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God's Eye View - Part 2 · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a song that was.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: That last song.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, that last song was just perfect for the good things that I have to talk about this morning.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: All praise to the highest name.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
0:24
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that he is the highest name?
0:28
SPEAKER_01: That means, you know, let's look at it just a moment.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we all would we all know that God's powerful and, you know, he's mighty and creator and all that wonderful.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Anything you say about him is amazing.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: But he's the highest power, he's the highest name.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: That means he's matchless.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like if God be for you, who can be against you?
0:51
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk this morning about that, that's about something that has to do with the greatness of that majesty and what that really means to us and what it means to creation, who God is.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: And I want to continue in a vein of something that I was going in last week, but go into another facet of that.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: And it's about seeing the beauty of God and seeing past the veil of darkness and past the temporal things that sort of blind us to the eternal beauty and power and goodness of God.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: And look at it, and in part of this, I want to, I want, I want us to look at all of it from the beginning to the end, because it's it's beautiful.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: There is no higher name.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: And every tongue will proclaim that there is no higher name.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that a joyful picture, just to think of that?
1:43
SPEAKER_01: That the praises, I mean, I just can't get over that song we just sang, just just the crescendos of praise that just seemed to be coming up out of us as we were singing about the highest name and and how how all we'll proclaim.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: And it's a victory song.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: It's a powerful victory song because God doesn't lose, hasn't lost, and won't.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: And I want to start by by looking at, let's look at the at the at the fall of man.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at this whole idea that that that that's out there that um that has been fed to us, and I I guess I I guess I'll use the word, we've a lot of us have been brainwashed by a lot of things that don't really pan out.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: They don't really hold water, and they don't, there we we're finding out as we grow in grace and fall in love with our Father and get a real communion with him and learn his heart that affects us, uh, we're finding out that a lot of things we thought about God just weren't so.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: And and so part of that I want to look at is this deal with the fall of man.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: And and I guess the picture I had for a long time, and I think it's pretty common, is that here's God, and he's perfect, and he's good, and he's holy, and he creates this man, and he had good plans for this man, but it seems like early on in the game the man messed up.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: He blew it.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: And from what I remember hearing was that it brought a separation, and then there was the idea from that point on that there was this this awesome, wonderful, big holy God, perfect, perfect holy God, and this depraved, ugly, horrible creation called man that deserved to experience eternal fiery torment.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: And that happened because man was so horrible and God was so holy, and the two couldn't couldn't mix, and so man, so for thousands of years, humans are born and they die for thousands of years and they die and spend eternity in a fiery torment.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Then after thousands of years of that, God, because he's good, decides to do something about that.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: So he sends his son Jesus.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: And essentially, the way a lot of us thought was that he sent his son Jesus, because if Jesus would suffer in the way that we know that he did in the Bible, then what that would do is that would appease this perfect holy God and who, this God of justice, who who in his justice knew that we all deserved eternal fiery torment, but he would put all that on Jesus and that would appease him, and then this God could be for us, he could like us, he wouldn't have to send us to hell.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they told us that a good God didn't send us to hell, that we chose to go there because of our rejection of him.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: And I look at my own life and I think, you know, there were those years before I came to Christ, there was never one conscious thought of me saying, Yes, I want to go to hell and suffer a fiery eternal torment.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: But they said, but you were choosing that because of your rejection of God.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: And I remember in my mind what was going on was that my rejection was really a fear of a God that I had heard about who was very punitive and vengeful.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: And he was he was he was holy, perfect, I believed he was, and so I, you know, the way he thought about me could not have been good.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And I just didn't want to have to deal with that.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: I just didn't want to think about him.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: I I didn't like it when somebody would would would would talk about God to me.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: I just I didn't want to have to have to have to deal with it.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: So my rejection, if it was a rejection, it was really about a false God, because that's not the God that I know.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
5:52
SPEAKER_01: And so let's look at the beauty of something, and the Bible tells us, tells us about that.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians chapter 1, uh, I want to read, beginning in verse 4.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: And Ephesians chapter 1 gives us a picture.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: It's Paul's writing here, and Paul says, I got this stuff by revelation.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: God showed me things that I didn't know anything about before.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: And we see that in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: It says, In love, God chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: So that's before the fall of man.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: Right?
