Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Is God Bound by Justice? Part 2

Transcript

Is God Bound by Justice? Part 2 · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So many of you know that Matt started something that he he said he's going to be continuing, so I jumped in on it because he's talking about Christian cliches.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so last week I started on something that's kind of a cliche or something that we hear a lot in the body of Christ, and that is that God is a just God.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or or or it's said this way that God is love, but he's also just.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that what you got out of it, those of you that heard it, was that he is just, in a sense, is bound by justice, but that justice may be something totally different than what a lot of us could have thought.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different kind of justice.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible uses the term righteous judgment and unrighteous judgment.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It says in Isaiah 11, it says, when the Messiah would come, said that he would not judge by the seeing of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, but he would judge righteously.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he wouldn't judge outwardly.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't be by the things that people do.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It would be more about something internal, which we have to think about the value of humanity in that.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus would tell parables of one of them was about an unrighteous judge.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the parable where somebody kept banging on the door and banging on the door and banging on the door.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And finally the judge is like, all right, just if it'll make you shut up here.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he said he wasn't saying that's how God is, he was saying that's an unrighteous judge.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So how much more will your righteous father just give to you?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So and another way of saying that is that you you could compare restorative justice to retributive justice.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something we want to I want to look at more today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is kind of a part two of the topic of God's justice or is God just?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is he a just God?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say he is faithful and just.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he's faithful and just to forgive our sins.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start this this morning by looking at a verse of scripture.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if we've got the there's, you know, the mentality that, you know, the Bible is God's word, and if it's in the Bible, God said it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Psalms 137, verse 8.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this was something that King David had written.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, O Babylon, you will be destroyed.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love God's word?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does your spirit believe that God wants to take babies and smash them against the rocks?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, so but but in the Bible it says, happy is the one.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's saying, he's saying, happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's a retributive justice, right?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so David's calling for that, wanting that, rejoicing in the idea of that, at least in this particular moment here.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Happy is the one that takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: He wants a kind of justice, and he wants God to do this.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he maybe even believes that that's going to happen.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's taking solace or maybe even some joy in the idea that God is going to pay them back for what they have done.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It seems right to him.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: They have done horrible things to the people of Israel.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's only right and fair, in some minds, and in his mind here, that God pays them back by bringing this kind of thing to them.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so right here, a point that we can make right here is just because it's quoted in the Bible doesn't mean that God's saying it, or it's certainly not in his heart to do that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't just look at a, go back and look at a scripture and say, well, here's a verse right here.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, this is God.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we look at that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the in the New Testament, if you look at how they would do it, they would use scripture, they would quote scripture at times, but the preeminence was always with the Spirit showing them, leading them something.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then they would, they might see it in the scripture and be able to use that, you know, because Jesus, he introduced to them a father that was much different than their than their minds were holding.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And these were people that were very much in the scriptures, I mean just soaked in it, but they didn't understand God the way that Jesus understood the Father and revealed it to them.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so those that took on the yoke of Jesus, they followed in that by the Spirit.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, the Spirit will teach you, the Spirit will show you these things, the Spirit will reveal to you these things that I'm saying to you.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so they would go along, the apostles, the disciples, the people of God afterward, they would minister things that the Spirit was leading them into that maybe they would not have understood with certainly without the Spirit.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But they had the scriptures here.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So what so just using the scripture only, it can be proven that God is a retributive God, that He wants retribution rather than restoration.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, something we see when we look at this verse is we look at this retributive justice and we see what it brings about.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: What is the end result of it?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: One might say, well, it it kind of evens the scales.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, an eye for an eye.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, retributive justice, look at it, it brings, we see it in this verse, it brings destruction, it brings torment, it brings death.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you look at an ultimate worldwide retributive justice, that's that's the picture we get.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And some may want that.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Some may think that's that's right, that's good, that's fair, but we would have to admit that what we might think is right, good, and fair, it will bring about destruction, it will bring about torment, it will bring about death for somebody, for those deserving that we that we deem deserving.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Something about this is that Proverbs 1625 makes a statement and says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it can seem right, it seems like it balances the scales.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, they've been they've done horrible things to us.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait until it evens out and their babies get smashed against the rocks.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of satisfies our scales of justice in our mind, but it still has to it only works with destruction, torment, and death.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Judy and I were talking yesterday and kind of about these things a little bit, and I said, you know, there's something about the spirit of life that's so beautiful, that's so amazing, so loving, so good, and in in in all of its ways.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can't look at nature.