colossians was written because teachers were getting in.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they were, he called them false teachers because they were getting in, bringing in some of this stuff that we're talking about, the keeping of the festivals, the keeping of that, just like we have many people that are very sincere and devoted to Christ, and they, but they they feel like they need to do these things because they don't know how to rightly divide this.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so these teachers were coming in and talking about, okay, it's about belief in Jesus, but since we believe in Jesus, then you need to be circumcised.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: You need to keep the feast, you need to observe the times of the year that God spoke of.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: You need to observe the Sabbath and keep it, for it's holy to the Lord perpetually, forever.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that in itself would not be a bad thing except for what it did.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was taking their focus off of the thing that got them into this, taking their focus off of Jesus.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: So here in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9, is where I want to start here.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, For this reason, since I've heard of your faith in Christ and your love, he says, For this reason, since the day we heard it, we don't cease to pray for you and to ask that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he has heard from Epaphras of their condition.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: He knows that there's been, he's had a Epaphras has had a hard time here because there's been some, even though he came and evangelized this place, Epaphras did, not Paul.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Even though he came and evangelized, started this church, I'll say that, uh he told Paul there's been other teachers coming in and confusing the people, and it's made the work, the work hard.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so Paul's writing, he says, What I'm praying is that you would be filled with the knowledge of God's will, and that you would have all wisdom and understanding, because if you get this, so that you would walk worthy of the Lord or well or fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So here he is telling them, what I'm going to tell you here, what I'm writing for, what I'm praying for, is that you would get the understanding in the will and wisdom of God, because if you do, that's what's going to make you fruitful.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's what you want, Colossians.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you're starting to keep all these other things here.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're wanting to be fruitful, you're wanting to be pleasing to God, and you're wanting to increase in the things of God.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So he says, so I'm praying that you can understand these things.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm praying that you will get wisdom and understanding because I know that's what you want, and I'm going to show you how it's done.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: He says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the life.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, another thing about this book of Colossians, for those of you that like Bible study and like all this stuff, it's a very small book, very small letter.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: There is no other book in the Bible that that mentions Christ more, that talks about being in Christ, that points to Jesus more.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's um when you read it, you can just go through it.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is about in Christ, in Christ, in him, by him, through him.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Huh?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it in this book of Colossians?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because he's dealing with something where they think, yeah, it's it is by him, but also these other things.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, but the Father has already qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to get it by doing these other things.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to do it by your own, by your power.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: He has delivered us from the power of darkness.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: He has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're already there, Colossians.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: In him in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, getting all about Christ, the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, the power that translates us from one kingdom into another.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, He, Jesus, He is the image of the invisible God.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: He is the firstborn over all creation, because by him, Jesus, all things were created that are in heaven and are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, everything was created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him everything consists.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: He is the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything Jesus, Christ, would have the preeminence.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: It would all be about him.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: He's already, what's he doing here?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's directing them to the centrality of Jesus here.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what you want to be as a minister of God.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: You want to always let Jesus be the center of that thing.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Not a big part of it.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I like to hear people that, I like to hear people teach and preach that keep it very, very Christ-centered because that's where the power is.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's where the freedom is.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's Christ-centered.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's very easy doctrinally, and Paul will talk about that, to get over into back to that old flesh knowledge of good and evil, to where it's like, yeah, but I need to work this thing.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: I need to do this.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So easy.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's the fleshly way of thinking.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way of doing it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the gospel here, when the way that Paul writes these letters, oh, I love this.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love this book here, how he just he just zeroes it in.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: He says, it's Christ, it's him, it's by him, it's through him, it's even for him.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 19, because it pleased the Father that in him, Jesus, all the fullness should dwell.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about him, Colossians.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to do something, to present you holy, to present you blameless, and above reproach in his sight.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, so these teachers come in, and they're essentially, whether they're saying it specifically, they're certainly giving that inference that if you really want to be holy, if you really want to be blameless, if you really want to be beyond reproach, then do all these things.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And people, the bad thing about that is people that are sincere, like these Colossians were, they're gonna bite that bait, they're gonna go for it because they want to be holy, they want to be blameless, they want to be beyond reproach in God's sight.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: They want to be obedient.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: That was my problem for so long.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be obedient, and I thought obedience was finding rules in here to keep.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've ever done this, but in my case, it was like I never could find enough.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: No matter how many rules I found and kept or did a pretty decent job of it, I kept looking for more.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I kept finding more.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And if I didn't find them in here, people could tell me more.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, there again, pointing it out at how Jesus Himself did it.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: He says, to present you holy, blameless, above reproach in his sight.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now watch this.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: If indeed you continue in the faith.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I used to read that and I'm like, oh.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, I hope I'm not on shaky ground.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: I want to continue in the faith.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it meant was that if I will keep going and not quit, or got not get lazy, or not get complacent, just keep on this quest.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep on climbing, keep pushing on.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Continue in the faith.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Keep going.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're not there yet, but let's continue.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let's stay on the journey.