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ME · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:06
SPEAKER_00: I have a message titled Simply Me.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: And it's about me.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: It's about you.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: It's about identity.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: And if if I I think I'm going to be clever and I will be here next week speaking too, and I'll I'll be, I think I'm going to name it me too.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that clever?
0:27
SPEAKER_00: But along with what Matt was talking about, that I can remember many years ago, and I was a relatively a new Christian, and I had had this big lump that stuck way out on the heel of my hand.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't cancerous or anything, I don't think.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: It was just this big ugly thing.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: And for years it was just there.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Every time I look at my hand, it was there.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And and I got into church and I got into uh churches that believed in in healing and the gifts of the Spirit and the power of God, and they would talk about it a lot, and we'd pray for each other a lot.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And I would I would pray that this thing be gone and it would just stay and it would stay and it would stay.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: And then and I remember uh being in a meeting one time, I think there were 10,000 people there, and there were it was there was all kinds of things going on.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: People were getting healed and coming, you know, sitting up and and walking away from their gurneys and wheelchairs and and things.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: And and uh I went up to have my little my little lump removed.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Come on, surely if God can do that, he can do this.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: And this was a man of faith and power, and talked about it and demonstrated it and all that.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm finally just gonna get this little thing done.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Praise for me, nothing happens.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometime later, there was another man I had seen on video, had watched miracles right before in my eyes, you know, watching it.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: I go to a meeting because he was gonna be near where I lived.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh just right off the bat, early in the meeting, a man uh that that was deaf could hear after he prayed for him.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And then later on, he asked for anybody else to come up.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm gonna get my little my little lump healed.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: And he prayed for me, and nothing happened.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And then it was a little while after that, I was in my my little home church, and we had a guest speaker on a Sunday morning, and his name happened to be Max Boggs.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget his name, and he was very unassuming, did not have a dynamic delivery, he was not known by anybody.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: In fact, his occupation really was he was a bus driver for a Christian school.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh but he was a friend of the pastor, and a pastor believed that he had something good to share with us, and you know, so he had him speak Sunday morning.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: He looked like he was not, he kind of he reminded me of Ichabod Crane.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: He was just very not dynamic at all.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And his message was, I'll never forget it, his message basically was about how the life of God is inside you.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end, and the way he did it, he said, now if you need healing in your body, he said, he said, just just see that life of God that's in you, just see it going to that place in your body.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: And so I did.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And uh had my eyes closed and my hands up, and I knew that it was done.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And I looked and it was still there.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: But by the time I got to the evening service that that night, I looked again and it was gone.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: And that's impacted me.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: My point is that as gifted as some of these other people were, none of them really had a closer connection to God than I myself.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: My point is that we have all that we need within us because it's God in us, and that's the mystery, Christ in us, the hope of glory.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: And that is good news to know that.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: So I want to get into this and talk about me, you, we, they.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: It's an identity message this morning.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And I want to start off in Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a familiar uh verse, and it's God saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Before you were born, I sanctified you.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And this this says something to us.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Now think about this.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Now I really want to get down to who are we?
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Really?
4:18
SPEAKER_00: What are we?
4:21
SPEAKER_00: What's this whole thing about?
4:23
SPEAKER_00: We're having this human experience and there's all kinds of facets of this thing, but really, who are we?
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Um think of this.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: We came from God.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: We were formed in the womb.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, an egg was fertilized, and your flesh began to grow.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in that moment, maybe it was at the moment of conception or whatever, but but somewhere in that moment, the you were placed in that body.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: That soul was placed in that body.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: That's something that came from God.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, this you, this person coming into the earth here, came forth from God, and it's not.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Were you in the beginning, were you a separate entity from God?
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Were you some other element out there that God used to create something?
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Or did we proceed from God?
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Did we actually come from God?
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And if so, that says something about our identity.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: And I also want to say say this that you can, and we don't have time to do it this morning, maybe we'll do it in me too, I don't know.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: But um, there are a lot of references that talk about how in the Old Testament God would use the language, I will return you to your first estate, or I will bring you back to this place, or I will return you to your homeland.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I will bring you back.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And we know that in Christ there's a reconciliation and there is a restoration, and we also know that in in so much of his ministry, he was joining us to the Father.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: He kept talking about it.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Your Father, your Father, your Father.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: This was even before the day of Pentecost, before the Spirit was was poured out.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: He kept saying, Your Father.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, how should we pray?
