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Gracious Living · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Let us become more aware of his presence.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Let us become more aware of his presence.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: You ever read where Jesus, speaking to us believers, said, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age, to the end of the world.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: You ever read where he says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you?
0:26
SPEAKER_00: That means every day you wake up, he's here, he's there.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was thinking while we were singing this, I was thanking God for the reality of that and how we grow and walk into it.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I well, I, you know, a long time ago, it most of us church people, we all we had to work up, work up the presence.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: We had to work ourselves up to feel like God was with us.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: But but we we're growing up.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We're walking with Him as sons, and we're waking up every morning aware of the presence of God, aware of life.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh and it changes everything about us.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: It makes us the manifestation of the sons of God.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: And and a big part of that manifestation, here's what it, here's what I want to look at what it results in.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus said a lot of things about about something that Judy and I have been uh talking about, and she's been writing about it, and she's actually probably will end up with a nice book about this thing because she's been she's been getting this revelation.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll call her up and and have her help me here today if I if uh if I need some help and you guys can call on Judy and she'll bail me out.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: But but uh but she calls it gracious living.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's and and we want to look at this thing that that we see as gracious living or graceful living.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: In other words, life full of grace.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Here in John chapter 1, uh the whole thing's so good, you can start with verse 1, but let's let's jump in at verse 14.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And it speaks of Jesus, who himself of course, let me just quote the first verse there.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: It says, In the beginning was the word.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: And the word was with God, and the word was God.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And all things were made by him, and without him there is nothing made that was made.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: But down here in verse 14 it says, And that word, and him who is the word, he became flesh and he dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Look up that word caris, that word grace.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: It actually means graciousness.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: That's a very probably a better description of this thing called.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: We throw the word grace out there, and we know it's something good, but what is it?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: It's it's graciousness.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about God's grace, we're talking about God's graciousness to us, his bigness, his goodness that was extended to us and demonstrated by him dying for the ungodly, by him loving the world, being gracious to the world, being good, being merciful, being forgiving, and taking taking care of all things.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And it says, we beheld the glory, we beheld Jesus, and we saw that it was the glory of the Father, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: And down there in verse 16 it says, and of his fullness, say fullness.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: This is the abundant life.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: This is the lifestyle that we know when we know what we're what we talk about, what we're going to talk about today.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Of his fullness we have all received.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And grace for grace.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And we, or in other words, we've received his graciousness for graciousness, for a life of graciousness or graceful living.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: What's a well if you want to know what I what we mean by graceful living, look at the life of Jesus.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Look at the life of someone who was in the same storm as twelve other guys, and while they thought they were going to die, he's taking a nap.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Gracious living or graceful living.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Another time the wind and waves were real big and they were fighting and struggling and all that, and Jesus is taking a walk on the water.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: That's gracious living.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: The one who would extend it to us and say, Now let not your heart be troubled.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: The one that would show us how this whole thing, and you know, people would accuse him of all things.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: They would accuse him of being a sinner, they'd accuse him of being a liar, a false prophet, they even accused him of being demon-possessed.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: They even accused him of being in league with the devil himself.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And this great one who lives so gracefully said, Well, there's one who bears witness of me, that's the one I'll pay attention to.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: That's gracious.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: When all manner of men say all manner of things against you.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: And your heart's not shaken, that's living gracefully or living graciously.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Living graceful allows you to be gracious, and that's what he what he showed to all the others.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Because he was gracious and graceful, they could throw the adulterous woman at his feet, and he would say, I don't condemn you, in spite of knowing what they were trying to trap him and what they were all saying.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: He didn't care.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: This world was not, he didn't have a uh he didn't know anything to this world except to love them.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: He lived graciously and gracefully.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: You get you get the get the picture that we're talking about.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And of that same fullness, he said, now we have all received that same fullness, that same gracious living here that we have.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: You can live free with the fruit of the Spirit, the joy and all this thing, not shaken by the things of this world, just as Jesus walked and has given us that same life.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Of his fullness we have received.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Now that'll preach right there for hours and hours, because that means that we're not halfway, we're not incomplete, we're not trying to go, we're not trying to get.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: We have received that fullness for this gracious living here.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: For this lifestyle, this thing that Jesus also called abundant life or abundant living.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: He said, But I came to do what?
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Give you life.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Not just improve your life some, not enhance it, not add some things to it, but to give you a life.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: You can lose that life, and I'll give you the real life.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Graceful living.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 17, because the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: No one had seen God at any time.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: The only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him to us.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So he declared the Father to us, the one by whom he showed us in his earthly walk.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: He showed us this lifestyle.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, go with me to the book of.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I guess go to Luke chapter 6.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And what we want to talk about this morning as we give this picture of fullness of the kind of life where you're aware of his presence.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the in the where the spirit of the Lord is, there's there's liberty.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that we used to have to work up the presence because we didn't feel liberty and we wanted to get back into that feeling of liberty again so we could feel better and make it through the day?