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: We were we were talking about nature and flowers because Judy was bringing out how, and I don't know if you've ever thought of this, flowers.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, flowers have a utilitarian service.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: They do something through, they they attract the bugs that pollinate and you know, the cross-pollinate.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They do, they do their work, they have a purpose.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Many of them they'll be they'll go on to become seeds and continue to reproduce nature.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, they really don't have to be beautiful, though.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they so pretty?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because goodness, quote, this is actually what you brought out in your book, the ones the fresh fruit of the spirit, I think.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness gives extra.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness gives goodness.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness gives extra, gives love, gives beauty.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It shows the heart of God that he didn't just want us to survive.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to give us something extra.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to give beauty, he wanted to give something that would that would actually be good even to our senses.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Flowers are the the beauty of flowers are sensual.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Food doesn't have to taste delicious, it could taste like dirt, and we would eat it because we have to survive.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: But goodness gives extra.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and every what I'm getting at is everything about creation is goodness, and he called it good when he made it, and there's nothing about it when I look at it, and all that God created with the works of his hands, nothing about it says anything like this to me, a retributive justice.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing in my spirit about God points to that, but it keeps pointing to restorative justice.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because restorative justice does these things, it establishes our connection, first of all, with God.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you, when you began to get a grace awakening, that his grace really truly was sufficient and is sufficient for you?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that work on the cross, this gospel message really reflects something about the Father's heart that's not so clear without that gospel message, without love dying on a cross, without Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let me represent the lambs and the and the sacrifices for the sins and let it be seen once and for all, forever, so that all of mankind can know there is nothing between them and God.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: There is no separation.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: The sin that they think separates no longer is an issue because look at this cross and let it speak to you forevermore.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every day if it needs to.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everything about it, everything about that gospel message opens up where you can begin to see your connection, not your separation, but your connection with a God that loves you very, very, very much, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And doesn't grace convince you that he's better than maybe you thought he was?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It brings about metanoia, changes your mind.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that kind of grace speak of a love for you that's maybe better than what maybe your religious ideas were about him before?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's true for me.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to say that what that gospel does, what Jesus did by coming, was he didn't change the father's mind about me, but he changed my mind about the father.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And because of the beauty of that message, my connection in my mind, my awareness, my consciousness joined to him in a way that can bring tears to my eyes.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Such a beautiful love, such a beautiful connection.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: This boy who was who was told so many ugly things about himself, had an identity established from a very young age as being something that was not lovable through the gospel, was connected to the one that loves me with no conditions at all.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that supersedes anybody's opinion, even my own.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Connection with God.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this kind of justice does.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And restorative justice is seen on that cross, isn't it?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Father forgive them, for they know not, but they do.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: It establishes our connection with God, and then the next thing we notice is, or at least I noticed, was that what started happening then was it began to establish my connection with myself to where I quit carrying the condemnation and that sense of not quite being good enough and not, and I needed to become somebody else or something else that was better than what I am right now.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I began to accept me with all my flaws, my weaknesses, my fallibilities, and accept the fact that you know what, I'm weak, and hopefully I'll grow in some areas and want to do better, want to treat people better.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: But between now and then, I'm complete in him, and I can embrace Rick when I used to reject myself because everybody else did, and I was convinced that Rick just wasn't that good, and so I wanted to be something else and denying, and even as a Christian, kept thinking that I was a bad Rick, trying to become a good Rick, and I would try to separate myself from my weaknesses and the and the failures of my life.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I began to see how the Father loved me stink and all.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the parable is that he wanted that one treasure in the field, so he bought all the dirt around it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I could have I I established that connection with myself to where I began to carry less condemnation and sense of not being good enough, and I began to accept me just the way I was, with my quirks, my idiosyncrasies, even my weaknesses, with the hope of knowing the Father more, knowing myself more, and growing into that image.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it established more my connection with humanity.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So all of this grace message is a restorative justice message, isn't it?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just think of the very definition of grace.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of speaks that to you.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it established my connection with humanity, and I see it happening more and more.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm embracing people that do certain things or types of people, types that I once rejected in the name of Christianity, in the name of God, rejecting certain types of people because what I could see in the scriptures, maybe they needed their babies dashed against the rocks.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's kind of extreme, but I didn't probably didn't literally think that, but something in that direction.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this restorative justice that works in us causes us to not only see God in a more beautiful way, to see ourselves in a more beautiful way, but to see humanity in a more beautiful way.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you if you keep growing in this, you can't help but feel more and more connected rather than disconnected.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are nodding your head.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's that's the work that goes on inside of us.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go to Isaiah 58, and I want to read this passage of scripture here, and we'll spend most of the rest of our time in Isaiah 58.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's just jump in and start reading in verse 2.