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So Ariana and I were at the bus stop in the rain and it was at that moment in time that

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I realized that the umbrella that we were using was the umbrella that we had purchased

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while we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on vacation several years ago.

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Now on the day in question when we were, it began to rain, we went to go explore Gatlinburg

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and I said well this is going to stink, we're going to get soaking wet, go and drop the

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shop and so on and so everybody and their brother would sell an umbrella and the umbrella

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were as you can imagine not cheap, right?

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They were not inexpensive and you know kind of know me a little bit, I'm cheap.

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So I like inexpensive things, I don't want to pay more for something than I have to pay,

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try to be good stewards of money, that kind of thing.

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And so as we're standing at the bus stop in the rain I'm realizing that this umbrella

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is the umbrella that we bought and paid for in Gatlinburg and we paid what I thought was

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down on that day was too much money for it.

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And it did serve us well in Gatlinburg that day and another day on that same trip and

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we've used it many times since then.

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As I'm standing at the bus stop I realized we've used this umbrella an awful lot of times.

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I mean I think we paid probably 15 bucks for it which is a lot for an umbrella in my mind

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but by that time we had used it probably 30, 40 times and I'm starting to think now it's

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starting to be where it's almost economical right.

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You know you have an umbrella and you pay a price for it and you use it 30, 40 times

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and it's still good.

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And just at that moment as I did that I looked up and I realized that the umbrella had a

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defect.

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There was something wrong with it and as we looked up there and you can see the little

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plastic rod, the umbrella is plastic on the inside, come down and it was out of place

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and the umbrella was sagging in on the one side.

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I'm like oh there you go.

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That's probably the end of this you know $15 umbrella.

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I was just starting to think it might have been worth the money and now it's no good

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anymore.

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And then I noticed that over to the left a little bit was a little cap and I realized

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that that little plastic rod that was coming down that was in the wrong place making it

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sag in could fit in the little plastic cap.

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So I pushed it over, put in a little plastic cap and just like that the umbrella was perfect.

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I'm like it's still good.

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The umbrella is still good.

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I still have the umbrella still at my house next time it rains I may use it again.

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And then it occurred to me that the price that we paid on the day that we bought it,

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it seemed like it was too much.

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But then afterwards it started to really pay dividends.

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You know what I'm saying?

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It really started to pay off and it really was kind of getting to be the point where

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the price was paid maybe wasn't too much.

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And then I thought it was broke.

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It was coming apart, wasn't going to work anymore and I thought we were going to have

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to get rid of it and I thought well that's the end of the value.

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But all I did was make an adjustment and all of a sudden it was almost like new again.

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So it was back to functioning still and it's still adding value.

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As I was standing there Arana and I were talking about it and I said that's like an inspirational

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moment.

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She said what?

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And I said because Jesus came, He lived, He died, He rose again.

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And everybody that day, the day of Jesus' death, they thought that price, that price

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is too high.

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It's terrible to see that Jesus is dying.

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In fact, they thought He was going to redeem Israel, thought He was going to bring Israel

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back into their own freedom or whatever out from underneath Rome etc.

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And He didn't do that.

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And they said oh no, we thought He was going to save us and He didn't save us.

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The price is way too high.

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And then when He was resurrected they started thinking, okay well I mean it's terrible what

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He went through but the value of resurrection is substantial, right?

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And then it started to kind of waffle and people made mistakes.

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People have made mistakes.

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You guys notice that in the last couple thousand years the church, the quote unquote church

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have made a lot of mistakes.

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Sometimes not even being in the church that they were supposed to be, right?

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But every time, every time a Christian or a church focuses their attention back on God,

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they put their desires back where they belong in the hands of the Lord.

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They say no, Jesus is Lord.

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God is the one.

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He's the one who did it.

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The value is returned 100%.

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Every time somebody wanders and starts to think that someone or something is more important

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than what God did and who God is, it starts to fall apart.

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That's it.

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All the value we get out of that.

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But then as soon as you redirect your attention, repent and turn back to God and get back into

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shape if you will, get back to being what you're supposed to be in, God starts to pour

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out value again.

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And I thought, man that's powerful.

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That's awesome.

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God is an awesome God.

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And that's the inspirational moment.

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That's what this is all about.

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It's not about what I think or even what you think.

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It's not about what Tony Pate thinks or what song our day is like.

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It's about what is God saying?

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What is God saying to us as Tony is storming out of his room?

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Anyway, what is God saying to us throughout the week?

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And you know what?

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I would say this.

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If you get a message from God throughout the week, you really ought not to do it to yourself.

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In fact, if you get a message from God on Monday morning around noon, you're at lunch

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or something, something happens, you ought to share that, whatever that is, with literally

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everybody you bump into all week long.

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You think God says things, no word of God falls to the ground way for that.

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Never.

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And when he says something, you see something like that, you share it with anybody all the

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time, anywhere you are, whatever, whatever you're doing.

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And don't wait for it to resonate with the sermon or go to Bible study and ask questions

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about it.

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You say, God said this to me.

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You know what?

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If you get it a little bit wrong, God's still going to use it.

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Because the truth is, when it comes to God speaking, it doesn't matter a whole lot what

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comes out of your mouth.

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If you're speaking for the Lord, if you get it wrong, He'll fix it.

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He'll take care of it.

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I go back to one of the most famous illustrations in my young Christian life, when Chris Coleman

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stood up in front of me, he slid back to church and he said, he came in church one Sunday,

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he looked around and there was nobody new.

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He had planned to preach a sermon about the gospel, about reaching people for Jesus so

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he could reach people there for Jesus that day.

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And there was nobody new.

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And so he switched up and instead he preached a sermon on piling.

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And he wasn't sure right until that moment what God wanted him to do.

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So he preached for an hour and 10 minutes on piling.

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At the end of which one person responded to the gospel and got saved.

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And they said, what you said about Jesus?

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What you said about what Jesus can do in me and how he's calling me and all that?

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And he's like, I didn't say any of that.

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So when the sermon starts, you just go, okay, God, you speak to me and tell me what I need

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to hear today.

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And whatever I have planned, God can work it for your good, whether I get it right or

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not.

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And that's the beauty of sermons.

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That's the beauty of worship songs.

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You can sing a worship song a thousand times.

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Probably not because that's a lot of Sundays, but you can sing it a hundred times.

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You can sing it a hundred times and never notice that there's a little phrase in there

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that speaks to you about your salvation or your life in a way that was meant to be.

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And then that hundred times, that hundred first times, you sing that song and go, read

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that literally those four words, that's my life.

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That God put it in that song and I've been singing it all the time and I never notice.

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So I would encourage you this moment in time, it's mainly to remind us about that.

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Remind us that God is speaking.

