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I will cherish the old rugged rise, Spill my trophies and bless my day off.

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I will cling to the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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I will cherish the old rugged rise, And exchange this suffering for a crown.

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Father in heaven, we know that as we come to you this morning, you are on the throne.

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You are creator God, you are mighty God, you are holy God, you are right God, and righteous God.

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You are the only one true God. Sula. Others have tried to come up and to gain a reputation.

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Others have tried to be worshiped. Pharaoh tried to be worshiped.

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Even for generations they worshiped Pharaoh trying to say he was a God and he was no God.

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And they made gods out of silver and gold and copper and bronze.

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They made gods out of wood. And people to this day try to make gods out of money.

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Try to make gods out of sex, try to make gods out of drugs, try to make gods out of entertainment.

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Lord, but there are no other gods. There are only those things who would vie for control of the human existence.

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Only those things that would want worship, that could seek out men to recognize them and kind of put them up next to you.

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But they have no place there. There is no other God in the presence of our God.

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On this day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and we all was to begin what would be the last week of his life.

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And people were crying out, it was Xanadu, it was Xanadu, throwing down their clothes, throwing down their palm branches.

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They were celebrating. Their children cried out, it was Xanadu, they said, save us Jesus, save us.

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They cried out. And bystanders said, stop them, stop them from crying out like that.

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And Jesus said, if they do not cry out, the very stones themselves will cry out.

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God, all creation that recognizes that you alone are God, you alone have arranged salvation.

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No other God came into his creation. No other God even existed or could help in any way, shape or form.

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But you. And you have done this. And we are worshiping you, not just because you have done this.

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Because you are here. We desire you. We want you above all things.

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We want you to be in charge of this place. To inhabit the praises of your people.

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To get the gospel out. To take this message to the ends of the earth.

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Take it to wherever people can get internet. Thousands and thousands of miles away from us where we will never be.

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Do whatever you want to do Lord. This is your time.

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Today is the day that you have made and we will be glad in rejoicing it as we celebrate you in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Sing it like you mean it.

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Would you be free from the body of sin that's hard in the heart, hard in the mind? Would you leave a vain, funny wind that's wonderful, bad in the mind?

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There is power, wonder working hard in the form of a lamb. There is power, wonder working hard in the flesh of a lamb.

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Would you be free from your passion and pride, and power in the blood, power in the blood? So forth when things get sour and dry, there's wonderful power in the blood.

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There is power, wonder working hard in the heart of a lamb. There is power, wonder working hard in the flesh of a lamb.

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Would you be one of those more than strong, there's power in the blood, power in the blood? Sing it, sing it, oh Lord, sing it, oh Lord, it's giving thought, there's wonderful power in the blood.

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There is power, wonder working hard in the heart of a lamb. There is power, wonder working hard in the flesh of a lamb.

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Would you do service for Jesus, your King? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you the daily just praise us to see, there's wonderful power in the blood.

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There is power, wonder working hard in the blood of a lamb. There is power, wonder working hard in the flesh of a lamb.

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Were you quiet? Did the Lord speak? Did you do it? As you were traveling through your life this last seven days, as you were driving in your car, or working your job, or at school, or as you were at home making dinner, or washing the dishes, or outside walking or riding your bike, did you listen?

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Did the Lord speak? This is the moment in time at which we share how the Lord has touched our lives so that others can hear the same, the same thing you heard, the same way you heard, from the same God you heard.

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Have you been inspired by the Lord this week? Share with us whatever the Lord shared with you.

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I had a conversation with my boss a week ago. My boss is Jewish, and he does not understand Christianity, so we were talking about, he started off with me asking how old the earth is, thousands of years or millions.

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And I answered him, he was shocked. And he said, well, how do you explain all the apostles with the dinosaurs? And I said, the blood. And he was like, and then he's talking about who is God, what's his name? And I said, Yahweh.

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And he's like, okay, I don't understand. We believe all the same things, what's the difference? And I said, Jesus. And I'm fine about that. And I thought, how, I don't understand how people can live without Jesus, how empty I would feel.

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And then he asked me, he goes, you don't use that to confess your sins? I said, yeah, to God directly. I don't need a rabbi or priest or someone else to talk to God for me, I just do it myself.

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And so, but it made me really think that I could have, we could have a Christian with God, with Jesus having the Holy Spirit in us, ourselves. And I think how empty I would feel that we're not the case.

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Praise God, Jesus paid the price and rose again on the third day. And now we have Him with us every day, those of you who have touched His Christ, your Lord and Savior, you're following Jesus, Jesus living in you, His Holy Spirit.

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That presence, that would be worth it alone. I remember when I was alone, 25 years, and I had people that I cared about and people cared about me, as much as humans do anyway, but it wouldn't be the same.

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It was never the same, never going to be the same. And then when Jesus came in, I was changed. I was affected, I was filled up. I couldn't do it without Him.

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I didn't know how badly I was, how bad off I was. But now I do. All right, who else?

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I had a conversation with one of my residents, we were just talking about faith in general, and one of the things she said was, God has a plan for everybody.

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And sometimes when His plan for you is too strong, the devil uses temptation to try to strip you of that plan. So, may it be, you know, drugs, alcohol, stuff like that.

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She works in a rehabilitation center, and she says that she sees God's plan in everybody, and the people who are really trying to shake what the devil gave them when they were younger and more willing to make those temptations.

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She's seen, you know, people just completely turn their lives around for God, and just that when His plan for you is too strong, and you have too many of those temptations, that's enough reason to just say no to them all, because God has something great in store for you.

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And in fact, I think it would be, it's simple with some maybe even human wisdom to realize that the more you are set upon by temptation, the greater opportunity to be set free. That is really something.

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Wow.

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So, at work I've been listening to my earphones more than my speaker, mostly because I don't like listening to three different things at once.

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And certain days people like to listen to what they want to listen to, so I just shut mine off, I'll put my earphones in.

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I've been trying to listen to a lot more Christian-based music, because for those of you who don't know my music, it's really broad. I listen to literally just about anything.

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And I listen to a lot of the music I listen to, I listen to the music that I like to beat, or there's certain songs where I don't like the beat but I like the lyrics. But anyways, I've been trying to listen to a lot more Christian, faith-based music.

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And there was this song that came on, I was almost going to share it, and I listened to this song probably three times in a row while I was at work.

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And this is the reason why I like music so much, is because you can feel, at least me personally, I feel music. I love listening to music, I love the feeling I get when I hear a good song.

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So it's really weird because I'm a terrible musician, I'm not a good singer, I can't play an instrument to save my life.

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But I love music, I love the inspiration you can find in music, and I've been that way forever. And then like I said, there was this song that came on, and it...

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It was different.

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The morning sun has set, the Savior of the world was fallen.

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His body on the cross, his blood poured out for us, the weight of every curse upon him.

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Well that was really something.

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What a wow. God is good. God is good.

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So it's it's Paul Sunday and by all rights I should be preaching by man's standards and the traditions if you will live in of the church.

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I should be preaching about the triumphal entry of Jesus and I'm not going to.

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Yes, I'm not going to follow what some call the lexicon and teach the text that I am supposed to teach.

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Because the Lord have has led me to a specific verse which is right there.

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So give me a little who to how are amen as we go to Luke chapter 23.

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This is God's word. Now we're about to see that every word in God's word is mighty.

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I hope you'll pay attention. You'll listen. You'll see. You'll hear.

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You'll be ready for God to move because we're about to look at something and not answer the question.

