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All right, come on up here

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We got an expert. All right, so put your hand behind your back here.

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This is for where you totally can't see where you're at.

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I can do it, but he'll be like, ah!

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All right, so I have placed Chris in handcuffs. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.

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So first of all, is Chris arrested?

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Arrested or not?

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He says no.

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The term arrested, as we use it in our society most of the time, means to be apprehended by the police, taken into custody, taken down, booked, basically.

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So it means to be arrested that way.

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There are actually six or seven definitions of the word arrested.

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The simple term arrested means for something to be stopped, and you use this term, you know this term, because you've heard the term cardiac arrest, right?

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So you know that when they say the man died from cardiac arrest, that the police did not come and put his heart in handcuffs and take it down to the police station, and he was left standing there without it, and that's why he died, right?

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So cardiac arrest means that your heart stopped. Cardiac is heart. It means to have your heart, and arrest means stop.

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So now, let's say I gave Chris this bottle of water here, my life-saving bottle of water, and I said, go ahead and take a drink.

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Okay, here we go.

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So now I ask you again, is Chris arrested from taking a drink of water or not?

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So he is. So he's arrested, but he's not arrested.

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So what's the difference?

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Okay, context. How so?

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Okay, so now he's physically arrested from grabbing the water or taking a drink, right?

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But he's not arrested in a legal sense. That's what you mean by context. So in the context of the water, eh, arrested.

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Context of legal system, going to go to court, whatever, not arrested, right?

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So context in that way.

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So what is the difference between the two contexts?

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This is about what? His what?

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About his ability to take a drink of water.

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And when the police arrest you and take you downtown, that is about freedom, or being able to go somewhere else.

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So if this was sitting at home on his counter, and the police came and arrested him and took him downtown, now he's equally unable to drink it, right?

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Even if they put him in a jail cell and they don't cup him, this is not in the jail cell with him, he's unable to drink it.

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So this is about ability, could be about location, whatever is ability to drink the water or not.

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But being arrested by the police is about the police have that authority.

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They've been given that authority to detain, detain at length, haul you in front of a judge, right?

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All those kinds of things.

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So now we have the key to the cuffs.

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The first step would be really easy because it's not really technically cuffed.

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Alright, and then we have this, I'll let you do the other side.

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That'll be fun for you.

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Yeah.

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There you go, okay.

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Alright, so notice that I know how you're going to see me.

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Thank you for your patience, appreciate it.

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So notice that whether he was arrested or not was dependent upon context, dependent upon, one was about ability and the other was about the authority,

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whether somebody had the authority to detain, send a charge, that kind of thing.

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But either way, this would solve the problem, right?

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So if you happen to have a handcuffed key in the back of your belt or whatever and the police put you in cuffs,

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and then they set you somewhere and they're not paying any attention, you use the key and you let yourself out and you leave there,

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so you're not arrested either way.

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You're not detained anymore because you've left of your own ability.

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You had the key, you unlocked the cuffs, you let yourself out and you're not arrested from taking a drink of your water.

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You could be arrested under the authority of the police, pull the key out, un-let yourself out, grab your button, take a drink,

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and then you're like, hey, I don't really want to resist arrest, so you can hand yourself back and put the key back away.

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So you could do that and you would still be arrested in the first case because you did not take the opportunity to get away.

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If you did take the opportunity to get away, you'd probably be arrested again later with more charges.

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But if you have the key, you have the opportunity to get away from being arrested regardless of which type of arresting we're talking about.

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That make sense?

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There are other definitions of the word too, but those are the two primary ones that we're familiar with.

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Now, let's see if Jesus was arrested or not.

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Grab your Bibles if you would and go with me to Matthew chapter 26.

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Thank you.

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This is God's word and from here on out, whatever I get right or wrong, if you listen to the Lord, you may well grow

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and the light may shine in you more brightly than it did before we began, not because of what I say, but because this is the word of the Lord.

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We're going to begin reading in verse 47, picking up the story briefly just so we know what's going on.

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We are indeed in the garden of Gethsemane and they have been doing some praying there.

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This is right after Jesus had that horrendous, I should say horrendous-ferocious kind of combination.

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I made that word up.

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But in that horrendous time of prayer, we were praying so fervently to the Lord about what was about to happen.

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And then it says in verse 47, while he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve came up,

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accompanied by a great multitude with swords and clubs from the chief priests and elders of the people.

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So we've got a whole bunch of folks in this here crowd.

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They're not all chief priests and elders, but the chief priests and elders, some of them are probably represented there.

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We know Judas is there and there's a big old crowd of folks and they have swords and clubs.

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I submit to you that the two swords of the disciples have whiled away, probably not really enough if they were going to try to fight back.

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So they're there for another reason.

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Verse 48, now he who was betraying them gave them a sign saying, whomever I shall kiss, he is the one, seize him.

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And immediately he went to Jesus and said, Hail, Rabbi, and kissed him.

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And Jesus said to him, Friend, do what you have come for.

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Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

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So they snatched him up. They've grabbed him, right?

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And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest,

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and cut off his ear.

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Jesus said to him, Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.

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Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels.

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A legion is a common term to them, would have been easily understood to be about six thousand soldiers.

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So we're talking about seventy-two thousand angels like that, if he asks for it.

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Five, how then shall the scripture be fulfilled that it must happen this way?

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So we'll stop there for one second to make sure we understand the scene and then we'll go just a little further.

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So Jesus is in the garden. He prays, comes back to the disciples.

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It was kind of back and forth that went on there between him and the disciples that were with him.

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And then he comes and he says, It's coming. It's happening right now.

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And then Judas and the others show up.

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And forty-six he said, Arise, let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me is at hand.

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Judas and the others show up. They snatch up Jesus.

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One of the disciples whips out a sword, cuts off the guy's ear.

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In the other gospel we know that Jesus put the ear back on. That's all cool.

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All these stories are told from perspective.

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But the key here is that they were thinking he was being arrested.

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And he drew his sword to stop that from happening.

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He was going to save Jesus from being put to death.

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He could be the hero of all mankind. Save the Messiah from being put to death.

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In your mind you're going, something mathematically doesn't quite work out right there.

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If he saves Jesus from being put to death, then my sins wouldn't have been dealt with.

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And so that's not very heroic to me.

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But still, you could make the headlines by doing that. Save the Messiah from being put to death.

