Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Unmasking the Imposter

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Unmasking the Imposter · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving week.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have a a tank full of thankful in your heart?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: You like that?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: My wife made that up.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got our um email newsletter that Judy and I um send out to people.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh she said, you should said, I've got an idea for you to to write the newsletter this this week.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: She said, it's called A Tank Full of Thankful.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's more that's more like how I think.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't do that.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I said, A tankful of thankful, that sounds good.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: What's it about?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: She said, that's up to you, but I thought of the title.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I hope today as we look at this and as I speak, that we can um, I think we have an opportunity to to really look into something, to see something that's very, very real.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: To see something that we know in our hearts is real.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We all know it to some degree or another, but but we also know that there's a depth to God, his goodness, his love, and everything that we we really want to know more.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we have an opportunity to see more.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and as we look at this, understand that there's a simplicity to this powerful heart of God, this powerful love of God.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, um the other day I was talking to a friend who um during the the COVID situation, when it was uh when a lot of people seemed like they were dying in that place, this uh he got a very bad case of it and um was in a coma for a long time and uh came out of it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and it was early on when people in that situation did not come out of it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but um in essence, um he had a uh one of those uh near-death experiences and was talking about you know meeting Jesus and and so on.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share with you something here as we get started.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Something that stood out to me was people want to ask, well, what is heaven's like?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: What did you see?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: What was there?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, it's not what was there, it's what was not there that was surprising and impressing me.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what wasn't there, and he said, so much of this, so many of the things that we think are the big things, surprisingly, we're not even there.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're not even on his radar talking about Jesus.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: What was there instead was absolute cleanness, peace, and love, and it was it was like liquid overwhelming, and of course you know there's gonna be love, but the peace that came from there being an absence of so much of this stuff that seems to be so big and seems to be so important, and all there was was him and all that he entails.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's absolute goodness and absolute love and absolute life and absolute peace.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the good news is we all are going to experience that, and and we can and we're tasting that to some degree or another.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: We can wait we can we can taste it as as full as we want to, I believe, in this life.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I see that in our growth we're tasting it more and more.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Experiencing that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when I heard those words, I thought, I'm my spirit, I know this is real, right?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is true because I see it in my own experience that something is happening, and I'm being overwhelmed with the peace and goodness and love, and it's and it's so pure, and it's so, it's it's it's becoming more and more simple, but yet more powerful, and with that becomes the dissipating of so many things that I thought were the big things.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh I don't know if you've ever heard of this little analogy, but somebody talked about uh the grace of God said it's like when you, you know, until you discover grace, it's like you spend your whole life trying to bake this apple pie for God, only to discover that he really doesn't like apple pie.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that you think are is important to him, you think would be something good for him, something that he would like, and you find out he's not even into that.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: But he is into you.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the perfection and the beauty of that love, and that's what what we experience when we really are experiencing him, and as we're experiencing him more and more, we're finding out he's really into us, and and and a lot of the other things that we thought he was concerned about, he wasn't.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I share how I spent the uh the first 20 years of my Christianity baking God an apple pie or trying to, and I and I just wasn't a very good cook.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I kept kept kept burning it and ruining it and and trying again and trying again and trying again and trying different recipes, and you try so many different different things.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But thank God, somehow the Holy Spirit can get it to somebody that just don't know how to get it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to start in Genesis 3.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I've ever if I can ever preach without at least referring to Genesis 3, but there's there's there's something here that's so important to me, and that's you know, that's Genesis 3 is where it all went south and where we we took the knowledge of good and evil, but but that's it there's really something big there.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: It says something there, that that that tree is something we don't want to be a part of.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to partake of that.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so anyway, I want to get into a certain vein of this, a certain facet of it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm talking and I've titled this The Imposter or Unmasking the Imposter.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an identity thing, and we see that identity went wrong right here in this chapter, and beginning in verse 7, he says, Um, after they've eaten of the fruit, says then the eyes of both, excuse me, both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they haven't been dressed like a tree until this day.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Imposter.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you get the picture here, they they they they cover themselves with leaves, and then they go hide among the trees as if that's gonna fool God, you know.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, Adam, where are you?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a tree.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't no Adam here.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, where are you?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Shh, don't move.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's act like a tree.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And God's like, you know, finally Adam steps out.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm not fooling anybody.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, take that silly suit off, you know.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're not fooling anybody.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's you're not a tree.