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Is anyone here familiar with the term the fog of war? Video gamers, gamers, right?

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Definitely fog of war. Military guys usually. You got a little tactics.

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So the fog of war is that which you can't see. It's outside the reach of your understanding.

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So in a video game, for example, if your character is there, maybe out here is too far for your character to see.

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Or if you have radar, then however far the radar goes out beyond that, too far for you to see.

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It's a tactical thing really. It's not literal fog.

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It is an inability to understand beyond a certain reach.

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And that fog of war is scary. If you've encountered it in real life, you know what I mean.

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I don't mean in a video game. I mean in real life.

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When you get to the edge of something and you realize beyond this, I don't quite know.

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In that moment, it's kind of scary. You're waiting for a diagnosis.

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You've been called into the office at work after knowing that you did something wrong.

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Your significant other says, we need to talk. Right?

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Whatever it is, that moment at which it begins to get outside your understanding, outside what you know is going to come next,

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that's the fog of war. That's the challenge, if you will.

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I'll give you one example and then we're going to read this verse and then we're going to talk a little bit about it.

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Some years ago, I got my first cell phone.

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You probably remember that day when you got your first cell phone.

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I got it as an adult, a grown man working for Pizza Hut at the time.

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And I began to carry it everywhere that I went.

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It was gray and clunky and flipped open. It had a little tiny plastic antenna that you pull up out the top.

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It wasn't a brick. I wasn't allowed to buy a cell phone during the brick period because they were very expensive.

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But this was about that big and it was a flip phone, clunky.

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It wouldn't really fit in my pocket very well, no pocket no matter what.

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So I carried it in my inside jacket pocket or whatever.

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So some years passed and I got another cell phone. It was a little smaller, thinner, and I could carry it in my pocket.

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So I got to be to the point where 365 days a year, 366 in leap year, I had that cell phone on my person.

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Then it happened that one day I left the cell phone at home.

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I was driving on my motorcycle actually.

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And I had been having some mechanical issues with my motorcycle.

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And it occurred to me that I might have mechanical issues again with my motorcycle because I really hadn't totally resolved them.

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And it occurred to me that I did not have my cell phone.

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Which means if my motorcycle breaks down, I have no way to call anyone.

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So I'm riding on a motorcycle that may well break down with no cell phone, no way to call anyone.

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And it occurred to me that almost all of the pay phones in the city by that time had been removed.

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Anybody remember what a pay phone is? What they look like? Even Jason. Wow, that's impressive.

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If you ever watched Superman, he used to change his costume.

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Clark Kent used to change his costume in a big boxy pay phone booth, a pay phone booth.

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And then the pay phone booth went away.

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So then after that, the newer Superman always had to have a different way of changing his costume.

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But then you just had these little booths that you could pull your car up next to.

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That was pretty much all that was left. I pulled up next to one some years later and backed my car out.

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Caught my bumper on the pole next to the pay phone and bent my bumper way out.

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So I was kind of wishing that pole wasn't there.

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But this day I was going, man, there's no pay phones. There's no cell phone.

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And there's a good chance my motorcycle might break down.

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And so for the remainder of my drive, I was thinking about where if my motorcycle broke down,

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where I would go to get on a phone to stop at somebody's house.

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I was in the country for a while to stop at the business and ask them if I could use a phone, whatever.

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And I thought, but like if the motorcycle breaks down, it's going to break down wherever it breaks down.

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It's not necessarily going to break down in front of a house or in front of a door.

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I'm going to have to walk a quarter mile, a mile, whatever.

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And I kept thinking about myself about how big the gaps are in between wherever I might be able to go to call

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to have somebody come and rescue me if my motorcycle broke down.

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And I want to say to you that I started to feel nervous.

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Now, I wasn't saved at the time, so I didn't start praying or talking to God, didn't believe in any of that necessarily.

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But I remember wishing, hoping that if the motorcycle broke down,

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I would be somewhere within walking distance of somewhere that I could get on a phone.

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That's the fog of war in simplistic terms.

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It's that moment in time when you don't know what the outcome is going to be.

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I submit to you that you don't know for sure if you have a cell phone that you can get help,

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and you don't know how long it will take.

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But our attachment to cell phones has gotten a little out of control

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because your cell phone does not provide you safety.

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I watch these videos on Facebook now and then where somebody will see like an abducted child or something,

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or think it might be an abducted child, and they'll go and they'll grab the child and they put the phone up there like 911 is ringing on the phone.

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And they'll show them 911.

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Like you do realize that police response times are a minimum of like five minutes.

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You're showing them that phone 911.

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That's plenty of time for that individual to kill you outright and still take that child if they want to.

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Your phone does not provide you safety.

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Your muscles do not provide you safety.

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Your money does not provide you safety.

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Your vehicle does not provide you safety.

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You get in the car two hours away from home and you start to drive home.

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It may or may not get you there.

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The police do not provide you safety.

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The fog of war is that understanding that there are things that are outside our control, outside our understanding.

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And when we get right up against that line, it starts to get a little nerve wracking if you don't know who God is.

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We're going to read just one verse to start with today.

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And then I want to introduce you to the fog of war in scripture.

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In Luke 23, 44, it says this.

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Now let me back up one verse.

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And then he said, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.

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That's what he said to the thief who was dying on the cross, who was the one who had kind of stood up for him, the one who wasn't mocking him, the one who was realizing that he was somebody.

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And in 44 it says, and it was now about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

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So our focus is up to that semicolon if you have a New American Standard or whatever is there in your Bible.

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And it says, and it was now about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured.

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That's our focus.

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Remember that the verse numbers in your Bible are not God inspired.

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They are there for you to reference so you can look something up.

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That's all like an encyclopedia or a dictionary.

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But the text literally says, and now it was about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured.

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So the sun is blocked.

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This is not a solar eclipse.

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In this part of the world when they say the sixth hour, does anybody know what time they mean?

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Say again?

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Noon.

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That's right, noon.

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6 a.m. is the beginning, count six hours from there, it's noon.

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That's how they would keep track of time.

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And they'd still do that in the Middle East to some degree.

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And the main reason that's true, how it kind of got started is because the hours of the day don't change a lot.

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Like over here we have like, because we're up in the Northern Hemisphere for example, half the year it gets dark.

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If you didn't have daylight savings time, half the year gets dark at 6 p.m. and half the year it gets, less than half the year, it gets dark at 9.30.

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And that's a big swing, three and a half, four hour swing when the sun goes down over there.

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It's not like that really.

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It doesn't have that big swing.

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So they had 6 a.m. was roughly dawn, right?

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And six hours later, roughly noon.

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That's how it was every single day.

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And right about then, it got dark.

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So you want to say solar eclipse is the first thing you think of, right?

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Then it lasts for three hours.

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So it's impossible, scientifically speaking, for a solar eclipse to last for three hours.

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Also, interesting fact, the crucifixion is happening during the Passover festival.

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Does anybody know what happens during the Passover festival, celestially, every single year?

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A full moon.

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You can't have a solar eclipse during a full moon.

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It's not possible.

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The way the galaxies move, the way the stars are oriented, the way God designed it, you could not have a solar eclipse.

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So this is not a solar eclipse.

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God obscures the sun so that it gets dark.

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Now the question is, why?

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What is God teaching us about this?

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And I submit to you, the Bible doesn't say.

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That's the fog of war.

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Someone is going to ask you someday, why does the Bible say it got dark during the crucifixion?

