Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / ME - Part 2

Transcript

ME - Part 2 · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: This week I I'm super I'm super blessed because I get to be here um a couple of weeks in a row.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so last week I came up with a brilliant title for a message, and the brilliant title was me.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Called me, Emmy.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh uh we were talking about identity, and now I have a brilliant title for the second part, which is me too.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Not me also, but me too.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: T T W O.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is the second part of me, our identity.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Who are we?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and have you noticed, or I was just thinking about it while we were singing, that that whenever you talk about who we are, who you are, um you always have to go, it's it's always tied to who he is.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Our identity is always reflective, it's always attached to, it's always it's always with who he is.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I noticed that last week when I was talking about it, that in talking about who I am or who you are, uh you you can't do it without talking about who the Father is and how the Father is.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the scriptures tell us that when he's revealed, we also will be revealed with him in glory.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: As he is, so are we in the world.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's so uh tied together.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I also want to reiterate that that who we are is not something separate from God.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: For in the beginning, before he formed you in the womb, he knew you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: You weren't just brought into being out of some separate substance from God somewhere.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: For all things proceeded from him, and you you you came from him, and that's why Adam himself, even way back then, Adam was called the Son of God because he came from God.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you have come from God.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and and again, the scriptures have so many references to prophetic or promises about I will bring you home, I will return you to your first estate, I will bring you to the land that I have given you for your possession.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that land for us in the New Testament is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came and he established that in reality in us.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't establish it in the political realm, in the national realm, in any other realm, but he's and in fact, when they said, When are you going to do that?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, It doesn't come with ocular observation, for the kingdom is within you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: He gave that to us, and he said, And fear not, little flock, it is your daddy's, your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, what an identity right there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: I um let me tell you a little, just a little quick story about me and where there was a jump in a in a reality of identity.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um at this particular time, I had been a Christian a number of years, I was pastoring a church.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but and but and um I at that time it seemed like I had two identities.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I was very uh uh knowledgeable about what the Bible said about us being children of God.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's all over the New Testament.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I saw that, could teach from that, but I I couldn't, I just it just it seemed like I had this other identity.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like there were two me's, or I saw I was split in half, and there was good Rick and there was bad Rick.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: There was child of God Rick, and you could tell who he was because he did good stuff.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Then there was carnal Rick or fleshly Rick, you know.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I my mentality was I was I was spending a lot of time and energy and thought and trying to get rid of fleshly carnal Rick.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I I gravitated to scriptures about crucifying my my my flesh and and denying myself and and and all that because I didn't like carnal, fleshly Rick.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be just the good one all the time.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to, I wanted to uh you know be that.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that I had to get rid of the the bad Rick, fleshly Rick, carnal Rick.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I prayed a lot of times.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I besought the Lord more than three times that He would take it from me.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I've mentioned this before, I've told this before, but but I I uh I was I found I found myself in a hotel room and I was praying, and I was just so serious, and I'm like, God, I don't like this fleshly carnal Rick, and I'm praying and I'm praying, and it and it was a it was a lot of praying that was going on.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and and after a while, um I had this uh I don't know if you would call it a vision or or a thought or something, but I could see a picture in my mind looking over at the bed in that hotel room and sort of sort of sitting back against the headboard.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I saw myself.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I saw myself sitting there.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and I thought, and I instinctively didn't like that guy.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's Carnal Rick right there, is what I felt like.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm praying against that guy, this this image that I've got in my mind here.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm praying, and and I looked, I looked again, and this is this is one of those things where God was doing something with me and helping me here, but I looked again, and and and Rick there had his had his hands like out in a crucified position.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I kept praying and praying, and then it's like he had his head over, like Jesus on a cross, you know.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I did hear the spirit within me saying, said, said, Son, you have been crucified with Christ.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and it and it it did something, it it took me to a point where I was just like, it gave me a realization that this thing that I didn't like, which I thought was bad rick, fleshly lick, carnal, carnal rick, the the the that that part of me that was not Christ-like, that I was trying to get rid of so I could be Christ-like, that that was not even really who I was, that I have been crucified, and I realized that at that moment that, wow, here I am.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: I am a child of God, and that's not me.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have some kind of affinity for that.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything of that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Everything about me just wants God, to know God, love God, do the will of God, everything about me, and I realized all that I am really is a child of God.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: My motives were there, everything, but there was that other thing.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I got a realization that that wasn't me.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and and that that old me was crucified.