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So he whips out his sword, cuts off the guy's ear. Jesus warns him and says,

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Put your sword back into its place. For all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.

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In other words, that authority which you use to carry your own way, if you will,

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or to make things happen the way you want them to happen, that you think is right,

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be careful because that same authority becomes your destroyer.

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That's a difficult teaching to swallow.

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Jesus said, Do not think that I could call upon twelve legions of angels.

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Seventy-two thousand angels could be called right now to rush and save me.

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But then if I did that, how would that bring about what God said was going to happen

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exactly the way God said it was going to happen?

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And that's what's happening, by the way, in the Garden of Gethsemane that night.

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The prophecies about Jesus are being fulfilled letter by letter.

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Verse 55 then, I'll read 54 again in case you didn't quite catch the end of that.

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How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen this way?

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55. At that time Jesus said to the multitudes, Have you come out with swords and clubs

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to arrest me as against a robber?

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Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.

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But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled,

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and then all the disciples left him and fled.

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Now, I've read in my Bible many times that phrase right there where it says,

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then all the disciples left him and fled.

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And I thought of myself like, man, I wish if I was a disciple and I was there,

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I would not have left him and fled. I wish I would have stayed with him, you know?

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I hope that I'll stay with Jesus.

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And I could have written a sermon about staying with Jesus, because there they are, they run.

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And then we know how it goes. You know, Peter goes and denies him three times

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as Jesus said he would.

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And then he says, Jesus had told them that when he was arrested that they would all scatter.

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He had already told them that would happen.

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And then it occurs to me, this is exactly the way it's supposed to be.

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Even though it reflects badly on them that they leave Jesus in his moment of need,

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this is the exact way it's supposed to be.

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All the disciples left him because that's what was supposed to happen.

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So the question then remains, was Jesus arrested or not?

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Now the three points that come out of here, but the more powerful ones,

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the ones that we can kind of really use for ourselves,

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are really in the conclusion that arises out of these three points that I'm about to share with you.

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They are a play on words. The first one is this.

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Jesus was arrested according to plan. Jesus was arrested according to plan.

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So indeed, he is taken into custody and authority by those who thought they had the authority to do so

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and taken off to court to be held in front of the high priest and they'll question him.

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In fact, they'll do all of that fairly illegally.

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They have court overnight, which they're not allowed to do.

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They use people that are not allowed to be there.

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They bring up people to testify against him, try to get multiple witnesses to say the same bad thing about him.

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They force him to testify against himself, which is against their laws.

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They do it all very illegally, right? It's all very trumped up, if you will.

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But that being said, in this moment, he was arrested according to plan.

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Even Jesus said it would happen just exactly as it's been said it would happen.

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And Jesus allows it, if you will, because he doesn't call the 72,000 angels,

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or even one is all it would have really taken, to stop himself from being arrested.

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Whose plan? Well, first and foremost, you know, it's God's plan, right?

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Because God prophesied this hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born,

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that it would go exactly like this, that he would be betrayed, that he would be arrested,

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that the high priests and the servants thereof and so on would take him,

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and that his people would scatter, those who gathered to him,

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and said that they would never leave him, that they would all leave him.

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All of that was prophesied by God.

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And we're still in the midst of fulfilling the over 300 prophecies about Jesus that were prophesied,

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that make sure we know with absolute certainty, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

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unless you really want a doubt, then you can doubt if you want to,

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but there wouldn't be any logical reason for it, that God's plan was being carried out.

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So it was according to God's plan.

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But it wasn't only according to God's plan, was it?

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Because Judas went and told them, he said, this is how we'll do it,

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and he wasn't doing it because he had heard it was a prophecy,

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and he thought that was the way it was supposed to be,

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he was doing it because he was offended at Jesus.

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He was offended at the way things were going, and the way Jesus was using the money,

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and the way Jesus was talking, right? He was offended at things.

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And so he went to them, and he said for a certain price that he would betray them.

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And he said, the one I kissed, that's the one you arrest.

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And so, whose plan? Jesus was arrested according to plan.

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Whose plan was it? Well, it was God's plan, and in Judas' mind, it was Judas' plan.

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Now there's an important thing to be learned there,

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because a lot of times you make your plans and you think things are going to go a certain way,

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and even you might do so corruptly.

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Like you might go, well, I'm going to get away with something here,

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but all of that really winds up being part of God's plan.

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While you're in sin, the things that I did, or as Arjo was sharing,

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the things that he did before he got saved, the things that we were doing before we got saved,

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that was all part of God's plan in the long run.

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God knew that I would eventually encounter the gospel.

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God knew that I would turn myself over.

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Do you understand that if you go to heaven when you die, and I hope you will,

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and you will if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior in earnest,

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then God is already there, already there right now,

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ushering you into heaven and saying, well done, good and faithful servant,

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or refusing you from heaven and saying, get away from me, I never knew you.

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I hope it's the former, obviously.

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God is an eternal being.

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He exists since before time, essentially was ever created,

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and would, if there was such a thing, exist after.

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But he'll just exist forever. He's already there now.

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So you're like, well, how can we have free will?

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I don't want to get on a rabbit trail, so to speak,

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but how can we have free will if God already knows that what we do is part of his plan?

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See, God can see every choice that anyone could make.

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God is the master chess player to the four millionth degree.

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He can not only see what any of us would do next,

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but also what we could do next in every myriad possibility.

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And then he knows based on who you are in yourself outside Christ,

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who you are in yourself, which of those possibilities you're going to choose.

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Because he's that omniscient.

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He's a master chess player in the millionth degree.

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So God knew that Judas would be offended at Jesus.

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God knew that Judas would hatch a plan.

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God knew that Judas would go to the chief priests.

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God knew how much money would be offered.

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God knew that Judas would be repentant afterwards,

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but not repentant enough to turn to God, only enough to kill himself.

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God knew that Jesus would be arrested according to Judas' plan,

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because Judas' plan was part, in some small way, of God's plan.

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Jesus was being used, we'll come back to that later, to glorify God.

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Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Jesus was arrested according to his plan.

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It's hard for us to kind of justify that terminology when we talk about being arrested.

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That would be like turning yourself over to the police for jaywalking.

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Like, okay, go ahead, take me in and find me.

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I jaywalked yesterday.

