Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Receiving Love

Transcript

Receiving Love · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_06: Two, one.
0:01
SPEAKER_06: You are live.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: And you're live?
0:03
SPEAKER_06: I'm alive.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: And we are alive tonight.
0:06
SPEAKER_06: Welcome to ECHurch Live.
0:07
SPEAKER_06: We're starting a little bit late because as you can see, we're in another studio tonight.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we were trying to set up and get things right, and it wasn't all as easy as we thought it would be, but we we uh We're here.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: We're here.
0:21
SPEAKER_06: We're here and we're excited because we're talking about one of our favorite subjects.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: God.
0:27
SPEAKER_06: Love.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Love.
0:29
SPEAKER_06: God's love.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Specifically receiving God's love.
0:32
SPEAKER_06: Receiving the love of God's love.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: We're excited because we're live and we actually get to talk to some of our friends.
0:40
SPEAKER_06: Right.
0:41
SPEAKER_06: If they want to talk, we're here to talk with them.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: And we're excited because we also have friends that can't make it live, but they can see this later on.
0:52
SPEAKER_06: Hi, Gwen.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Gwen's always how Gwen always comes and gets like a front row seat.
1:00
SPEAKER_06: She's a smart cookie.
1:01
SPEAKER_06: She is a smart.
1:04
SPEAKER_06: Except she has a funny cousin.
1:06
SPEAKER_06: Wait, is Michael her cousin?
1:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Is he your cousin?
1:14
SPEAKER_00: And why do they say smart cookie?
1:16
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, because cookies aren't always smart.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Nor are they dumb.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, look at that.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: People are coming in now.
1:25
SPEAKER_06: Yep, we are cousins.
1:27
SPEAKER_06: Our condolences, Gwen.
1:29
SPEAKER_06: No, just kidding.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: We love Michael and lucky girl, yeah.
1:36
SPEAKER_07: Okay, let me try and find you, honey.
1:38
SPEAKER_07: I always said Jerry.
1:41
SPEAKER_06: John Javid.
1:44
SPEAKER_06: Javid.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see John.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Gwen called the game.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I see Gwen.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so are we ready to get into our discussion?
1:56
SPEAKER_06: I wish we were, except for I can't find you on the Oh, here you are.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Did you find me?
2:02
SPEAKER_06: I found you.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at us.
2:04
SPEAKER_06: John David said, blessings from King Television.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Where?
2:10
SPEAKER_06: King Television?
2:11
SPEAKER_00: What's King Television?
2:13
SPEAKER_06: Jerry Coulter.
2:14
SPEAKER_06: Hi, friends.
2:15
SPEAKER_06: We just saw you.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: We just saw Jerry.
2:18
SPEAKER_06: Oh.
2:19
SPEAKER_06: James Smith.
2:20
SPEAKER_06: Hi, y'all.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Hey, James.
2:23
SPEAKER_06: We got a heart from Beth Beth Rebus, who I love.
2:28
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so that is our people.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: These are our people.
2:33
SPEAKER_07: This is the people at eChurch right here.
2:36
SPEAKER_07: Who are we?
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Moses and my people.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Let my people go.
2:40
SPEAKER_07: Let my people come to eachurch.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Let my people come to eachurch.
2:46
SPEAKER_07: Okay, here you go.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Ready to rock?
2:49
SPEAKER_07: Hey, you can see I have shorts on.
2:51
SPEAKER_07: I was not dressing for the bottom half.
2:53
SPEAKER_07: I was only dressing for the top.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: That has to do with the cameraman.
2:59
SPEAKER_06: It's okay.
3:00
SPEAKER_06: Shorts are okay at this church.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what's so cool about e church, right?
3:05
SPEAKER_07: Right.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: There's there are people in their pajamas right now.
3:08
SPEAKER_07: I know.
3:09
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we come in our pajamas.
3:11
unknown: Shh.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Just the bottom.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Actually, there are probably people, you can't see them.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: They're probably dressed in less than that.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: You know?
3:20
SPEAKER_07: I don't want to think about that.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: No, what you do, you're supposed to think like that.
3:24
SPEAKER_07: Think they're in their underwear, so you're not as nervous.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a stage trip?
3:28
SPEAKER_06: Uh-huh.
3:29
SPEAKER_06: So we just got back from a trip to St.
3:32
SPEAKER_06: Louis, Missouri, and it was an awesome trip.
3:38
SPEAKER_06: Uh, we got to go to a new church, and a church that we've been through to before, but that's growing exponentially.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a new church in some ways.
3:48
SPEAKER_06: Our new church was Living Word Church, and we had the best time with them.
3:56
SPEAKER_06: Uh, we got to share our testimonies.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: We we spoke together and shared from our heart about what God had done in our lives, where he had brought us from, and how how his love was really our uh our heart's healer.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Right.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And how uh how he's always the answer because of that, because of because of his love.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: His love is what heals the broken hearts.
4:20
SPEAKER_06: And he broke heart.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: He healed my heart.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And when he did, he it it took away or it got rid of the that addictive personality that I had because I didn't need things anymore.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't looking for anything anymore.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I found what I what what my heart was always looking for, and I've had it ever since.
4:44
SPEAKER_06: And we also went to another church, which was actually Jerry Coulter and her husband.
4:50
SPEAKER_06: Hey, Glenda's here from Benita.
4:53
SPEAKER_05: Hey.
4:54
SPEAKER_06: Hey.
4:55
SPEAKER_06: Gwen said, I'm in shorts too, if it makes you feel any better.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: It does.
4:59
SPEAKER_06: So we went to another church that we've been to before.