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I submit to you, if you are a follower or believer in the Lord and you go seven days

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and hear nothing from God, that's more on you than it is on him because he is speaking.

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You can go to your Bible and read and the Bible speaks, always the Bible speaks.

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That's the beauty of it.

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We have that life when we always have the word of God who would always speak to us.

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You'll always find something of yourself in there and more and more of him, less of us

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and more of him I hope.

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So did someone come prepared today and say, yes, I wanted to share something?

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Okay, we'll go here because this is Frank Roney.

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So I want to call for work for tech support one day a week and this Friday I was on call

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and I got a lot of really weird and difficult calls and at the point that I got this call

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in question I was rather frustrated already.

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I got a call and this lady said, I really messed up.

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That was the opening of the call.

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Oh boy.

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I said that a lot of times.

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Yeah.

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I said, I wanted to enter in a $57 paid out and I accidentally entered in $570 and then

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I tried to fix it a few times and then so we went down this rabbit hole like 45 minutes

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of tracking everything back and tracking out what we needed to put in to fix it and then

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I was in a moment mad because I was like, you just called me before you do all this.

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But then reflecting on it I was thinking that is us to God.

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When we try to fix things in our own power most of the time we just make it worse and

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worse and make a big mess of things but if we hand our issues and our problems over to

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God He knows what needs to be done to sort it out.

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That's good stuff.

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As you were just speaking I had some reason the image popped in my head trying to wash

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the car and the car is dirty and you go get filthy rags and try to wash the car with filthy

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rags and just make it worse and worse and worse and our righteousness is out of filthy

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rags and we're always trying to clean ourselves up with our righteousness rather than relying

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on His.

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Oh my goodness.

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What a great, great illustration.

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I had a song lyrics.

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It's really only a couple of lines.

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It's the main part of the chorus.

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The whole song is really good.

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It's a song by Lecrae and it was one of the first introductions to Christian music I had.

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So when I heard it again a couple of weeks ago I was like, man I forgot all about this

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song and how awesome it is.

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And the beginning of the chorus says, all the stuff that's on, or used to want a lot

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of things, all the stuff that's on TV's, education, cars and clothes, fashion, lights and jewelry,

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focused on the wrong stuff.

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Now I got my eyes on you and now I know that God is an eye.

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So one of the reasons that sticks out with me really well is because growing up as kids

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we see all this stuff on TV and all this fancy lifestyle.

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It's even worse nowadays.

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It's basically shoved down kids' throats on social media that this is the good life.

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You have to have money.

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You have to have fancy cars.

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You have to have fancy clothes.

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It's portrayed so much now that this is what the good life is.

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In reality that's not what the good life is.

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The good life is knowing that God is enough and knowing that everything we have in God

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is enough.

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Even if what you think you have is not a lot, and this is something I struggle with really

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bad, is realizing the things I have in my life are a blessing from God.

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Even though my house might be falling apart, even though I might have to constantly fix

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a car because my car breaks down or correct my kids because they don't listen, all of

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that stuff is a blessing from God.

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It is enough because God gave it to me.

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If God didn't give it to me then I wouldn't need it.

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There's no use for it.

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Since I have what I have and it's God gave it to me and God gave me the ability to fix

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my house, to fix my car, to raise my kids, then every single thing I have in my life

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is enough.

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That's a good word.

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That's a good word.

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Yeah, I think as long as we're led by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the private

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life is enough, you could have everything you think you want and you just discover more

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things you want.

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But if you can remember the kingdom principles that you're talking about, remember the value

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of God and how God values things, then you can set that aside and things start to get

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off.

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It's so hard for people who don't know Christ, and it was hard for me, I don't remember ever

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thinking anything I had was good.

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I had a relationship, I eventually had a wife and she was doing a great job as a wife really

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and I had a daughter Alicia and she was pretty awesome and I don't remember ever being better

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by her, ever with anything.

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Always wanted better, always wanted different, always wanted more and in Christ I'm ashamed

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if I would think that something's not good enough that God has provided for me and I

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started to feel like, come on Dan, that's awesome, what are you doing?

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Devaluing the awesome things that God has given me.

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Good word, good word.

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Over here.

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Real quick, four things though.

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First one was, it's so cool, only God can do it first and then God's people did it with

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me and I could do it back to God and not just be a people.

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And that first thing is, when I was a kid, I grew up, I always believed in God because

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he was the only one I ever had.

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I know who he was, I know what he did.

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Despite his gender, there was this calmness in my life, no matter what, like somebody was

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there when no one else was and it was the coolest thing ever.

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I used to sing songs and I was grateful and it was like, it felt like someone was there.

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And when I was 23 and I gave my life to Jesus, I'll never forget it, it was the coolest thing

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ever.

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The coolest thing I used to sing all my life was out of reverence or just appreciation,

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but the first time I got to do something I'd never do in my entire life was worship him.

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And that's what we get to do every day.

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And it was the most valuable thing ever because it was the first time that I actually knew

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that I was allowed to worship this God.

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He was worthy to worship.

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And the reason I say that is because, and then about three years after that when I was

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at Cedar Creek, I remember one time I was going through a lot.

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I was wondering about church and you guys probably know, but I have such a burden for

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sometimes, some things.

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And I was just like going off in my vehicle and God said, can I talk for five seconds?

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And I'm like, no you can't.

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You don't understand what's going on.

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This is going on.

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This is going on.

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Can I have five seconds?

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No.

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No you can't.

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And I keep hearing him say, can I have five seconds?

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I said, can I just say one thing?

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I said, fine.

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Say whatever you want.

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It's not going to change anything.

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Nothing's going to change.

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Go.

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And I'm waiting and he said, God said I love you.

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Is that a no?

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Yeah.

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Everything I said to stop.

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They didn't care.

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I was like, yeah.

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I love you.

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I love you.

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I'll be okay then.

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And I just needed to hear that.

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You know, it was just so cool that God's just telling you, I love you.

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I am going to stop loving you.

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I'm never going to stop going to that cross.

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I don't want to cross one, but I would never stop going to that cross.

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I would never stop being down for a second.

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I'm always going to be there.

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And then my third thing is real quick, I'll be quick about this, but any teen or kids raise your hand and grab the answers are easy.

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Which one is better for you? They're good, but which one's better? Cake or an apple?

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An apple, okay. What about candy or an orange?

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Okay, one more.

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Pizza's good, I love pizza and I love a lot of things, but pizza or carrots, broccoli, apples, bananas,

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good bread. Which one's better? Kids.

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Okay, the question is why is it better? Here's the answer.

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Any of you kids heard the word nutrients? It stands for the word nutrition.

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Nutrients are something that the body needs. When you eat some cake, yes, it makes you feel good, it's a good thing, but it's not nutritious.

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The body says, well, that's not good for me, and then you know what you do after that, you go to the toilet later.

