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Transcript

It's About Life Not Knowledge · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: So today, this is what I honestly had this in my mind.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: I thought, today I'm going to preach the fullness gospel.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: And then on the way to church, Pat was talking about the full gospel.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: And it was that same thing: the full gospel, the finished work of Jesus.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and Morris talked about how, you know, uh about me preaching and talked about making a clear sound and all that.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking, as you were saying that, you know, there's I've I've been I I hear you hear a lot of things when you travel.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And you hear a lot of wonderful things, but you hear there's just all kinds of things going on out there, a lot of things being said.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: And there's, and, and in some times, in some cases, it seems like some people are making the gospel more and more complicated by trying to go deeper and deeper and higher and higher, uh, trying to find something else that, you know, that's that's that has, you know, something like the gospel's not good enough, so they're trying to make it more complicated, more complex, and and I'm like, well, wait a minute.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna go the other direction.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go, we're gonna go to the simple here.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna show you how simple this is because when we look at this today, we're gonna find out, if you can hear this, I'm telling you, see, I love you guys.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: I just I want every day to be heavenly for every single one of us.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: And there's an answer here.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: This is not a theory.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: This is not just something that, you know, that I put together scripturally, and I think, oh, this will make a good sermon, and this will dazzle people's minds and all that.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: This is something that is real, it's eternal, and it's very, very powerful, it's very simple.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's all powerful.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Paul said, talked about staying with the simplicity of the good news.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, Paul quoted from Deuteronomy in Romans chapter 10, and he said, you know, he says, um quoting God speaking, and he says, you know, my way is not too mysterious for you.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: It's not so high that people would say, Who's going to ascend up into the heights of heaven and bring it down to us?
2:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not so deep that they would say, Who's going to go into the deep and bring it up?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: It's not so far away that someone's going to say, Who shall cross the sea and bring it over to us?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's near you, it's in your heart, and it's in your mouth.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And with Jesus, we have that fullness.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: We have it all.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: But today people struggle.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Christians are still struggling.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere we go, these beloved brothers and sisters that I love very much.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: We deal with it all the time.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: They're struggling.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: They're struggling with faith.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: They're struggling with fear.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: They they still deal with with doubt.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: They deal with trying to forgive in certain situations where it's hard to forgive.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: They deal with all these things that have to do with life.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: They deal with trying to get through the problems that life presents.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're very, very hard.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: And and and and in all these in all these struggles, there's this powerful thing that the Father did through with the Son Jesus here, that I tell you, it literally brings us from earth to heaven, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his son.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: He literally has translocated us out of the bondage of the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of light.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And and I know it takes a revelation, but I think one reason that people find it hard to see with the eyes of Revelation is because things look too complicated.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a very thick book, this Bible.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stuff in here.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: And and we're so smart that we can take one obscure verse and make a whole big doctrine out of it.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've seen people that can take a four-letter word and break it into five syllables and have a whole teaching on each syllable.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just amazing what people will do with this thing.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to simplify.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: Now let's look at this.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: What did all these things like this, all the struggles, all the pain, the fear, the doubt, the unforgiveness, the shame.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Where did it all come from?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus need to come and fix what had been been broken?
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Because it all got broken in the Garden of Eden, right here in Genesis 3.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And let's go ahead and read it and jump into it here and preach from it.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 3, verse 9.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: After they ate of that fruit, and Adam and Eve were hiding in the bushes there, it says, The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: So he said, I Well, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: I was naked, so I hid myself.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: So he was also ashamed.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: He was afraid and he was ashamed.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: And he said, and God said, Who told you that?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Who told you that you were naked?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Who told you that you were naked?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat from?
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: See, uh, and and for the last year now, I have not been able to preach without going back to this.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I had other scriptures that I'm that I we may be getting to here that I that I that I that I uh I gave our uh technical people there.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Then as we were worshiping, all these words came up to me, and I thought, well, I've got to bring this scripture up.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: I've got to go back to this, because this is where it all went wrong.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And where it all went wrong was what Jesus fixed.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Like Judy said, there were two trees, two trees in the midst of that garden.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: There were other trees, but there were those two trees that signified things.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: One brought life, one brought death.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: One that brought life was called the tree of life.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: The one that brought death was not called the tree of death, but it did bring death.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: It was called something else.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Now think of that.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Now we know this story, so when we hear that term, we already think, okay, bad tree.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Bad, bad, bad, bad.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: But think of that terminology, the knowledge of good and evil.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Knowing it was a tree that would make us wise.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Knowing good and evil.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Not just knowing evil, knowing good and knowing evil.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: But he said, if you partake of that knowledge, if you choose that, you'll die.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: And so when he calls Adam, and Adam reveals that he was afraid and he was ashamed because of his condition.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: God said, Who told you that?
