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Transcript

The Treasure We Carry · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let all fighting cease.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Prince of Peace has come.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Have you guys um are you all listening to Christmas music already?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most of you.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you guys still defending Thanksgiving and say no?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, okay, that's cool.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's all right.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We happen to be listening this morning and I and we were talking about.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I love the season.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a real focus.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's so cool because the whole world begins to focus this season.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you listen to a lot of the you listen to a lot of the old Christmas songs, and um, you know, God and sinner reconciled.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's all it's there's so much finished work in these these Christmas songs.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um joy to the world, the Lord has come.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let Earth receive her king.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and this morning I'm I'm I'm just I'm really excited.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've been touched by the worship, and when I sometimes I get into worship and I start looking back at what God has done, where he brought me from, and how did he get me here?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And all I can do is just be thankful.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Be so, so grateful.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because if God never did another good thing for me, as long as I live, I've certainly gotten my money's worth, and it didn't cost me anything to begin with.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't have to do anything else good for me.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's just he's he's he's he's been more than I could I could think, and I and I love this this focus on him.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and and when we were singing about how uh you know the the peace has come.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got good news this morning.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Peace has come to planet Earth.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's right here in our hearts.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've got I've got more good news.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this kingdom of God is not fragile.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're not on the precipice of losing godliness in the world.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the things you'll see on some of your Christmas cards this year is from Isaiah 9 that his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the scripture goes on and it says, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I love this next part.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: This thing is only going to increase.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he and Jesus did.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I got good news.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did what he said he would do, and it worked.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because he said, he said, all what he wanted to do was put the seed in the earth.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: God sent his word to heal us and save us from our destructions.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is that seed.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, you know, unless that seed goes into the ground and dies, I'm the only one.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I abide alone.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if he goes into the ground, then he produces so many just like him.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he put that seed in, and he told us that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is like a seed, didn't he?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a seed.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: He said it starts out small.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at it, it started out with one man, Jesus.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, that morning at 9 o'clock in the morning, it went from 1 to 120.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And by that afternoon, with one sermon, it went to over 3,000.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it began to multiply daily, and it's been doing it for thousands of years until it hit you and me, this thing of the increase of his government and of peace.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: There will be no end.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's only going to spread more and more.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited about that.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited about this church because this house here, it's what I love about it, and we see in our travels, we see so many things, and there's a potential here.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a potential to see what my heart has been longing to see manifested more in the world.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we'll look at it this morning.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: The world is anticipating something.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Romans chapter 8, verse 19, it says, For the earnest expectation of creation, I like the way the way the this translation says all of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: All of creation, think of the whole world.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're longing for something.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know they're longing for something.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's lusting, everybody's wanting, everybody's fighting for something.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's angry.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: They want something.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: They want something better.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: The thing about it is they're not saying, they're not out there vocalizing, we want God to reveal his children to us.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're not saying that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know that that's what they want.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it is what they want.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that love of God.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that that's what I was looking for.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was looking for success in some other area.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was looking for validation.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was looking for more of something.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept trying to get it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But finally, I found the one thing, or the one thing found me, probably, that the one thing that I really was looking for all of my life, and I didn't even know that's what it was.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it was the one thing that filled my heart and fulfilled my life, and it made it it made it good, and it and it brought me home.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't going around saying I'm looking for the love of God.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really know there was such a thing.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: But but I found it and I realized this is really what I had been looking for all the time.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's there's a uh a world that's longing for something.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh as we we look at this, we see that we have this treasure that we're carrying.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: We if we're looking for the for the sons of God to be revealed, then they're looking for something that maybe they haven't seen yet.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking for something that we carry, something that's in us.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we sang about it this morning.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Prince of Peace is here.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Peace is in the in is in the planet, and it's here in our hearts.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're carrying it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is an agape love on this world.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus planted that seed and he planted it in the hearts of men, and he said, Now here's how it's gonna work.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be it's gonna be a seed, it's gonna be small, but it will grow, it will increase.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually that mustard seed, he said, it'll it'll branch out, and he said, and all the fowls of the earth can find what?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Rest.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: They'll find rest in it.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: They'll find rest for their souls, they'll find peace for their souls.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: All creation is waiting for for what we have.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: One of the problems is they maybe they haven't seen what we have.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there have been some things going on.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 5.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It gives us our uh job description.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I want to use the word job, but it tells us our identity, maybe would be a better, a better term.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, You're the salt of the earth.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, first of all, we are the salt of the earth.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there again is we are something.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We have this one thing that that God put into the world that was necessary.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and and he succeeded.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You notice that Jesus is actually seated at the right hand of the Father.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: He finished, he was done.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Once I get this seed into the earth, it's done.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: All we have to do now is watch this thing increase.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like yeast in a in three measures of dough until it just spreads to the whole thing.