Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Given Unto Us- Everlasting Father

Transcript

Given Unto Us- Everlasting Father · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_00: I love this season.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: I love the I love the ho I love the all of it.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: I love sing uh Santa Claus, jingle bells, ho ho ho, the lights, uh the manger scenes, the the presents.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Love that.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't get mad, you you can give me all the presents you want.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: It's all it's all a celebration.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh that's what this is all about.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: All the all all the lights, all the singing, everything.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: It is a celebration because something happened.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Something that the world had been waiting on happened.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: And we're not waiting on that anymore.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: It he happened, he came, he gave, he he fulfilled, he he and and he keeps on and he keeps on giving, doesn't he?
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Perpetually, every day, every moment.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: If we can see it, if we can receive it, he's just giving and giving and and and and and giving.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh even as we were singing, oh holy night, wow, the slave is our brother.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: You think of God's heart towards you and I, this world.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's beautiful, it's celebratory.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Now notice in these prophecies, um, in fact, we'll quote the one that we're using this month out of Ijah chapter 9, where it says, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful, the counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk this morning about the everlasting Father.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: We'll see his heart in this, and we see our identity in us as we see the Father.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: For this also was part of the gift that continues to give to us that that he gave us himself as as our father.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And that gave us an identity, and it gave us an eternal existence.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, the prophecies that were made, like the one we just quoted, there were many of them in the Old Testament referring to the same thing.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Somebody was going to come.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: They thought he was going to come in a certain way, but looking back on it, we know how he came and why he came and what he did when he came and what he gave to us.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that the prophecies of those old, they all pointed to this thing that we're celebrating right now.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: This one that would come, this Messiah, this Christ, this one that would come.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: He came, and the promises never said, okay, so here's what's going to happen.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: The Christ will come.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: This one that I promised you, he will come.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And he will uh start a religion, and basically nothing will change much.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: But then thousands of years later, something else is gonna happen, and that's when it's gonna get good.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: All the promises, and I'm not attacking anybody's eschatology at all.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that the promises weren't about that.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: The promises were about him coming.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: And he did.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: And I and I reason I say that is because I think a lot of times we people uh they're looking for something else to happen without realizing the bountiful table that we have before us right now.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: And and and how many of you know that all it takes a lot of times is to remember what you already have, remember what you have been given, and then joy and peace and love just starts flowing in your life.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: It's just a just a real matter of knowing reality.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Um Judy and I watched It's a Wonderful Life last night.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: And as you after you watch that, you just you just go around telling each other, you know, it's a wonderful life.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful life, it's a wonderful life.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got this problem, we're dealing with this, we got that, we got this other thing, but man, it is a wonderful life.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh in John chapter 4, verse 18, um, Jesus made this statement.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave this statement, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Some translations say, I won't leave you comfortless, I won't leave you uh alone.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: The word is literally is orphans.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you orphans.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Now think of this.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's talking about this gift.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, him, as he came, he gave us himself, and he is the all-in-one gift.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And each week we've been talking about one facet of him, uh, one facet of many, actually.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And one facet that we're looking at now is he says, I'm not going to leave you orphans.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you a family, I'm giving you a home, I'm giving you a father, and I'm giving you a heritage.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you a reality.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you orphans.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: Now think about these Jews that are now following, have now left the traditions, really, really forsaking the traditions of their mother, father, grandfather, and so many of the teachers before them.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: And they're forsaking those traditions to take a flying leap with this man from Galilee.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you, when you first start getting a revelation of the goodness, the grace, the absolute love of God, uh many of you might have felt like a little bit tentative and like, wow, this looks so good.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: This is so right.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: As Clark says, it actually is logical, even.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: But everybody else says this isn't true.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else says God is this other way.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: But I'm seeing this, and and how do I know really that I'm right?