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And everything didn't just change all of a sudden then, but it began to take me to a place to where I was more and more aware that I did not have two natures fighting inside me.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever hear?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I used to hear people talk about you got two dogs inside you, you know, good dog, bad dog, and you gotta feed the good one so that it'll beat the bad dogs.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't feed the good one, the bad dog will always, you know, always, always win.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I had that mentality, but but that was a revelation that began to grow in me where I realized I am a child of God.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And in the real me, my heart is all for God, the things of God.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's all in line with who he is, what he wants, what he feels, his thoughts, all of those things.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that other thing had been crucified.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: It was not who I was.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: But also, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And as, you know, I always say, as long as you think you're still a dirty dog that's trying to get good, you're gonna act like a dirty dog that's trying to get good.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it there'll be a struggle because you'll find yourself acting out your faith, what you believe.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so knowing who you are is is is very important here.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to start off with with a definition that comes from the Bible in John chapter 1, verse 1.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful, beautiful, powerful verse where it says, um, in the beginning was the word.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a word there that that translation of the word word is the word logos or logos.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and my definition that I have for that is logos is the word or the outward form by which the inward thought is expressed and made known.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let me give you an example.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And John got this.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: John was writing, I'm sure he was thinking about Genesis 1.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And God said, right?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: God said, There was a word, the word.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you take this definition, it's the outward form by which the inward thought is expressed and made known.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So here's this world without form and void and darkness upon it, and the Father has this will, this want, this plan, if you will, and brings forth life and says, or sends, or gives his divine expression, and life comes, where the divine expression was given.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so John in John chapter 1 says it similarly, similarly, and he says, in the beginning was the word.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let's forget the word word.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's think of logos or logos.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, don't think of it just as something verbalized.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Think of it as something alive, think of it as something that created all things, because that's what John also says here.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: So the word is God.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: The word is the creator.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: The word is that part of God that is expressed.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there was a uh a contemporary back in the days of the disciples and Jesus.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, he was born uh uh uh you know about 20 years BC, actually, but his name was Philo, and he was a Jew.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he lived in Alexandria, which also was a very big Greek philosophical center.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: But he was a what they call a Hellenized Jew, like many of them were.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that means that they were Jewish people practicing Judaism and they, you know, devout, but they were greatly influenced by the Greek culture, and they took in a lot of their philosophy into their Jewish belief.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and so they were philosophical too.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so Philo is the one that's credited with coming up with the uh the uh the using of the word logos for the divine expression of God.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm pretty much convinced that John is aware of this and is referring to that, and he's talking in contemporary terms here, and he's writing this, and he says, in the beginning was the logos.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the divine expression of God himself.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the divine expression of the Father was with God, and the divine expression of the Father was God.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I think a lot of us what we think of is we think of Jesus of Nazareth with the beard and the robe and the sandals sitting in the way that we know him, knew him, or we see him in the flesh, see him sitting throughout all eternity in that particular way.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: But think of it something bigger than that, if you can.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Think of it, think of in the beginning was the word.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, the logos was made flesh.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus that we know with the beard and the sandals and and and so on, that was that was the flesh that housed that logos.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and that logos existed forever.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: That logos is divine.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: The logos is the creator, the logos is the divine expression of God.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 14 says, And the logos became flesh.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: That divine expression that created all things in Genesis 1, that became flesh and it dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: The expression of the Father was full of grace.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: The expression of the Father was full of truth.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And of his fullness we all have received, verse 16.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And grace for grace, verse 17.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he's saying that this divine expression of God is full of grace and full of truth.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a big thing here because they already have the law.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: They know how that goes, they know what that says.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: They know what it's like to follow that and to try to follow that, and they know what that's about.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: They discuss it daily.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then the divine expression comes.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something that's way, way different because it's it's different.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's full of grace, and it's full of truth that is bigger and supersedes all of that stuff that they were handling with the law.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because this goes back before Moses.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: See, the the the Pharisees that confronted Jesus a lot, you know, they would go back to Moses, they'd say, Well, we follow Moses.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we've got Moses.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, where of Moses?