Inland Empire: Riverside
Freedom - Audio
And when I screw up, they're going to give me a lobotomy or something. So I really, it might take a little getting used to, all right? It is, I'm going to start out the sermon with a video, because Steve called me and said that you guys are doing a series on the spirit and to talk about the Holy Spirit today. So I want to show you a video that describes how we need to keep not just the letter of God's law, but the spirit as well. So let's enjoy this for a minute here, all right? I hope you can catch the subtlety of this. [MUSIC] So I listen to the preacher as he told me what to do, he said you can't go in others who have done wrong to you. Sometimes we get angry, but we must not condemn. Let the good Lord do his job. You just pray for them, I pray you'll break your heart running down, and I pray a flower part calls from the windowsill, and knocks you in the head like I'd like to. I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you're flying high, when your engine calls, I pray all your dreams never come true, just know wherever you are, I pray for you. I'm really God I found my way to church, because I'm already feeling better and I thank God all the words, I'm on the stage, but I wrote it, and throughout the preach it tells me to you, you keep messing up, and I'll keep praying for you, I pray if fire blows out and I'm hundred and ten, I pray your pass out drunk with your best friend, and wake up with his friend, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes, I pray you'll break day comes, I pray you'll break day comes, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray you'll break day comes and nobody calls, I pray for our enemies but let's say, let's change what we pray sometimes, all right, took my watch off, you know what that means? Nothing. No, really, I'm trying to be a more disciplined preacher these days, so hopefully it means a lot. And I have preached for you before and it's been all over the place. So let's keep a discipline today, all right? Turn your bibles, if you will, to Romans the 8th chapter. I really want to lift up Mike and Libby, they just got back from the Middle East. Kathy and I went to Australia in January and oh my goodness, we hadn't been overseas a long time and you know, it is hard when you're over 50 to go traveling like that. And you know, Mike, he is so old that Libby is a little younger, so it's not as hard on her but I just admire Mike in an amazing way that he can handle it. So I'm going to say some very sweet, mushy things about Mike at just the right time in this sermon and sneak up on his heart and it's just going to be amazing. But I really do admire them. The Middle East is not a safe place and Mike and Libby are devoted there and this church is in supporting it and helping it and I just applaud you for that. I'm in town for a hope worldwide board meeting. I'm on the board there. Basically, we've had that two days of discipleship, they call it board alignment. That's just a nice way of safe. You're going to get changed, transformed whether you like it or not. And you know, because we're trying to build team and everything. And so I'm humbled today. Some outside consultants seems to sink deeper when people that don't know you are right on about you, you know. And I got challenged about assertiveness. I was way too aggressive. I left to wait behind me and that was too much. And so I, the Pendulum Swing and I became a little more passive and I'm getting back to being assertive and good leaders above assertive. And he's a little bit aggressive. That's what you guys have. You have some great leaders in this group. I mean, yeah, amen. Mike is one of my heroes, one of the most passionate brothers. He came out to Omaha and spoke and I mean, he just, he was incredible. I thought, wow, that was so intense. You know, man, I got to step it up a notch. And we brought this couple with us. It was a marriage thing. And I see him just going straight out the back and out to the parking lot. I thought, oh, maybe he was too intense. Oh, my, come on. What are you doing? And they just got some other car and came back in. They thought he was awesome, you know. So you want a little bit aggressive leader. All right. Just to swallow that because that's the best time. That's what Steve is and Doug is and Doug is and Steve, they've both spoken and I've heard them lately and I'm just, I just think, wow, they're good. They're good. You know, because preachers, we know what's good. We think we do anyway. And so anyway, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. When Gordon Ferguson and I were leading the church in San Diego, Gordon asked me to read a book by a fellow named Bruce Nairmore entitled, "No Condemnation." He thought I was a little legalistic, a little harsh, not very merciful, not very gracious to myself for other people. And he was right. And I read that book and it had a profound impact on me. That when you can give yourself grace, you can give it to other people. And if you haven't been able to give yourself grace, then you haven't extended that mercy to other people. When Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be perfect as I am perfect." He's basically saying, "Be perfect in love." You're really Christian when you can