Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Spirit of Understanding

Transcript

The Spirit of Understanding · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read out of Hebrews 4.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh want to look at something that actually Judy and I were talking about this yesterday on a on a on a plane.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Actually Judy brought it up and sort of preached it to me.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when you look at the life of Jesus, and if you want to know how the Father is, look at Jesus.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh because he was God who became man, so we could openly, easily see who God is and how God is.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: He said, show us the Father.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, if you've seen the Son, you've seen Him.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Him.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and He and He and so we look at His life in the Gospels and we see that He was moved, motivated, and attracted, motivated by and attracted to certain things.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Judy was bringing out something that she was reading and studying something, and she says he Jesus was attracted to weakness.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I you kind of you realize that when somebody says it, you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But but a lot of other things jump out at you.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and today we want to give a picture of God because what I have for you this morning, if you can hear this, is that it'll open up your ability to freely, freely drink of the water because, like we heard this morning, the water's been given.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why he says that if you'll drink of this water, this everlasting water, it's a running water.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a well that can run dry, it's a flowing water.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you'll you'll you'll you'll partake of this water, you'll never be thirsty again.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like why I tell people, you if you can see this, we're talking about abundance of life.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: You never have to have another sad day again, even if sad things happen.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now we mourn with those who mourn.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: We feel the pain of certain uh losses and things like that, but but it doesn't, we don't grieve like the world grieves.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have abundance of life.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The offenses don't offend us like it does the world.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: The pains don't hurt us like it does the world.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're different because of the abundance of life.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look at a verse here in Hebrews chapter 4.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And look at how beautiful, glorious, and good God is.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13, there's a verse.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do you think when you read that verse?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think or what do you feel?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: God's watching.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You might think maybe a judging of some sort, because we have to give an account to him.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's watching, he sees everything.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's looking.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can't hide.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's all wide open.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: God knows everything.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you might act cute in church, but God knows.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the feeling that I have I would usually get when somebody would bring this verse out, or I'd read it myself.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what is the context of this chapter in the book of Hebrews?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: What is he talking about?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's the topic?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys don't answer, I'm gonna get Chris to answer.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's the topic?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's the the uh race is appeared in the Old Testament law.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing is about rest.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's about entering into his rest.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not going back, like you said, to the Old Testament law, but this chapter here, he's talking about entering into his rest.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives all the account of the children of Israel, how they didn't enter into the promised land.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so God swore in his wrath.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he uses these verses.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: God swore in his wrath, you shall not enter into my rest.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Using these harsh-sounding Old Testament verses.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Back up verse there in verse uh seven, he says, he quotes another Old Testament verse.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then we just read that verse on down there where it says, He knows everything that's in the heart.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is naked and open.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, it's sort of like it feels like we want to get better because he sees everything.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's watching, and we have to give an account of everything that's naked and open unto him.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But in the whole context here, he's talking about rest.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we want to back up to verse 11.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, let's not, let's not, because I'll take too much time if I back up too far.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: But verse 12 says, For the word of God is alive and powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that sort of goes along with that same feeling to me.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: There again, he gets down to the core of everything that's within you.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And most of us think of, well, it's easier to look kind of okay on the outside, but boy, God knows everything that's in here.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: He knows every thought, every lust, every every every every hate, every selfish thought and act, everything that's that's in me that I'm still trying to grow up in these areas.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And but I have to give an account to God.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But keep reading.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's talking about entering into rest.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about entering into rest.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Entering into rest.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if what this means is what it looks like on the face of just reading this one verse, then that's where we get in trouble.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: If what it means is what it looks like on the face of just reading this one verse, that takes us out of rest.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've got to deal with this.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, continue.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Seeing then that we have a great high priest, who is he?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: A great high priest, a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, because we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read this from the New Living Translation.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, So then, verse 14.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly what we believe.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: This high priest of ours, Jesus, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: For he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about entering into rest, and everything is open and naked unto him with whom we have to give account, with whom we're accountable to, him.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then it tells us what he sees.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us what God thinks about these thoughts and intents of the heart that he sees.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He's a great high priest who understands, who is touched by the feeling of our weaknesses.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: King James says infirmities, weaknesses.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: He understands, it says.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he does look into the heart.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Says that in the Bible over and over again.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not looking in it to condemn.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: He is the spirit of understanding.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus could be the way he was to people, to the religious people that didn't understand.