Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Living in the Eye of the Storm

Transcript

Living in the Eye of the Storm · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We were singing Look Straight Ahead, nothing but blue skies.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: This picture came to me.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You ever um look at a weather map when there's a hurricane coming, usually towards Florida, where we live.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that thing is so big sometimes.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you look at it and it'll get up over the state, and it and it looks like there's nothing but cloud and rain and storms over the whole.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even see the state of Florida on the map.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And even a lot of the water around it.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: But there's always a place in that where there's nothing but blue skies.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's calm, there's no rain, and the sky is blue.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's right there in the eye of the storm.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I want to read something out of John 17 and talk about something here because last week we looked at how Jesus described knowing him, walking with him.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Come unto me, all you that labor, you're heavy burdened, and I'll give you rest.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Come and learn of me, because I'm humble, I'm meek.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and as you do, he says, You'll find rest for your soul because my yoke is easy.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we read in Isaiah where he spoke the really almost the exact same thing in different words, where he said that you're going to have emptiness in everything that you do, and everything that you try to protect yourself and defend yourself and try to build for yourself and try to attain, you will always find emptiness.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that's because man really has that God-shaped hole.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Only God can feel what man is really looking for.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and he says, and it'll be like this until, until at last the Spirit is poured out upon you.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and he says, and when that happens, then he says, There will be, there will not be emptiness, then there will be fullness in the field, fullness in the cities, fullness in the fortresses.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and even if the forests do get burned, God will bless his people, because they will sow and a bountiful crop will come up.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the blessing of the Lord.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said that would happen when he gave his spirit.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we look at this life, continuing to talk about my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's like living in the eye of the storm, because we're in a world where things are not easy.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we face things that by any man's definition, things can be hard.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: There can be losses, there can be tragedies, there can be storms, there can be there, there are things in the world.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that we're in a world, he left us in a world where those things are there.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, he says, but in me, we can look at it as the eye of the storm, in me there's peace.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And be of good cheer because I've overcome that world.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, you know, what what my heart goes out to is this.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about this, about what to bring and speak today.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many good and wonderful things to talk about when you look at this Bible.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very thick book, and there's a lot of things in it.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I care about how you're doing today.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you believe about a lot of other things so much, a lot of the peripherals.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: But what I do care about is that you know how good God is, you know God loves you, and you know it in such a way that every single day of your eternity, which is today, that every single day that you would please be happy, that you would please enjoy it, that you would have every single day that you would live in perfect peace and not hope for better things just tomorrow, because as the old song says so often, tomorrow never comes in a lot of cases.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I've been saying lately, if you want to live forever, if you want to live in eternity, then live today.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I love you, and I love people, and all the people that we that we touch in our lives, and and my heart goes out because I want them happy.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want them blessed, joyful.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: But they're living in a world that goes against that all the time.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're living in a world where it seems like it just, I mean, you know, you're there no matter how hard they try, they they push forward one step and get pushed back two, and they, you know, and life isn't this world, if you haven't figured it out yet, if you still think you're gonna make it be fair to you, this world is not fair a lot of times.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't seem to make sense.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: The scales don't seem to balance in this world, and people are not always nice.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you are.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you are not gonna believe this next statement, but it's true.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people aren't even nice in church.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, but it happens, not that it should be that way, but it is, and that's just how it is in this world.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to a world like that.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to a world like that to love a world like that.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to a world like that because he cared.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted them to be happy, he wanted them to have peace, he wanted them to have joy, he came to give them life, and he came to bring them the kingdom of heaven.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it interesting?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: While people are trying to make heaven someday, Jesus said, Here, I'll just bring it to you.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reality, there's a truth, and I I know I drive it over and over and I hit it, I hit it consistently, but this is where it's at, that there is a kingdom that's here, it's a part of you, it's in you, and you're in it, and it is the kingdom of heaven.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus began to preach when he said, when he first began to preach and announce the beginning of this whole message that he would demonstrate.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's near.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was so near it was just like days away.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, he brought it to them.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was it in manifestation, but it was going to come within them after the day of Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, repent, because that kingdom of heaven is near.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that word repent, if you don't know it yet, that word repent is probably the most mistranslated word uh in the King James Bible.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because that word, they took that word, they put that word repent, and they took it from the Latin, which which didn't take it from the Greek, which didn't take it from metanoia, which is the Greek word that they spoke there.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: They took it from the Latin that means penance, which means to be sorrowful, to be sorry for your deeds, and so that's why the church, because they've never looked that word up, a big doctrine in the church is about repentance from sin.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible, when it talks about this, uses this word repentance, you don't see it talking about repenting from sin.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: The word metanoia is change your mind, literally.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It means nothing else.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It means to change your mind or to change your thinking.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here are people not living heaven, and in the body of Christ, people not living heaven day to day.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Change your mind because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: People that are sitting at the bus stop waiting to be taken to heaven someday, Jesus would say, change your mind because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, think of that.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, is that that Bible?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, people are waiting and waiting and waiting on something.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I'm bringing the kingdom of heaven to you.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he demonstrated that and lived in that, even though we have this dichotomy because we're in a world that's hell.