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And that was the best that we had.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: But but but what but you know, God didn't stop it stop there with this.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: His kingdom is ever expanding and and and increasing and advancing, and he can and we continue to grow and have our mind renewed, and and and now we're we're we're finding out, my goodness, the thing we were trying to get from God, we've had all this high, we have received his fullness all this whole time through through Jesus.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Everything that I've needed is right under my nose.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: The healing is always right here, right there.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: It's always in the house.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: The healing is never something that you have to strive for.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: It's not too mysterious that you have to go way up high to get it or too deep to get it, is that it's always right here and it's there.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And what that does is it produces rather than a religious lifestyle or that that is filled with quirky spasms of religious experiences or spiritual experiences, it it produces an abundant living lifestyle where you always have the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit is abounding, you have the faith, you have the self-control, you have the peace, you have the joy.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: It's life as Jesus has, it's a real, real life that we didn't know that at best we could have struggled to try to attain.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: And the best example we have of someone trying to attain that seems to be Paul, and he says, and I just couldn't do it.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: The thing I wanted to do, I couldn't do.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And I still did the things I didn't want to do.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: That's not gracious living, it's not abundant life.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: But he said, but he found abundant life, and he starts, and he's one, and he comes up with this these great term, these great terminologies that we use, such as the new creation.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Talked about being born again of this incorruptible seed, talked about being made the righteousness of Christ.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: This great revelation that says, you know what?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: We're complete in him.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: He got this revelation as he received Jesus and received that fullness.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: He thought, My goodness, the quest is over.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: We're complete in him.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus here says in Luke chapter 6, beginning in verse 35, he says, But love your enemies, do good, and give, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you'll be sons of the Most High, for he's kind to the unthankful and to the evil.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, be merciful just as your father also is merciful.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll go ahead and give you a preview because as we read down here, he's going to talk about a tree that produces good fruit, and he's going to talk about how two houses built on different foundations.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to be aware of that as we read this, because he's leading to two different ways of doing this, two different ways of living.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll call it a gracious life or an ungracious life.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: A graceful life or a very ungraceful life, to say the least.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he'll talk about one house that had a foundation on a rock, an unshakable, an unmovable foundation.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: And he said it didn't matter what happened when the storms came and all the stuff and everything that beat against that house, the house stood simply because of what it was standing on.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Then, of course, there was the other one that was on a shifting foundation, one that's movable, one that's not very stable, and one that's not steady.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: See, this is why the revelation of being aware of his presence, being aware of his goodness, experiencing the glory of his goodness in a constant way, just simply because we we get that, because we know our life is built upon the foundation that upholds that.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: See, and a lot of times what we had in the of course, what we had in the world and and even in religion, a lot of times, the reason it was shifting and moving.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: We had so many ups and downs and changes, and and and our life was fickle.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: We were great, sometimes we felt great, and sometimes we felt horrible, and sometimes we sometimes we lived real good, sometimes we didn't, and sometimes we were afraid, and sometimes we we were at peace and had faith, and sometimes we had doubt.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: We had all the because the foundation was shifting all the time.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what we were, in other words, you may have had Jesus.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you weren't you weren't born again, but even though you were even though you were you were saved because of our ignorance, we were building our life on something that that wasn't eternal.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Our mindset was still upon the temporary.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: You'll see that, I believe, as we we look at this.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: So here he's being aware of where he's leading up to.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about love.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about being good here.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and being sons of the Most High, because God, the Father, he is kind to the unthankful.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: He's kind to the evil.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: That's graceful.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: That's gracious.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: That would you say that's gracious if somebody is kind to those who are unkind, if somebody is good to those who aren't even thankful for it, somebody is good to those who are even evil?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty gracious.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: That's extending a lot of grace, isn't it?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, so that's your father.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: So this foundation that he's gonna be talking about here is what all these things he's talking about there.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So, so, so, so, so so so number one, uh In fact, you want to do you want to come up and help me with this?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh or or you can just help me to remember things.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: But but um uh you were saying yesterday about the uh the foundation that it's this whole thing of gracious living is founded on the knowledge of God.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Right.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, what I was what I was thinking of of a whole gracious life, and I'm thinking of things like your marriage, I'm thinking of things like your health and all these different things.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: And I was saying the whole thing has to start with knowing God as good, yeah, knowing God as strong, knowing God as gracious, because I think in my early Christian days I would feel like God forgot me or he didn't care about this, or he wouldn't come through for me for some reason.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: And so my thinking on God wasn't in a strong foundation.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: And when you get to know God as a person, you get to know him and have a relationship with him, and you see him as good and gracious, who he really is, you see it, it can't help but flow out of you towards other people.