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know where you're from.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: They told the blind man that, right?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know where he's from.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're from Moses.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know where he's from.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And the blind man that Jesus healed said, said, Well, that's an interesting thing.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: That here's a man that can open the eyes of the blind, and you don't even know where he's from.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of shows you where you're at on the totem pole, doesn't it?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: You don't even know.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, where was he from?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this was the Logos-made flesh.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: He was way before Moses.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: He was that which was in the beginning, that which they saw in that being carried in that flesh of Jesus.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was the living, divine expression of God.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, and no one had seen God at any time.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: But the only begotten Son, who's in the bosom or heart of the Father, he has declared him, or he has expressed him to us.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: We also know in John chapter 14, verse 9, it's plainly declared, where Jesus said, If you have seen me, you've seen the Father.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus was the perfect expression, perfect representation, and he was the perfect divine expression of the Father in all that he said and did.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Would you agree with that?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hebrews says that the law had a shadow of the things that were that were promised, but it wasn't the very image of those things.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't the reality of, but but Jesus, he came and he was the expressed image.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: He was the exact image of God Himself.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: He was the expression to us in the world.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: When we we want to know who God is, we look at Jesus.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people will still ask me about scriptures, most, especially in the Old Testament.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, God said, kill them all.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Don't we get to kill them all, Rick?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, it's in the Bible, you know.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, well, I read it and like, well, it is in there.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: He did say, you know, all these things.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're confused about it because you go to the Old Testament and you say, I know, I know, I know God's gracious.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: I get the grace part, but why do we have all this stuff in the Old Testament?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: You ever been asked that?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Or you've been or you've asked it yourself?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: And even I have.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And some things I don't have, I don't have all the answers to, but I do know that Jesus is the perfect expression.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes my answer will be, Well, I don't know why this happened exactly, but I know that if you want to know who God is, don't look at a shadow of something, look at the very image.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the divine expression that came and made flesh, and when they saw it, they saw God because it was full of grace.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's God.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was full of truth, that's God.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: What was the grace and the truth that was expressed through Jesus?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Just read his life and look at it.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: You see it over.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it was all gracious.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was all good.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Your father loves you, your father cares.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Your father, your father, your father.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's a big one right there.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: How did he treat people that seemed like they shouldn't have been treated well by the church in those days?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: How did he treat them?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: He treated them so graciously, didn't it?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Whether they committed adultery or whether they were, whether they had been married six times or seven times or whatever, whether they had whether they were a thief, a tax collector, and a traitor to their nation, no matter what they what it was, they were filled with evil demons, or you know, no matter what it was, the one that was expressing the Father was always full of graciousness to them.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that graciousness he expressed, that was the truth about God.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: That was the truth about God.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're getting anything when you read that Bible and you're getting something that looks like it's outside of that, you're missing the whole thing because the perfect expression is seen in the life of Jesus, because in the life of Jesus, it was the logos being demonstrated, it was the it was the expression of God speaking to us.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's why Hebrews 1 says it this way.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Very first verse says, It says, God, who in sundry times and diverse manners spoke to us in times past through the prophets.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: In many various ways, he spoke to us in times past through the prophets.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: But he has now, in these last days, spoken to us by the Son.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: We see the Father expressed through this life of Jesus.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus was called at that time the only begotten Son.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: The one that proceeded from the Father, therefore expressing exactly who the Father is.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now, how many know there's really good news that comes after the only begotten Son, because the only begotten Son, part of his purpose was that he wouldn't just be the only begotten Son, but he would be the first begotten among many brethren.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: He said, What shall I say?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Father, save me from this hour, talking about his death.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No, unless a seed goes into the ground and dies, it abides alone.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be the only one walking around like this.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I would be the only expression of the Father.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, get this.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I would be the only expression there is.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you ever want to see the Father, you gotta come.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody in the world, you gotta come over to Galilee or somewhere, unless I go on tour around the world or something.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, there's gonna one of there's one expression.