Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / A Sure Foundation

Transcript

A Sure Foundation · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Rick.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you that don't know, I'm one of the teachers here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if I don't know you, I would love to get to know you after after church.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here all the time because part of my job is to travel to other churches and I speak and have that ministry.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But this is our church home, and we're glad to be here.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I say we, I mean me, because my wife's not here this morning.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Judy is in uh on the Gulf Coast and she's teaching in a ladies' weekend over there.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they're they rent a big house on the beach and they suffer for Jesus and they they do all that stuff.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll start with this.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: About 30 years ago, back in the 1990s, notice I had to say 1990s, so you don't don't confuse it with maybe the 1890s or something.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was a long time ago, and I was pastoring a church.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was about eight years old at that time, I think.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we had we had a we had a a growth spurt and we had to get a bigger building.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so we got this building that was had formerly been occupied by it was formerly owned by Grumman Aircraft, and they were a contractor at the Space Center over there at the Cape.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had one of their rooms had been this large computer room.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we were going to use that for a part of our children's area.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: But they had this elevated floor, this elevated non-static floor where all this wiring and electronics was under it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: They pump air under there, and but it was elevated, and it was it was on we've got a picture, yeah.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was exactly like this.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so we decided to use that for our our stage, our platform in the auditorium.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were going to use take all of that, and we took it out of the room, and we were building our platform, and we we put it all along the one one wall and all the way to the corners.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the way that we started building it out was we we secured rails in one corner along one wall and then the other, because those those walls are perfectly square, you assume.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we secure that, and then we start putting that together and we start building it out.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going along and we're dropping these tiles in the grid that we're laying, and they're about 24 by 24 inches, and we're going along, and everything's fine for a while, and then then I start noticing that the tiles are getting tighter, they're not dropping in quite as quite as easily.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you can you just you you kind of force it in, you make it work, and after a while you go so far and it's just not fitting anymore.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Something is is wrong.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: The angle's just not quite right.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Something that we couldn't notice at the beginning, but now that after we go go down the roadways, we can tell something is something is wrong.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna be able to finish this unless we fix this.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and you don't want to go all the way back to the beginning.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you try to make adjustments somehow.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we tried all kinds of different things and like you do, and finally you come down to the realization like we're gonna have to take this whole thing apart and go all the way back to that corner where we started.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what we we thought, what went wrong?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what we realized was that we made an assumption.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: We assumed that the walls were at a perfect 90-degree angle, and then when we measured, we found out that they were not.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were just a little bit off.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't tell by looking at it, but they were just off enough to cause all this trouble later on down the road.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We took it all the way back and we went all the way and all the way back and we got the corner right.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: We measured it, we measured 90 degrees and did it that way, and then had no problem.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: We got all the way to the other end of the other end of the big room there, and the last tile fit just as perfectly as the first tile did.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was exactly like the first one.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you get the corner right, the rest of everything else that you build on that line is going to be right.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a scripture that I want to use that sort of that demonstrates that, and that's Isaiah chapter 28, verse 15 and 16.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a situation where uh God is speaking through the prophet and and and he's describing their situation, and they're saying, We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is that cornerstone that is perfect, and if you build along the line of Jesus, everything 2,000 years later will look just like that did.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: But in a lot of cases it don't, does it?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So something is not in line with that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna tell you why I'm doing doing this this morning.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm two reasons.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Really, one is I'm an inspired speaker, so I just get inspired to speak something, and I just believe that's something that God wants to speak with that particular people at that time.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really believe that it's God Himself that wants to say something, wants to talk about this this morning with us.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is that my motivation, God, the way God uses me is my motivation is I really love you.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I really want you to do well.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to have love, peace, and joy every single day of your life.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I can't control your situations and your circumstances, but the kingdom of heaven is within us.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: We can still enjoy that kingdom of heaven in spite of what's going on in the world around us.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that that we see is that in Christianity, it's not uncommon in all different fashions of Christianity to say things like, God loves us, God loves you.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I personally have been in a place.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: There might be some, but I haven't seen them, places where they teach God doesn't love you.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just blatantly like that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: They normally say God loves you, or or that God sees you as worthy of that love, for whatever reason I might explain, but they'll say God sees you as as worthy.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: They'll even say God sees you as holy.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say, but we say a lot, God loves you.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I also notice that we that that people can hear that week after week after week.