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: What if I'm the one that's crazy and they're all right?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: But then all you got to do is look over at them and you go, no, I'm I'm okay.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: But they were taking this flying leap with the man from Galilee, and you know, and there's these are the people that were saying, you know, hey, we have Abraham for our father.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is telling his disciples, he says, Listen, I'm not leaving you orphans, I'm I'm not leaving you just out there in some weird religion out there in some fringe religion.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you something here.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm I will come to you, I will live in you and be with you, I will give you a home.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: You will have, you do have a father.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: And you have a father that goes beyond Abraham.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: They want to brag about Abraham, you've got your father goes before him.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: They want to brag about following Moses, your father goes before him.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: He even goes before Adam.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the everlasting father, the eternal father.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And a couple of things that means is that number one, is that we have a heritage, we have an inheritance, we have a reality, a DNA, if you will, that goes, that goes straight to the to God Himself, His kingdom, his heart, his DNA.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have a part of us that knows these things.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: We have a real father.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, now we can talk about that, and that would all be good, and we will do that, but but I want to talk about that reality of something that goes on, this revelation that we have a real daddy here that goes beyond a formal, oh Father, may I approach thee.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: But it goes to Abba Father, Daddy.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: Daddy, my daddy.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: He's the everlasting father.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Everlasting, the definition in the Hebrew is the word that means perpetuity.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It means he's the perpetual father, he's eternal, he's unending, it never, ever, ever, ever stops.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And the everlasting father has given us everlasting life.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I like what I hear one guy say a lot.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: He says, remember, God has given us eternal life, not temporary life.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a bad boy or bad girl tomorrow, you're not going to mess this up.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: God is love and always will be.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a bad boy or bad girl, you may not get any presents this year, but that's a whole whole other thing.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, verse 14.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: I want to read this from the Passion Translation just because it's so gloriously beautiful.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh beginning in verse 14 says that the mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: And you did not receive the spirit of religious duty leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you orphans.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: I want to read it again.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: You did not receive the spirit of religious duty that leads you back into the fear of never being good enough.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And you know, when you're in that, there's always something else, always something more, always another hoop, always another task.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: I call it the yellow brick road kind of thing, you know, and we about it's time, if you're on that, say goodbye, yellow brick road, because that yellow brick road just keeps putting you to work and putting you to work and putting you to work.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: You remember Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Lion and the Scarecrow?
9:02
SPEAKER_00: They did went through all these troubles, all these tribulations.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: They fought their way through, they determined that they were going to make it to the end, and they finally get to the beautiful city where they meet this very good but very mysterious uh wizard.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: And when they finally make it to him, to get this encounter with the one that can finally grant them what they want and what they need in life, what does he do?
9:24
SPEAKER_00: He puts them to work again.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Go get the witch's broom.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: It's never, ever, ever enough.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And that's what religion does.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And we thought we were on a journey to have an encounter with God, a lot of us in our religion, but but what it did is it just kept putting us to work, didn't it?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: You'd accomplish one thing or try or think you did, and then it would just be like, it's not enough.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Do something else, do something else, do something else, pray more, jump higher, shout louder, give more, do something.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But it's always more, more, more.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And we haven't received that thing, this gift that we're celebrating, it does not put us back into that fear of never being good enough.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: But we have received the spirit of full acceptance enfolding you into the family of God.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And you will never feel orphaned because as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, beloved father, because the Holy Spirit makes God's fatherhood real to us as he whispers in our innermost being, you are God's beloved child.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, some of us are looking at the it's just right there.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: It's it's right through that gauzy sheer curtain thing right there.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Look at this this morning.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Look at a reality that's always going to be true.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: When all this flesh stuff that that grabs our attention so easily, the stuff that we get all wrapped up in, the kind of stuff that that that when you really are unveiled, then this flesh is totally unveiled from you, and you you look back and you're you're living in your your eternity, conscious of everything and without the the things of the flesh, and you look back at this and you'll go, wow, I got so entangled with this and that.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: And how could I have done that?