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Or whatever other crime you want to use.

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You could say a more severe crime.

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The crime that they would eventually essentially hang on him

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and claim to be the king of the Jews.

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That would be Pilate's version of it.

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That he claimed to be God in the flesh.

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That would be the high priest's version of it.

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And while he was indeed the king of the Jews and claimed to be God in the flesh,

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neither one of those things is truly punishable by death,

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but they would still kill him, nonetheless.

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This was all according to Jesus' plan.

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Now we know that he begged God that there would be another way.

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And I always thought, you know, he was begging God and saying,

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he says please take this cup away from me.

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And I always thought he was begging God to do it another way.

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But the truth is, even Jesus is begging God to do it another way in the flesh,

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which was necessary for his human body,

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because your body has a desire to survive.

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You have a drive to survive.

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In the desert, you will search for water until you die of thirst.

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On the sea, men will, they have such a drive of thirst

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that they will eventually drink the sea water and get sick and die.

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Go mad first and then get sick and die.

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Because you have such a drive to survive, your human body is designed to survive.

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And so there was the crux, the moment at which Jesus was truly suppressing

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his human body's desire to survive and submitting, if you will,

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and surrendering, if you will, that desire unto the Lord.

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And he successfully did so when he prayed,

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but your will, not my will, be done.

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So I submit to you that Jesus was arrested according to plan,

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to God's plan, to Judas' plan, and even to Jesus' plan.

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Next, I'll say to you that according to Jesus,

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according to what we read in here, to Jesus,

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the plan could have been arrested, meaning stopped, right?

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According to Jesus, the plan could have been arrested.

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Now what's interesting is you have the same power that Jesus said.

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You can stop God's plan in your life.

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You can choose sin and wickedness over righteousness and goodness if you want to.

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Theoretically, even as a saved person, even as a person who followed Jesus.

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Now you shouldn't, you probably never would choose that, but you could do that.

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You could arrest God's plans for you, just as Jesus is saying,

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could I not have called 72,000 angels to stop this from being carried out?

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Could I not have stopped myself from being arrested

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just the way that God said it would come down?

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And God would answer in this moment and send those angels,

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and we would reset everything, we would change everything,

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we would break the prophecies.

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I could do that. I will not do that.

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Jesus was saying that God's plan, Jesus' plan, Jesus' plan,

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all of it could have been arrested. That's what he said.

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Now Jesus says over in John 3, he said,

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when the Son of Man be lifted up, and he's talking about making a parallel to the brown serpent.

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Now you remember this story in Numbers 21,

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the Israelites are coming out and they're wandering,

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and people start getting bit by snakes.

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There's a lot of complaining going on, and they're kind of harassing and stuff,

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and so they start getting on the edges of the camp getting bit by snakes,

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and they're dying from the poison of the snakes.

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And God tells Moses to craft a bronze serpent. He said,

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lift the bronze serpent. And this is how the story is so often told.

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He says, lift the bronze serpent up over the Israelites,

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and they will be healed from the poison of the snakes, and they will not die.

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Does anybody know that story enough to say that I missed a key and most important part of the story?

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The story is often told, lift the bronze serpent up over the Israelites,

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and they will be healed and not die. What did I miss?

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Say it again. They have to look at it.

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They have to look to the bronze serpent that Moses crafted.

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And it says, if they don't look, they will still die.

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But if they look, they will survive, because God was setting the stage for the bronze serpent

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to represent the coming of Jesus Christ, and Jesus had to be lifted up.

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You can arrest the plan of God in your life by failing to look.

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By knowing that you should look and failing to look,

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you are choosing not to allow God to work his plan in your life.

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Or by choosing, however frequently, to forget that you had to look.

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It's very easy to say that I surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ on May 26, 1996.

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It's very easy for me to do that.

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And then to later go, yeah, I surrendered my life to Jesus, but today, not so much.

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It's very easy to do that, to forget that you had to look to Jesus to be saved

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and therefore to live your life in a way that is contrary to the plan that God has for you.

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You can choose frequently, or however frequently you choose,

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to forget that you had to look to Jesus to be saved.

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Some form of self-reliance, or even invoking godly intervention

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to overcome tribulations that you're facing,

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could lead to God not being able to work.

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Now, it's not that God's not able, not that he can't just crush you like a bug

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and do what he wants to do anyway.

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But you wind up appealing to God like Judas,

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here's my plan, God, I'm going to do this, God, not like Jesus.

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He said, God, carry out your plan. Your plan is the best.

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And the question is, do you want to be like Judas?

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Here's my plan, God, you've got to do this.

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And you're in your prayer class, and you're going to say,

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God, send me 72,000 angels because I've got influenza A and my throat's a little sore.

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Or you're going, God, fix me, can't possibly be sick, can't possibly be hurt,

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God, fix my relationship, I can't stand it to be like this,

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God, you've got to fix it.

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And you can do the same thing, you can arrest the plan of God

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by refusing to acknowledge that when you got saved,

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you had to look toward the cross, toward the crucifixion of Jesus,

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toward the sacrifice of Jesus, toward the resurrection, toward God's power,

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and to submit yourself to the plan of God for your life.

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And if you did not do that at that time, you did not get saved.

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No matter what you said or did at that time, if you did not do that at that time,

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then you did not get saved.

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And if you didn't get saved, then it makes a lot of sense for you to say,

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well, I don't have to look and I'm still here.

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I didn't have to trust, I didn't have to surrender fully, and I'm still here,

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and I'm saved now because I said some certain words,

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but I didn't really have to look toward Jesus, I didn't really have to submit myself,

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I didn't really have to surrender.

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And could there have been somebody in the camp of the Israelites who overcame the pain

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and the effect of the poison and didn't die but didn't look to the staff?

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And you want to say, yeah, sure, there could have been somebody

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because there were tens of thousands and thousands of God.

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And some people don't die from snake bites, right?

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No, actually what the text says is that if they did, after that point,

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if they did not look, now previous to that point, they might have survived.

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It's possible. Most were dying from the poison of the snakes, but they might have survived.

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But now the bronze serpent has lifted up and said if they did not look, they died.

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And Paul says in Acts 17, in the olden days, God kind of laughed at your screw-ups

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and your scoffing at what God had called you to.

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But now that Jesus has been made evident, he expects all men to repent.

