HCSKL 2010 Notes >
Day 19
What does Love Look Like? - Look to Jesus
0:00 - Misty Edwards song - What does Love Look Like? - If Jesus didn't come we wouldn't know what love looks like. God is love. Jesus is the word made flesh. He is the living epistle of love. Jesus set the example for love by laying down His life.
10:20 - What does love look like? Jesus.
10:35 - Jesus is my hero because all of my life I was so selfish. And I just thought that was the way it had to be. I just thought everybody cared about themselves and kind of cared about others but cared more about yourself.
11:00 - Look to Jesus to see what love is - John 1 - Teach us your love through your life. You don't look anywhere else. You don't catch love intellectually. You catch love in your heart by looking at Jesus and His life and meditating and not being in a hurry and taking time to look at His motivation. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son. So love is very giving. Love gives. Love gave the Son of God to reap a harvest of sons.
11:45 - The way we grew up - It's so opposite of what you and I grew up with. When you did wrong, you knew about it and were told about it. And you were approved and esteemed when you did right. So how well you were doing and how wrong you were doing, determined who you were your whole life. And how people responded to you (defined who you were). So our value was in crisis constantly - our esteem. We were always under the pressure of measuring up. Some people get crushed under the weight of that. Other people seem to do OK but it's still all about you.
14:00 - We were all deceived - You have to understand that when Jesus came... I know that we think of the people being rebellious and obstinate but according to Jesus, humanity was (just) very deceived. On the cross He said, "Forgive them, they know not what they do." He didn't say, "Forgive them and maybe one day these knuckleheads will change." What He said was that they were blind to truth. "I'm the truth. They haven't seen clearly yet. Would you forgive them? They haven't seen clearly yet. But You and I know that when they do the lights will come on and everything will change."
14:50 - Potential in every man - God knows the truth about us - That sure beats reading things at face value and just judging people - judging the book by it's cover and missing the beautiful content of what's on the inside. Some people try to make the title intriguing so that you will dare to open the book. It's about what is on the inside. The potential is down in the inside of every person. God knows our potential, our destiny. He knows the truth about us even if we don't.
15:45 - Love never loses sight of our potential - And love never fails. Love is not conditioned on whether we understand that we are loved. Where your life is doesn't change the truth about where your potential is. Truth knows where you can be. Truth knows who he can be and what he can be. And what you are choosing to live never erases that truth. That's how love never fails. Love never loses of the truth.
16:40 - ...Even though we were sinners - Nobody has loved us like Jesus. It's not even close. He told his disciples again and again what He was going to face at the cross. And He set his face to it because He knew the value of your life. While we were yet sinners... Man didn't change a bit. Some of the people that followed Him bailed when He preached the truth. By the end the crowd was calling out for Barabbas to be released and for Him to be crucified. Don't think there weren't people in the crowd who had even been healed by Him. Because He healed multitudes.
17:45 - Love didn't write us off - Think about it. All of the back and forth of who He was and when it all came down to it at the end they asked for the release of a murderer and to just get rid of this guy. He saw all of that coming. And all He could say on the cross was, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. We know who they are. We know their potential." If you put that in our everyday scenario - when people go that far, we write them off. "They will never change. If they are not saved by now, they'll never get saved." Love looks like Jesus. Or Jesus looks like love. We couldn't even know love without the life of Jesus.
18:45 - Love gave - Love came - God so loved that He gave His Son. Jesus so loved - because He is one with God and God is love - that He came. That's awesome. When you look at the life of Jesus it seems like it was an honor to Him to come, not a burden - a privilege not a burden. There was not a conversation, "Are you sure I have to do this?" He wasn't second guessing in the garden. He wasn't changing His mind. He's about to receive the beating of a lifetime and lose His physical appearance and be marred more than any of the sons of men - something you and I can't even fathom.
20:05 - I'm not sure they could kill Him - I personally believe that He knew that He couldn't die from that beating because He was a totally innocent man. The Bible said that death entered the earth when Adam sinned. And because all men sinned, all men die. Jesus never sinned. I'm not sure that death had power over Him. I'm not sure that you couldn't have beaten Him until today... because of the power and law of God. He is marred more than any of the sons of man and yet He is still able to preach from the cross. He has the awareness to speak to John about Mary. And He is disfigured.
21:35 - Don't think it didn't hurt. It says He bore our pain. Don't think that God gave Him supernatural novacaine and numbed Him. The power of holiness raised Him from the dead.
21:50 - He became what was killing us - I'm not sure that He could die until He was raised up like the serpent on the pole. Everything hanging on a pole was cursed by God. What was killing us, He became. God laid the sin of humanity on Him. And He was made to be sin and gave up His Spirit.
22:15 - Before He was pierced for our transgressions He was beat beyond description. But He couldn't even escape through death.
Jesus at Lazarus' Tomb
22:30 - He grieved at our blindness - Do you think He feared death when He knew that He would rise from the dead? Do you think He cried at Lazarus' tomb because He was sad though He knew Lazarus was about to rise from the dead? You better think about some of these motives a little deeper. No, He was sad because the people were so blind that they couldn't see the truth. Life was standing there. The resurrection was standing there and they couldn't see past death. And He groaned, "Take me to where you have laid him." In other words, "I can't take this any more. Let's just get this over with."
23:15 - The word "groaned" means vexed, indignant towards and murmur against. He wasn't crying because of people. He was crying because they were so lost. He was standing face to face with the fall of man. He saw that even though life was standing there and truth was standing there, they couldn't see past death. So He went and raised Lazarus from the dead.
23:40 - When He saw all of the people crying, saying, "If this man opened the eyes of the blind, could He have kept this man from dying?" He groaned. Because He had just said, "I am the resurrection and the life."
23:55 - I've heard preacher after preacher preach that He bears witness with our infirmities with the idea that He is crying with the people. When you look up the word "groaned" it doesn't mean He was crying for the people. He was grieving because of the fall.
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
24:15 - So you look at what He said in the garden of Gethsemane, "If there is any other way, let this cup pass from me. But if not, I'm ready. I'm doing this." He wasn't second guessing. Nobody took His life. He gave it.
24:40 - Just think of every time we are nervous when we are around people and the gospel comes up. Think of how we are in a crowd and feel an impression to talk to someone and we double-take or we feel like, "What are people going to think?"
25:00 - Guy who used to make fellow Christians uncomfortable - "Hey, will any body give me a shout for Jesus?" And the Christians were like, "Oh, my God." He loved doing that. I'm not saying it was a good thing. A little resentful toward the church. Loved putting the church on the spot.
26:00 - All of those feelings and emotions come from the self-consciousness we talked about the other day.
➡ 26:10 - Just imagine how free Jesus was from that because of love. It had to be because of love and what love is. And we will take a lot of time and look at it. Remember how we started the class? In all of your getting, get understanding. And we read Proverbs 2 about wisdom? So if we can get understanding of what love looked like and yield ourselves to prayer and the meditation place and the communion that we have with God... That's what got me crying during that song because I'm not just listening to a song. I'm responding to Him in my heart and going, Yes. Thank you for the grace that makes me one with you. Thank you for letting that be my reality. I want my life to reveal you.
➡ 27:20 - So I think about stuff like this. Because if Jesus is love and love is Jesus and that's what love looks like then we've really got to take our time and look at His life and think about His motivation.
27:30 - He knew His disciples. He knew that the Shepherd would be struck and the sheep would scatter. He knew that they would disown Him. He knew they would all go their own way. He's praying for them that mercy would keep them. John 17 - what an amazing prayer. That's really the Lord's prayer.
27:55 - He is in the garden and He is about to be turned over. His guys are sleeping. His guys are overcome with sorrow. They are overwhelmed. They were probably in deep depression. I don't think it was that they were just tired. He was telling them that He was going to be taken - that He was going - that they would see Him no more - but that He would come again. "What's He saying?"
28:25 - Death was so huge because of self-centered, self-conscious fear... Death was such a priority that when Jesus said, "I am going to die," it was all that they could hear. And in the next sentence He would say, "but on the third day I will rise", and they couldn't hear that. They never heard that. All they could hear was, "You are going to die?" They couldn't see past the flesh, past self.