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They can hear those affirming things, and it doesn't get through.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that the reason it doesn't get through is because we're putting these wonderful, beautiful affirmations on top of a foundation that won't hold those affirmations.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Something got off of Jesus, who came revealing a loving father, who came revealing that our value was as precious as a lost sheep that was worthy of the shepherd finding, of a lost coin that was worthy of being found, of a precious pearl of great price, is someone that is very precious to God, some someone who's very, very loved by God, that is willing to cost him everything and do anything and do everything that it takes because he loves you and is not willing to lose you at any cost at all.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the we have a foundation, quite often, that is built on things like uh that that are the opposite of being worthy of that love or being loved in that way.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have a foundation that says that we're so horrible.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes the foundation is it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're so horrible.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I so horrible?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: For one thing, you were born that way.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: You were born with this horrible, depraved nature.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Born like this.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So right from square one, you've lost, you know.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, we've got this thing that you can do later on, and you can do that, but the conscience is still struggling with worthiness.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's common, it's rampant in Christianity.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Rampant in the world.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: But you're born horrible.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is that you're horrible because at some point, not long after you were born, you committed a sin.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, since then, you probably committed countless sins.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I was told was that that one sin, just that one, was enough to make you worthy of an eternal torture forever and ever and ever.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because that one sin is so different from this holy perfect God that this holy perfect God cannot stand your one sin, and you've got to be doomed to eternal torment.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: But he made this good plan, and we like the plan.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the plan that we can receive Jesus and and and everything, and you know, then we're in right standing and so forth, but we've still we still do things, and that every little sin makes you unworthy of that love.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got these things that are kind of foundational to our Christianity.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was born again on the idea of those things I just told you, that I was depraved, I was brought into the earth depraved, I am a creature that's depraved.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's my nature to be that way.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have committed I have committed sin, and therefore it is right and just.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It might not seem like it to me, but God knows it's right that I be tormented forever because of those things that I've done.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now, take that foundation that I came in on.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the foundation, and then try to tell me that I'm worthy of love.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then try to tell me God loves me.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll accept it because the Bible says so, but why won't it go in?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because of that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we're doing this morning is we're gonna excavate.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to do some archaeology work and we're gonna uncover this refuge of lies that we've been hidden under so that we cannot see our true identity and can't receive it, even though the Bible tells us plainly God loves us and God is love, and we are holy and we're righteous and complete in Him and all those things.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a little excavation can get some of that crap out of the way, and we can build on a sure foundation, which is Jesus.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: He is a sure foundation, he is a tried stone, he's a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he is squared away, he is 90 degrees perfect, and everything built from him will look like him just at the end.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: For as he is, so are we now in this world.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 32, verse 17 talks of righteousness.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, righteousness or right standing with God, we say the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and assurance forever.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now that speaks of our identity.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: That word righteousness is the Hebrew word in Isaiah, there.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I pronounce it Zedaka and different forms of that word.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard of maybe Zidkanu or Zedek, like Melchizedek is king of righteousness, Melchi and Zedek.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Zedaka means righteousness, justice, or fairness.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you see the the words there, that right that justice and fairness, a lot of times the human mind there goes to this idea of a God is so just that he almost has he has to has to send you to hell.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we learn not to say that because people would say that a good God wouldn't send us to hell.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we say, well, he doesn't send you there, you choose to go there.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is, it's just for you to experience it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what people think when they think of often when they think of justice or what's right or fair.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a different kind of justice or fairness than you might think.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It differs from there's another Hebrew word, mishpat, that we see there.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Mishpat means justice, but it's retributive justice always.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Zedaka is not mishpat.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mishpat does not bring peace, quietness, and assurance forever.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But Zedakah, justice or fairness, does.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not retributive justice, but Zadaka is a justice or a fairness that corrects what has been wrong.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: It takes what was wrong and it corrects it.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: How many know that Jesus have noticed that Jesus is the correction for everything?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you had a I had some ideas about God that thank God have been corrected because of Jesus.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because of of looking at Jesus and understanding more about Jesus and what who he is and what he says and what he did and all that, it it it it it spoke so much differently than what I had thought about my father, Heavenly Father.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus corrected my thinking.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: He corrected my theology.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the correction.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I say this: if you ever have problems with the Bible, and you can, because in some places in the Bible, God looks very loving, patient, understanding, merciful.