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But that's the idea. But the other stuff you eat, it goes, oh, that's good, that goes to my brain, this goes to my blood, this goes to my body, this goes to my soul, this goes everywhere I wanted to go.

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Wow, I need this, this makes me strong, this makes me actually heal from this, this is so cool, I need this.

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So the reason I'm sharing this is that God is good. His word is good. Worship is good. Everything he does is good.

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Get that goodness in you. All the other stuff, you do need it, maybe you do need it for a second, but it's not good.

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God is good. I also want to encourage you, I call this the fire test, it's just what some name I give it, but if you ever heard of something inspirational, share with me.

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I'll share something back with you. I don't care if it's a movie, it's a video, does God have to be in it? God is good.

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It could have God, about being God. I've seen so many Marvel movies that have spoken the gospel without them just, like literally just saying, I just want to yell to the audience, no, now share the gospel, stop, no, you're there, you're there, you're there, no, wait.

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No, they don't, because it's not full-set after. But there's so many movies out there and shows and TV's and things to be watched every day that are screaming a chance to give Jesus the glory.

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So I encourage you, send each other videos, reach out to each other, I like to call it the fire test. You send me something, I want to see if mine is just as good as yours.

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I've got some all good Christian rappers, I want to hear your Christian rappers, I want to hear if your stuff is as good as mine. We're not competing, but there's nothing wrong with a healthy competition, because that's the idea, is do you have what you have is good?

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Let's find out. I think one of the most inspirational things is seeing the answering of prayers, and it's something that I feel like we don't really address as much in inspirational moments.

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And so I was just thinking of a few things that I've been praying over for the past few months, that I've asked people to pray over, and I've seen those prayers get answered, or at least progress towards a solution.

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A few weeks ago I asked a prayer for my mom, she gave her two full time jobs, taking care of her in-laws, and she is doing great. She had found a home for her in-laws to go to, something comfortable where they'll have the care that they need, and so that salvation has been answered.

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I've prayed for a lot over the past few weeks. I've prayed for other family members and stuff for myself, I've prayed for a changing mindset, and I feel that being answered. Just the way I address things in my life, in my work, in my relationship, it's shifted a lot over the past few months.

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I've prayed for everything and everyone, and I just feel like we should address that more, it's one of people's inspirational things and finds it.

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Hey man, I just got a text from Ms. Chris, early this last week that there was a lady at the life station who basically received a miraculous healing, and we see those things all the time, and so they shared with me mid-week that a lot of times we...

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As I was thinking about the sermon today, I had like three texts that I felt like the Lord was leading me toward, and I was excited about all of them, frankly. I was like, this is going to be awesome, I haven't preached that in a while, I haven't ever preached that before, and I was like, I get really excited.

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And I just started to kind of like unfold the sermon in my mind and think about what it could be like, but then on Thursday morning, which usually my sermon is well underway by Wednesday morning, on Thursday morning, I was still kind of like half asleep, and I was dreaming.

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And as I was dreaming in that kind of light sleep that you're in right before you wake up, the Lord showed me something really important, and I started drilling down on that and thinking about it, and as I woke up, the Lord said, well, you, this is what I want you to show, this is what I want you to see.

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And the sermon just kind of like fell in place, almost like what you're about to see it, and then between yesterday and Friday, I kind of finished it up. So it's got to be a little different than a normal sermon, because only once before have I been, that I can think of, have I been in this exact place where God kind of did that, gave it through a dream, and gave me exactly what I was going to say before I ever got up here.

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Usually I get, you know, you're going to, here's the points, here's what you're going to preach, here's what you're going to say, and then as I'm preaching, the Holy Spirit's, you know, leading me throughout the process, and I trust that he'll still do that today.

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So last week, we looked at Acts chapter one, if you'll recall, and in Acts chapter one, it said, you shall be my witnesses. And we talked a lot about what it meant, what it is to be a witness, and we talked about how the word witness there is martyro, means die to self, and the example, and that kind of thing.

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And so in Acts one eight, it actually says it like this, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth.

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And I pointed out how the power that they would receive was for a purpose, that it was for the purpose to be a witness like that. That's the main purpose of the power. And the main goal of God is to bring people into relationship with him.

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So in a sense, what they would be doing, what they're called to do, is to go and introduce the world to Jesus.

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So there are going to be people out there at that time that they were in that had no idea that there was such a thing as a Messiah. No idea that there would be a Christ.

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No idea that there would be a Savior arising out of the Jewish people who would be a son of David, who would be the King of the Kingdom of God, any of that.

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They were going to go out and introduce Jesus to all kinds of people from all kinds of situations.

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And so as I was dreaming about it, and as the Lord started to speak to me about it on Thursday morning, I realized that in this room, there are probably people who come from different situations.

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And certainly dialing in, watching on Facebook, or listening to the podcast later, people come from all different situations.

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And we have people in Guam that have been listening fairly faithfully. You can assume that their background as they came to be Christians probably differs from ours.

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There are different events and experiences that they have had. And so I got to thinking about that, and I got to thinking about it from a scriptural point of view.

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And this is not going to be all inclusive. It's not going to include every possibility.

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But I'm going to give you four possibilities that they had, we've seen examples of, they had already run into and they would likely run into again as they're being called to be witnesses.

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And so you can flip the slide now. Click it again.

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All right. So this is the first one. Okay. And it is when it got transferred over, it changed. Go back.

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Yeah, it changed. That's weird. Okay. So in my notes, the introducing isn't all in caps, but the J is in caps for Jesus and the E-S-U-S is not in caps.

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Okay. So it changed when we went through Google slides over to PowerPoint and it got here and that's what you get.

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Okay. So how how changed? All right. So anyway, introducing all in capital letters, capital J, E-S-U-S.

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Okay. So this is talking to people who have no background, no understanding necessarily and saying, let me tell you about Jesus.

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This is what missionaries deal with a lot. Right. There's no Messiah knowledge. There's no Jewish knowledge. There's no Genesis. There's no nothing.

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None of that is present. And we kind of start with this concept, which I think people can resonate with is all have sinned. Right.

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Every time that I've been sharing, I like to use kind of a hybrid form of share Jesus without fear.

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And probably the people who wrote shared Jesus out here would say just the opposite. They say share Jesus without fear is the hybrid.

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And I'm using like a half a product or something like I'm not quite getting there, but I take share Jesus without fear.

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And then I kind of boil in my own stuff and that's what I use.

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And so at some point in time, you've got to get to the point where you say, well, do you know what the Bible said about that?

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And the first thing the Bible said about mankind, everybody's situation, what makes everybody the same is all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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And so if you can get that person to resonate with the idea that they have done something that God would not be pleased with, then they you're moving in the right direction.

