Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Kiss of God

Transcript

The Kiss of God · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am really glad to be here and to see you all.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I are glad to be back in town this week.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, it's good to be home.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking to some people last night about why we like coming here to Grace Church, and there's a number of things, but a couple of the big ones for me are I like to see uh the people here.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are people here that I really, really like to see.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know me, I I'm looking forward to getting getting to know you too.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know me, my name is Rick, by the way.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but the uh another thing is that it's a place where there is freedom to say some really, really, really good things without God.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you can say it out loud here.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what we're finding out is that there's we don't know where the end of God's goodness is.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm today I'm gonna talk about just I'm gonna talk about God's goodness.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody says, oh brother, again.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I and and I have a reason, a very good reason, I think, for talking about the goodness and the love of God uh as much as I do, is I think it's it's paramount.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's if if you know, if you can be convinced that God is good, I mean, whatever that means, and it means more and more to me all the time, absolutely good.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you can believe that he's really, really, really good, you can trust him with anything.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can trust him through anything.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You'll trust him even when you're when you don't understand things, even when things are confusing, you'll trust him if you know that he's good.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to feel like I've just lost everything and my whole life is just spilled out on the floor, and I don't even know what tomorrow, if there can be a tomorrow, but I knew God was good.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing he's good is that it's it's the it's like it's like the the foundation for for everything that you for your whole life.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm most grateful in my life for somehow God has been able to show me some of his goodness.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's made such an impact and a change in my life.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get into that.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because, you know, it I think in around Christianity we you ask anybody and they'll say, Oh, sure, God is good.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know God is good.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But still, you know, what we have a lot of time in our belief is that God is good, but he's still got some stuff cooking on the back burner that's not so, maybe not so good.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's still, he's still willing to do some horrible things that look to us like very horrible things.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some of the ways that we understand judgment and different things.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, I want to give you a picture here that we're gonna look at one chapter here in the Bible, in Luke chapter 15, and this is where Jesus tells three parables.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we look, as we look at this, we well, I want us to see, I think we'll see another degree, another depth of the goodness and the beauty of God, because what what we preach is the gospel, good news.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is not just something that gets us started in Christianity, the gospel is something that continues to move us and propel us into knowing God.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna hear some good news today.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to get into Luke chapter 15, verse 1.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I like how it starts here because it explains why Jesus is telling these parables.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 1, it says, tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Notorious sinners.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: That means they were known.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: This made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Even eating with them.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've gotten pressure from fellow Christians, my brothers, some brothers and sisters in Christ, not even not even for associating with sinners as much, but as associating with certain certain Christians, believers that love God.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And people have warned me about associating with certain people that that that really love the Lord in a good way, and they maybe they have a different perspective on some of the things as they read the scriptures, but but they they they're they're like, you shouldn't be associating with people like that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So he's associating with notorious sinners and they're complaining about it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: They don't like it, they don't believe in it, they don't think he should do it, right?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so verse 2 says, So Jesus told the story.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is why he's telling the story.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's wanting to tell these religious leaders here why I'm doing what I'm doing.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, he's telling them something about the father's heart that they didn't know anything about.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So he's revealing this.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so he told them a story.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why I do that.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know you don't like it, I know you don't understand it, you don't get it, and and and you're complaining, but let me explain to you why I'm doing what I do.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he told the first story.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go search for the one until uh that is lost until he finds it?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when he's found it, he'll joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when he arrives, he'll call his friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me because I found my lost sheep.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a picture of a shepherd that leaves the 99 and goes after the one.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a hundred sheep, but the one has got his attention.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: The one is where his where is attention on.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that he doesn't care about the 99, he does, but he's giving special care.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Special care to the one that's lost.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me, if you don't quite get it, get get what it means to be lost, really, let me define it uh the way that I now see it.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I used to think what lost meant was that I was just an ungodly person, so therefore I was deserving of hell and I was lost, and Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and what he was just trying to do was he was was first of all uh keep me from going to the bad place and get it to where I can go to the good place, and second of all was to take this bad, ungodly person and make him into a good and godly person.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the way I see it now was that I was lost, ignorant, blinded, um, unaware, wandering, didn't know who I was.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Identity was lost for sure.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Relationship, as far as on my end, I didn't know God.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I wasn't even sure there was a God sometimes.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's lost.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's like Jesus when he looked out of the people, he said they're like sheep having no shepherd.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I don't have a I don't have a leader.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I did.