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: God speaking to them prophetically through Isaiah, says, They ask of me the ordinances of justice.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: They take delight in approaching God, and they say, We have fasted and you haven't seen us.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you see a transactional relationship going on here?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We're fasting, something ought to be happening here.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing all we can.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're fasting, we're seeking you, and why are we doing all these things?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're afflicting our souls here, God, and you're not answering.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're not doing what we want you to do.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why have you not seen us?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like you take no notice.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because when there's a sense of disconnection rather than connection, then the best that you can try to do is have some kind of a transactional relationship with anybody.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: If there's a disconnect with another human being and you've got any kind of thing going on with them, it's probably gonna be transactional.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the very idea of natural human love that was taught is that it's basically I love you if you love me.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a transactional thing.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so here, because there is a disconnect with God, there's a belief in God, there's a devotion to God, but without the grace, they're not getting the connection, but they're trying something.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they try a transactional relationship.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned that last week, how for many years of my Christianity it was very much transactional.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was like I, if I do these things, if I fulfill these ordinances of obedience, if I I quote the if I quote the scripture, if I speak the right things, if I uh give the right amounts, then God is basically obligated to move.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's obligated to show up, he's obligated to bless me because I looked at it, I found it in the scriptures where people pointed me to it and showed me these things, and people taught from the from the pulpits that here are the three steps to getting blessings from God, here are the seven steps to getting your prayers answered, here are the 12 steps to whatever else.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we follow those steps and we fulfill those few steps, and then somebody else writes another book about more steps, and it's gonna be three steps, seven steps, twelve steps, some holy number, 40 steps, and and and and you're trying to fulfill.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then do you see that that's a transactional relationship because I was not grace-minded.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was transactional-minded because I still felt a sense of disconnect.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because my my theology still had me as not being good enough for God in his presence.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Someone even taught, and I embraced it at the time, that God was too holy to ever embrace me, and his heart breaks because we are so unholy, he cannot even hug his own children because he's too holy.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's certainly a disconnect.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what can I do?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a connection.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: They would teach a theological connection.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: They would teach about, you know, this connection that Jesus made for us somehow, but in in our consciousness, we we we didn't we didn't have it because we didn't, we didn't know he was that good.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: We still had we still had a lot of this retributive justice in our minds, so he was good up to a point.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: The next verse, Isaiah 58.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: He said, indeed, verse 4, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: You'll not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: There again, what's there again?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're wanting justice here.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're fasting here, like God do something about them against people, essentially, and you want to strike with the fist of wickedness.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: You want, you, you want some, so they're hoping for a retributive justice.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, he said, Is that the fast that I've chosen?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: A day for a man to afflict his soul?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is it to bow down your head like a bull rush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, He said, Is that really who you think I am?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: You think that's what I want for you?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: You think that I just want you to afflict your soul and just and just to be miserable and just to you think the more miserable you make yourself, that's going to please me somehow?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: You think the more miserable you make yourself, the more you deny, the more you you think that that's what I'm looking for?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: See, because with God, it's not about afflicting anybody, me or you or them, whoever them is.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about afflicting, it's about lifting.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is about lifting humanity, not about eliminating humanity, or any part of it, really.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way I see it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 says, Is not this the fast that I've chosen?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there are people doing wickedness, for sure.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: On our most base level, the eye for the eye kind of justice fits the bill.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: In our most basic level of survival and fight or flight, and that kind of it's a simplified thing.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it seems to take care of the issue of evil and wickedness.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's restorative, then we have this kind of language where he talks about rather than repaying wickedness, rather than bringing torment and pain to wickedness, it's loosing those bonds of wickedness.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I wasn't a serial killer.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm talking about myself.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I wasn't.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: But when I look at my past, I've done some things that I would never ever do.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I shudder to think of some of the things that I have said and done.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly cannot tell you that God has repaid that wickedness to me.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am not up here suffering torment and pain because of the wicked things that I had done.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, those bonds that I had, the bonds of wickedness, if you will, by and large have been loosed to a great degree.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm up here because I'm a trophy of grace.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm up here because I'm a showcase of his goodness, of his restorative justice for me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than pay me back an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, somehow he loosed my bonds of wickedness, and I don't act like that anymore.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because a heart changed happened from this connection, and that's how the spirit of life brings restorative justice or restorative judgment.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's spoken very well in Romans chapter 5 when it said, by one man's disobedience, condemnation, death came unto all men, resulting in condemnation.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: So then by one man's obedience, Jesus, the free gift of life came to all, resulting in justification of life.