29:00 - Peter's "love" - Exposed as self-centered - You think Peter is being noble and courageous when he gets out his sword and cuts off an ear. But you have to look at what drives a man. Peter is doing that for himself. You think he is doing that for Jesus but if he was doing it for Jesus, Jesus wouldn't correct him. But he was doing it for himself.
29:15 - Jesus had already corrected Peter a couple of chapters before when Jesus said that He would be crucified. And Peter said, "No, this shall never happen to you." That sounds noble. That sounds like you're protecting a friend. And Jesus is way deeper than that. He is so to the motive of things. All He is saying is, "Peter, you are only saying that for yourself because I mean everything to you because you want me for yourself."
29:45 - We call that love. Love sees way past yourself. All Peter is thinking is "You're the best thing that ever happened to me and you think I am going to let people come in here and take you and kill you? Not on my watch." We think that is love. That's just the selfishness of man coveting the blessing of who Jesus was in the flesh.
30:15 - Jesus said, "Satan get behind me." He didn't say, "Wow, I appreciate your integrity Peter." He said, "You have in mind the things of man." When you have in mind the things of man you will never find love, even though we call it love.
30:35 - Without Jesus exposing this stuff we would think that Peter is a hero - getting in the way - laying down his life. We would make a statue for him. If he had stood up there and gotten killed we would have made him a hero. But it's not because of love. It's defending - self-preservation. It's coveting. If he and the disciples really understood what Jesus was about to do, they would have been at the cross, weeping and broken, not crying for Him... He said, "Don't weep for me, weep for yourselves."
31:45 - He doesn't want you to see a suffering Savior. No there is a different kind of tear. "You are absolutely amazing. That you would do this for me - for the world. They have done nothing but hate you. And here you hang, giving your life so that they might live. I honor you. You're amazing. Let everything you are be built in me." That's the purpose of the gospel. So that you see His motivation - you see what love is and yield yourself - die to you to live unto Him. And let that be reproduced in you so that you deny yourself.
32:25 - Take up your cross - It's not necessary to die on the cross. He did. But you sure do carry your cross. That means that you walk through every injustice, every misunderstanding, through every unfairness, through every trial, tragedy and trauma and not lose sight of the value of men - at the cost of your life. "No man is taking my life. I am freely laying it down."
33:00 - If you save your life you will lose it. If you lose your life for His sake you will really find what your life is.
Love is not Self-Protecting
33:20 - We have been taught stuff that isn't Jesus - We have to keep our eyes so fixed on Jesus because we have been so taught so many other things. We've even been taught in the church to set boundaries, to build walls to protect yourself from insincere people so that your trust doesn't get broken. And don't be a doormat. Don't enable. Find healthy balance in your relationships. And it makes you stay vulnerable to the weakness of men.
33:50 - He is your defense - If you are building hedges around yourself, how is He hedging you in? If you are defending yourself, how is He your rock and defense? He is your rock and defense. Because the motive you live by, the perspective you live by, the love that you live by defends you. It's never about you anymore and nobody can touch that. He is your defense. That doesn't mean that He is protecting you from everything in the sense that nothing is ever happening to you. People will do you wrong. It's not about people doing you wrong. It's about you being like Him. If you are trying to live a life that protects you from the injustice of the world, DIE already! Just die (to yourSELF) and get it over with.
35:20 -Vulnerability - It amuses me when we try to protect ourselves. I've read some stuff about setting boundaries, etc. And I am like, "Oh, my goodness. We don't really have a clue in a lot of ways. We are still busy protecting ourselves. If I am vulnerable to you, if I feel vulnerable, that makes flesh and blood an enemy, that means I can be overtaken and destroyed. I'm not vulnerable. What am I vulnerable to? What was Jesus vulnerable to? Love is an amazing position.
36:10 - Vulnerability can motivate us - A lot of the things we pray and do is because we still feel vulnerable to a lot of things. A lot of prayers come from natural knowledge that produces vulnerability - instead of spiritual truth that protects you in Christ.
36:00 - Natural knowledge feeds vulnerability - We live in an age of knowledge. There is so much knowledge out there. But the more knowledge you get apart from Christ being the wisdom of God and spiritual truth, the more you subject yourself to the potential vulnerabilities of that natural knowledge. And now you are only praying because you feel vulnerable in life.
36:45 - The only reason that you are praying is because you don't feel OK or you might not be OK. So you are praying and calling that faith and it is totally fear driven. Because your identity is not established in Christ. We ought to hear that natural knowledge and chuckle inside and love Him all the more because we are so safe in His arms.
37:20 - You hear natural knowledge and you go, "Wow, I am so glad the light has come." God, I am so glad you turned the light on in my understanding lest I would have been consumed by that. Years ago I would have heard that and I would have been afraid. I am so thankful you are here. That's intimacy. Not, "Oh, my God, we better pray."
37:40 - Sometimes our prayers are the absolute evidence of fear. Sometimes we only pray because we are afraid. If we really understood we would do more communing with God and exchanging with God than praying. A lot of it would just be discourse with Him - communing with Him in these matters.
38:10 - But this perfect love is going to take us there. We camped on receiving the love of God for yourself in the whole first week and probably into the second week - about how imperative it is to see your value - that you can't earn anything - that God knows who you are - to stand alone in a room with Him - or driving your car and just absolutely express His love for you. Father, You love me so much, etc... Why? Because it is imperative to see His love towards you. Because the more that you see His love, the more you understand what love is.
38:45 - Every one of us knows our weaknesses and failures. God doesn't just blank out your past in the sense that you can't remember anything. I can remember a whole bunch of weird, twisted stuff. It doesn't have a sting to it, a bite to it. It doesn't have any kind of guilt or condemnation to it. Actually I can look at it through the blood and realize how the transition to the gospel has come and changed everything. So you can actually glance there and rejoice sincerely.
39:20 - But it's not like God just deletes the folder. And then you meet somebody from your past and "I've never seen you before." He doesn't do that. He changes the way you see things. He changes who you are. Then you see everything differently. And actually there is a place to look back... I look to see where I have come from, to were I have arrived. (Psalms?) In other words, I look back to see what God has done.
Love Forgives
➡ 40:30 - Jesus is what love looks like - Be patient this week. There is a lot to talk about but it is only from one little wellspring. Jesus is what love looks like. He's the word made flesh. If we didn't have Jesus we could only talk about the nature of God through scripture. But we have the life of Jesus. So God didn't just preach to you. He came in power. The gospel is not word only but power. So he attached the demonstration of Jesus' life to the message - the preaching of the word. In other words, He told us that the gospel is not in word only. So I'll send my Son and let Him become the word. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So it's love revealed.
41:20 - Peter preaches - When you walk through the life of Jesus like we are going to right here and you begin to see love. Simple things like Peter saying "Repent" And they were cut to the heart. "What shall we do?" And he said, "Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins." Change your mind. Change the way that you think. Here is all that he said... They are guilty of crucifying the Son of God and all that Peter told them to do when their hearts wished that they didn't do it, he said, "That's good. Just keep wishing you didn't do it and your heart will no longer be judged as the men that did it. In fact, you will be accepted in and the same Spirit that is upon us will be upon you."
42:10 - They are guilty of killing the Son of God. They get cut to the heart and realize that they are guilty of crucifying the Messiah. That's a shocker when you really believe it. That's not like stealing a piece of gum.
42:40 - Shop lifting gum - Mom, "Where did you get that gum?"
43:20 - Cousin hit by car - He bolted across the street. Donnie. So it wasn't always the safest thing to be growing up and running around in the city. From the age of six I was running around all over.
44:00 - Shop lifting gum - Opened a pack of gum and walked out of the store. She took me back to the store, made me pay and spanked me right in front of everybody. Do that today and you might get arrested. Mom didn't play. If that happened over a piece of gum, I'm not even thinking about stealing a car. That was a tough day. I was convicted.