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I did have a father, I still was loved, I was valuable, I was precious, and even when I did some did some ungodly things, because I was what I was, and I was a lost sheep, and I was apart, separated, the Bible says alienated in our minds because of the wicked things that I was doing.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I was this lost sheep and I'm out there, and I'm not thinking much about God, and whatever thoughts I did have about him were wrong.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's lost.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I wasn't this, I wasn't created from the beginning as this evil being.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: When God formed me in the womb, he did not create an evil being that hopefully someday he would become a good being.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I was a sheep that was lost.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And God so loved the world, so I apparently I was loved, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel love, I didn't know I was loved, didn't even know there was a real such a thing the way I see it now, because I was lost.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And now I look at my life and I see a lot of things have been restored, or at least they're being restored.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Identity is one.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: The things I say about who I am with God are nothing like I could have imagined at that time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was lost.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been found, I've been being found.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm coming more to the knowledge of the truth.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly think differently about God, don't you?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's really, really good.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: When I was lost, I was lost.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was blinded, I was ignorant, I didn't, I couldn't see.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was lost.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I but I was worthy of God's attention.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes after that lost one, and he says, and he he he searches for it until he finds it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I'm doing here is I want to show you the four points about the father's heart.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you can, there's a lot of other ones that you can make, but for me today, I want to make four points about God's heart that show his goodness, and it might still be surprising to some of us here.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the degree of a that I see it as I was even putting this together pleasantly surprised me.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me smile, like, oh God, you're so good.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the first point I want to make, we see right here in the first parable, is uh attraction.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That the shepherd, though he had a hundred sheep, because one was lost, he was attracted to that one.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or his attention goes completely on that one.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he went after it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: There was an attraction, if you will.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to tell you that number one, one thing about God's goodness in his heart.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this will shock some of you.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But God is actually attracted to weakness and therefore attracted to sinners.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what they what we see in the in the life of Jesus a lot, don't we?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Don't we see him continually going to sinners?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: He was attracted.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He would go out of his way.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was he would go to Samaria when nobody else, no good Jew, would go there.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because something attracted him.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: He the Bible said he went through Samaria because he had to go there.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: When nobody else felt like they had to go there.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: He crosses a he takes this dangerous journey across the Sea of Galilee to go to Gadera because of that one.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where are we going, Jesus?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're going after the one.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is Gadarine's country.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we landing over here by the graveyard?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, Jesus?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why must you act the way you do towards these their sin?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it out of all these people that you can be validating, that you can be associating with, that you can be gathering around you, why out of all this crowd do you call that notorious sinner Zacchaeus and you say, I want to be with you today?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: There must be an attraction.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's biblical.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Hebrews 4.15 says that we have a high priest who is touched by the feeling of our weaknesses, our infirmities.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Touched by it.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think we look at another verse and we can see why we look at 2 Corinthians 12 is where Paul was asking the Lord, there's this thing that I want you to get rid of?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he asked him and he asked him and he asked God, and finally he he hears the answer where God says to him, My grace is sufficient for you, because my strength is made perfect in weakness.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've always loved the sound of that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: My strength is perfected in weakness.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds great.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's it mean?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I never quite, my brain never quite clicked it right.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know, I I like it, I like love the sound of it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But really, what does it actually mean that your strength is perfected in my weakness?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, the word perfected is what kind of throws us off, because that's the word I think is teleos, I think we have have the definition, and it simply means uh it means to to complete.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: The word perfect or perfected is the word teleos, and it means to complete something.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when you look at it that way, what he's saying is, is that my strength completes your lack of strength.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's like, let's say I've got a glass of water, but there's no water, so it's just a glass, but it's supposed to be holding water.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's going to complete that?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: This would, if we put this in that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And God is his strength, is that which completes our lack of strength.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It makes us whole, it fulfills us.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it was made to be that way.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was God and man.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: That was the intention the whole time, and of course we see that in Jesus, God and man together.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing, and even though Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, God was with him.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that made all the difference.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes all the difference with us is that we that God has chosen the weak and foolish things of this world.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Chosen it.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's an attraction.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: On purpose, he wanted this.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: He creates man, Adam and Eve being the first that we see, and creates this man in weakness, with weakness.