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Pray like this, our Father.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Our Father.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, you understand that that was blasphemous language, and it's part of what really got him hung on the cross.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: That he called God his father.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Because you understand, see, we're so used to saying that, but that was that was that was horrible.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: That was blasphemous.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't do that because they had a separation mentality.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't call God your father, you don't call him Abba or Daddy, for sure.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: You don't, they didn't even speak his name, they wouldn't even write it down completely.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Because he was too holy, he was too good, we're too evil, he we're we're we're too separate, he's too nothing like us.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Too holy.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus kept saying, Your father, your father.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: And that day you'll ask me nothing, but you'll you'll ask the father.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: In my name it'll be done.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Your father, I will not leave you orphans.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Your father.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: But we have Adam coming into the world.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll talk about him in just a minute.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: But when we're looking at who we are, remember that there is an eternal you.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: There is a real you that that that outlasts all these other small and temporary identities.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And while we can look at and hear messages and we can read about things, read about who we are, such as the Bible says, as he is, so are you.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of wonderful and powerful scriptures.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: There are things that get in the way.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of these things, I call them small identities.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: They're not always necessarily wrong, but there's a lot of different identities that we can identify with.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times it seems that it makes us, it makes people forget their true or their real or their eternal identity.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: The one who before you were formed in the womb was known by God, the one who will always be the child of God, in union with God forever and ever.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: That person, that reality that you are, it can get overshadowed by temporary identities.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: For instance, we're born into this world, we're formed into the womb, and what happens?
8:38
SPEAKER_00: You might be born in America or India or Russia or something like that, basically by chance, it seems.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's going to become an identity.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: You will be of a certain certain skin tone and race.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: You will have a certain, you will be born into a certain culture.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: You will be raised up in a certain belief system.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: You'll have all these things, and these are all become identities.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: You will be male or female.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are all these identities, but they're all those are temporary identities.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: And 2 Corinthians 4.18, you know this verse.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: He says, While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, because the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about today are the things that are not seen with the with the natural eye.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the true things that last forever, the true you beyond the veil of the flesh.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, Luke chapter 3, 38, and I just want to look at this one verse here, but in that whole chapter there, it's giving a genealogy of Jesus.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: And in Luke, he he brings it back, he he traces it backwards.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: From Jesus all the way back down to Adam.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: At the very end of it, in verse 38 of Luke 3, he says, this one was the son of Enosh, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of what?
10:03
SPEAKER_00: God.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Adam was called God's son.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Why?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Because he didn't have any other earthly daddy, but he obviously came from God.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: God begot him, if you will.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: He came from God himself and was placed into this earth.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: So he was he was God's progeny.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: He was uh he came from nowhere else but God.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: This is who Adam is and was.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: And then we know the story.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: We know what happened.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: We know about the the fall, we know about the tree, the whole thing, and and of course I bring it up a lot.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: But but but he's he's dressed up like a tree.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says they covered themselves with with with fig leaves, or they made coverings for themselves and hid among the trees.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: I picture it as them putting on a tree suit and hiding among the trees.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween, you know.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: But then God says, Adam, where are you?
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was naked and afraid, so I hid myself, and and he said, Who told you you were naked?
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Did you eat of that tree?
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Because you couldn't have, you wouldn't have thought that.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't be having these feelings and thoughts unless you are going by or partaking of the knowledge of good and evil.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: The one that I told you will bring bring bring death to you.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: But we know that what happened there was Adam is not aware of him being in union with God or God's child, if you will, God's beloved child, which is what you are, but he's looking at something else, and he's looking at his his nakedness, which is his his his vulnerability, his insufficiency, his weakness.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: He sees that, and that's his identity.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: And everything goes caddy wampus from that point there.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus needed to bring us home.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: See, true identity makes you know, feel, and be aware that you and God are really, really, really like this.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And everything is right.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And this is the heaven on earth experience wherein righteousness or rightness dwells.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: All is right.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what your temporary identities are saying, doesn't matter how good you are today or how bad you've been today and all that, you and God are like this because this is reality, this is truth.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And you feel that, and you're you you feel like you're aware of that.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: And and something else you'll notice, and we are our our souls or our mind is being renewed, and our souls are being restored by this truth that makes us free.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And so we're becoming more and more aware of this reality, and it's bringing so much more joy.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed that as I'm more aware of this, and I love being aware of this, but as I'm more aware of this, I'm also more aware of this.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And I feel more connected to you, and I love how that feeling is growing.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Because that's a part of this whole thing, knowing who we are, who knowing who I am causes me to know who we are.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: You see, remember Adam when he uh when he first sees Eve?