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't understand him, they didn't understand the sinners he was talking to, they didn't understand his relationship with them.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he understood because he's a high priest who understood their weaknesses.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: He was touched, he could feel what they were feeling because he himself has been tempted.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Think of it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: The difference being he never sinned.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Never sinned from the beginning.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he was tempted.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what it feels like to want food so bad.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he went without bread.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: He hungered.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: He hungered.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: He felt it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: He felt the temptation to do whatever it takes to get something to eat.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what a thief feels like.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yet he didn't do it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But he knows what it feels like.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what it feels like to be tempted religiously.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what it feels like to want to exalt yourself because the temptation came that if you will do this, I will exalt you, I will give you all these things.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what it feels like to want to promote yourself.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: He he was tempted.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: That means he at least thought about it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: He felt the pull of it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yet he without sin.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And how did he resist that sin?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You say, well, because he was Jesus.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what made him Jesus?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: His body was the son of a woman who married a carpenter who was immortal on the earth, but inside he was God.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit was God.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that same spirit dwells in us.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing that caused him not to sin is the same thing that's in us.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then someone says, well, that makes me feel even worse because I've got the same, I've got the ability to not sin, and I still sin.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't just that you had the spirit, it was that you drew from the well freely.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what we do with this spirit is we listen to that spirit.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: We let that spirit teach us, because the Bible says he will teach you, he will lead you, he will guide you in this truth.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what our growth is.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're coming to know the truth.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're what we're seeing is how good God really is.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus resisted sin because he knew how much God loved him.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Father.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: When he would come out of that river Jordan, the word was, This is the son, my son, and I love him.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love him.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus would go around saying, The Father loves the Son.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's why what the Son asked is done.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know the Father loves the Son.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was right there when he came out of the Jordan River.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he resisted sin.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was loved.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was full.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was complete.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't need to give in to the temptations to try to make himself more complete or better.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: The father loved him.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in his temptations, he knew the father loved him, and he knew what Father loved him in all his temptations.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: He declared his love for him before he even got tempted.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Before we see if he's going to pass or fail, these tests, the father already loved him.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when one is full of the love of God, maybe some of you know this and some of you are still learning it, but when you're full of the love of God, you start to see that love that God has for those other people.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even the ones that make you so, even the ones you think are his enemies.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: The heart of the Father doesn't have enemies.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there can be people that hate God, but there's not God that hates people.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the Father loves the Son.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we look at this, that God knows that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Psalms says this, He knows your frame.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that we are but dust.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the world so much that he came and did what he did and died.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he know, and he understands your frame.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Isaiah called in those those those seven names of the Spirit of God.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is called He's called the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Might.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is the Spirit of understanding.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of wisdom and understanding in the Lord.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is why He didn't condemn, because He understood.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: He knew our frame.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: He knew why we did what we did.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: He knew why we were hurting.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: He knew why we were so mean.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: He knew why we were so angry.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: He knew why we were so lustful.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: He knew that we were empty.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to fill us.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have a great high priest.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does know everything about us.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does see it all.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he knows our secrets.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he's a great high priest about it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great high priest, and he understands our weaknesses.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a friend.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even in the natural, and anything we say, anytime we use natural friendships or natural relationships or natural parental relationships to try to explain the things of God.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever we say, God is a million times even better than that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, even your friends, the best friends that you have, we've said this before, the best friends you have are the ones that know more of your secrets than the other people, and they still stick with you.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: They know more of your dirt, they know more of your secrets, more of who you are, but they love you anyway.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the ones that are still with you.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that aren't are the ones that saw some of your stuff and couldn't handle it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or you saw theirs and couldn't handle it.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great high priest, and he's the one that understands.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that sounds simple.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it is simple, but it's not simply received.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it were, everybody would just know this.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, verse 15, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses because he faced all the same testings that we do, yet he did not sin.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, because of this, since he sees all everything about us, and he's such a high priest who understands us, then let us come boldly to the throne of this gracious God.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: There we will receive his mercy and find grace to help us when we need it most.