WEBVTT

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This is your daily reminder. God has not run

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out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome

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to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome to Today

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Friday, February 20th. My reading today brings

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me to Haggai 1 again. I know we've already read

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this text once this week, but I want to focus

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on just another verse today, one verse in particular.

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I don't want to give away the Sunday message

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too much, but I just want to read verse number

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8 today out of Haggai 1. Go read the whole chapter,

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read it all in context. If you have already read

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it, maybe you read it earlier this week, maybe

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you've already read it today before you picked

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up and listen to the podcast, but today I want

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to look at just verse number eight and give you

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a principle in here that I think we need to understand.

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A little bit of context and background in case

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this is the first episode you're listening to.

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Maybe you haven't heard Haggai already. This

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scene is happening. There's a remnant that has

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gone back to Jerusalem. When they got there,

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there was a call to rebuild the temple. But as

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we've seen in Haggai 1, they didn't start rebuilding

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the temple. They started rebuilding their own

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houses. So now I want to give a little bit of

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ease to some people's minds and hearts. Some

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people read the Old Testament and think, man,

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the Israelites were just terrible. They were

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awful. Why would they not pay attention to the

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Lord? Why would they not do what he says? This

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doesn't make any sense. It's so easy. We do the

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exact same thing. I want you to imagine the people

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that went back, the remnant that went back after

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they were in captivity, they had to travel and

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they didn't have the luxuries we have. It was

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a difficult journey. They had to get there and

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set up their home site. It was not easy. They

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needed to prepare places. Where are they going

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to cook? Where are they going to share meals?

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Where are they going to find shelter? Any of

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those things. We give them a really hard time,

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but if we put ourselves back in that situation,

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you would do the same thing, probably. I would

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probably do the same thing. Now, I wish and I

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hope that I could say that I would listen to

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the Lord and do what He called us to do first.

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That's what I wish I could say. But it would

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be difficult. It would be difficult. So I don't

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want to give them too hard a time to know that...

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They had to travel back. They had to do a lot

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of work, and they built their own houses. Now,

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the problem was once they started building their

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own houses, they got kind of consumed with it,

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and so they kept building, kept making it nicer

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and nicer and nicer. They were upgrading their

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homes before they even built the temple. The

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temple lay in ruins, and God was not happy about

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it. He says in this first part of this chapter,

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he says, you know, You said it's not time to

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build a temple yet, but was it time to live in

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lavish homes? Was it time to make sure and upgrade

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your home over and over and over again? Let me

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just ask you this question. Let me remind you,

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the reason you have a drought is because you've

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forgotten me. You've misplaced your priorities.

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And so I want to read just verse number 8 today

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in Haggai chapter 1. I hope and pray again. You

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read the whole thing. It's really great. I don't

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want to read Haggai 1, just verse number 8. It

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says this, You know, that is a very beautiful

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verse of Scripture. It's also a very challenging

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verse of Scripture because we all fall into this...

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trap sometimes, that if the Lord wants to do

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it, he will provide something miraculous and

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it will be done. And here's what I have learned.

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Sometimes God says, go cut the wood, come bring

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it down and build the house. That's not a, I'm

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going to stir up a storm. It's going to blow

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the trees down. They're going to roll down the

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mountain right to the foot of the temple. That's

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sometimes what we want to see happen. Sometimes

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we're waiting on the multimillionaire to show

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up and donate a big check so that we can get

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something done. Sometimes God just says, roll

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up your sleeves and get to work, and I will provide

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the rest. One of the things I am encouraged by

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today, one of the things I'm challenged by today,

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as I'm looking at this scripture over and over

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again, is the thought that we have to do what

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we can. So that God can do what we can't. Let

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me say that again. We've got to do what we can

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so that God can do what we can't. We get so caught

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up sometimes in waiting on some miraculous thing

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that God wants us to do. And that waiting on

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that miraculous thing is disobedience. Sometimes

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God just says, hey, here's a shovel. It's like,

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well, I need to make this happen. I need to make

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this happen. I tell this story sometimes. of

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a mission trip, I went on to Haiti. And when

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I was there with a team from our church, there

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was a dozen of us that went. And when we were

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there, there was a school that needed to be built.

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There was an orphanage that we were at, and we

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were building some bunk beds for the orphanage

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for the kids to sleep on beds. And they wanted

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a school built. Well, the problem was where the

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school was going to be built, there was a little

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hillside, a little mountainside. And they needed

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the mountainside moved. And so in order to make

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a flat area so they could build the little school

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that they were going to have. And it was absolutely

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wild that we got there. And would you believe

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it? They gave us a—we had to go buy it. We had

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to buy shovels and wheelbarrows. That's what

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we had. I will tell you this. After the first

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day of shoveling a mountain away, I began to

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pray for a bulldozer to show up. I did. I'm not

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going to lie. I was like, how much would it cost

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to rent a bulldozer and bring it in here? And

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the Haitians were like, well, that's not happening

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around here anywhere. And so, I mean, we're even

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looking up like, how can we fly one in, right?