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You can Google it. Google it right now.

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If you Google it, you don't Google it right now.

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That's a bad suggestion. Google it later.

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Anyway, if you Google it, you will find people telling you with certainty why it got dark during the crucifixion.

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It's the three hours right before Jesus dies.

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So they'll say, well, this was the time at which God was disgusted with mankind and what was going on there and his wrath is depicted.

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This is the time at which sin was on Jesus and sin equates to darkness and so all the world was in darkness.

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This is the time that it goes on and on.

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The ideas of why this might be true.

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We look at something in scripture and we see five, ten ideas.

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What do you actually know for sure?

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What do we know? What can we see that's not in the fog of war?

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We know that it got dark at noon.

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That doesn't happen.

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Not a solar eclipse.

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And it stayed dark for roughly three hours at the end of which Jesus dies.

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That's what we know.

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You might want to know more.

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So the eclipses don't last three hours.

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That's right.

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Now you might want to know more, but you don't get to.

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So let me tell you some things that then we can extrapolate from the verse that we can use, if you will, out of the text.

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Throughout the Bible, all throughout the Bible, the absence of God is depicted as darkness.

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So someone will argue that this is the absence of God, right?

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That God is not present in that place, that he's not there or whatever.

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Whether or not that's true, the Bible does tell us that the absence of God is darkness.

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The absence of God's goodness.

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Where there is no goodness of God, there is darkness.

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The absence of knowledge of God is depicted as darkness or ignorance.

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A person is ignorant of God.

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That's darkness.

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Sin is depicted as darkness.

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Judgment depicted as darkness.

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Wrath depicted as darkness.

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And natural darkness is even depicted as a time to rest from work, which has great significance when you think about Jesus.

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Jesus' crucifixion was the time to rest from all sacrifice, the time to rest from any efforts to pay for your sins yourself.

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The Bible does not say with certainty why the sun was blocked out at that moment.

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God has used natural darkness many times to express himself.

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Did you know, we always hear about the, remember the pillar of cloud and fire when the Israelites were coming out of Egypt?

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Did you know that it says, if you go back and read that text, that it says that the army of Pharaoh was blocked as they were sitting at the Red Sea

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and he had pursued them out there and he was going to destroy them before they cross the Red Sea and Pharaoh tries to follow and the sea crushes him?

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Before that, the army of Pharaoh was blocked by that pillar, a pillar of fire and cloud and darkness.

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It's hard to have a pillar of fire and also darkness, but this is God that we're talking about.

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Darkness was there. And you can kind of see that.

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You might see that in like a comic book or a depictions from an artist where it has like swirling flames and darkness in there too.

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Whatever it actually looked like, God blocked the army of the Egyptians with fire and cloud and darkness.

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Darkness was depicted at Mount Sinai.

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There was an idea that if you touch the mountain, you would die.

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And they were scared. Everybody was trembling. Why?

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Because of the fog of war, a lack of understanding, a feeling that darkness that covered the mountain and they would die if they approached God that way.

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People want to add great symbolism to everything that God does.

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I want to add great symbolism to everything that God does.

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In fact, it would preach better. It would preach easier.

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I would struggle less preaching this verse if I could say to you the darkness that God caused at the moment that Jesus was on the cross

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and about to die in really the minutes, or 180 minutes, the darkness that God brought about at that time represents or means this.

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But I can't do that because the Bible does not tell us what it means.

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If you want to do a study yourself and go through the Bible and do a study on light and darkness, natural light and darkness, tons of verses,

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light and darkness as ignorance, light and darkness as penalty for sin, light and darkness as the wrath of God, you can do that.

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You could spend days and it would be awesome and you would come away knowing more about God from that study.

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But what you will not find is a place at which God says that the darkness that took place during the crucifixion represents or means X.

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It's a problem, isn't it? What if it makes it so that somebody, because they can't know the answer to that question, they will not believe in Jesus.

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They will not accept Christ because you can't answer that question for them.

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Guess what? That's not the way it works.

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There will always be things that God knows. There will always be things that God holds at bay from us.

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If you knew everything that was lost in the fog of war, you would never move forward.

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If you knew everything, every challenge that might come, if you knew the fear that you would feel from leaving your cell phone at home, you would never forget it.

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Or you would repent of the fear. You would turn from it and say, I'm not going to be afraid. I used to live by the cell phone.

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That might not be true for some of the young people. I never had one before.

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There was a time before where I knew nothing. And now I know something.

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And the something that I know includes that there are things that I don't know.

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That fog of war, it's even scarier when the radar reaches a mile or 12 to the horizon.

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But what's just on the other side? The more you know, the more the thing that you don't know could be scary.

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That's the nature of it.

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Could it be the absence of God, the absence of His goodness, the absence of knowledge of Him or ignorance, the sin, the judgment, the wrath, or even a time for rest, for work?

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Yeah, it could be any or all of those things.

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But we would be remiss to preach that it is any or all of those things specifically because the Bible does not clearly say.

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The Bible simply relates the events.

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Have you ever noticed that the Bible does not clearly specifically argue against evolution?

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One of the greatest lies, I'm not going to call it a theory, I'm going to call it a lie.

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Macro evolution, that one animal, one species of animal evolves into another, that is a flat out travesty and they teach it in schools.

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We teach it in our schools in America and have you ever noticed that the Bible does not expressly say that there is no evolution?

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The word evolution is not used in the Bible.

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But people teach that the Bible does teach that there is no evolution. So how is that so?

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Well, what the Bible actually teaches is that each kind fosters or produces its own kind.

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And that is specific. But it was not put there to debunk evolution.

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Evolution wasn't even invented until less than 100 years ago.

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And really was invented to cause one thing to be prejudiced or biased against another people.

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The idea of race, that there were races of people, dark skinned people were one race and light skinned people another race.

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That was invented by the same man and in the same document.

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And look where we are today. There is only one race. It is the human race.

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Every white person has different skin and every brown person has different skin.

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We're all unique. Just because your eye sees a certain class of people looking approximately the same way or having certain similar traits,

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does not make them a different race that was invented at that time. And it was invented to put certain people below other people.

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So why doesn't the Bible clearly rebuke that?

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Because it's a lie crafted in very modern day, very cleverly put together, to avoid the plain truth that is scripture, that there is only one race.

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So you can use the fog of war. You can use the fog of war to make people afraid to move forward.

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Don't you understand that the more you move, if you ever reach the edge, when you get near the darkness, get near the fog,

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get near the thing that you don't know and don't understand that could be dangerous to you,

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when you get near that edge, you are in danger of destruction. You are in danger of falling down.

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You are in danger of being pushed back. You're in danger of losing your resources. You're in danger of becoming poor.

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You're in danger of your health failing you. Oh no, stay in the middle. Stay in the light. Stay where it's safe.

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Don't ever adventure. Don't ever take a risk. Don't push forward.

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You can use the fog of war. People use the fog of war to cause fear. And that's what's happening with evolution.

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You can't win the argument that creationism is the correct thing, because those who do not believe in God,

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do not believe that God created the universe. They don't want to believe it, because if God did, then they have to respond to that truth.

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The truth calls for a response.

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So here we are looking at a verse that teaches something without actually teaching us for sure what it was that it was teaching.

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The darkness, whatever its exact purpose, does serve to mark a moment in time, like a statue, like a monument, like a red X on a calendar.

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It is an unforgettable event that happened as Jesus was about to die. There's no doubt about that.