13:13
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: We're in union.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: After the fall, false identity sets in, temporary identity sets in.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: He starts over-identifying with that, it affects how he does with Eve.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Because the one who once was to him flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Now he's like, I didn't do it, God she did.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Separation mentality is what happens with with um inaccurate identity.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And this is why people struggle a lot with their relating to God.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: People tell me this a lot.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: People say, I understand.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they've got the grace theology down, but they say, why do I still struggle with experiencing it and feeling it?
14:10
SPEAKER_00: There's still a separation mentality.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Because they haven't come to the place where they can believe that they are God's beloved child, because that's your real identity, and everything else is really false.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Um I love the story of the Lion King, and I bring that up so much because it just speaks this so much.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: And you know the story of Simba and how he did the same thing Adam did in the Garden of Eden.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's so parallel.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Because Simba does something that makes him afraid and ashamed, and he feels unworthy to be in that place.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: So he he runs.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
14:49
SPEAKER_00: He separates.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And he goes out, and in that separation, what's he doing?
14:54
SPEAKER_00: He starts taking on other identities because, because he went and he joined himself to this warthog and that other animal, that mere cat, and he starts living like they live.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's also very similar to the story of the prodigal son.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: And I want to go there.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've got it, I've got to pull it up here because I've got it under my Bible on my phone.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: But if we look at the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, verse 13, we know the story that the young son said, Father, I just want to, you know, give me all the money that belongs to me because I want to go and do my thing.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: A separation mentality.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And verse 13 says, And not many days later the younger son gathered all together and he journeyed to a far country.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Separation.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Because the problem with identity is a separation mentality, feeling like you don't have a connection to God.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Or even like Matt was mentioning, maybe your connection is not as good as somebody else.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: That's a lie.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Because you're God's child.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: You came from him.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: How could you not be close?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: But we're separated in our minds.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians says this, says that we were separated.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: We were alienated from God in our mind because of wicked works, because we do things, because we act certain ways.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: That's not godly.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: We're not like God.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: We're evil, he's good.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Separation, dualism is what that's called.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: That comes from the knowledge of good and evil.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: We're evil, he's good, therefore.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: This is where we got those doctrines.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Did any of you ever hear those?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: I used to hear them a lot.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: He, I used to hear he is too holy to even look at me sometimes.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Separation mentality.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: If I sin, now they were careful with it, they'd say, it doesn't break your relationship, but it breaks your fellowship if you sin.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: And it felt like it did.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Separation mentality.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: But you know what was really happening there?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: I was alienated in my mind because of wicked works.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: I thought, especially because they were telling me that, that they were doing the very thing that Ephesians says caused the whole problem.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: That I they they were they were they were helping me to be alienated because of those wicked works, because I would sin.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: I would say and think and do things that were not Christ-like.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that that separated us.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And so you got this mentality of a God who's so holy and cannot budge, and and and the only the only way to ever connect is for us to get our act together and somehow make it just as holy as Him.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they would tell us in some churches that I was in, they would tell us that holiness is your outward activity.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: They'd say, we're righteous because of Jesus, but holiness is how you act.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Quite a lie.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: That will always keep you separated from God in your mind.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: The separation is is in our minds, just like in the beginning.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Where was the separation?
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Was it in God's mind?
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Who approached Adam after he ate of that tree?
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Who comes to him with coverings, saying, Adam, where are you?
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Who told you you were naked?
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Or was the separation in Adam's mind?
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's the one that pulled away.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: He separated.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son was the one that left.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Daddy didn't kick him out.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Daddy didn't want him to leave.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: But he journeyed to a far country.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: This is symbolic of being separated.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Far country.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: How many people have ever told me, I just feel so far from God?
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's not near.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's not close.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: I want to.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: When I do this and that, when I do certain things, I feel like it, but most of the time I don't.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: See, the problem, the problem is in the mentality, and that's why Jesus said, truth will make you free.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Just like the little story I told you about myself a while ago, where I went to this anointed person and that anointed person and thought they were much more anointed than I than me, but when I heard the truth about me, boom.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Then I could receive.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't this happen?