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it you it just it just is automatic.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: And so I was thinking on all these things where I want to see grace uh blossoming or growing in my life, it's gotta start with the with the center.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: And the reason why it has to start, because I know a lot of non-Christians who are who are very gracious, but it the reason why it has to start with God is because his graciousness, his goodness is undiminishable, it's eternal, it is without end, without uh, without end.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh a human graciousness has to come to an end at some point.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: There's something that it's gotta you know come against that it just falls apart.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: It will pull away in certain situations.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: But because God is so eternal, it's everlasting, as long as we see that.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I really like what Shiva said this morning.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: As long as you see it, it's it's for you.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: It's it's there, it's it's it's uh it's in you because you're seeing it.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: The foundation is upon God and who he is.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, Build it on the one who's kind to the unthankful and to the evil.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, because of that, you be merciful because your father is merciful.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes into chapter verse 37, excuse me.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: And he says, now this is really good here.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: This is another little nugget that you'll like.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: He says, Judge not and you'll not be judged.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Condemn not, you'll not be condemned.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Forgive and you'll be forgiven.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Give and it will be given to you.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will men give into your bosom, for with the same measure that you use, it'll be measured back to you.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: A couple of points here.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Number one, if you will look this up, there's questions come up, they say, Well, so if people have said, so are you saying that if we don't forgive, then we're not forgiven?
15:24
SPEAKER_00: No, this whole thing's about grace.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: And why does it say things?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: You really, if you just if you look in the the uh the a strong concordance and look at the words here, actually, um what it what it says, for instance, it says, forgive and you will be forgiven.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: It's that same word three times, forgive, forgive, forgive.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, forgive and forgive and forgive.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Look it up.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: It's just very plain right there.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyway, look what he says here.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't judge and you won't be judged.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't condemn and you won't be condemned.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Don't forgive, I mean, excuse me, forgive and you will be forgiven.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: So he goes, so he says, so because if you give, whatever you give, whether it's forgiveness or whether it's judgment or condemnation, he says, what you give will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will men give unto your bosom.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about God's judgment on you.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, if you judge, you're gonna be judged.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, here's this world's thing, and people throwing judgments and condemnation at each other, and they're just gonna throw it right back at you.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: He says, because what you give, men will give unto your bosom.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And he says, for with the same measure that you use, it's gonna be given back.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: So you can live graciously or you can live ungraciously.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: And you can reap a lot of bad stuff, or you can enjoy the good stuff.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse 39, he says, Can the blind lead the blind?
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Won't they both fall in the in the ditch?
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 41.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you don't perceive the plank in your own eye?
16:56
SPEAKER_00: How can you say, brother, let me take that speck out of your own eye, uh, but you don't even see the big old board that's in your eye?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck that's in your brother's eye.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: There, what's he describing?
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Ungracious living here.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about somebody that's got their own problems here, and they're too busy judging somebody else's thing.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And he says, see, living unlike that, it's too easy for them to throw it back at you because you got stuff too.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: You got a plank, they got a speck.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, You, and and and and you can always find what's wrong with them.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: He says, but that's not gracious living.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: They can always throw it right back at you, and you'll just it'll go on and on, and that's what's going on in the world and hasn't gone on for thousands of years, right?
17:37
SPEAKER_00: I see it all the time.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: I see it today's world, I'm telling you, it it just, I just I don't I don't like what the world is doing.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's throwing judgment at each other socially, this and that, and politically, it's it, and they just go back and forth and back and forth, and it's just nothing but the world, totally ungracious living, and both of them swear they're right.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 47.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: A good tree doesn't bring bad fruit, and a bad tree doesn't bring good fruit.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: For every tree is known by its fruit, for don't you don't gather figs from thor from a thorn bush, and you don't gather grapes from a bramble.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: But a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of that evil treasure brings evil, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: So you see a picture of gracious living here, is that someone, I mean, Jesus can look at an adulterous woman and say, I don't condemn you.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: He can look at a man, a man who's a known thief, a known bad guy.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows the man's a sinner.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't even try going to church anymore.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Come on, I want to, I want to I want to have dinner with you at your house.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I want to sit down and have a good time with you.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: He was being gracious, and he and he simply had, that's all he had.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: He was full of grace and full of truth.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: And they beheld that glory of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Now the law came by Moses, but this other thing, this whole new abundant life, this lifestyle, came by Jesus, full of grace and full of truth.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: So he says in verse 46, he says, Now why do you call me Lord, but you don't do what I say?