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This is way too much work. We can get it done

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way faster if we just rent a big machine. Let's

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just throw money at it, right? The problem was

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God didn't say, I want you to throw money at

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this. He didn't say, I want you to hire a contracting

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company, send down there, go pull all the resources.

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He said, I want you to go and take a shovel and

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dig. That's what I want you to do. My whole life

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has been affected by that mission trip that I

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was on for that short week. Now I will say this,

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after a couple of weeks, we got to keep in contact

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with them. We saw a school get built down there.

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It was amazing. And it was a bunch of people

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with shovels. That's how it started. That was

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it. God tells the people of Israel, go up to

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the mountain. Go up the hillside. It's a hike.

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It's not going to be easy. I want you to go up

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there, and I want you to bring wood down. I want

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you to go up the hillside. I want you to chop

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down trees. I want you to make sure that they're

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laid out right, planed out right. I want you

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to bring them down here then to the temple where

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the temple is going to be placed, and I want

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you to build the house. I want you to build my

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house. Now, again, Lord, well, if you just bring

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us the resources, the resources are up there.

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Go get them. Stop being lazy. Lazy Christians

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are not what God's looking for. He's looking

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for people that are willing to say, I'm going

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to grab a hammer, I'm going to grab a chainsaw

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or an axe, or I'm going to grab a shovel, and

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I'm going to go to the mountainside. I'm going

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to get it done because God says, I want you to

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go do this. It's not going to be easy work. It's

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not going to be simple. But here's what God says.

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If you go do this, build the house so that I

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can take pleasure in it, then I can be glorified,

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says the Lord. Here's what's absolutely wild.

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If we do what we can, God will do what we can't.

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I have said before, as a pastor of a church,

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this is so strange to even say this, but I am

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not asking you to save people, right? You can't.

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I can't. All I'm saying is invite them to church.

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That's it. That's it. Well, what I'm going to

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do is I'm going to pray, and then if the opportunity

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arises, go to the hillside and just make the

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invite. It is not going to hurt anybody if you

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say, hey, would you come and worship with me?

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God's doing something in my life right now. I

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don't know what it's all about yet, but I'm experiencing

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hope. I'm experiencing joy. I'm experiencing

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peace for the first time in a long time. Would

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you just come and sit with me in church and see

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if there's something to this? I think there's

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something to this. That is not a hard invite.

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I'm not giving you an ax and saying, go to the

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mountain, cut down a tree, and drag it down here,

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and then we're going to build a house together.

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That's not what I'm asking you to do. I'm saying

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put in a little bit of effort. Put in a little

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bit of work. God says, I want you to consider

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your ways. Here's what I want you to do. You've

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spent all this time building your life and building

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your brand and building all this stuff for you.

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Now I'm just saying, go make the hike, cut down

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the tree, come and build the house. Let's put

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in some work. Today, I'm going to ask you to

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put in the work. That's all I'm going to ask

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you to do. We've got listeners now popping up

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kind of all over. I think former listeners to

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the New Mercies podcast that have maybe found

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us back again. You may be in a different state,

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a different country. Wherever you go to worship,

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bring somebody with you this week. Bring somebody

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with you. Say, hey, God's doing something in

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my life. I know this may sound awkward. This

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may sound strange. It may not be a conversation

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we usually have, but I've experienced some peace

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and some joy for the first time. Do you want

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to come and just worship with me this week? Just

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come and listen and experience maybe a little

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bit of what I'm experiencing. Just come and join

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with me as I'm experiencing this stuff. Just

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do that. Do that this week. Go to the mountain.

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Take the axe, take the sword. I'll say take the

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sword. There you go. Little Bible thought there.

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Take the sword with you and just go do the work.

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Do the work. Do what you can do so that God can

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do what you can't do. You cannot draw a heart.

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You cannot soften a heart. You can't tell somebody

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that they need to have, you can't. have somebody

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accept Jesus. You can't make them do that. But

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what you can do is you can invite them to be

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around the word. You can invite them to be in

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the word with you. You can say, listen, God's

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been doing something in my life. Would you just

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read some scripture with me every day? My pastor

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does this podcast and like he shares some scripture

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every day. We've got a text message that goes

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out. We've got a little journal thing that we

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do as a church that like walks to a reading plan.

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We just read some scripture with me. It's that

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easy. Just do the work. Just do the work. I want

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to read it one more time. Go up to the hills

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and bring wood and build the house that I may

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take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified,

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says the Lord. You want the Lord glorified? Go

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put in some work.