11:13
SPEAKER_00: It was so nothing compared to this.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And and and I thought it was everything in that moment, and you're just a gaze away, just a revelation, just a reality, actually, that the Spirit actually makes real to you.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: And I like how it says here, he whispers into our innermost being, you are God's beloved child, and it's a wonderful life.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: He makes everything good because there's something about that that lets you know who you are and you start feeling it.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: When you wake up, you're your the smile is there because the Spirit Himself, and remember, He's the convincer, He's the revealer of truth, He's the convictor of this righteousness, He's the one that takes the goodness and the glory of the Lord and reveals it unto us, and He's doing that all the time.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And in that, one of the things we're hearing is in our innermost being is that we are God's beloved child.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: He digs us, he loves us, but not only that, we are united with him.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Just as Jesus said, I and my father are one.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I mean, you can just step right into that, and it starts changing your whole perspective, even of this earthly existence.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: You see this time element of the earthly existence all wrapped up into the eternal life that you that you have that you now possess.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: But what we're looking at here when we see this verse is there's a there's a cry of the spirit, uh the uh standard translations call it.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I call it the cry of discovery.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: The cry of discovery when you something happens, the spirit has whispered into your innermost being, and it and it's become your reality that I am the son, the daughter, the child, the offspring of my heavenly father.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the Bible can say, as he is, so are we.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: And and and and we don't have to take that with this with this pumping up our heads and saying, oh man, I'm like it it it's it's more heartfelt than that, it's more real than that.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: It starts to give you a sense of um identity.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we we see another verse, and there are and actually there are three places in the Bible where you see in the standard translations where you see that phrase, Abba Father, the cry of the Spirit.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: One is right there where we read, the next one is right here in Galatians 4, we're about to look at.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: The third one is where Jesus said it in Mark 14, I believe it was, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he cried that same cry of the Spirit.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Three times, and it's this intimate cry, this cry of, You are my beloved father.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians chapter 4, verse 6, he says, and so that we would know that we so I don't want to read this too fast, so that we would know he did something so we would know.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Not enough to just do this thing legally and say, Yeah, it's done, and you'll figure it all out sometime down the line.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: But in order for us to know that we really are his true children, not a figure of speech, not just a legal thing done somewhere in the courts of heaven.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: That we are his true children, God has released the spirit of sonship into our hearts, moving us to cry out intimately, my father, my true father, you're not alone.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you orphans, I will not leave you alone.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you stop and look at it and think about it, maybe you have.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Humans, by and large, are very, very lonely.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: We have lots of friends and a social world and all that, but when you get by yourself dealing with with the issues of life, so many humans, even though they believe in God, many of them, still feel like they're trying to connect.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Still feel a disconnect.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And that's why they'll say things like, oh God in heaven, can you hear?
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Do you care?
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Would you please?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to bother you, but if you would do this thing.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Or else we want to try to deal with them.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: That was me.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: I was, I thought God was looking for a deal, you know.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And we'd be like, God, I promise I'll do this if you'll get me out of this one.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's not that's not the spirit of sonship talking there.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: That's somebody feeling lonely.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll do anything, God.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: I'll even, why, I'll even go to church on Sunday if you'll do this miracle, you know.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's what, you know, God's like, oh, really?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: I can't pass up that bill.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You bet I'll do that.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: But that's somebody that's lonely.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: That's somebody that's not feeling the connection.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: That's somebody that's, you know.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And uh people feel hopeless because of that.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: They get in situations and they just feel like they're all alone in it.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Nobody understands me.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm lost, all in this place, and it seems hopeless.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: I've got good news this morning.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: There's a part of us that says, but you're my true father.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but sometimes with me, that's all that needs to happen.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in my in my things when I don't know what to do about the situation, and and I and I and I and I turn to my father.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I've learned to do that just almost automatically.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: But when I do that, sometimes I don't get direction.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I do.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I get actual direction, but sometimes I just get this reality that daddy's here.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Daddy's here.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: That I I I I imagine it's something like my little my daughters when they were little would feel sometimes when their mama was yelling at them all day and I'd come home.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Daddy's here.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't very funny, was it?
17:16
SPEAKER_00: Daddy's here.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And we sang Emmanuel, he's with us.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So much with us that he's not with us this way, but he's one with us.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: He became came into us to be a part of us.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would say, I and my father are one.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: It's like when we look at this, you know, I think of I think of Simba.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: I just I've I I used to preach out of the Lion King a lot.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I got to go and speak it at a school assembly one time.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And I love that whole that whole allegory there of the sonship that we see.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And here's, you know, how Simba was, you know, he he he gets condemned because he does something that he thinks is really bad and he feels the blame for it, and and the accuser has whispered in his ear and says, you know, you're horrible, look what you've done, it's all your fault, and and and he doesn't know what to do.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And and and so the the voice tells him, Well, just run, get away from here, just just go off by yourself.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And so he does, and then he finds himself with these weird animals, and he and he's and he's and pretty soon he's acting like them.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: And over time he's he's forgotten his connection.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: He feels lonely, he feels all alone in that, and he's disconnected.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: But luckily, a man of God in the form of a monkey, which happens quite often.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: They they came to Rafiki comes and finds him, and he says, It's time, you know.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and he says, You don't even know who you are.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And Simba says, Well, you don't know me, and he says, Oh, I do, you are Mufasa's boy.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You knew my father in correction, I know him.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: He, no, my father's dead.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Ah, but he is alive.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Come, I will show you.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And this next part, you're laughing at me, but this is all in the Bible almost.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Because this next part, he takes him to a reflective pool of water, right?