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just, I've done the work, I've put the seed in the world.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is in the earth.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I needed to do.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to live in the earth by my spirit and the hearts of men, and there I am.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we get this idea that God's out there busy and he's working and manipulating and playing chess and doing all this stuff out there in the world.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: When my Bible says that he's seated.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's seated.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: He has arisen to his rest because he finished his work that he was to do in his sacrificial work and his salvation work, and he now abides in the earth, in the church, in the hearts of people who have met him, who have received him, and Christ Himself is in the earth right now.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're not sitting on the bus waiting to be rescued.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there was a there's a Will Smith song that said uh one time that said, uh, he's not you're not waiting on the second coming of Christ.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: The world's waiting on the first coming of me.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at it this way, that if the church, if the world is looking for the for the revealing of the sons of God, the children of God, they're waiting for the first coming of Christ in the church.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's something that they haven't seen that they're longing to see.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the good news is we have it.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not we're trying to get it, but we have it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, you are it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're the light of the world, you're the salt of the world, you are it.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You are the thing that this world needs.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you ever eat something and you say it needs something?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing you think of?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: You grab the salt.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a certain flavor about it that makes it salt.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you grab the salt and you shake it and it doesn't taste like salt, then you're just gonna throw it away.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't, this isn't isn't gonna do anything.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, you're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, if the salt is not salty, in other words, if you lose that one thing that makes you salt, he says, then what good is it?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's good for nothing but to be just thrown out.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and you're the light of the world.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: A city that's set on a hill cannot be hidden.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't put a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, so it gives light to all, everybody, everybody in the house.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a light to shine.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the light is here.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but we don't want to put it under a basket.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let your light so shine before men, so they can see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've got a setup here, and of course I got this uh off of Javen, but I got I'm gonna put a different twist to it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here's here's a light.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're the light of the world.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are lights, he is the one light.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it just so happens that this little light of ours that we got brought from home happens to be the moon, too.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But that there's a lesson in that too, because the moon doesn't pr doesn't produce its own light, it gets its light from the sun.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But but God said, but God said the sun will rule the day, but the moon will be the light that rules the darkness, the night.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Bible says for us to shine as lights in the darkness.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love seeing a full moon on a dark night?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your eye will always go to it.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: You want to look at it, you think about it, you dream about it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: They write song about it, write songs about it.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: It hits your eye like a big pizza pie.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just wonderful, you know.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and and we have this have this light of the world here.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you look at that, you you can walk in the room and you can see what I've got here on the table, and you say, What is it?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a light.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's no confusion about it.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Rick's got a light up there on the table.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, But if we hide it under a basket, so I've got my my carrot top props here.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You if you're old enough to know who carrot top is, he's a local.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we hide it under a basket.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I got some baskets here.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just hide it under a basket.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you walk into the room, you say, What's Rick got on the table?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're not sure.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: What you see is this.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this this thing that we this picture we pulled up's got a fist that says obey.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's we we wanted to use that to to show legalism, really, and how how many people see see the church.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're more about right and wrong.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Obey the right and eschew the evil, you know, and and really what we, you know, I've this the past couple of years, I I cannot speak a message without going back to the knowledge of good and evil, because that's where everything went south.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we lost track.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we went the way that seemed right, but but it's not right.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Its end was destruction, and that's why it's going on everywhere.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen it, you know, in the church world and history.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were talking with someone uh the other day and was saying, yeah, but but we got to fight for Christianity in America because, see, what it history shows us that Europe used to be a Christian nation, but they let all this this other stuff come in, and they let this socialism and they let this this worldly, you know, Muslim, all this stuff, and they're not even they're not even a Christian nation anymore.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want that to happen to us.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And my first thought was, yeah, but it was an oppressive Christianity.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want that to happen to us.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we can have the best of intentions, but but what I'm talking about is is that somehow in the mistakes that we make in our thinking and in our perception, it causes us to be seen as something that we're really not, because this is what we really are.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're the light of the world.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this same light that we have, as the moon and the darkness, is the exact same light that comes from the sun.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is that light.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's him in the earth.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And people are looking at this, and we look at, we look so often through the lens of the knowledge of good and evil, and thank God we're we're being delivered from that as that kingdom increases in us.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting better at being who we really are.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, somebody told me one time, many years ago, I was in a meeting, and somebody was, uh, a lady uh called me forward and and began prophesy or giving me a word, and she looked at me and she said, You look like a uh, and I don't, is this the term that the Russian, those stacking dolls, Matroiska dolls?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I call them stacking dolls, but you know, you have a uh you have a small one, then there's a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, it's like, it's like, you know, you what's been going on, it's like God's been taking this and putting it away, and you're like, well, wait a minute, that's who I am.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, No, I can't be that anymore.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then, oh, I'm that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then she said, and what he's doing is he's taking you down to who you really are.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a purity, there's a purity that we carry that that looks just like Jesus.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times what we want to do is while we look like this, obey, obey what's moral, obey what's true, obey what's right and wrong, you know, obey you know, the right and stay away from the wrong, is that we're we're we're looking like something else, and we're we're not we're not showing the true light of God, that's that, that, of who He is.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And while our intentions are truly admirable, I would say, I think the Pharisees really had good intentions in their mind.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were not, remember, they were good people in a sense.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were not saying, let's all go out and steal and commit sin and do all that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: They were standing for right living.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it was all about obey.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times when we we struggle in the church and we're in this place right now where we're struggling about what's right and what's wrong.