6:47
SPEAKER_00: No, I embellish here a little bit, but in essence, what he's saying is, you've been naked this whole time.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: I never said a word.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: I've known that.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: I never said a word.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell you that.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: The only way you could know that is that you got that knowledge.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: You would have never known that.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Because I wouldn't have said a thing.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Because it didn't matter.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: What mattered was us.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Why?
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Were we naked?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't God just cover us like he did the birds and the beasts and the fish and everything else?
7:33
SPEAKER_00: They all got covering, they all got protection from the elements, they all got their, you know.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he cover us?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Because we were made to be different.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: We were made for that for God to be our sufficiency.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the reason he created us, if you wonder why we are here.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: God's, you know, the reason, do you think the reason God created us was he said, because I want them to amass a bunch of bills and look and live their lifetime paying bills and then die and go to heaven?
8:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, did he did he say, Well, I've got all these wonderful rules, but nobody to keep them, so I'm going to make man?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make this weak flesh creature that can't keep the rules, then I can destroy them all.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Why are we created?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Because God is love.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible says very plainly, for his pleasure we are and were created.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: For his pleasure.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus reveals that pleasure when he says, Fear not, little flock, it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: That's why he created us and he put us in the garden and he blessed us, and he says, Now be fruitful, have dominion.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: He gave it all to us because we were created to be the receivers of God's love and his goodness and his abundance, because that's what love wants.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Love wants a recipient.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Love wants somebody to give it to.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: And the heaven of all heavens could not contain the love of the Father.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: So he creates us, called us his children.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: The book of Luke called Adam the Son of God.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: He was created, but he was God's son, came from God's own creation, God's own heart.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: And he created man naked and insufficient of himself.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: When all the other animals had their own coverings, had their own protections, had built-in weaponry, whether it was speed or antlers or claws or teeth or protective coloration or something, everything else had all had sufficiency for what they were created for, but man had no sufficiency except God.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Because we were created to be loved.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: While a bird has wings because it was created to fly, we were created to be loved.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: While a fish has fins because it was created to swim, we were created to be loved.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: You clip the wings from a bird, it cannot do what it was created to do.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: You take the love out of the out of man, God's love for man, he is totally lost.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: He cannot live the way he was supposed to live.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: They all sin and fall short of his glory.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: They miss it.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: So, in the simplicity of this, what we see is Jesus brought us back home to that.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: So, that's why he said in Matthew 6, and I'm gonna give them fits back there, but I jump around all these scriptures.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: That's why he said in Matthew 6, you know, he says, don't worry about that your life.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about what you're gonna eat or what you're gonna wear.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because all these things, those who don't know God, are seeking after these things.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: A few verses up there he says, Isn't life more than all that?
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Isn't life more than all that?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, what did Jesus come to give us?
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Life.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: He came to give us this thing called life.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: Apparently it was something we didn't have.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: What we did have was a lot of knowledge of good and evil.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: What we did have was a lot of good.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: What we did have was the mall to get our clothes.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: What we did have was a lot of stuff.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: He said, but don't worry about those things because the Gentiles or the heathen or those who don't know God, they're always after those things.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: That's what life is to them.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: It's about how do how do I get how do how do I get what I need in life or what I want in life?
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Where did all that come from?
11:27
SPEAKER_00: It came from that knowledge of good and evil because when we chose that way, here we were made for God to be all of our sufficiency, and we said, no, like everything else, we can be our sufficiency.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: All we need to be are to be sufficient in ourselves is this knowledge, then we'll be like God.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: We'll be self-sufficient too.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And so, all if we can just know, have the knowledge of good and evil, then we can take care of us.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And since that moment, man has tried.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Man realized from the beginning, right there, that he was not sufficient of himself, but he tried.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
12:12
SPEAKER_00: He tried to cover himself up with fig leaves.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Going to cover himself.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Going to take care of himself.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting that even though now they the Bible says that they they sewed fig leaves together.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't, it wasn't like I don't think it was like the pictures we've seen where they had one big fig leaf covering one part.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I think it's probably a tree suit.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, whether they covered themselves from head to toe or whether they just covered a couple of parts, body parts, either way, it did not alleviate the shame that was now a part of them because even though they were now covered, when they heard God, notice they still went and hid themselves.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Because they still didn't feel covered.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what man has done, whether he's tried religion, philosophy, success, drug addiction, crime, whatever.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they just try giving up and go live on Skid Row.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: But whatever they've tried, whether it's Wall Street or Skid Row or whatever, whatever they've tried, it has never been sufficient.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of good, and there's been a lot of evil.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: But both the good and the evil of that tree still do not produce life.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: And I'll even say this that the evil is evil, and the good is good.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: There is good in the knowledge of good and evil.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: There is good, but there isn't, but it's not life.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: It still produces death.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: It's the way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing me?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: And so what we thought ever since then is we're going to pursue good.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Good for us?