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Continue in the faith.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: If we continue, now if you continue, made it sound to me like we're not there, but he's telling us we're on a journey, and if we'll continue someday, and some churches would say in the sweet by and by, right?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: If we continue, then we'll get to this place where we're holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh, I want that.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to continue.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not quitting.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to stay on this journey.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to put my shoulder to the plow.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what his context is here at all.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's saying that Jesus came to do what he did.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: He did it all.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: He took it all upon himself because no amount of telling you what to do, pressuring you what to do, guilting you what to do, could ever make you strong enough, give your will enough power to make you holy and blameless.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: There was only one way it could happen.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: He had to take it upon himself.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: He had to just give you that gift.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: He had to fulfill all the law and all the requirement so that now, because it's been fulfilled, you are now holy.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'll start preaching again when all the cheering dies down.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: You are now holy because of what you are now blameless.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Can you get that?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not blameless, you're going to keep looking for ways to fix you.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Holy blameless, and beyond reproach in his sight, if indeed you continue in the faith.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's he telling the Colossians?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Don't go back to that stuff.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in the faith.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Faith in what?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Faith in Jesus.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Faith in what he did.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Faith in who he is.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Faith in his work, his operation, his sacrifice, his blood, his preeminence, his centrality.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all hearing me?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in that faith.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, he says, stay right there, right there where you started, when it was first preached to you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in him.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: He says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and you're not moved away from the hope of the good news that you heard.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that play?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be moved away.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So here he was addressing this thing.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: He says, you guys, you're listening to these other things.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to move you away.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in the hot gospel.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in the good news.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Stay in the faith.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let it be about Jesus.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a minister.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I hate to skip any of this because it's so rich.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so rich with every word in here.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: But go down to verse 28.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Him we preach, Jesus.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's him we preach, not the feasts, not the Sabbaths, not the what you need to do, not what you ought to be doing, not any of those other things.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Him is who we preach.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we so that we can present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: In him.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: What's the warning?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: You say, well, the warning, warning and teaching.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's warning.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: The warning is he's the only way.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to do it yourself.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: You guys who are trying to, you know, the Pharisees and the Jews, and he's calling, he says, he says, you guys are not, you can't make it that way.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's not going to work.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the common knowledge was that destruction was about to come to Jerusalem.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're not going to make it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: But he warns and teaches so that we can present everybody perfect in Jesus Christ.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Present every man perfect.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Are you seeing this?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Man, you get this.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: See, I've been teaching on righteousness lately, and sin consciousness is what gives you your trouble.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Sin consciousness will make cause you to doubt.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: It'll make faith seem like a hard thing.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: You'll always be playing it in your mind, trying to have faith, trying to have peace, trying to have joy.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because of sin consciousness.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: That sin consciousness that man had ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: All man has had it, religious, non-religious, indulging perverse people and very religious and the very intelligent, philosophical, trying to deal with this sin consciousness some way, somehow, and the only way to be presented perfect is in Jesus Christ.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because nobody else fulfilled.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Other people had wonderful ideas, but they were ideas that would be great if they were true.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Buddha and all that Buddha had a good end game of what he thought it should be, but nobody fulfilled the law for us in his philosophy.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was still us.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: So in his philosophy to get to this, excuse me, this nirvana, nirvana, this place of blamelessness, this place of holiness, this place of bliss.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Since nobody fulfilled it, it's on you.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: And his big deal was suffering.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: You get there by suffering.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Suffering, suffering, suffering.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there was a lot of that we see in the Old Testament talked about.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Mankind has done that.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: If suffering is what gets you there, all of us would be there.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, not that you can't learn things in suffering, you do.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you can anyway, you don't always, but you can.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you'll take it right, deal with it right, walk through it right.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can learn, you can learn in all of that, but but but suffering a whole lot is not your savior.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Suffering a whole lot did not meet the requirement of that righteousness of the law.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Only Jesus did that.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: See, that's why we I talk about so much grace and the love of God is displayed through Jesus because what a free gift.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: This righteousness, well, we had sin consciousness.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: He had to change that.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: He had to give us something in exchange for that, and he gave us the gift of righteousness, the ability to stand with God without guilt or inferiority.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way you can do that unless one of two things.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Unless your willpower and your strength is so strong that you can will yourself to perfection.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: That you can will yourself to be blameless, that you can will yourself to become holy, and that means having activity where everything is perfect.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can't do that, there's only one other way to do it, and that's to trust in the one who did it all for you.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Huh.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: We go to chapter two.