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And here in John chapter 17, I want to read really just, well, I was going to say one verse, these four little verses.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaking to the Father, and he's praying for his disciples, because Jesus is about to leave them, about to be crucified.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 15, I don't pray that you should take them out of the world.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that world is the word cosmos, not terror.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just talking about leaving them on the planet, but also leaving them here with this system.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Cosmos means the system, the order, the arrangement.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven that's with us now and in us now, that we're a part of now, that we live in and walk in.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: That kingdom of heaven is not a physical place in the way that we would know it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a system that we operate.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a way of living, it's a heavenly way that has come to us by the Holy Spirit.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when He came to live in us, He put eternity in heaven in our heart.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so it becomes our way of living, a way that we know and learn by that Spirit, and we apprehend or we embrace it, and we change our mind about everything because we now start agreeing with the one who's eternal and knows everything, and he teaches us the ways of heaven and the ways of God.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: He reveals it to us.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's his job, so to speak.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the metanoia happens because we forsake what we thought we knew that wasn't so, and we take on a new and living way that the Spirit teaches us.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what he teaches his church, if we'll listen to him, is he teaches us the way of heaven, and if you listen, that's where you can be happy, peaceful, joyful, powerful every single day, no matter what the storm is, you live in the eye of the storm.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you're so empowered by truth, just by what you know, that's all.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: That people think you're strong.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: They think you're super spiritual, they think you're super holy or super good or so or super favored, super blessed.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just what you know.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was, when I when I when I when I when I was able to get up after after I lost uh uh Teresa, you know, and I did that in a quick way, and people were saying things like, like, I just wish I could, I just don't think I would be as strong as you.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're just so strong, and and I just marveled at at how strong you are in a situation like this.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you have no idea.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, I promise you, it has nothing to do with how strong I am.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't see me laying face down on the floor crying like a baby with nothing, no strength.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with your strength.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: It has everything to do with what you know, and I knew him.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I knew him.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And though the world was now chaotic, I was in him, and in him there's peace.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I could still be happy.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one of these days I'll share more details, but you would be surprised at how many people got mad about that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because it confounds the wisdom of the wise.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I don't pray that you would take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so he says, I'm not praying that you remove them from there.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're still going to be in this mess.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: This system.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: But you're going to keep them from the evil one.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's three words that could be used for evil one.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is a specific one.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: This one, you look it up in the concordance, and it'll tell you what this talks about is the effect of calamity, the effect of mischief, the effect of hurt, the effect of things.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Other words would be other words where it would say the evil one or evil is talking about the person's character.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not talking about character, he's talking about the effect that this world would have.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't pray that you would take them out of this world with this horrible system going on, but that you would protect them or keep them from the effect of all of that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: That as I am sanctified and set apart, they would be too.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: That they would be different, just like I've been different in this chaotic world.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we look at Jesus, why is it that he so often confounded the Pharisees?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you read the gospels, you see that they were many times trying to trap him.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: They would come up with a good question, and then they would approach him and say, Master, good master.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say about this?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: The woman in adultery.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say about this?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And why were they doing that?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were wanting Jesus to take a stand publicly on one side or the other.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would confound them because he would bring them a different kind of answer than anybody else would give them.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: He would come up not with the left and the right and the right or the wrong on it, he would come up with a God way.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because what they were demanding of him, what they wanted to know from him, is Jesus, tell us your knowledge of good and evil.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us your perception of this, good or evil.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how many of you know that Jesus did not operate by that system?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't operate by the knowledge of good and evil.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, when they wanted him to condemn somebody that was caught dead to rights in what was clearly evil, he gave them a different answer because he didn't justify and say that she had not sinned.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't condemn her, certainly, but he gave the God option, the love option, the perfect option.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of all this, it just flowed out with mercy, forgiveness, understanding.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder creation is groaning to see us.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're not groaning to see us win the culture war in America and make and pass laws so that nobody can sin anymore.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the victory that Jesus died for.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: What he brought was the kingdom of heaven.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when they wanted Jesus to do things like that, they wanted to make him a king.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to make him a governor.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to let him be the leader to overthrow their government and set up a better one.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, My kingdom is not like that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: My kingdom is not of this world.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: My kingdom is not of this world, but I'm bringing my kingdom in this world.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted him, they wanted to know what Jesus thought, what his knowledge of good and evil was.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: I hear it all the time.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: As a minister, I get asked questions.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I, we always get asked these things.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: What do you, what, where do you stand on this?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think about this doctrine?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think about this thing that's in the headlines?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think and and and I'm seeing more clearly what's going on?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know my knowledge of good and evil here.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, when I would answer the questions the best way that I could, according to the knowledge of good and evil, I would either justify myself in their eyes, or if I gave the wrong answer, they couldn't have anything to do with me anymore.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But they want to know.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: They have this obsession with knowing good and evil.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that can sound very, very spiritual.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It can sound very, very Christian even.