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: One expression in the earth.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: But if I do what I came to do, hallelujah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: It won't just be Jesus 2,000 years ago being the expression.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: There will be many brothers being the expression or the logos of God in the world.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Who are who am I?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Who are we?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: If we have, I think we've established last week that we have proceeded from God.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: We are children of God.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: The progeny of God have come from him as he is sorrow.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And when God, when God brought us into the earth, he didn't take some foreign substance and say, now here you are, my human people.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're nothing like me.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, he didn't do that.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're not created out of something out there like that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: It came from God.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Even you know, when we say things, we we want to get this, we want to understand this.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: That when we say things like we're you're righteous, wow, God made me righteous.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't take this foreign thing and say, now you're righteous.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there's still a separation mentality.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: There can still be a separation mentality there.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: But when we know that our righteousness, just like everything else, comes from Him.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Comes from our union with Him, comes from our connection with Him.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you holy?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: I love what Alan declared up here when we're singing that God is holy, and this comes to my mind almost every time we sing about how holy God is, because I know God spoke to me about that one time while I was singing about how holy He is, and He says, He says, Now tell the people they are holy.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, why are we holy?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because that we are these separate human creatures, and He had such pity and compassion on us and did such a nice thing that He somehow made us holy too?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: But there's still a separation mentality here.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, our holiness comes from the Holy One who's a part of us and who's in us and who we're in union with.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a whole other good message right there.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: We could just talk about the union.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: We could just talk about the oneness with God, and I love doing that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I've mentioned around here before that there's, you know, in the New Testament there are three words that have to do with union or with or together.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, where Ephesians says that He He raised us up, that He that we were we died, that we were buried together with Him, we were raised together with Him.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: We, you know, that we're together, there are three three words.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is meta, which means association.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, we're all in we're all in association today.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're all together this morning by virtue of being in the same room.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: But even though we're together, meta, we're all associated by being in this same place, this location, there's a closer form of being together, and that's like me and Judy came together.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: That means beside each other.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: With each other, beside.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm with you all this morning, but then there's a more intimate with together.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Judy and I came together.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Judy and I are together this morning.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's a more intimate one that the Bible uses when he says we were raised together with Christ.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't mean that we're beside each other or we just have an association somehow.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he made me holy, he made me righteous.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't deserve it, but I'm glad he did.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: That last word is sum, and that's the word that it uses when it says we're together with him, that we're one in him, that we were buried with him, that we were made alive together with him, that we were raised up together with him and seated together with him in heavenly places.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're not just beside him somewhere.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: It means you have become one.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: You are in union.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is how it works.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like when we're this kind of union is you can't tell where one starts and the other one ends.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I always talk about pouring tea in water.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Once you do that, you can't undo it.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't know where the water started and the tea tea ended.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's all become a different thing.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why it says anybody in Christ is a new creation in Christ Jesus.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Old things have passed away.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, look, see it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Everything has become new.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: We are not who we thought we are, just the little identities.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Just the little identities that we once associated with.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have this other thing that has filled up our screen of vision.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Where God is daddy when you wake up in the morning.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean about me?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean about you?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: That the Son being the living expression and the sons are the children of God.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Who are we in this earth?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing here?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Are we just, it means that we're the living expression, the divine expression of God Himself in the earth today, right now.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: There was a song by Will Smith.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we've ever sang it here, but there was a song where there's a line in it where it says, This isn't the first the second coming of Christ, it's the first coming of me.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I and I like that because what creation, according to the Bible, creation's longing for, what creation is standing on tiptoe for, is not what we think of as the second coming of Christ.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's looking for the first coming of you.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: All of creation is in anticipation, longing to see the children of God come into their own.