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Right. Then you've got an idea that that you say, OK, so if you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and according to Romans six, 23, the wages of that sin is death.

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And that death means separation from God. If that's true, then you know you have a problem. Right.

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And get them to kind of admit that they have a problem. And then it makes a lot of sense to move to here's a guy who's been solving your problem.

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And so introducing Jesus is about taking Jesus to somebody being a witness, if you will, taking Jesus to somebody who does not know initially necessarily that they need a savior or a lord.

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But I submit to you that they may resonate internally with that. They may go, you know, I don't feel right. I'm lacking. I have a hole.

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It's vacuous in here and something is never going to be quite right. And you get to the point where you explain to them that they have sinned and you explain to them that they need a savior.

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They need what they're lacking is a relationship with the one true God. Right. And you're there.

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So this all have sinned. You need a savior. Jesus is that savior concept of introducing Jesus is about fleeing to safety.

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So once they realize that there is a spiritual earthquake going on and it's going to destroy them, once they realize that their life is caught up in a spiritual tornado and they're going to be thrown around until they're destroyed.

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Then they're willing to flee to safety. And that safety is found in Jesus.

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Okay. Examples of this in scripture, one of the clearest and simplest examples in Acts 16, the jailer. Right.

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So Paul and Silas are in prison. They're staying in the middle of the night. There's an earthquake comes. He thinks everybody's escaped.

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Now he's going to kill himself because if he dies or if they escape, then he dies. That's his penalty under Roman law for losing his prisoners.

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And by the way, I read at one point in time, I read a theologian who wrote on this and said that if he took his own life, his family would have been spared.

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But if he didn't take his own life and he was found with his family and his prisoners were lost, his wife and children probably would have been killed as well.

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So that's interesting. So him sacrificing himself was about saving his family, at least in part.

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Okay. And plus he could have been drawn and quartered. That could have been the method of death. That's where they pull your arms and legs off.

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That's really bad. Or crucified. Something pretty terrible could have been his method of death, which is run on your sword. You're dead in a few seconds. Right.

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And so point is he was avoiding some kind of possible ramifications, but he knew all of a sudden that something was wrong and he fled to safety.

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And he said, what must I do to be saved? And that is the kind of scriptural classic example of this person who needs introducing Jesus.

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Right. They don't have any concept. They don't get why what's happened is happening. But now you can explain it to them.

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There are some others that may be maybes. Okay. And I'm not saying I got all the example.

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I didn't read the whole New Testament this week to go again and make sure we got everybody. All right. Included in these lists.

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But another one might be the demoniac. Right. So he's inhabited by a bunch of demon guys, maybe a thousand or more. Right.

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And there's no solution. There's no solution at all. Okay. There's no God bless you to his situation.

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And then he encounters Jesus. And then Jesus is the solution. All right.

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And in that moment, he get Jesus gets him to understand that he can deal with it. It just takes a second.

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When we're at camp, you can bless you. We're at camp. You can. There was a boy who came to camp and he was clearly, I mean, I'll just say it, probably demonic possessed.

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And he was acting out the whole time. In fact, he could have been he could have done certain he threw a chair at a kid.

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I mean, it was bad. And we're constantly dealing with it for the first few days.

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And then we got to talking with him and the camp director in particular talked to him about it and said, you know, are you professing to be a Christian?

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Are you following Jesus? And I remember the words he used exactly. But he asked him and he said, yes, he was.

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And I'm like, that's pretty weird to act that way. If you're Christian. Right.

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But we determined very rapidly he could not say the word Jesus. He couldn't say he was a follower of Jesus.

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He couldn't say Jesus Christ or Jesus, and he couldn't call Jesus Lord.

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And so we led him to want to be free. We talked to him about the possibility of being free from the way he was behaving, for what was going on, what was possessing him, what was acting on him, that kind of thing.

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And ultimately, he was he said in his own power and his own strength, mind you, gifted by God, obviously.

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Right. God made him able to say, I want Jesus Christ as my Lord.

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And he prayed earnest prayer, not led by anyone, not repeat after me, nothing like that earnest prayer, prayed to be saved.

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From that moment on, that boy was changed. Now, twice more we've been to camp. We've seen that boy and he's never been the same. Right.

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He's never been the same as he was before. Now, does he have issues still? Does he act up sometimes?

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I think like, yes, but he's never lost his temper like that. He's never thrown a chair. He's never cussed anybody out.

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It just doesn't happen anymore. He's been back the last two years. Right.

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And so what I'm getting at is there comes a moment with somebody who doesn't really get it, there comes a moment at which they're willing to flee to safety.

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The paralytic may have been that right before guys bring him lower down to the roof. He's paralyzed. He needs something.

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They can't get to Jesus himself. It's like they rip a hole in the roof, lower him down and Jesus tell them, get up and walk.

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Right. And he also forgives his sins. Again, he may or may not have had any knowledge who Jesus was.

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He may not have been a Jewish man. He may not. You know, we don't know for sure the details there.

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So these are maybes. The woman with the issue of blood, she'd been doctors for years trying to get a solution to her problem.

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And it didn't work out and never got a solution. And then she come and snuck up and touch Jesus and it went away just like that.

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Touched his robe. Right. And so these are maybes. But let me say this with certainty.

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In this room, there are those who did not know they needed a savior, encountered Jesus and got saved.

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So the job of the disciples was going to be to go out introducing Jesus to everywhere they went.

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Okay. The second one then is introducing Jesus. Let's see if it's right.

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Nope. Did it go? Yes, this one's right. Okay. Introducing Jesus.

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So in the case of introducing Jesus, right, there are people in the world who know that it's about who you know.

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Let's be very realistic. If you're on good terms with your boss, your work day goes better.

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If you know the mayor and you have trouble with the police officer, you call the mayor, he takes care of it. Right.

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And most of us don't have that luxury. Right. If you know the city police officer in your area and you have a question or whatever, you call them, text them.

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They'll step in, give you the answers that you need. You got a good doctor. You go tell your doctor what's going on.

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They've got a proposed solution. You follow the solution, you get better. Okay.

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So in life, sometimes it's about who you know, who's going to take care of whatever the need is that you have.

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And so it's about knowing the right one, knowing the one who's going to actually solve your problem.

397
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:50,080
Now, there's a lot of false gods in the world and there's a lot of people who are chasing after money, chasing after sex, chasing after a good report, like people, a good reputation. Thank you.

398
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:58,080
People think you're somebody special. Maybe you get straight A's because in school that keeps you out of a lot of trouble because all your teachers baby you because that's why you want straight A's.

399
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:04,080
You want to get straight A's so you can do that. Right. Or whatever. So sometimes it's about who you know.

400
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:08,080
And if you know the right one, your problems will be solved.

401
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:16,080
And so some of the witnessing that the disciples were going to have to do to go out is just to go out and explain to people Jesus is the one.