14:03
SPEAKER_00: You hear it in the world after the secular world.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Good for mankind.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: How long have they been crying?
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Let there be peace on earth.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: It's a great aspiration, but not they don't have the power to do it.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Because the end of it still just results in death.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing me?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: It all gets down to these two trees here, and Jesus came to give us the one that we didn't eat of back then.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Life.
14:33
unknown: Wow.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: In um back to Genesis 3.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you one more thing here.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Look what else they do.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: He says, Who told you in verse 11?
14:45
SPEAKER_00: He says, Who told you you were naked?
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Did you eat of that tree?
14:48
SPEAKER_00: You must have eaten of that tree.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, the man said.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: The woman?
15:00
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even say yes or no.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Did you eat of that tree?
15:03
SPEAKER_00: The woman.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: The woman that you gave me.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Now you guys work out who's to blame on this, but it's not me.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: The woman gave it to me.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: And I went ahead and ate, but the woman gave it to me.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And you gave me the woman.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: So God really, if you had never done that, this would have never happened.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Why are they doing that?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Then, of course, Eve turns around and she's like, no, the snake, the snake.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: It was a snake that did it to me, you know.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And then the snake's like, there's nobody else to look at, you know.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: But what's going on here?
15:44
SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Immediately, they are protecting themselves now.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Because now, now, for the first time, they need protection.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: They didn't need it before.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: That's why they didn't even notice they were naked.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Because they were protected.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: They were covered.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: They were provided for.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: And now, for the first time, they've got to protect themselves.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: They've got to defend themselves.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: I want to write a book on the art of self-defense, and it's talking about this kind of self-defense and why man has all is always defending himself is because of this.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Why do people, why does somebody just get offended and think that they have to argue their point?
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Because it's self-defense.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Because if they don't defend themselves, who will?
16:27
SPEAKER_00: It's what they feel.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Are you all here to me?
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And even though, and even Christians will say, oh, God will, but they still struggle with this, because even though they might really be born again and might really have a relationship for too long, there's been throughout the church world this knowledge of good and evil pretending to be the knowledge of life.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why Christians, of course, the world is, but even Christianity, this is why we're preaching this stuff.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: It's why we're it's it's amazing that after 2,000 years of Christianity, we are, it's we're having to preach grace and life and love to people who know a lot of stuff.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: But having to get to this this these basics of life in God.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Because there's been all of this knowledge of good and evil.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And that's why in the church world, ask any, almost any of them what they believe.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: They believe stay away from the evil and cleave to the good.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: But let's remember the knowledge of good and evil is all of that same tree, the good and the evil.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's good in that tree, but it doesn't produce life.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And the deception is that the good of that tree, they didn't, they weren't, they weren't looking at the tree, the knowledge of good and evil and thinking, yeah, we're going to get this knowledge and then go be evil.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: They were thinking, if we know this knowledge, know what's good and know what is evil, then we can take it upon ourselves to be good.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: To do the good.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of good people.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good people that don't even believe in God.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I've met them.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good people in the church.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: But good is not the same as life.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good people who are still living in shame and fear.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good people who are so broke they can't pay attention.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good people who are suffering with issues, problems, sickness, disease, you know.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: So good is not life.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: So you get these two trees.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: The book of Luke, chapter 3, says something.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: In verse 9.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: This is John the Baptist, and he's preparing the way for Jesus, right?
19:05
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: King James will say trees.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Look it up, it's tree.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: It's just that the translators they put trees because they thought he was talking about individual people.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: And the tree that, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes, what's he doing?