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's not you.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're who I made you to be.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you read the genealogy of Jesus, you know, as it goes from him all the way back, it goes all the way back to this one, beget that one, beget that one, beget that one, and then it says, and and who and uh, you know, who came from uh Adam, who was the son of God.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was God's son.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: He came forth from God, created by God.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: God breathed his life into him.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: He he wasn't Jesus, the one that we know is the son of God, but he was uh God's son.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: He he came from him.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: You understand what I'm saying?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: He was God's child, just like you are.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we see them, you know, in their nakedness and unashamed.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's very, very important.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And of course I paraphrase it all the time.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when he says, Who told you you were naked?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the way I paraphrase it is that is that, and embellish it is that God says is saying to them, Who told you you were naked?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell you that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in me.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't a big deal to me.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter to me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter to you now?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: You must have eaten of that tree, because that's the only way you would be feeling like this and thinking like this.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're feeling the shame, you're feeling the fear, you're feeling like you're feeling like you're not worthy to be in my presence.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're feeling like you don't belong with me.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that there, with that pulling away and that separation.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And everything's messed up inside of Adam here, and he doesn't even know who he is.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the Lion King, with, you know, when the Simba forgot who he was.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's like a warthog or something, and acting like those guys, and and he's, you know, living like them.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then the prophet has to come and say, You don't even know who you are, you know.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and really the father had to show Simba, remind him, and show him who he really, really is.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and you know, in that story, as he as he remembers by seeing his father, he could see who he is, and that's so scriptural, right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and so the identity came right, but he was doing all these other things because he was lost.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know who he was.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And mankind's been been that way.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at the at who we are, and and and it's going to be very, very simple, because there's so many things that we can say, but if you can catch the picture, the reason I shared what I did at the beginning, if you can catch the picture of you and your daddy, you and God together, and you and him together in his presence, what really matters to him?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: When you get down to it, it's just you.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I did this and that, and he says, It's you, though.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God, you'll be proud that I didn't do that, and he's like, I really like you.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God, I voted for this guy, and he's like, I really like you.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: God, I fought against evil, and he's like, I'm not even into all that stuff.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm for you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved you.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on and he says, Adam says, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Adam takes on the role of an imposter.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little, the story is very parallel to the prodigal son, isn't it?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you see, you see the prodigal son doing something that wasn't good.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: He wastes all the money and sleeping with the pigs and all that, and he decides he's he's gonna come out from among the trees and he's gonna go back to daddy's house, but he thinks he's gonna go back as a as a worker because he he's hoping maybe, hoping maybe, maybe his dad will have have enough pity on him to at least let him be a slave in his house, because that's better than sleeping with the pigs.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I always say he didn't repent when he decided to go back to daddy's house because he's still thinking the same.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we know what repent means.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's metanoia, right?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: It means to change your mind.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with penance and the way that religion made it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he hadn't changed his mind about his daddy yet.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he was living like something else.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was going to live like a servant.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He had the mindset of a servant, and he was no servant, he was a son, and he didn't know what his daddy thought about him.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, and he's he's got this speech that he has rehearsed.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you read this story, he says, you know, I'll here's what I'm gonna do.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we see him making his plan.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go back to Daddy's house and I'm going to tell him, Father, I have sinned against you and against God, and I'm not worthy to be called your son.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: That was the speech that he had rehearsed.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then when he meets Daddy later on, Daddy goes running to him and hugs him and just got, he's like, because all he cares about is the boy.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care what he's done, doesn't care about all the money he spent, doesn't care about the pigs he slipped with, he doesn't care about any of that.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's into the boy, the son.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the daddy's hugging him, and all and the boy's like, he's got to say his speech.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Father, he says it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Have you read the story?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: He says what he had already rehearsed.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Father, I'm not worthy to be called your son.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care about that.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm into you.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the son is not living as as who he is, and so he's got this mask on of something else, and he's trying to show that he's doing penance, he's trying to show that he's sorry.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been there?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You ever been?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever see repent?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've had the word repentance twisted so much through my Christian life.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: First, it meant that you that you turn from your sin.