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because we hear Christians talk about it I it's just, Rick, it's just about standing for the right.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But what is the right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's one side of the knowledge of good and evil.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't talking about what's right.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when uh a few weeks ago we we looked at the story of Jesus was teaching and somebody stands up and said, Jesus, make my brother do what's right.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Why am I a judge over there?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm not, that's not what I'm here for.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here for something better than that.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, if we're talking about, if God loves you and he wants you to be happy every day, and here's where people get confused.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be happy every day.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and Jesus said right here, he says, verse 16, they're not of that world, they're not of that system, just like I'm not of it, but I was in it.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So sanctify them by your truth.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your word is truth.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: As you sent me into the world, I send them into this world.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now here we are in this ugly, unfair world, and he says, but you will set them apart, you will make them holy, you will sanctify them by the truth.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: All they got to do is know the truth.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why when we get up here, what my main purpose is, is to speak truth to power to your soul that you can hear and at least begin to think that it's possible.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: At least gravitate toward it and hopefully maybe even just embrace it completely once and for all with a quality decision that says, I've done this and it works.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Father, every day I'm going to be happy with your help.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Show me the truth.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you that prayer works.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your eyes start opening up and you start seeing things in a way that's so much clearer than the knowledge of good and evil.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: You start seeing things through the eyes of perfection and love, and you'll find out how happy you are when you didn't think that would make you happy.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: You thought being right would make you happy.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: You thought standing for the right would make you happy.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: You thought getting rid of what's wrong would make you happy.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's understand.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: This thing, those roots are so deep, even in the body of Christ, that that that that when Jesus laid the axe to that to the root of that tree, we got to understand the truth that that's not a part of who we are anymore.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: We've been deceived, we've been lied to, and we think that our job is to stand strong in the knowledge of good and evil.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: That knowledge is what invented hell and brought it into the world.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: That knowledge is where hell began.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's where all the pain, the fear, the murder, the hate, the self, selfishness, all of it began right there.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And people have lived in it ever since.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus brought us an exodus from hell.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the exodus door is open every single day of your life.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I are happy, not because we found out how to magically make everything go our way.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a world that's against us.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a world that's contrary to the ways of God.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're living in it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But we're in a kingdom that is absolute perfection.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's love, joy, peace.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the very definition of the kingdom of heaven, let's understand truth.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Please hear something today.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: The very definition of the kingdom of heaven, according to the book of Romans, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Churches are praying this morning, Lord, let your kingdom come.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even acknowledge that it's here.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: That they have it.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let your kingdom come.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then they define it by saying, Let your kingdom come.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Make all of these things right, change all those things.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let your kingdom be established on the earth.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, do we not believe our Bibles?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: They were praying over 2,000 years ago.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: When are you going to establish that kingdom on the earth?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't do that.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's here.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's in you.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when we don't know the truth, we're still looking for it to come.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Later on.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we so church, there are churches.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was I've been in these churches, I've been parts of them.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: We would pray it, we would sing it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let your kingdom come.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we thought that meant to make those things change out there that we wanted right.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Changes here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does this have an effect out there?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Once the body of Christ gets a hold of this thing and really starts living out of this, my goodness, you'll see, you'll you'll see creation won't have to grow because it'll have the effect.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: The love inside you will become a love around you.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: The peace inside you will become a peace around you.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: The joy that's inside you will be infectious.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: It'll catch and make a joy around them, around you.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: People will find it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the world is looking for.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: That God-shaped hole is only filled by God and Him alone.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And God is love, and His fruit, His manifestations are love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, patience, faith, self-control.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me on that first row?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta let the veils be lifted.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have been hoodwinked into thinking life is about those things and life is about being right, or right is about staying away from wrong, fighting wrong and fighting for right.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's the tree of knowledge of good and evil, left and right, right and wrong.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it makes perfect sense.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean if there's not right and wrong?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is there?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: If there's not the knowledge of good and evil, left and right, right and wrong, what is left?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: How about the tree of life?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: How about the third option that man cannot see because they think it's just left and right, right and wrong, black and white?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a third option.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's God, it's love, perfect love, that scares the left and right people.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, even in our society, in our culture, that's why, even in our country, we've got left and right, neither one of them is going to move because they're both living in that tree, and none of them want to get knocked out.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there's Christians on both sides of them.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: But they're so blinded by the world of good and evil, right and wrong.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: See, because on the right, see, those of and I'm and I'm on the right politically, those of us that are on the right, we know they're wrong.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those of them on the left, they know you're wrong.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, but they're wrong.