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But yet the whole intention was that God would be with God and man would be together, so the strength of God would complete the lack of strength of man, and together, the intention of God would be, they would be together.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: It would be this love thing that would be going on the whole time.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bride and bridegroom, father, son.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: It would be what however you want to depict it, it was always God and man together.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: That was the whole thing.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: But to be lost is what we see in the Garden of Eden.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: We see an Adam pulling away, feeling separate and separated from God with this illusion of separation.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is clear in Ephesians says that we were enemies, separated in our minds.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the wicked works.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, because of what they did, pull away.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please remember, it wasn't God that pulled away.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't God that said, Oh, because of your sin, I can never look on you again.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was God coming to man still.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it was man that was the sheep that got lost.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: But God has always loved mankind.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the lamb was slain from before the fall.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because this was going to happen.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was going to seek and he was going to save that which was lost.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was going to happen.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the attraction is that the strength is to fill the lack of strength.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus was doing the whole time.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere where there was that with in these situations, there was a lack of strength, and Jesus became the completion of that lack of strength.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the intention.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the weakness of man, and you could even say the sinfulness of man, because that's the manifestation of the weakness.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So where we think in religion, where we think that that weakness is something that it must be gotten rid of.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've begged God, God, take this away.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you fix me?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just change me?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't like it, and you can I know you can't like it.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: To agree, case close, do it.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now my grace is sufficient for you, son.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's my strength that fulfills complete your lack of strength.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's walk together.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let me love you.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like you.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Depart from me.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a wicked and sinful man.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I like you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm not worthy to be called your son.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've sinned against heaven and against you.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Where are my ring, son?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: You belong in the house with me.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like you.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: How can you love me like this?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's attracted to me.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was so attracted to me.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: That at some point I began to be profound.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, his drawing for this one that he kept moving upon.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow, somehow, through all that ignorance and the blindness and the darkness and the sinfulness and the stubbornness and the rebellion and everything that I was doing, how did somehow that light get in there?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's because the shepherd looks until.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: We see an attraction.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Point number one.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The next part is another parable of the lost coin.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says in verse eight.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors and she says, Rejoice with me because I've found my lost coin.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's another point here.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this point is intention.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is something else about the heart of the Father.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is he attracted to you and or attracted to them, he is attracted to the weakness of mankind, which does often result in a manifestation of sin.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how he can God can still love the world while we were yet sinners.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: God loved us and Christ died for the ungodly.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: But his intention is really, really good in this.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what we see here is he says, this woman turns on the light, sweeps the whole house.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And she looks until.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, she doesn't just give it a good old college try here.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't do what I've done a lot of time.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've looked everywhere.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it's lost.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Judy, where's the screwdriver?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's in that drawer.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all have this done, then she comes and she goes, shh, shh, shh, it's right there.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you didn't tell me it was under something.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't look a while and say, Well, it's gone.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, he said, here's what she and remember, he's explaining himself to them.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm doing what I'm doing.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this woman, and she looks until.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And she succeeds.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: How many believe that Jesus succeeded?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: In the finding.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, what he did with his life, his death on the cross, that whole thing, what did he do?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to me.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: He did draw mankind to him.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: He succeeded.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, She looked until.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: We see the intention of God.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to show you something about the intention.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And to do this, I just want to read this little passage out of Ephesians chapter 1.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to show it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's there again.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm doing is showing something about the heart of God.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I like point one.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love talking about that attraction because that kind of blows out some barriers there.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of blows out that, yeah, but he doesn't like what they're doing.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't either.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't either, a lot of it.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's many things about me, things that I do, ways that I do things, ways that I think that could be considered ungodly.