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one you go to, not hide from, like we did in Genesis 3.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We come boldly to him, because he understands with no condemnation.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody lacks, let them ask of God, who gives to all, say all liberally and upbraids not.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going to shame you because of your weakness or your need.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: He understands.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: He understands.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God help me.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: This one over here, you know what he did to me?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, Yeah.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand why he did that too.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know what we say?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's not excuses, but there are reasons, and he knows the reasons.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he can deal with the reasons if the person can find out how much God loves him.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then he can deal with the reasons.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me to the book of John 4, just very quickly.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I could just quote this because I want to get to another passage.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: But but remember, Jesus, we could give example after example so easily in the Gospels.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Of Jesus not only understanding our weaknesses, but being attracted to them.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that now.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever heard it like that before, but he's attracted to weakness.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think Paul, when Paul, Paul, Paul prayed about one and and the Lord's answer was, My grace is sufficient for you, and Paul said, Oh, I got it now.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, in fact, it won't be about my strength.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll glory in my weaknesses, because in my weaknesses the power of Christ is perfected in me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's attracted to my weaknesses.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's there in my weaknesses.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's not there in my strength.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like he said yesterday, he said, that's why the Bible, when he says, He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, when we think it's about being strong, we're actually resisting because we don't know how good he is.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We think that he wants to reward us for our strength.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We think that his blessing becomes when we get strong enough, when we get spiritual enough, when we get enough faith or enough whatever.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're not, he's not, he's not blessing some future version of you.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He understands your weakness now.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: He knows your frame, he knows that you're dust, and he understands the weakness, and with all that weakness, that's why, that's why that Old Testament law was never the true heart of the Father.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: What we see in Jesus is the true heart of God.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: That was a man's covenant, dealing with man on man's terms, knowledge of good and evil, knowing their weaknesses, and knowing that they could never live up to that law.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, I'm gonna make a new covenant and I'm gonna wipe all that out of there.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: That one's gonna dissolve.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ratify a new covenant, I'm gonna make it with myself, and you're not gonna have to do anything, and all of the righteous requirements would be fulfilled for you.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I love you, and I understand that you can't do this.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I understand your weakness, and because of your weakness, that's what Romans 8:1 says.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: It says the law was not effective because of the weakness of our flesh.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, what the law could not do, God said, I'll just do it.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, is he good or not?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you're wondering if he hears your prayers, if he cares about what you're going through.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: You wonder if you're going to get things taken care of?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: The father loves the son, that's who you are.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, you know, Jesus uh is traveling from Judea back up to Galilee, going up to Galilee.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And between Judea and Galilee is the region of Samaria.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, good Jews do not travel through Samaria, they go all the way around it because the Samarians are unclean to them.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: The reason they were unclean to them is because they had a difference of doctrine.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: They both believed in God, both worship God, but they did it differently.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And since they do it differently, they're not good, they're not right.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have no part to do with them, so we're going around.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus goes right on through.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, because that's really the way to get there.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes right through and he goes and he sits at a well, he's sitting there waiting for someone.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: He sits at the well.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then this woman shows up.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know that woman at the well, that story.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that whole thing goes on, and he knows everything about her because she's naked and open to him.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Boy, I sure like to have that living water so I wouldn't have to draw anymore.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's looking and he goes, Go get your husband.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because he everything was naked and open.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: He knew.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: He knew.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't preach a sermon on adultery.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: He understood why she did what she did.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: He understood.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So he just condones everything?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not condoning, but understanding.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: God so loved the world.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: He did not condone our continual failure to be righteous.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: He did not condone our continual failure to live up to a holy standard.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't condone it.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: He did something about it.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a woman who's having trouble.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he ministers to her, we know the story.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, there again, always attracted to weakness, goes into the region that good Jews will not go to.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because what they tried to avoid, what they're afraid of, because they would be defiled.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: They thought if they made contact with these Samaritans, he was attracted to.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great high priest who's touched by your weaknesses.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's attracted to that, to where the weak is.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: He likes that.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's where he gets to show himself the best.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: The proud are resistant.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: He tried.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: There were many proud that he came up with too.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees are the best example that we see.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he sat there one day and looked out over the city and he cried over it.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I wanted you.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I gave you, I offered you everything.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to just gather you to myself like a hen gathers her chicks.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't hate you guys.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you thought you were good.