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we're and it's about this binary thinking, and I get confronted all the time because of this message of grace and absolute love that I bring.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: People want to demand, okay, I see that, but but where does that make you stand?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you stand on this?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you stand on that?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you condemn or do you condone?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: See, that binary thinking started when we began to live led by the knowledge of good and evil, which is binary.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know how it is today, you've got to be one or the other.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: There ain't no middle roads on anything.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're left, your right, your red, your blue, your Jew, you're Samaritan, your all lives matter, your black lives matter, your mask, you're no mask, but there's no in-between.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're either one of them or you're one of them.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And people want to demand, they want to pull us into one of those camps, don't they?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They demand, what do you what do you what do you have to say?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a light here that's shining, but they want to know what we think about this.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: They did it with Jesus all the time, if you watch him.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a here's a here's a woman caught in the very act of adultery.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you condemn or do you condone?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know Jesus said, I do not condemn you.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So in binary thinking, that means, well, then he must condone it.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, he wasn't saying, yeah, go out and do that some more.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's cool.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't condone it.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or he didn't condemn it because that binary thinking, what is that, what they're actually doing is asking you to choose between two pig troughs.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is this one good or is this one good?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Which one are which one do you eat from?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because what Jesus does is he offers us the kingdom of heaven, he offers us love, he offers us perfection, the character, the heart, the nature of God.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when we see that, when we see, when we see what we're really about and what we really have, we're getting to the very heartbeat of our creator.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting to the center of the universe here, and this is where we're at.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: What it's all about is what creation is longing for.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if and if you haven't been fulfilled by it yet, that's what you're longing for, too.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: There is no difference.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we have that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in the in keeping with that, let's make it a little more specific.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what I deal with a whole lot.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you stand?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Would you marry them?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that they're born this way?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: What about this?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: What about this lifestyle and the other?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned to say, Father, deliver me from the temptation to take a stand that's gonna make me acceptable or make me, you know, whatever.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's the binary thinking of the knowledge of good and evil is so low compared to what we really have to offer.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have what we have to offer is not an opinion on this.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: What we have to offer is this.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the light is so much higher and bigger and brighter than whether we condemn or condone something.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, which one do you do?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: They still demand it.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and I'm saying, you know what?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's been a judgment on this world.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said before he was offered on the cross, he says, now is the judgment of this world.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now is the prince of this world judged.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and if I be lifted up, I'll draw all of it to me.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'll draw all of it to me.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in and in Romans chapter 5, what does he say?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: That there's been a judgment.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the judgment has been for righteousness.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the case closed.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So what do I say about it?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I say, God has justified all freely.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then they want to get into the eye into the argument about, well, do they have to do this first or do they have to do that?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about showing something.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a light here that the world, that the world will look at.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, there there is something that makes it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's some all I know is that whatever caused this heart to change is the exact same thing that caused the other heart to change.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: The fist of obey the good did not work for me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They tried it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: They tried it all my life before I met Christ.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: It just didn't work for me.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I want to prescribe something for somebody else that never worked for me?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: When the only thing that worked for me was was a love that melted my heart.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I felt like, because of, honestly, and I'm not mad at anybody, but what I heard from church people caused me to think that God would have nothing to do with me.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: God was at the very best, he was disappointed.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: At worst, he hated me.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was no way he could be pleased with me unless I did all of these things.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: This was the projection I got.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whether people meant to do it or not, that's what I got.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because somehow the light was covered up.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we have that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then here's a real good one.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know we're Americans and I love our country.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, we get to participate.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's one thing that's really great about us.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, our participation has inspired other many other countries to have a similar form of government.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So thank God that we can be active and we can participate in the way this country runs.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: But what we don't want to we want to make sure that when people see us, they don't just see the elephant.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I could have put the donkey here, you know, that they see one or the other, because everything's binary.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be one or the other.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's not much middle ground for anything.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and and a lot of times in our participation, I'm I'm thinking all the time, what sound do I want to put out?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: What aroma do I want to put out?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: The sweet aroma of Christ?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or the echoes of a man, whether they're on right or left.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I standing for?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that, I mean, it's not that we we're not to be involved and even to vote.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I voted.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I only get one vote.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I voted, you know, we I have my opinions like we all do.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: But do those opinions overshadow, do they think of me more as an elephant than the light of the world?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Than something that they really, really have longed for.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: The thought comes back, yeah, but they're wrong.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot of friends on the other side.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they're saying?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're wrong.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you're saying, yeah, but they really are wrong.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're right.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they're saying, yeah, but we really are right.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like I've said so many times, that's that funny thing about that tree of knowledge of good and evil, no matter which side you stand on, it looks like you're on the good side of it.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it rotates or what, but somehow everybody's right.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it just goes around.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's nothing new.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is this what's going on in the world right now, it's nothing new.