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: At what point?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the line where God starts liking or disliking me?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Him being God.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: You ever read the scriptures where that says, even if we're faithless, he abides faithful.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: He cannot deny himself.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: He can't stop being God.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Love cannot stop being love because of what I do.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7 says, In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So point number one, as we look at this item of Intention of God is that is that this whole thing is done because of and according to the riches of his grace.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't think anybody in this world is too much grace.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everything about this is according to the riches of his grace, verse 8, which he made, he did this, he made it to abound toward us in all of his wisdom and prudence.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: This was God's intention, it was God's idea, it was God's plan.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, and having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: This was going to happen.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because God wanted it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: God did not just, just like, you know, I'm going to lose everything here if I don't provide a loophole.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea that a lot of us as Christians have is somehow in all of this, all that Jesus was, was sort of this, now there's a chance.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I sent Jesus.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's a chance.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you can find it, there's a chance.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or did God have an intention that was bigger?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Did God, was God's heart so big?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that it could be so big that he purposed in himself something bigger than we dreamed?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, and he did it so that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth in him.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Could God be that good and that big?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And was that his intention from the beginning?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I like what somebody said about God's high regard, his respect for humanity, his high regard, his high opinion of humanity.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Even though not not understanding everything that we do, all these ungodly things we do, but how much he regards his creation, his children.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that he created a race of beings that can actually say no.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's respect.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: In the bigness and the glorious grace of God's heart, he creates you and I with the ability to actually say no.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Very high regard.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we know in the story of the Garden of Eden, it seems to be pretty apparent that he knew that man would say no.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Don't eat of that tree.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: But when you do, you're gonna die.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But from before that, the Lamb was already prepared.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Lamb was coming.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Before man ever did a deed that needed a lamb, God already purposed in his heart.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that in the fullness of times, he could do what it says there.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 11 says, and in him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now the word predestined gets really wonky with that in church because of things that have been said about it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean predestined.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you were supposed to get saved and you weren't.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: It means it was predetermined according to his will.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was pre-the whole thing was predetermined.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: God was never at a loss.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: He did not have to come up with another plan.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what am I going to do with all of these horrible people?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: That God was, maybe God was bigger than all that.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe God is absolute love.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Such a love that the Bible says we can't really even comprehend it, but we can be touched by it and can be filled with it.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And such a love.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that God could, that this God that we say is good all the time, that this God that we say is love, is it possible that he has that much love?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that he had such an intention in this that he didn't just throw a chance out there and hope you make it?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And here I am, I'm this solitary God out here, and and I've got some real good things for you if you make it.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, hey, I don't lose a thing.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or is the whole thing with Jesus coming and demonstrating what he's doing by associating, loving, granting goodness and grace, and it looks like even favor to notorious sinners.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is he showing an intention?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm doing this on purpose.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm showing you, and when they say, why do you do these things?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just doing what I see daddy do.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying what I hear him say.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to know the intention of God, look at me.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the third point, we look at that third parable.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the prodigal son, right?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh let's pick that up in about uh I guess verse 17.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, Well, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and I'm dying of hunger.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go home to my father and say, Father, I've sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Please take me on as a hired servant.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he returned to his father.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Returned home to his father.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming, filled with love and compassion, ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a point.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if every one of you have seen this before, but here was the way I pictured it most of my Christian life.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Was I could see the father kind of maybe looking out the window and saying, hey, my son's here.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw the fun, like son coming through the gate and he's walking towards the porch, and the father runs out there and meets him in the front yard, and there's the hug and the kiss and and and all the good stuff going on.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: But what I missed was while he was still far away, while he was still far away, I don't know how many kilometers or miles or or or yards or whatever, but he was far away.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: This was not like in the front yard.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he sees him, and I picture him, you know, maybe looking out the window or looking out the door.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's been looking for a you know every day for a long time, but he's looking and he sees him coming while he's far away.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Who's that coming over the hills there?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's my boy.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he runs.