402
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:29,080
Jesus is the right one. Get connected to the one who came. You kind of see this in Acts a little bit when Paul is talking about the altar to an unknown God.

403
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:36,080
Right. But more importantly, he says in Acts 17 when he's standing in front of the Areopagus, he said, God used to think that he used to let that go.

404
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:41,080
But now that Jesus has come and been displayed, he expects all men to repent and turn to him.

405
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:47,080
Right. And so we can say to people, Jesus is the one that you need.

406
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:53,080
Examples in scripture of this that are pretty clear. One was Athens, the altar to an unknown God.

407
00:32:53,080 --> 00:33:00,080
The other is the Samaritan woman at the well. Maybe. Right. Because she is sort of Jewish. Sort of. Right.

408
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:06,080
She's a Samaritan, so she's not a pure blood Jew. But she did believe in the worship of the one true God.

409
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:10,080
They just believe they can do it at the wrong place. And she even questioned Jesus about that.

410
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:16,080
Right. She said, you say you got to do it there. We say we can do it over here. You know, which one's right?

411
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:21,080
Kind of thing. And Jesus was basically saying, you're missing the point.

412
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:25,080
Okay. Ask of me and I will give you living water and you'll never thirst again.

413
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:34,080
And so basically, the disciples going out was going to be about introducing Jesus, showing Jesus that he's the right one.

414
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,080
I went to a conference, showing people that Jesus is the right one.

415
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:46,080
I went to a conference and I went and sat down in the room and I was going to teach a 45-minute lesson at this conference.

416
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,080
And then people will come and sign in and whatever.

417
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:54,080
Well, in the room was a couple of guys who are pretty well known for what they teach. Right.

418
00:33:54,080 --> 00:34:03,080
So they could have been the teacher. But also in the room was somebody whose job it was to introduce me.

419
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,080
So there was a volunteer of the church that we were at in the classroom. He was there.

420
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:12,080
And it's when it come time for the speaking to happen, he got up and he said,

421
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:19,080
now introducing Pastor Daniel Stevenson, pastor of New High School Baptist Church East Toledo, director of Life Station.

422
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:24,080
This is what he's here to talk about today. He gave me a kind of like a one paragraph synopsis, an introduction.

423
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,080
But it could have been either one of those other guys.

424
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:30,080
It could have been either one of them talking about even some of the same things that I was going to talk about.

425
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:35,080
I was encouraged that they were there to listen to what I was talking about because they were

426
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:40,080
important on the topic. Right. So they could have brought similar lesson.

427
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:45,080
Now they did at point while I was talking interject certain things. Right.

428
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,080
So they had things to say, but they were not the teacher.

429
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:55,080
And you understand, for example, when God says honor and obey your parents, your parents are not your salvation. Right.

430
00:34:55,080 --> 00:35:03,080
So to honor and obey your parents and sin in honoring and obeying your parents would still be wrong. Right.

431
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:10,080
So my mom or my dad tells me to why if I lie, it's still a sin against God, even though I'm obedient to my parents.

432
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,080
So when should you be disobedient to other authorities, other masters?

433
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:19,080
We've got to know the one master. You got to know the one guy, the guy who's the one who's making intercession for you at the right hand

434
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,080
and throw to God. That's the guy that you never cross. Right.

435
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:31,080
And so this kind of introducing Jesus was about helping them meet the person that getting connected to the person

436
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:35,080
that was the solution for the real problem. OK.

437
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:40,080
Then the next one should say introducing Jesus and Jesus is all.

438
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,080
Look at that. OK. Good job. OK. Very good.

439
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:50,080
So introducing Jesus is really important for us today.

440
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,080
Maybe it could speak to you in this way today.

441
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:58,080
Consider that you haven't really known the one you know.

442
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:04,080
And that's very dangerous to claim the name of Jesus, to think you know Jesus and not know Jesus.

443
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:11,080
Maybe the single worst place that you could be because in that place there is no actual sacrifice for sins.

444
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:19,080
To claim the name of Jesus, say I am a Christian and to not actually be a Christian is the probably the absolute worst place that you could possibly be.

445
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:24,080
And there were people who said that they knew God and Jesus is God the son.

446
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:34,080
So they identified with God's mercies in the form of God the father, but they did not accept his God the father's mercies in the form of God the son.

447
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:38,080
So this is going to involve discerning blessings and misunderstandings.

448
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,080
So here's the thing. I know people who have claimed to be Christian.

449
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,080
I ran into a lady this week and I'm not going to name her.

450
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,080
I'm not judging anybody, anything like that.

451
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:53,080
But this lady was explaining to me about all the troubles and trials and difficulties that she's been facing.

452
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:59,080
And I was explaining how sometimes some of those things are best handled in the spiritual realm.

453
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:04,080
Some of our illnesses, some of our sicknesses, some of our troubles are spiritual in nature.

454
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:10,080
You say, why am I sick? I'm sick because my spirit is not right.

455
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:16,080
When Jesus sent out the 70 and they were casting demons out in evil spirits, what was happening?

456
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:21,080
People were getting healed. That's what was happening.

457
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,080
So when they would cast out a demon, the person that the demon was affecting was healed.

458
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,080
Demons are not good for you.

459
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,080
Tony Tate is talking about what's good for you, eat what's good for you.

460
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,080
Right, Tony Tate? Eat what's good for you, eat God.

461
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,080
Eating demons, evil spirits, not good for you.

462
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:41,080
And so when you use them for comfort, you take them up in your life, you let them start to affect you internally, that is the wrong way.

463
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:44,080
It could be anything, any false God is the same way.

464
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:49,080
So anything that you start to think is important, if it starts to be important like God, that thing will pollute you.

465
00:37:49,080 --> 00:38:05,080
When you're 19, and I know this for a fact, 3 liters of Sprite, a bag of donuts, a fast food sandwich, french fries, and a donut for breakfast may be an acceptable diet.

466
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,080
It's kind of what I ate.

467
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:12,080
Similar, basically I might switch out one sweet for another, that kind of thing.

468
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:16,080
But protein was just what was in the sandwich, that's all the protein I got all day long.

469
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,080
And it was mostly running on sugar.

470
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,080
And at that time it didn't seem to be killing me.

471
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:28,080
When you are taking false gods and their teachings and saying it's all good, everything is right, everything is fine.

472
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:32,080
So after I explained that to her, she said, yeah, everything is right with my life.

473
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:34,080
I really don't have anything that's wrong.

474
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:38,080
After she just got done telling me all the things that were wrong, and then I said, well let's just look at it from a spiritual point of view.

475
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,080
What spiritually, is there anything that you need to do?

476
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,080
And I was just asking, I wasn't saying, I was just asking.