5:01
SPEAKER_06: It's uh Grace Fellowship Outreach Church in uh Park Hills, Missouri.
5:08
SPEAKER_06: We had the best time with them as well.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: We always do.
5:12
SPEAKER_06: I did a little drama at the end there at this in the evening service, and that was.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: And it's gotten rave reviews.
5:20
SPEAKER_06: I think I was just like asking for.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: No, it's gotten rave reviews.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: I I got them, I've got all the magazines, yeah.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: All the newspapers came out today.
5:29
SPEAKER_06: Anyway, we had the best time.
5:31
SPEAKER_06: We got to go to the St.
5:32
SPEAKER_06: Louis Zoo, we got to go to a Cardinals game.
5:35
SPEAKER_06: It was like a mixture.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Actually, lots of work, lots of play.
5:38
SPEAKER_06: You know what?
5:39
SPEAKER_06: It just felt all fun.
5:41
SPEAKER_06: All good.
5:43
SPEAKER_06: It was really, really good.
5:45
SPEAKER_06: We had fun.
5:46
SPEAKER_06: But um, tonight we wanted to talk a little bit more about receiving God's love because I feel, or we have talked about this, that a lot of times people will say, you know, I know God loves me, but how do I receive it for myself?
6:06
SPEAKER_00: You have a have a problem receiving.
6:08
SPEAKER_06: When you're full and when you know God's love and you're full of it, you're you're full of it, you're full of God's love, you're not as reactive to other people.
6:21
SPEAKER_06: You have a kind of a confidence, a center.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: It satisfies your your soul, is what happens.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: So you're not looking for, you're not demanding, you're not controlling.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh that perfect love casts out fear, um, which is basically the foundation of all of man's problems.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh uh so that's why that's why he's always the answer.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: It's not religion, it's not doing a set of rules, it's being loved by the one who is love.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh you're right, we do get uh people telling us, approaching us, and and or asking us, you know, about that how do I receive that love of God?
7:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's uh it's a good question because I know just receiving in general was was a hard thing for me.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, when I first got into church, and when people talked about giving, like giving your money and you know, uh that was not nearly as hard to me as receiving uh from God.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Um for one thing, the way that God wanted to give to me was He would wanted to give to me through other people, and that my pride would get in the way, and I was like, I don't want to feel like a you know, like a charity case here, but um that's just the way that God chooses to do it.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: But but uh it took me a little bit to be a receiver, and a lot and one of the things that gets in the way is that we don't think that we're worthy.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: That's probably probably the biggest thing, right?
7:47
SPEAKER_00: That we're not worthy of that love.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And and some of the causes of that sense of unworthiness are uh the idea that we have to earn it, that there's something that there that you must be or do something that is deserving uh of that love of God.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh most of most religious uh talk, when I say religion, I mean legalism.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh legalist kind of talk says you have to do certain things in order to uh in order to receive blessing, even, right?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: I've been I've I've heard teaching where it says if you'll do these things, you'll receive the blessing of God.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Um if you'll do these things, you'll receive favor from God.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: The truth is that God is love and he is just the giver, the giver, the giver.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: That's just who he is.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: That's his nature.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that when we look at the gospel and we look at Jesus coming and giving, giving his life, and then in his teaching he says, don't be afraid, it's your father's good pleasure to give you.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: See, and it has it has nothing to do about uh has nothing to do with how many good deeds we have done.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: It's all about how good God is.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why, again, it's important that we we talk about it, we read about it, we learn, we find out, we look into this thing about about God being that good, that his heart and his nature being that good, that he would just give and pour out his love upon us without any qualifications on our part.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Just the fact that we're we are is good enough for God to be to be good and he just loves us, that's his nature.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: He can't stop being God, he can't stop loving, he can't stop giving because that's just that's just um who he is.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: And uh if when we get rid of all the ideas that we have to live up to a certain thing or be a certain thing uh in order to receive, it gets so much easier.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: We it's it's nothing, it's all about him.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, the simplest way to say it is let go and let God or just live love.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Just go ahead and and let yourself be loved.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like somebody wanting to give you a lot of money, and and you know, what do you do?
10:11
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have to let yourself have it.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can say, oh no, no, no, for all kinds of reasons, but if if a person wants you to receive it, you have to let yourself have it.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: You have to give yourself permission to receive from God.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: You have to give yourself permission to be loved by God.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: And that takes getting past the idea that of whether or not you deserve anything from God.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Um in God's eyes we do just because we're here and he loves us.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: That's a good enough reason for him.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: But um mankind has come up with other ideas.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: We we the are the flesh of man, the pride of man, we like to earn it.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: We like to be deserving of it.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: We uh something something happened to our lighting here.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: But uh that's why you can't talk enough about the love, the goodness of God.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Here's a good example.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Um I was uh talking about it in a church one time uh some years ago, and was talking about how God doesn't give to us based on our goodness, he gives according to his goodness.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: So if he just is good, he's just going to give whether the recipient looks like they're good or not.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And uh and somebody said, We were at a restaurant after that, and somebody brought up, you know, I think I'm gonna start tipping the server, not based upon how good a job they do, but on how good I want to be to that server.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And that I heard that and it just clicked in me, and it changed me, and I've done it ever since.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Is that I don't, I don't just just following after that heartbeat and that nature of God, I don't tip a server based on whether they do a good job or a bad job anymore.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: I used to.
12:11
SPEAKER_05: Right.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I used to judge whether they were, you know, worthy or not.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: If they were really good, then I'd be generous.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: I'd feel good about giving them a bigger tip, and if they were horrible, I would just, you know, give them a minimum.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and after that, I got in my heart that I like the heart of my father.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: I like the heart of the creator.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of heart that I'm after, you know, that I like.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: I like being that that good.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: I like being that kind of kind of giver.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And so I started uh just doing that, and it doesn't matter.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they can have a bad day.