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Daddy runs, jumps off the porch, runs through the front yard, runs past the gate, runs on down the road, runs, he runs to the sun while the sun was far away.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: My boy, it's my boy, it's my boy, it's my boy.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: We see the passion and compassion of our father.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Passion.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not just like, all right, Jesus, I'll give him a shot.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give him a shot.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and go for it.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: The passion.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: My child.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's my child.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming home.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's like the happiest day of the man's existence.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he finally gets to him and he falls on him and he's kissing him, kissing him.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: My son, my son, my son.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's kissing him.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this shows a passion that I think a lot of people don't think about with the Father.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think of Zechariah 3.17 that tells us that God sings over you, sings about you with shouts of joy.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that we sing about God, we sing to God.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever think about him singing about you, singing to you?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Joyful songs.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because in all these parables, don't we see a party, don't we see a celebration every single time?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, there's more joy in heaven.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Over one, that metanoia is over one sinner that changes his mind, comes home, than over all of those who.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says they need no change of mind, but that word there means they find no use for it.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: We see the passion in the father over the lost one.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we, of course, we know towards the end of the story, there's the other son that's like doing what the Pharisees were doing, complaining that you're showing such attention and association and favor to this boy, and look what he's done.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: This horrible thing, that horrible thing, this one.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I've just tried to do what you want.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, but there's more joy because the one that was lost has been found.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Such joy about what we call salvation, which is healing and wholeness for us.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Being found, finding out who you are, finding out your right place with your, with, with, with, with your daddy, finding out that you belong in this house.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you have freedom to be in this house.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you're a weak and foolish vessel, and and very what what man would call imperfect.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure God does.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said, just be holy.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but I'm imperfect.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Be holy.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've sinned and I'm not worthy that you're my son.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Be my son.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: When Judy and I first got married, she said, Well, you know, I'm new at this.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: You've been married for many years before.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can I do to be to be a better wife to you?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, just keep breathing.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just be my wife.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not loving a fur a future version of you.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I can do so much better.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, probably, but I love you.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: If I wanted a future version, I would have waited till the future.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: I like you now, the way you are now.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't do everything right.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I like you.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So why do we feel like we have to add this when we say God loves everybody?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why do people feel compelled to say, yes, but he doesn't like everything we do?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or they do, is what they normally say.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: They do.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's because in the back of their mind, God's not quite that good.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's good, but.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is showing in these stories is we don't see any but here.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: What we see is all these lost things, including a lost person, sinful, wasteful, disgraceful, loved with passion, intention, and someone that's worthy to be celebrated, like you are, every single day.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you ever get that?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: You ever feel that when you're like like a light turns on and you see something else about the Father that's even better than you thought it was, and you're like, ooh, and you can almost feel that attaboy, like God's smiling, like, you're getting it.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting it.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's passionate about that.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: He likes that.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, that's why you know you talk about his pleasure.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: I read where we're created for his pleasure, or what pleases you, God, and well, Jesus said, Well, don't be afraid, fear not, because it's your father's good pleasure.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: It pleases him to give you the kingdom.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I've um but I've sinned against him, and I'm not worthy to be called his son.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It pleases him to give you the kingdom, wear the ring, put on the robe, eat the cake and the fat calf, and have a party.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: You belong here.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're mine.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the fourth point, is the celebration.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: There is real celebratory, there is a real celebratory state of the Father's heart over every one of his people that are coming home.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was a celebratory heart or the joy that was in the heart of Jesus for the joy set before him, he could endure that cross.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because it delighted the Father to bring many sons to glory.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to tell you a story about a loving father.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh actually Judy shared it with me.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think you I think you got it from Tullian, Javidian, I think that is.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we even need to say the last name?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: If we say Tullian, we know who.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, you know, Bozo the clown.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even have to say the clown, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we kind of get it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, he's uh if I understand, he shares a story about someone that he actually knew, right?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the story goes that there was a man who was a pastor, and um he had a son, I guess much like this prodigal son, and the son had not been around in a long time.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was off doing his own thing and doing his his his his his drug life and that that that lifestyle.