477
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:45,080
And she said, no, everything is right with my life.

478
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,080
Now everything is not right with your life.

479
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,080
If you start off with everything is wrong with your life, you can't trade it out.

480
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,080
And so the point is this.

481
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:56,080
Sometimes you're going to have to discern the blessings and misunderstandings.

482
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:57,080
And people say everything is right.

483
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,080
And you say, well you just said everything is not right.

484
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:01,080
So don't you think at least you should examine?

485
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:03,080
Don't you think at least you should have the questions?

486
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,080
And that's what sometimes introducing Jesus is all about.

487
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:11,080
Considering that he, Jesus, may be showing the way already.

488
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,080
You could be interpreting signs while you're doing this.

489
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:16,080
Be careful about interpreting signs.

490
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:17,080
I understand.

491
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,080
Scripture says be careful about interpreting signs.

492
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:24,080
But Jesus also said, look, you can judge the sky, but you can't see what's right before your eyes.

493
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:31,080
And so there's people that are interpreting signs to mean that it's okay to do what they want to do that's not what God wants them to do.

494
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,080
And you need to step in there and say you're misinterpreting that sign.

495
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:35,080
Right?

496
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:43,080
I was talking with a man who I've known much of my life and he came to be a Christian, a professor of the Christian.

497
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:48,080
But he has some behaviors that are definitely not biblical and he has a different kind of a different version of Christianity.

498
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,080
And I was asking him about what was going on.

499
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:54,080
He said, well, God has called me to do this.

500
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:55,080
And I said, oh, really?

501
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:56,080
That's awesome.

502
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,080
You know what God wants you to do.

503
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,080
If you know for sure that's what God wants you to do, pour yourself into that.

504
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:01,080
He said, well, God has called me to do it.

505
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:02,080
I know for a fact.

506
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:09,080
And I said, well, can you tell me the experience of how you came to realize that God has told you with absolute certainty that's what you're supposed to do?

507
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:15,080
He said, well, I was driving my car and my car broke down on a rainy day and I didn't want to get out of my car because it was raining nasty outside.

508
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:18,080
And he said, I'm sitting there and my car's not running in the rain.

509
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:19,080
I'm sitting on the side of the road.

510
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:22,080
And I said to God, I said, God, I need my car to start.

511
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:23,080
Make a start on this next time.

512
00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:24,080
And it didn't.

513
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:25,080
He turned the key.

514
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,080
So I turned the key and it didn't start.

515
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:30,080
And I said to God, God, is it something I'm not doing?

516
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,080
And the car didn't turn the key and it didn't start.

517
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,080
And he said, God, I know I felt like I was supposed to do this.

518
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:40,080
This ministry, this nonprofit, I felt like I was supposed to do that.

519
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:41,080
Am I supposed to do that?

520
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:43,080
And he turned the key and it started.

521
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:46,080
And from that moment on, he said, that's what God wants me to do.

522
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:52,080
That's his whole idea of knowing how God is telling him what to do.

523
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:53,080
That's not biblical.

524
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:54,080
Right.

525
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,080
That's not even putting out a fleece like Gideon.

526
00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:58,080
Right.

527
00:40:58,080 --> 00:40:59,080
It's not even that.

528
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,080
It's just hokey pokey.

529
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:03,080
You're just messing around.

530
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:04,080
Right.

531
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:05,080
It's not the real thing.

532
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:10,080
And so knowing what God wants you to do is about talking to the God of the universe,

533
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:11,080
to his son, Jesus Christ.

534
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,080
And Jesus does talk to us.

535
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:14,080
And you may get it in the scripture.

536
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:15,080
The Bible says, do that.

537
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:18,080
You go, that's what I got to do right there.

538
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,080
Or you may pray and say, God, what am I supposed to do?

539
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:24,080
And you feel like God's telling you what to do and you check it against scripture and you pray back and make sure it's God.

540
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,080
And you go and do that right there.

541
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:27,080
Right.

542
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:30,080
But the point is this, they may be misinterpreting signs.

543
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:35,080
And it's our job to step in there and say, look, first of all, you don't have to interpret signs at all.

544
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:44,080
You could literally be done with signs because according to what the Bible says, you can talk to God and God will tell you what you are supposed to do.

545
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,080
And sometimes it's that still small voice.

546
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:47,080
You have to listen closely.

547
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,080
Sometimes it's that urging emotionally and you have to feel it and know that it's from God.

548
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:51,080
Test it versus the spirits.

549
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:52,080
Know that it's from God.

550
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,080
Sometimes it's from the scripture or whatever.

551
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:58,080
But the bottom line is we have a God who leads us personally and individually.

552
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:05,080
And this introducing Jesus is about them considering us considering the case of us witnessing to them.

553
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,080
It's about them considering that they haven't known the one they say they know.

554
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:17,080
Identifying Jesus's mercies, discerning blessings and misunderstandings and considering that he may be showing the way already.

555
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,080
They're misinterpreting the signs, for example.

556
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:28,080
Jesus is calling them to himself and they take those signs to mean it's direction from God when in reality the direction is for them to repent and turn to the Lord.

557
00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:34,080
The key understanding here is that when you start to do this with somebody, there will be a burning in their heart.

558
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,080
They will recognize you might have one now.

559
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:38,080
You might be going, I get this.

560
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:40,080
I think God is saying something to me.

561
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,080
There's a something here I have to adjust to.

562
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:48,080
And of course, you know, examples in the scripture of this is Emmaus, right?

563
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:52,080
Crispus, the road to Emmaus, the Bereans.

564
00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,080
They studied the scripture to check and see, yeah, is this right?

565
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:58,080
What they're saying is right and more.

566
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:05,080
A bad example might be Herod where he says, boy, Paul, you'd almost convince me to be a Christian.

567
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:06,080
Right?

568
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:10,080
And people do get to the point where it burns with them and they think I've got to repent.

569
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:11,080
I've got to turn to the Lord.

570
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,080
I've got to follow this real Jesus, the one that I'm really supposed to be following.

571
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:19,080
Stop playing games and really know the person that I think I know or thought I knew.

572
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:20,080
But they won't do it.

573
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:26,080
They won't pull the trigger on it because they're too invested in whatever, because they're too connected in whatever,

574
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:33,080
because they know it's who you know and who they know is somebody else or something else, a pastime.

575
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:34,080
Right?

576
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:35,080
Whatever.

577
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:43,080
And they start thinking, no, I can't give up my connection to those things and make Jesus my only connection because I already know him enough.

578
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,080
To be saved, to be on the way to heaven.

579
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:48,080
I don't need to sacrifice and so on.

580
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:52,080
Then there's a fourth one.

581
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:57,080
Push button.

582
00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:58,080
Is that the last one?

583
00:43:58,080 --> 00:43:59,080
Yes.