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible says.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're the divine expression of God.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're carrying it in your flesh.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's flesh.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's weak, it's foolish, it's got all that stuff.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that makes it shine even more because we're carrying this treasure in earthen vessels, jars of clay.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that the excellency of the power would be of God and not of us, not of some flesh thing.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Not like, well, it's because I'm so great, I'm so strong, I'm whatever.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I spent years in a type of Christianity where there's a lot of hero worship.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's so anointed.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: She's so anointed.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wish I was anointed.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Gonna get anointed someday.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Gonna keep praying harder.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Gonna study more.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Wanna give more.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna work harder for the hero here.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, all the whatever, all the things, you know, because they're anointed and I'm a dish rag.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, oh and you felt like that.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there's this this envy like I want to be anointed too.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be special, I want to be chosen, I want to have power, I want stuff.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are feeling somebody's feeling sorry for me.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is pitiful, isn't it?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: But revelation changes everything.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: One thing it takes that takes away the takes away the envy, it takes away that that feeling of pitifulness when you really when you know me, you know you, you know who you are.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm God's I'm God's boy, I'm God's girl.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, and not uh in a real powerful way that we're where you'd realize that.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And and and and as you see this, also be aware, this is what I'm getting at today, is we are they also that living expression.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: It says it all over the place.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, you know, uh excuse me, uh Ephesians said, Um, among whom you in this perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus even said, You're the light of the world.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're the light of the world.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now the gospel start out him being the light.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't finish that way.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're lights.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And this is why Jesus is seated.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's finished.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's seated at the right hand of the Father.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the kingdom.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now he's also very patient, isn't he?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's been thousands of years since then.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a I have a beautiful vision.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: How many know there's a lot of trouble in this world?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I got a vision.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've caught Daddy's vision.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know I have.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've caught it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I can't help it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: See, and that happens also from a from a realization and a walking with an experience more and more of being one with Daddy.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: See?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the renewing of your mind, your soul is, you know, we always say, you know, your soul is what you what you think, what you feel, what you want.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: It starts becoming more what daddy thinks.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: What daddy feels more what he wants.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, none of us are anywhere close to knowing everything that daddy thinks and all that, but we we're tasting enough where it's sure changing us.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we get to just keep tasting for eternity, I guess, but I've caught that vision that where where I see where this is going.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: This, that the divine expression of God is in the earth right now, today.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we as Christians are not, we've gotten past, I hope, that idea of just sitting at the bus stop waiting for Jesus to come rescue.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a whole divine expression that gets to be expressed into this world that's hurting right now, that's confused, and there's darkness, and there's there's hate and anger, and there's all this, and lies, and all this stuff is going on.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came full of grace and truth.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now they could all be talking about, well, Herod's lying, and the Romans are lying, and this one's lying, and all that stuff, but what he did, rather than even attacking those lies, he just came and expressed truth.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And everything about him expressed to them a different idea about God.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: It gave hope to a woman caught in the very act of adultery and thought, today is the day that I die.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've been caught.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: But the living expression of God full of grace and full of truth, I mean, she walked away from there having a whole different idea about God and the things of God.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Zacchaeus, who I like to talk about up in that tree all the time.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, up in that tree, he, you know, he's heard about Jesus.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants anything to do with him.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's an outcast, he's he's alienated everybody, but he, but you know, at least I got money.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Not allowed in church.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody hates me.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: But after encountering Jesus, the living expression of God, he's got a whole different idea.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he's got hope, and he comes, he comes away from that meeting with a relationship with God.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is full of grace and truth.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever notice that Jesus, he he what we don't see him going out calling out the sins of society like a lot of the church world does.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the way he expressed the Father, they're the ones that told him what they were doing.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: We don't see him saying anything to Zacchaeus, but Zacchaeus, by the end of that supper, he's just like, hey, I've been stealing money and I want to pay it back.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus was the expression of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is why we want to be, it's a good thing to be established in grace.