6:29
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we get into this, I want you to remember what I'm talking about is seeing the beauty of God and trusting in the beauty of God's eternal plan and purpose.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: That it's beautiful, that it's all born out of his goodness and his love.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: This love that you know, this love that you're experiencing, because you have beheld his grace and found out that he is more rather gracious than punitive, more patient and loving than vengeful.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: That's the father that you know and are coming to know more.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: And we see that in love he chose us.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: Before I had done good or evil, before you had or anybody else, he chose us before the foundation of the universe, before all of creation.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: And because of his great love, somebody say great love.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Great love.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Because of his great love, he ordained us so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: For it was always, somebody say always, always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children through our union with Jesus, the anointed one.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: So that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: For the same love he has for the beloved Jesus, he has for us, and this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: This unfolding plan that was in the beginning before the beginning of all things created.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: A beautiful, wonderful, loving God had an eternal purpose.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: Most traditional translations use that term, his eternal purpose, according to his will, his eternal purpose.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: So he had this beautiful thing.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: And since the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, we know that Jesus was plan A, not plan B.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: Right?
8:27
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that God, after thousands of years of people going into eternal fiery torment, he finally had enough love in his heart to say, you know what, I'm gonna do something about this, and I'm gonna come up with another plan so that then people don't have to suffer that.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: According to the scriptures, it was always in his heart that the Lamb would come and do what he would do.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: We go on down to verse 9.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: And it says, And through the revelation of the anointed one, he unveiled his secret desires to us.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: The hidden mystery of his long-range plan, which he was delighted to implement from the very beginning of time.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Do you see a good God here who's got a plan and a purpose?
9:16
SPEAKER_01: Not somebody whose plan got all messed up because we sinned?
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Are y'all with me on this so far, according to what we're reading here?
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, and because of his unfailing purpose, did his purpose ever fail?
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Why?
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Because God's bigger than all of this stuff going on.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: His name is higher than all other names.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: And we will proclaim the power, the power of his name.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: And because of his unfailing purpose, this detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until the fulfillment of all the ages finally reaches its climax when God makes all things new.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Whatever this plan is, it must be beautiful.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so glad it's unfailing.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it wonderful?
10:11
SPEAKER_01: See, what I'm talking about, see, I'm I'm looking at, you know, maybe some of us need some clouds kind of to be dissipated here so we can see the beauty of God's plan.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Because without it, there's so much, there's there's so much confusion and there's so much misunderstanding.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: And we have all these ideas that we we came up with through our religions, and I think we're what we have what we did was we were just doing our the best we can.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, the human mind, it just it likes to try to contain everything in a box, and we want to figure God out.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: And why did why did why did man fall and why did God allow it?
10:42
SPEAKER_01: Did he know it?
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Or did he foreknow it?
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Did he ordain it?
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Or is it was it what was it, you know, and we try to figure it all out, and we then we then then we we make a doctrine here about the fall of man, then we make something else to try to coincide with that, and we we have all these things that I know in my own case I would repeat for quite a while in in church because that's just what I was taught and it's all I knew.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: But I look at that now and I say, you know what?
11:12
SPEAKER_01: My heart always suspected something else.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: And we are to be led by our spirit, not just the mind.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: The mind is a wonderful, amazing tool.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: We are to use this mind, but we are led by our spirit.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: Through our union with Christ, we also have been claimed by God, claimed by God as his own inheritance before we were even born.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: So that's not just the ones who did good.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Not just you pretty people here.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: He says, We have been claimed by God as his own inheritance before we were even born.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: He gave us our destiny before we were born.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm just I'm overwhelmed already seeing the beauty of God.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: Somebody asked me, Are you gonna cry today?
12:12
SPEAKER_01: And I said, probably.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about these beautiful things of God.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: And it just, I mean, that's something for me.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: I I learned as a very young boy, you don't cry, or I'll give you something to cry about.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I don't care about your feelings.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: Don't you cry.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't cry for many, many, many years.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: And I still don't cry much at bad things, even though I hurt for bad things, but I cry for something beautiful.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Somehow it touches me.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: It's just when I live so many years not being able to see beauty, not being able to see purpose, and certainly not being able to see a God that could even like someone like me.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: And I look at something like this and I say, wow, you've always been beautiful.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: You didn't just turn good because Jesus shed his blood.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Now that work was very, very important.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: It was powerful, and that's what we celebrate is Jesus, his name, what he did, and everything that that means to us.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: What that means essentially is do you get it?