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But see, and that's and that, you know what?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: This ain't nothing new.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: This has gone on ever since the Garden of Eden.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You think this is just a modern day phenomena?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: That you've got two sides opposing each other?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: You think this is a modern day thing, that there's that there's a fight, there's a war, there's a clash and a push against each other, and now a hatred against each other?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if they just change, everything would be alright.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they're saying if you just change, everything would be alright.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: But you say, but we're right, but that's not the issue.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't matter.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's still living in that tree, being right.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: But being in the third option, you know what would change this country if I can give just a little political.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: I am political.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I Judy and I talk about it.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: We watch the news, we're we're up on what's going on, we talk about it all the time among ourselves.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't talk about it with much people because they can't talk about it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: They can't talk sense about it, they're too angry about everything.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know what politically we have the opportunity as Christians, as believers, and we've got Christians that we elect into office?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: How about standing for the third option?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: How about standing for love?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: How about instead of trying to win for your side, how about trying to win for the people?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of seeing who's gonna blink first, how about somebody standing out and saying, you know what?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Out of love, out of love, I'm gonna have peace.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have joy.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they're afraid because what happens is people say, if you blink, then we're gonna be mad and we won't elect you again.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then vote them out of office, vote me out of office if I'm in that place, vote me out of office.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: But for four years while I'm here, I'm gonna get something done.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be not for my own good and not for just winning for my side.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to win for the American people.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to let you know that I am running for president in 2020.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I might get four votes, you know.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: But creation.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look, see.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, they thought surely he will he will not side with the sinners.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus was siding for was the Father.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not doing what the sinner wants me to do.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing what the religious wants me to do.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing what I see my father do.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people put things on on God that they wish he was, that he's really not.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: God will get him for it.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Read your Bible.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you read Old Testament, you might be able to get that.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God is just.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Read your New Testament on what God says, what it says about God being just.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: It says He's faithful and just to forgive your sin.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not just to condemn you.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's just to forgive.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's justice in his eyes.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's his way.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he thinks is the best thing.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you think is right?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible talks about judgment.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even the New Testament, we see it in there.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's still that judgment.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, this will knock over two of them just while we're having fun this morning.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a small group, we can just have fun.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, it is appointed unto man once to die.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, what?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: The judgment.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then the very next verse that goes with it says, as it is appointed unto man, how many times?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Once to die, and after that the judgment.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So Christ died once for who?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: All.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: All of us.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: One appointment, one death was met.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's how, how do you think?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know we go to funerals, they say, every one of us got to do this here.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then why did Paul say, let me talk about a mystery here?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's going to do this.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's still appointed unto man wants to die, then there can't be that what we talked about when he says, we're not all going to die, but we will be changed.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't talk about it much, but he says, let me just throw a mystery out there to you.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I see here.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a belief that we have, that there is a, is however that happens comes about, or whatever, there is that in the word that says, not everybody's going to do that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a change.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are going to be people alive on this earth, and a change is going to happen.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that can't happen.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: That would break the rule if it if you've still got an appointment with death.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: If nothing else, go check it out and study it.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now the second part, that's what I really want to talk about.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Judgment.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, the judgment.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Christ died once.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, the judgment.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Read the book of Romans, where it says that by one man's disobedience, judgment came unto all men, unto condemnation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So then by one man, Jesus, his righteous act, came the justification, which is a righteous judgment, came the justification of all.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: The judgment happened with Jesus.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: But see, but people want to put things on God that they don't, that they wished he would be like that.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: They wish that he would take care of those things like that.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: They wish that he would put that kind of pressure on evil to make it stop.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: But when he brought Jesus, when Jesus came and died like he did, laid the axe to the root of the tree, it does away, if you can see the truth, it does away with the knowledge of good and evil, and it just gives us life.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it frees us up to just live in love.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, you want to be happy every day?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Be loved by God.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just let God love you.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what if a storm has happened?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then you really let God love you.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get mad at God.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let him love you.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wonder what God's trying to show you and how God's trying to punish you and why God's putting you through the test.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just let him love you.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you that if I've been in storms, let him love you.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'll stay happy and peaceful and blessed, and you'll still be able to bless others while you're in that storm.