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Look, and he looks and he says, That's just my reflection.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, No, look again.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: And when he looks, he sees his father's image in the reflection, just like 2 Corinthians 3 says, right?
19:22
SPEAKER_00: It says, When we behold the glory of the Lord, it's like looking in a mirror.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: If he's not your true daddy, I mean this is it's like looking in the mirror.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, as you've gotten older, looked in the mirror, and some of you ladies like, oh, I see mama.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: And you don't, and you go, yippee! No.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you do.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Or if there's some, oh, I'm starting to look like my dad.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: But he looks in the mirror and he sees the image of his father, and then in these clouds of glory, the image of his father is speaking to him, and he says, Simba, you have forgotten me.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: And he and and and Simba's like, I never forgot you.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, you forgot who you are.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: You forgot me.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: And something happens where Simba remembers.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like the cry of the spirit.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: And I remember seeing it on the Broadway stage show, you know, where he's feeling all alone.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Father, you know, you you said you'd never leave me, and I'm all alone.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And then you hear the the the choir starting to sing, He lives in you.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Simba was getting there.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: He he he reconnected, he remembered who he was.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: He has a father, and he is alive.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And he has a father right now, and he's not all alone, and he is somebody because of who his father is, and that's what gave him his identity.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And as he goes back to take his place, Rafiki says, he's starting to remember.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 15, verse 15 says, No longer do I call you servants, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: But I've called you friends, for all things that I heard from my father I've made known to you.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: I want to back up because I didn't finish reading that Galatians 4, and I have to finish that because it goes with my symba here.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, We we we have this spirit of sonship in our hearts, moving us to cry out intimately, My Father, my father.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Now we're no longer living like slaves under the law, but we enjoy being God's very own sons and daughters.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And because we're his, we can access everything our Father has.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Kindness, patience, faithfulness, self-control.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but there's the power demonstration, the power manifestations of healing and life and resurrection and miracles and all those things, everything that's in the Father's house, because we're in the Father's house.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:18
SPEAKER_00: We're in the Father's house.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And all you got to do is just be aware, remember that.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I was at a church, I think, about a week ago, and they were singing something about He came and He Healed me, He came and He filled me, He came and washed my sins away.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And I began to speak from that statement.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I said, here's what we're looking at.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: He came, He came, He came.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice and be glad.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: All the songs that we sing are all about joy to the world.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Look what's happened.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating this.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: God rest ye, married gentlemen.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Christ was born.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And we and we're looking at what has happened.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And I love the season because it turns us all back to that.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: It gets us to focus, it gets us to look.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: He says, we enjoy being God's very own sons and daughters, and because we're his, we can access everything our Father has because we are heirs all because of what the Father has done.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Have also noticed that everything about the Christmas message is about what the Father has done in giving us the Son.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: None of it demands anything from you.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: None of it is telling you to get better.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: None of it is telling what you owe God.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: None of us is telling what we should be doing, what we ought to be doing.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what God, what God wants us to be up to, and what he wants.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: None of it is telling us what we're supposed to be doing or what God wants us to do.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: It all tells us about what God wanted to do.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: That's the message.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: And I love that in this season, probably all or certainly most churches are all talking about the goodness of God and how good he was in doing this.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And they're not preaching a whole lot about, you know, what how you're falling short.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: It's all about, it has nothing to do with that because it's all about God loving a world that all has fallen short.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: And it all focuses on his goodness.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: It would be great if the next 11 months after the Christmas season is over, if all of us and all of our churches would stay on that same message.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Because what we're celebrating really is the most relevant thing for our planet that there is.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you agree?
24:27
SPEAKER_00: That God's gift has come.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: His goodness, his heart for the earth has been expressed and poured out and given to us.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: He taught us his ways.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: We as the children, this is how our what is happening in our growth.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: We're learning our Father's ways.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: And our father is perfect, and our father is good.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's causing goodness to come out of us more.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: How goodness ever came out of this, if you could see where that's where it started.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: What a miracle, right?