13:11
SPEAKER_01: The sin issue is taken away.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: This cross is for you, this blood's for you, this death is for you, and my resurrection is for you.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're getting to here this morning.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: He says, We have been claimed by God as his own inheritance.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny so that we would fulfill the plan of God, who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: He is the highest name.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: There is none other.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Paul would say these things like, you know, henceforth, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation in Christ Jesus.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Old things are passed away, all things have become new, and all things are of God who has reconciled us unto himself.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: So, if God's got this beautiful plan, why the fall?
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Why bad things still happen?
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Why so much evil in the world?
14:19
SPEAKER_01: What about all of this?
14:21
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 11, verse 4, is there a there's a story where Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead, right?
14:30
SPEAKER_01: We love that story.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: Powerful story.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: But we know that he was in another place, and Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, they came to, they came and told Jesus that Lazarus was very, very sick.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was dying over there.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: And they go to their friend Jesus, who's got power and he heals, and he's healed many, and they tell Jesus, and Jesus says, Okay, I'll come.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: And then they leave, and then he just hangs out for a couple of days.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't go.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: And we know what he was doing.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: We knew what he was doing.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: In fact, a couple of days later, he said, All right, let's go to Bethany, let's go see Lazarus, and they're like, you know, was waking from his sleep, and they're like, Sleep, you know, and he says, Lazarus is dead.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew that Lazarus had died.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: He waited a couple of days and he knew that Lazarus had died.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: Now he could have left the first day because when he finally gets there, uh the sisters say, Lord, if you had been here, he'd have been healed.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus knew that, and he could have done that, and he had healed many, but he was going to show something different here, wasn't he?
15:36
SPEAKER_01: He was going to do something even more powerful.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Right?
15:39
SPEAKER_01: You agree with that?
15:40
SPEAKER_01: We know the story.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: He's going to raise a man from the dead.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: And so, so, so he goes there, and John verse 4 is when he tells his disciples, let's go see him.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, Jesus says, But when Jesus heard about it, when he said, Lazarus' sickness will not end in death.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is when they first told him that Lazarus is sick.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus doesn't go for a couple of days.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: But when he first hears it, he says, Lazarus' sickness will not end in death.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: So he's going to allow this man to die so that there can, so that the Son of God can receive glory.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: How is he going to receive glory?
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's going to resurrect him, gonna raise him from the dead, right?
16:29
SPEAKER_01: And there's gonna be a lot of hallelujahs that come from this.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a lot of praises to God.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a lot of awe of God and the power of God.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is going to demonstrate something that's a message for every one of us: that he is their resurrection.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: And in him is life.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: And he that believes in him shall not die.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: And he that believes he that dies, uh yet he shall live again, even.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: But he says, I am the resurrection.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: He said, Martha, do you believe this?
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe this?
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Judy and I are just driving on the way here this morning, just these these beautiful thoughts were going through my mind.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: And I I thought about, you know, I've got loved ones, very dear loved ones that have that have died.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: And I and I was thinking of the, and the joys just come up in me because of what I know, what I know to be true, what I believe.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: I see the beauty of the wonderful plan of God.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: And even though if somebody die, yet shall they live.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he that believes does never really die.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: They still keep on living.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: And I just think, wow, what a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful God.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: There is no name higher.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: Even death itself does not stop this.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: And I believe this.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: I believe in the resurrection, I believe in the life, I believe in the beauty and the plan and the power of God.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: And Lazarus is going to die, and we know the story.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus goes and and then and he raises Lazarus from the dead, and they're they're they're giving God glory.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: And there's and there's so much more noise that's going on and praises and glory and talking about God because a man was raised from the dead than just because somebody was healed.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: Which also is awesome and powerful.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: But he was showing something, and he said, This is for the glory of God.
18:19
SPEAKER_01: Now take this and apply it to the death, if you will, in Genesis, when God said, In the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And many times we have the questions, like people did with Jesus, God, why did you allow that?
18:36
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't you stop it?