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing to know the depth of the love of God so we can be filled with the fullness of Christ.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: What's happening?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not Jesus, we don't have to be, but we are children of God.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we are expressing the Father, and this is what's happening to you and me, is that the fruit of the Spirit is manifesting more and more the more we see the grace and truth of God as it's expressed through Christ.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so what's happening?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're being changed.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Me, you, your soul, your mentality, what you think, what you want, what you desire, how you see things, things are changing.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Can any of you say that that since I've discovered the expression of the Father full of grace and truth?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let me say it this way.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: How many of you have had a change in your Christianity to where you once didn't see or experience a whole lot of the grace of God, but something has happened either through an experience or over time, to where now you see God a whole lot more beautiful and gracious than you once did as a Christian?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably most of us, if not all of us, here.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's the expression of God working in you, speaking to you and revealing himself to you by the Holy Spirit, who is that still that's that same expression.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: He was made flesh, and we see it in the life of Jesus, but then after he departs, he says, he says, I will come to you.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's been with you, but he's going to be in you now.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he'll be loving you from the inside.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll be teaching you from the inside and and and revealing myself to you from the inside.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's changing us.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and with that, with that seeing the expression of God full of grace and truth, it changes what we do.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said last week, it's I've noticed it changed.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Not only did it change how I relate to daddy, but it changes how I relate to you, humanity.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm finding what's happening to me.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: I seem a lot more gracious.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or I once would have, you know, looked at some of the sin that some of you guys are doing out there to cut you off of the knees.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm seeing grace, I'm feeling God's heart more, and I'm liking this.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I like the change that I'm feeling in my heart.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because the more this change happens, the more I'm finding myself expressing God.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you love it?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: When somebody says something about how you carry peace with you.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or you seem like you carry a sense of love about you.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody will say things about you that I mean, I hear people saying things about me that they would have never said at one time.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: But what changed that?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: The divine expression of God, full of grace and full of truth, continues to reveal to me who I am, and I'm finding myself, this is what's so cool about this.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Without all the effort that I used to put in, I don't have to lock myself in a hotel and beg God to change something.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because changes are happening.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we are being, as the Bible says, conformed to the image of the Son, who's the divine expression of God.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's who you are, and that's what you are seeing and will continue to see throughout your earthly existence, I'm sure, and through eternity, seeing yourself conforming more and more.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And as you do, it will bring more ministry, more joy to this world by the expression of the sun.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'll say this.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Judy and I were talking about this on the way here, just to throw this in.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's be aware.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: The expression of the sun is happening all the time through the church.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: And not just in the fruit of the spirit, but in demonstration of the spirit.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about healings and miracles because you know there um I've been in a I was in a realm where that was the major thing.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: That was the big thing that you did and you wanted and you focused on.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um which we love, God answering prayer.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: We love people getting healed.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: We love love seeing a miraculous working of God.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth is, it happens so often.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: It happens day to day.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Just in our circle of friends and people that are close to us, it's just it's like every day.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you hear of something like somebody was had this and and and their friend prayed for them, their neighbor prayed for them, and healing happened, and all these things are going on.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ministries going on, somebody was was upset because there, you know, something happened in their home and got ministered to by another.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the body is ministering and expressing the goodness and the power and faithfulness of God a lot.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a it's a very organic thing that's going on.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I know while people might you know crave to see see more of that sometimes, you know, in the demonstration in your church services and make it about that, let's just don't, I just want to say, let's not forget this stuff is going on.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: Prayers are being answered, people are ministering love and faith to each other.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's who you are, you're the divine expression of God, and we're we're looking more and more like it as we as we see the truth.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: Can y'all say amen to that?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 29 says, For whom God foreknew, that's you, that's me.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: I like this.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: I like I like that we have opportunities.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: I love this actually, to express God.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love the opportunities to express peace when there seems to be chaos going on in someone's life.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: I love the opportunities to express grace and love when somebody's in a situation and it feels like God's nowhere to be found.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: I love to be in those situations.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's like light loves going into darkness because of what happens when the light comes.