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That means look to him, turn to him, be changed in the way you think.

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He expects all men to repent and now to be saved.

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According to Jesus, the plan here could have been arrested.

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And I submit to you, you can do the same thing by failing to look toward the salvation of Jesus

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or by choosing, however frequently afterwards, to forget that you had to look.

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Now that does not mean you will not be saved. If you did look, you will be saved.

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But in your life afterwards, then because you're forgetting that you had to look,

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forgetting that you had to surrender, forgetting that you had to submit

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on a semi-regular basis, or even if you only did it once, right?

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You disrupt or arrest the plan of God, the good things that God intends.

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The kingdom of God is that person, place, or thing in which God reigns and has his way.

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And we pray, Father in heaven, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

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Lastly, you can arrest the plan of God in your own life by refusing to walk in the light,

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or refusing to walk openly.

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In 1 John, John writes that he who claims to be a Christian, basically claims to be a father of the Lord,

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but still walks in the darkness, he's a liar.

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To whom do you belong? Are you covering up your weaknesses, or are you owning your weaknesses?

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In weakness is found strength. We talked about that on Tuesday.

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And so if you will own your weaknesses, work on your weaknesses, expose those things to God,

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and be able to go, look, I'm struggling with this problem, but I'm going to defeat it in Christ.

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I know it's going to once and for all not be a problem anymore.

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Then, then you've confessed your sins. Then he is faithful and just to forgive you.

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Then he is faithful and just to cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

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But if you're walking in darkness, if you're pretending that you're okay,

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pretending that you surrendered your life, or having surrendered your life,

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pretending that you continue to surrender your life, then you are arresting the plan of God in your life.

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And God has said what it will be like for Christians.

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Jesus came to give you life and give it more abundantly.

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He came to prosper you. And I don't mean make you rich, but He came to make you out to be something

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that the world will look at and go, I kind of want to have whatever that person has.

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And then you can lead them to have what you have.

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But you can't do so by refusing to walk in the light.

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Okay, so Jesus was arrested according to the plan. That's God's plan, Jesus' plan, Jesus' plan.

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And according to Jesus, the plan could have been arrested by failing to look,

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by choosing however frequently to forget that you had to look, or by self-reliance,

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and even invoking God by refusing to walk in the light.

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The third thing to see in this text then is that the plan proceeded un-arrested according to Jesus' choice.

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So let's look at the three points. The first one, Jesus was arrested according to plan.

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The second one was that according to Jesus, the plan could have been arrested.

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And the third one was that the plan proceeded un-arrested according to Jesus' choice.

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This is free will, as Ron said, properly enacted.

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You can do as a Christian literally whatever you want.

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All things are now acceptable for you, but not all things are profitable.

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And we must be sure not to be ruled over by any of them because you have one master now, that is Jesus.

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This is free will, properly enacted. To pull this off, there's a certain formula that has to take place.

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The first thing is, you need to know God's plan or at least recognize the moment of God carrying out His plan in your life.

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Not to do that, you're going to have to study your word. You're going to spend time with the Lord.

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You're going to have to seek Him out in the silence and solitude.

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You're going to have to worship Him and Him alone.

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You're going to walk with the Lord for day upon day of your life.

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You're going to stack those dominoes up so that when God does a new thing, you go, okay, wait, God's doing a new thing.

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Or when God consistently does the same old thing, you go, wait, God's consistently doing the same old thing.

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They brought the loaves and the fish to Jesus and they say, we got nothing.

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We got this little boy's lunch and we got 5,000 people who need to eat.

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And they went, Jesus, we got to let these people go. They got to all go wherever they got to go to eat.

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They're going to starve to death. They've been sitting out here for a couple days. They have more food amongst them.

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We're in trouble here. We got a problem. We got 5,000 people can starve to death.

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See, the disciples missed the fact that Jesus was about to do something incredible.

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They went to Jesus and they said, Jesus, this man was born blind. Why was he born blind?

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Was it because of his sin or his parents' sin?

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That was the logical conclusion. We can do the same thing in our lives.

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We can get on a course of action that we don't realize when God's about to do something amazing.

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We've been trying to facilitate it. We've been trying to make it happen ourselves or whatever.

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But we have to get in a place where if God is going to do something, He is going to right in that moment make it evident to us.

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And that still small voice, boldly, loudly, when I was driving my car home from Bible college at 1 o'clock in the afternoon

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after my four-hour Old Testament class and I'm driving home, I'm saying to God, God, I have my tears streaming down my face.

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I'm like, God, I don't understand. We think we're right where we're supposed to be.

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We're living in a house that you told us to move into and we asked you and we moved in there and we're living there.

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And now, Sherry doesn't have a job. And at 328 resumes later, she still doesn't have a job.

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And she's had third interviews and still no job. And I don't have a job. 126 resumes and applications later.

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I don't have a job. I don't have an offer. I've only had a few interviews, no second interviews, no offers.

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I said, Lord, we're losing our house. It's going into foreclosure. The house down in Norfolk is going into foreclosure.

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We got nothing. $300 a week in unemployment and $125 a week I'm making at Anderson's driving forklift and filling fertilizer trucks.

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It's nothing. It's nothing. God, I said, we're losing here. We're dying here. How can this be?

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We're walking in your will. And God said to me, very plainly, He said, I'm going to move you back to Toledo.

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And just two days before, I told Sherry, no, no, that's not going to happen. He said, just like He was sitting in the front seat.

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But where was I? I was at a place where I had looked to Jesus to be saved.

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I was at a place where I realized I had to look to Jesus because I didn't have it. We were losing our houses.

424
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:26,000
We were losing everything. We were going to go into living with my parents or something.

425
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,000
Or with her mom in her little apartment, which would have been crazy. Whatever.

426
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:36,000
We didn't know what was going to happen. It was all going away. Everything that we thought that God had built was just fading into nothingness.

427
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:41,000
And I'm tearing down on my face and God says, in that moment, He says, you're going to move back to Toledo.

428
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,000
And I said, but God, we just knew we were where we were supposed to be.

429
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:50,000
And God said, you're going to move back to Toledo because Stuart's going to get sick. And he's going to die.

430
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:54,000
And I want him to know his grandchildren before he goes.

431
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:58,000
I'm like, and Stuart wasn't sick. I'm like, oh man.