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And while we can't know exactly why it happened or exactly what was being conveyed, we can know that when that happened,

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there was something happening that must not be forgotten.

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1 Corinthians 4-5 says, Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness,

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and disclose the motive of men's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God.

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Do you understand that in that moment in time, God was not explaining the darkness in part to say,

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One day you will know, one day I will dispose of this secrecy, one day I will eliminate all failures of knowledge, one day I will make all things understood.

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And only those who are willing to understand that which I have now given them, to stand under that which I have now given, will then be present to know all things for eternity.

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And the others, they'll know enough to know that they messed up, that they didn't live according to that which God had disclosed.

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We are not to go around passing judgment, meaning speaking unto that which the Bible does not speak.

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It's not our job to look at what a person does and say, Hey, you're in sin, you're going to hell, because we don't know if they're saved or not.

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It's our job to look at a person, for example, and say, This person needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Whether they profess to be saved or not, we should be delivering the message and the truth about God into our homes, into our schools, into our workplaces, all the time, all the time, all the time.

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Do you know a Catholic priest? Absolutely share the simple salvation of God, the truth, because he may or may not be saved.

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Do you know a pastor? Absolutely share the gospel. Do you know a deacon? Do you know a dad who's raising his family in a Christian way?

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Absolutely share the truth about Jesus, because just because someone is doing something does not mean they understand what they are doing.

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Don't go on passing judgment before the time. Wait for the fog of war to be dispelled.

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Wait for the things that you don't know to be revealed to you as God either reveals them in this life or ultimately in that moment.

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Then God will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God.

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Isaiah 42 16 says this is I will lead the blind by a way they do not know. Now, listen, let me be really clear.

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So what we're saying is God will lead those who realize they don't know. A blind man knows he's blind.

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So those who know that they don't know where they're going, what they're getting into, exactly what's going to happen, they can't tell the future.

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They don't know how it's going to go. God says I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know. In paths they do not know, I will guide them.

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I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do and I will not leave them undone.

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You see, God is able to dispel the fog of war just as you reach the edge and are about to go somewhere you've never gone before.

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Just as you are about to conquer or struggle with difficulty that you've never faced before, God is able to bust open a whole new region of light and capability and understanding.

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God is able to take you where he wants you to take you if only you are willing to not know everything before you go.

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And as Jesus is dying on the cross about to usher in a new era, the beginning of the church as we know it, about to save souls like never could be done except trusting that God would eventually do it.

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If Noah got saved previously, he trusted that God would eventually do it by the way that he had planned.

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When David got saved, he trusted that God would eventually do it. So they're just trusting looking ahead.

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And now that way is finally exposed, made clear, even though it was prophesied and there were lots and lots of prophecies about what Jesus would do.

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Now all those prophecies about what Jesus would do being fulfilled, it's become obvious.

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Do you understand that David lived with the fog of war? Abraham lived with the fog of war?

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They all said, however you want to do it, Lord, by whatever means we believe, listen closely, we believe in the way.

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We believe in the way that you will use, though we don't see him. We yearn to, but we don't.

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They all said, we believe in the way that is to come.

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I'm asking you today, are you willing to be blind compared to God?

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Are you willing to be led by God to a place where God is taking you through a pathway that God is taking you that you do not know?

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If you have a five-year plan, a ten-year plan, and a twenty-year plan, have you said of your five-year plan,

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this is my five-year plan, but God is sovereign over my five-year plan.

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God can change my plan. This is the man or the woman that I want, but God can change my plan.

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This is the job or the promotion that I want, but God is the author of the plan.

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Where there is no vision that people perish means God must be in it or you will die.

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You will fail. You will fall.

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The very darkness that you perceive is at the end of what you know is actually where God wants to take you.

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If you want God to expose everything before you get there, then you're not willing to be a blind man led of the Lord.

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You're not willing to be traveling down passes that he is willing to take you through.

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You're not willing for him to smooth the rugged places into planes.

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God says, these are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone.

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That's a promise you can take to the bank.

380
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:26,000
Isaiah 50 verse 10 says, Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant,

381
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:31,000
capital S, God's servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?

382
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:36,000
So he's asking this question, who is among you that is in a difficult place?

383
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:41,000
Who is among you that you're right at the edge of the fog of war, you don't know what's going to happen,

384
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:45,000
you're scared, you're wondering, you're anxious, maybe depressed, maybe struggling,

385
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:49,000
you're not sure, you're self-esteem issues, you're concerned about whether you're capable,

386
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:54,000
or whether someone else is going to get to you, or a circumstance is going to be out of your control.

387
00:44:54,000 --> 00:45:04,000
Who among you that fears the Lord and obeys the face of his servant, walks in darkness and has no light?

388
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:10,000
It's possible to get to that moment in time where you feel that way, but listen to what he says.

389
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:16,000
He says, Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

390
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:20,000
If you've come to a moment in time where you have a question and you don't know the answer,

391
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:27,000
you have a verse and you don't get it, you have a trial and you don't know how you're going to get over it,

392
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:34,000
you have a problem and you don't have a solution, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

393
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:42,000
Not on your own abilities, rest from your work and say, Okay God, I don't see how we're going to get there.

394
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:48,000
You say you have a good plan for me, you're taking a plan to prosper me, a plan to bless me, a plan to benefit me.

395
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:53,000
You say that you could turn everything off from my good. I can't imagine how you would do that,

396
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:58,000
but I love you and I've called according to your purpose, so I am willing to be blind to the circumstances,

397
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:03,000
blind to the solution, blind to what's going to happen, and I'm willing to just trust you

398
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:14,000
and rely on you. Micah 7-8 says, Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise.

399
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:25,000
Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I want you to think back to some difficult time.

400
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:35,000
Some time when you were going through a problem or you were facing something that you didn't know how it was going to be resolved.

401
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:43,000
Think back to a moment in time at which you were at the edge of the fog of war wondering what was going to come next.

402
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:50,000
Now do you notice something? There are a few traits of that time.

403
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:57,000
Either you chose to trust in the Lord and God walked you through it as bad as it might have gotten

404
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:02,000
or whatever, you were sustained and you made it through. Or you chose not to trust in the Lord,

405
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:09,000
you didn't call out to God, etc. In which case you made it through just abundant grace, here you are.

406
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:15,000
So either you did or you didn't call out to the Lord at the moment that you did not understand,

407
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:21,000
at the moment of your anxiousness, at the moment of your struggle, at the moment of your trial.

408
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:30,000
And then that marks the situation you are in. But know this, you know this now, He was there.

409
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:36,000
You could have called on Him. If you didn't, you could have. You could have relied on Him. You could have trusted Him.

410
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:41,000
I remember the night that we heard that Stuart, which was Sherry's grandfather,

411
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:48,000
who was basically the patriarch on her side of the family. He was a stubborn old coot.

412
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:56,000
But he had a fight with cancer and he died. He was also a man you could respect.

413
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:03,000
He was a man who kept his word. He was a man who showed up when people needed him.

414
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:10,000
He'd do the thousand dollar repair of your car and maybe, maybe charge you for parts.

415
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,000
Mind you, if you went out there while he was repairing it, he was probably swinging a hammer

416
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:19,000
and breaking things if it wasn't going quite right. If he couldn't get a bolt off, whatever, he had a temper.

417
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:25,000
The night that he passed away, Sherry and I lay in bed. We weren't there the moment that he passed away.

418
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,000
We were actually at a softball game and we heard about it afterwards.