12:41
SPEAKER_06: I remember on I I think it was our third date, we went to the Cheesecake Factory.
12:46
SPEAKER_06: I've been a server.
12:47
SPEAKER_06: That that was my first job uh uh putting myself through school.
12:51
SPEAKER_06: I I was a server for many years.
12:54
SPEAKER_06: And anyway, we went to dinner, and this waitress kind of mixed up our our um our order.
13:02
SPEAKER_06: Uh I I think a couple things went wrong, and I was like mentally judging her because I was thinking she's not doing this right and she's you know could have done this instead.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And here we were trying to have a nice day and all these things.
13:14
SPEAKER_06: And I wanted you to have, you know, I wanted to be like all perfect and good.
13:18
SPEAKER_06: Well, anyway, uh when the check came, I kind of saw Rick write a note on the the the check.
13:27
SPEAKER_06: He wrote, Great job, whatever her name was, uh you know, I appreciate your service or something like that.
13:36
SPEAKER_06: I got tears in my eyes.
13:38
SPEAKER_06: I totally I I remember hugging you and just saying, You are a good man.
13:45
SPEAKER_06: Because I remember as a server days that I didn't do so good, and I was like trying really hard, but I I I would mess up sometimes.
13:55
SPEAKER_06: And anyway, that really um impressed me.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: That's a good uh example though, because if the heart of the giver is good, the giver does the giving doesn't stop.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the abundance doesn't stop, the overflow doesn't stop.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's what we're talking about when we talk about the heart of our father.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't be afraid, Jesus said, little flock.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: It's your father's good pleasure to give you.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid that you have that you haven't done enough.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid that he might hold out on you.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: I love that the word says no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's an Old Testament scripture.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: In the new covenant, through the blood of Jesus, we are all made uprightly in him or righteous in him.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Do we have any comments or questions yet?
14:40
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, um, Mike, Gail, I'm not sure if it's Mike or Gail.
14:44
SPEAKER_06: Always good to give in abundance to those witnesses or waitresses and waiters.
14:50
SPEAKER_06: Go ahead, make their night.
14:51
SPEAKER_06: Been my practice for a long time.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike and Gail Inge.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: They're in uh Florida here.
14:56
SPEAKER_06: They're in Florida with us.
14:57
SPEAKER_06: Oh, cool.
14:58
unknown: Yeah.
14:58
SPEAKER_06: So I was also thinking about the woman who uh was healed, um, the one who had the bleeding for 12 years or or whatever.
15:09
SPEAKER_06: Um you know, I I just she was part of my drama that I did this weekend, but I was thinking about how Jesus treated her.
15:18
SPEAKER_06: Because in that day, you could not touch a whole a woman could not touch a man, first of all.
15:26
SPEAKER_06: You couldn't touch a holy man.
15:28
SPEAKER_06: In fact, there were these things the Pharisees were called the blind and bleeding Pharisees because when they saw a woman, they would close their eyes and run into posts and things just to avoid even looking at a woman.
15:42
SPEAKER_06: So here she was daring to touch.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And also she was unclean.
15:48
SPEAKER_06: And she was supposed to be yelling, unclean, unclean.
15:51
SPEAKER_06: She was supposed to be, but she didn't.
15:53
SPEAKER_06: And anyway, she gets caught, you know, and I'm, you know, in this drama that I did, I'm imagining the fear of getting caught that you just broke numerous rules, even though you just got healed.
16:07
SPEAKER_06: What's he gonna do?
16:09
SPEAKER_06: Am I gonna get stoned to death?
16:10
SPEAKER_06: Am I gonna get the full repercussion of the law?
16:14
SPEAKER_06: And he, Jesus, is so kind to her, so gracious to her, so um honoring of her, that that abundance of giving love to that woman, that's the heart of Jesus.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And he did it with everybody.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, I you know, as you're saying that, I think of I guess every example of a person that he dealt with that was in uh a negative situation.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were in sin, such as the woman that was caught in the affair and in the adultery, you know.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, while they were making it about does she deserve to live or not?
16:52
SPEAKER_00: That was a question, basically.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus made it more about her, the person.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: He he cared about the person.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to give her something.
17:00
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: And he did that with you know at the well.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I don't know, you know, I love that one.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: It's it was always that.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: The father and the prodigal son.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't up there again.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about does does he deserve anything?
17:15
SPEAKER_00: This is my son.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: Give to him.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Put lavish him with everything.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Put a robe on him.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's kill the fatted calf.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Put the ring on him.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's always about giving, giving, giving, because that's the heart of the father.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: We see it over and over and over again.
17:30
SPEAKER_06: But not everyone received from Jesus.
17:34
SPEAKER_05: Right.
17:35
SPEAKER_06: So, John the disciple, we know that he called himself the disciple Jesus loved.
17:42
SPEAKER_06: So he must have known something, he must have gotten something that allowed him to receive from God.
17:49
SPEAKER_06: But not everyone would receive from him, partly maybe because they didn't feel worthy, but also pride, right?
17:57
SPEAKER_06: Some of the Pharisees would refuse to receive from him.
18:02
SPEAKER_06: I think even perfectionists and a lot of those legalists of the law were perfectionists in the way that they carried out their religious duties.
18:15
SPEAKER_06: And that is a sure thing to putting a stop.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that's really what that scripture meant means when it says that that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Really, really, the way that that that that would read is that pride resists God and humility receives from God.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: That's really because God's not not resisting really in any people.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: It's our pride, because he's always given.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: So that's always going on.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: But pride resists God, and and humility or uh humility receives from God as the earth receives the rain.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: It just receives it.