19:27
SPEAKER_00: When you have a separation mentality, when you feel like God is hard to connect with, you gotta do a lot of things to try to make that connection, that conciliation or reconciliation.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You have a sense of want, have a sense of lack, you have a sense of need all the time.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: You always need.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: You just always in need, you need, you need.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: You don't have a sense of fullness, you have a sense of need.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: When you're aware of what we were just singing in that last song about his overflowing love and our God is love, period.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: That's just it.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: That says everything about him that really needs to be said.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: If we can understand that, and we we we understand that and we're aware of that, there is a sense of fullness, and you're just like, wow, the Lord is my shepherd.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: I do not want.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: I am full.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: And that fullness comes not because there's not things that don't need to change in your life, not because there's you know things that should that you want to happen or need to happen and all that, but you're already in a place where you believe that you're in the best place you can be, and you and God are tight, and you're connected, and you're full with the goodness of God, and your heart is very satisfied with that goodness, and that allows faith to operate where you can actually trust God, believe in God, receive from God if that's what needs to happen, because you don't have a separation mentality, you and God are tight.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're so tight, you and God are one.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: See, what I want to do, what I pray is when I'm speaking, that this doesn't just become biblical or theological language, but that we go out of here, we know this thing.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: That we feel full because somehow in our hearts, our souls, our spirits, somewhere in there, that we we become fully persuaded of this, so persuaded that nobody can pry it away from us anymore.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth that makes you free.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: But just like in this story here, there arose a famine in the land, he began to be in want or lack or need.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: That's what causes that.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: It's a separation mentality.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Me and God are not in touch, we're not connected, we're not on speaking terms.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 says.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: So in this lack, then he went and he joined himself to a citizen of that country.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And the citizen sent him into the fields to feed swine.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, this touches on something else about identity.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: He joined himself, and gotta separate.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Separated from his father, but he's joined to a citizen of the country.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like you.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like him.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm not close to him, but I'm close to you.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And so we relate to the weaknesses of the flesh.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think of the sermon of Jesus and the disciples on the boat and the storm, and him sleeping in the back of the boat, and they're in the same situation, same experiences, but the 12 are having one experience, or same circumstances, but different experiences.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Twelve are having one experience, Jesus having a holy, a completely different experience.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Twelve of them think they're about to die, the other one think this is good sleeping weather.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Same situation, different experiences.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And people would, almost every time I'd hear people preach that, they would say, Aren't we just like the 12?
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Don't we feel like that?
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Don't we think like that?
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, when do we start thinking like a son?
23:04
SPEAKER_00: And the when is when we feel connected.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Jesus thought it was good sleeping weather, even though it was a real storm.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: It was a bad storm, but he's going to the other side.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's in the safest place that he can be.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: But the 12 don't know that yet.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: See, the spirit is what's here to convince us and persuade us of these things.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And he's really powerful and really good at doing it.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: And if you're hearing these things and you say, Rick, I really want to know that and experience that and have that fullness and have a sense of that and be aware of that.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, I tell people, please ask God to show you.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: That's a very good prayer to pray.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to show you.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: If you think it's hard to get prayers answered, that's one that's pretty easy, actually.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: That's something he loves to do, that's something he wants to do, that's the whole purpose that Jesus did his thing, ascended to the Father, making it better for us, because so the Spirit would come to us, and he says, and even though he's teaching his disciples these things, and he says, You don't understand them now, but when the Spirit comes, he will reveal these things to you.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: That was his biggest purpose, and it's what he came to do for you.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And he, for all the work that Jesus did to show us that restoration, to show us on the cross that there's nothing.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: See all that sin stuff that you thought divided you?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Where you were alienated because of wicked works?
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Look, it's all on me.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: That means there's zero on you.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is left to separate you from your father?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Since I've taken care of every bit of this for you once and for all.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brings us home.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: He says, now come on home.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Come on home to daddy.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you orphans.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: But we can join ourselves to other people of the country.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we start to over-identify with other, with groups.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm an American.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I'm better than you.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Because you're from another country.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm a male, this, therefore, I'm better than you, because you're you're just a female.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Or vice versa, you know.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm this, I'm that, you know, all the and we and and and this flesh, which is which is relating to these small identities.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: I might really be male, I might really be American, I might really be, you know, a member of a political affiliation, I might really be have all these identities, these things that I can identify with, but it's it's it's it's powerful, it's good.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: What we want to do is in all those things, understand those are small and temporary identities, therefore they cannot be a true identity.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to over-identify with those and put those in the ascendancy above who we really are.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: We want to be aware of who we are, and that's why I'm teaching this today.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so important, and it's really pretty simple, but it's very, very powerful.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Remember who you are.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: He was so hungry, he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but nobody gave him anything.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Because these other temporary identities, they will not ever suffice.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: We can identify and we can group up and we can we can all you know have these identities, but nothing fills the human soul like coming home.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Which is we know the prodigal son is going to do that in the story.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says, When he came to himself, he said, Well, how many of my father's hired servants have enough bread to spare, and here I am perishing with hunger?