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't have anything to do with his family, he was just out there, just gone.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Dad didn't know where he was most of the time.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: But one night after midnight, he gets a phone call.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this was back before cell phones.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: He gets a phone call, gets one of those phone rings.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: You ever had a phone ring after midnight?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you just know immediately something bad.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh on the other end, the guy says, uh, this is so-and-so down at the police station.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have your son down here, you need to come down here.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he just throws his clothes on, gets in the car, and drives down to the police station.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: When he gets there, they don't know anything about it.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, no, your son's not here.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't, we didn't we didn't call you.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, maybe it was another station somewhere.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even assume that.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets in his car and he drives to these other towns around.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: None of them have his son, is not there.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: So he's driving around, he doesn't know where his son is, and he's all concerned and he's worrying, like, why would somebody call me and say that?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what's going on?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so he does drive by this this uh flop house where you know the the users all just crash out and wherever they can there, and they and he he pulls up and he he he walks into the house, and there's people laying on the floors and everything, and he walks through the rooms and he he sees his son laying there.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's alive and he's asleep, and he turns to leave, but then he turns back and walks over to his son, he bends over and he kisses him on the face, and then he turns around and he goes home.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a couple of weeks later, his son shows up at the house, just shows up.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just thought I'd stop by and see you guys.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Leaves again.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime later, days, maybe weeks, he shows up again, has dinner with him.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: A few of those things happen.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: He comes and he stays longer every time, and finally he came one time and he just stayed, and he didn't leave, and he just family was enjoying each other, they were laughing with each other, they were enjoying each other, having meals together, and it was getting really nice.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: The parents were loving it.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: The son seemed to enjoy being there.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the dad, who hadn't been wanting, didn't want to disrupt this thing, didn't say much about it, finally asks him and he says, son, everything is so different now.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm loving this.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What made the change?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, you remember that night when you got the phone call from the police station?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And his dad said, I never told anybody else except your mother.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, that was me and my friend.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We thought it would be really funny if on a Saturday night, when you got to preach the early the next morning, if we if we pulled a prank on you and you went around looking for me all night long.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when you came to the house where I was, he said, we were awake.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: We saw you pull up, and we act all acted like we were asleep.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I was awake when you kissed me.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: When you walked into that room, I tensed up.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I thought you were going to holler, I thought you were going to kick me or something.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I knew that I'd been caught, that you'd found where I was.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you didn't say anything, you kissed me and walked away.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't get the kiss out of my mind, and I couldn't get the kiss out of my mind, and what it what did it mean about you?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what was it about that that I wasn't getting anywhere else that I was?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I just it just kept talking to me, and I began to realize that well, maybe maybe there is a place where there's love for me.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there is, maybe I want to be here.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is the place that I want to be with you, Dad.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because the kiss spoke so much, much like the prodigal son's father planting the kisses on his son.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: The kiss of God, what the kiss of God is to you.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's those moments.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've probably all had them.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where something happens, something, an awareness happens in a moment, and it's like, God is really good.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: And God really loves me.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the kiss is often a surprise.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't know you loved me that much.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: I knew you were good, but I didn't know it was that good.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I had eternal security, but I didn't know I was this safe.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I was this secure.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the kiss is those moments of realization and revelation.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a love thing that's happening to you, and that's where this is all at.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Rick does not talk about love too much.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what all of this is.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's your power.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Love is light.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Love is life.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can stake everything on that love, on the kiss of your father.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: When things get scary in situations in life, there's those moments.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you can get the kiss.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you, child.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're safe.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: When it seems like it's more than you can bear, we can do this.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it hurts, Father.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I can do this.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Father's love, the father's kiss is everything to you.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Father, I celebrate you.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: I, none of us have words to really talk about any of this.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I do trust in your spirit to give the kiss to whosoever.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: To let us see, to let us know, to let us be touched by the goodness of a heart that we just know very little bit about, but that little bit has touched us, and we're ever grateful.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it feels good to be home.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for so great a salvation.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that you know our hearts because our words are so small.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be home.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home, church.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.