19:03
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, opened up to it.
19:04
SPEAKER_06: I know that there have been times when I've been frustrated about something.
19:08
SPEAKER_06: I'm not thinking of any particular time right now, but where I've been so frustrated, I'm like, Rick, I'm doing all the right things and da-da-da-da-da.
19:18
SPEAKER_06: And you'll just say about humility.
19:22
SPEAKER_06: Because in that moment in my frustration, I have no room for receiving because I'm like defending myself, I'm, you know, telling what I've done and all the good things I've done, and God's just not answering me.
19:37
SPEAKER_06: And you'll just talk to me about humility, and when you even just say that word, something in my heart just oh, yeah.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, and and what it does is it takes away everything about us.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: It just says, you know what?
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Humility says you it's you're not doing anything to get to get this good.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing anything to deserve it.
20:04
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: You just receive it.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: The old Cain and Abel story.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, Cain worked real hard, you know, pr to produce his crop that he offered.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Abel tended sheep.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to do much except just take a walk out to out to the shade tree and the pasture and let the sheep eat.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Um but when he offered that his sacrifice, he knew that that if his that if he was accepted, it was simply because God had done was what's good, one because he did anything.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Cain thought because he had done so much that his should be accepted.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: And that's and and we see that that that play out all the all the way through.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked about, you know, there's two two men go to prayer, and one says, you know, God, you know, I'm thankful that I'm not like this sinner over here, and the other one is humbles himself and says, Father, have mercy on, God, have mercy on me.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a sinner.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: And what's he doing?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I need to receive something from you.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And really, if we humble ourselves, we know that our walk with God is really, it's all about receiving.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Anything we give, if we give him any kind of praise or worship or adoration or whatever, that's about all we can give him.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: It comes as a response to all of his goodness.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: When I found out God really loved me and really liked me, um, it that then it opened up my heart to receive his goodness.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: It was hard.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: I had to work hard at it before then, trying to find all the formulas to try to you know to receive the goodness, the blessing, the love of God.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was in a uh uh a meeting many years ago up in uh Michigan and had spoken the morning service, and afterwards the pastor said, Tonight, would it uh would you be okay?
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Would you would you uh do a uh a healing service, you know, pray for the sick, and all that?
21:50
SPEAKER_00: And I said, sure.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: So I was in my hotel room and I was praying about you know what to say, what to prepare the hearts uh as we prayed for the sick.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And God God just gave me these words.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why not?
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Preach to them, why not?
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And and what developed out of that was when I got to church that night and I got up to speak, I said, Why not you?
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Why not, why not here?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Why not now?
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Is it because you've committed too much sin?
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And then very, very briefly I I dealt with that, how Jesus took care of that.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Is it because uh you know you haven't been in church long enough, you haven't been a Christian long enough, you don't know enough Bible, you miss church too much, and all it why not?
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you why could you not receive uh that particular night it was healing, physical healing?
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Why could you not receive it?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Why not you?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And real quickly, we just just moved away any reason that they could not receive from God because all the reasons that they could not had to do with them.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And when we realize it's not about us, it's all about God and his goodness and ability, then it's then the focus is all on him.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: All we are is just sitting here receiving.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: And and and and as I spoke that, you know, spoke those things, then I then I said, okay, now, as I began to pray, and I said, now who's who's who's who's noticing a change in their body right now, you know, and and one guy over to the side says, me, says, look at me, I can bend, I can bend over.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: So my back was in pain and I couldn't couldn't bend over.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: I said, You feel good now?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: I said, yeah.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, I said, I said, he said, you're the first one that got healing tonight.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I said, is it because you're more holy than the rest of these people here?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And they all laughed at him because they knew he couldn't have been.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: He said, no.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: I said, then why did you get healed first?
23:43
SPEAKER_00: He says, why not?
23:45
unknown: That's cute.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: But when you realize there are no why nots, that it has nothing to do with anything except God.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: If it's all about God, then we're talking about someone who's who is who is love and who's goodness.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: And when we believe that, see, believing and receiving are almost the same thing.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: They go so closely together.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: When we believe that God is good, then you the receiving is all is is almost automatic.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Remember in Hebrews 11, which talks about faith, it says, by faith, Enoch disappeared.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: He was translated so he he wouldn't see death.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: He didn't die.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: He just says he walked with God and he was not.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: He knew God was good.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And even though nobody else had done what Enoch had done, Enoch essentially says, why not?
24:57
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: And he he received fullness.
25:01
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's so good.
25:03
SPEAKER_06: I felt like, Rick, for a long time I couldn't seem to force myself to believe that God was good because I had all these examples in my past of why he wasn't good.
25:17
SPEAKER_06: You know, this had happened to me.
25:18
SPEAKER_06: I had been abused, I had been hurt, I, you know, I felt like whenever people would say he was good, I would think, well, he's good for you.
25:29
SPEAKER_06: But I wanted to see proof in the physical before I believed.
25:34
SPEAKER_06: And honestly, over time, it just got to this place where I thought I've not believed it in my heart for so long, and it's gotten me depression and sickness and bad luck and broken relationships.
25:50
SPEAKER_06: What if it just right now I just choose I'm gonna believe what God says?
25:55
SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna believe that he is good and that he loves me.
25:59
SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna, I'm just gonna do it.
26:00
SPEAKER_06: I'm just gonna believe that uh I'm a treasure to him and that I'm a delight to him.
26:06
SPEAKER_06: I'm just gonna do it.
26:07
SPEAKER_06: And you know, that I had this deep depression and it it evaporated from that.