584
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:00,080
Okay. Yes. I see it.

585
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:01,080
All right.

586
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:02,080
So it's introducing Jesus.

587
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,080
He knows the I and the J are capitalized and nothing else.

588
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:06,080
All right.

589
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:11,080
So this, I think, is the core of what they were called to as witnesses.

590
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:15,080
They were going to go and present a unique alternative way.

591
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:19,080
Many other ways had been tried and fallen short.

592
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:20,080
Right?

593
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:22,080
Lots of opportunities to be saved.

594
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:24,080
Lots of opportunities to make life better.

595
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,080
Groups you can get involved with.

596
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:27,080
Counseling that you can have.

597
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:28,080
Medical solutions.

598
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:30,080
Pills you can take.

599
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:31,080
Better jobs.

600
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:32,080
Better promotion.

601
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:33,080
Better training.

602
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:34,080
All these things.

603
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:35,080
Say the right thing.

604
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:36,080
Control your temper.

605
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:37,080
Count to ten first.

606
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:38,080
Right?

607
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:42,080
All of these solutions are ways to become a better person.

608
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:43,080
To make your life better.

609
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,080
To solve the problems.

610
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:50,080
But Jesus is a unique alternative way.

611
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,080
This involves reason that leads to a saving faith.

612
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:55,080
You interpret what they're going through.

613
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:56,080
You interpret it all, if you will.

614
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,080
You become an interpreter for them and say,

615
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:01,080
look, what this is all about is like it says in Acts 17.

616
00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:03,080
It's all about bringing you to Jesus.

617
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:06,080
It's all about Him being the way.

618
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:09,080
And helping process decisions.

619
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:10,080
What do I do?

620
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:11,080
I'm stricken.

621
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:12,080
I don't know.

622
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:13,080
I can't make a decision here.

623
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:14,080
They say, well, if you were following Jesus,

624
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:16,080
Jesus would help you make a decision.

625
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:17,080
And if you made the wrong decision,

626
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:19,080
you could trust that He's going to work everything out for your good

627
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,080
if you love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

628
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,080
Helping them process decisions.

629
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:29,080
And it's about being okay and also being better than okay.

630
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,080
Because our salvation is not about being okay.

631
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:35,080
In fact, once you're saved, you'll never be just okay again.

632
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:39,080
Jesus came and lived and died that we might have an abundant life.

633
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,080
You're never going to be just okay again.

634
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:43,080
At the moment of your death, you'll be transitioning to be greater

635
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:48,080
than anybody who's ever been alive.

636
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,080
And that's what Jesus died for.

637
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,080
That's what Jesus rose for.

638
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:55,080
So Jesus Himself spoke this.

639
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,080
But you know what's funny?

640
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,080
I couldn't think of a single New Testament example like this.

641
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:04,080
Most of what you see in the New Testament is two types of people.

642
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:08,080
They fall either under the original introducing Jesus category

643
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:13,080
where they were fleeing to safety knowing something wasn't right

644
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:18,080
or in the introducing Jesus category where they were claiming God

645
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,080
but they really didn't see the solution that God had proposed.

646
00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:23,080
Most of them are in those two categories.

647
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:27,080
So this introducing Jesus as a concept, as a way,

648
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:31,080
as a person who will lead and guide and stay with you forever,

649
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:34,080
what do you notice about that?

650
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:37,080
Well, that's the kind of generic overall witnessing

651
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,080
that we're supposed to do that nobody's doing.

652
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:44,080
Why don't we introduce to everybody this Jesus that we know?

653
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:49,080
Not because He's just somebody better to know.

654
00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:52,080
Not challenging, you say you follow Jesus but I say you don't.

655
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:56,080
And let's talk about the real Jesus and trying to get them to move to that.

656
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:57,080
That's pretty caustic.

657
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:59,080
That's a rough kind of witnessing.

658
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:02,080
That's even kind of maybe a little judgmental.

659
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:07,080
We don't like to go to their deathbed and say,

660
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:08,080
have you become a follower of Jesus?

661
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:11,080
Because if you don't, you're going to hell in about 15 minutes.

662
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:12,080
That's a rough kind of witnessing.

663
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:13,080
That's the harsh kind.

664
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:16,080
And we really struggle with, and I'll get into this in the conclusion,

665
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:21,080
which we're almost to, but we really struggle with when we see people in suffering

666
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:23,080
bringing Jesus as a solution to their suffering

667
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:25,080
because we see them in their suffering, we bring Jesus,

668
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,080
and they don't immediately get healed.

669
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:30,080
And so we question whether or not that makes any sense.

670
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:32,080
Does it make any sense that now they choose Jesus as Lord

671
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:36,080
and the paralytic is not healed and the blind can't see

672
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,080
and the dead man doesn't come back to life?

673
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:40,080
And we struggle with that concept.

674
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:43,080
And so when people are really stuck there, we don't want to propose them.

675
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:48,080
But we darn well ought to be able to propose Jesus as an alternative

676
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:51,080
to all the things that people are wrapped up in.

677
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:54,080
We ought to be able to say that because Jesus is a better alternative for us

678
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:58,080
and so we ought to know that he's better for them as well.

679
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:02,080
The truth is that in some sense we are all the same.

680
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:03,080
We all face the same danger.

681
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:05,080
Whether you come from any of these four categories

682
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:08,080
or if there are other categories that I have named,

683
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:09,080
then we all face the same danger.

684
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:13,080
This danger is that we will choose not to be born again

685
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:18,080
due to the inherent resistance of our previous state.

686
00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:22,080
We'll say, I don't want to be born again because I already know Jesus.

687
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:24,080
Or enough.

688
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:28,080
Or I don't want to be born again because I have a way of living.

689
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,080
I don't want to be born again because here is somebody over here that I know

690
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:33,080
and they're doing enough for me.

691
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:34,080
This makes me feel good enough.

692
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:36,080
This makes me feel strong enough.

693
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,080
I'm okay. I don't need anyone different.

694
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:41,080
And so on.

695
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,080
The danger is that we may not.

696
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:48,080
So then as we come to the conclusion, we're going to have two texts

697
00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:51,080
that I want you to see and then we're through.

698
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:54,080
The first one, 2 Peter is the first one.

699
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:58,080
Praise the Lord.

700
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:04,080
2 Peter is chapter 1, beginning in verse 1.

701
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,080
Simon Peter, a bondservant apostle of Jesus Christ,

702
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:09,080
to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours

703
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:13,080
by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

704
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:17,080
So let's be clear about the audience to whom Peter was writing.

705
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:22,080
Peter was writing to people who got saved the same way he got saved.

706
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:26,080
Not people who got saved out of the same situation he got saved out of.

707
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:30,080
Not people who were specifically at their last end of their rope

708
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:32,080
and they just had not hung on until Jesus came.