46:10 - Conviction in the crowd as Peter preaches - Imagine being guilty of the death of the Son of God and knowing that you are guilty. That would be like curl up and die now. He was your Savior, your Messiah. You misunderstood. You were blinded. And you killed Him. And now in the flesh, still under the fall of man, they heard that verdict. And their hearts aren't in denial any more. "Oh my God. He's right. He was the Messiah." Their eyes opened. I can't imagine what that felt like.
46:50 - Repentance - Change the way you think - But the answer is what amazes me. The first time I saw that... The Holy Spirit slows me down - tells me not to be in a hurry so that I will catch stuff. And it hit me. Repent. Change your mind. Just wish that you didn't do it. So love believes the best. Love gives man the opportunity to change.
48:00 - When do you just release them? - Here is what we say, "Well, you are going to need some serious rehab. And I don't know if I am ever going to be able to trust you again. But you need to bear fruit to see if that is even possible. But you are under this probation." And I know that there is some natural knowledge (wisdom?) in that for some situations.
48:20 - But when do you just release the person from the crime that they have committed when they are sincerely sorry? When do you separate the person from the action? Love always does.
48:45 - Natural wisdom marks you for what you did. And then you have a record and history. A resume. You could have a blow out when you are 20 years old, wake up and come to your senses and absolutely transformed for 40 years and still have to put that event on your application for a job. And it's still your tendency in the eyes of men. It's still something we're watching. It's still who you might be. But the kingdom doesn't work that way.
49:30 - I understand that in the natural there may be some things that we have to pay. But you can't let that stuff be the way that you see people.
49:45 - Crack addicts brought home - They lost everything. Losing each other. Give keys to the Jeep. You don't give keys to crack addicts.
51:00 - Fussed at by addiction specialists - Picking up Todd - Program mentality instead of individuals. Why he would fall if he left. Teen Challenge - a great ministry. Too negative at this location. "What do you know about addiction?" "Jesus never tells a man why he has to fail. He tells a man why he could win." No faith working through love.
53:45 - Crack addicts (cont.) - They are not crack addicts but children of God. Inspired to trust them. Go to a park or something. Be back by five. Not there at five. Opportunity to move forward vs. opportunity to fail. I was concerned for them. Pulled in at five. Like little kids. First sign of life. Man breaks during blessing. Bawled. He was overwhelmed by what love looked like. He was trying not to curse... "You gave us the keys to your car. We're freaking drug addicts." See how he identifies himself? You are not a drug addict. You are a son.
1:01:00 - The goodness of God leads men to repentance. He gives rain and sun to the good and the evil alike - in His goodness - His mercy. If God played hardball it would just rain in the yards of the born again. And then they would be hard pressed to come to God because, "You win. Well, we can't live without you." But they would resent Him. It would be a forced thing. This is a heart thing.
1:02:00 - God is not partial - He is good - What I am saying is that we are all on the same playing field. The same storms come to the wise and the foolish. The same rains come to the righteous and the unrighteous. The sun shines on us all. Why? Because the goodness of God leads men to change.
1:02:20 - There might be one man who says, after his whole life, "I've been nothing but blessed. Everything has prospered. Everything seems to go my way and I haven't even considered you." All of the sudden he realizes he is not self-made but it's the grace of God. Just the fact that God is not partial - that He is just good could save a man's life.
1:02:45 - So if Jesus didn't see us this way, He could not come while we were yet sinners. He would have to wait for us to change a little and to qualify. If you see this and receive this from God, it will help you live it towards others. But some of us are still waiting for people who did us wrong to make it right. We are waiting for somebody to be sorry for what they did. We wait for people to make things right - but it's not right because they still did it. We grew up this way. Sometimes we are Christians and we still think this way.
1:03:30 - "I'm sorry" for me - Can you ever change stuff (in the past)? People can be like, "I am so sorry, so sorry." And a lot of times you are just crying for yourself because of how your reaction affected the relationship and what you used to receive from them. Sometimes you are only sorry for yourself.
1:03:50 - Esau's regret - Esau was profane - godless. And though he wept bitterly found no place for repentance. Wait, I thought if you were weeping bitterly God would forgive anybody. It's almost like God said, "No, I'm not forgiving what you did." That's not what it means. Even though he wept bitterly with tears he found no place for a change of mind or heart. The only reason he cried is because of how his sin affected his own personal life. He was only crying for himself and what he lost. He wasn't crying for what he did and how it affected the big picture of God's plan and purpose. There was no godly sorrow. It was the cries of regret. He wasn't sorry for what he did concerning others or God. He was only sorry for his own sake - what it cost him and what he lost.
1:05:15 - Repentance has nothing to do with just crying. "I am so sorry." And you only do that because now they are treating you hard and cold and it's making you feel insecure. It's making you feel out and not in. And now you are crying just so that you can get their affection back - just to get their conversation back - just so that you can get back into bed with them - just so that you can get something back that you lost. And your tears could be superficial, self-serving, self-centered and have nothing to do with love. And your "I'm sorry" is only "I'm sorry for how my sin is affecting the way that the rest of my life is going with you."
1:06:00 - Withholding forgiveness - Even when we say we forgive we still hold back. "I know I need to forgive but you really hurt me when you did that." "It's just going to be hard to trust you now." And we play that thing back and forth. And we show to the enemy that we (SELF) are very much alive - saying a lot of the right things but meaning a lot of the wrong things. And the enemy thinks, "These are some sitting ducks. I am going to have fun with this."
1:06:50 - Wouldn't it be cool if one spouse could say to the other, "Look, I know that you are sorry and that makes me so excited for you. Your life is so much more than that action. Let's just put this away. We don't ever have to talk about it again. I just want you to know that I love you and that I'm proud of you. And I am just glad that you have faced up to the reality of these things and called them what they are and are moving forward. I love you with all of my heart." That sure beats bringing it up 2 weeks later - letting loose a little stinger in conversation that points to that. You say that you forgive them and then you bring out the stinger. And it all reveals that there is self-centered stuff going on.
1:07:50 - So sometimes you can find what love looks like by painting a picture of what it isn't. You can look at what it doesn't look like and then flip it. Or you can look at the life of Jesus and just follow Him. Either way works but sometimes it helps to use these analogies because we've all been in those shoes. We think for ourselves.
1:08:30 - Love is the opposite of self-centeredness. How is this going to affect me? How it pans out for me.
The Truth of His Love brings Liberty
1:08:50 - Participant's comment - Heard teaching regarding Holy Spirit coming after we are cleaned up. If that's the case I am a mess because I can't clean myself without the Holy Spirit. I can't clean up without Him.
1:09:20 - Receiving Holy Spirit by the side of the road - Call from NC lady. Crying profusely. For 3 years her church had been praying for her to receive Holy Spirit. If you don't speak in tongues He didn't come. If He didn't come you need to clean up. So for 3 years she had been trying to clean up and was losing hope, Listened to righteousness CD. Received Holy Spirit on the side of the road - speaking in tongues. Under bondage of works and legalism. I can't clean up without Him. You love me. You made me righteous. Praying in tongues.
1:13:20 - I don't think we understand what it means to clean the inside of the cup. You get in agreement with what God says about you and that becomes your reality, your motive, your desire. He will come in a moment.
1:13:40 - Receiving Holy Spirit by the side of the road (cont.) - I was weeping. She's listening to a CD. It touches her heart. She responds. And He comes mightily.
1:13:55 - If you draw near to Him, if you seek Him, you will find Him. She got her eyes off of herself, looked up and dare believe that He loved her, And Holy Spirit landed on her.
1:14:15 - Receiving Holy Spirit by the side of the road (cont.) - I've been praying in tongues for 15 minutes along the road. I just had to call and say thank you.
1:15:00 - Do you see how much liberty the truth brings? Here is a girl that for 3 years lived under what people believed was the truth - ministers giving her that - creating a greater stronghold - a crushed identity - condemnation deluxe - but a good heart or she would have given up. She wants God. Her heart qualifies. But her mindsets are wrong. And she is being taught wrong and it is crushing her. And after a while you can't bear the weight and a lot of people just give up.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit & Tongues
1:15:35 - Re: Tongues - Am I just making it up? - Making stuff up in your mind. I always have felt like I am loved but I am a creative person, am I just making it up? Just start using syllables. Just start talking.