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's been going for thousands and thousands and thousands.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way of man.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since the fall of man, this stuff has been on.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: They just didn't have social media in the days of Adam and Eve.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Which has worked to push us even farther away.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: We isolate ourselves.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to mingle, we don't have to get around anybody else.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're just going to pack back with our elephants and let the donkeys be with their donkeys.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And let the masked people all be masked people and be mad at the no masked people and all this stuff.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fine to have opinions, but is what we're projecting, is what we're saying.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are we louder about that stuff than about agape?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then about a love.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That says Jesus is where it's at.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: He has judged, judged righteousness upon the earth.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's taken care of all of that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: There is a light that shines in the darkness.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you could put, we could go on and on, we could put all kinds of baskets there.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the points I'm making is that the world, and whether they might misunderstand this.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, well, I'm hardcore this, and but at the same time, I'm more about Jesus than anything, is do they see it?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but let the light shine.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: You want to let the light shine.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: See, because what we have is the most beautiful thing.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love this beautiful gospel.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love the message of God's love and what he did with that with that love and saving us.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love his grace.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: How it brings reconciliation to all.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love how it blows away the smoke of who's right and who's wrong because God doesn't think that way.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's binary with men.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking to a Samaritan woman, and she finally says, she perceives that this guy has got connections.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: She says, I perceive you're a prophet.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a question I've been wanting to know for so long.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Settle this once and for all for me.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews say that we're to worship on that hill, we say we're to worship on this one.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right or who is right and who is wrong?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: He does like he always does.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: He always brings the third option.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: He always basically says, it's not about either one of those.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever, if I were to say one is right, those are so low.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: The hour now is when men will worship, true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to fight over those little hills.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to strain at gnats and swallow camels.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: The things that we're fighting over are so small.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: We think they're so big in our carnal human eyes.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: We think they're so big.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And God looks through and he says, they're so small compared to what I'm offering.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I often think people are fighting over bones all the time when Jesus is standing there with a two-inch thick ribeye, or whatever your favorite cut is.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we have the flags, and we fly all these banners, and I'm the elephant, and you're the donkey, and I'm all lives matter, and you're black lives matter, and you're no mask, and I'm wear a mask all the time, even when you sleep in bed at night.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we're something, and we're and and and people know who we are because we let them know, we let them see that see us because it's important to us.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: While we're flying these banners over us, here's what I see: I see the church.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I see the children of God about to be revealed, and they're coming in from a different direction.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the banner over them is love.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: While the elephants and the donkeys and the red and the blue and the black and the white and the Jew and the Samaritan and the rich and the poor and all these are flying their flags, we have one that none of them fly.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the high banner, his banner over us is love.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that love, that light that we're talking about, is none other but the exact, exact same love that brought no judgment to this guy.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Who was bringing all kinds of judgment on himself.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Good news.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to look put a heavy trip and say, oh, we're doing it all wrong.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my not my point.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm trying to do here.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is that this is who we are.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: The other things are just coverings.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, this is the light that he established from the beginning.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: He said, this is the light that he left in the world.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Don't put a basket over it.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let it shine.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let the world see.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because if the world sees this, what will they do?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Will they get mad at you?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, they'll glorify your father in heaven.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no argument against love.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not against absolute love.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not against a love that looks past through everything, all the little petty, man, man-made uh binary arguments, and gets into the eternity of God Himself.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: God is love.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad one of the disciples saw that and put it out there.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love John.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: His writings are so so different.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at this, this is listen, we're looking with spirit eyes now.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking past all these things.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible tells us, don't get entangled.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: A good soldier, he doesn't get entangled with the affairs of this world.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: That word world, look it up, it's the word ion, it means now, the affairs of this time.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: This time.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So often it's very tempting to us all.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's tempting to sacrifice the eternal to win the temporary.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we can fight those.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that can be what what what what you're all about.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: But creation's waiting for those that are all about the light for the darkness.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's dark.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's dark.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's darkness on the earth and there's gross darkness on the people.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I can I know it's I know it's it's horrible.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know people are doing horrible things.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know people are standing for horrible things, fighting for horrible things.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know that.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: All the more reason for this.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love what Isaiah 60, is it 60 or 62 says, arise, shine.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because your light's already come.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, church.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Cast off the works of darkness, he says.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Throw those things off.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Here's who you really are.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your light has come.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the glory of God has risen upon you.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And kings will come to the brightness of your rising.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: The people will come, sons and daughters, they'll come from afar.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because of this.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's dark.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's gross darkness out there, but I've never been more excited because my eyes can see.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I see this.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I see something happening in the world, even in the church world.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is the minority, but it is on the increase.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: People are starting to see this more and more and more.