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: You thought you were strong, so you resisted me.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to Samaria.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to the tax collectors.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave it to the thieves hanging with me.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because pride does not connect with me.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: God is a God who's attracted to weakness.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he chose the weak and the foolish to confound the wisdom of the wise, which says, be good, be strong, be proud.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do it right.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I shared this with you, and it's so true, and it's funny, but I remember when I was an associate pastor, and the pastor would let me preach about every other Sunday night, and I was getting a sermon ready.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was in my it was my turn to preach in that week, and I was gonna get a sermon, and I had the idea.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was inspired by God, but I thought nobody's ever preached on this in our church.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to preach on the verse that says, God helps those who help themselves.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, it wasn't in there.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I looked, and I was, I was like, something's wrong with my concordance.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm like, my goodness, and I'm trying everything I can, and that verse is not in there.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: That came from Greek mythology, if you want to know.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, story about Hercules.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in there.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're seeing is what God does is helps those that can't help themselves.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: This makes us all great candidates for glory and grace and empowerment and answered prayers.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Answered prayers.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing this this morning?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes and he and he has this wonderful time ministering to this woman, and it works, and she gets all excited.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: She runs into town, leaves her water pot there, runs into town, come and see a man that knew everything about me.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, this is the Christ.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: My heart, my intents, the thoughts and intents of my heart were naked and open unto him.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now I can rest because he knows me and he likes me still.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says, So they came.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they they came to hear, is this the one?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they came to hear what he said, and they believed him too.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus hung out and had church with Samaritans for a couple more days.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: He stayed two more days.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just pass through.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: At first, she thought, why would you even want to drink out of the same cup?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And now here he is eating and drinking with them and preaching with them and rubbing shoulders and having a good old time because he's attracted to them.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there's all the Judeans and all these others out here.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus, that Jesus.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about that.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that doctrine is correct.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says this, and Moses said that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And here he is having a good time.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And all those who are outcasts, Jesus is attracted to them.
• 23:48
  unknown: Oh, come on.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so his disciples came back to town from town with some food.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Jesus, had a sandwich or something.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You know, I'm not even hungry.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I've got food that you don't even know anything about.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Did you, did you, did you give them something to eat?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, My food is to do the will of him who sent me.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: My joy is full right now.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even hungry right now.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I'm lacking anything.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: What I like, what I just did, is what I'm all about.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I like.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: He was attracted to a woman's weakness.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's finish up over here in the book of Luke, chapter 5.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens when the weak, whose heart is naked and open unto him, and understands that he's that he sees and he understands and he loves.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know why he can see that and see everything and understand it and still love it?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is because that's just who he is, that's all he's got, and that's that's his nature.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was man, flesh, with the knowledge of good and evil that ever brought condemnation in.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see one bit of it until man gets the knowledge of good and evil, and that brought all the condemnation and all the corruption and all the death, because the ministry of condemnation brings death.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's why when he looks at you and sees your thoughts and the intents of your heart, and as you're growing, not all of them are holy.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what does he do?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's gracious, he's merciful, he's patient, he's understanding, he's loving.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and and you're never out of relationship with him because of any of those things, and he's not waiting for you to get rid of some of those spots in there.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what he does is he fills you with his love.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: He fills you with this good.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is the simplicity of this whole thing.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus would say it again and again.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: The father loves the son.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I do what I do.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what I do with these people, these Samaritans and this woman at the well, and all this, he says, I just do what I see the Father do.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Father loves me, I love you.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm full.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not impressed by the high moral standards of the Pharisees.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm drawn to something totally different.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's love.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's the God kind of love.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he would tell us, he says, You love those who are good.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're friendly with those who are nice to you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pharisees do that.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about another kind of love that'll empower your life.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Faith works by love.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it that Jesus could do so much healing?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: You were saying this last night when we were talking about it.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: He would run it.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, here we are Christians.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know so many Christians that have sat in church week after week after week, have heard thousands upon thousands of sermons and heard thousands of faith testimonies and read about it in the Bible and heard so many messages on it, and they're still struggling to believe and receive from God.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus would come upon somebody one time and they'd say, Lord, I believe.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you why.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Look at Luke chapter 5, verse, let's start in verse 20.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus, Jesus had been healing a multitude, and he went off to a mountain to pray, and then he comes and he's in a house.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, and here he is speaking, and the Bible says, and the Lord was present, the power of the Lord was present to heal.