19:30
SPEAKER_00: He's taking away the tree of knowledge of good and evil and giving us the tree of life.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: In fact, look at the end of this thing.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Look in the book of Revelation, at the end of the book there.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: What you see in the description of that, you see, you see the tree and trees of life, actually, but no tree of knowledge of good and evil.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: And this is what has happened, I've noticed over these years.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: This is what has happened in my life and it's happening.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting farther and farther away from that.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's been amazing to me.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: That's why I can't stop talking about it.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: It's like, my goodness, it's a whole new and living way.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: The way that I thought was right was not, was, was not it.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: It was a good, it was good, it was good in that way, but there, but it was not in life.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: That's why I was not satisfied.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: That's why for years, as much as I loved Jesus, and as much as I tried to do good and be good and anything anybody preached, if you know, I was like, well, I'm gonna do that.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: If that's what God wants, I'll do that.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says, I'll do that.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: If that's that's what'll please God, I'll do that.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I was that way.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: But in all of that good, I was just like Paul, who did a lot of good or what he perceived, according to his knowledge of good and evil, Saul of Tarsus was a good man.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: As far as the law of God, a Pharisee among the Pharisees, attaining, excelling far beyond his peers.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't trying to be a bad guy.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: He was going after the knowledge of good and evil to be a good guy, to be a God pleaser, a God seeker.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: And in all of that, could never, ever, ever be satisfied because all of the good was not life.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so part of the deception here, and listen, you know, listen, we got fooled back in that Garden of Eden.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: There's a saying it says, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: I ain't being fooled again.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: I ain't going back to that tree.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's very deceptive.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: It was so deceptive that it could, that it took these people that were in paradise and it drew them away.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so deceptive, it pretends to produce life.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Adam and Eve were just me, and they just say, I hate God.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to do what God wants.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: I think they thought they were doing something good.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: It was a tree that would make us like him.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: And he's good.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: So let's be good.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying good's not good.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Good is good.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: But it's the best we can do without life, without without living according to the tree of life.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: The best we can do is just be good.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about not going to hell.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: You'll go to heaven, but but I'm but you know what?
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I rarely even mention that because that's there.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: That's going to be there.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: That's a given.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to preach how you know that you're going to go to heaven if you're born again, you're going to go.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: What I see is my brothers and sisters, I've said, they don't have heaven right now.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And they can.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed that as that tree has died in my life, that tree of knowledge of good and evil, that's where my heaven comes from.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Because what's left is that life that Jesus gave me.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And I'm finding out, my goodness, it's more about life.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And everybody wants to, everybody's fighting about what's good and what's evil.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And people tell me, well, Rick, you know, where do you stand on this issue and all that?
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And what I've come to, I'm like, I'm realizing, I'm like, my goodness, I don't stand on any side of that tree.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm standing on this other tree, the tree of life.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: It's about God, his goodness, his love.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, I got something to tell you this morning.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: It's about life, which is the unconditional and all and powerful and all-encompassing love of God that fills all and everybody.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And the reason the knowledge of good and evil is an issue in the church is because we want goodness in the church.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: And what I run into is very sincere brothers in Christ that might have an issue with some of the things that I'm saying because they're afraid that if you don't promote the knowledge of good and evil in the church, that they'll do evil.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And I say, no, there's another tree that takes care of that.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: That one never did.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: That knowledge of good and evil didn't do what it promised to do.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: And there's still sin in the world, and there's still sin in the church, actions of sin, manifestations of sin.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And we think that we're going to get rid of it by bringing more knowledge of good and evil.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Einstein said that don't work.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, doing the same thing that you always do.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, I didn't come to condemn you.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he said, I didn't come to give that knowledge of good and evil because that's what condemns.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: They were condemned right off the bat.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: And notice they were condemned with a condemnation that God didn't give them.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: They condemned themselves.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: That's why the book of John has to talk to us.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And he says, if your heart condemns you, God's greater than your heart.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
24:51
SPEAKER_00: If we receive the witness of men that tell us we're good or evil, it says, God, God is a witness.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: They condemned Jesus.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: They thought they knew.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: See, everybody has their knowledge of good and evil.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: And this is why we have fights and debates out there, because my good is not their good.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But it's their knowledge of good and evil.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: It's my knowledge of good and evil.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: It's all carnal knowledge.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: What man did when we ate of that tree, we became carnal.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And we acted out either carnally evil or carnally good.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: But it was still our flesh that was being good.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Like Judy says, you know, there's rotten flesh out there, but there's also grade A, USDA, grade A flesh too, you know?
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Good flesh.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: But it's still flesh, right?
25:44
SPEAKER_00: So what we're looking at, here's what Jesus gave.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: He gave us something completely different.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: That goes beyond all of that.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: All religion is based on the knowledge of good and evil, all philosophy, all everything.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Every merit system and raising children, school, jobs, it's all on this knowledge.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: The law itself in the Old Testament was the knowledge of good and evil on steroids.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: It was just amplified.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: It just amplified it, made it clear.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: The tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown into the fire.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: This is what's happened in my life.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: That tree was not bearing good fruit.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I became good.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And that becoming good actually became part of my struggle because I thought that I was good.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And I thought good was where it's at.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: And so then I start demanding everybody else be good.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And I would be preaching.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, if you be good like me, God will bless you too, you know.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Be good like me, and you'll get favor and all that.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: And then this, as as that axe is laid to that tree and that thing is taken away, and I see they're just live.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And I say, you know what?