18:40
SPEAKER_01: And God, whose plan cannot fail, had this happened, because remember, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the earth.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: It was going to happen.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like maybe, maybe he'll eat of that tree and maybe he won't.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: It was gonna happen.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even God said, Don't eat of that tree.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: He said, But when you do, but when you do, you're gonna die.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: But it's gonna be okay because I am the resurrection.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: Now I'll show you why, why it's even better for resurrection.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: We go to um, we look at the story, in fact, I looked at it last week, in Luke chapter um 7, verse 47.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: I want to, and as I do this, in fact, I um I think I went, let's don't go there.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm messing up our people that are helping me with with the screen here.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to chapter John chapter 9, if we can, verse 1.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: Because there's another story that I want to look at.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: I skipped it in my notes, but I really want to bring this out.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 9, verse 1.
19:49
SPEAKER_01: It says, as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: And Rabbi his disciples asked him, Why was this man born blind?
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins?
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, It was not because of his sins or his parents.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: A very similar answer.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: And we know the story that Jesus healed the blind man.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: And when the blind man is healed, there's just all this to-do that's going on, all this noise, there are praises that are going on.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: It's much like all these other times, like the time when there was uh uh uh when he when he healed the person who was lame.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: And he goes leaping and praising God, and it says, and they all gave glory, and all the people gave glory to God because this man had could walk.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: Now you ever think about this?
20:38
SPEAKER_01: Here's this man that's that's walking, and people are watching him walk, and they're giving glory to God, and they're going, Wow, glory to God in the highest.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Now, he's not the only man walking in the streets, there's a lot of other people out there walking around.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: But how come they're not saying that?
20:55
SPEAKER_01: How come they're not looking at everybody else?
20:56
SPEAKER_01: How come they're not looking at you or me that can walk and say, Wow, you can walk, glory to God?
21:02
SPEAKER_01: They're saying it because somebody could not walk and he was restored.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: If you ever wonder about the fall of man, let's say there was never a fall.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Let's say everything was just hunky gory.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe how old I sounded just then.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Everything was it was groovy.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: It was good.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: And I can't, I don't know what it would be.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: It'd be good, right?
21:50
SPEAKER_01: It'd be great.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, hey.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: I do nothing wrong.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: Everything I do is just good.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Everything I do is just right.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Why do I cry sometimes?
22:01
SPEAKER_01: What touches my heart?
22:02
SPEAKER_01: What goes into the depths of our hearts about God?
22:07
SPEAKER_01: When we look at God, talk about God, talk to God, sing about God?
22:10
SPEAKER_01: What is it that touches the deepest places in our heart?
22:14
SPEAKER_01: And it's that amazing grace that has flowed to the deepest valley of our being.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: In our weakest part, in our flaws, our failures, and in our sin, and maybe even depravity.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: But what we have learned as a fallen race, if you will, is a depth of grace that we could never know if everything had been just in our ideas, in our mind, perfect.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: We wouldn't know forgiveness.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: There'd be no such thing as forgiveness, even though our great God is full of forgiveness.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: We would never have a conception of it, we'd never know about it.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: But what touches my heart, forgiveness.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: Not only the idea that I have been completely absolved and forgiven and cleansed of every impure action and thought and selfish deed and all that, not only that, but I love it when I see it happen out here.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: I love it when I see it happen between humans.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: I love it when I find myself giving it to somebody.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: Without my fall or my death or my lameness that has been restored by what?
23:32
SPEAKER_01: His love.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Would have no concept of it.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Why do I cheer?
23:42
SPEAKER_01: Why do I, when we sing that when I'm standing out there and we're singing these praises to God, the things that touch the deepest parts of my heart and to bring the tears to my eyes is that I once was blind, but now I see.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: I know what it's like to be restored, to be resurrected.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: I know what it's like to know that my father, no matter how deep my depravity or selfishness may have been or may be in the future, that his love and his grace and his forgiveness, God, I'm finding out he's bigger than I ever dreamed he was.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: Because I saw an imagination of a small God who was just too holy and perfect, and he was too just, and he had no room for any of my sins and my flaws, my failures, or any of my selfish deeds.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: He had no room for, and I was to burn eternally for that.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Unless I did the rule.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: But in Jesus Christ, I see the plan of God all fulfilled right there.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: I see so much about it.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: I see God and man joined in Jesus Christ.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: I see our resurrection in Jesus Christ.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: I see his great love for us in Jesus Christ.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 7, verse 47, there was a woman who apparently had a very, very sinful life, so sinful that everybody knew what she was and she had a reputation, and she comes into the house where Jesus is in Luke chapter, I mean, yeah, Luke chapter 7, verse 47.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Why are you allowing a woman like this in the house, let alone touch you?