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so these people brought a paralyzed man to the house and they couldn't get in because the Bible study was so packed, there was no room for them to get into the house.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So they went up to the house and they took off a tile and they lowered the man down into the house.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when they lowered him down through the roof, Jesus looks at this man that can't walk and he says, When he saw their faith, when he saw their faith, they must have had a lot of faith to do what they did, they would not be denied.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: They believed, if I can just get this man down, and when he saw their faith, he said to them, Man, your sins are forgiven.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Where'd that come from?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the scribes and the Pharisees are reasoning within themselves, and they're saying, Who is this guy speaking blasphemies?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, who can forgive sins except God alone?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and he said to them, Why are you reasoning like this in your hearts?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: What's easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise up and walk?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he turns to the man that was paralyzed and he said, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately he rose up and before them he took up what he had been laying on, and he departed to his own house, glorifying God, glorifying God.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and they were filled with with fear, awe, reverence, saying, We have seen strange things today.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus throw that in there?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is a big issue.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: According to the law, he can't expect anything good from God.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's got sins.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Faith works by love.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: What love?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: God's love for us.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Love with no conditions.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Such a love that he came and did what he did so that all sins could be forgiven.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what's Jesus doing?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just what he sees the Father do.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: He came that all sins would be forgiven.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he saw the Father, and that's what he gave.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Man, your sins are forgiven you.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, this was a big statement because I can see that man laying there paralyzed.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know how people do, they make up all kinds of things about God to try to try to explain why they're laying there and can't walk.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Either God paralyzed them to teach them a lesson, or God paralyzed them because he sinned, or his parents sinned, because that was a belief that they had too.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere there was sin in this thing.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the blind man, they said, somebody sinned.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who was it?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Him or his parents?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: We know it was somebody because people can't be blind.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: People can't have problems like that unless they're sin.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, it's not about that.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he's probably thinking that either, you know, it's his own sin or his parents' sin.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, somewhere along the lines, there was sin, and it brought forth this paralyzed man.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus comes in and just wipes the slate clean.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's start from ground zero.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: All your sins are forgiven.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can receive.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now that blockage that you had, it's gone.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You hear me?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're forgiven.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: But forgiven.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing against you.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now get up and walk.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just doing what I see the Father do.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're wondering if you don't have what it takes, you don't have enough faith, you're not spiritual enough.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you missed church last month, and that's why God's not answering your prayers?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Got the wrong picture of God.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's he say to you today?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, look at the blood of Jesus.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: So get up.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm under this heavy load, I'm under this burden, I'm under this problem in life.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, your sins are forgiven, so get up and walk.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't be happy unless this changes over here, unless that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, But your sins are all forgiven.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can receive anything, you can drink of the water of life freely.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because all the barriers are gone.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good word that he said when Jesus spoke that in Revelation.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Tell him to anybody that's thirsty, come and drink of the water of life freely.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, don't tell them they can come drink it, but they have to wait for a while.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell them they can come drink it if they get their ducks in a row first, then I've got water for them.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, tell them it's free.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: All barriers are gone, all sins are forgiven.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them come get it.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, excuse me, we just read that.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that notice here what is bringing glory to God.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for one thing, his sins are forgiven and he's healed.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's two things.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's glorifying God.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't he glorify God?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: My sins are forgiven.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm walking.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they all did.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: They glorified God.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's the one that forgives sins.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And after these things, he went out and he saw a tax collector.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tax collector named Levi, this is one we know now as Matthew.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting at his tax office.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Follow me.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: What's he do?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a guy paralyzed.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees know already know why he's paralyzed.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's sin, either in his life or his parents' life.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, All sins are forgiven.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: He goes to, he's attracted to weakness.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then he leaves the house and he walks out and he sees somebody.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Watch how he does this stuff on purpose.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: All these people.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people were thronging him.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: At this point in his in in the story of here, he's got multitudes of people around him a lot.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as he's going out, he sees this tax collector.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody that's out of the loop.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because of what he does.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows who he is, because all things are open and naked to him.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: But he's a high priest, he's a great high priest that understands his weakness.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: So he looks at this one that he loves, who's a sinner.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's a thief.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: All the tax collectors were thieves.