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My Yoke is Easy · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love what's going on this morning already.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pick up, as we study a little bit this morning, from uh where I was at in John chapter 6.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to read that in just a moment.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I was seeing something when we were singing about standing on the solid rock.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how in Luke chapter 6 Jesus talked about a wise man.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He that hears these sayings and does them.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a wise man who dug deep and dug a deep foundation and he founded his house on a rock.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course he said, when the storms came, it couldn't beat the house down, couldn't destroy the house because it was sitting, it was found its foundation was on the rock.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, He who hears these sayings and does them.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times people trip up on the doing of the sayings of God, on the obedience to God, the blessings of obedience, and so on.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Fulfilling the word of God, doing what it takes in order to have abundant life, or doing what it takes in order to be blessed, or to doing what it takes in order to be protected, or and so on.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to show us this morning, or I want the Spirit of God to show us.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I stood right there and I prayed.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I said, Father, show us how easy this really is.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe God's going to speak to us this morning because He did say, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get to the simplicity and the power of this, we find out a lot of times we've been making this way more complicated than we need to.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is amazing and he's awesome, and what he did was so much more than any of us have even scratched the surface of.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so in John chapter 6, I want to look at this.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Father, show us how easy this is.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Show us the power and the simplicity of your gospel and your finished work this morning.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 27 of John 6, Jesus says, Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the story is very briefly that he had just fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes when he went across the lake later on, uh, you know, walking on water and so.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they came and they met him on the other side.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: They followed him.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: This multitude followed him all the way across the Sea of Galilee.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, they didn't follow him, they got there and met him.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even know how he got there.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But but Jesus told them, he says, now the reason you're seeking me, the reason you're following me, is not because of the supernatural spiritual thing that you saw, but because you ate food and your bellies got full, and so you're following me.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why he says, he says, Don't labor for the natural food.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Don't labor for the temporary food, don't labor for the food that perishes and you're going to be hungry again.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but labor for the food that endures to everlasting life.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's talking about spiritual food.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then there, but there's that word, labor for that, or or you know, what's what what's that?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Work for that food.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so then so then there's words like that cause people to say, so so so they they get this picture of this this journey or this this big job that they're on.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So now this lifetime of toiling, and you got the pickaxe, and you're beating that rock, and you're you're you're you're working to get that to get those true riches of God, to get that, to get that deep wisdom, to get that that powerful, high place anointing, mystical something where there's so much blessing and there's so much power and there's so much joy and all that.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And people kind of often will get the idea like that.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, he says, labor for the food that, or work for the food that is spiritual in essence.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 28, they asked him, okay, give us the job.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: They said, What shall we do that we will can work the works of God?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't get this right here, we can take this Bible and we can make almost a never-ending list of things for us to do to work the works of God.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It'll go from all kinds of things that may look positive.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It'll make it'll go from all kinds of things that may look negative.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times people talk about, you know, we gotta we want to we have to obey the word of God.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, okay, um.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do that?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And who really does?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we know nobody ever fulfilled all the word of God except Jesus Himself.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And people state, well, somehow he did all of that, he fulfilled it all, and then he puts the burden back on us and says, now you guys do it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: With your weak flesh.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: People say, well, yeah, I do, at least I try.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we should at least try to do it.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when we see it, we're responsible to obey that.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so you ask them, okay, um, have you ever been, have you, have you ever been tempted to sin?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, have you, did you cut your hand off when you when you were?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because that's fulfilling the obedience of the word of God, that that you that if your hand offends you to sin or tempts you to sin, that you cut that hand off.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Does anybody do that?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: You ever eat too much?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that if you give yourself over to gluttony and you eat too much, you're supposed to put a knife to your throat.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do we do that?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, we don't do that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, nobody can can fulfill this, and most people don't even really try to do all of it, but they'll make some kind of a sensible list of what what God sensibly expects us to do in obedience or working the works of God or hearing and obeying so we can have a house that's founded on the rock and it'll stand in the storm.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I love that it's so clear here.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: He says, They said, So what do we do?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: What are the works of God?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: What do we have to do, Jesus?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Look at that wonderful answer in verse 29.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: He answered and said, This is the work of God that you what?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Believe in Him that He sent.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Believe in Jesus, Him that He sent.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's all upon Him.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's it mean to believe?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I like what it what it says in Proverbs, where it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: When I hear that, I think of I think of maybe a walking cane or something like that, where you might put your weight on it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lean, where you lean on it, you lean not.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in the Old Testament he says, don't lean on on uh on Egypt because it's like a staff that'll break off into your hand.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't lean on your own understanding.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of times we want to know.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: We want to know how's God going to do this?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: God, tell me what you're gonna do.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: God, I don't, I can't figure this out.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what to do, tell me what instruction I have, tell me what what how this is going to happen here.