25:19
SPEAKER_01: And this is horrible.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Well, I tell you her sins, they are many, have been forgiven, and that's why she has shown me much love.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: But a person who has forgiven little shows only little love.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: Some translations said those who think that they're walking straight don't know what it's like.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Don't know what she's feeling.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: They don't know what, and this woman has seen a depth of grace.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: This woman has felt that has felt a depth of a love that goes beyond what she was taught that God would do.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: So she's an outcast, she's not allowed, and she's probably just continuing in whatever lifestyle or addictions or whatever else that she was in.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: She probably just continues in that in a lost condition.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: Because the God has no room for someone like her.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: Because he's perfect, and he can only abide perfection.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: And here's his loving creation that he created out of love as actually an expression of himself.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: That he has always loved with an everlasting love, and he didn't stop loving because we ate of the tree.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: And he says, it's gonna be good.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're gonna love me.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: This woman represents you, represents me, it represents humankind.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna know.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: Remember, God said it back in the Old Testament, talking about what would come, what Jesus would do, what he would reveal to us, and what what change that would make for us all.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: It would be a resurrection.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: And he said, in that day they will all know me.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: From the greatest to the least, from the best to the worst, they will know me.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: Why?
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Because I will be good to them, because I will be merciful to their transgressions, because their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna know my grace.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be like this woman.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna this woman fell in love.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: While the rest of them are do- are obeying their jots and tittles and tithing their mint and doing all this and straining at gnats and swallowing camels and do and and debating about what does God want here and is it okay to do this on the Sabbath and that and the other?
27:37
SPEAKER_01: This girl falls in love.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: Why?
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Grace.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: She found an amazing grace that could reach even, there I go, reach even her.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have let a fall happen if I were God with Rick Manisser's brain.
28:06
SPEAKER_01: In fact, many things I've experienced in my life, I certainly don't wish on anybody.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: But there's been that grace.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: There's been that love, there's been that goodness, and there has been that restoration all the time, and there's been that resurrection, and I love him more for it, not less.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Because in the great in the beauty of God's plan, what we also find to be true, it's like what Paul said that the sufferings of this present time cannot be compared to the glory that's to be revealed.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: For the glory of the latter is always greater than the glory of the former.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: And all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called to his purpose.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: And somehow, even in the most painful death that you've experienced, there's a greater glory and a greater resurrection.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said it this way: it's like a woman in travail.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: You have this pain, and you're just like, ugh, I don't need this.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: But afterward, he said, for the joy that comes after, you forget about all that pain.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Can anybody relate to that about things in your life?
29:13
SPEAKER_01: We will we will declare the highest name and forget about the pain of our fall.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: Not forget that it happened, but we it will be overshadowed by the glory and the goodness and the light.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's happening now in many of us.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I can say it's been overshadowed.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: God is forever faithful, God is good, God is pure, God is love.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: So there's a song written by a man named Leonard Cohen.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: The song is Hallelujah.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Any of you familiar with it?
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Little story about that song if you don't know the background.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: So the man was um a believer in God, not a Christian, but raised a Jew and believed in God and was, and according to the story, he was he had set out, and in writing the song Hallelujah, he had set out to really write, I guess, a perfect hallelujah, a praise.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in fact, the you know, the first verse he talks about, I heard about a secret chord that David played and pleased the Lord.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: And so he's kind of looking for for that kind of connection, that kind of praise, that that hallelujah.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: And it was frustrating him.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: For years and years, and years he was writing.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he wrote he wrote he wrote well over a dozen verses in it.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: And when you when you hear the different covers of that song, there are different recordings.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody uses all those verses.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Some of them seem to be very spiritual.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: In fact, see, it was over like a seven-year period.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: Some of them he he just he's just writing and writing, and he and and and some of them are just are, you know, he just, well, let's just go secular with it.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, so there's all kinds of different verses, and different artists will you will pick and choose different ones.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: But initially, what it's all about is to write a hallelujah to God that that he's worthy of.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: And it gets so it's so hard because he no matter what he writes, and he was a prolific writer, but no matter what he wrote, it just it's not good enough.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: That's that's not catching it, that's not it.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: And he and the story goes that he it got so frustrating at one point he's just he's locked up in a hotel room trying to get this thing right, and he's he's he's laying there with no clothes and writing good with paper and pen writing these verses and and and never never being happy with what he's coming up with because it just doesn't seem to to get it.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: So the song, I'm gonna read you a couple, two or three verses from it.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: So the song starts out, many of you might know this.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: He says, Now I've heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: But you don't really care for music, do you?