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Because in Daddy's house there's no famine going on.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: In daddy's house, they've got plenty.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: God's got everything.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: God's got everything I need.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Most of us are aware of that.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: God's got everything I need, but how do I connect?
27:04
SPEAKER_00: So he comes up with a way to try to connect.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Make me like one of your hired servants.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: And in church, we would hear, all we want to do is serve God.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: God let me serve you.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: How can we serve, serve, serve, serve, serve?
27:23
SPEAKER_00: And we also hear alongside that, or at least I have in many in churches that I have been a part of in my earlier Christianity, that we are not worthy.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: We would say it again and again and again, we're not worthy, we're not worthy, we're not worthy, but thank you for dying for us anyway.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: And that was a mentality, though, though it sounds humble, it will always leave you with a separation feeling.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: It will always leave you with a separation feeling.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Even though he's going home.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: But even though he's going home, he's still got a separation mentality here.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: I became a Christian many years ago.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: I turned to God, believing that I needed to go with him.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: I was in a lifestyle that was leaving me very, very wanting.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: And I believed the gospel enough to believe that this is the way to go, and I went and I got me some of that saved business.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: And it was really much, way better than what I had before.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It's way better in Daddy's house than it was out there with the pigs.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: But he still wants to be a servant.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: He still thinks that he's a servant.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that I was a servant, and thought that I was not worthy to be called his son.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: So I lived like a servant, wanted to serve, tried hard to serve, lived living a good Christian life, but I've got this separation mentality.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who I am.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: So, but we do know the story that a repentance happened when he got there, or a mind change happened because that when he got there because his daddy was so good to him.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: He's come to the the son comes to with this rehearsed speech.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm no longer worthy to be called.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I don't even care.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear that here.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Put the ring on your hand.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: You're my son.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: You belong here.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but daddy, I did this and I wasted all the money, and I was with the I was with swine, and I'm like, you are my son.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Put the ring on your hand, put the robe on your back.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a party in your honor.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: The older brother, like, why are you doing this?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: He's done all these bad things.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: He says, My son.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: My son.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: My son has come home.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: My son.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: My son was dead.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Now he's alive.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: He's my son.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He belongs here.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: But he's not worthy.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: He's my son.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: But he did all those things.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: He's my son.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: He belongs here with me.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Welcome him home.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a glorious day.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Just like that Lion King.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: When he's out there joining himself to other citizens with a warthog and a mirror cat, and he's acting like them and eating what they eat, and he's got this lifestyle relating to them.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: And you know the truth makes you free.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: And I love that story because it shows it so clearly that the word of God had to come to him from a prophet in the form of a monkey, as it often does.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: And he tells Simbug, You got an identity problem, you don't even know who you are.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I can't do it without.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know who you are.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: That's how it's in my head.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, you don't know me.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Ah, but you are Mufasa's boy.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Mufasa's boy, you are his son, the king's son.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: He says, You knew my father.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: I know him.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: No, my father is gone.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: He's dead.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: No, but he is alive.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: Come, I will show you.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: And he, you know, I've told this story, but I love it.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: It's just straight out of the out of 2 Corinthians chapter 3 that he looks, and he's like looking in a mirror, and he he looks into a pool of water.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: At first, he just sees what he looks like on the outside.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: That's just my reflection.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: And the prophet says, No, look again, look deeper.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: This is what you got to do.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Look again.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Look at the reality, look deeper than just the flesh.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Look deeper than the temporary identities.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Look deeper than just our nationality, our ethnicity, the groups we belong to, our affiliations, our philosophies, our religions.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Please remember, Jesus did not establish the Christian religion.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Man did that.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought established the kingdom of heaven.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Look deeper.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: And when he did, he did just like the Bible says, it was unveiled.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: He saw his daddy's face.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3, when the heart turns to the Lord, it's like looking in a mirror.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And we are changed.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: And a change started happening because when he saw his daddy's face, he realized he was looking at his own identity.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Because you and your father are truly one.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: And they're one and the same.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: They're united and joined in such a way you cannot disunite them.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: For I'm persuaded that nothing could separate you from this love of God, not height, not death, principality, power, uh, famine, nakedness, sword, and any other creature.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Then these clouds of glory come rolling in, and there's the Father, the image of the Father speaking to him loud and clear, and he says, Semba, you have forgotten me.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I haven't forgotten you.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: He says, But when you forgot me, you forgot, excuse me, when you forgot who you are, you forgot me.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: He gets a revelation.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: Something happens to him.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: He's being changed into that same image.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: He knows who he is, he knows where he belongs.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: He starts running back towards Pride and Rock.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that he has joined himself to before, they're like, where is he going?