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we try to think of it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but almost any time when I was in a seemingly impossible situation, the way that God worked it out was a way that I couldn't, I didn't even imagine.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every time.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every time.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and but we we we think that if we can understand it, we can know it, everything will be all right.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're doing there is trying to lean to our understanding.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You, God, you tell us how to work this out.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, he'll give you instruction a lot of times, but the point is that we're not leaning on our own understanding.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll pray, and all I get from God is just that it's okay, I've got this.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all I need to know.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I can lean on that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's called believing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and he and and he and he says, so so the work that we work is simply to believe on him.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that sounds better now.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Believing sounds better than trying to obey every commandment that's in the Bible, 600 and something of them.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: But then people get down to that and they're like, well, I'm struggling with this believing part now.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there's only one thing to do is believe, but I'm still struggling here.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting scared in my situation, Rick.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Help me.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Pray that I'll get this, pray that I'll understand it, pray that I'll see it, pray that I'll be able to believe it.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, this is where we want to help this morning.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we want, how easy we want to show.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like that?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like it?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like it to be very, very easy to just believe God?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just believe and trust him and make it very easy.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: We can do that this morning.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Listen.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This is the work of God that you believe on him that he sent.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going down there to verse 44.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't have time to read the whole chapter, but this whole discourse here is really Jesus showing the simplicity of making it all about him.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Making it all about him.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Down in verse 44, he says, This no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll raise him up at the last day.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's written in the prophets that they shall be taught by God.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You've all come to him.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: How blessed are you just to start off?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: In the book of Amos, he's talked about this day, and he said, I will be found by a people that looked for me not.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Amos, the prophet himself, described it.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: He said, they called him a great prophet.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I wasn't a prophet or even a prover's son.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was a farmer, and I was just going along, and God took me.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: When I looked back at where I was, there was a drawing there.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Something, something happened.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was a drawing, there was some kind of a belief.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I resisted this thing.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I argued with every Christian because I thought I was smarter than they were.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were stupid.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were presumptuous.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were just imagining things.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were just kind of hopeful and it was all in their minds, and I thought I was smart and I would argue with them and try to, you know, try to show how small they were in debates.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I resisted this gospel.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I and and and and for someone that resisted so hard.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: What am I doing here?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: How did I get here?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because somebody greater blessed me.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed me.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody opened my eyes.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: This stupid boy who didn't get it at all.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: My eyes started to open, and I started to believe something that I swore I didn't believe.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at it that way, right off the bat, it's like you're already a believer.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're here.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're here.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're not really struggling to believe.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: You already believe.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: You say, well, why do I feel like I'm struggling?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because you just think that you are.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Spirit of this world will lie to people that are believers, and he'll tell you you're not a believer.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: He'll tell people that you you believe in spite of maybe you didn't even want to believe, maybe you didn't even try to believe.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And here you are believing, and then some kind of a lying voice will say that it's hard for you to believe.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says it's the spirit.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the point is here that the spirit is the one that loves us and he blessed us.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: God blessed us.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that he's not drawing everybody because he wants all to come to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: But somehow he got us.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't understand why everybody doesn't get it yet, but it makes sure makes you thankful for what happened to you.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, number one, I'm grateful this morning because he turned an unbeliever to a believer.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't turn myself to a believer.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I started believing something I wasn't even looking to believe.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to believe.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't, I wasn't, you know, before I came to the Lord, before I accepted him, I wasn't going, I wasn't, I wasn't getting on my knees saying, say, God help me to believe this.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: It just started growing in me.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It just started getting bigger in front of my face to where I couldn't deny it.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, I believed that gospel message.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then pretty soon I found myself at a little church out in the country on my knees at an altar receiving Jesus as my Savior.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't that long before I said, I do not believe that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody bigger than me was working on me, working in me, working towards me, working for me, causing me to believe.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And look at, look at me.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I believe today.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: How can I not, how can I have one day of not being grateful when I'm aware of that?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you too.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, in showing how simple, how easy this is, you should be convinced right now already, you're already a believer.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to be be a believer, you're not trying to believe.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: You do believe.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: You do believe.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and you're being taught by God.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: See, the Spirit's already got you.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what's going on in your life?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'd like to, maybe you'd like to graduate, you know, tomorrow, but but you're being taught by God.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people, I told them the other last night in a meeting, I say, you know, you know, I am so grateful and excited for where I'm at.