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Matthew rose up and he followed him.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's this one that can heal the sick, here's this one that can forgive sins.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here's this one that they're saying is the Christ.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one, he's the Messiah, and he looks out and he's drawn to me out of all these people.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to me.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: He singles me out, and he wants me to be with him?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gone.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because before Jesus said, follow me, Levi probably just said, I don't even have a shot here.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to look and see what he looks like.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why was he a thief?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm making the assumption because they they they just they called all tax collectors sinners.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was common that they would they would steal from the Jews in the name of Rome.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that was part of the deal that they had with the Romans.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: As long as they collect the taxes, they can collect as much as they want and keep some off the top, as long as they gave the Romans what they what they required.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a guy who's a who's who's who's a thief.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: And why is he a thief?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's scared.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's afraid.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have enough.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: He won't have enough.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's afraid.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's got to take care of himself somehow.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's illegal, maybe it's immoral.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to be without money.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows this.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Levi is naked and open to him.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows and he understands his weaknesses.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going to take care of that weakness.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not through guilt and shame and condemnation, which is the Pharisees' way.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to do it by being God to him.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Being good to him.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever the people that didn't have a chance saw how good Jesus was, it inspired faith to receive.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important we get this, and why I don't stop preaching about it.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be convinced of how good God is to you.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Till you become like Jesus, who just says, The Father loves me.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he blesses me.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why this prayer is being answered.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'll come out of this situation.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Father's with me.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was going to the cross.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You're all going to leave me, but I promise you, I won't be alone.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I won't be alone.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: I will come out on the third day.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: So he followed him.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Levi invites Jesus to his unholy house and gave him a great feast in the house.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: He, Levi, this sinner, is throwing a party, a sinner's party.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because he invites all this great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: All these other sinners and thieves are in the house now.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is having a party with them.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's attracted to that weakness.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all with me?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is your Lord, your lover, your God.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the scribes and the Pharisees, we know what they're about to do, complained.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're that older brother in the prodigal son story, aren't they?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: They all complained against the disciples, and they said, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is attracted to those kinds.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered and said to them, Hey, those who are well have no need of a physician.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not attracted to those who don't want my help.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now he loves them, but we understand his grace is perfected, his strength is perfected where there's weakness.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not only does he care, not only does he understand, but what we're seeing in this is a great revelation.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: What we're seeing is not only does he care, not only does he understand, he's attracted to it.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder he likes me so much.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder he's in love with me.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much about me that attracts him.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's funny, but it's actually too true.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Even the Son, who the Bible says he came in the likeness of weak and sinful flesh.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: They said, good master.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Nobody's good but the Father.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Father is good to me.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance, to the changing of their mind.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody hears about this Christ.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Levi, a tax collector, a sinner, sitting over there.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he hears about this Jesus, Jesus, who would surely not have anything to do with someone like him, but Jesus changed his mind.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: He knows our frame.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that we're dust.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we glorify you, Father.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is why our love flows from our heart, why our song flows from our tongue.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are good.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're our song, you're our life.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're our claim to fame.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray for anyone here that feels like they're not there, like they're not quite yet in the position for joy, for peace, for love, for forgiveness, for giving.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Feels like they're not quite in the place of victory.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that the hearts would open and let the King of Glory just come on in.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because in this weakness of mine is where Jesus shows up.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for making up all that once seemed incomplete.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: And being the fullness of all of us and our all in all.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you that Levi was qualified, the Samaritan woman was qualified, and everyone here is qualified for favor, for blessing, for love.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that we all see this goodness.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it brings such a freedom of living water in our lives.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: That love comes easy, forgiveness comes easy.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: That we no longer have to have the fear and selfishness anymore.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are our fullness, our everything.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for freely loving us.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for freely giving it to us.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for freely being with us.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for removing all guilt and condemnation.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let every heart be loved, let every heart receive and make room for the joy of life and the goodness of life.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: And let everyone drink freely from the abundant life today.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let the expectation of good things come.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let there be a faith and a confidence in prayers being answered.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is good, and your mercy endures forever.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: We give you praise in Jesus' name.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.