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: In verse 4, he says, Now this I say, lest anybody should deceive you with persuasive words.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: He says, And as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith of you has been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the traditions of men and according to the basic principles of this world, and not according to Christ.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: For in him, say in him.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's him.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Say in him.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: So he's telling these Colossians, he says, You're already there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're complete in him.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Adding these things does nothing for you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it distracts you and pulls you away to where you think it's about you now doing these things.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: He says, You're not complete in you.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're not complete by doing these things.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: You do not complete your salvation now that you've received Christ, you are not completing it because you're also keeping the feasts and the Sabbaths and all these other things and the sacrifices.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, now, we're talking Old Testament talk here.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's not our problem.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's not those actual things are not our problem here, the sacrifices, the Sabbaths, and the feasts of the Old Testament.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Our problem is other things that we think is about us, that we that we think it's on us to make this happen.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's on us to perfect ourselves, it's on us to get there.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: What Paul was saying is Jesus brought you there.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can understand, Church of Colossians, that it's a finished work.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he has already brought you there.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: He has translated you into the kingdom of God.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Huh?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll know the truth and you see this and you have this mindset.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you what, church, it changes everything when you wake up and know that you're there.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's got absolutely nothing to do with strength.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: When I thought it was about strength, I couldn't see it.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: When I had to be strong to get there, when I had to be strong to even see it, I couldn't see it.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was when I got weak.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Let myself be weak.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let myself be humble and say, if it's about me, I got no chance.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank God it's about Christ.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank God it's about him.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: I love Romans 8.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: What the law could not do because we were too weak.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: God did.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: God did.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And by fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law for us.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Beware lest anybody cheat you through philosophy or empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ, because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him who is the head of all principalities and powers.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta hurry.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Jump on down there, verse this.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Having forgiven you all trespasses, watch this, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, it was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Go on down there, skip a verse.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: So let nobody judge you.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Let nobody judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, because these are shadows of the things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: All that stuff all through the Old Testament, types and shadows of that which is to come, the real thing was Christ.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: See, and and and and and just so this isn't just some teaching that we all agree with and say, yep, it's all about Jesus, not about us.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Look at what this does.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the mindset.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, he was saying, if you get this, if you get established in this, you'll be fruitful.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: You'll walk in a way that's worthy.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You'll walk well-pleasing.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: See, I know, I know you guys, Colossians.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: He says, he says, I know your faith and your love.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: But because you haven't had wisdom and understanding, because you don't know the truth, you're trying.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: By you doing these things, you're trying to be well-pleasing to God.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're trying to find out what God wants me to do.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so when people come bringing you things to do, you'll do it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was that way.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: I did everything somebody said.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because I wanted to be well-pleasing.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't have wisdom and understanding in God.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize how all about Jesus it was.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all hearing me?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: He says.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: See, I know people get scared of making it all about Jesus and not putting any responsibility or pressure on the people.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what I found.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's two ways of doing this.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: And one is the pressure on the people.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: I have very good friends, and we both want the same thing.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: We want the church to be a shining light.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: We want Christians to be the example of godly living and all the fruit of the Spirit.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: We want the church to be the banner that's raised that people can look at and say, now that is the way of God.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's glorious living.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean, and Paul even talks about here in Colossians, what I mean.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about people he says, Don't lie, no filthy communication, you know.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Be not angry.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Above all things, put on love, all these things.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And these are all about how we.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Are with each other.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And he's telling that because he says, if you want to do this, here's what it looks like.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't look like making sacrifices, it doesn't look like keeping Sabbaths and those other things.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: What it looks like is the heart change.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, so you put on this new man.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: The word means sink into it.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Just sink into this new man.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And all these things.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so and so we want to be the shining light, but they think the difference is we have two different ideas.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: One, they think that they can make the church that way if they keep the pressure on.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: If they feel the reins getting a little loose, they'll just tighten them and they'll just feel like that, and we'll just we'll just, you know, crack the whip a little bit more and stir them up and remember, come on, get in step.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then they'll do it, and everything will be alright for a little while.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: They believe that what the answer is, if we can get them, get their will to line up and by their willingness, by their will, make it make themselves more godlike, more godly.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they keep the pressure on, and what they're doing, and I think they don't realize it, is that they're they're raising up sin consciousness and it makes them struggle.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it gives them inferiority because they find themselves not having that will.