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm standing on the mountaintop.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the good thing is that when you're standing on the mountaintop, it doesn't mean that you're done because there's there's a million miles of growth here.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're standing in the place where you can daily behold the beauty of God and inquire daily in his temple, and you can grow like a weed and come to more and more into the knowledge of God.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it honestly gets better and better and better.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in my walk with God, and in my joy, and in my my peace, and the the love, it just it doesn't stop increasing ever since, like someone said this morning, when I found out who he was.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, it was when I found out how much he loved me and what Jesus really did when he finished that work, and I found out he did everything.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So to work the work was for me to us to believe that.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't need anything because I had him.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 47, he says, Certainly I say to you that he who believes in me has everlasting life.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 50 said, I'm the bread that comes down from heaven.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can you'll eat of it and you'll not die.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Over there in verse chapter 16 of the book of John, I want to read two verses or three verses here.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 16, verse 30.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples speaking to Jesus here in verse 30.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now we're sure that you know everything, and have no need that anybody should question you.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is no need that anyone should question you, Lord.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: By this we do believe.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: We believe.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: We believe that you came forth from God.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when Jesus said that in chapter 6 about no man comes to me unless the father draws him, you know what the story was that was going on there?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: There were thousands of people there listening to him because they had followed him because he had fed thousands of people, and they followed him to the other side of the lake there, and he's talking to them, and he's preaching this message about believing on me, believing on me.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one he sent.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's preaching this message, and he starts talking about taking me into you, believing me being the living bread, and and instead of the physical bread, take me into you, the living bread.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get it, they get upset, they get offended.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands of people left his church that day.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands, I'm probably thousands.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: How many of the tens of thousands that got fed?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how how many of them came over to the lake, but it was a multitude.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, from that time they walked no more with him, and they left him.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had told him, He says, Some of you don't believe.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can come except the Father draw me.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in that particular thing, in that particular instance, see, now that now after the resurrection and ascension, and God has poured out his spirit upon the earth, God's the destiny is that all would be saved.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: He wants all to be saved.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: You pray that they do.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and but he says, he uh turns to the twelve because he knew they couldn't go.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: In that situation, God had drawn twelve.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, There's the door.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to go to?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't understand this thing.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know what the message was?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, You've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood, or you have no part of you know, no part of me.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, This is a hard saying.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: They don't understand what he's saying.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: They think he's talking about cannibalism or something, forbidden by law.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter and him, they're looking at that.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get it either.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do I know?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because they never got anything until after the Spirit came later on.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said, There's a door, you guys going too.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew they couldn't go anywhere.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Peter knew it too.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Where are we going to go?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the words of life, and he says, And we believe.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now you don't look anything like what we were expecting.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we believe.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And where did that belief come from?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: It came in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus said, Who do men say that I am?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they say you're John the Baptist, they say you're a prophet, they say you're a great teacher.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Who do you say I am?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Peter stands up and says, You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, You go, Peter.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Flesh and blood did not tell you that.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't even say that up till that point.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, But my Father in heaven revealed it to you.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: He made you believe this.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, you're a believer, and that's the rock I'm gonna build my church on.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: He that does my works is he that believes on me.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the rock that I'll build my church on.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: The gates of hell will not prevail, and the gates of hell have assaulted the church ever since day one, and here it is, continuing to expand all over the world, day by day.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing can destroy it because number one, the church is made up of the believers, and this belief and this kingdom of God, Isaiah 9 said, of the increase of this government and of peace, there shall be no end.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've got great hope for the earth.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is peace on earth, the Prince of Peace.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in the hearts of the believers that are aware of what they're believing.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, We believe that you've come from God.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Do you now believe?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now watch, he says, now the hour is coming.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now come that you're going to be scattered.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And each will go to his own, and you're going to leave me alone.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: But yet I'm not alone because the Father's with me.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And these things I've spoken to you that in me you can have peace.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: In the world you'll have tribulation.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: But be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a word to us that we can take any day.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: But specifically, he was about to be arrested.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, This is what's going to happen.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're all going to run to your own.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're all going to run and hide.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Over in one of the other gospels, he tells, he tells, you know, you know, Peter stands up and says, says, says, Well, they might run and hide, but they might deny you, but not me.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, you're going to fall harder than any of them.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're going to deny me three times in one night.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, No way.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Peter don't believe it.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and then he tells Peter, he says, Listen, Satan wants to sift you like wheat.