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting down to who we really, really are, where our identity is truly more about who we are as heavenly creatures, as children of heaven, children of the light, and not children of this world.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are citizens of Central Florida.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're citizens of Florida.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're citizens of the United States and planet Earth.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are all of those things, but something supersedes all of it.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when it doesn't, our other identities cover the light.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't there things worth fighting for?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they are.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe that we can do it with this.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: I believe we can change with this.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, we do this anyway because it's who we are.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just a tool to get what we want, by the way.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is who we are.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is it is love.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: The world's longing for a love they haven't seen.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said to me the other day, he says, Well, so what do we do?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do we pray that their eyes be open?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, yeah, I guess that that is biblical.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but here's where I'm at.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying that our eyes be opened.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because it starts here.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have the most beautiful thing.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you taste it.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: You taste it quite often.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you wake up and praise because this light is shining in your hearts.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you wait, it makes you rejoice when there's nothing to rejoice about.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing can do that except this light is shining.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, and God, who has who has commanded that the light would shine in the darkness, has shined brilliantly in our hearts in order to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we have.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love the grace message.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love this gospel.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love the heart of God.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is so pure.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: There is no law against this.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: There is no argument against it.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to take a lot of time, but I remember years ago, you know, I used to, I used to, I used to be really angry with Oprah back in the uh back in the 90s.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, what it seemed like she would do back then is she would sometimes she'd have religious discussions.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so she'd get a panel and she'd have like a rabbi and a Buddhist and a Muslim and an atheist or and then she'd have a Christian, and it seemed like the Christian she got would be the most prejudiced, illiterate, you know.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I would think, Oprah, you're doing that on purpose.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like, you know, I just like, uh.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember look watching one of those programs like that, and I prayed one time, and I just said, I said, Father, let her get the wrong one on stage sometime.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it happened one day.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was watching her one afternoon.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and what happened was to make this the story real short, is that there was a principal of the school, and he had been called to the cafeteria because there was a fight, and when he got there, his son was dying after being stabbed in a fight in the cafeteria, and he held his son in his arms, and and and the boy died in his arms.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you're his heartbroken, and how can I go on and all that?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the story was that God healed his heart, and the first thing that he knew he'd had to do, and of course it wasn't easy, but he got there, was he had to forgive the killer.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had him on stage because Oprah says that you've been wanting to talk to this young man who killed your son.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's been in prison and you haven't had a chance to talk to him since, and you want to you want to face him now and say some things.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so they showed the guy from video because he was in prison, and the and the man said, I just wanted to tell you that I love you, God loves you, he doesn't hold one thing against you, and neither do I.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I had money put away for my son to go to college.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, That's not gonna happen, but but you can.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna get out of there soon.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do, come see me because I want to help you.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that you make it.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm crying.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oprah's crying.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: People in the audience are like, their jaws are dropped, and I'm sitting there thinking, I have seen the gospel preached more than I ever have on TBN or any of these other channels that are going on right now.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: I thought this was the gospel that touched my heart.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't, and nobody had anything to say about it.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: There was no argument about it at all because the gospel shined that day.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, people tried to bring in the knowledge of good and evil.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: There were some some a couple of them stood up and said, Well, sir, I hate to say it, but I think you're just in denial.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I understand that.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I totally understand why you would think that, but what you don't understand is that Jesus healed me.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've been healed.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I could not do this if I have not been healed.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, what we're getting to is the reality of something that, with all of our smoke and our noise and all the issues and these bloody issues, like that woman with the issue of blood.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the church has a lot of bloody issues, don't we?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: The world, we'll say the world has a lot of bloody issues.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And people say, but you've got to stand, Rick.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: This lovey, this love thing.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know, somebody said the other day, said, said there's just too much, too much preaching of love in this world.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we need to bring some balance.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh yeah, take one more look at this planet, and you can see we just got way too much love, right?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: But what's happening to the church is we're getting unafraid of it.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting unafraid because the smoke of the knowledge of good and evil is dissipating.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really, that really has been our master.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: That has been the curse upon us, is that knowledge was the curse.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because we because we chose to be led by that knowledge, that's when God said, Oh, Adam, it's gonna be hard now.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want you doing that because now it's gonna be hard.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Does God know good from evil?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, man's come become like one of us to know good and evil.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God knows good and evil, but his advantage is he knows what's what's good and bad, but he's he is love.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the advantage he has.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, there is good and evil.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is right and wrong.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we can know that from a heavenly perspective and realize that the fight over the right and the wrong is not where it's at.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus took care of that once and for all while we were all fighting over that.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm just gonna reconcile you guys.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take all that issue of all the right and the wrong that you've done, all the points you think you've earned and all the things that you think you've lost because of the evil.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Colossians that we were enemies with God and we were not partakers of Him because we were enemies where?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: In our mind because of our sin.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 5, people have all these issues.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when I take stands on the issues, they they don't see who I really am.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: They see me as somebody that's on this side, and they want to put you there.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: The world, it's just natural.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not even thinking about it, they want to put you on a side.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: They want to put you in a box.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, who did you vote for, Rick?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of telling you how I voted for, but the problem is, is if I tell you, you'll put me in a box and say, oh, you're just one of those.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: If I voted for the right, then I'm just a racist, bigot, homophobic, you know, whatever.