25:08
SPEAKER_00: We're learning our father's ways.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: We are learning the father's business and dispensing the goods of the house, not trying to get something from the house, not begging from the house, not hoping to get crumbs from the table, because we we we own the table, really, if you look at it.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know what his master's doing.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: But I call you friends because everything that I heard from my father I've freely made known to you.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Servants don't know, but the sons live in the house.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: They know.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: That reminds us of the prodigal son, doesn't it?
25:42
SPEAKER_00: He says in John chapter 8, verse 35, he says, And slaves have no permanent standing in a family.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Like a son does, because a son is the part of the family forever, everlasting father.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: After, you know, years ago scriptures like this started coming to me.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't use that word anymore.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't, I couldn't call myself or call us, you know, us servants of the Lord.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: I would go get a little when I would hear a psalm or something talking about servants of the Lord, and and and and and and I even heard a preacher talk about, you know, we after we get a revelation of sonship, then we move on to where we become servants of God.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, ouch, that hurts.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I don't call you, because why?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Because servants don't know that servant-minded thing.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the prodigal son, right?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: The boy, the son that was going back, wanted to go back home, he came servant-minded.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not worthy to be called my father's son.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: This is what religion had spoken for years before Jesus came and what it still keeps trying to speak.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: But it's not true.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: He was never unworthy to be called his father's son.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: He was his father's son, no matter what he had done, right?
26:52
SPEAKER_00: And just a little side note about that, when he did come home, that's not, the father did not forgive that boy when he came home.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:59
SPEAKER_00: The father forgave him the moment he left.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Because that's his father's heart.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: But the son didn't know that.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: The son didn't know how good his father was.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: He was thinking, maybe, maybe I'll get to be one of the slaves.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: At least a slave eats better than what I've been doing.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: I'll take that.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: And we all love the story.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: I know I do.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Because when he comes home, he won't, the son, the father, he won't have a slave.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: He wants him back in the house.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're not a slave.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: You're my son.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: You belong in the house.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: You are the guest of honor.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: And and I like to say, you know, we have a quote that says, Jesus is the reason for the season.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: So very true.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: But let's not forget that you are his reason for the season.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: And he and and and while we're we're celebrating him, and rightfully so, he's celebrating you in this season.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: You are the joy that was set before him that caused him to endure and do what he did.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: He's celebrating you.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: It was his heart, the father, being in Father that is his heart, that many sons would come to glory.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: God was willing, that all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: I am your father.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm putting my spirit in you to show you that I am your father, and you're gonna know this.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be one with you.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna believe it.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna, if they cut you, you'll bleed it.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: That you're gonna know that you are my child and I'm your father, and we are one, and you're gonna dwell in the house forever, and everything that's accessible is yours.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said servants have no permanent standing, but we do.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: The son comes home and he and his daddy treats him wonderfully.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: The son gets a revelation in that moment.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: A revelation that he didn't have about the father.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: He realizes then that the father is better than what he thought he was.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: He realizes then that the father is, his heart is bigger than the son thought it was.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: He realizes then by the way the father reveals himself to him, by the way the father treats him, the son then begins to repent.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: That's when his repentance took place, not when he was at the pig pen.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Because if repentance means change your mind, his mind was not changed.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: He was just, he was willing to be a servant.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: He still thought the same way about his daddy, he still thought, had the wrong idea about his daddy.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Thinking his daddy might let him be a slave if he's having a good day.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: But when he goes home, he finds out that his daddy's totally different than what he thought he was, and it changed his mind.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He tasted the goodness of his father, and it changed his mind.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And I can tell, I know it changed his mind because the prodigal son, who was coming like, I'll, you know, I'll just be a slave on the farm here.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Now he's willing to take the role of honor and saying, Yeah, I'll wear the robe, I'll wear the ring.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: He's become the guest of honor.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: He's in the house, and the guy who's coming to be a servant has now, he's now the guest of honor, and everybody's cheering him and saying he's a jolly good fellow, and then daddy's dancing and rejoicing with everybody.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: He's just giddy because his son is in the house again where he belongs, and you can see the joy of the father's heart over you and I.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: And the prodigal son repented, changed his mind, and it changed how he received from the Father.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: See, I grew up taught faith.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: They called it word of faith.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: I I grew up spiritually mostly in that, in my uh first couple of decades of Christianity.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm appreciative of many of the things that I saw in that.