32:34
SPEAKER_01: It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: The baffled king composing hallelujah.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: So he's relating to David here.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: What was this praise that came out of this baffled king that pleased God?
32:50
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm looking for.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm trying to convey here.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want in my own heart.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: What is that secret cord, if you will, from the heart?
33:04
SPEAKER_01: What is it that you loved coming out of this man who was a man after your own heart, but very, very weak in some areas, very fallible.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: We see his failures.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: And there's a clue in the line where he says, and it goes like this the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift, because that's a clever turn of words there.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: Because it refers to uh, for one thing, the chord progression of the song, if you know the melody of it.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: And I'm about to do something I hate to do.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: I don't ever sing in church, not even standing out there.
33:47
SPEAKER_01: Judy laughs at me because I only mouth the words mostly during praise and worship.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: And you're about to find out why.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: But the chord progression is C F G A minor F.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: So in the fourth and fifth is the minor fall and the major lift, the A minor, the F in the chords.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: And so he's referring to that, but today we've been talking about a fall, but also a lift.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: And while this fall has brought much pain, and we I mean, we we can look at all the darkness and all the manifestations of death that that fall brought, because God did say, You will surely die.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to a human race that had surely died.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: We were lost with like sheep with no shepherd in darkness.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: But compared to the glory to be revealed, it's a minor fall with this major lift.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Lazarus died, that's horrible.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: It broke the hearts of the family, but there was a major lift, and the suffering of that temporal time could not compare to the glory that was revealed after.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we have, and that's what we really know and believe in.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: For in him is life, and in him is eternal life, and we behold that now.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: So he goes on in another verse, talking about, referring to David, but he also sort of mixes in Samson's life into it.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: Two men who were strong but also weak.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Your faith was strong, but you needed proof.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: You saw her bathing on the roof.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: She tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne, she cut your hair.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: And from your lips she drew the hallelujah.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: It still came.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: And it drew a hallelujah.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: Lord, for in your hand there is mercy.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: A mercy David never knows if all he does is be perfect and never sin and just win victories.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: That's good, I'm sure.
36:52
SPEAKER_01: And then at the very end of the song, Leonard wraps it up with this, and he gets very personal, talking to God.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I did my best, it wasn't much.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of song with nothing on my tongue but hallelujah.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: Would you all stand up?
37:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, you know how we came to God?
37:46
SPEAKER_01: We came through the grace door, didn't we?
37:49
SPEAKER_01: We didn't come through the door of the strong, we didn't come through the door of the perfect.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: We didn't come through the door of those who could say, I never made a mistake.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God has blessed me, therefore, God will receive me.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: We came through the mercy place, came through the grace door.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: We met a true love.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: And this beautiful expression of God called humanity that was created absolutely to be loved, and that's why your heart, all it ever really wanted was somebody to love you without any demands or any conditions, and we found that through the grace door, and from our lips, even in our flaws and our failures, and even in our lowest points, still comes the hallelujah with even a greater ringing.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: For God loves you, God loves you.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: And what's happening to you?
39:01
SPEAKER_01: What has happened and what's happening is the unfolding plan of God from the beginning.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: This was going to happen.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: When you push back the veil, instead of just seeing depravity and ugly, and why did man have to fall?
39:20
SPEAKER_01: Why did God allow it?
39:20
SPEAKER_01: And why doesn't God do something about this?
39:22
SPEAKER_01: And how long until he fixes this, and you push back that veil and you say, Oh God, there's beauty.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: I see life.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: You truly are the resurrection.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: I do, I do believe this.
39:38
SPEAKER_01: Have a wonderful day, guys.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: It's gorgeous out there.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: Be blessed.