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Might not be any of those things.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what they would see.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So 2 Corinthians 5, I love this beautiful verse in verse 16.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, from now on, we regard, oh, I love this.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: No one.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is so liberating.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to regard anybody according to the flesh.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to make a judgment on you.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to condemn you or condone what you're doing, either one.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: I get to love you.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: I get to just love you.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what if they continue to do wrong?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then I still get to love them.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: That makes the love even better.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Makes it shine even brighter.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't quit loving me because I kept doing wrong, and I have.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we all do.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the plan that He made us weak and foolish vessels, that we were insufficient of ourselves.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: What we needed was the love of God.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were naked before we fell, before we chose an all the good.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: We were already naked.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't care.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was never an issue with him.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Who told you you were naked?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell you that.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in me.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how this works.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was me and you.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: But now that you've gone this way, it's all about are you good or are you bad?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Bringing fear, bringing shame.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what Yoda says about fear.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Fear is your enemy.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't know.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he said anyway.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Fear is your enemy.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Fear becomes anger, and anger becomes hate.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: It gets worse.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: With the force, there was a dark and a light.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the only thing it took to get on the side of the dark was just to get angry about it.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then we start getting ruled by something else.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can we stand for things?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can we fight for things?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, we can.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not lose this.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because those things are not the lasting things in the world.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one thing that's on the increase.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing?
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all hearing anything?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: I love the scripture.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to regard anyone according to the flesh.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I love that that when somebody just the other day was discussing, well, do you condemn or do you condone?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really think this or do you really think that?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't have to think either one of those things.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: What I think is that they're wonderful in God's eyes.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: God loves them.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: God created them to be loved, not to obey some rules.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: He created them to be loved.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they everybody needs the same love that I needed.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: How did we think we got good somewhere along the line?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: How do we think, now that we're now that we're Christians and now that we've been delivered of some habits and things, now we think that we're good.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now that we think we're on the good team, you know, it's like, but really, honestly, when I look, God didn't love me any less when I was totally doing everything against God, standing against God.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: I stood up in the living room and I shook my fist at heaven and said, I don't believe in God.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: If he's real, he can strike me down right now.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: I defy him.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I said.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: God is love.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he said exactly or thought, but my suspicion is that he's not intimidated.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's thinking that boy has no clue what he's going to be doing someday.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: He never stopped.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't condemn or condone.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: He loved and loved and loved until here I am.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I see for our planet.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: I love this world.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: This light keeps shining brighter, and I keep going this way.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: I keep loving the world more and more.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: The world.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, love not the world.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said the world's supposed to hate you.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's another point, real quickly.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: What world hated him?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the thieves like Zacchaeus?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Did they hate him?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the prostitutes?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did they hate him?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, they all loved him.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: What world hated him?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: The part of the world that would be called the church hated him.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a part of the world.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: When it's based on the knowledge of good and evil, it's a part of the world.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: They hated him.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow we twisted that to where the sinners are supposed to hate us because we're Christians.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're the friend of sinners.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: The friend of sinners, the best friend that anybody could have.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: The best friend offering light.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: And what is the light?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the heart of God.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's love, it's joy, it's peace, it's gentleness, goodness, kindness.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look on the very last page of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are those trees.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's not just one.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are those trees of life.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you notice there in that picture of the kingdom of heaven, there is no tree of knowledge of good and evil there anymore.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like John the Baptist said, the axe is now laid to the root of the tree.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: You see yourself losing that, don't you?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: That knowledge of good and evil starting to fade away.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking its place in the back in the back seat.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, somebody says, Well, there is right and wrong.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but we don't lead by that.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: It takes its place in line somewhere.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're about this.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing something?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Where are those trees?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what's he say?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We bear fruit 12 months out of the year.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody, a Christian, asked me, Well, where is all the peace?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: As long as we have a leader like that, and like that.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, obviously, it's certainly not in politics.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's no peace there.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you're waiting on.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Never has been, ever.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's right here.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the peace is.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is peace on earth.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I like doing?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a vision.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't, you know, when I first started out in ministry, I was going to change this whole planet all by myself.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even gonna, I'm not even close to that.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what I really am excited about is who I might run into today.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: That excites me.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: In my little one vessel, Rick Manis here, I get to do this.