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they told me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'd be in church and it was time to turn from my sin.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: They made the call to come up and turn from your sin.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about after salvation, which where I turn from sin that I thought I had, but then I found out I did sin some more still.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, I got to keep this thing maintained.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so you turn from your sin, and then turns out I go in and I do it again.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I heard a preacher say, or at least one or probably more, say, that if you if you come up and you and you repent of your sin, but you go out and do it again, then you didn't really repent.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So then I'm like, how do you really repent?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had repented, but how do you really repent?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then you you try that, and then they say, Well, if you really mean it, you you'll you'll you know, you'll cry.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: You ever felt that one or heard that one?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: You'll cry.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I cried.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Cried tears, and it washed my soul, like, whoo, and finally I got that taken care of, and then I did it again.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you do?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: You keep reinventing this idea of penance or repentance, and and and and and and none of it works.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I lived like that for for the first 20 years, and I and it wasn't until you start to get the revelation, like the prodigal son did, that my daddy loves me no matter what.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: My dad, my daddy did not forgive me because I came back, decided to come back home.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: He forgave me the moment I left.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And my daddy didn't stop loving me for one moment after I left the house and did all those things.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he his mind starts changing when he sees how his daddy is, and that he wants to he wants to make him the man of honor and wants to throw a party for him and wants to honor him instead of shame him, instead of make sure, you know, he didn't tell his son, you know, well, you know, just please make sure that you don't do it again.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't even mention it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: My friend was sharing his experience.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and you know the judgment that you that that happens when you go there?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what about hope?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: He he didn't care.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't there.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be absolutely amazed at how good God is.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And to you he is.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let me share something with you.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh dear Lord.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God this hasn't happened in a while.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's that's that's significant in itself.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But through much of my lifetime, there was this dream that I would have every once in a while.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I would be at work or in school or something and in the dream.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just that everything seems normal until I look down and notice that I'm not clothed.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have ever had that dream.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like your response.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't even be telling you this, and please look up here.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: For me, just for me, do that.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I could wake up and this could be a dream, and I don't want this to be.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd have these dreams where I'd be somewhere and suddenly notice that I'm like in my underwear.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then I it would always be the same thing.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to figure out in the dream, like I could be here, and I could be and I'd be trying to figure out now how am I gonna slip out of here without all you guys noticing this?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember telling somebody one time, and I would have even even during when I'm during my grown-up years, I was pastoring in that the dream, it wouldn't happen a lot, but just every once in a great while there'd be that dream.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was telling somebody uh on my staff about it, I said, you know, I had one of those dreams.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, Well, it means you're hiding something.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I've tried to be as transparent, I've confessed everything I can think of you know openly, you know.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I realized later on what it was was there again, there was I was carrying a shame.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and I didn't even know what I was to be ashamed about, other than when I look back at it now, I realized I was in that place, not knowing the goodness, love, and grace of God, where I was still thinking that I was trying to please him and trying to become something better than what I was.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I was not enough.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was not good enough, I was insecure, I was vulnerable, I was I was I was weak, and I was trying to get strong, you know, in God, trying to do all those things.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a lot of our modern Christian religion uh uh tries to prompt us to do.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it and there's the underlying message is that you're not good enough now.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And God's not happy enough now, but when you do this, you he's gonna be real happy with you.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, then he's gonna really bless you, and that's how you get the blessings of God, see?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm trying to clothe myself in my life, so to speak.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and so because I don't know who I am, I'm living that life, and I'm kind of like Adam with with as an imposter, and really all those things were fig leaves, weren't they?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: All those things that I was trying to do, I was trying to make myself be better or look better, and I find out later on, God don't even care.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, who told you you were naked?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: You've been naked this whole time.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Never did care.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I like you.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one time during that season, I was, I locked myself in a hotel room.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm just gonna get some of this stuff.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: This stuff's gotta get settled.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm locked myself up and I'm just trying to, I just thought, I just need to crucify Rick Manis.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I gotta crucify this flesh.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta kill this old man.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I gotta do.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to kill that old man in that hotel room.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I only way I know to do is just pray and pray harder and pray stronger and pray louder and just pray and pray and do, you know, do something.