1:17:00 - Strongholds arise through bad introductions - There can be a stronghold there when you come into something and you get a mindset that says... Because satan doesn't want you confident in the fact that you have fellowship with Holy Spirit. He doesn't want you to have confidence that you have a gift or that you are praying in the Spirit. So just the way that you came into this raised the question - and you are just camping in that one question, "Am I just making this up? Am praying in tongues?" 40 years could go by and you might still have this question.
1:17:25 - I would say at this point in your life, just get alone with Him. Pray what you hear in your heart and just flow with that and be confident that Holy Spirit is in you and their is a prayer language. I would ask God to give you some interpretation as to what you are saying. And ask Him to give you discernment. Because there is a stronghold that tries to come in our minds to talk us out of what is real because of the way it happens (how we were introduced to it).
1:17:45 - So the natural, rational thought is, "Man, I am a creative person. I am probably making this up. Is this even real?" Then that thing is just there lingering and whispering. It could be there for the rest of your life. I would put that to rest - rest in peace - never to live again. I would get alone with God and thank Him that you are filled with the Holy Spirit: Holy Spirit, I thank you that you pray... With stammering lips I will praise you God....<go crazy with tongues>
1:18:20 - Bad introductions to Holy Spirit - Unfortunately some of us have had terrible experiences with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the way people introduce Him: repeat this, say this backwards: yabadabado. If somebody talks you into something you can always have the risk of being talked out of it.
1:18:40 - Right introduction - Receive Holy Spirit by faith - So you receive Holy Spirit by faith. The same way that you received salvation. The Bible says, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? - Luke 11:3. Ask - ask and it shall be given. So Holy Spirit, I so appreciate that you have come...
1:19:05 - Lady who received Holy Spirit totally by faith - I know a lady that received Holy Spirit totally by faith. Communed with Him for 3 months. Thanked Him that He was in her life. Got call from her distressed husband who was out of town. As she prayed, with her heart being way in front of her mind, she realized that she was praying in tongues.
1:20:05 - Sometimes it happens like that just because our soul is so in the way. We are so thinking about everything. "Is this real? Is it not real? Am I just making this up?" That's one of the stumbling blocks for people praying in tongues. So I am thankful for my experience in that...
1:20:20 - Praying in tongues - I woke up in the morning praying in tongues after I had been born again. The presence of God was on my heart. I was like, "I am born again." I was flipping out. And I remember standing and praying in tongues and not knowing exactly what that was. It sounded like mumbo jumbo but I knew that it was something awesome. I just kept doing it and doing it.
1:20:50 - Guy who heard the syllables in his head but had not spoken them out - But I had a guy I prayed for him before he went to bed. When he woke up in the middle of the night he felt the presence of God all over him. But he said, "But I didn't feel like I knew how to pray in tongues. But I wanted to. I woke up in the middle of the night and had all of these words and syllables inside me and I could hear them inside me." And I said, "Well, did you speak them?" He said, "No, I didn't know what to do. I was kind of shook up. And I didn't know if I should. In fact, I can still hear them." I said, "Speak them man, speak them!" And he spoke in tongues like crazy. And I just hung up.
1:21:30 - Strongholds of the mind - Our minds can be so detrimental when they are unrenewed. Satan takes one little (wrong) thought and tries to make it a stronghold for the rest of your life.
Strongholds of the Enemy in Marriage
1:21:45 - Not joined in the first place - It happens in marriages and everything. I hear this one a lot, "I don't really know if God joined our union in the first place." And they go way back to the beginning as to why not. And that thing will camp there for years. And the marriage partners will take a step away because, "I don't think God joined us in the first place." And they have a reason for that. The bottom line is: they entered into covenant and God honors that covenant.
1:22:55 - What a cop out to say, "Well you know..." That will teach you to live loose and without integrity. And you will hear one reason after another and you will live the rest of your life that way - being tossed to and fro.
1:23:05 - Participant comment - Damage that can be done through false teaching on marriage. Daughter in law: "I've been talking to my parents and God told me to divorce you." I was blown out of the water.
1:24:00 - It comes from a belief system - a root thing. Like, "Well, you know you guys were never joined in the first place." And especially coming from parents - they are favoring their child - even if they are Christians can say things like that. They will say whatever to feel like they are saving their kid.
1:24:30 - The bottom line is: Where is faith in that? You are teaching yourself to live with "out" - side doors - escape routes. What would have happened if God had made a list of escape routes from us? He wouldn't have to think too hard.
1:24:50 - Put God in the situation and see if it sounds strange - We ought to put God in the situations that we call OK and if it sounds funny when we put God in there then we ought to wonder why it doesn't sound strange when we're in there because we were created in His image.
1:25:00 - Extended example - Repentance scenario of a situation sounding ridiculous when God is in it.
1:26:10 - How many people in the church have been truly sorry. And we want to make them prove their repentance? Can you imagine God doing that to anyone. God's never done that to anyone but that is common language in our lives.
1:26:05 - Love sees people differently - Love believes the best. Love keeps the door open for men to change and produce good fruit. Love will give the keys to the car to a crack addict. Why? Because, "You are not a freaking addict. You are so much more and I'll prove it to you. Now, go have a good afternoon."
1:27:20 - Speak words of life and truth - That ministry that was overseeing Todd didn't realize what they were doing. They were giving him permission to fail without even realizing it. Later on when he faces temptation the words they spoke to him will come to mind. And satan will say, "Everybody is expecting you to fall. This is what you are. This is what you do." And he'll be more likely to give himself to weakness. "Everybody thinks I'm an addict anyway. I might as well be an addict." Nobody was speaking life and truth into him.
1:28:10 - False teaching - The thief who steals, kills and destroys is actually false teaching. The source of all false teaching is the enemy. But it's actually talking about false teaching. But I have come to give you life and life abundantly. Who is Jesus? The truth. He's love. He's the truth made flesh. He is the truth manifested. So life and life abundantly is the language of truth. Truth is the language of life and life abundantly. It always speaks the best. It always promotes the best. It always makes a draw on the potential of man. It doesn't tell a man why he can't. It gives him every reason why he can.
1:29:10 - People are reluctant to give up marital strongholds - But a marriage can lock into one reason why it can't be blessed, one reason why it's not working, one reason to why it should have never been and produce division, instead of all the reasons by the grace of God that this thing can flourish. People will reject all of the reasons and hold on to the stronghold of why it was never meant to be.
1:30:00 - BREAK
➡ 1:30:30 - What love looks like - Exposing contrary mindsets - I'm not in a hurry on this love thing. We're taking our time and talking about the mindsets that are "normal" to us and exposing them. It's just healthy to expose them. It gives you things to connect with and understand. You could just talk about Jesus but sometimes you just want to confront the way that seems right to man.
1:30:55 - The way that seems right - Proverbs talks about "the way that seems right." It seems right. Why does it seem right? Because it has been the knowledge or wisdom that we have functioned in our whole lives. It seems rational, right. Even though it seems right, its way leads to death.
1:31:20 - A gospel laced with the way that seems right - My concern is that the way that seems right to man has been laced all through the gospel - that we have introduce it into the gospel. And that it where a lot of the "yeah, buts" come from. You don't realize how we are subtly we are holding onto certain rights. We are contesting the word with human wisdom.
1:31:50 - You could share the truth and get back, "Yeah, but you don't know my whole story." "Well, how would you feel if this happened to you?" I'm the wrong fellow to ask that of. I actually enjoy when people do that. And I will sit them down and explain to them how I would feel. It's usually an eye opener if they are humble.
1:32:25 - Receiving correction - How you receive shows your heart - You will see how humble you are when you get confronted with the gospel of love. You will realize how dead you are to yourself when love is preached clearly. It should be that way shouldn't it?