• 42:45
  unknown: I get to shine.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: I get to do love, joy, peace.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, our fruit is for food.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we give to the world.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Judgment, condemnation.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Give him a good punch in the nose, give him a good fight.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: What do we gonna?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're fighting for righteousness here.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or do we feed them?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're coming to the place where we're trusting this more than we're trusting that.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get good.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's getting better.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: So from now on, there's a good, this is a this is really liberating for us.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a burden on us.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is liberating.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: From now on, we regard nobody after the flesh.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just get the love now.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you know when I feel best is when I do that.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice the weather that goes on inside you, and some of your fighting for quote righteousness.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice what's going on inside you.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the angst.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the stress, the frustration, the anger.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: That tells you right now where we're at.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the That curse, the knowledge of good and evil.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: You'll feel real good.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: You'll always feel good doing this.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, oh, when it's when it's the least deserved, or the way we would judge it, that's when it really feels good to do this.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, read 1 Corinthians 12 sometimes, where it says, those those those those members that seem to be less honorable to us, we give them more honor.
• 44:23
  unknown: Woo!
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's I was telling I mentioned that the other night in a Bible study, and somebody said, That sounds so crazy to us.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes it so good.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's foolishness to the natural mind.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: It breaks all the rules and takes us straight into heaven.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: Paul heard some things when he went to the third heaven that were that were unhonorable for uh you know unlawful for man to utter.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because man's laws won't utter the things of heaven.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever he heard, it must have been lawful in heaven to say.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus does is he makes the unlawful lawful.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: We can love those that look to be undeserving.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can give.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can be joyful when there's nothing to be joyful about.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can have peace when we're in the midst of a sea, a storm in the Sea of Galilee.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this is in us.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have this kingdom?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the bread that we give out.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our fruit is for food.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, etc.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: And our leaves are for what?
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, for the healing of the nations.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be wonderful to see?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Look how important we are.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: We are it.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: We are the church with all of our flaws, with all of our faults, with all that all that we are, all of our weakness, stupidity, yeah.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're the hope.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Creation is waiting to see what we carry, this treasure.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we're very fallible.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not as good as we think we are in comparison to other people.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's our own judgment that tells us that.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can't, oh hang on.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet we know him that way no longer.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Go down to verse 19, and here's what it is it's that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, not holding their sins against them, not taking account of any of their sins, and he's committed to us that word of reconciliation.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's always the argument, well, do they have to?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, yeah, receive it.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, now we're ambassadors and we plead.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Be ye reconciled, because God is reconciled with you.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we Christian people think that God is in this universal battle of good versus evil.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's already won that.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he's sitting down.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: He won that battle.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's not out there fighting good versus evil.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because God has no enemies.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's reconciled the whole world to himself.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's not holding anything against anybody.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's got no enemies.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: People might be enemies against God.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: Say, I hate everything the Bible stands for and everything that God's, you know, they might, in their mind, be enemies against God, but on God's side, he's got no enemies.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: God, I got quiet on that one.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing so good, wasn't I?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's got no enemies when it comes to mankind.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: God so loved the good people in the world, is why he gave his only begotten son, right?
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: The world.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: The world.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: Loved the world.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it not make sense?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's foolishness, the natural man.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be the kind of love that supersedes everything, the kind of love that's far, far beyond everything that we're all dabbling around and getting entangled with and fighting about and all that.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let earth receive her king.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is peace on earth.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: God was in Christ reconciling the world, not holding their sins against him.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Look at finally look at James chapter 3.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, see, that whole idea, we, we, we, we've there, I've been hearing a whole lot of this, that there's this epic struggle between good versus evil.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: And of course we're on the good.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've never heard anybody say, yeah, there's a group of people that they really have everything right, but I'm not a part of that group.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever group you're in, you're right, you know, in your own mind.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: But there's not an epic struggle struggle between good versus evil.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a struggle.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: A light has been brought into the world, and when it shines, darkness goes.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if the light hasn't come into the world, then there's still a fight to get that light into the world.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it's here.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: James chapter 3, verse 17 says something very I've been on this passage for months now.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's peaceable.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: Peace loving.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Peace loving.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Gentle at all times and willing to yield to others.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll lose only if it's possible for this to lose to darkness.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: See that whole idea.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll lose, that's what mankind has had for thousands of years.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: James says, why are there fightings and strivings among you?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it because of the lust that war in your members?