26:17
SPEAKER_06: Like I would have these constant negative thoughts in my mind, and I would just go, nope, I'm gonna believe that God thinks I'm awesome.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: And in the believing comes the receiving.
26:28
SPEAKER_06: So in that sense, I chose to receive something I knew about for a long time.
26:34
SPEAKER_06: I'd been in church for a long time, and I would always say, Yeah, yeah, God loves me, but it seemed like a really small thing.
26:42
SPEAKER_06: And now it's like everything.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: See, this gets us to a good point because the Bible says that we believe with the heart.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: And so when people have the question that says, I believe, I see that God loves me, but I don't feel that love.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't, it doesn't seem real to me, is that it's going from your head to your heart to where it becomes a part, it becomes a part of of your your your life and your experience.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And so what we tell people is really what you just described, which a lot of times we tell people, just consider it, just keep looking at it.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes, just keep looking at it.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, Moses saw this burnt bush that was burning and it wouldn't burn up.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: He saw something he had never seen before.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't understand it, but he says, I'm going to turn aside and go look at this thing.
27:32
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And when he went to look at this thing, then he, you know, he's he hears the voice of God and he's and he realizes he's standing on holy ground.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh uh and so you know we tell people, do that.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we say, consider.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: If if if this is totally a brand new thing to use, number one, we say, consider.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Consider that maybe it's true, consider that God is able to love you and I without any limitations and without any um requirements?
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Any requirement, yeah, any requirements at all, any demands at all.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And and consider that.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: And look at that, and you see it in the Word of God.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And if you look to take an overview of the Word of God, especially in the New Testament, you see it.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: We see Jesus demonstrating it everywhere.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: We see Jesus teaching it.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Your father loves you, the love of the Father, the Father's love.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: He would just talk about it all the time.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: No greater love than for a man to give down his life for his friends.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: I no longer call you servants.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: You're my friends.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I love you, I'm giving my life for you.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And so we see it in the demonstration.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the beauty of the gospel, in all that he has done, justifying us freely, with no demands, no requirements or qualifications at all.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: That shows us something about the heart of God.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And when we look, this is why this is why all I want to preach is the gospel.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about everybody else's controversies.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: This gospel is able to to to uh save uh and heal our souls.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
29:11
SPEAKER_06: Kimmy said uh he got new information.
29:15
SPEAKER_06: Like you were preaching this weekend about that that's good, repentance, and you get new information, updated information.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: So oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And the metanoia changing of the mind comes because we got more information.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: We f I found out finally that God really loved me.
29:36
SPEAKER_06: So, even psychologically speaking, you have synapses in your brain, almost like neural pathways that have been forged since you were a baby.
29:46
SPEAKER_06: And if you're raised in a carnal way, which most of us have been, you have these neural pathways.
29:53
SPEAKER_06: Well, you get new information, new pathways be can begin.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And it and the more you go over and over and over it, the more what happens is that, and and it works with the spirit and renewing of of the mind, and then then has that effect on the brain because because those those pathways that those connections that have been made are are the things that cause us to make responses and reactions to situations.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: So if something have happens or something is said, it there's this there's this this familiar reaction that we have.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: And uh maybe it'll be guilt or shame or condemnation or fight or flight or something.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: And as we as as as we uh are we're changing, as the spirit is changing and renewing our mind, we start thinking differently.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: We start thinking different thoughts, and our reactions are are getting different now.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, before, you know, I was I was quick to I had a quick temper.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, honestly, very quick, got me in trouble sometimes.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Um but new pathways have been forged to where it's a path to peace now, and it's a path to a sound mind.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: But it just changes, it renews our mind.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we say, you know, continue to look at this thing, continue to consider it.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: The plain language the Bible uses is let your mind be renewed.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're be changed by the renewing of your mind.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Old Testament said, meditate in the word.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we look at that.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Because there's all kinds of information coming all the time.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the truth.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: The truth that makes us free.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: What's the truth?
31:32
SPEAKER_00: God is good.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: God is love, and God is absolute love.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: And his, and I'll tell you, when you come to see that, when you and the more you see that, you realize you're coming into the center of the universe, that everything funnels into that, that God is love.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: You can say, Yeah, but God also does this, that, and the other.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, whatever.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: But you're going to find out He is absolute love.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: And as you as you move your awareness into the center of God, you're going to find yourself bathed in absolute love.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: And as you find out that God absolutely loves, loves, loves you, your heart is going to open up to such goodness and joy and uh and open up to that love.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And when you experience that love that you opened up to, you will have a sense of fullness and you will know that you're home, that you're eating from the tree of life.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: You will feel like you're having a heavenly experience, even though there's trouble all around in this world, because you are in the center of love, is what we were called to in the beginning when we had the choice of the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: That tree of life was God Himself.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: It was to live in that love according to love instead of living by our own judgments.
32:58
SPEAKER_06: That's good.
32:59
SPEAKER_06: Honey, I want to ask you a question.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Ask me a question.
33:01
SPEAKER_06: Well, because you always talk about, you know, you were a pastor and and you were a Christian for 20 years.
33:08
SPEAKER_06: You did everything you could think of.
33:11
SPEAKER_06: You did the prophetic, the spiritual warfare, everything that came through.
33:16
SPEAKER_06: You were like a hundred percent in, you did it all.
33:19
SPEAKER_06: And you talk about laying on the floor in your church and saying, God, I can't do it anymore.
33:26
SPEAKER_06: And then it was like you got filled with the fullness of God.
33:32
SPEAKER_06: You in fact, you never called it grace, you called it full of it.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know there was a grace movement.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: I was talking about fullness to everyone.