Monetary Requests
1:32:45 - Is it scriptural to see a need but to first "pray about it and see how I am led" before you respond? It's tough to paint all scenarios with the same brush. You could have an unbelieving spouse who is not on board with helping out financially, for example. But at large, the Bible says that how can it be love if you see someone in need and have the a way to help them and just say to them, "I'll pray for you." No, love is meeting that need at some level. Touching them.
1:34:00 - Don't ask questions to them in a cynical or challenging way.
1:34:25 - Manipulative phone call to sow into a ministry - I give a lot to a lot of folks. I sowed into a ministry. Then you get persistent calls to sow again. Is the need valid? They want to grab your heart. I sow into that kind of stuff. I just sent money for that very thing, just not where you are touching. My conscience is clear. Not today. Persistent, compelling becomes manipulation. Kids all over the world going hungry. You are talking to one man who just wrote a check larger than you asked for to do this very thing. Not today.
1:36:55 - Giving - The key is keeping your conscience clear and knowing that you are not just walking by disregarding people. Don't just walk by the need of humanity. When I see things. I am always looking for a way to get in on meeting the need somehow. You can't just meet everybody's need. You can't carry the weight of the need of the world. But at the same time you don't want to get religious and have all of the right language and fail to see any way to be practical. But you have to be careful that it is not just condemnation or a needs driven mentality. It's a love thing.
1:38:15 - Manipulative phone call - Told her no 3x and every time the speech got more intense, more compelling. Manipulation.
1:39:00 - But if you bump into a family like that and things are tight financially on your end, look for ways to help. That's Christianity. It's giving to the poor. It's clothing people. Feeding people. It's not just praying for the sick. We don't talk about it a lot but it is an area that I am active in. Bless them financially. It freaks people out. But be careful that it's not some weight of condemnation, that's all.
1:40:20 - We've gotten out of the community aspect of the church.
1:40:35 - Handling the "need" phone calls at the church - Trying to teach and impart. "Can you meet my need or not?"
1:41:00 - Man who called with "need" - Scammer - Something didn't seem right. Put trip on me. I love you enough to speak truth. 5 minutes later. Atheist. I make a living this way. You do have discernment. Drives the country with his story. Getting back at Christians.
1:43:45 - Keep an open heart - Be careful to not that stuff harden your heart and make you skeptical. And from then on whenever there is a request you will remember that incident. Treat every situation individually.
1:44:15 - Do more blessing than challenging - I've helped people and found out that they weren't sincere later. I lift my hands and thank God for the privilege of helping and asking that the good gesture of my heart would not miss the mark of their understanding and that the goodness of God would turn them. That they would come to their senses and in their insincerity they were loved and blessed. Now the goodness of God can turn them. Their conscience can bite them in the middle of the night. So I do a whole lot more blessing than challenging and testing and weighing. It has to be pretty grossly obvious to me to do what I did with that fellow.
1:45:25 - The key is don't live in condemnation. Don't carry the weight of everyone's need and feel like you are their answer. We are the body of Christ. In your own conscience do what God is empowering you to do and be at peace in your own mind and heart.
We're Known by our Fruit
1:45:40 - Is making the statement, "I forgive you in my heart" enough or is it just religious and a cop out? - Sometimes it's extremely religious and a cop out. Sometimes it's just the Christian thing to say.
1:46:05 - No, we are known by our fruits (whether we are real or fake). Now, (you personally for yourself) - you are known by the tree you are. You are not known by your fruits in your own heart. It's always about the tree. Remember, we established that - Mt. 12:33.
1:46:20 - Establish right identity first - Fruit follows - The tree is always first. The cherry tree doesn't produce a cherry to prove that it's a cherry tree. It produces cherries because it is a cherry tree.
1:46:30 - Be to do -Now, people know you by your fruit. They will know what kind of tree you are by your fruit. But you know what kind of fruit you'll bear because you know what kind of tree you are. You are not trying to bear fruit to prove what kind of tree you are. You establish what kind of tree you are and you "be" so that you can "do". You'll never bear righteous fruit until you become righteous in your heart and be a righteous tree, a planting of the Lord.
1:46:50 - You have to become righteous in your understanding and in your faith before you ever bear righteous fruit. (You have to understand and accept that He has made you righteous.) If you go out trying to bear the fruit of righteousness to prove that you are righteous, you've got it backwards. It's always about the tree. Make a tree good and it's fruit will be good.
1:47:15 - Grow from God's love - Be rooted and grounded in love. Fruit doesn't grow roots. Trees do. Be rooted and grounded in love. Why? So you can grow up in that love and bear good fruit.
1:47:50 - Repeating things - don't grow weary. It's good to remind you. Extended discussion.
Love Came to Us
1:49:50 - John 1 - v.1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. - Back to where there is no point of origin. You were predestined before the foundation of the world. So I wonder how far back you go with Him? He saw this whole thing from the beginning.
1:51:50 - The purpose of the gospel is to reveal His manifold wisdom to the powers and principalities through the church - Eph. 3 - through a people redeemed and brought back to original value - who were living for themselves and now walking in love.
1:52:30 - God didn't give up on us - No matter how far out there you got from Him, He never lost sight of who you are and always kept in position through the cross of Jesus that ability for you to be redeemed and restored back to the truth of who you are. He has never changed.
1:52:50 - Don't give up on people - We give up on people - write them off. We think certain people will never change. We label them by their disposition. We label them by what they are expressing and think that sure is a bad tree. The Bible says not to cut down that tree but to dig around the roots and fertilize it a little bit. Give it a season to bear some fruit. We are so quick to chop trees down.
1:53:30 - Cutting off people through hatred - Jesus went as far as to say that if you hate a brother you have murdered. Why? Because if you hate a brother you have cut off his purpose, his potential and his reason for existing. You've lost sight of who he is. When you hate a brother you have looked at him for face value and come up with a justifiable (in the flesh) reason for your feelings and you have cut off the real him. You have killed him. He said it's murder.
1:54:10 - John says that if you hate you are in darkness until now. Why? Because you reserve the right to judge men at face value and read books by their covers. And you are not following Jesus, who laid down his life unto death because He calls us friends.
1:54:25 - He calls us friends - He let us in on the mystery - Why did He call us friends? Because we lived honorably and worthy of trust? He called us friends because the servant doesn't know what the master is doing but the master has revealed all things through the Son. So God has brought us into the light and shown us that our lives are worth (the price that had to be paid so that we might have) the understanding of truth. So He went to the extent of manifesting that truth so that we could see and believe.
1:54:50 - So we are friends. And the fact that we are friends is revealed in the fact that God revealed things to us and didn't keep us in the dark. He's not calling us friends because we've shown ourselves as good friends. He's shown us to be friends in that He let us in on the mystery.
1:55:05 - We're friends not because we're living like devoted friends. It's because God revealed all things to us through the Son. He is revealing that He wants us as friends by showing us all things. We do know why. [Extended discussion] If you weren't friends with God, God wouldn't be showing you the truth about everything. He's showing me that I am worthy of being a friend by bringing me into the light. [Extended discussion of friendship growing up and friendship with God.]
1:57:50 - That says a lot about what He believes about us. If He is going to let us in on the mystery, He must see us as very precious. He didn't hold anything back from us. Jesus is the light. You've got to look to Him. All things are revealed.
1:58:15 - John says that the darkness is fading away and the light is already shining. What does that mean? We used to walk in ignorance and we used to believe another way but now the gospel is changing our minds and we are coming out of darkness into the light. That's so powerful. That means that you might not see it totally clear but it is already there and it's bringing you out of darkness. It's bringing you into a whole new way of thought - a whole new way of motive - a whole new way of perspective. 1 John
1:59:20 - v.2-4 - The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. - The word is spirit and life. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.
2:00:00 - v.5 - And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. - Why? Light is greater than darkness. He is still talking about the word.
2:00:30 - v.6-9 - There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. -
Light - He's changing wisdom here. He's changing mindsets. He's telling us to get our eyes off of what we thought was (true) and get our eyes on Him. He is the true light. He's the message of truth. He's the word of God revealed.