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can find some scriptures, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: That look like he's the opposite of that.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Look like he's vengeful, he's quick-tempered.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: How do I reconcile these things?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's very hard, right?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: But in those times, what you can always do is look at him, because if you want to see the Father, look at Jesus.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever it is, whatever may have been wrong, Jesus is the correction.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there were things that were wrong, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus would say, you know, you've heard it said, you've heard it taught.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I say to you, this what's he doing?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's bringing a correction.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're off.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: The corner is off somehow.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were building on things and they weren't building correctly.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul talked about a foundation.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: He talked about that, he said that we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, what they laid about Jesus.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: He talked in another place about himself laying a foundation in the churches that he was teaching.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, But let every man be careful on what uh how he builds on that, because you can build good stuff and you can build bad stuff on that.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever is off, whatever is wrong, Jesus is the correction.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing that gets corrected, thank God, is your value gets corrected.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when your value gets corrected in Jesus, now how does it get corrected?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's the shepherd that came to seek and save that which was lost because you were valuable, you were precious, and he wanted to restore your soul, restore your value, restore your identity to you, a value that he always had in mind, but a value that we didn't have in mind, and still suffering, still suffering with an identity crisis and and with our own, with our own worthiness, and we and and and Christians are still carrying shame, not because they haven't heard that God loves them, they've heard that, but the w words of affirmation have been piled on a foundation that says you're totally not worthy of it.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: We are wonderfully, awesomely and wonderfully made, the Bible says.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny how we want to prove how horrible we are, and we can find verses that try to back that up.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: When there's so many beautiful things in the scriptures that Jesus would refer to when he's talking about you.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: When your value is corrected, your soul is at rest.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at the foundation that needed to be dug up and corrected here.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at let's look at something that's foundational in Christianity.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: How about repenting?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Clark teaches a wonderful message about uh repentance and brain part here.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean a brain part thing.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I I have the three words.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's repentance, conviction, and yeah, Clark.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, repentance is one of how good was it, Rick?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So good I don't remember the title.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: It happens to me a lot.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So one of this let's deal with repentance.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you say repent, your mind thinks repent of sin because of the way that it's been used.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 4, verse 17 says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the mindset, and the way it's normally preached, is like, look there, Jesus talked about repent.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and so the idea is repent is uh, you know, is uh to in my mind, it what I was taught, what I picked up over the years was repent meant to to, first of all, it meant to turn from your sin.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they would say.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a there is a connotation of turning in the word repent, but it literally is metanoia, change your mind, and we say that a lot around here, and it is, and we'll deal with that.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it meant that you know, turn turn from your bad, your bad, ugly, evil deeds of sin, turn from that and turn to God, okay.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now I'm still dealing with some things as a Christian, and what do you do?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you repent, okay?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So now that means what?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: How do I turn more from that?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I guess I promise God that I'm not going to do that anymore.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I would do that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would promise God, and then lo and behold, my weak flesh, I'd find myself acting like that again.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, I thought I meant business.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd talk to pastors, and they would say, Well, to repent means that you, if you, when you really mean it, when you really mean it, that's that's that's when you'll actually stop acting like that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I would come and I would pray again and I would say, God, I really mean it this time.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I meant it last time, and I know I said I meant it last time, but I guess I really didn't, but this time I really do mean it.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling this is I'm doing what I'm thinking repent means.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I still fell into the traps.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I heard, when you hate it enough, your problem, Rick, is you must really you like it too much.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm bowling and squalling and I'm begging God to help me.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Rick, when you quit liking it, when you hate it enough, when you, when you when you hate it so so bad that you just can't do it anymore, that's what repentance is.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm trying to hate it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I'm already, I mean, I'm looking for help with this stuff, and I think I hate it, but there must be there's something I'm missing here.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't hate it enough, I don't mean it, I don't mean business enough or something.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It notice it's all on me somewhere.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm missing something here, and I'm trying my best.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm repenting.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or I think I'm repenting.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: It means they it meant you gotta be really, really sorrowful.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: I heard a message on godly sorrow and repentance.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you really get when it cuts your heart, Rick, when it just rips you and tears you apart, that's what God really wants.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Trying.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that whole thing came from this word repent.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is foundational to my Christian experience.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we know that the word repent is metanoia.