419
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:32,000
We were on our way out to visit him and got the call that he'd passed away.

420
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:38,000
And we lay in our beds that night and cried together.

421
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:41,000
Now, Stuart had accepted the Lord and he'd gone to be with the Lord.

422
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,000
And that changed the way we mourned him. It was the same thing with Judy.

423
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:50,000
We're talking about Judy. Ariana was reminiscing over her grandmother who passed away.

424
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:54,000
Judy was twice miraculously healed from cancer and then the third time was not.

425
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:57,000
And even though they told her she'd only lived six months without treatment

426
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:01,000
and a year maximum with treatment, she lived for three and a half years.

427
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:03,000
And for the first two and a half years, of the three and a half years,

428
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:07,000
she was still volunteering at the Life Station, volunteering at the church, serving here,

429
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:10,000
doing all kinds of things, cleaning, working, etc.

430
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:17,000
So for a year and a half after she would surely be dead, she was still serving God on earth.

431
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:24,000
She didn't know what was coming. I didn't know what was coming.

432
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:30,000
The fog of war was very real and after she passed away, we wept, we cried.

433
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,000
But we know where she is now.

434
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:38,000
I submit to you that we still don't quite see heaven clearly.

435
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:43,000
But Stuart and Judy see heaven very clearly.

436
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:52,000
The fog of war is real and for that reason, Jesus died, rose again, went to heaven.

437
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:56,000
God sent the Holy Spirit and he lives in us now so that wherever we are,

438
00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:01,000
whenever we face that edge of the fog of war, we can claim this promise.

439
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:05,000
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

440
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:10,000
God says, these are the things I will do and I will not leave them undone.

441
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:13,000
I will make a way. I will guide them.

442
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:18,000
I will make darkness into light and rugged places into plains.

443
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:25,000
Now am I saying that the darkness that occurred while Jesus was on the cross teaches us that?

444
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:28,000
No, because the Bible doesn't say that.

445
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:33,000
But it is a fact. What I have said to you is a fact and it is a very evident fact to believers

446
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,000
after the crucifixion, after the moment of darkness.

447
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,000
From that point on, we now know that these things are true.

448
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:46,000
That moment marked a spot in time after which we now know that these things are true.

449
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:47,000
One more.

450
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:56,000
This side of that event, darkness, both symbolic and natural, has lost its importance.

451
00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:00,000
It can no longer keep its grip on men.

452
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:06,000
While darkness once would rule, darkness once would reign, darkness once would control us,

453
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:12,000
drive us, create in us a fear that would push us to go a certain way, an anxiety about what was coming.

454
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,000
Like this is the area of the fog of war.

455
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,000
When I get over here, I know I have to go back this way because over here I can see

456
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:23,000
while darkness could have that effect on us, now darkness is coming.

457
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:29,000
While darkness could have that effect on us, now darkness has fallen.

458
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:32,000
Not darkness has fallen like it became dark.

459
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:35,000
There has always been darkness. There is darkness in this room right now.

460
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:39,000
Even though if you look at the lights in the ceiling, for long enough, they are painful enough,

461
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:41,000
they will probably give you a headache in about 15 minutes.

462
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:43,000
And yet there is darkness.

463
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:49,000
Just look at the shadows under the chairs of the people next to you.

464
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:56,000
Even in the brightest of lights there is darkness, but the truth is that darkness has fallen.

465
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:01,000
This side of the event, darkness, both symbolic and natural, has lost its importance.

466
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,000
It can no longer keep its grip on men.

467
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,000
Remember, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

468
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,000
Remember, though I fall, I will rise.

469
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:15,000
Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.

470
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:16,000
Jesus said it this way.

471
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:22,000
This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

472
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:28,000
Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear their deeds will be exposed.

473
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:32,000
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly

474
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:37,000
that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

475
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:43,000
We are called to live a life where darkness no longer reigns.

476
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:46,000
Darkness no longer has any power over us.

477
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:48,000
I am not afraid to go where God has taken me.

478
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:53,000
I will tell you what, if I am afraid of anything, it is to not go where God is taking me.

479
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:57,000
Even though I can't see the level ground, even though I can't see the pathway,

480
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:00,000
I am not fully equipped in my own estimation to be able to go where he is taking me.

481
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:07,000
Even though that is true, the thing that should scare you the most is to not go, to go where darkness still reigns,

482
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:14,000
to stay where darkness still has some control or scares you away from your purpose, your being.

483
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:19,000
God calls us, and light, if you will, calls us to respond.

484
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,000
We respond by repenting. We turn from our ignorance. We turn from our sin.

485
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:28,000
We turn from trusting in that which we think that we know and instead call upon the Lord.

486
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,000
We believe in the one who sent his Son to die on the cross.

487
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:34,000
We believe in the crucifixion as payment for sins.

488
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:38,000
We believe in the resurrection as testimony that we will live again.

489
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:42,000
We receive the Holy Spirit presence in us.

490
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:46,000
And if the Holy Spirit is with you, what do you have to fear?

491
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:51,000
Do you not know that that anchor, that testimony, that down payment proves that you will be in heaven one day?

492
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:58,000
If you die today in a car accident or take a bullet in your head, if you die from cancer in a week or even tomorrow,

493
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:03,000
we know a woman who went to the hospital feeling kind of sick and they diagnosed her with cancer

494
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:07,000
spread all throughout her body and she died like eight hours later.

495
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:14,000
So if you die, that down payment, that testimony, that Holy Spirit, He will take you home.

496
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:21,000
What fear is there in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is in you? The answer is none.

497
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:30,000
Receive a new heart, care, have compassion. Yes, take blows, suffer, go through trials and tribulations just as Jesus did.

498
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:38,000
We walk as He walked and that does not mean untouchable in this lifetime, but it does mean untouchable in eternity.

499
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:48,000
We follow His teachings to the best of our current knowledge, believing and testifying to a risen Savior.

500
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:54,000
That's the Kingdom of God on this side of the crucifixion.

501
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:58,000
What did the Kingdom of God look like on the other side of the crucifixion?

502
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:09,000
Well, very similar, very similar, but requiring a certain amount of faith in an event that had not yet occurred.

503
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:17,000
That brings us to this conclusion. There are three things that I sort of pointed out to you and I'll rehash them now so we have them clearly.

504
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:21,000
The first one was that it can represent the absence of God, the absence of His goodness,

505
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:26,000
the absence of knowledge of Him or ignorance, sin, judgment, wrath, and even a time to rest from work.

506
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:34,000
It can represent all of those things, but the Bible does not clearly say that this darkness represented any of those things.

507
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:39,000
This darkness, whatever its exact purpose, does serve to mark a moment in time.

508
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:43,000
It's an unforgettable event that happened as Jesus was about to die.

509
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:50,000
And this side, our side of that event, darkness, both symbolic and natural, has lost its importance.

510
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:55,000
You could almost say that this darkness on that day was darkness's last hurrah.

511
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:58,000
It was the last opportunity to scare everybody half to death.

512
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:04,000
It was the last opportunity to trick everybody into appealing to their false gods,

513
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:10,000
to worshiping their idols, to staying hidden while things were unfolding.

514
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:15,000
But now, darkness has fallen.

515
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:22,000
That brings us to our conclusion. If you find yourself in darkness, you must listen now.

516
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:26,000
You are called out.