2:01:05 - It's a lot bigger than the story of a man born of a virgin and dying on a cross. Your identity is revealed through Him. Your destiny is revealed through Him. Everything makes sense now that He has come, if we see it clearly.
2:01:30 - v.10 - He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. -
The perverting effect of the fall - That is the perversion of the fall right there. That is the 180 (degree twist) from the fall - from love to selfishness - every man for himself - self-serving - self-centered. So love comes and nobody knows what love looks like. They are living in a lie. They are living in darkness. So truth comes and nobody knows what truth is. We're living in darkness and light comes. "What is that?"
2:02:00 - So He came to His own. See God did not disown. Why? Because love never fails. Love doesn't take account of suffered wrongs. Love doesn't rejoice in iniquity. It rejoices in truth.
Forgiveness
2:02:30 - Taking account of a suffered wrong - you take account of a suffered wrong, you are actually rejoicing in iniquity. You are emphasizing iniquity and stuffing truth. Love doesn't exalt iniquity and sin by taking account of it. It dispells it and quells it by forgiving and showing mercy and rendering it powerless. It rejoices in the truth.
2:03:20 - You are not making much of sin. You are not letting it be the rule of the day. You are not honoring it. You are not glorying in it by allowing it to have an effect in you - and keeping it alive and making it bigger. You rejoice in truth thereby quenching the lie.
2:03:35 - Unforgiveness vs. forgiveness - Why is forgiveness so powerful and unforgiveness so detrimental? Because Unforgiveness keeps the act alive. Forgiveness kills it - as if it never happened. Unforgiveness never forgets it and it always has a voice. Forgiveness stills the voice of the offense. Isn't that what happened with us? He will remember our sin no more. You will never answer for sin. The sins that you have committed, in your whole life, you will stand before God and judged as a son through the blood. That should feel good.
2:04:20 - He forgave us - There are terrible sins that I can remember growing up. But it wasn't me. It was a deceived, deluded young man that taught and trained by the world and now that the truth has come I don't want that. I've stepped out of that into Him. I've put off the old and put on the new. I will never answer for that sin. It will never be mentioned. You ought to see your life that way. It's the power of the blood.
205:00 - That man is dead - I was born again - The past has no voice - God forgave and He renders that voice (of accusation, condemnation from the past) powerless. So if you don't forgive yourself you keep that voice alive and it keeps marking you and identifying you. When you get at peace with yourself and realize, "You know what, if I saw what I see now, if I knew what I know now, I would have never been wearing those shoes." That means that you've changed. That means that you are not the one who wore those shoes. That was somebody else. You were born again.
2:05:30 - We don't preach this stuff enough. And we are still fighting with the old and trying to change and trying to get over the past. The past is so crushed by the gospel. Who I used to be is so obliterated. It has no voice, I promise.
2:05:50 - If you do something wrong do you need to ask God for forgiveness or just say that you are sorry? - Actually, I don't do either. Repentance is a change of your mind, so of course you are sorry. I don't ask God for forgiveness, in that sense. Here is what I do: God, I so thank you for the light in my life that shows me that is not who I am. That is so not your nature. For instance, if I made a snap judgement (book by it's cover). God, that was so presumptuous. That was so not life giving and so judgmental. That was so not who you are. You would never see them that way. And that's not who you created me to be. And I turn to you right now and I thank you because of the light in my life you have caused this awareness to be in me. And you are making me wiser, sharper and so much more like you. And I thank you that when I see men, I believe the best. And I thank you God that I see what you see. I thank you that your nature is alive in me.
2:07:35 - Separate your identity from sin - Build the truth in your life - When you just say "forgive me," you don't separate yourself from the nature of sin. When you just say, "I'm sorry," you don't separate yourself from sin. You don't build the truth in your life. You still see yourself as an accident waiting to happen. And, "I'm sure glad that you're merciful because I'm going to need forgiveness again." There is no relationship in that. There is no healthy identity in that. There is no building up in truth or walking in righteousness in that.
2:08:15 - Confess your sins - What does it look like? - So what does "confess your sins" look like? God, I am so glad that you are building truth in me. That I just saw the way that I was seeing that family (snap judgement). God, that was so presumptuous. You would never look at somebody outwardly like that. I regard no man in the flesh. Here is the thing, if you are honest with your own heart about those situations, won't God build His kingdom in you greater? Won't the light that is already shining be more relevant in your life? And all of the sudden the ability to see somebody in that wrong light - it's gone because of this process. It's so strange now. If it even enters in, it is so exposed for what it is now.
2:09:10 - Now you could do yourself injustice and just sit on those convictions and just not deal with it and never have relationship. That's why knowing Him is eternal life. That's why we are called into the fellowship of His Son.
2:09:30 - Separate your identity from the stain of sin - So it's not about "I'm sorry" and "forgive me" because that doesn't separate you from the capacity to sin, the identity to sin, the memory of sin, the stain of sin. What separates you is righteousness. Look - "confess your sins" - that's all I am doing when I do that. God, that was so presumptuous. That was so judgmental. God, you said that I should regard no man in the flesh. If one died, all died. God forbid that I would live in that kind of wisdom and that kind of way. Thank you for showing me that and building this truth in me. God I thank you for setting me free in every way. And I thank you for building your kingdom in me so effectually that I would never see anyone with a snap judgment like that again. That when I would look, I would look into the gold - into the value - and to always believe the best about everyone.
2:10:10 - And He is faithful to forgive us - That is "confess your sins." And He is faithful and just to forgive us - so He is going to forgive us so why do I ask for forgiveness? I'm not because I am not separating myself from the identity of sin if I am just asking for forgiveness.
2:10:25 - The consciousness of sin has to be addressed - If you are just asking for forgiveness, then you are even reserving the right sometimes to wonder if you are forgiven. And now you are asking for forgiveness again and again because the consciousness of sin has not been dealt with. Because the act of sin is driving you. The act of sin is driving you, "Oh, forgive me, forgive me" and 2 days later you still feel a little guilty and you don't go to pray and you don't feel real fired up and you think, "It's still that sin. God, forgive me for that sin and wash me clean." Well, you already asked 3 times now. Why are you doing that? Because you have never dealt with the consciousness of sin. The act of sin is now labeling you once again and telling you that this is who you are and you are paying the price for your sin.
2:11:15 - No, you separate yourself from that. He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So what is the only thing that can be left after this process? Righteous judgment. And by His stripes I'm healed. So I can't even reap an effect of this whole thing because it is crushed through the blood. And I only reap what He has sown. Because what was just sown wasn't even me anymore. It wasn't my heart, will or intent. It was exposed through the light and God is working in me. And all of the sudden that is crushed. It's not even sin. It has no price tag to it any more because I have been bought with a price. In other words it's not, "Well, brother, you made your bed and you have to sleep in it."
2:12:15 - Minister with headaches - He thought they were the result of strife in the home. He thought he was "due" these headaches - that until he deals with the strife he would have to suffer the headaches. He was wearing the identity of sin into the next day. Sin consciousness. You are paying a price for what Jesus crushed.
2:12:55 - If I had that scenario, I'm not going to be paying that price - that some demon spirit has the ability to wreck my next day because I sinned. No, as soon as I am forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness, how will that headache stick to righteousness if you are the enemy? Legally, how do you stick to righteousness? Where do you find a loophole? The devil is a legalist.
Love doesn't Seek its Own
2:13:40 - v.10 - He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. - It shows the state of man.
2:13:50 - v.11 - He came unto his own, and his own received him not. -
He didn't disown - remember? They sure didn't look, act, think or live like His own but guess who they were. His own. That's love right there. Why did He come? Because He knows who they are. He can't leave them that way, even if it cost Him His life. "I'm going to send you the message of a lifetime to change the way you are because you are so much more (than the way you are living). It's not even the truth about you. No matter what the cost, I am coming that you might be saved." You can hear love in that.
2:15:25 - He could have been offended. Man, when your own don't receive you then you are all alone. That's what we think but the Father is always with Him.