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's more fig leaves.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do something that'll either impress God or get God to move or get me to move or something.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't be like I am.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to try to be something better than where I'm at, what I am right now, because I didn't know how my daddy saw me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm pacing back and forth, and this is really interesting.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: As I'm doing this, after about three days of this, I remember in that, you know, how wide a hotel room is, and I'm and I'm pacing back and forth, and I look over at the bed, and I'm I I I I get a mental picture, I see myself on that bed, and I recognized it was me, it looked like me, and kind of sitting back against the headboard.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, and I keep praying, and I look over again, and I see in this metal picture myself with my arms stretched out like Jesus on a cross.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm praying, I look over and I see like my head's hanging over like Jesus on a cross.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'm thinking of the scripture, I am crucified in Christ.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I really felt like I heard the Lord speaking to me strongly loud and clear.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have been crucified with Christ.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a realization that that's not me.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: This me that looks like me is not really me.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's an old man, and that's who I've been living like, and it's not even really me.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here's me.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a son of God.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I said that in that hotel room.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I am God's child.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not me.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the first time I got a glimpse of the idea that I wasn't schizophrenic spiritually, that I wasn't part good spirit and part bad spirit, you know.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: That I wasn't, that I, that, that, uh, that I wasn't new man and old man at the same time.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the old man was had truly been crucified.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really an identity, is what it is.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an identity.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's something stuck in here.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's a deception where we think that we're something else based upon outward, act uh outward uh uh what we see outside.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, look at Revelation 3.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get into this and you'll have we'll have fun with this, but this goes right along with Genesis 3, the way I see it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 3, beginning in verse 15, Jesus is talking to the church in Laodicea.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I know your works.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right off the bat, works.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Works.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know your works, and that you are neither.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Cold nor hot.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I wish you were cold nor hot, so then because you're lukewarm and you're not cold or hot, then I will spew you out of my mouth.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you guys use this for your daily devotion every day?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: This verse right here.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is one that for a long time I just I skip, you know, I was like, uh, okay.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Even after I got a hold of the idea that my daddy is gracious and loving toward me, I don't know.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, don't you love growing?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love how your Bible starts coming together and making sense, you know, over time, and just it all gets tied up in this same thing about the heart and the nature of God.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and you see this, and and and very briefly, let me just just throw this out there to you and explain it.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: The colder hot, look, look at the the hot for God, the love, real passion of God, not religious devotion, but real love with this intimacy that you have of God.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the hot.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you found out he loves you.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you know that he's gracious.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you know that he's good, he's good, he's good, you trust him.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here is love, not that you loved him first, but he loved you.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it brought a response.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they and this we're enjoying this thing.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I wish you were one or the other.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you guys, you're neither one, you're somewhere in the middle.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Now, cold, that would be the opposite of the grace of God, and that would be you know legalism.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And these are this is a church he's talking to.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: These are not people not in church, these are not people not following Jesus, so to speak.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the church in Laodicea.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, But this church, they were they were cold.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: See, we used to think what cold meant was that you just kind of come to church and don't care anything about Jesus.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, you're cold, and and and cold would be would be that legalism would be go would be following after law, where you really don't even know the know the Father in your in your mind.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're just not aware of how he is.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: You think he's something totally different, and you think you're something totally different, and you're far away from enjoying this relationship that with that we really have with him.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you're cold, and and you know how it is when when when when you're uh when you're way into legalism, if any of you have been, and I don't know how far ever I was into it, but I know I there was I don't know that I was ever really cold once I once I turned to turned to the Lord.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I was ever just going for legalism, but there was a mixture.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was lukewarm.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the danger of lukewarm is why he says, I don't, I said, I wish you were cold.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: He said, at least if you were legal legalistic, said you would you would you could find the futility of that, and those of us that were legalistic, then we then it turns it makes us turn to Jesus.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was that way.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was cold, he was way over there.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was not lukewarm about it, he was cold, not know nothing about grace, but he met Jesus and then he became hot.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he even said it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, What did the law do?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: The law brought him to Christ, it killed him, brought me to the end of myself, which is what it will do, you know, hopefully sooner than later.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it brought him to grace.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he wrote all these things about grace that we glean from today.