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: They think the pastor's doing it, and he's not.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: But they think if I were as strong as as that man or that woman of God, if I had faith like theirs, it'd be so much easier for me.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: If I could hear God like they do, if I knew with, you know, God like they know, and so there again, what are you saying?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm inferior.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because of a sin consciousness, lack consciousness.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's got nothing to do with it.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Ain't nobody got no Jesus that you ain't got.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ain't nobody loved more by God than you are.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody is loved by God than you.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody is favored more, nobody is blessed more than you.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some people just know they're blessed, so they walk in it, they receive it because they believe it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because it is all about belief and faith in him, in him, in him, in him.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: If it's about faith in me, I can't be blessed.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm too imperfect.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't give, I don't measure up.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've tried it for years.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't in myself.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I need Jesus.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: I needed that blood.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I needed somebody else to fulfill it for me.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I said, now, as since you received him that way, keep walking in that.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep trusting in him, in his fulfillment of these things.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what he says is, is it Paul's way, he says, is the way that I'm going with, and he says, and if you'll do it this way, if you make Christ a preeminence, and let it be by his blood, by his work, his power, his death, burial, and resurrection, by faith in him, not in faith in your ability to make it make yourself be that way, but by faith in him, you'll find yourself walking worthy.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find yourself bearing fruit.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Huh?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's the only way, because its fruit is the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of our willpower.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Am I making any sense to you?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore, down there at the bottom, going down at the bottom, last three verses.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world would you subject yourself to regulations?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Don't touch this, don't taste that, don't handle that.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Man, we used to have them all in church.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, stuff, the Bible would, I mean, you have have you ever looked at go to the Old Testament.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can even try to go to the new, and people will make up some laws from there.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a lot of law.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can't count how many rules and regulations there are in this Bible.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what the funny thing is, for a lot of the churches that I used to go to when I was a younger Christian, those weren't even enough.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't enough to keep all those rules and regulations.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: We had to make up some more.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Don't play with a deck of cards.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Don't go to the movies.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Women don't wear pants.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't drink beer, and if you drink soda out of a bottle, you're getting a little close.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, women, no jewelry except a simple wedding band.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where do we get?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: It just wasn't enough, so we keep making up more, trying to make people appear more holy and more blameless.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And seeing if and if we felt if they were willing to not play cards and wear no jewelry except a simple wedding band and do all these things and not wear pants and all that, we could take one look at them and we know that they are serious about God.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we would say they're holy.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I said to you, I want you to imagine somebody named Sister Holiness, what would you think?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can already see how they dress, you can already see what how they carry themselves.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's what we thought.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: We'd make up all these rules, and he says, Why do you want to subject yourself to traditions and commandments of men?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: They're made up.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't touch this, don't taste that, don't handle that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: And somebody says, Well, we need those.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: See, I got pastor friends.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: They say, This is the very thing they're preaching.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're preaching to their people.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Don't touch this, don't taste that, don't handle that, don't get close to that.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody says to me, But Rick, I understand.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Grace, grace, grace.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're saved by grace, but what do we do about sin?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: What about those who want to use grace as a license for sin?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do about sin that's going on in the church?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: See, they're very sincere.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: My answer?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're being sin conscious, which is the death of us all.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: It looks like it's going to produce, but it kills.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it worse.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's why Christians die out.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: They get frustrated, they backslide, they level off.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And all they want to do is just die or fly and go to heaven.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's too hard here.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: My answer to those questions, what about sin?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: What about those who use it for sin?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: My answer is turn from sin consciousness and turn to Jesus and say, but what about righteousness?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: What about the new creation?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: What about we are complete in Him?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: What about we are holy?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: What about we are blameless?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we why if you want if you don't want people to be sinful and be getting in trouble in the church like that, preach righteousness, preach a new creation, preach blamelessness, preach holiness, not sin.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: You preach sin, you'll get sin.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Preach righteousness, you'll see righteousness.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Preach sons of God, you'll see sons of God.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Preach holy and blameless.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: People will start start living, he'll bear that fruit because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if you think that you're a filthy dog that's trying to get clean, you'll act like a filthy dog that's trying to get clean.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll be sincere and you'll be really trying to get clean, but you'll still act like a filthy dog, and you won't know why.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: I won't know.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: I beg God.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: I promised God I was gonna not get mad like that again.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: I promise God I wouldn't throw that fit.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: I promise God I wouldn't use those words.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: I promise God I wouldn't talk like that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: I promise God I wouldn't act like that.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: I pray God, take this away, and He won't do it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with me?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sin consciousness.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're trying to get rid of something that Jesus has washed clean.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Can y'all hear me on that back row?