33:39
SPEAKER_06: But what do you think got you to that point?
33:44
SPEAKER_06: Because, like, I could just say, Yeah, I'm gonna lay on the floor and I'm gonna say, God, I give up.
33:49
SPEAKER_06: You know, but what was it in you?
33:51
SPEAKER_00: There's not a formula.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: With me, it was desperation, and that's a very common tale when we talk to people that people come to the end of themselves where they just need more than what they've had.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And I knew the Bible, and I had all kinds of experience, and I had all kinds of uh knowledge of the word, and and had been blessed in a lot of ways over those years, but was never satisfied.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: And and and it's like, anyway, uh, you know, I talk about the story in my book Fullness, but but when I laid there, what what what opened it up to me was I saw the fullness or the the full power of the gospel, that everything that I was that I thought I needed, that I thought I was trying to get, that I thought I was trying to become, I saw that it was all wrapped up in what Jesus had already done.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And if and and when I saw that that was the case and saw it very clear, clearer in a way than I ever had before, uh, when I when when I saw that, it took it took everything off of me and it said, everything can be on him.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: And I and I saw that, and it and just let and if it's all about him, then I already have everything I need, and I already am everything that I've ever aspired to be in him.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: I already am holy, I already am complete in him, I'm already on the mountaintop, I'm already beyond the veil because he did put me there.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: He did all of that, and I I just I saw that in a way.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: So when I saw that, then I realized, well, if there's nothing left for me to qualify me or to do, then all I have then all I all that's left is just to receive.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: All that's left is to enjoy what he's done.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: All that's left is to love what he has done for me.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: And and that's what that's what came from that.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: That's why the gospel, I'm talking the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, all that that brought to us, all that that gave us, all the forgiveness, all the uplifting, all the spiritual completion and perfection and holiness that was necessary because the perfect one, the holy one, became a part of us, and it sanctified us, and it made us absolutely complete, setting us on the mountaintop.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: But seeing that, believing it, is what is is what allowed me to open up and say, Well, there's nothing left to do but just receive it and enjoy it.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: It took everything off of me, and there was nothing left for me to do anymore, and there hasn't been ever since.
36:41
SPEAKER_06: So in that moment, you saw that, you, you saw it, but you believed it.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: I saw and I believed it, but but the Holy Spirit did a work that I couldn't do.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: See, I I'd been, I mean, I'd been in the work, and and the things I just told you, I could have said before with my mouth and probably had.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: But but I believed it.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will take of mine and he'll show it to you.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: He'll take my glory and he'll glorify me.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he did.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit somehow opened my eyes, and in showing me the fullness of this gospel, it glorified Jesus.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: It made Jesus bigger than I had ever made him in my mind.
37:24
SPEAKER_06: And you were like a preacher first.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: I was a preacher, and I thought Jesus was pretty big, but but it seemed like his work was limited, therefore, I had to keep trying to complete that work.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: Right.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: And what I saw when I laid on that floor was I couldn't see one end from the other that he had saved to the uttermost, and there was nothing I could add to this at all, and never would I have to.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: And it began to bring a piece.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know everything all at once.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: That that was a beginning of something that's been growing ever since, and I've been getting happier ever since because of this.
38:01
SPEAKER_06: Well, didn't you say to God, you know, I think I'm just gonna be happy, and if you have a problem with that, will you let me know?
38:09
SPEAKER_06: Right.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: That I that was in that that whole time there.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: When I saw that, I thought, so there's nothing left to do but receive this.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not, I don't, I, there, I don't have to work for this.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that's when I said, okay, God, I'm just gonna be happy from now on.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna groan and moan and travail and and climb the holy hill anymore.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna be happy now.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a problem with that, you need to let me know.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: I was new at this.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm not used to this much freedom, and I'm not used to having this much joy, and and I don't know what to do with it.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna be happy.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and it was almost like I felt like a pat on the back.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: It was like, now you're getting it, you know?
38:47
SPEAKER_00: Now you're getting it, you know.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: And it goes along with uh what I've quoted twice tonight, fear not, it's your father's good pleasure to give it to you.
38:55
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I love that.
38:56
SPEAKER_06: And I I agree with you.
38:58
SPEAKER_06: When I was in the depression, when I first received or really understood the grace of God, I was like that too, in the sense that I started to just believe, like, I already am beautiful to him.
39:14
SPEAKER_06: I already am valuable to him, I already am his treasure.
39:18
SPEAKER_06: Like I'm I don't have to keep trying to become that by working really hard, going on the mission field, being available to anyone and everyone.
39:28
SPEAKER_06: Like I could just put all that down.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference between grace and legalism.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the difference.
39:34
SPEAKER_06: And you know, the most beautiful thing was I'm driving down the road to work and I noticed that I was singing.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:43
SPEAKER_06: This is after years of depression.
39:45
SPEAKER_06: Of not singing, and not even feeling remotely singing.
39:48
SPEAKER_06: I was telling that group uh that the other night that I I, you know, as a Christian, you're told that or I believed I shouldn't be depressed, but if you just praise a lot, you'll get out of depression.
40:04
SPEAKER_06: And I would praise and I would sing and I'm strong.
40:08
SPEAKER_06: And it didn't help.
40:10
SPEAKER_06: Then I memorized every scripture that had to do with depression over and over and over and over.
40:16
SPEAKER_06: I was a worker, so were you.
40:18
SPEAKER_06: Working at it.
40:19
SPEAKER_06: I if if the if everyone else would do it ten times, I'd do it twenty.
40:23
SPEAKER_06: Right.
40:23
SPEAKER_06: You know, and that didn't help me.