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: But this grace of God's heart that Christmas expresses so well, this was the missing ingredient to me in my faith.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: Because once I saw the goodness of God, like the prodigal son, I realized I could receive from the Father now.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: It did not take me to be this or do that or do the other, that I could receive simply because Daddy likes me.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: My daddy likes me.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: My daddy likes me, and he's good.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And whatever he has for me, I can give.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Psalms 27 makes this beautiful statement.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: As we look at it, the servant doesn't get to live in the house.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: But the son's in the house all the time.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Welcome home, guys.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Today, when you woke up, you woke up in the house of the Lord.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, people of old would have loved this.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: I think it's good just to, I think it's good to celebrate this.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I think it's good to look at this.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: I think it's good that we that we, you know, if somebody says, you know, I want more than just the preaching of grace and, you know, I want some other kind of balance or whatever.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, the body of Christ as a whole has not had too much of this.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Has not had too much reminding, has not had too much knowledge of the grace and the goodness.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: In fact, any of us here are just starting to scratch the surface, amen.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: And forever and ever we're going to inquire and behold this beauty.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: But in Psalms 27, it's a Psalm of David, and David was a man after God's own heart.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: And we look at that as this thing that we want to aspire to, and it's a good thing that he had, obviously.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: But what we're looking at is something better.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Because David in his aspiration had these cries of the Spirit.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: He would write these things that I used to relate to and I don't anymore.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: As the deer panteth for the water brook, so my soul longeth after thee, O Lord.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: And I would pray that exact same thing and sing it and just like, yes, yes, yes, yes.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like Jesus didn't come.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And David was looking forward to this.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And here's one where he says, chapter 27, verse 4 of Psalms, one thing have I desired.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: See, he was after his heart.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: One thing, one thing, just one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And I would take this and I would say, Oh, I want to be like David.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: And I would pray that type of prayer.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm seeking.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: I want it.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: I want to be with you, I want to be in your presence, I want to be in your house all the days of my life.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm pushing in, I'm trying, I'm praying, I'm crying.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Because if I can push in and break through and get to that place, I can behold your beauty all the days of my life and inquire daily in your temple.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: But what we're looking at today says, welcome home, son and daughter.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: Where you're dwelling right now.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: In my kingdom, in my spirit, in my heart.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be here forever and ever and ever.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And all these things you're dealing with, they're going to come and go.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: But you've come home.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: You've been translated out of darkness into his kingdom.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: You've been brought home.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: You stand on Mount Zion.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand with me, please?
35:02
SPEAKER_00: You stand on Mount Zion.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: And if you look around on the mountain, you won't find any of your footsteps on those mountain on those mountain slopes.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: Because you didn't climb this mountain, did you?
35:15
SPEAKER_00: You didn't climb this.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: If you tried, you found out you kept slipping back, or you kept finding up a mountain which was getting taller and taller.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: You didn't climb this mountain.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: You were set on top of it.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: You were placed here in Christ.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: This is all the goodness of the Father.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating the gift-giving heart of our Father.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: So now instead of saying Father, we desire and seek after that reality, that experience, that truth, that thing that David wanted to happen.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: We stand here in the house of the Lord, in our home.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: This is home, home, home.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: And now we're in the place, because of the gift, Jesus, we're in the place where we can behold now the beauty of the Lord and inquire daily.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: I've had people tell me, like, oh, so you say you're already on the mountaintop.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, then you won't grow anymore, will you?
36:16
SPEAKER_00: And I said, No.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Now we're in the place where we can grow like a weed.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Now we're in the place we can finally grow because in this place that we're at today, we can inquire daily now, because we're here.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to climb the mountain, we don't have to seek, we don't have to pray and cry and groan and moan.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: The gift has been given, the promise has been made.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: We have received the promise and we inquire daily and behold the beauty of the Lord.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your unspeakable gift, and thank you, Father, for the gift of you.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: But we thank you for the gift of each other.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for the gift of peace.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for the gift of love that has been placed in our hearts.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for a family.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for a home.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you that we'll never be lonely or alone again.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: We know who we are.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: You brought us home, Daddy.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: You brought us home.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: In the name of your son Jesus.
37:29
unknown: Amen.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: I love you all.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Have a Merry Christmas.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Have Christmas miracles this week.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: For you are absolutely blessed forever and ever.
37:40
unknown: Thank you.