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It means change your mind.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did we get feeling sorrowful, hating it enough till it rips your guts out, crying and promising God all these things?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: How did we get the word for it to mean all of that instead of change your mind?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you can hear Jesus telling the people, telling the people, change your mind.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or think again, or get a new mindset about this, look again at this, think differently about it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: People, and these were God-fearing people, right?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like nobody else in the in the time, the time or the region, I think.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these were people, I mean, they were doing stuff down to the swallowing gnats, and you know, I mean, they were like doing all these things as you tie this and you do this and you do all these things, and you keep the they're doing all these things.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, You guys who are God-fearing people, trying to do the right thing, trying to get it right, you got it all wrong.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: You need to rethink this whole thing.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like me building that's that that platform out there, and and I no matter how much I'm trying to make this work, it's like it's just all wrong.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you try to fix it out here somewhere, and it just you can't do it.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we kept thinking, like, kept looking at that corner down there, and like, we don't want that, no, please, anything but that.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to go back and take that down.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: We fought it with everything within us.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can't we think of something else that will fix this besides go all the way back to the beginning?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually we did.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when we did, we got happy.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, man, this is this is easy.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Took this beautiful word of think again.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you thought about God, let me show you something better.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Rethink this whole thing.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you thought God thought of you, let me show you something else.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It'll change everything.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Change your mind about that.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you thought about you, these feelings you've had about yourself, carrying this shame, this intense feeling of not being worthy of love or belonging.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Think again.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some good news for you.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Think again, change your thinking.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing in a whole new thing.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna correct that whole thing.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: You Pharisees and your Sadducees and all you sees and all you guys do, all this thing.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, It's not working, is it?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even the blood of bulls and goats can never purge your conscience because it's built on wrong foundations.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take you to the true thing.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the true foundation.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do we get from metanoia, change your mind, to this word repent, that means all these other things to us?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can thank this guy.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a picture of a man that started the whole thing.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is a man named Jerome.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: He lived in about the five uh in the five hundreds of the sixth century.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he was a good Catholic man, and he is credited for for translating the scriptures from the Hebrew and the Greek into Latin, which was a common language that was used a lot then.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: He he translated into Latin.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's what if you've heard of the Latin Vulgate, that's that was him that did that.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he was a good Catholic man, and when he gets to the parts that say, like Acts 2.38, that says, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say be baptised, it says be baptized.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: But when he gets to those words like that, what must I do to be saved?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying change your mind and be baptized, he he used a word penitentium, the Latin word penitentium.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Say penitentium.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's it sound like?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like prison, right?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Penitentiary.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And penitentiary is penitent, doing penance, but he chose a word that meant do penance.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he wrote, if he had written it in English, what must I do to be saved?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, well, do penance and be baptized in the name of Jesus.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Jerome thinks.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's a good good Catholic man, and this is what he believes is what you're supposed to do, and this is what it takes.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So he puts that into the scriptures there when they say, What must I do to be saved?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he's feel he he just feels like he can't write any other.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's got to say, do penance.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he uses the word penitentium.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: He chose a phrase that emphasized outward actions, sorrow for sin, and moral restitution rather than a simple mental shift.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he said it meant, what it took for salvation.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do penance.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so that word was in that Bible for a long time.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Bible that was used.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometime later, there's a man named Erasmus, and he also was a Greek and Hebrew scholar.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he's looking at this and he's like, You got this all wrong.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you put why did you use that word?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's nothing like what it says.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's this man, Erasmus.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so he he he he he makes a translation and he fixed the translation.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of penitentium in Latin, he used this word, respitite, and it means to come to your senses, to change your mind, to recover your sanity, and to return to your right mind.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is the word that fits that Greek word metanoia.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how Erasmus translated the scriptures in an attempt to correct this vulgate thing that had happened with words like repentance.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he changed words like that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, This one, I mean, this one to him was like this is if this is foundational, we've got to get this right.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: We can't be saying that it means do penance when the when the scripture means nothing like that.