40:26
SPEAKER_06: So then I was sort of stuck.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Like Well, that's where I would.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: You come to the end of you.
40:31
SPEAKER_06: Like I've already done everything and more Christian people have told me to do, and it doesn't work.
40:36
SPEAKER_06: But I didn't give up on God.
40:37
SPEAKER_06: You never gave up on God.
40:39
SPEAKER_06: I just felt like, what am I missing here?
40:41
SPEAKER_06: What am I missing?
40:42
SPEAKER_06: And I I remember the Lord say to me, I was like, Lord, if I don't do anything, if I don't like get involved in church and do all this stuff, I'm just gonna be a couch potato and I'm just gonna watch TV for the rest of my life.
40:55
SPEAKER_06: And I heard him say, Well, I'll sit with you and watch TV.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: That's that's graciousness.
41:00
SPEAKER_06: And that's what he he sat with me.
41:02
SPEAKER_06: I can see it in hindsight so much better than Right, right.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: That's how we we do.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: We see it in hindsight.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: He reminds me of my my my little guy, Zacchaeus.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus just he wanted to come sit with Zacchaeus.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Let me come to your house and eat.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, did he, you know, read him the Romans Road of Salvation?
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Did he tell him what he'd been doing wrong?
41:22
SPEAKER_00: We don't see anything like that.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: All we know is that he went to his house and Zacchaeus got happy and changed changed everything about himself.
41:29
SPEAKER_06: That's so good.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's catch up on some comments and things.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: I've been seeing some.
41:33
SPEAKER_06: So um Beth said, All that is left is to receive.
41:39
SPEAKER_06: Oh, she's quoting you.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is a good that is a good thing to to to to remember.
41:44
SPEAKER_06: Glenda said, Oh wow, good testimony, praise God.
41:48
SPEAKER_06: Gwen said, Thank you for explaining this.
41:50
SPEAKER_06: God is so good.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: He is, isn't he?
41:53
SPEAKER_06: And then Glenda said, I so needed this.
41:56
SPEAKER_06: I've been saying, I've been trying to climb this mountain.
41:59
SPEAKER_06: I'm there.
42:00
SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Jesus.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a reason you can climb it your whole life, keep trying to climb a mountain your whole life and not get there, because you've been standing on the top the whole time.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lifted us up far above everything.
42:13
SPEAKER_06: Right.
42:14
SPEAKER_06: And uh Beth said, Wow, Judy, I'll sit with you.
42:18
SPEAKER_06: Right.
42:18
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: Right.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the goodness of God.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: When we say God's for you, that's the kind of thing we're talking about.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: He likes us.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: He likes us.
42:28
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: I love God.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: You can't help but love him, right?
42:33
SPEAKER_06: Oh.
42:33
SPEAKER_06: Cammy said, You guys were such a blessing to me this past weekend.
42:38
SPEAKER_06: I started reading your book, The Now Zone, today, and I cried through the first two chapters.
42:43
SPEAKER_06: LOL.
42:45
SPEAKER_06: Libby said, good, and hallelujah.
42:48
SPEAKER_06: Um Glenda said, so powerful.
42:51
SPEAKER_06: Thank you both.
42:52
SPEAKER_06: As much as I have heard about the love of God, I am actually just knowing this.
42:57
SPEAKER_06: If you can understand that, bless you both.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, love that.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: I totally get that.
43:02
SPEAKER_06: Just consider it.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:03
SPEAKER_06: And Neva said, love is more than an emotion, it is a knowing and understanding of a person.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a person.
43:14
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
43:16
SPEAKER_06: That's so good.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
43:18
SPEAKER_06: I think there was one more thing I wanted to ask you about receiving.
43:26
SPEAKER_06: Um, I think it's about the part about do you remember when okay, we didn't know each other when we were younger, but we both had this experience where people would say to us, God loves you.
43:38
SPEAKER_06: And we'd be like, Whatever.
43:41
SPEAKER_06: So what?
43:42
SPEAKER_06: So when I was struggling with addictions and psychological mental illness, whatever, and someone would say, Well, God loves you just as you are, and I would feel so resistant to that because I didn't want him to love me just as I was.
43:59
SPEAKER_06: I wanted To become better.
44:01
SPEAKER_06: So here's the thing: if you trust God and you receive the love of God, those things will change.
44:08
SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah.
44:09
SPEAKER_05: Your heart changes.
44:10
SPEAKER_06: You have to be willing to risk it because in my mind, it was a big risk to like trust that God would do that.
44:19
SPEAKER_06: I thought he'd just leave me like I was.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: Right, like it didn't, like there was no power in that.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's what we're saying is that that love is it.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: That is the changing force right there.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: Being loved brings the fulfillment into our heart that we were trying to fill with everything else.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: Whether it was heart or hard work or our or substances or whatever.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: We it the love fills the heart, and the and and as when it's filling the heart, it's changing the heart.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: And all of the the destructive things and the false things and the the lust and the addictive things that we that we were going after before are not necessary because we found it.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: There is not he is the one that we we were looking for.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: There is no other.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: It's him, it's his love.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: We were created for this.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: We were meant to be with him, we were meant to be loved by him.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: We were created for to receive his love, his goodness, and his abundance.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: That's what we were created for.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: We are vessels to receive.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: That's why when we don't receive, we're so empty and we're always and we try grabbing for everything.
45:32
SPEAKER_06: We're lusting.
45:33
SPEAKER_06: We're lusting after.
45:34
SPEAKER_06: Always in a sexual way, but in a desperate way.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: In a soul way, where your soul is trying to be fulfilled.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's um, you know, it's everything.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: It's relationships, it's money, it's a it's it's substance abuse, it's it's all everything.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: We try to find a fame, fortune, it's it's everything that we try to fulfill, try to fill uh this this this heart with, and only one thing can do it.