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And the prophet says, He's remembering.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: He knows.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: He's not orphaned.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: He's not separated.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: He's not cast off.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: What he has done did not change who he is one bit.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: It never can.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Who you are is who you are, child of God.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: See, we don't want to be like Simba was doing.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be like the prodigal son was doing.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to waste too much attention on the small identities, the temporary identities that might pull us away in our mentality from the Father's house.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Because a false identity comes from that illusion of separateness from God.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Because if we have that, we will also have an illusion of separateness from others.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: And you'll feel it.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: But if you can see the truth, you know it's not even really there.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: That you're joined.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prayed we would know it, we'd see that.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: I pray that they would be one just like we are one.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the answer for that.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: This is why we preach and teach around here to be established in grace, to know the Father's love, so you can be filled with the fullness of God.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: So we don't have a separation mentality.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: We know who Daddy is, therefore we know who we is.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: That's how that's the Bible reveals that so often.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until Saul of Tarsus met Jesus that he found out he was Paul, the builder.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said, Who do you say that I am?
35:16
SPEAKER_00: And Peter had the revelation, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: What's the next thing that happened?
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus reveals to Simon that he's Petra, he's Peter, the rock, the stone.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3 says that when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, we also will be revealed with him in glory.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Here's another thing about this, and this is so true, this is not just talk or poetry.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: But when it says that we are raised and seated together with him in heavenly places, we are with him.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: And our identity, our citizenship is truly from heaven.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, think just think when those who name the name of Christ get a hold of this, what a wonderful change is going to begin happening in this world.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Because they're longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Let me wrap this up very quickly.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 2, 9 says, But you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: The darkness, the obscurity, the separation mentality.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know who we were, but now we see, now we know.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for the truth that makes us free.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: We are ambassadors from heaven.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3.28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: There's not slave nor free.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: You know who you are.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy it.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Please enjoy the Father's house.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Don't make your small identities large.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Henceforth, we regard nobody according to the flesh, according to their temporary identity.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, he had a temporary identity too, didn't he?
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Didn't this the carpenter's son?
37:20
SPEAKER_00: He says, but we don't know him that way any longer.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anybody's in Christ, he's a new creation.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: Old things have passed away.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Look, everything's become new.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Now everything is of God who has reconciled us or made us one.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Not just give us conciliation, but reconciliation.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: He brought us home again, made us one again in the spirit of our minds.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: He has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of doing this very same thing.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm trying to do this morning.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Peter 1, verse 5 says this.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is the passage where he basically lists the fruit of the Spirit in different terminology, but he says, you know, add to your faith, your your your faith virtue and patience and brotherly kindness and all these things.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse 9, but if anyone lacks these things, so somebody says, I know that's who we are, I know that's what we're supposed to be, but boy, I sure don't think like it, I don't feel like it, and I don't even act like it.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's why.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: This is not an indictment.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: This is just this is just showing you what's going on.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: If you're lacking these things, if you're lacking the patience and the brotherly kindness and the love and the faith and all the, he says, it's because he's blind, constantly closing his eyes to the mysteries of our faith and forgetting his innocence.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Because his past sins have been washed away.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: You just forgot who you are, that's all.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: And we all have at least moments like that still.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: I know I do.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: But the good news is that we can turn and look at the truth.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: You are Mufasa's boy.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you are God's child.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: And you deserve the ring on your hand.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: And you deserve the party.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I think there's a celebration not only just when you turn from your gangster ways to becoming a Christian.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a I I feel it anyway.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: I just this is what I feel.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: That there's a celebration every time you see again, or you see more.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: And you got it.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And Daddy's giving you that.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: Now you're seeing.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the party.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy being home where you belong.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, Father, wow.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: What can we say to these things?
40:08
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful salvation.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: All we can say is we love you and we thank you and thank you for being who you are.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being daddy.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: We love being home.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: We love being in your presence.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: For in your presence is fullness, fullness of joy.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And we're thanking you for what we experience today.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Can y'all say amen?
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Be blessed.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful day out there today.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Have a good day.