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm losing my voice.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Even with a microphone.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Last verse.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: They have an appearance of wisdom.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: They look right, don't they?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: In self-imposed religion.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: King James says will worship.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's the worship of your will.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's lifting up your will to get this done.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: We tried it with our will for thousands of years.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank the Father that he came.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: They have an appearance of wisdom in will worship or self-imposed religion, false humility, and the neglect of the body, but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Would y'all stand up?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: See?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why I preach Jesus.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why I preach completely by him, by the grace of God, for every one of us.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says there's no condemnation in Christ.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's nobody here that's saved, nobody here that has Christ that should ever be condemned because there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care if you kicked the dog and yelled at your family this morning on the way to church.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: You should be here totally Jesus-minded, thanking God that He did what He did when you're so weak.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: I know a teacher at, well, you're all some of y'all remember Connie Witter, spoke here before.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: She tells a story of how she's getting ready to go teach in her conference.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: And right before she's getting ready to go out the door to go to the church, her and her husband have a fight.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: And she said it was bad.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, and I don't cuss.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: She said, I'm not one of those Christians that have t-shirts that say, you know, I love Jesus, but I cuss.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: She said, I don't cuss, but I cussed.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: I got so mad, I just lost my mind with him.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: I got so mad and said, then of course, I can't keep fighting because I gotta go.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now my mind is, now I gotta go teach the Word of God.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, and I felt so bad.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: I felt so unqualified.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna have to tell them I can't do this because I can't do this.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: If this is how I am, if I'm gonna go teach them about this stuff, said I'd be just a phony because I'm just as bad or worse than any of them.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not qualified, I can't do it.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: What do we just read in Colossians?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: That the God has qualified us to be partakers.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: So she went and laid on the bed and cried.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta go, but I'll have no confidence, I'll have no conviction because I know that I'm just a hypocrite.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: And she laid there.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to her and said, It's all because of Jesus.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: That you're clean right now because of Jesus, not because of you.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Your flesh is weak, but the blood of Jesus is strong.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Said, Connie, you can go preach because you're not going to be preaching about how good you are.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna preach about how good He is when we're at our worst.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Keep it Jesus centered.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: What does that do?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: It made her get up with the joy and peace and love.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: It made her get up.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: She felt empowered because she was reminded that it was all about him anyway and not about her being good.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: What did that do?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: It empowered her.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: It empowered her to encourage.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: It made her message even more focused because she was totally aware in that session, that it has nothing to do with you or me.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's everything about Jesus.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: And in all things, he's got the preeminence.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta be honest with you.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you, this is no great revelation, but I don't do everything perfect.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you're laughing because it's not a big revelation, is it?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to bear more fruit, I want to walk worthy.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I have exactly zero condemnation walking this.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I sin, I've got this advocate with the Father.
• 34:43
  unknown: Wow!
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can't lose for sinning.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Are y'all here?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Giving you a license to sin?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's like making more gun laws where the criminals will go say, Oh, I need a license to steal guns, or I need a license to go shoot somebody, kill somebody.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Criminals don't need license.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sinners don't need a license to sin.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna do it anyway.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: What you need is a license to not be condemned, a license to trust completely in Jesus and be grateful and thankful.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul said that it will cause you to abound in thanksgiving.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: You feel like I don't have much of a prayer life, I don't connect with God in any way.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: This will make you connect.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: You'll wake up tomorrow and you'll just be thankful.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: You'll say, I'm so glad it's all about you.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you love me anyway.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that I'm still clean.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't understand how that could be yet.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Show me this, Lord.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I believe in you, and this is my only chance.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna walk with you this way, and I'm gonna trust in you to make up what I'm lacking here.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust in you.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know I can't change myself.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trusting in you to do the changes.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: And in the meantime, I'm gonna be thankful.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be glad.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And when anybody wants to talk about the things of God, all I can say is I'll point them to you, and I can say, I'm just so glad for God, for Jesus and His grace.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: I want to pray.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Father, I thank you right now for your unspeakable gift.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you for so great a salvation that's not to be neglected this morning.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let every heart that's here, let everyone that's here, just respond in their heart.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let everyone stand and just respond to your goodness.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: Not such a hard thing.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Respond to the gift, respond to the grace.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let God love you today.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just let God love you.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: In all of your flesh and glory, let God love you.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: While we were yet sinners, he loved us and gave himself for us.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I thank you, Father, for your blessing on every head.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let everyone walk out of here with a smile on their face, a song in their heart, a spring in their step, and the love of God upon their lives.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: I pray it in Jesus' name.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.