46:01
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
46:01
SPEAKER_06: I was talking to a friend today and I said, all of that, it's rat poison.
46:06
SPEAKER_06: It's all rat poison.
46:07
SPEAKER_06: It seems like it's the thing that will make us feel better.
46:10
SPEAKER_06: Like if I could just get my family to behave well, or if I could just get the perfect outfit, or if I could perfect amount of money, or whatever that thing is.
46:23
SPEAKER_06: And it's baked.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, you know, rat poison's not effective if it doesn't attract the rat to to come to it, right?
46:29
SPEAKER_00: Right.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: And all these things they have an attraction.
46:32
SPEAKER_06: My perfect body, I can have my perfect relationship, I can be as smart as you know, anyone, I can be as successful as anyone.
46:41
SPEAKER_06: Or or I just want to drug out, you know, and just escape life.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: It's all it's all for the same thing.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: It's all because of that that lust, that need, that that passion, desire for something that's that looks to be fulfilling.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: But it never is because it's like a carrot on a stick.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: That's you know, you make your first million, and what do you want?
47:03
SPEAKER_00: You want your next.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: It's just it doesn't it doesn't end.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: You get you get a good degree of fame.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
47:09
SPEAKER_00: You want more fame.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, you want to be bigger.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh whatever.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: If you, you know, you go, you go get get your mind blown and wasted and high, and what do you what do you want?
47:20
SPEAKER_00: You want to do it again.
47:21
unknown: Yeah.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's just, it's, it, you know, it's the belly is never satisfied.
47:27
SPEAKER_06: The only thing, the only, only thing that fills is that love of God.
47:32
SPEAKER_06: So if you look for anything, if you are, if you put effort into anything, it's to understand the love of God, to see the goodness of God, to see the love of God.
47:46
SPEAKER_06: Whatever.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: That's a good that's a good bow to tie on this whole thing tonight.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: That's the prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 19.
47:54
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would know the height, the breadth, the width, and the depth of the love of God of God.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: So you can be filled with all the fullness of God.
48:05
SPEAKER_06: When you're full of the fullness of God, you don't need other people's approval, you don't need their recommendations, you don't need uh to escape your reality, you don't need anything.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Because you have freely received that love of God, now you can freely give.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Now you don't need their approval, you can just love them and give to them anyway.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: And that's the that's that's that's when it gets beautiful.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: It it makes us no longer needy.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: We found what we had needed.
48:36
SPEAKER_06: We don't need you to love us, we love you.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: Once you get it, it's just it's a good place to do it.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: It satisfies.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: And you do increase in it, you do increase, but you're not lusting and and and feeling starving anymore.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: You're just enjoying the more that you're seeing.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that so there's no excess in this.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful, it's wonderful.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: Love talking about it.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks guys for for um being with us tonight.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: It's been it's been really good.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for your comments.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: It it makes this uh eight chairs, this interactive Facebook Live thing that we do on Tuesdays, it makes it uh it makes it worth getting everything ready for.
49:21
SPEAKER_07: It's a lot, sometimes it's a lot of work to do.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have we were trying to work out something new.
49:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I don't like this, and oh let's move the light over there, let's do that, and let's set it up over here.
49:31
SPEAKER_06: Well, the other thing that's good about it, it's not just you preaching to someone.
49:35
SPEAKER_06: You do that on Sundays, and we have lots of videos.
49:38
SPEAKER_00: We do that all the time.
49:39
SPEAKER_06: But there's a good it's good to have a place where you can ask questions or you can delve a little deeper or you know, just kind of put your thoughts together.
49:48
SPEAKER_06: It's great to be able to talk through that kind of stuff.
49:51
SPEAKER_06: Um, because this isn't just a theory, this isn't a theology so much as it is it's a person, it's a relationship, a relationship.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Somebody that loves us.
49:59
SPEAKER_06: And and we're always about how are you doing today?
50:03
SPEAKER_06: How are you doing now?
50:04
SPEAKER_06: Because that's what he came for.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: Right.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we talk about about the about the love of God so much, because that'll that'll fix how you're doing today.
50:13
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: If you can receive it.
50:15
SPEAKER_06: Susan said, praise the Lord most high for his amazing love.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
50:21
SPEAKER_06: Beth said, Thank you both.
50:22
SPEAKER_06: It was awesome.
50:23
SPEAKER_06: Julie said, very good.
50:25
SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
50:27
SPEAKER_06: Michelle Hudson, love you both.
50:29
SPEAKER_06: Michelle, we're gonna be at Longwood, uh, at Grace Church in Longwood on Sunday.
50:33
SPEAKER_06: Hope to see you there.
50:35
SPEAKER_06: Um, are we gonna be here next Tuesday?
50:37
SPEAKER_06: We're actually leaving the next morning on our trip.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
50:42
SPEAKER_06: We'll see.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: We'll find out.
50:44
SPEAKER_06: We'll keep it posted.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: If you if you haven't been there, go to rickmanis.com.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: We've got lots of other stuff there.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: We've got audios and videos and more information.
50:52
SPEAKER_06: And I think it's always the that computer goes down.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: And we have uh, oh, if you we mentioned some of our books tonight.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: If you if you want to get our books, just go to Amazon.com and type in Rick Manis or Judy Manis for her books.
51:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh all those will come up.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't got any of them, go get them, buy lots of them, and give them out to people.
51:19
SPEAKER_00: Have have a good night, guys.
51:21
SPEAKER_06: See you soon.