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're about to go through something here.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're about to be tried, be tested, tempted, tempted.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but I prayed for you.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed that your faith does not fail.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith does not fail.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith does not fail.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when you come through, when you've been changed, when you've been converted, I want you to be the one that strengthens your brothers.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Peter, you're going to get through this.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith will see you through.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because you believe you've got something.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: You've got something, Peter, that the gates of hell will not prevail against.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to fall flat on your face.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to do the unpardonable sin.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to deny me before men.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: But your faith is going to cause you to be victorious.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Went through all kinds of things.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: He, I mean, in the Gospels, he kept misinterpreting everything Jesus would say.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: After he received the Holy Spirit and was full of the Spirit, he preached one of the greatest sermons.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the first sermon ever preached in the church is still the greatest one that you can ever read right there in Acts chapter 2.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then he writes these books.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: First letter of Peter, second letter of Peter.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like writes these letters.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what's he talking about?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about the grace.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you know what you've come to, believers?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: You've come to an inheritance that's undefiled, it's incorruptible, cannot be shaken.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't say this, but I read between the lines.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if anybody could have blown it, if anybody could have lost this, it would have been me.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but you've come to an inheritance that's incorruptible, it's undefiled, it's always reserved for you in heaven.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Never changed.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that Jesus did for you, it's still yours.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you fell on your face three times a day.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you blew it, I don't care what you've done.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's all about Jesus and your blessing, your inheritance.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's incorrupted.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's always there for you.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's always in heaven.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is why when you revert, if you fall, if you sin, or if you have a uh have if you have a some kind of a come apart because the world seems to be getting the best of you, you never go back to square one because your belief is taking you forward.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's let's push this along.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all hearing anything?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, I've overcome the world.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me to John, uh 1 John chapter 4.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 says, You are of God, little children, and you have overcome them because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now look at this.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: You have overcome.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because so many people struggle.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is why there's a struggle with belief and faith, even though you have it.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have it.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is that they think that they're trying to overcome something.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: They think they're trying to overcome a habit or a sin.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: They think they're trying to overcome a situation in life.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: They think they're trying to overcome, when the Bible is clear, it says it here, it says it in the next chapter, that you have overcome them.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there in chapter 5, very quickly in verse 4, he says, Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the victory that has overcome it.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's our faith, our belief, our trust in Him, which we have.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Who is He that overcomes the world except he that simply believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's it take to overcome the world?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be the super strong Christian, you've got to be of the upper class of Christian that's got it all together and just seems like they're just such, they've got these big spiritual muscles.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people tell us to exercise those spiritual muscles and all that.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I that kind of gives a wrong connotation to most people when they hear that.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: There again, it's a hard work again.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you understand that it's finished, you've already overcome.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how you apply this and why it's not fantasy and why it's reality, because it's something that you know that Jesus has already done.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've I've mentioned this before, but it's one of the best examples that I know of.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was dealing with a with a with a young man who was struggling, very, very a Christian who loved God, loved, loved the Lord with with with with with with all of his heart, as far as you can see.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he he was struggling with a uh uh a pornography addiction.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it was destroying his marriage, driving his wife crazy, and he was and he he he hated it.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he says, he says, Brother Rick, he said, I've been to every head squeezer and stomach puncher and pusher downer that I've that I can that I can find.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've fasted, I prayed, I've he says, I have done everything to deny my flesh, I've done everything to beat this.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he called me one night and he says, I got it.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he talked, and he and he was reading a scripture or something along the lines of this, and he says, God showed me last night, I don't have to beat this.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to overcome this.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have been trying so hard to white knuckle this situation.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've been trying so hard to overcome because I just I hated it.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but I couldn't beat it.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I found out I don't have to beat this.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus beat this.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus beat everything.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus overcame.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he got a revelation that you can't get from your own understanding.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense to you.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: But he got a revelation just like Peter did.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: He got it.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: It made, it became reality.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: He overcame this.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what he could do then?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rest.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: He could take it easy then because he didn't have to beat it.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what that's called?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you can rest in his love, rest in him?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's called faith, belief in him.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when, like Vanessa's shirt there, faith moves mountains.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have that mountain anymore after that.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: See, and this is why this is so important that we gotta see this.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who's who's the one who who overcomes?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: How do I overcome, Rick?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You already have.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: You believe.