517
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:32,000
You wouldn't be here today if there wasn't your family, yourself, whatever, you came here today

518
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:37,000
because there is a good likelihood that something is going to be proclaimed here today,

519
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:43,000
that God can do something today, and let me tell you, that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

520
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:47,000
that you are called out of darkness.

521
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:53,000
You must listen. 1 Peter 2.9 says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

522
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:57,000
a people for God's own possession. That's what God is calling you to,

523
00:56:57,000 --> 00:57:07,000
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

524
00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:14,000
You are called out of darkness. Darkness has fallen. Why would you want to stay there?

525
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:21,000
But the fact is, it appears that some of you, some of me, sometimes friends we have, etc.,

526
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:25,000
kind of enjoy fellowship with darkness.

527
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:29,000
There are some things that the world produces that we kind of like, spend a little time with,

528
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:34,000
stream a little too much, jump on social media, too many things on your phone,

529
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,000
posting things that shouldn't be posted, listening to things that shouldn't be listed,

530
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:41,000
doing things that shouldn't be done. We kind of enjoy it and get the rewards from it, right?

531
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:45,000
There are people out there who claim to be Christian, and they've risen to be making a thousand

532
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:52,000
or five thousand or ten thousand or even a hundred thousand dollars a month doing things that nobody should do.

533
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:55,000
And they started out on kind of a good footing, and people liked them then,

534
00:57:55,000 --> 00:58:04,000
and now it's like they traded their conscience.

535
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:09,000
There is a people that claim the name of Jesus, but want to keep that fellowship with darkness,

536
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:15,000
and you must listen, you are called away.

537
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:19,000
So if you find yourself in darkness, you must listen, you are called out of darkness.

538
00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:23,000
If you enjoy fellowship with darkness, you must listen, you are called away.

539
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:27,000
2 Corinthians 6, 14 says, Do not be bound together with unbelievers,

540
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:30,000
which is talking about relationship, right?

541
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:35,000
But listen to this, For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness,

542
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:38,000
or what fellowship has light with darkness?

543
00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:45,000
Let me show you how this little object, may I have this flashlight here?

544
00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:52,000
And we'll see that the chair over here on the slina has a shadow, and now it doesn't.

545
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:56,000
It's a pretty bright flashlight.

546
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:00,000
There's a shadow under all three of those chairs. There's no shadow under that chair.

547
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:02,000
There's no shadow under that chair. There's no shadow under that chair.

548
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:06,000
Three of these chairs all have a shadow. Now it doesn't. Now it doesn't. Now it doesn't.

549
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:11,000
It's very simple, right? It's very simple.

550
00:59:11,000 --> 00:59:20,000
Darkness can exist in light only if there is a barrier placed between the source of light

551
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:24,000
and where the darkness will hide. The chair creates a barrier.

552
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:28,000
From this angle I can shine a lighter, now the shadow is gone.

553
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:32,000
However, inside Chris's pocket, like where his left hand is right there,

554
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:38,000
it's dark and it's still dark. Right?

555
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:46,000
Inside the case of RJ's tablet that he's typing his notes on there, it's dark and it's still dark.

556
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:53,000
The only way to have darkness in light is to place a barrier between the darkness and the light.

557
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:59,000
Do you understand? And so if you want to have fellowship with darkness, a barrier has,

558
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:02,000
and you are in the light, you are walking in the light that is God's light,

559
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:08,000
then you have to have a barrier between the darkness and God.

560
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:12,000
And if you have a barrier between the darkness and God so that the darkness can exist

561
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:18,000
and you're going to have fellowship with the darkness, where do you have to be?

562
01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:23,000
On the other side of the barrier from God, because that's the only place the darkness is. Right?

563
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:29,000
There is no darkness in God, no variation, no shadow of turning, no darkness whatsoever.

564
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:34,000
And so if you want to have a fellowship in this lifetime with that darkness,

565
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:40,000
the product of darkness, or behave as darkness yourself to produce something,

566
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:47,000
if you want to have that fellowship with darkness, you have to be on the other side of the barrier.

567
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:54,000
Hence your sin creates a barrier between you and God. Not because you're no longer able to be saved,

568
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:59,000
nothing has actually changed. Not because darkness has any power whatsoever.

569
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:03,000
Darkness is fallen. Darkness cannot restrain you.

570
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:08,000
But in your desire to have fellowship with darkness, which can only exist in a place

571
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:16,000
where there is a barrier between darkness and God, you must go across the barrier to where the darkness is.

572
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:19,000
And you will then be in the darkness.

573
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:23,000
Whatever that barrier is will create a shadow so that you will be in the darkness.

574
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:29,000
And some people find that relieving. Some people find that to remove stress.

575
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:32,000
Now I don't have the challenges. Now I don't have to do what God wants me to do.

576
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:37,000
I don't have to tell anybody about Jesus anymore because now I am in fellowship with darkness.

577
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:40,000
I have moved to the other side of the barrier.

578
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:43,000
Don't let your sins place a barrier between you and God.

579
01:01:43,000 --> 01:01:47,000
Have no fellowship with darkness. You are called out.

580
01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:53,000
Darkness is fallen. Darkness doesn't want to be gone.

581
01:01:53,000 --> 01:01:58,000
And in some sense will still continue to exist until all darkness is gone.

582
01:01:58,000 --> 01:02:03,000
And you don't want fellowship with darkness. You are called away.

583
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:10,000
So if you see darkness, you see a company, a manufacturer, a video, a song,

584
01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:18,000
a type of music, or an artist, or a meme, or a friend, or a boyfriend, or a girlfriend.

585
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:23,000
And they are in darkness. Don't go be in darkness with them.

586
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:28,000
You are called away from that darkness.

587
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,000
That's exactly what the verse said.

588
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:34,000
Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partridge have righteousness and lawless

589
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:37,000
or what fellowship has light with darkness.

590
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:40,000
The answer is none.

591
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:46,000
God now calls all men, and that means all men, all women, all people old enough to understand, to repent.

592
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:51,000
The darkness that bound men has fallen.

593
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:56,000
Acts 17, therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, and that word there, ignorance,

594
01:02:56,000 --> 01:03:00,000
remember darkness and ignorance are often symbolic of one another.

595
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:03,000
Therefore having overlooked the time, you could say, of darkness,

596
01:03:03,000 --> 01:03:07,000
God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent

597
01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:12,000
because he has fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness

598
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:19,000
through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

599
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:24,000
When God sends you into darkness, if there's a place you must go that seems dark,

600
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:29,000
you have to go into the fog of war, you must be the light.

601
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:33,000
And this is like maybe always, right?

602
01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:38,000
Wherever you are on this earth, you must be the light.

603
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:41,000
Matthew 5, 14 to 16 says, You are the light of the world.

604
01:03:41,000 --> 01:03:46,000
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket,

605
01:03:46,000 --> 01:03:49,000
but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

606
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:54,000
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works

607
01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:56,000
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

608
01:03:56,000 --> 01:04:00,000
Funny thing about darkness, when you're in the darkness, nobody sees anybody's works.

609
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,000
That's why thieves like to be out at night.

610
01:04:02,000 --> 01:04:03,000
That's why drug addicts come out at night.

611
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:06,000
That's why prostitutes come out at night, right?

612
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:09,000
Because it feels safe, protected, comfortable. By what?

613
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:11,000
This law didn't change.

614
01:04:11,000 --> 01:04:14,000
That's why young people who are doing things that they shouldn't be doing

615
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:18,000
want to stay up until 2, 3 a.m. and after mom and dad have gone to bed.