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's justification?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's justice, that's justifying.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Those he called, those he foreknew, he called, those he called, he justified, and those he justified, he glorified.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's restorative justice.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if it was all retributive, then for many years I fell into the camp of those that the church would have looked at and said, They need to be wiped out and destroyed.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was in that camp.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, I want to I want to glance at Matthew 11, since we're looking at this verse 6 here.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Something that Jesus says in Matthew 11.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're familiar with it, verse 28.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: 1128 says, Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: This sounds like, and I believe it intentionally correlates with Isaiah chapter 58, verse.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: The fast I've chosen is to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I'm the one that does that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I, if your labor, labor, and your heavy burden, I'll give you rest.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is to take his yoke upon you in a sense it meant take that, take that mask, that teacher's, take that teacher's application and his interpretation of the scriptures, is what that language meant to those people in those days.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, the way that I'm seeing it, take this upon you.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I interpret.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Interpret this, take that upon you because it's light, it's easy on you.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: That shows the heart and the will of God for the people in sending Jesus.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: My application of these scriptures, my interpretation, my revelation about God, it will bring rest for your souls.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: To me, the message is so beautiful.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd really truly more than ever in my life want the whole world to hear and to know God.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I always would have said I wanted that, but it was from a different kind of motivation at one time.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: For one, it was because you're supposed to.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was drilled in our churches that we want to change the world, go to all the world, go to all the world, go to all the world and Christianize them, and that's not what the Bible said.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it didn't even say go and make converts, did it?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: It said make disciples.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Teach them my ways, teach them the truth.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them, you'll find rest for your souls because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what did he say to the teachers and the Pharisees of those that time?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're putting heavy burdens on people.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot bear the burdens that you're putting on people.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to lift the heavy burden and give us his yoke, which is easy and light.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 58, verse 7 says, Here, is it not my will, is it not the fast that I've called to share your bread with the hungry?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Bring to your house the poor that are cast out.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you see the naked, that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even God covered Noah, I mean excuse me, covered Adam.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then that's that's that's not working, Adam, that dressing like a tree.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a tree, trying to hide among the trees, trying to pretend you're one of those because you don't like don't like who you really are, how you were made, you've seen your weakness, you've seen your ability to fail.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're still the man that I made, and it was good.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are any of you familiar with the story of um heard somebody tell it where there was a man who is a boat with a very successful photographer, and he had gotten to the point to where his photography with if if he got this, if he said, All I need, he said, if I get this one perfect picture, this one beautiful photograph, and I can sell that, that will that's good, I'm good for the year.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I need.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just gotta get one that's right, one that's one that's it, one that's good.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they get on on the boat and they go down the river, and the man's got his camera, and there's this beautiful bird just sits over, and he takes off right in front of them, flying in front of them on the water, and he snaps pictures of it, and then he puts the camera down and he says, I'm done.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm finished.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: We can just enjoy do just enjoy the day now.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: His work was done because he got it right at that time.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: He he had he had done it perfectly.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was good.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they liken that to the fact that God made creation, and at the end of creation, he makes man done.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And God rested on the seventh day.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So all that he made was good.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: But what about the wickedness?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Man, man was gonna fall.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't you know that?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: God yeah.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: The New Testament said the works were finished from the beginning.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: God can rest because his will and his way is taking place.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately shall be.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Acts says, and he will send Jesus whom the heavens must receive until the times of restoration of all things.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Justice carried out.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Remember even Noah?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: There were two things.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Noah, Noah gets drunk and lays there, lays, lays in lays lays in the tent naked.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: They got three sons.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: One son goes in there, ah, come look! Daddy's got no clothes on.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You guys gotta see this.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: The other two like, I don't want flaunt the shame of his nakedness, so they take a blanket.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: The two brothers put it on their shoulders and they walk backwards, and they cover the man because they didn't take delight in exposing the shame.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so the scripture we just see, he says, When you see the naked, you cover him.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't point the finger at him.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't say we're better than them, you cover.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's two kinds of justice.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: One is to expose, the other is to cover.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about illegal cover up in the natural world, we're talking about restorative justice.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here in verse 8, Isaiah 58, he says, Doing that?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: What is he doing here?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see this?