26:52
SPEAKER_00: It's not about any of that.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: It's God that's good.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus himself, remember, the guy approaches him and he says, Good master, good teacher, what must I do?
27:01
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, stop.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Let's correct that first point.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: Why are you calling me good?
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, was Jesus good?
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sinless.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus didn't let that be the point.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: He didn't let that be the issue because the guy assumed it was because of his goodness.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, no, no.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Nobody, there's only one good.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: It's the Father.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I am what I am and do what I do, not because I'm good.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: The Father's good to me.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: It's the Father's goodness.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: I'll show you that.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I wish I had five hours.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: But I don't, so I'll talk fast.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Luke 4.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, Why are you calling me good?
27:58
SPEAKER_00: There's none good but the Father.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what Jesus did, he wasn't able to do it just because he was good.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: He kept showing us I do it because the Father's good.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Remember in John 5, he'd say, I can of my own self do nothing.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: The Father who sent me, he does these things.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: He kept directing it to the Father, the Father, the Father.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: And then he would tell us, and he'd call him, he'd call him our Father, your Father.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: That's why what the Son asks, the Father does.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And the Father loves you.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And his whole thing was not the knowledge of good and evil, it's relationship.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: You notice in so many of those temptations in his life when the Pharisees would try to tempt him, what were they tempting him with?
28:47
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge of good and evil.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Let's throw an adulteress in front of him who's been caught red-handed.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: And it's very loud and clear what God's word says about this.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: This woman is to be killed.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: She's to be stoned to death.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: She was caught red-handed.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: There's no debate about this.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Ask her, she'll admit it.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: She's laying there in shame right now.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Jesus.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: She's been caught red-handed in adultery.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Moses said she's to be stoned to death.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: But tell us what you say.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: We want to know what your knowledge of good and evil is here.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing me?
29:31
SPEAKER_00: So while they're waiting on his judgment of good and evil on this whole situation, he doesn't go to that tree.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the tree that he is.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I call it the third option.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not about good and evil.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: He goes to love and forgiveness.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the Father's heart.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he uses a wonderful thing to expose it in them, you know, but the end result was, I don't condemn you.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Now go and sin no more.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Or in other words, please read that the right way.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Go and now be free from that.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Why?
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Because life fulfills everything in anybody.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: How does this simple thing about the unconditional love of God, how is that going to stop sin?
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Pastors ask me this all the time.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: How is that going to stop sin?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask them, how is the tree of knowledge of good moral of the knowledge of good and evil going to stop sin?
30:25
SPEAKER_00: But how is that simple, that simplicity, just the love of God, how is that going to stop sin?
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Because it did it in me.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: That thing, when I was looking for fullness, when I the day I found out that God loved me no matter what, if I never did another good thing, because it wasn't about that tree, that God loved me, Jesus came to die for me, that what could not be done because of the weakness of my flesh, he did for me, Romans chapter 8, and realized that everything that I ever needed or wanted in life was all in him, and I had him, it began to fill my heart, F-I-L-L.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: We must now say fill and feel the same way, but it's fill, fill my heart, F-I-L.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: He filled my heart, and when he filled my heart the way the tree of life would have filled Adam and Eve, they would have never needed that tree.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: They would have never had to look for covering, they would have never had to look for self-protection or self-provision or anything else.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: When I got that revelation of the Father's love for me, it brought me back to the Garden of Eden, eating of the tree of life, it filled my heart, and I did not need that selfishness anymore.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: I did not ever need to defend me, to protect me, to care and be anxious about me, to stress about me, because my heart was full.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: And all the fruit of the spirit that Judy was talking about began to manifest like it's supposed to.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: I spent over 20 years trying to create fruit of the spirit by the knowledge of good and evil.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: I would try to talk myself into peace when I was stressed.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: I would try to talk myself into love when I couldn't forgive.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: I would try to talk myself into joy when I was sad.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: I would do everything to try to make myself get it.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: And when I got this revelation of life, when I realized that it has nothing to do with anything, that God is it, that it's Him, He loved me if I'm naked.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Who's going to separate me from that love?
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Nakedness, peril, sword, principality, power, nothing was going to separate me from that.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter that I was naked.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter that I didn't measure up all the time.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter that I wasn't getting it all right.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter that I didn't know enough.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't matter that I thought my faith wasn't big enough.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Because it had nothing to do with me, my nakedness, my vulnerability, my weakness.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: It had everything to do with him.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing anything?