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But but but the lukewarm is more where I was at because it was mixture.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that was bad because I knew I knew stuff about grace and I talked about grace, but I was using these other things too to try to make me be better and look better, and thinking that that if I do this, then I'll be more blessed and more loved by God and more favored and all that.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you're and so you got this mixture, so you you and you're you think you're doing all the things.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I you know, I just I'm studying, I'm buying more books on it, and I'm finding out, you know, the key, the the key to blessing and favor is this, and I do those things, and and I'm putting on those fig leaves, and then I find out, hey, this ain't enough.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still ashamed.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then some praise God, somebody else could write a book about the hidden mystery to of the key to blessing and favor, like, oh, and so they would all, everybody's always got another quick take on it.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you're buying all these things and listening to all these things, and you're you're always trying to gather more fig leaves and more information to try to cover yourself and try to make yourself better, and and and all that stuff.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and you're in that place, and the the deception, there's there's many deceptions in it, but part of it was it seemed like I'd get just enough blessing, and it seems like I was really, you know, I was really devoted to God, so you think it's the way, and you see just enough progress to where you think if I keep trying this and go harder that I'll get there all the way.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always climbing this holy mountain, and I thought that's what you're supposed to do, and we think it's the normal Christian life.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: We all just have to live it this way and try our best.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then you come to the place, and I've heard many of your stories, and you come to the place where you realize this ain't cutting it.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you took the chance on believing and considering that maybe, just maybe God really is that good.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he really does love me that way, maybe it is unconditional, maybe it is without limit.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe these things that I was so into, he's just not that into.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he just doesn't care.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he really cares about me.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he likes me just the way I am, and if I never changed another thing, he would still love me the same, and it wouldn't change a thing.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I would still, I could still enjoy that blessed peace and oneness and intimacy with him, if I never made it to the top of the holy mountain.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because really what you realize is that it's finished, it's done, and you don't have to climb a mountain, you're there.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're with him.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's finished, and what he did brought us there with him.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, so so then he says, but but then you say, because you say I'm rich and I become wealthy and have need of nothing, there again, that was me.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was my covering of my nakedness.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: What did I do?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed a lot, prayed strong, prayed hard, I prayed, I mean, I studied prayer, I know all the different types of prayer, did every single one of them.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Been to Bible school, I know about it all.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know how to praise.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I knew about Yada, Todah, whatever, Baraka, I knew all of these things.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do it them all, doing them all strong and hard.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking that this is the way to go, thinking that I'm that I'm that I'm increasing in these riches of God and all that.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, but you don't know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, like Adam, even though he covered himself with fig leaves, he still felt naked.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You still are not covered with the with the knowledge of that the of truth that will make you free.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, so I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: What's the gold refined in the fire?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Peter says, Peter said that that it's your faith in him, your your faith in him that is like gold tried in fire, but I counsel you to buy of me the true faith, the real knowledge of me, the real relationship here that's refined in fire.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: This thing has been, I've I've been through it, I've passed the test, I've won the battle, I've done the whole thing, and I've given all this to you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a thing that's been tried and true, and that's my love.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's my graciousness toward you.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: That is my goodness.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: It will always be, it'll always remain when all these other things are wood, hay, and stubble, and they come and they go and they burn up, the things that will remain, even faith, hope, and love.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the greatest is love.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And all these other things we build with this wood, hay, and stubble.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I used to think it was sin.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's the stuff that we think is important, the things that we're doing, we're building.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And thank God, what a happy day when those things burned away and I didn't have to deal with them anymore.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Good, good ribbons.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad I don't have that stuff anymore.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: All the things that looked so good that I thought were gonna make me better.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I realized I'm home with him.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I am complete in him, and so are you.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're home, church.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are with him, and he's with us.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been done once and for all, and nothing's gonna change that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing will change how he feels about you, because nothing will separate you from that love of God, not height, nor depth, nor principality, power, things present, things to come, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, nothing will separate you from that love of God.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says that he says, buy with me, buy from me.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Gold tried in the fire that you can be rich, and white garments, that you can be clothed.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation said it goes on to say that the white garments are the righteousness of the saints.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: What is our righteousness?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just him.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you can see that so much of the stuff that we think is there and is important in the house of God, in the kingdom, in him, in the spirit.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even there.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all those things that I was building, and all the things I was covering me with and and and gathering up for myself there where I stand now.