432
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000
So I go home to Sherry and the same time I go home to Sherry, she comes and she wants to come.

433
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,000
She says to me, I know you said we're right where we're supposed to be. We're exactly where we're supposed to be.

434
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,000
She said, but I was just on Toledoblade.com and there are six jobs in Toledo that I want to apply for.

435
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:17,000
So I know you said we're not moving back to Toledo, but I just feel like really God's compelling me to apply for those jobs.

436
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,000
Two hours later, we came home from a meeting at our church and four of those jobs had asked her for an interview.

437
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:26,000
Three of them went to a second interview. Two of them went to job offers and one of them came with a free apartment.

438
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:32,000
There's going to come a moment in time at which if you're not paying attention, we could have stayed there.

439
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:37,000
If I wasn't begging God, if I was out hunting for a job or if I was praying, God, give me a job.

440
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000
God, give me a job. God, give me a job. And insisting, God would have gave me a job.

441
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,000
God would have let me arrest the plan that he had for our lives, which was to come back here.

442
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:52,000
And little did we know to plant this church. We had no clue.

443
00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:04,000
You've got to get to the point where your free will is there specifically for the purpose of submitting it to God,

444
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,000
to surrendering again and letting God do what it is that God wants to do.

445
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:14,000
To pull that off, you need to know God's plan or at least be able to recognize the moment of when he's about to do something.

446
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,000
Also, you must have the ability to call for aid and you do.

447
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:23,000
You don't need the ability to call for aid so you can call for it the moment God's about to be doing something.

448
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,000
God's already about to be doing it. You can pray, Lord, that would be nice if you did this today.

449
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,000
God's up there on the throne thinking, yeah, I got that. It's just at three o'clock today. It's already covered.

450
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:38,000
And you pray, Lord, your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven.

451
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:46,000
You might want to pray, forgive me my trespasses, Jesus said, too, because that's kind of important when God's about to do something.

452
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:52,000
And then you say, okay, God's about to do something. And I realize I could cry out.

453
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:59,000
I have the ability to cry out and call for aid to go this way, the way I see, the way I want to go.

454
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:07,000
But actually what I choose to do is to say, Father, your will, not my will be done.

455
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:12,000
I choose not to cry out for aid. I choose not to call the 72,000 angels.

456
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:18,000
I choose not to beg for money or beg for jobs or beg for people to do what I want them to do.

457
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:24,000
I choose rather to say, God, you do what you want to do.

458
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:29,000
That's what Jesus did, exactly what he did.

459
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,000
And he chose not to call the 72,000 angels.

460
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:37,000
And because of that, God's plan proceeded unarrested.

461
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,000
And it was according to Jesus' choice.

462
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Now let me tell you, just real quick as a little aside, here's how you get to heaven.

463
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,000
This could be the whole sermon, but it's not. We're going to the conclusion.

464
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:54,000
Here's how you get to heaven and hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant.

465
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,000
That's what we all want, right? Every Christian in the room is going like, yeah, that's for me.

466
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:03,000
I want God to wrap those spiritual arms around me, comfort me for all my suffering.

467
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,000
All of this kind of washes away. All my tears are gone. All my pain's gone.

468
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,000
Everything. And I just want to hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant.

469
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:14,000
Here's how you do it. Every time that God's about to do something,

470
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,000
every time that God's about to move in a plan in your life, every time that God's about to go to the next step,

471
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:24,000
instead of you in your strength, in your intellect, in your reason, in your resources,

472
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000
using whatever God has blessed you with, or your ability to cry out in the name of Jesus

473
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:34,000
and invoke God doing something amazing, instead of you doing that to fix your situation,

474
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,000
you cry out to God and say, God, you do what you want to do.

475
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:43,000
That's how you arrive at the end of the road and hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant.

476
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:48,000
It is not by being a better tender of the sheep or a better budgeter of your finances

477
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:51,000
or a smarter calculator of the course ahead.

478
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,000
It is by, in the moment in question when God is going to move to do something,

479
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:01,000
every time that happens, once, 50 times, 5,000 times, every time that happens,

480
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:06,000
you recognize God is about to do something and you say, God, you do whatever you want to do.

481
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:13,000
That brings us to our conclusion, which is this, that free will is provided for those who follow the Lord,

482
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:20,000
according to John chapter 8, and it is provided to play a three-part harmony,

483
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:27,000
which is this, surrender. First, surrender. Yielding to God's plan, we say,

484
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,000
oh Lord, you do whatever it is you want to do in my life.

485
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,000
That's what I did when I walked down the aisle at East Little Baptist Church,

486
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:39,000
terribly, terribly frightened that people would be looking at me,

487
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,000
that I was going to be in front of a room of people.

488
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:45,000
You know how comical that is? God would call me to preach, and then preach,

489
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,000
and we record our podcast and it goes to 17 countries all over the world,

490
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,000
and we get on Facebook Live, and we're public right now.

491
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:57,000
So the things that I've said that have been offensive since I began speaking a half an hour ago,

492
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:02,000
somebody out there could be fretting or fuming or plotting to put a bullet in my head.

493
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:07,000
Before you say that'll never happen, there's been a couple of times it's been close.

494
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:11,000
So what I'm saying is, this is a public forum in that regard.

495
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:14,000
It's why someday we won't be able to have it a public forum,

496
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:19,000
because we won't be able to preach the truth in here without somebody suing us.

497
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,000
The truth is the truth whether we like it or not.

498
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,000
First and foremost, we have to surrender to His plan.

499
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000
I was deathly afraid to walk down the aisle.

500
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,000
In fact, I said to myself, I prayed the week before I was going to make my decision,

501
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,000
because I put God off for two weeks, and I prayed.

502
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,000
I said, Lord, I don't think I can get down the aisle.

503
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,000
And when the time came, I was standing there with my shaking knees and my sweaty palms,

504
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000
my cotton mouth, and I'm going, okay, this is the moment I've got to give my life to Jesus.

505
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,000
And I went like this.

506
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,000
And the next thing I know, I was nose to nose with the pastor.

507
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:50,000
There were no steps in between.

508
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:55,000
I had no recollection or memory of the 30 steps that it took for me to get to the front of the room.

509
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:56,000
And I didn't have to walk past people.

510
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,000
I didn't have to see people on the way by.