32:55
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's called good news.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Bad news is it's about you.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Do it.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Fix it.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Come on, church.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Get with it.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you gotta do it.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: You gotta do it.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you gotta, you gotta get stronger.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get more faith.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get more love.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get a phoo.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: That's the knowledge of good and evil.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me on that back row?
33:18
SPEAKER_00: So the axe is laid to the root of that tree.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I've thrown all that away.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: I count all of that dung for the excellency of knowing Him.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: So I'm simple now.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm so simple.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: It's me and Jesus.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and this weak, naked, vulnerable, foolish guy.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's where you get to where you can glory in it.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Because it has nothing about me.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: And you don't feel the need to cover those things anymore.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you so, I'll tell you the pressure.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: I had the pressure on me for years.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Not only was I a person who feels that pressure, then I was a Christian who had the pressure, and not only was I a Christian, I was in the ministry.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: I was a pastor who had the pressure.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Or I put I put it on me, like those who follow that knowledge always do.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: We put it on ourselves.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Because I had to look good even when I knew that I wasn't always good and I wasn't feeling so good.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: I had to project goodness.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: I felt I had to project perfection to inspire that in my congregation.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: When I got the real tree, you become invisible almost.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: It's just like, man, it's totally all about God.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing anything?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: So here's Jesus now being tempted.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: After he's been baptized and he goes to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, we know this temptation in verse 3 where the devil says to him, If you're the Son of God, command this stone to be made bread.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered him and said, It's written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God, or every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: And here's his thing: his body was hungry because he hasn't eaten in 40 days.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: But in all that situation, here's the temptation to make the stone into bread so he can have something to eat.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is still about, you know what?
35:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do this.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Because that's not what life is.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: I live by the word of God.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: I live by my relationship with my Father.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you something in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8, because it refers to this very thing here.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: You're going to like this.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, Judy talked about.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: See, we think it's the accumulation of knowledge of good and evil.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: How many more sermons, how many more years do you have to sit in church and hear all these beautiful words that do come from the pulpits?
35:54
SPEAKER_00: How many more years of sermons is it going to take until you get there?
36:00
SPEAKER_00: You'll never get there.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: How much trying is it going to take?
36:04
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, if you're trying, you'll never get there until you quit trying.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Because it's still all about you.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's interesting when we propagate the knowledge of good and evil.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to these pastors because they're very sincere.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: They're concerned.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: They want us to be a good example to the world.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: They want the church, they don't want scandal and slander in the church and all, you know.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: They want the church to shine and be bright and be godly.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: So their motive's right.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: But they think, we've got to put the pressure of the knowledge of good and evil on them.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: They said, because if you don't, they won't live right.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: And so here's how you can test this.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: Ask them, say, well, do you live right?
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Do you do everything that you're supposed to do?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: And here's what they'll tell you almost every time.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Unless they lie.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: If they're going to lie to you, they'll say yes.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: And if they lie to you, they just ask a couple more questions and you can corner them.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:01
SPEAKER_00: But here's what they'll say.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: They'll say no, but I'm trying.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: As if trying gets you points.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing in the Bible that says that.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: But if you say, you know, if you say I'm addicted to porn, but I struggle with it and I'm trying, man, you got all kinds of grace.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: But if you say, I'm addicted to porn and I just quit trying, I just do it all the time, you got no grace from them.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Because they think that trying makes a difference.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: They think that if you're trying, and what you're doing, it's all on you again.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: They think that if you're trying, then you get grace, and if you're not trying, like you get points from God for trying, then you're okay.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And you can still be bound for the rest of your life, but as long as you say you're trying, you're accepted.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: And you're still counted good.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's people's problem.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: I deal with this stuff.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, you would be amazed at how many ministers come and confide in me about stuff like that.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not anymore.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: And they're trying.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: And they hate that sin.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: And they come to me with tears in their eyes and they say, Brother Rick, I've tried everything.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: I have fasted, I've begged God, I've read every book to be read, I've been punched in the stomach, I've been squeezed on the head, I've been pushed on the floor, I've had it all.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: And I've had some that walked away from God, mad at God, because God never fixed them.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't God fix them?
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Because they were trying.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: With the knowledge of good and evil, trying to abhor the evil.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like if they could hate it enough.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: Because many of them were told that.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: The reason they're still doing it, they said, because you don't hate it enough.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't, and they're just they're crying.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: They've tried everything, and you're telling me they don't hate it enough?