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: It means to change your mind.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Come to your senses, change your mind, recover your sanity, return to your right mind.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're feeling shame, if you're feeling unworthiness, if you're feeling like even though you know that God says he loves you, and it's just hard for you to feel that love, then I've got good news that morning.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is truth that makes us free.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is truth that can change our mind about all of it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this and this is what we attempt to do around here.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: We say all these good things about God and all the things.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we we all of us teachers, we come at it from our different perspectives, but it all points at God being good and being loving and loving you, and you are worthy of that love because you're his child, and he loves you with an everlasting love, and his mercy does endure forever, and it's good, and you deserve that just because you're his child.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says you are awesomely and wonderfully made.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are, you are.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know why such a biblical statement like that makes people nervous in church a lot of times?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're putting that on top of a foundation that says that you're not.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because we don't want to go back and tear out our foundation, we'll throw these good things away instead and keep the ugly foundation where we were buried, our identity was hidden, and we stayed afraid and ashamed because our we were hidden under a bed of lies.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you read the rest of that chapter there in Isaiah 28, he says, But I'm gonna come, and there's gonna be a flood that's gonna overflow that refuge of lies.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And your agreement with hell will not stand, and your covenant with the grave will no longer be.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Good news would come with Jesus.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And because of Jesus, I've got a lot of learning to do, I know, but thank God for what I have, little I have found out, for the correction that I've accepted and seen.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: That even as a Christian, being so afraid of what God might do to me or what God might think of me, not feeling worthy to accept that kind of love, and always trying to find reasons why I was not, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings me brings me to my senses.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: That gumman, I wasn't worthy of that torment.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was created to be loved just like you were.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this wounded soul that was ashamed of itself just because of its own nature, and feeling alienated from a God that the Bible says loves me, but the Bible says, But I was alienated in my mind, separated in my mind because of the works that I had done, the bad works.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to get back and I'm trying to reconcile as a born-again believer, trying to reconcile through this doing penance and feeling sorrow thing, and declaring, God, I know I'm not worthy, but will you please?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a prodigal son whose mind hadn't been renewed yet.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So in most of our English Bibles now we have this word repent that's sort of a compromise.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because when Tyndale took the uh when he went to translate into English, he just used Jerome Jerome's Latin version.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So he he actually put in the word do penance.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Do penance in English.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do penance.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can look it up.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Look up his version.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What must I do to be saved?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do penance.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because he just copied it from the from that from Jerome's Latin.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: But then Wycliffe others came along and and and and and got it more accurate and started using this word repent because he thought it didn't carry that same connotation, but somehow we we've put it back in there.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4 is what I want to finish up with.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're talking about returning to our right mind.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So and this is foundational.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is foundational here.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in this short little space of time this morning, I wanted to do a lot with just a few words.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to expose maybe something that we have accepted as foundational to our identity.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not so.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to expose something that we have swallowed hook, line, and sinker a lot of us.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that, that wrong foundation, is what's been giving us trouble in trying to accept God's love and trying to rid ourselves of this shame and the pain and the guilt and the sorrow and all that.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we're trying to renew our mind to these new things, but why isn't it sticking?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm doing this.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say it might not, maybe it's not sticking because we're still standing on a foundation that's not conducive of that.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you have to, you cannot put new wine in these old wineskins.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: The metanoia is a new wineskin.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Rethink this whole thing, Jesus said.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Revolutionary.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was revolutionary then and it's revolutionary now.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what is foundational?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we're not horrible from the beginning, because of Adam and Eve, and you know there's much to say about this.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: If if we had hours, we could get into how that whole thing started about the sin nature.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: That was not taught in the beginning.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't teach it, Paul didn't teach it, and the early church did not teach it.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: That came much later.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: That whole idea of you being born with a sin nature, that was not for hundreds and hundreds of years.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: That was not in the church.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: After Jesus, it came with organized religion, working with an empire that wanted to control people, and that's a good way to do it.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Make you afraid.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Make you feel unworthy.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So Ephesians 1, verse 4.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a pure foundation, correct maybe that corner that's been setting things off down here.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in love, he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Boom, that's your beginning.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You were in his heart, you were in his love, you were in his family, you were his chosen.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: That means wanted.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not like, ugh.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Look what happened.