• 32:08
  unknown: They're not there.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a nakedness now.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no shame in that type of nakedness.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because you realize your own nakedness simply means your vulnerability, your weakness, your your your your insufficiency in yourself.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And thank God we realize that too.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not about us, is it?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's about him.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Because with this garment that I have for you, my righteousness, the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let all the stuff dissipated.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let it all just burn away and see what's still there.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: See what remains.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the greatest treasure of all.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's his love with you, for you.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where you're going to be forever.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, all the time.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: This everlasting blessed experience.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Once especially, this is what this is, I mean, especially when you when you when you when you the liberation really comes for most people when they've laid down this flesh life.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then they don't have all the obstacles, all the distractions.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's why people always talk about experiencing it's just me and you.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And me and you is more than any of this stuff that I've ever seen.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you are my sufficiency.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And in you is life.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when you taste life, when you see that, and you know that.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, I'm reading it from the Passion Translation, simply because of the wording.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, All those I dearly love, I unmask and train.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing with Laodicea.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's not saying these things because he's mad at him, because he hates him, because he's disappointed, because he loves him.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Take Adam, take the silly tree suit off.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you the real thing here.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, All that I dearly love.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do with me?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: He dearly loved me.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do with me?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: He unmasked me.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Rick, you don't need those things, but but they're mine.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: They pull off the mask.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the Rick, who was the imposter, who was acting like the imposter, who was, who was, who was, and I say impostor because I was a guy trying to become, I was a guy trying to be, a guy trying to please, a guy trying to appease, a guy trying to receive, trying to get something or somewhere with God, living a life that was an imposture.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because who I really was that whole time was I was God's boy in God's house, loved and cherished and blessed by God.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make any sense to you?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I unmask and I train.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So repent and change your mind and be eager to pursue what's right.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm talking about.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is right?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Truth.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's very simple, isn't it?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's that that's his love, his grace, his goodness, that is the good news.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what did Paul say?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is the power of God unto wholeness, salvation.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Look, I'm standing at the door, knocking.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: If your heart's open to hear my voice and you open the door, I'll come in to you and I'll feast with you and you'll feast with me.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, here's what's going on.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know what was going on with me.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I was an imposter, he was right there the whole time wanting to show me these things.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I was so distracted, and I so believed in those fig leaves, and so believed in the in the identity that I was carrying that that I thought that was the reality.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me to see.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's a miracle.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you've received a revelation of grace, it is a miracle by the Holy Spirit that you can see these things.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are your eyes, for they see.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to close with this a couple of um quotes.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Man named Henry Nowen said this.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I'm rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, well, that proves once again that I'm nobody.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: That I'm no good.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: You ever have those feelings?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be pushed aside.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be forgotten.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be rejected.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be abandoned.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was a thought in the back of my mind, even about God, let alone people.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was there for people, concerning concerning people, but it was there about God too.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was an imposter.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us beloved.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Being the beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Brennan Manning said it this way.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Define yourself radically as one that's beloved by God.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is the true self.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every other identity is illusion.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today it's just you and Jesus.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Total love.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing less.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: In Luke 322, we see the story of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what was the voice that they heard when he came out of that water?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: The voice of the Father said, This is my son.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is my son.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Look at yourself with true eyes today and know that God says, This is my child, son, daughter.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: In whom I am well pleased.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I love pointing out that he said that about Jesus before Jesus got tested, because right after that's when he goes out to the wilderness to be tested by the devil, and we don't know yet if he's going to pass or fail.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: He hadn't even been tested yet, but the father says, This is my son, and I'm already pleased.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: But what if he would have failed?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pleased.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he fail?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because the approval of your father is what empowers you as a child.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not the shame from your father.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not the disappointment from God.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not the come on, when you're gonna get with it, I'm waiting.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't empower you.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: It causes you to gather more fig leaves, doesn't it?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the approval of the father is what empowers you.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you start living.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: To be well pleased is the word Yudokio, which means he thinks well of you.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: He approves of you.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your daddy is taking pleasure this morning.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: You weak and foolish vessel, but very, very, very, very loved.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: And your weakness is not your identity, it's just what it is.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: The fact, let the weakness serve to magnify your identity that I am the beloved of God.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you kicked the dog before you left the house, but I'm loved of God.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: But but I fought with my spouse all the way here, but you're beloved of God, and the love and the presence and the goodness has never left.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's right here.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it magnifies that love.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for you.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for heaven.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for home.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for a love that to us today is everything.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks in Jesus' name.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can you all say amen?
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful week.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Thanksgiving, great church.