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So let him love you and watch what happens.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, mm-hmm.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let him love you.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you stay happy.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you're I'm talking about, see what we're talking about, it seems so small to people because people think Jesus loves me.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about a love that fills your soul.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what you're looking for.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And all those things that God described that people were trying to do to fill this void, because people get frustrated because they feel an emptiness there.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: People get angry because something ain't being met.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: People get sad because there's a need.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you need this person really to do that thing for you and then you're going to be happy?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, you will for like a day or two.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not eternity.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not undiminishable life.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's diminishable life.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you need this situation to straighten out before you can be happy?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Will that really make you happy?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for a day or two.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: It did in the Red Sea.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: People say, uh at the Red Sea in the Old Testament, people say, if if people today could just, if we could just have those kind of miracles like the children of Israel saw, then everything will be all right.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, did it work for them?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: What's the greatest miracle?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: The one that the movie makers like the most it's the it's the parting of the Red Sea.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: What a miracle! Making an ocean divide in two so people can walk on the ground and and and they do that.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and the army that was chasing them is buried in the sea.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: They come out on the other side, no more enemies, they're all gone.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: God is taking care of the whole thing.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're absolutely free.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's a sea between them and Egypt.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're totally free from the bondage and the rulership and the armies of Egypt.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they celebrate and they have them a praise and worship.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Miriam gets her tambourine out, and she sings it to the Lord because he's triumphed gloriously for them.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And three days later, by Wednesday night service, they are so mad at God, they are so wishing that they had never come out.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: So parting the Red Sea will make you happy.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: For three days, maybe.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus and letting him love you in the midst of a storm in such a way that it's impossible to be afraid of the storm anymore.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: People have accused me of being in denial because they act like I don't even know there's a storm.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I still have eyes.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can see the storm.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not living out there in the whirlwind of it.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm living in the eye.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching the storm.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've got storms right now in my life.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Things are whirling around.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Dangerous things.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Things that could go really, really bad.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And could get even worse.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not denying they're there, but I'm acknowledging the eye of the storm.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm acknowledging God.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you here?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham did not deny that he was 99 years old.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham did not deny that he was too old to perform and his wife was too old to conceive.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: He did not deny that, but he acknowledged God.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And because his mind was on God, Abraham, Old Testament guy, believed.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because in God there's faith.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: You want to quit doubting?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Look at him.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to look at him.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because trying to look at him is like this.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hear it all the time.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Please quit.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at him.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you're trying, it's on you again.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing it.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't do it.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then how does it happen?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: You just know something.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know the truth.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: You hear stuff like this, you hear truth, you hear the word, and you just accept it in your heart.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: You embrace it and believe it.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And make a quality decision and say, I believe.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that he will keep me in perfect peace because my mind will be stayed on him.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's hard, because it's kind of foreign to you.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: But keep looking.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep looking at him.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what you find, this is exactly how it works, is that while it was once normal to live with the knowledge of good and evil and all the hell that it produces inside you, not just outside.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's worse than the hell that's going outside is the wor is the hell that it produces inside.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus didn't pray that the hell would go away, but he prayed that its effect wouldn't work on you.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't take that hell away.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're still gonna deal with stuff.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: But he made the way so it doesn't have the effect in here.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what you find is that you when you start looking at determining, deciding to look at him.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're talking about is a decision, because Proverbs says that when you decide a thing, God brings it to pass.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so He so you decide and you look at it, look at Him, and keep your mind on Him.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're maybe you're not used to living that way, so it's easy to get distracted again because that's what you're used to.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: But then when you catch yourself and when you're aware that that's what you're doing again, you put your mind on Him again.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just think on Him.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: However it works for you, whether it's putting on that good song that works for you, or singing a song, or reading your Bible, or just talking to God and thanking Him for something.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Get back in that place.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it becomes more and more your real normal, to where it becomes not your second nature, your first nature.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere along the way, you'll look around and you'll say, You know what?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so much like that anymore.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've got so much peace.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: It just started happening to me simply because of what Jesus said.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's it'll be the truth.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Sanctify them by the truth.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're not of that world.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're in it, but they're not of it.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: So show them the truth.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you see the truth, the truth will make you free every day.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: In every hurricane, in everything.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: The truth will make you free.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.