511
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,000
I was just there suddenly, and he was asking me, and I was saying yes, and yes, and yes.

512
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,000
And I was surrendering my life to the Lord, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

513
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,000
And every time I'm in a stupid position where I think I know better than God,

514
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:17,000
or I'm going to run on ahead of God, I remember that I was not free until the God of the universe bestowed on me freedom.

515
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,000
I've been in a cage.

516
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,000
I've been in handcuffs.

517
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,000
I've been in the back of a police car.

518
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:28,000
I've been under a moving vehicle.

519
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,000
I've been pinned under a car when the jack slipped.

520
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,000
I've been in a lot of places where I've been trapped.

521
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000
But there's only one freedom under the sun.

522
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:43,000
And it was administered by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ who was God the Son.

523
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,000
Amen.

524
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
Do you want to be free?

525
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:47,000
You get freedom from Jesus.

526
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:55,000
And it starts with surrender, yielding to His plan, because your freedom is part of His plan.

527
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,000
That's how it works.

528
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,000
Secondly, obedience.

529
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:08,000
We say, OK, I'm going to do what it is that God wants me to do.

530
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:13,000
I'm free, but I choose to do what it is that God wants me to do.

531
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:20,000
In the Ten Commandments, there's honor and obey your parents.

532
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000
We love to quote that verse to children.

533
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:23,000
It's also in Ephesians 6.

534
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:27,000
And they may be directed specifically at Christian children.

535
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:33,000
But in the Ten Commandments, it was written to adults, 30 and up, basically.

536
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Now, it's not that the children and young men weren't also being administered to you at that time.

537
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:44,000
But 30-year-old men told honor and obey your parents.

538
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,000
Human moms and dads mess up their kids.

539
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:47,000
That's kind of what we do.

540
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,000
We may try really hard, try to point them toward God.

541
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,000
But the truth is, you point them toward God.

542
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,000
If God grabs a hold of them and gets them moving in the right direction,

543
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,000
then that's your only chance of success.

544
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Otherwise, humans tend to screw up their children.

545
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,000
That's what we do.

546
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:04,000
And they were told to obey.

547
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:09,000
Those human parents, those stiff-necked parents who would not follow God,

548
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,000
would fall into false worship.

549
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,000
And they were told to obey their parents.

550
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,000
Man, obedience.

551
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,000
Obedience can be a challenge.

552
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,000
But obedience to God is not a challenge like that because God will never make a mistake.

553
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:22,000
He didn't make you a mistake.

554
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000
He'll never make a mistake in your life.

555
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,000
He'll never make a promise that He doesn't keep.

556
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,000
He never told a lie.

557
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:26,000
He's God.

558
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000
So it's okay to obey God and do exactly what God says.

559
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,000
I was listening to a radio program this weekend.

560
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,000
The speaker was on there talking about,

561
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:44,000
if you were in a situation where you had to commit a sin or die,

562
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000
what do you think God would want you to do?

563
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:53,000
I'm like, well, in my right mind, I'm thinking about the Lord the way I think about the Lord.

564
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,000
And He'd rather me die.

565
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:56,000
Sin is just that bad.

566
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,000
My soul lives forever.

567
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,000
I live for 100 years if I'm lucky or blessed

568
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,000
or whatever God decides to do entails me being here for 100 years.

569
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,000
And then I'll be in infinity years in heaven.

570
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,000
So I really want to live for there, not here.

571
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,000
So I choose to die rather than to sin.

572
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:15,000
For a lie or for stealing or for killing somebody,

573
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,000
for murder, anger in your heart, lust?

574
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,000
Yes, that's serious.

575
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:29,000
So then He says, so now what if somebody else has to die if you don't sin?

576
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,000
So you sin or somebody else has to die.

577
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,000
It's harder because we know Jesus is about service,

578
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,000
about love, bringing people close, that kind of thing.

579
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:42,000
But still, I think fundamentally, ultimately, sin is just that bad.

580
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
And you say no and you don't intentionally sin against God.

581
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:51,000
And I thought about it, I just realized exactly how extreme this is then,

582
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,000
this obedience thing that we're called to.

583
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:59,000
But now we've moved from talking about obedience to talking about something else, haven't we?

584
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,000
Talking about faithfulness.

585
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:05,000
Not just obedience, not just one time God says do not do that.

586
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:06,000
But now it's about faithfulness.

587
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,000
Over and over again I choose to do what it is that God would have me to do.

588
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,000
Over and over again God begins to reveal the next segment in His plan in my life

589
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,000
and I say I freely go into that plan God.

590
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,000
I freely do what it is that you would have me.

591
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,000
I freely accept your judgment, your wrath, your punishment if it has to be that,

592
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:27,000
or your mercy and your grace and your abundant life, whatever it has to be.

593
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,000
I freely accept that.

594
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:34,000
In my freeness that you paid for that I could never have had anyway,

595
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:39,000
as I am unarrested myself, I choose to surrender, to obey, and be found faithful.

596
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:44,000
Revelation 3, 5 says this, He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments

597
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:51,000
and I will not erase His name from the book of life and I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels.

598
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,000
And it's in the He who overcomes.

599
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,000
Overcomes what?

600
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,000
Well we know temptation, right?

601
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:05,000
Because the world tempts, evil spirits tempt, demons tempt, devil tempts, system tempts, flesh tempts, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life.

602
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,000
There's temptation abounds.

603
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:11,000
What I submit to you is not just temptations, it's also tribulations.

604
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,000
How do you overcome your tribulations?

605
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:18,000
When your gas tank gets empty, how do you overcome your empty gas tank?

606
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,000
Well everyone wants to say, why go put gas in the tank?

607
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,000
No.

608
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:28,000
An empty gas tank is not solved by gas in the tank.

609
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,000
How did it get empty in the first place?

610
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,000
Well I need to make more money.

611
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:33,000
No.

612
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,000
That's not the solution.

613
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,000
Because the trick is this.

614
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
How do you with an empty gas tank or while making money or not making money,

615
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:47,000
how do you surrender to the Lord, obey the Lord, and remain faithful?

616
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:52,000
What if on the way to put gas in your empty gas tank with your 20 bucks in your hand,

617
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000
to buy gas to put in your empty gas tank, God says use that 20 bucks for something else.

618
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,000
Are you going to do that?

619
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:00,000
You'd better.