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it because you're wanting something?
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's wanting, everybody's needs something, everybody's demanding something.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's why nations fight against nations.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's family squabbles, there's church splits, there's all this stuff that goes on because somebody's wanting something, demanding something.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just right that I have it.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says because of the lust that's in your members.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote a book called Foolness, rickmanis.com.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's my commercial right there.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's how we pay the bills.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it talks about how fullness came into my heart when I saw a way that went beyond my judgments.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's willing to yield.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus went to the cross.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: To every carnal eye that watched, even his own disciples, he lost.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: But he won.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew it the whole time.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: A brother stands up while Jesus is teaching and says, Teacher, make my brother divide the inheritance with me.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's only right, it's fair.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, You're fighting over pig troughs here.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Beware.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what life's about.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm offering you something so much better.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: Martha wants to make Jesus a dinner.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's happy to invite him.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's going to host us, she's going to treat him real well.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: But when she's in the kitchen, her lazy sister Mary gets to have all of Jesus' attention, and they're over there talking and fellowship, and she's in there working and nobody's even acknowledging it.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: And after a while, she's thinking about it and she's like, This is wrong.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is not fair.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not right.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not right.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fair.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not right.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fair.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: She's upset with Mary.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then she dwells on it.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now she's not just upset with Mary.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's upset with Jesus.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, why don't you say something?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: You see me in here, tell my sister to come and help me.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus always knew were those little victories that we're asking for, he said, these aren't going to make you happy.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Martha, you're troubled about many things.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: Young man, if your brother gives you half the money, that's not going to do it for you.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll always want more.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's even more important than us taking a stand for Christ.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is something so much more beautiful.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: We can be Christ.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: With foolish vessels, flawed in the eyes of our judgments, making mistakes, and not doing it right, and even doing wrong a lot of times.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: It makes this light shine so much more, doesn't it?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in love with God.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've never loved God more.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's just perfect and he's beautiful.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and look at this, he says, it's full of mercy and good fruits.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's full of mercy and good fruits without partiality.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or it shows no favoritism.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: That there's no favoritism, there's no partiality in God's heart and his eyes, he does not draw the same lines that we draw.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: There is no partiality.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: There is no, he doesn't see the divisions in the world that we see.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we wouldn't see them except for that binary knowledge of good and evil is the only thing that makes us see that.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: With God's eyes, we see a people, a world that God loves and does not condemn.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he says to me, Son, I've given you that same heart that I have for the world.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I love when I start to see it more, when I feel it more.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: I get more excited, I fall more in love with God, and I fall more in love with the people that He loves.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: People will say, Rick, I know, but when I see this certain famous person, I just, ugh.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've all done that, maybe.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I do when I start to feel that.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: I say, does my father think that same way about them?
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to answer, no, he looks like that.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that gets me back into this.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: That other never makes me happy.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it makes me right, I'm not happy.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have joy.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm willing to yield or willing to just give.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: But they're wrong.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're doing horrible.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna ruin the world.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: The world's already ruined.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: What are you afraid of?
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: The world has been ruined a long time.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now the fruit of righteousnesses.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: I like how this says, that's what I'm looking at here.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: I like that he says, and the peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I have loved this illustration.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, I saw Javen stand here with his hand like this.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: Seeds of peace.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is so I love this.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Seeds of peace.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's another kind of seed that the Bible talks about in Proverbs.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's the seventh that he hates.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's an abomination.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the seeds of discord.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: Division.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sowing discord.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Seeds of peace.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: Seeds of discord.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: This one says, let's fight for what's right.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: This one says, let's give to those who may be wrong.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is when I feel I'm at home.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is when I feel I'm in the Father's house.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: Father, you're altogether lovely.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the beauty of your gospel.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: What I pray right now is the eyes of our understanding be open, that we can see the reality, the riches of this inheritance that you've placed in us.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: Father, let our identity be secure.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know why we're here.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be excited about why we're here.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let us have a sense of adventure about being that to a world that's so against it.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the identity that's clear that we see by your Spirit.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, for the joy that it brings.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you that I can love who's in front of me.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, I know that I hear well done.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I trust your love.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: I trust your light to work in a dark world.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: We love you.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: We embrace all you are, and we thank you for what you've done in our lives and our heart.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're forever grateful.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we love you more than we ever have.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you in Jesus' name.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.