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's bringing metanoia here, if they can hear it and see it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're thinking all this, here is my way that you haven't known yet.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go with this, he says, then your light will break forth like the morning, your healing will spring forth speedily, your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will make be your rear guard.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is Soteria, making creation whole, beginning with my heart and yours.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Then you'll call, and the Lord will answer, and you'll cry, and he'll say, He'll say, Here I am, I'm here, we're connected, you'll know.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They'll all know me from the greatest to the least.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness, love is taking over.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's restorative justice.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're not The devaluing of humanity really stops in Christ, and the valuing starts to rise.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will dawn in the darkness, your darkness will be like the new day, children of light.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought, strengthen your bones, and you'll be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose spring of water whose waters do not fail, Jesus said.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: It would be like rivers of living water, and your souls would be satisfied, not demanding anybody's babies to be dashed against the rocks.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And those from among you will build the waste places and raise up the foundations of many generations, and you'll be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in, not the destroyer, not the tormentor.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus restored our path.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, I want to close with this thing.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving me your time this morning.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: God is beautiful.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: God is powerful, powerful enough to bring light to the darkness, to restore the soul of mankind.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: I rejoice in it.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: I revel in it.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I party in it sometimes.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I love the restoration.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: It just fills up your vision.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to close with this.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Judy and I watched some time back, there was a miniseries on TV called The Beast in Me.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not something I recommend.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sounding like Matt now.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: He'll tell you about a movie, then he'll say, I don't recommend it, but but but because it's a psychological thriller and there's some stuff in it, you know.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the very end of it to me was worth it.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: We watched it because Judy likes, I'm blaming it on Judy.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't like psychological thrillers, but she loves good performances.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: There were some good actors in it that we we saw there were some very good actors in it.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to watch it because of that.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the story, the story is there was a woman, she was a writer, but her son had been killed a few years before.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he was killed by um a boy or young man run over by a car, hit by a car, and killed.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she was had been grieving and hadn't got hadn't gotten over it and was hurt and it wasn't right, and she would see this boy, other boys sometimes, and he was just going on with his life, and hers was gone.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's not fair.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she's pretty sure he was he was driving drunk when it happened, and he should have he should have had to pay for it, with at least prison.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she gets it, and a neighbor moves in, and he's a bit of a tormentor, kind of, plays cat and mouse with her, and finds out what her weakness is, and it's her grief, and it's her hurt and her pain, and he has this other boy killed and lets her know about it.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: She acts like she she was angry about it, but he says, I know that's what you really want.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then this guy turned out to be such a bad guy, and finally at the end, he goes to prison.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: He k he's somebody that had killed his wife and done some horrible things, and he goes to prison and he dies in prison.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: He gets killed in prison.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what she says about it.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: She's speaking at a gathering at the end, and she's telling her story, and she says, Now, is this karmic justice?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Boy who killed my boy, dies.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: The man who killed his wife and had been terrorizing me finally goes to prison and gets killed.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is this karmic justice?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a happy ending?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Retribution is seductive like that.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: It promises a clean line between good and evil, but it's an illusion.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know because I felt its pull.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: After losing my son, I cradled vengeance like a second grief, like a sacred companion.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: I told myself a story about right and wrong, about punishing the guilty.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: This man smelled my bloodlust, and he he he midwifed that story into being.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: He soaked up my rage, and like some dark angel, he made manifest a wish that's too horrible to name.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it left another mother to grieve her son.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's another rage that grows unchecked.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Vengeance, birthing vengeance.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wound that never heals.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I am complicit in this cycle.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: My hands are far from clean in this cycle.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it ended, sadly, to say, stand up, guys.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm now let me pray.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I read that to show you that if we carry that out, the idea of retributive vengeance or justice, it doesn't solve anything.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cycle that fallen humanity has continued to perpetuate.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if our minds are clouded, we think God wants to perpetuate that same kind of justice.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it's restorative, praise God.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I are here because of restorative justice.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the joy of life, salvation, the goodness of your love and your grace.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: I give everyone here the license and the freedom to enjoy you, to enjoy the life that you have given, and to enjoy who they are in their individuality with all of their weakness and flaws and frailties, that they are absolutely loved, and your heart and your plans for them are good and not evil, to give them a hope and a future, to bring them to the expected end that you have prepared.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, for the beauty of the gospel.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I celebrate it today.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you, Father, for every life here that has experienced your restorative justice.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we revel in that in the wonderful name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.