love your enemies. Everybody else can love those that love them and give love and return love. When you've really arrived, you've got the spiritual maturity. You've gotten whole when you can love your enemy. All right? And Jesus just, he redefined Christianity back to where God's will was in the Sermon on the Mount because the first he's gotten so far off of what God really intended to draw all their legalism and their laws. And so Jesus comes back to not to, basically, to reinterpret correctly the law. And we sometimes do keep the law, but we don't keep the spirit behind the law, the heart, the love, the mercy. That's why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, the key to it is mercy. That if you give mercy, you'll receive mercy. And it's saying here that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I haven't arrived at totally embracing no condemnation. I still feel guilty. Sometimes when I should, because I'm sinful and prideful and selfish and lazy and lustful. And sometimes because I just know I'm not perfect and I'm trying to be. And I need to accept the forgiveness and grace of God because it paralyzes you when you're not free in Christ. All right? It's going to do more than paralyze you when you are guilty and you need to confess your sin. All right? I've helped six young single guys become Christians in the last six months, about one a month. And boy, has that changed my ministry. You know? It's balanced me out a little bit. I got to a point where I was really, really encouraging and always really trying to build up and give grace and everything. And then I sort of got brought back to reality. These guys are sinners. I love them. Death but these rascals struggle. You know? And we have decipally times every Friday with one fella. He's so really so open. He's so honest. But man, he just started. He was had an alcoholic background and his mother lives in a nudist colony and I mean, he just had a terrible dysfunctional upbringing and he just needs a lot of support. And I help him to, I need to help him not to feel guilty but I also need to make sure he keeps the bar where Jesus said it. Be like Jesus. Grace doesn't mean we lower the bar. It means that the Lord lifts us up to that bar. There's now no condemnation. You know, I helped a little girl. We went from no young people in our church. We just had this yuppy young married church and then a few of us older folks. All right. They think I'm really old. I'm not old but they all it's all a matter of perspective, you know. How old am I? Well, that's for you to guess. It's over 50. I'll just give you a hint. All right. But we didn't have any single thought. We really focused on it. Now we have 15, you know, college and single age people. And you know, some of these girls have been so abused by the world. They're pure, they're righteous. But you know, some of them have sexual transmitted diseases that will never go away and they feel so condemned. And gosh, I hate Satan for that. And I love this verse and I share it with them all the time. And I try to make every sermon have at least one point for these in the audience that feel condemned over and over and over sends you are forgiven of a long time ago by the blood, the flowing blood of Jesus from the cross. There is now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus. Why? Because we've been set free. He goes on, he says in Romans 8, 3, "For what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by the sinful nature God did by sitting his son in the likeness of the simple man to be a sin offering." And so he condemned sin and sinful man. There's, you know, we're made the image of God. I preached a sermon about that last week, go online, listen to it. It's a little long, but you know, so break it up in parts, I guess. All right. But I believe we're made in God's image, but also know we felt from that image. We felt from the glory. We're sinful. Jesus had to come down and relate to sinful man, it says here. In Philippians it says he had to make himself a little lower than the angels. Hebrews 1 says that he had to come down in human likeness. He came down from the heavenly host being right up there with God below the angels down to man's level because we're sinful. To do what? To render the law and sin powerless though. That's good stuff. I don't know if anyone has ever extended the true mercy to you. I don't know your politics, I don't care. I don't think you should bring them into the church. You know, we should change the world through faith and not the government anyway. I think you should participate in the way you want. So you know, more power to you, but it's election year. So it's a great year to have hope projects because all the politicians want to get out there and you collect votes. So we had an incredible MLK day, our little church and 100 people. We had five fire trucks, the fire chief, the assistant fire chief. They all want to get reelected. We had one person running for mayor. We had a guy, he read it for the U.S. Congress. We had the county treasurer. I mean, we thought we'd get one of them. We got them all. We didn't have enough slots for them to talk. I had to read them the right way. You get five minutes, buddy. Five minutes. But it was awesome. We got out all the three, you know, all 15, all three new stations in Omaha. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not political. These guys revolve in different persuasions and I thought it was beautiful. But I heard a story about George W. Bush I want to share with you. One of his speech writers had plagiarized 27 out of 36 of his, they weren't really speeches. They were briefings. They were supposed to be research reports on certain topics that George needed to get a little smarter on. He probably had lots of reports coming his way. But this fella got caught and it got all over the newspapers in Washington. I'm not going to tell you his name because he doesn't need to be drug food and mud anymore. I know it. But he got fired and somebody lower than George fired him. But he asked if he could go in and see the president before he left the West Wing and George said sure. And he came in and he had his speech just like the prodigal son right now. And he was going to apologize for embarrassing the president shaming him and doing what he did really sitting against the president. And he started off Mr. President and George says, I forgive you. He said no sir I am so and he's crying at that point and he says I forgive you. And the guy just he's ready. He's got to get this out. He got to unload this burden into his conscience and he starts in again and George says I forgive you. I have been shown mercy in my life and I am intent on showing mercy to you. Amen. And I don't know. I'd like to hear the story about when he received mercy. But that that should be our heart. There are the times when we're probably the most angry at people, the most embarrassed, the most shamed, the most frustrated with others, when we need to teach them a lesson of no condemnation that they'll never forgive. Amen. It's easy to kick a dog when it's down and we do that. Sometimes we pile on and we hurt when we of all people need to be that healing bomb. Amen. He heals hearts. He goes on in Romans 8, 10 through 11, but Christ is in you. Your body is dead because of sin yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you brother, living in you sister. He raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal body and he's saying mortal body in a way that really isn't becoming. He says Jesus is going to give life. The spirit is going to give life to our dead bodies, our human, our sinful, our nasty selves through his spirit who lives in you. What's good in me? You know, we want to feel good about ourselves. We want affirmation. I mean, it's embarrassing. I'll tell you my age now. I'm 54 years old and I still want people to affirm me. You know, it's embarrassing. I had a therapist. He's really a supervisor in the chaplain's department at the hospital where I work. He told me, he said, Greg, as long as you live here, I'm never going to tell you you did a good job. You're going to tell yourself you did a good job because you do a great job, but you want to hear it from me so bad you're like a child. Oh, that hurt. But you know, I'm the youngest of four boys and my brothers picked on me and mocked me and made fun of me and my dad was cold and aloof and I just have something in me to try to please authority and try to please my teacher, try to get that A. I'm driven to succeed and it's been the best thing for me. Now I look in the mirror and my daughter said, if you say that, Greg, I'm going to crawl under the bench, but I'm going to say, dog on it. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And people like me. Brothers, this is a firm yourself because the spirit of God lives in you. See, they're trying to shock me. I knew that was going to happen. See, Mike will mess with you. He's a practical joker. What'd I do wrong? We're real polystep here. I'm a professional. When you come to LA, man, you should do it right. Look at that hokey Midwest stuff. Come on. Brother, the sisters, we have a power within us. If we could just embrace that power, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, that is the power that conquered all evil, all sin, all wickedness, every demon, every force of the dark world. Come on now. You think Harry Potter has power? You got so much more because the spirit, and you don't even need a wand or scar on your forehead. Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. Come on, your dance, the dance, the music. Now, our children and new heirs, heirs of God and coiters of Christ, if indeed we share in a suffering in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth. They're not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. And He goes on and says in verse 24, "For in this hope we are saved, but hope that we see is not at all. We hope for what He already has, but if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it to take Him. I've got to keep going because I really want to get to this verse. Verse 26, "In this same way the spirit helps us in our luck." Now, I'll give this Markley just to the out. All you perfect kids, you know, powerful, strong, you know, farm-strung, food-strapped kind of people. Don't worry about me, you know, don't worry about prayer, all right? Okay, now that you see. We do not know what we ought to pray, because of the spirit of self-intercede's breath, the groans of words cannot spread. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes with the saints in the courts to die, but not once a month, that dies for us, that dies for us, that dies for us, that dies for us, that dies for us, that dies. I walk down, somebody fluff down in the chair, fluff down in the wall, and there is an emotional, emotional, spiritual. But usually, a lot of students can help you. No, I try to do it. So I go away with them, and I see what's wrong with those very loved ones, and they come back out, and fluff down next to them, and I just talk to them, and I just talk to them, and I just talk to them, and I'm very sorry. And it's all nice to be patient. Trag, there's blood infection in the foreground right now, people from hell, they don't need to think about it. There's all kinds of tragedy. This particular person saw the loved person, it was sick, they had been waiting for, and I married after 40, it was the person that denied the shiny army, the prince charming, they're so very in love, and they were so mad at God, which is who they should have imagined. Consistent, the murderer, the liar, the destroyer of good, the people persipriaging, such that there is a safety for God, and this, with all this just comes out of his God, it makes you feel he always comes out after his brother. And if I have to go over to the house, he's pregnant, he's pregnant, he's pregnant. There's four ladies, he's pretty pretty much, he was wrong, I had to think of the words I had to correct them, but from a person that at first didn't want me to even stop the spirit, he knew there was something else, what I have in sight of, and it's a spirit of God, and now I'm going to share with you, and I do, and I figure out how to do it, that person, and they're all going to give you that, and look back, and see the place, and how to do it like that, I think she's going to be so mad at God, I think she's going to get back what she's not, she's totally wrong, because it's a spirit here, so you can hear her stuff about her, I don't know how many times you've been to the point of not being able to stay over this, but you need to tell her, we all need that to tell her how to do it right now, and he goes on and tells her a couple more words, it's like, who just separates from the level of Christ, nothing, nothing, you can, you can make your own choice walk away, and not remember, that's the level, and then in church, we try out, and I go over, we'll give you any criticism, we'll be trying to hold on to it, you know, to any of these separates, and hearts, if the persecution, or famine, or faith, and Mr. Danger is so ordered, for you're safe, this is the angel's name, this is Jesus' name, and we face death all day long, we're considered his chief to be slaughtered, no at all things, you and my brothers are more than comfort, because we didn't invite the battle, you just enjoyed it, Jesus fought the battle, he took all our hearts and died in the battle of Christ, the resurrection, and so we celebrate with you, and not just ladies, we get a celebrate, we just need you, we celebrate every second of this year, every second of this resurrection war, every Sunday, we're already conquerors, every Sunday, we celebrate, and I, you and I are victorious, you miss? You're gonna face my voice here, what number, Brian, you have to see the death, and I see a lot of you in a level of love, and you can follow me off with that, I'm good to celebrate now, to break where it can be carved, you went out partying in the marriage, but this year it's that night, both the times, that night, what a bunch of money, you know, drink a lot, this guy is carved, somebody else drove home, they were the designated driver, which is the type of work it can happen, this is how much they want to destroy you, you know, you just fell down the street, it's a trip, get his act, no blood, nothing, two drugs you can realize, how bad it was, went out, slept for two days, at a morning, you bring him in, running in line, keep over trying to make a mess, speaking to his father, right in the hospital, saw it out his skull, throws it for months, because so much of him, in intensity care for months, in rehab for months, in speech therapy for months, finally guys pulled back on, his hair were back, everything got fixed, and he came to church, that a cousin got the church, and then by three years, he finally decided, I need to change if we could study about it, it's awesome, he just might be just no, and he had a lot of all that anymore. I don't care about people, and you care about people, and you don't want them to hold down. You know what I all think, God works, and you know, what is the spirit between you and me, works and you, always works, and you do the right thing, from the inside out and from the outside, he's all those questions. God is always trying to take you into safety, disaster, tragedy, make your accident, holy Christ, and try to think guys, put them back together for those of you. I see a lot of tragedy, but I wait, I wait, the people say, people who put their cards in the back, I wait for God to work, and I see them working, both in the seat, they don't hold all the pure things, they're just going to count on the importance of the health of the people. [Applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Greg Marutzky