616
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,000
Because it feels safe.

617
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:23,000
I know, I was one.

618
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,000
But you're not safe.

619
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:32,000
You're going to a place where darkness still has some hope, some control, some reign.

620
01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:34,000
Have no fellowship with darkness.

621
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:38,000
Rather, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works

622
01:04:38,000 --> 01:04:41,000
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

623
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:43,000
A couple of closing illustrations.

624
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:47,000
The first one is, there's another thing that has to do with gaming,

625
01:04:47,000 --> 01:04:49,000
a term that's called level grinding.

626
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:51,000
You know what level grinding is?

627
01:04:51,000 --> 01:04:53,000
Some gamers in the room know what level grinding is?

628
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:55,000
Level grinding is when?

629
01:04:55,000 --> 01:04:57,000
What was that game you were just playing earlier?

630
01:04:57,000 --> 01:05:00,000
How do you level grind in Clash of Clans?

631
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:05,000
You attack other bases and you get more and more resources, etc.

632
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:07,000
So you level grind.

633
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:10,000
Level grinding in a video game will do you some good.

634
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:12,000
How?

635
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:14,000
It makes you more capable of winning.

636
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:17,000
It takes you to a place that you couldn't otherwise get to.

637
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:20,000
You can level grind in the things of the world.

638
01:05:20,000 --> 01:05:22,000
You can pursue money, relationships.

639
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:27,000
You can behave sneaky, have fellowship with things of the world that you're not supposed to.

640
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:29,000
You can level grind there.

641
01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:33,000
But believe it or not, you can also level grind in the kingdom.

642
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:38,000
Surrender yourself to doing so in the light of God, not in the light of men.

643
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:40,000
I will read my Bible.

644
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,000
Say, I'm not a very good reader.

645
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:45,000
I will listen to my Bible and I will read my Bible some,

646
01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:49,000
but I will listen to my Bible always, a lot, and I will take it in.

647
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:50,000
I will make notes.

648
01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:51,000
I will study.

649
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:52,000
I will worship.

650
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:53,000
I will praise.

651
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:54,000
I will pray.

652
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:55,000
I will level grind.

653
01:05:55,000 --> 01:06:01,000
I will use the disciplines that God has given me to make me more godly, if you will.

654
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:04,000
Not to make you saved, whatever, but to make me more godly.

655
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:06,000
I'm going to level grind in the kingdom of God.

656
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:11,000
If you've spent 10 hours in Clash of Clans, and you probably spent a lot more than that,

657
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:15,000
if you've spent 10 hours in Clash of Clans, you've missed out on 10 hours of level grinding in the kingdom of God.

658
01:06:15,000 --> 01:06:17,000
I'm just being transparent.

659
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:24,000
When I was working at Radio Shack back in the day, I started there when I was 19.

660
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:29,000
When I was 20, I bought my first computer pre-Pentium.

661
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:31,000
It was a 286, 286 megahertz.

662
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:33,000
That's how fast it ran.

663
01:06:33,000 --> 01:06:35,000
At that day, it was like bold, man.

664
01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:37,000
It was cutting edge.

665
01:06:37,000 --> 01:06:42,000
It cost $1,200 on a credit card that I had to get just for that purpose.

666
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:46,000
I couldn't get $1,200 on one credit card, so I had to get two credit cards.

667
01:06:46,000 --> 01:06:49,000
They had the RS, Radio Shack RSVP card.

668
01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:51,000
It had a certain limit on it.

669
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:53,000
Then I had to get a MasterCard Visa.

670
01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:57,000
I took my MasterCard Visa and extended it up to be like $500, and the rest of it on the RSVP card,

671
01:06:57,000 --> 01:06:59,000
because I couldn't pay for it on one credit card.

672
01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:00,000
I wanted that so bad.

673
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:01,000
Then I got a video game.

674
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:03,000
It was my first ever video game.

675
01:07:03,000 --> 01:07:05,000
I really loved this game.

676
01:07:05,000 --> 01:07:06,000
It was pretty cool.

677
01:07:06,000 --> 01:07:08,000
You'd explore the galaxy and build your space crew.

678
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:10,000
You'd have different people with different skills.

679
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:11,000
You'd level grind.

680
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:13,000
You'd go out and use the skills of your characters.

681
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:17,000
You'd go up levels, and you'd find resources.

682
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:20,000
Then you'd go sell them for money, and you'd buy better stuff for your ship.

683
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:24,000
I played that video game.

684
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:30,000
I'll bet you in the first two months I had it, I played it probably 300 hours.

685
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:36,000
My crew was amazing, what they could do.

686
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:42,000
I'd go to sleep at night, and I'd lay down to rest, close my eyes.

687
01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:46,000
I could see the screens from the video game when I was laying down there to go to sleep.

688
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:47,000
Not just a thing.

689
01:07:47,000 --> 01:07:51,000
No big deal, right?

690
01:07:51,000 --> 01:07:55,000
Then I met a young lady, fell in love, started dating,

691
01:07:55,000 --> 01:07:59,000
spent a lot less time playing the video game, but still playing the video game too much.

692
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:02,000
One night I was sitting in front of the video game.

693
01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:03,000
I was not saved.

694
01:08:03,000 --> 01:08:07,000
I'm not a Christian.

695
01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:11,000
I kind of believed that God existed.

696
01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:14,000
I'm playing the video game, and she comes sat down behind me,

697
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:21,000
just pregnant, about four months with my child, playing the video game.

698
01:08:21,000 --> 01:08:23,000
She wasn't doing nothing.

699
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:24,000
She wasn't hurting me at all.

700
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:28,000
She was just sitting there watching, playing the video game, just hanging out with me.

701
01:08:28,000 --> 01:08:30,000
I started to feel guilty.

702
01:08:30,000 --> 01:08:32,000
I started to feel like I didn't know what was going to happen.

703
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:35,000
I started to feel upset, the fog of war set in, like what's about to happen?

704
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:37,000
I didn't know.

705
01:08:37,000 --> 01:08:38,000
So I responded.

706
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:40,000
I said, you know what you need?

707
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:45,000
I said, you need a hobby.

708
01:08:45,000 --> 01:08:48,000
Love of my life, pregnant with my child.

709
01:08:48,000 --> 01:08:50,000
I said, you need a hobby.

710
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:52,000
She got up and left the room crying.

711
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:59,000
It took probably, I don't know, years for her to overcome that nasty moment of bitterness.

712
01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:04,000
I protected my God, who is that video game.

713
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:08,000
Be careful about falling in love with a man who loves video games.

714
01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:10,000
Watch out for the fog of war.

715
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,000
Be careful about being a man who loves video games.

716
01:09:13,000 --> 01:09:16,000
Watch out for the fog of war.

717
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:17,000
So then I'm free.

718
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:18,000
I'm safe, right?

719
01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:20,000
Because I figured that out and I repented.

720
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:23,000
And even though I wasn't a Christian then, later I figured it out.

721
01:09:23,000 --> 01:09:27,000
Long after becoming a Christian, I was a Christian for about five years.

722
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:29,000
I was living up in Michigan.

723
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:31,000
I was going to Bible college.

724
01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:32,000
I was going to Bible college.

725
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:34,000
I got a video game called Knights and Merchants.

726
01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:36,000
Still out there.

727
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:38,000
Pretty cool game.

728
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:42,000
Not like what we have now, but still pretty cool game.

729
01:09:42,000 --> 01:09:45,000
And I got on Christmas break from school.