2:15:50 - Jesus wasn't hurt or offended - When He came to his own and they didn't receive Him. He didn't get hurt. That means He didn't come to His own for Himself. He came for them. You can only be hurt or offended when yourSELF gets involved. It's impossible to be hurt and offended when it has nothing to do with you. You can only hurt for the situation and the people involved. God's not hurt. He's hurting for humanity. God's not sitting there needing to be cuddled. Love doesn't seek its own.
2:17:00 - You would do well to camp out in 1 Cor. 13. Put your name in there.
2:17:20 - Seeking our own from the time we were born - Love doesn't take account of a suffered wrong. Why? Because love doesn't seek its own. God forbid that we carry seeking our own into our Christian faith. We've always been taught to seek our own - to covet - to survive - even at the expense of others. We have sold others out to gain reputation. We gossip behind the scenes to tear down the integrity of others so that we can be seen as valuable. We've done that our whole lives on different levels - to save face and be recognized - to be appreciated and accepted. We've justified ourselves. From the time we were born we were seeking our own.
2:18:20 - That's why men are hurt and offended and mad and angry. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, evenof your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. - James 4:1-2. It's not going your way so you are not having a good day. It needs to go Yahweh, not your way.
2:19:10 - If you went to your own - church, family etc. - in a situation, and if your heart is not clean and you don't go for the purpose of love and restoration and bring the best out in folks, then you are going in there vulnerable (to hurt and offense). And you are only going to do as good as they respond.
2:19:35 - We ought to talk about this stuff. It will get out the weakness and deception. And we will stop making excuses for living in the flesh.
2:19:45 - Identity rests in God not in others - You are not my barometer - My life and how good I am doing today is never dependent on you. As much as you can be a blessing and cheer me on, I can never let my identity rest on you. It rests on the finished work of Christ and the value that God finds in me through His created purpose (for me). And from that place I will live very healthy. If you are my barometer, you have the power not just to make me but to break me.
2:20:15 - Jesus shows us the patience of love - When Jesus comes to His own - the worlds would not exist without Him - by Him everything was made - yet when He comes to His own it's not a happy reunion. They don't respond. They don't receive Him and they don't even know Him. But He understands that. He understands, "Forgive them Father. They don't know what they are doing." So we are not praying for patience. We are becoming love because love is patient.
2:20:50 - Praying for patience. Just become love. If you are impatient you are just saying that you haven't been perfected in love. Love is patient and kind. You are not trying to be kind. You are in love. You are not trying to be nicey-nicey. It's not about that. It's about I love you. And it's patient and kind because it sees the value and potential of all men.
* * *
2:21:40 - Re: John 1:11 - When John says that Jesus came to "His own" was he talking about the Hebrews? -
He came for all people - Yes, but He came for all people. It's like what the Syro-Phonecian woman said to Him, "Yes, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table..." What she was saying was, "I understand that you came first for the house of Israel but I also understand that You are the world's Messiah and Christ and that you love all men."
2:22:25 - It absolutely pertains to you. We know that now that everything is revealed. When it was written they were talking about the Hebrew people. They were called of God. They had all of the covenants and promises. We were in the world without hope, without covenant, without promise. But He came - graphed us in - two became one. He became the Mediator and took away the separation. So when John writes "His own" he is talking about the Jewish people.
2:23:00 - Jewish leaders driven by self-centeredness - But because of the fall of man and sin-consciousness and religion and self-centered desire (the Jews were not where God designed them to be). Look at the Pharisees - the leaders of the church of that day - were driven by how men would esteem them and honor them. It was all about them. It wasn't even about God, even a little bit. It was all about them and what they were doing to be seen by men. Best seats... the honor. It was self deluxe. That was the leaders.
Prayer to Go to Heaven vs. The True Gospel
2:24:00 - v.12 - But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: -
Salvation is more than a prayer to go to heaven - To as many as recieved Him - That doesn't just mean to ask Jesus into your heart. It's not a little Sunday school prayer to ask Jesus into your heart. But to as many as RECEIVED Him - In other words, to as many as see and understand who He is and what He is saying.
2:24:25 - People are sincere but we're not teaching the gospel - We've got to preach this message clearly. We've just made it a prayer to go to heaven. And we still live in the same turmoil, misunderstandings, twists of heart and motive. And sometimes it is sincere people just misinformed, misunderstanding and ignorant to truth. And they are crashing and burning and yet their hearts are sincere and they realize that they need a Savior but we are not even teaching the gospel.
2:24:55 - It's about being born again - new life - Transformation - It's all about a new life. It's all about a born again experience. You are not even saved to go to heaven. You are saved to be transformed back into His image. We are not even preaching that. We are preaching, pray this prayer and make sure your name is in the book because when the trumpet blows you want to be written there.
2:25:10 - No, Jesus isn't preaching that. His emphasis put off the old, put on the new, love your neighbor, as you want men to do to you do to them, give and it shall be given. His whole message was the life He lived.
2:25:30 - We've made "salvation" self-serving - We've turned it into a self-serving thing. Pray a prayer for me so that I am sure that I go to heaven and not to hell. You could sit in a service and say, "I don't know if what this guy is preaching is right but I'm praying the prayer just in case he is right." And then we say that 14 people got born again.
2:25:45 - Preach saying - The kingdom is here - I'm not saying that people haven't gotten saved that way. And I'm not saying that God's mercy is not greater. And I'm not saying that Holy Spirit can't still do a work, but my goodness, is that even what Jesus taught us? He said, "Go, say that the kingdom is here" - the way God functions, the way God thinks, the way God flows and moves is on the earth. So let's repent and change the way we think, move, flow and function and let's get in His realm. Let's come out from the old and into the new. Come out from among them - be ye separate. Come out of the darkness into the light. Get born again!
2:26:10 - Conversion brings refreshment - one with God - Conversion - and times of refreshing come from the Lord. Why are so many Christians not refreshed? Because there is no conversion. They just want to be blessed. They need God to answer all of their needs and prayers but their is no conversion and they are dry as a bone. And it's just me, me, me. When am I going to catch a break. When are you going to give me my due. After a while when you hear someone else's testimony it make you resentful in your own heart, "Well, God, when are you going to move for me like that?"
2:26:50 - And it's all about me. No, it's all about His nature. It's all about Christ in you - you and Him being one. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me - Gal. 2:20. It's always been about Christ in you.
2:27:10 - God breathes into us life - God BREATHED into man and man became a living being. Why? Because God BREATHED life into him and that life is God. And that life is the light of men. And that light shines in the darkness. Why? Because the lights are on now and the darkness can never again overtake it. Why? Because the light is on. The truth has come. The truth makes me free. I continue in the word and I know the truth and the truth makes me free.
2:27:40 - All of these scriptures make so much sense when they are put together.
It's All about Love
2:28:00 - We are going to move slowly on this topic of love. Because the whole goal of our instruction is love. And if we don't have love we have missed the whole purpose.
2:28:25 - When Jesus addresses the church at Ephesus it sounds like things are going great. (Revelation 2:1+) And then He says, "But I have this one thing against you - you have lost the purpose in it all - you've lost your first love. - (Rev. 2:4). You have become religious and dutiful and it makes you self-righteous and rigid." And you think, "Well, what's wrong as long as they are doing all of this good?" They will start projecting on men. They will start losing the value of others. That's how legalism comes in.
2:29:00 - Here is how serious it was. He said, "Get back to these first things lest I come and remove the lamp from your lamp stand" - the anointing, the blessing, the favor of God. Isn't that amazing?
2:29:20 - It's always about love guys. It's about you and me becoming love. I can sing with the tongues of men and of angels but if I don't have love, I don't have anything. - Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. - 1 Corinthians 13:1+ Knowledge of mysteries, faith to move mountains, etc.