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, why is it so hard?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't know.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're here listening to me this morning.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Romans chapter 8 says, In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now I didn't get that for a long time because I thought, Lord, I haven't even got to conquer yet.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's still things beating me.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even fathom more than a conqueror.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Until somebody explained it to me and it became so clear.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, There's tribulation in the world, but be of good cheer.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've overcome this world.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, he did the overcoming.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: That allows me to not have to try to overcome.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: So now, and there, and there may still be things that that are in my face in this life.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I found out about the finished work and I can rest and I get to watch.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the Bible says, I get to watch the enemies flee and dissolve.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of me, instead of me trying to beat something that's too big for my flesh, too big for my understanding.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when you see what we're talking about here, all that stuff is so small, very small, because it's just stuff in the world.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And first John said, you know what, this world, it's fading.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's all passing away.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And all the lust thereof, all the desire toward it and for it, attraction to it, that that keeps causing trouble.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, But he that does the will of God abides forever.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Who's that?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: The one that believed.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're a believer.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to get blessed.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're blessed.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: You got blessed with the best thing you can get.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: You got blessed with the spirit that has already set in motion, just like that faith did with Peter.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's already set in motion your life.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: That belief just continues to grow and increase in you.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that belief is is knocking down your giants in front of you, kind of like dominoes.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fun to just live it out and watch it happen.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, this is where the rest is where it's at.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be more than a conqueror?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: It means that if you're more than a conqueror, you don't have to conquer, because a conqueror conquers.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all get that?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: A conqueror does the conquering.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does more than a conqueror do?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the conqueror goes into the boxing ring, wins the championship, gets the billion-dollar check, puts the belt on, goes home and says, Honey, you're looking at a conqueror today.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: She smiles at him and kisses him on the cheek, and she pulls the check out of his hand and waves it and she says, Now I'm more than a conqueror.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: But stand up.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: See, did Jesus win?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Conquered.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Death?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hell?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: The grave itself.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you believe, now here's this is what's big.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You'll live forever.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Are you aware of that?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: That you that you're living forever?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Forever?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Forever?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you do lay this body down.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Either way.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: You live forever.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Forever.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are an eternal being.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: As God is eternal.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: You are so much bigger.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Than any of these little things, little temporary up and down things of this temporal situation in the world.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, because you can believe, you can see perspective.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes things will spook you and try to get up and say, boo! Sometimes I don't know.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Many times.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you're as smart as I am, most of the time you don't know.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good way of saying it.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: All I gotta do is say, Father, what do you say?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't get direction, what I will always get is assurance.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or I can lean on him.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: This works every time.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Every time it works.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: God always is who he is.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: He always comes through with that.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: When I do that, I can just lean on him.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I found out he loves me.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: He wants my best.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: He wants your best and he knows how to do your best.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we can rest.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how long do we wait?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna live forever.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: You got time.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: You got more than all the time in the world.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're going to outlive and outlast anything that this world throws at you.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fact.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know this.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know this in your spirit.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know this in your heart.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know that you're greater than all that because greater is he that's in you.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I love you.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for you doing the work and making this so easy for me.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: For all of us here.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Father, let everyone enjoy the goodness and the abundance of life.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for your spirit teaching us all things.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for the excitement and sense of adventure, of growing in you and knowing you more because it gets better and better inside us as we do.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for blessing everyone here.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, for right now, for people that are standing in front of something that's that's ugly in front of their face, I shouldn't have said it that way, for something that looks hard.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we're delivered by faith through that grace.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not of ourselves, that's the gift of God.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we thank you for your unspeakable gift and we thank you for healing for those who need healing.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, we rest in that with excitement to watch this thing play out.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for restoration in relationships that are necessary that are needed.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for fixing the things where it seems scary financially in situations for people.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we rest in you.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because you and we are so much bigger than all those little things we just mentioned.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for faith, Father.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that gift.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: We cherish it, we treasure it, and we give you all the thanks for it in the name that is higher than any name, the name of Jesus.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.