38:52
SPEAKER_00: They hated it, but they were like Paul.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: He said, But the thing that I didn't want to do, I did.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't find the power.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: The law was good, just, holy.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: See, it was good, but it didn't bring life.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: So here's Deuteronomy 8, and here's God gives us something.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: I'll show you something here.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, Judy said, there's a see, this is about the fullness of God.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: There's a peace that the world gives, which means that when all your needs are met and things are going smooth, you get a peace.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: That's the peace that the world gives.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: What we found out, if we've lived on this planet for any length of time, is that it doesn't stay like that in this world.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: We have situations.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said you would.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: He said you'll have situations.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: There's situations in this world.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: There's tribulation, he called it.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: But in me there'll be peace.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: So be of good cheer.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: I've overcome all of that.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is stuff in the world, but I have overcome that.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: I override that.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: I bring you into a kingdom that is higher than all that, and you can navigate those things with such grace and such power and such peace and such joy.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: You can still have heaven on earth on an earth that has so much hell.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lived it and he walked it.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: There could be a storm in the Sea of Galilee, twelve men think they're going to die, and Jesus is having a nice little nap.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: It's good sleeping with her.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: He's having heaven on earth while they're in torment, right?
40:14
SPEAKER_00: So it has nothing to do with the situations.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we see it here.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: Look at Deuteronomy 8 verse 3.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: God says, So I humbled you, I allowed you to hunger and thirst, and I fed you with manna that you did not know or your fathers know.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: This is when the children of Israel were going through the desert, right?
40:27
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Now here's what I did.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: He says, He said, I fed you with manna that you did not know or your fathers didn't know, so that, so that he might make you know something.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just to feed you, even though that got taken care of.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: He said, I did this so you would know something, so you would learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, your garments didn't wear out, your shoes didn't get too small.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Everything, notice this, for 40 years, if you think that life is about God making everything go well for you and taking care of every need that you ever have, if you think that's what life is, not that God isn't the need meter, but if you think life is about that, look at this verse here, because we have an example.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: There is a precedent in history where God for 40 years took care of a whole nation of people and took care of every single need that they had.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: They never needed clothes, they never needed shoes, they never needed food.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: He supplied them with food and water supernaturally, day after day, for 40 years through a desert where there was no food or water.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't go around in rags, their clothes were new all the time.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: They ate angel food, you know.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: He took care of everything.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: They got an attack from the enemy, but God did he just go before them and take care of it every single time.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: Right?
41:58
SPEAKER_00: He took care of every earthly need that they had.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: And he said, and I did this.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: So you'd realize that's not enough.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Even though I did that, so you'd realize that's not what life is.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: Because even though I took care of everything, and here's the difference, even though he took care of every need they had for 40 years, after 40 years, and through 40 years, they were they were still afraid, they were still ashamed, they were still doubting, they were still angry, they still had the same, same condition of life, even though outwardly everything was taken care of.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing me?
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Because life is not about that's why Jesus said life is not about food and raiment, not about these outward things.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: Your father knows you need these things, but he said, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things are added to you.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Why?
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Because that's how it is in the garden.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: If we're if we're naked, but then but God is our covering, he's our protection, he's our life, he's our everything.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: It it goes to him, and he is the provision, he is the everything.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: Now we do the work because God Adam was created to tend the garden.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: We do our work, but it's a grace work, graceful work, it's a blessed work, it's a heavenly work that we do in this world.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we have joy and peace and love and all that, and that's where heaven on earth comes from.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is within you.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: See, the fullness of of the fullness of heart is the fullness of God in the heart.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: And what man was created for was to be loved by God.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: When we went on our own, we had almost everything and experienced everything except that love of God.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: So what Jesus does is he comes back, means he brings us home.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Welcome home.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: All is forgiven.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and you know, remember he said, In that day you'll ask me nothing, but in that day you'll ask the Father in my name, and it'll be done.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jesus has been him and the Father, and he says, But after I do this thing on the cross and resurrection, it's going to be you and the Father now.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: Just like it's been with me.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: You're coming home.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: And God is going to, and yes, he's chosen you, the weak and the foolish things of this world, the naked.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: That one that was ashamed, like you were saying earlier.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: We were ashamed.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: We were on the dung heap of life and all that stuff.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: But he's taken all of that.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he chose the weak and foolish on purpose.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: He made us weak and foolish in ourselves so we could enjoy the fullness of him.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Who's the fullness of him that fills all in all, Ephesians 3 says.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
44:59
SPEAKER_00: So here's the simplicity of it is that it comes down, it really does come down to that love of God.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: This is the love of God that God loved us while we were yet sinners, and Christ gave his life for us.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Simple, good news gospel.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: And I've been in this a long time, and I've been down the complex roads of trying to figure this thing out and getting a doctrine, different, you know, getting, you can read this book and you can get a hundred different doctrines and then try to fit them all together and call it all the full gospel of Christ and all that.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: The full gospel is the fullness gospel that it's in him and him alone.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: And this whole thing was about relationship, and that's the difference between the tree of life and the knowledge of good and evil, is that you know him.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: And you know him.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: Why do you know him?