Dying to Self Clears the Way for Love
2:29:40 - Is love a choice? - It's something you grow into. You have to be willing to die to yourself. Dying to yourSELF is becoming love - dying to self-rights, self-agenda, self-motivation, etc. But sometimes that (these things: self-rights, etc.) is so muddy, so subtle and seductive that it gets exposed along the way and we grow up into Him in all things. That's why we continue in the truth and we grow up and the light keeps getting brighter. And you might be living in a certain way an all of the sudden that wasn't seen - that was acceptable a month ago - a mindset that wasn't convicted - all of the sudden it will get exposed. "Oh, my goodness, that is so not you." Now you see it for what it is and you keep growing up into Him in all things - to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
2:30:30 - But in the sense of a choice, you can't just say OK I'm going to love everybody and I am just going to see the value of everybody. I can't just decide to love you today. I have that capacity through looking to Jesus, through communing with Him, growing in relationship where His eyes become my eyes, where His heart becomes my heart because I give myself to Him in prayer. I give myself to Him in that place of communion and worship and I don't want to live for me. And all of the sudden my eyes are walking in a place, my heart is walking in a place and grace is allowing me to function in that place that is called love. It's all by grace. A man has nothing except it is given. But you have to "want to" become that. And the only way that you can is if you surrender you.
2:31:15 - We partially surrender but we still have rights - Here's what we do... We surrender to a degree but we have still have lines that you can cross - borders and boundaries. We still have "enough is enough" and "wait, you are going too far." We pick and choose. We still have rights.
2:31:30 - Let go of rights - Denying yourself is to let go of your life. People don't like this kind of preaching because we are touchy folks if it gets down to the nitty-gritty. A lot of us still have rights. And we have the right to be certain things because we fix on what is wrong and that makes us right. You ought to be glad that God never fixed on what was wrong or we are all wrong. It's righteousness that we live by. You might be amazed at how many of us have these little rights hidden in our lives that are built up in our lives - little rights that can be crossed. And when things get it's exposed what you really have let go of and what you still retain.
2:32:30 - When I give myself - what it means to me - I die to all my rights to obtain one right: to be like Him. And if that is my pursuit, grace will take me there. And I will manifest the heart of God through my life. And come hell or high water - justice or injustice, I will respond like the Son of God, by the Spirit of God. Because we are the body of Christ.
2:33:10 - This is where the rubber meets the road. This stuff is important and pertinent. Then you know in your own heart are you really ready to die? Do you still have an agenda? Do you still lines that can be crossed? Do you still have borders and boundaries? The comment can be: "Well, brother, you have to be careful that you are not just a door mat. You don't want to let people just walk all over you." That is seductive, deceptive language that gives your flesh a right to live. That's just your flesh saying, "Wait! We've been buds for so long. Don't kill me! Let me live." Die flesh. Die.
2:33:50 - God never drew lines with us - You show me where Jesus drew that line on the way to the cross. Even after the resurrection and He found His men in fear... You show me every time a Christian backslid and feared and transgressed and went into his own ways and slopped up like the hog in the mud after he was shiny clean... You show me where God drew lines.
2:34:25 - Participant comment about Jesus drawing in the sand at the story of the woman caught in adultery.
2:34:30 - Hosea & Gomer - A picture of what real love looks like - When you look at Hosea you understand what God is saying. He's prophesying to Hosea, "You go find Gomer - that harlot and you marry her. And you give your life to her." Sin and death was destroying his people. So God is drawing a line in the sand and saying, "Would you chose who you are going to serve. Because if you are not for me you are against me and it is destroying you. I love you. Would you come and be mine?" He wasn't saying, "If you don't cross the line, I divorce you." Or, "I don't want to be a spouse to you. It's the law of sin and death that is eating and destroying them alive. At the same time He is sending the message through Hosea.
2:35:10 - And then she leaves and returns to harlotry. And God tells Hosea, "Go get her and bring her back." It's a beautiful story. What is He saying? "By this you prophesy Hosea that I will always love my children Israel, no matter your many lovers. I love you." Because love doesn't say, "I love you. Do you love me?" It simply says, "I love you."
2:35:35 - God was not cutting off His people - But inviting them into intimacy - So the drawing the line in the sand wasn't God cutting off His people. You can't read the Bible legalistically. You have to read it through grace and mercy. It's the love of the Father saying, "Don't you see that the choices, the indifference, the indecision is destroying you and your value and what we could have together?" If that wasn't what God was saying when He drew the line in the sand, He would have never sent His Son because we are cut off. But He sent a ring - a beautiful diamond ring named Jesus to slip it on our hearts and say, "Will you marry me?" That's God the Father coming to the world, "Will you marry me?" I will! Yes!
2:36:45 - Interpreting the Bible to suit yourSELF - A lot of people that challenge this message, deep down inside the only reason they are interpreting things the way they are is because it gives them a right to remain the same and hold on to the things that they are holding onto. This truth is challenging them to change. So then you are reading the scripture for a different motive and not to learn His will. And your interpretation is muddy and not clear. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. - John 17:7. But man makes the scriptures say a lot of things because of what is motivating their heart. A lot of contesting of scripture by Christians is to remain in the right to be the way that they have been. It justifies less than truth. It justifies less than freedom. Some people don't realize that if they would just let go they would know freedom for the first time. What you are holding onto is destroying you.
2:37:50 - This message challenges the flesh - Flesh wants to stay the same - This thing is not preached clearly. And is challenging to our flesh. Your spirit man has no trouble with what is being said. Heaven totally understands what I am preaching. Jesus said, "How can I even tell you heavenly things when you can't even handle earthly things - (John 3:12). Why? Because we are hearing in the flesh. We're hearing through personal offense, through the right to hold on, to judge. And Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not. Isaiah says that He was despised and rejected by men - not esteemed - (Is. 53:3). Where does His esteem come from? From you? Or from knowing who He is in the Father? So He commits Himself to Him who judges righteously and He walks in love, doing good.
2:38:45 - Doing good and suffering for it - Your calling - The Bible says, For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. - 1 Peter 2:20. Everybody wants to know their calling. These verses tell you your calling. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: - 1 Peter 2:21. You are called to suffer for doing good because you are in the world but not of it. You are in the face of a crooked and perverse generation that is being destroyed through lust - self-centered desire. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - 2 Peter 1:4. We have received the love driven nature of God that has saved us from the downward spiral of unsatisfiable lust. The divine nature is love. Escaping the corruption that's in the world through self-centered desire.
2:40:10 - Let go of your rights - Please let go of your rights this morning. Yeah but... Was Jesus a doormat? Nobody walked on Him. He was hanging there on the cross, arms wide open, defining love. Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life... Not taking account of suffered wrongs.
2:40:50 - Without love our efforts and abilities are nothing - Camp out in 1 Corinthians 13 for a while.
2:41:00 - v.2 - And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. - If that is true in someone's life we make them a hero.
2:41:05 - v.3 - And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. - That sounds noble. We probably ought to put up a statue to that man. That's exactly why he did it. Because if it is not for love then it is for himself. He wanted to leave a name for himself. And it says that you can go to that extreme and not be love and it is worth nothing. And I have thought, "Man it is still you are giving to the poor. You are giving yourself to be burned. You are sacrificing yourself." Yeah, but if it is not for the people it is for your own name. And it's worth nothing. You don't do things to be seen by men. You do things because of a love for men.
2:41:40 - Closing prayer - Father, we just thank you for these truths and we just ask that you would consume us in these revelations. We thank you Lord that we wouldn't be afraid to let go - that we wouldn't feel vulnerable - that we could be used. How can you use me? How can you emotionally abuse me? I don't understand. I don't want to understand. Father, I am asking that you not let us even understand how we can be emotionally abused when we know who we are and know whose we are and why. And our hearts are towards humanity - no matter how depraved they are living - no matter how unjust - there is this place - even in the secret place - to cry sincere tears of prayer and cry before the throne. And forgive men their trespasses so that they are forgiven. God don't let our hearts be hardened by this world. But let them be softened by your love and let a new heart of flesh - true, pliable, flexible - that is conformed to you in your image - not a hard, waxed, cold, dry, brittle heart but a new heart of flesh be in all of us. Cause us to see through your eyes and see through your truth and make peace with all men. Father, we bless you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.