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: We got all these eight billion kids.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna do?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted you.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: You were wanted.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he chose us before in love.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Love, love, love.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing started not with an ugly depravity.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing began with love.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Did depravity happen?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Did ugliness happen?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did sin happen?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: But his love never ends.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because it says right here, because of his great what?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: He ordained it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: He ordained us so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, see, because of that ugly foundation, many of us will take that and we'll say, We're really ugly, but in his eyes.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus blurred his vision so he can't really see us clearly, and he thinks we're holy.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tricked him.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, we were always holy to him.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now we see ourselves as holy in his eyes.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: We see him looking at us with precious eyes, with loving eyes, saying, These are my holy children.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls you holy.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: We worship and say, God, you are holy.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: You are holy.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he is.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, My children, you're holy.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Change your mind.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Daddy, I'm not worthy to be called your child.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Change your mind.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Change your mind.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: We will be seen as holy in his eyes with what?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: An unstained innocence.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the shame in that, people?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: For verse 5.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: For it was always, somebody say always, always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pause right here.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get caught up on that word adopt.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But what it means here, it's huia fesia in Greek.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: It means placement into sonship.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: What happened when the prodigal son came home saying, I'm not worthy to be called your son?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: What did the daddy do?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said, put a robe on his back, put the ring on his hand.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Come into the house.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's he doing?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's placing him into sonship.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But was he already his son?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: But in the boy's mind, I'm not worthy to be called your son.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: He would not have come into that house uninvited.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because he felt unworthy.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're all dirty and tattered from being out there with the pigs, and you show up at the most beautiful, ornate mansion.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be like, you know, they say, Come on in, I'll just wait out here.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't feel right, you don't feel worthy.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he weothes you.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was always in his perfect plan to put you into your rightful sonship.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because he came to seek and save that which was lost.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: He did this through our oneness with Jesus, the anointed one, so that he did it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is the plan.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: This was the whole heart, the whole purpose.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Apeach that grace.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he wants his love to glorify his grace because we don't even understand it.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me on that back row?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry for being so loud.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Please let it cascade over you today.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Get metanoia, change your mind.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't come here bawling and squalling about how horrible and unworthy that you are.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: But let love cascade over you and open your heart, please, and receive that love just like you would the sunshine if you're trying to get darker on the beach.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Repentance, convict, conviction, confession are the three words, by the way.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we always think of repent of sin.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Confess your sin, conviction of sin.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: My Bible said that the Spirit of God will convict you of or convince you of righteousness.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness will be confidence and assurance forever.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because the same love he has for the beloved, Jesus, he has for us.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: As his love cascades over you, let's all stand.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Here's my altar call.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I'd like you to do.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Stand right there where you're at.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to, you can lift your hands.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a symbol of worship, but it's a symbol of receiving.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's surrender.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's I'd really like you to be a to soak up love in this moment right here.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like your heart to just open up and just let it happen.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Please, just let it happen.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just let it happen.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: He came to heal the broken hearts.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: He came to deliver us from that shame we carried.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: He came to deliver us who all our lifetime were subject to fear.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Open your hearts and let it happen.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let love happen to you.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: It can happen.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you you've you've been so mistreated.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let love happen.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: It seems so foreign to let love happen to you, but let it happen.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Go out of here today 100% loved.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to see yourself loved today.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want you to see yourself now as the dispenser of that kind of love.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love you guys.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day.