620
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,000
Because nothing else is surrender, obedience, and faithfulness.

621
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,000
We overcome the temptations and trials and tribulations of this life

622
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:11,000
by during the temptations and trials and tribulations of this life,

623
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:17,000
surrendering our freedom to the Lord and saying, Lord, whatever you want to do,

624
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,000
recognizing that this moment might be the moment in which He's going to do something incredible.

625
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,000
Your 20 bucks that you could use some other way, could take you somewhere,

626
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:27,000
at a moment in time you share the gospel, that person gets saved.

627
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:28,000
That 20 bucks is nothing.

628
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:29,000
That tank of gas is nothing.

629
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:30,000
Your car is nothing.

630
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,000
Your ability to walk is nothing.

631
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,000
Compared to a soul in heaven for eternity.

632
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000
Yours, mine, ours, somebody we don't even know yet.

633
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:47,000
Overcoming is about surrendering, obedience, and faithfulness under the circumstances in question.

634
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:52,000
There will be those who were born to resist, to be crushed as an example.

635
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,000
But the offer of salvation is to all.

636
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,000
Judas was one such guy.

637
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,000
The Pharaoh was one such guy.

638
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,000
Paul writes in the book of Romans, for the scripture says to Pharaoh,

639
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,000
for this very purpose I raised you up.

640
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:06,000
Who was he?

641
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,000
He was the king and worshiped as a god on earth of Egypt,

642
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:12,000
one of the greatest powers that existed at that time.

643
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,000
God says, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you

644
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:20,000
that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

645
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,000
If the offer of salvation is not accepted,

646
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,000
if the offer of following God's plan for those people is not accepted

647
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:29,000
or not followed up with obedience or continued with faithfulness,

648
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,000
then questions arise.

649
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,000
And I submit to you that it is one particular question.

650
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,000
We're going to go to the book of Jeremiah chapter 7 and locate it.

651
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,000
This will be our last text and we are on the last point.

652
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:50,000
Jeremiah chapter 7.

653
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:54,000
Now this of course was written a long time before Jesus was born.

654
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:59,000
But I submit to you that in some sense Jeremiah understood the ministry of the Messiah

655
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,000
and had powerful insight to it.

656
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:04,000
So we're in Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 1.

657
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,000
We're talking about how God's people have been unfaithful.

658
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,000
They have not surrendered.

659
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:13,000
They have not maintained obedience, resulting in faithfulness.

660
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:19,000
The three-part plan of God with their freedom has been abused, not followed.

661
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,000
Jeremiah 7 beginning in verse 1.

662
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,000
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,

663
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:29,000
Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word and say,

664
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:34,000
Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord.

665
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,000
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

666
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,000
Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

667
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,000
Do not trust in deceptive words, saying,

668
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:48,000
This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

669
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,000
For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds,

670
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:53,000
If you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor,

671
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:56,000
If you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow,

672
00:44:56,000 --> 00:45:01,000
Do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods in your own ruin,

673
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:06,000
Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

674
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,000
I think that's very clear.

675
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:09,000
Verse 8.

676
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:12,000
Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

677
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:17,000
Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal,

678
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,000
And walk after other gods that you have not known?

679
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:24,000
Then come and stand before me in this house, which I call by my name, and say,

680
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:29,000
We are delivered, that you may do all these abominations.

681
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:34,000
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?

682
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:38,000
Behold, I, even I, have seen it, declares the Lord.

683
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:42,000
But go now to my place, which is in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at the first,

684
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:46,000
And see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

685
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:49,000
And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord,

686
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,000
And I spoke to you rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear.

687
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,000
See, God was all the time talking to them, but they were not listening.

688
00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:00,000
And I called you, but you did not answer.

689
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,000
Therefore, I will do to the house, which is called by my name, in which you trust,

690
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,000
And to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

691
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:14,000
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.

692
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:19,000
As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them,

693
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:23,000
And do not intercede with me, for I do not hear you.

694
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:27,000
Do you not see that they are going, I'm sorry, do you not see what they are doing

695
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,000
In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

696
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:32,000
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire,

697
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:35,000
And the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven.

698
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:39,000
And they pour out libations to other gods in order to spite me.

699
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,000
Do they spite me, declares the Lord?

700
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:46,000
Do they not themselves, they spite, to their own shame?

701
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:52,000
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place,

702
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:56,000
On man and on beasts, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground,

703
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,000
And it will burn and not be quenched.

704
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,000
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

705
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,000
Add your burnt offering to your sacrifices and eat flesh.

706
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:06,000
For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day

707
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,000
That I brought them out of the lands of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

708
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:15,000
But this is what I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God,

709
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,000
And you will be my people, and you will walk in all the way which I command you,

710
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,000
That it may be well with you.

711
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,000
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels,

712
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:29,000
And in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

713
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:32,000
Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt,

714
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:36,000
That is to say, since the day you were set free, until this day,

715
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:41,000
I have sent you all my servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.

716
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:47,000
Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffen their neck.

717
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:50,000
They did evil more than their fathers.

718
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:53,000
So what I said to you is we would go to that passage of scripture,

719
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:56,000
And look for the one question that is raised,

720
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,000
The one question that is raised when we do not surrender,

721
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:03,000
When we do not practice obedience, when we are not found faithful.

722
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:10,000
And God said, do they spite me? Really?

723
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:17,000
Do you not understand that when you turn God's plan away, you are not hurting God.

724
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:23,000
When you like Judas make a plan that you think is contrary to what God might want to do,

725
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,000
Or what Jesus might want to do or whatever, you are not hurting God.

726
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:34,000
Your disobedience, your unwillingness to surrender just becomes part of His greater plan.

727
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,000
That is what happens.

728
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:39,000
So that is not the question, really.

729
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:43,000
The question is, he said in 19, do they spite me declares the Lord?

730
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:48,000
Is it not themselves they spite to their own shame?

731
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:54,000
Do you not understand that when you work contrary to the plan of God that God has in your life,

732
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:58,000
And that God is about to bring about, when you take that free will that He has blessed you with,

733
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:02,000
And rather than saying, okay Lord, I surrender myself to your plan, whatever it is,

734
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:07,000
Whatever suffering I may need to endure, whatever it is, Jesus surrendered to crucifixion for crying out loud.

735
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:13,000
Whatever it might take, when you do that, you get the best thing.