730
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:47,000
And I thought, you know what, I'm going to play that game.

731
01:09:47,000 --> 01:09:48,000
I haven't played in a while.

732
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:49,000
I'm going to play that game.

733
01:09:49,000 --> 01:09:51,000
And I started level grinding.

734
01:09:51,000 --> 01:09:57,000
And in seven days, I played about probably 50 hours in seven days.

735
01:09:57,000 --> 01:09:58,000
Christmas break, that's gone.

736
01:09:58,000 --> 01:10:00,000
She's working all the time.

737
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:01,000
I'm not spending time with my kids.

738
01:10:01,000 --> 01:10:03,000
They come in and see me while I'm playing the video game.

739
01:10:03,000 --> 01:10:04,000
You know what I mean?

740
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:06,000
And then I started going to bed at night.

741
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:12,000
I started seeing the screens on the back of my eyelids.

742
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:14,000
And I realized I was in trouble.

743
01:10:14,000 --> 01:10:16,000
I realized I was doing the same thing I used to do when I was saved,

744
01:10:16,000 --> 01:10:18,000
well, before I was saved.

745
01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:23,000
I realized I had fellowship with darkness.

746
01:10:23,000 --> 01:10:26,000
Anybody can do it.

747
01:10:26,000 --> 01:10:31,000
What I'm saying to you is a little level grinding will do you some good.

748
01:10:31,000 --> 01:10:35,000
The level grinding you really need to do is in the kingdom of God.

749
01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:39,000
We ran into a salesman at Costco.

750
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:45,000
And Arianna and I went there and he was trying to get me to switch over to AT&T cellular for my cell phone.

751
01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:46,000
I don't want to switch over.

752
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:48,000
I just don't want to deal with it, right?

753
01:10:48,000 --> 01:10:53,000
As far as I'm concerned, I'll probably have the same cellular company until Jesus comes again.

754
01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:56,000
And unless somebody comes along and just totally wants to pay my bill,

755
01:10:56,000 --> 01:10:58,000
then whatever company will be fine by me, I don't really care.

756
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:00,000
I don't have to deal with it.

757
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:05,000
And Arianna said, well, the same guy tried to sell Aunt Becky's cell phone service when we came here together last week.

758
01:11:05,000 --> 01:11:06,000
And I'm like, yeah.

759
01:11:06,000 --> 01:11:07,000
She said, yeah, same guy.

760
01:11:07,000 --> 01:11:11,000
And she said, Aunt Becky just said to him, she don't want to hear it.

761
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:16,000
I was kind of nice to the guy, you know.

762
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:17,000
And we got talking about it.

763
01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:23,000
And I said, well, the thing is if he asks 10 people and one people say yes, he makes a bunch of money.

764
01:11:23,000 --> 01:11:28,000
So if he asked 10 people an hour and one person an hour says yes, he makes a bunch of money.

765
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:34,000
I said, so the only way he can go wrong is by not asking.

766
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:38,000
And the Holy Spirit said to me, yep, and that's evangelism.

767
01:11:38,000 --> 01:11:41,000
That's telling people about Jesus.

768
01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:44,000
You go out in the world, nine out of 10 people are still in the darkness.

769
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:46,000
They still think darkness has power.

770
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:48,000
They still have fellowship with the world.

771
01:11:48,000 --> 01:11:57,000
And if you tell all nine of those people, one or two of them would accept Jesus and they would get free from the grip of darkness.

772
01:11:57,000 --> 01:12:00,000
They would get saved and become an eternal being.

773
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:11,000
But we'll never tell nine, not in any short period of time, because as a class of people, we're kind of not telling anybody.

774
01:12:11,000 --> 01:12:21,000
And the reason for that is we forgot that drastic moment that took place almost 2000 years ago and which darkness rained on the earth for three hours.

775
01:12:21,000 --> 01:12:22,000
What was that moment?

776
01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:28,000
It was the moment at which Jesus was crucified and paid for sins.

777
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:32,000
God has not sent his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

778
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:44,000
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God, God's one and only son.

779
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:51,000
When we leave this place today, I want to ask you to join me in level grinding.

780
01:12:51,000 --> 01:13:00,000
Not in some video game, not in your kitchen or in your house or in your finances, but in the kingdom of God.

781
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:09,000
I want us to leave this place today and live for Jesus like we meant it when we said I'm going to live for Jesus for the rest of our lives.

782
01:13:09,000 --> 01:13:19,000
I want us to leave this place today and live for Jesus, telling anyone who will listen, having compassion on those who are still lost in the darkness

783
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:38,000
and becoming very, very careful, very concerned, very determined not to allow in our presence that darkness which actually fell and cannot grip you anymore, cannot touch you, cannot hurt you as long as you're loving and living for the Lord.

784
01:13:38,000 --> 01:13:40,000
Darkness fell.

785
01:13:40,000 --> 01:13:41,000
You got some part of it?

786
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:43,000
You got some part with darkness?

787
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:47,000
You know, understand, you're called away from it.

788
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:55,000
You feel stuck in it, you want to be stuck in it sometimes maybe, you understand, you're called out of it.

789
01:13:55,000 --> 01:14:03,000
And none of that, for sure anyway, is what it meant when it got dark for three hours.

790
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:13,000
But this much I do know, there was a major event that took place that day and darkness fell.

791
01:14:13,000 --> 01:14:17,000
At this time I'll have the praise team come and lead us in our closing hymn.

792
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:26,000
I'm asking you to listen to what God is saying to you today and say, look, there are a lot of good things in this life.

793
01:14:26,000 --> 01:14:32,000
There really are.

794
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:37,000
But God is better than any of them.

795
01:14:37,000 --> 01:14:41,000
To realize that there is still darkness in this life.

796
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:46,000
There are lots of things that are separated from God, if you will.

797
01:14:46,000 --> 01:14:51,000
When you start to have fellowship with one of them, I'd like you to say, no, I'm called away.

798
01:14:51,000 --> 01:14:53,000
I won't do it.

799
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:57,000
If it's a person, if it's a hobby, you say, I'm called away.

800
01:14:57,000 --> 01:14:58,000
I won't do it.

801
01:14:58,000 --> 01:15:05,000
If it's darkness, you can have no part with darkness now because you are light.

802
01:15:05,000 --> 01:15:09,000
Would you stand with me and sing this song and respond as the Lord is leading you to do so?

803
01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:11,000
Whatever that might be.

804
01:15:11,000 --> 01:15:40,000
The choice.

805
01:15:41,000 --> 01:15:48,000
Jesus.

806
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:55,000
Oh.

807
01:15:55,000 --> 01:16:08,000
Oh.

808
01:16:08,000 --> 01:16:15,000
Oh.

809
01:16:15,000 --> 01:16:21,000
Holy means completely different like lights.

810
01:16:21,000 --> 01:16:30,000
He's whole.

811
01:16:30,000 --> 01:16:45,000
Oh.

812
01:16:45,000 --> 01:17:00,000
Oh.

813
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:12,000
Oh.

814
01:17:12,000 --> 01:17:20,000
Oh.

815
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:21,000
See one more.

816
01:17:21,000 --> 01:17:23,000
Let this be our prayer to God.

817
01:17:23,000 --> 01:17:28,000
Focus on the Lord right now.

818
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:37,000
Let's sing together.

819
01:17:37,000 --> 01:17:59,000
Oh.

820
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:18,000
Oh.

821
01:18:18,000 --> 01:18:33,000
Oh.