19:09
SPEAKER_00: He says, If you come, whoever comes to me and hears my words and does them, that word does actually means and agrees with them or admits to admits them, admits that they're true, and does them, I will show you who he is like.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: When the flood rose, the stream beat against it because it was, and it could not shake it because it was founded on the rock.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: But he who heard, who heard the word and did nothing, did not follow it, did not agree with it.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: It was like a man whose house was built on sand, and when the rains came, the stream beat against it, and it fell, and the ruin of the house was was great.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: So what Judy was mentioning here, foundationally, number there's a few number ones here.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: You've got to know that God is, for one thing.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: You've got to know that he's with you and that he loves you.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one right there, that he's with you all the time.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: This is a big, big key thing.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: If you're founded on grace and truth, that God is with you.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: He's not apart from you, he's not far from you, he's with you always.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: He's as close as the beat of your heart, because in fact, if you read your Bible, he's one with you, he's in union with you.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: And if you're founded on truth, you wake up knowing not only is God for you, but he's with you and for you.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And like we were saying last week, and Jesus would say, you know, the word would say, cast your care up in because he cares for you.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you alone, helpless, hapless.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: I won't leave you orphans, I won't leave you fatherless.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: I will come to you.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: The comforter will come.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: He will be with you, he will lead you, he will guide you, he will tell you what to say when you don't know what to say.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Somebody will always be there who cares enough to help you.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's got power to help.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's got power to heal.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's got power to restore and make right.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: He says, so so the foundation is knowing that he's there, knowing that he loves you, knowing that he's good.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: He laid this out.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: He says, your father is kind, he's good.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: So you've got a foundation.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Your life is built on the revelation of Jesus that reveals the Father to us, full of grace and full of truth, or it's built on the world's ideas and thoughts, or your own imaginations, which which foster a religion, that brings this up and down life.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God's here and sometimes he's not.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he's with you, sometimes he's not.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes life is great, sometimes it's not.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And what we're doing is we're living according to the confront we're living conform to this world rather than this other thing that Jesus came and brought us that he called life.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Capital L I F E.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: And this thing is so simple because he's given us his fullness and he said, All you gotta To do is know the truth, because the truth will make you free.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, over here, it's knowing God.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Treeta said that this morning, I think.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: It's about knowing God.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Over here, it's this knowing about God.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I gave you the example of a guy that read some things about me, and so he thought he knew me, but he didn't even, never even really talked to me, so he couldn't have known me because he didn't know me as a person.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: But he thought he knew me.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: And so many people, they're knowing God just by reading and gathering information, and they think they know God because of the information that they've gathered.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: There's much information to read here, but he says, with all that information, nobody knew the Father except the Son, and he revealed them to us.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Over here, we're knowing a person who loves us and cares.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And when you feel loved, you live gracefully.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: That's how what Jesus did.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, he would say it all the time, wouldn't he?
22:50
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Ah, you've got a devil.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Ah, by whose power do you do this?
22:57
SPEAKER_00: I can't do anything on my own.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: He does the works through me.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm just, uh He says, I'm just doing what I see Him do.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm living gracefully here.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying what I hear Him say.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm living gracefully here.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm not compelled by any pressure.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't owe anybody anything.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: I just love Him.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves the Son.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm loving the whole world here, and I'm giving my whole life for you guys.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And I've got and He hung on that cross.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: And how gracefully and graciously He hung on that cross, dying with amazing grace.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: How sweet the sound.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: And this is the life.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not what would Jesus do, it's what did He do, and what does that mean to us?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: So this is the good news that we have.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm so excited about, because this is real.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm experiencing in ever-increasing measure.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: I've got a million, million miles of growing to do, but it just gets so better, so much better as we see this so clearly that, my goodness, this is a whole other world.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: This is a whole other life.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And it changes everything to where you're at perfect peace all the time because he says he'll keep you there in that perfect peace if your mind is stayed on him.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Your house is on the right foundation.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at one other passage here that's in Mark 4, and it speaks of it in a different way.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Rather than the foundation, he speaks of the four different types of ground.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: There again, that which the crop or the plants are founded upon.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know in Mark chapter 4 he said there were four different kinds.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: One kind the seed didn't go into at all.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: So nothing happens there.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: We won't even mess with that.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: That's nothing.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse 16 of Mark 4, he says, now these are the ones who that where the seed fell on stony ground or shallow ground.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: It was basically a rock with some dirt on top of it.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh he says, and and what are these?