736
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:17,000
You are like, I might have to battle cancer, or I might have to go without a job for a while,

737
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:21,000
Or I might struggle my finances or struggle my relationships, or I might feel down and out,

738
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:27,000
Or I might have to give up my Sunday pursuit, or I might have to not take that job that I make $25,000 a year more,

739
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:29,000
So I can be faithful to the Lord.

740
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:38,000
Whatever. I may have to suffer without something that by all rights I deserve.

741
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:43,000
Hello Spirit of Judas.

742
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:47,000
Now, understand this.

743
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:51,000
You need to know when God is about to do something.

744
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:55,000
And you need to take the free will that God has blessed you with,

745
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:59,000
And you need to turn it over to the Lord and let Him use it for His glory.

746
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:02,000
You need to submit yourself to His plan.

747
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:07,000
If you can't figure out when He is about to do something, and I submit to you, He is often about to do something.

748
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:12,000
If you can't figure that out, then you need to be actively surrendering every moment until you figure it out.

749
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:15,000
Just keep doing it over and over. Just keep saying, Lord,

750
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:22,000
By our daily prayer is your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.

751
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:27,000
Because we might not be figuring out. We might be missing it. God might be about to do something.

752
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:33,000
And silent prayers by someone else might accomplish something amazing,

753
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,000
Because they just surrendered themselves to God's plan.

754
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:41,000
While boisterous prayers and devoted giving and incredible serving,

755
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:48,000
And proud and arrogant talk like, See what God has done through me or in me.

756
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:52,000
Just takes you to a place where like Judas or like Pharaoh,

757
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:57,000
You wind up at the top of the heap just so God can knock you down and show everybody

758
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:03,000
That the actual way to do it is through surrender, obedience, and faithfulness.

759
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:09,000
In Jesus' case, Jesus was arrested. He was arrested according to plan.

760
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:13,000
God's plan, Judas' plan, Jesus' plan.

761
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:17,000
According to Jesus, the plan could have been arrested. He could have stopped it.

762
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:20,000
And Jesus has now bestowed that power and authority into us.

763
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:23,000
We can arrest the plans of God in our own lives.

764
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:26,000
And I submit to you, probably have on many occasions.

765
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:30,000
And if you know of one where you have done so, you need to repent and turn back to the Lord and say,

766
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:35,000
Okay, Lord, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to let you do what it is that you want to do in my life.

767
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:38,000
Because it's not God that you're spiting.

768
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,000
It's not God that you're despising. It's not God that you're hurting.

769
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:46,000
It's not God that you're dismissing. It's not God's resources that you're taking.

770
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,000
No, it's yours.

771
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:56,000
You're losing the great thing that God had planned.

772
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:01,000
Sometimes that great thing is a person, a situation.

773
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:06,000
And we know that ultimately that great thing is us in heaven for an eternity.

774
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:08,000
And it starts with that surrender.

775
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,000
So if you're here today and you have not surrendered your life to Jesus,

776
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:16,000
you have not said, Okay, Jesus, you get to be in charge. You've clearly earned it.

777
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:22,000
You need to understand that you are missing the key and currently arrested.

778
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:26,000
You cannot truly see the plan of God unveiling in your life.

779
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:35,000
You cannot live for Jesus because you have not surrendered your life, your thought processes, whatever may come to Jesus.

780
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:41,000
Now, if you have surrendered your life to Jesus, but you recognize that you have secret disobedience,

781
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,000
you think you're getting away with something,

782
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:51,000
or you're not trying very hard to know when God's about to do something so that you can surrender your free will at that time,

783
00:52:51,000 --> 00:53:01,000
even maybe you're trying pretty hard not to know when God's about to do something so that you don't have to surrender your free will,

784
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:03,000
then you need to repent.

785
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:08,000
You need to turn to the Lord and say, Lord, I recognize that what Jesus really paid for,

786
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:13,000
what he really made possible was my freedom and I surrender to you so that I may be free.

787
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:20,000
And that as a free man or a free woman, I surrendered you not so that I'll miss out on something this life has to offer.

788
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:23,000
Like some people think that's what happens.

789
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:30,000
But so that your great plan for me can unfold.

790
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:33,000
Are you ready for that?

791
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:37,000
Because that's also what it means to reach new heights in Jesus.

792
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:43,000
And we are all in different places on the journey, but that three-part harmony must play.

793
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:47,000
Surrender, obey, and be found faithful.

794
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,000
Jesus knew it.

795
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:55,000
And when they came to arrest him, he surrendered himself, he obeyed, and he was found faithful.

796
00:53:55,000 --> 00:54:00,000
And in his surrendering in obedience and faithfulness is our salvation.

797
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:05,000
Every man's salvation, whoever has been saved, without exception.

798
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:07,000
Lord, help us.

799
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:10,000
We surrender ourselves into your hands.

800
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:14,000
A glass of praise to you to come and lead us in the closing hymn at this time.

801
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:18,000
If the Lord has spoken to your heart today and you realize that you need to make some kind of a public decision,

802
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:22,000
you need to repent of some kind of sin or repent of some kind of activity you've been involved in

803
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:25,000
and just say, no, I'm publicly not serving the Lord.

804
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:30,000
Maybe it's because you're not going to let him fulfill that plan.

805
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,000
You just say, no, I'm just going to go ahead.

806
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:35,000
Then you publicly make that decision.

807
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:40,000
So obviously you're going to say, maybe you're here today to say, I know this is my church.

808
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:42,000
I know what ministry the God is calling me to.

809
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:46,000
I know I didn't even need baptize, if I was the son of the Holy Spirit.

810
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:54,000
Or I know one thing, just one thing I need to do, more public accountability and say, how can that be?

811
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:56,000
And then we'll hold you accountable.

812
00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:59,000
We'll ask you to do that thing that you say the God is calling you to do.

813
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:02,000
As we sing this song, the Lord is working with me today.

814
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:06,000
Make it known because maybe you're working with somebody else today and your boldness,

815
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:09,000
which is not really your boldness anyway, it's God's right.

816
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:14,000
That boldness could be used to help break them through as well.

817
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:16,000
Just stand with me and sing this song.

818
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,000
This is our closing, but it's our opportunity to respond.

819
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,000
We're online listening to the podcast.

820
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:45,000
Let us know.