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not like I'm super anointed, super whatever.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those of you that know me, I'm just goofy, dumb Rick.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Got an earthen vessel here.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: But man, I am a son of God, a child of God.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you're just whatever you are in your flesh, goofy, dumb, you, whatever you do, whatever your flesh is.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: But you carry the reality of who you are.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because whatever the flesh is, that's just a small identity or a temporary identity, right?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: But the eternal identity is who you are.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And why are we here?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: For this thing here.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said you're the salt of the earth.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're here to bring the God flavors to this world.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else tastes like God.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else tastes like it.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: It comes straight from heaven.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: Straight from heaven.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1.27 says that the mystery, the secret, I love this.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just love this.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: The secret that has been hidden from the ages, hidden, this secret, this reality, this truth, this eternal truth that's been hidden from the ages.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows, but now is revealed through Christ.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Who are me?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Who are me?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: We are this new creation, not just flesh somebody trying to get along, trying to get trying to trying to deal with the things of this world.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I'll tell you what, this kind of truth, it'll take you to another place when you feel like all you're trying to do is get by, when all you're trying to do is survive this thing, all you're trying to do is not go crazy.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just a glimpse of reality, just remembering who you are, elevates you.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: You remember, you're having a human experience, but that is not who you are.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: That situation is not who you are.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: You are here, and you are God's child.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you're having an experience.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: But how many of you found out that when you look to the things of reality, when you look to the things of the Spirit, even the hardest of things begin to become very, very bearable?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 19 says, for the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, says, But you are, you are a chosen generation.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're a royal priesthood, you're a holy nation, his own special people, that you, watch this, that you may proclaim the praises or the virtues or the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: It means you couldn't see at one time, right?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was dark.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 29 spoke of this day when he said, he said, he described the people.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: He says, My people, he says, they draw near me with their lips, but in their heart they're far from me.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: They're not experiencing me.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: He says, but in that day, the deaf will hear the words.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: The divine expression of God.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: The deaf will hear, and the blind will see out of obscurity or out of darkness.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this calling that we have, you are so blessed this morning.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you can hear this, it's because you're so blessed, because you, by the divine expression of God, were called out of that darkness, the blindness, the obscurity.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Look how blessed you are.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: And call into this marvelous light.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know what you're seeing, and I'll tell you something, and this is not.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Where you feel like you're in the light and you're beholding the goodness of your Father.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a blessing to be in the light enough to where you feel yourself knowing or become or at least realizing more and more your union with him, your acceptance in him, you're being loved by him, you're being known by him, and you feel safe and good and secure, and you feel that heaven on earth experience more and more simply because you had come out of darkness, and now you're experiencing light.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that light you're experiencing is happening to you.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you're living more and more like who you really are, and who you really are, it's speaking something to this world, and we'll continue to more and more.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: It'll speak and it's it's and that speaking is simply it's reflecting the glory of our Father.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're a special people, a Christian in the light of God so that you can proclaim the goodness of Him who's called you out of darkness.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Walk as children of light.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Would you all stand up?
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it good to be in the light?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it good?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, give God thanks for that.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it good to see?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it good to know that you're in the safest place you can be because you're in daddy's arms?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you're always going to be that way.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to say uh this this one thing before I walk off this platform.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: When you're dealing with things that are hard, remember that you are God's child.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Forever are going to live as God, exist as God's child, and you're having a human experience, and it and the situation will pass, everything about it will pass.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: And look at it from that perspective, look at it from the place of grace and truth.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't, then you get confused and you're like, God, why aren't you doing something?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, wake up! Don't you care that I'm dying?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: You ever been that?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: I have.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: But when you see the truth, that starts to leave you.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, Well, in the middle of your storm, I've it's already been determined.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to the other side.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're a child.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: And your storm, rather than a nightmare, can become weather that you can sleep in because of the peace of God that passes understanding.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love you guys.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.