45:48
SPEAKER_00: God said in this new covenant, he says, they will all know me because I will be merciful to their transgressions and their sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: His goodness.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: You'll know him by his goodness.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
46:04
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
46:07
SPEAKER_00: How does the love of God stop a person from sinning?
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Because when your heart is full, you have no need for selfishness anymore.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: And that's the only reason you would ever sin.
46:23
unknown: Amen.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: And so what the knowledge of good and evil does is it goes out of the fruit and it says, stop doing that, stop doing that, stop doing that.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: What the tree of life does says, come be full.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: And then you kind of just forget about all that.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not an issue anymore because it's two separate worlds.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Two separate kingdoms.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Is this okay?
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all get anything this morning?
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: Let's close our eyes and enjoy God right where you're at right now.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy being loved right now.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: Here is love.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: Not that we we loved him, but that he loved us and gave his life for us.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: I used to be so condemned about the love.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Because people would say that we're supposed to love God more than anything else, and I tried.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: But I was in the wrong knowledge trying to do it.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: No wonder we're so frustrated.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: This is not love, not that we love God.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Not that we love God, but that he loved us first.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: When Rick Manis, who grew up an angry child in a dysfunctional situation, who his particular way of trying to fill the heart with any sense of anything was a lot of drug abuse, criminal activity, sexual activity, anything to give my heart some feeling of satisfaction.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: Some people don't go that way, they'll go use other things.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: There's a million different ways to do this, but it's all from the same tree.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Please, trying to please people because I couldn't, I felt like I could never could please daddy growing up, all that stuff all working in me.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: And trying to be good, trying to feel some peace, trying to feel good about life, and trying to feel good about me, I meant love in Jesus.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: And one day I got convinced by revelation, by seeking God and wanting to know the truth, and God spoke to me the truth, and I heard it and I believed it and I received it.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: That God was it, he loved me, and it had nothing to do with me.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: When I believed that, my heart got full.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: And all the things that I was trying to change about me were not the issue anymore.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: All I could do was wake up and thank God and praise God and worship God.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: And I got into praying without ceasing and didn't even realize I was doing it for a while when for years I worked hard at trying to pray a lot.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: And pray without ceasing, my mind just couldn't even get that.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: But I thought I'd work up to it and try to pray more and more as the years went on, and maybe by the time I'm 200 I can learn how to pray without ceasing.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: That's what I used to think.
49:27
SPEAKER_00: That's my knowledge of good and evil.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: My heart got full of the thing that it had been looking for.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: It was simply that love that only the Father can give.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: And when my heart got full, I'm talking to God all the time, and I don't even not even trying.
49:43
SPEAKER_00: When my heart got full, I'm loving people.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't even I don't even have to forgive people.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: It just kind of happens.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: You're just forgiven.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Rick, I'm sorry, oh, it's okay.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: You know what, what what happened?
49:54
SPEAKER_00: My heart got full.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't need you to pay me back.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't need all this stuff.
50:00
SPEAKER_00: My heart got full.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: All the people that had hurt me.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: The issue I had with my daddy for so long.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: Didn't owe me anything.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: My heart was full.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: It's okay, Father.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: It's okay, daddy.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: We're good.
50:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything.
50:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any apology.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything.
50:18
SPEAKER_00: My heart's full.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any revenge.
50:21
SPEAKER_00: My heart's full.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any more lust.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any more selfishness.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't need the pornography.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to steal.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't need.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm full.
50:32
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to the thief named Zacharias.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: When he met Jesus, he found fulfillment.
50:39
SPEAKER_00: Zacchia, excuse me, thank you.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times when I'm preaching, the Holy Spirit corrects me.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Through my wife.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: Again.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: The goodness of God.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the goodness of God.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, Father, I thank you for your blessing here.
50:58
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for this time.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that we've had a time to behold the goodness of the Lord, behold your glory today.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: Let everyone have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you that we may know the goodness of who you are in us, whether it's the greatness of your power that's in us and for us.
51:15
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you, Father, for completeness and fullness and wholeness.
51:19
SPEAKER_00: That's a done deal.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: It's a finished work, and we all have it all in you.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: We are absolutely insufficient in us, but totally sufficient in you.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: And whatever we deal with tomorrow, next week, whatever the reports are, whatever comes up, we will be there with your love.
51:36
SPEAKER_00: We will be there with your fullness.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: We will be there with your all sufficiency, and we'll navigate it with power, peace, love, and joy.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for these things in the name of Jesus.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: Can y'all say amen?
51:47
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, good morning.