24:54
SPEAKER_00: These are those who received the word with gladness.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: How many times have I seen people get all excited about Jesus?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: And he says, but because he didn't have depth of earth, then what happened?
25:06
SPEAKER_00: He says, when the tribulation or the persecution comes, he says, then they fall away.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Why would they do that?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Because they're getting it emotionally and not revelationally.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: They're excited about these wonderful things that we had to say about God, but why does tribulation cause them to fall away?
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Why does it discourage them?
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Why does it frustrate them?
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Why do they just walk away from the from the whole thing?
25:37
SPEAKER_00: It's because their eyes are still on things that are built on shifting sand, this world.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And they're thinking that the things of this world is what life's about when it's the goodness of God.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: It's what life's about.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, he he says there's that other ground.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, the ones that are sown among thorns, he says they're not fruitful because they hear the word.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: But they hear it.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: So you can hear it.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: But still, the distractions, the cares of this world, the deception of things and money, riches.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: What's the deception of it?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: The deception of it is that I'm what life's about.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm your life.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm the big thing in your life, I'm the important thing.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm first.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: The deception of it.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Riches come from God, but the deception of it.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: He says, the deception of riches and the desires for other things, they enter in and they choke that word.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: See, you're either attracted by this goodness of God or distracted by the things of the world.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Even people think, well, don't you care about sin?
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Sure, I hate sin, but I'm not so distracted by it that I talk about it all the time.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm rather attracted to this goodness of God thing here.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
27:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a sure foundation here.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: It's been tried, it's been tested.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: He lived it on this earth.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: He proved it to us, and he died with that amazing grace.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: He lived a life that looked like a loser's life to many people, but it was the most victorious life that there ever was, the most powerful life, the most gracious life, the most graceful life, the most world-changing life there was because it was based on something eternal and not seen with natural eyes.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: It was from heaven itself.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I've come to give you that.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
27:41
SPEAKER_00: But the ones that are on the good ground, or let me say good foundation, they hear the word, they accept it.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: There again is that word.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: They admit it, they agree to it.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: They bear fruit, some 30, 60 hundred.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: That simply shows the growth.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: That there's always this growth, 30, 600.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: It's an increase in this thing.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: And all they do is they hear it and they admit it.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: They agree with it.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: They admit it.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: They admit that God is good.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: When the world is saying, well, if God's good, then how come all this is happening?
28:14
SPEAKER_00: They admit, they agree that God's good.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: And they agree because they're experiencing the glory of his goodness.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
28:25
SPEAKER_00: See, it's only people that walk in the fullness of joy that can radiate that joy.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: That peace radiates that peace.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: No wonder creation is groaning, looking.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: One translation says creation is standing on tiptoe to see the glorious sight of the sons of God being who they are.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Being who they are.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: There is a life.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: See, I love you guys.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: What I want more than anything is I want every one of us to wake up every single day in heaven.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: From now throughout eternity.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I just want you doing good every single day.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: I want you full of joy every single day.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, if it wasn't already here, then I gotta come up with some steps that we can try to go and get this thing.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: But tell him the good news, Jesus said.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is here.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all listening to me?
29:19
SPEAKER_01: I was telling Rick that I really like that, I I hear him a lot, like I hear it over and over again, but I like that he keeps telling us what's true, what's there for us.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: I might not, I might hear him talk about it and go, oh, that's good, but there comes a moment in my own life where I say, he's been saying this over and over again, in this situation right now, I'm gonna take it for myself.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Because he's telling us what's true, right?
29:50
SPEAKER_01: And we can kind of agree with it, but there's a moment in your own relationship with God, just you and him, where you're gonna take what you've been hearing and saying is true, and it becomes yours, and you're walking it.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: And I I I said to him, I really like I'm hearing this over and over and over again.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: I really like it.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: Because I guess sometimes people get tired of hearing the same, you know, type of message.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: It's all about who you are in Christ and that God loves you, and maybe there's all these other things he could be speaking about, but this is the thing.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: This is this is it, this is where it's at.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: But really, all of us are on our own relationships with God, and so we see it in part, and we grow in it, and we see it, and we grow in it, and we see it, and we grow in it.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I just it's a it's a well, it's a it's a deep, deep well that we can drive.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: What we're doing is in this season, we're taking the time to establish this foundation full of grace and truth.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Taking the time to establish people in this word of God's goodness, his love, and this abundant life.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: So we preach it from this angle and preach it from that angle, and hear and and and say it and say it and say it, and taking the taking the time to saturate the body of Christ in this thing so that there is, they are firmly established on this foundation.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And whatever this stupid old world throws at you, you shall not be moved.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: With all stand up.