709
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:35,080
Or people who didn't know how they were going to be okay

710
00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,080
unless they knew the right person.

711
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:39,080
Or people who already thought they knew Jesus

712
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,080
and he was appealing them to come to know Jesus.

713
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:45,080
No, he was writing to people with a faith the same kind as ours

714
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:49,080
by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

715
00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:51,080
How did you get saved?

716
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:54,080
You get saved by your own righteousness, you get saved by your own plan,

717
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:57,080
by somebody else's plan, by the church's plan.

718
00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:00,080
If you got saved by any of those methods you got a problem.

719
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,080
We get saved by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

720
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,080
That's how people get saved.

721
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:05,080
That's how people get born again.

722
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:09,080
He writes in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you

723
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:14,080
in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

724
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:20,080
seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness

725
00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:25,080
through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

726
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:28,080
That's what happened the moment you got saved.

727
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:30,080
He's not just a better way.

728
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:33,080
He's not another God of choices.

729
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:37,080
So we choose Jesus over whatever in the world is good,

730
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:40,080
whatever is promoted on TV, whatever fits in your pocket,

731
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,080
whatever you can play or do,

732
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:45,080
whatever you can enjoy or produce a serotonin in your brain.

733
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:48,080
It's not Jesus chosen over those things.

734
00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:52,080
Rather, he gave us everything pertaining to life and godliness

735
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:56,080
through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

736
00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:58,080
He called us, he chose us.

737
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:04,080
Verse 4, for by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises

738
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:09,080
in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature,

739
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:13,080
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

740
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:15,080
See, there was a line drawn in the sand.

741
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,080
Jesus said, I want you to come over here with me.

742
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:20,080
I want you to be with me, be born again.

743
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:22,080
Right? Do that.

744
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:24,080
And we said yes, and we stepped across the line.

745
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,080
And now there is no going back.

746
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:28,080
There is no mix of the two worlds.

747
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:32,080
We don't look at where we came from and say, this is a problem with us, right?

748
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:34,080
I used to be such a liar.

749
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:36,080
Before I got saved, I was a liar.

750
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:37,080
I was trained to be a liar.

751
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:39,080
I was experienced by friends where I was a good liar.

752
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:41,080
Really good, I could have been a con man,

753
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:46,080
except I was so inhibited I couldn't handle people thinking about me.

754
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:50,080
I couldn't handle the wondering about it, the question, right?

755
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:53,080
So I look back now and I say, well, I used to be such a liar,

756
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:57,080
and I was saved from that, and I am comforted by the fact that that's who I was,

757
00:51:57,080 --> 00:52:01,080
and now I'm living in an abundance of caution to never be that person again,

758
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:06,080
but also in the grace of God I shall never be that person again.

759
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:10,080
But he's saying, having escaped that corruption that was in us,

760
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:15,080
instead that we might be partakers of the divine nature.

761
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:17,080
You have been created over in the image of God,

762
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:20,080
and born again into the image of God,

763
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,080
and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

764
00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:26,080
You are a completely different person than before you were saved.

765
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:28,080
Can you read it one more time?

766
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:29,080
Probably not.

767
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:31,080
Okay.

768
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:33,080
So verse 5 then says,

769
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:36,080
Now for this very reason, it is recorded however,

770
00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:39,080
for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith,

771
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:41,080
supply moral excellence.

772
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:42,080
So now look at it, this is what he says,

773
00:52:42,080 --> 00:52:44,080
now that this is so because this has happened,

774
00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:46,080
because you are partakers of the divine nature,

775
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:49,080
because the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you,

776
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:51,080
now created over into his image,

777
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:54,080
now that that is true, do this, apply all diligence,

778
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:59,080
get your butt to work, do it, study, discipline yourself, push yourself.

779
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:01,080
Will it change whether you're saved or not? No.

780
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:05,080
But because you are saved, because you have the imputed righteousness of Christ,

781
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:09,080
now apply all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence.

782
00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:10,080
Why?

783
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:13,080
We're not trying to be good or do the right thing,

784
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:15,080
or stop lying or stealing or cheating,

785
00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:17,080
because that's what we think Christians do.

786
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:21,080
No, we're doing that because you're running on the fuel of divine power.

787
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:25,080
You're running on the fuel of divine inhabitation.

788
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:29,080
And if you want to run on Holy Spirit power,

789
00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:31,080
if you want to run on God's power,

790
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:35,080
if you want a life that is built on the foundation that God laid,

791
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:39,080
then you supply moral excellence.

792
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:43,080
Do the right thing.

793
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:47,080
Also, in your moral excellence, knowledge.

794
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:52,080
Learn the right thing.

795
00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:54,080
And in your knowledge, self-control.

796
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:59,080
Restrict yourself from practicing things that do not honor the Lord

797
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:03,080
and do not honor He who rides in you.

798
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:07,080
And in your self-control, perseverance.

799
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:09,080
That means overcome the difficulties of this life.

800
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:11,080
And it goes like this.

801
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:12,080
This is what we do.

802
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:14,080
I'm just going to be quite frank and honest with you for a second here

803
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:16,080
about my personal experience, and I think you'll resonate with it.

804
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:17,080
And that is this.

805
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:18,080
We practice self-control.

806
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:20,080
We say, I'm never going to do that again.

807
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:24,080
And then a day comes that does not go the way we want it to.

808
00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:27,080
And we think, well, I could do that.

809
00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,080
I could do that because it will make me feel better.

810
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:31,080
It will sustain me.

811
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:33,080
It will be the solution that I need.

812
00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:34,080
Sometimes we don't even think about it,

813
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:40,080
and we're in the midst of a fit or in the midst of a calling off work with a lie

814
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:43,080
or watching something we shouldn't watch

815
00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:47,080
or hurting somebody verbally that we shouldn't hurt.

816
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:51,080
And there really isn't anybody that you should hurt verbally at all.

817
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:53,080
And we're not persevering.

818
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:55,080
Rather, we're stepping back.

819
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:57,080
We're not even self-controlling anymore

820
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:01,080
because we think we have another solution.

821
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:03,080
He says, and in your knowledge, self-control,

822
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:04,080
and in your self-control, perseverance,

823
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:07,080
and in your perseverance, godliness.

824
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:10,080
Now, I understand you are created into the image,

825
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:13,080
recreated into the image of God,

826
00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:18,080
and now provide moral excellence and your moral excellence knowledge

827
00:55:18,080 --> 00:55:20,080
and your knowledge, self-control, and your self-control, perseverance,

828
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:23,080
and in your perseverance, godliness.

829
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:26,080
And then in your godliness, brotherly kindness,

830
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:30,080
and in your brotherly kindness, love.

831
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:37,080
These are the steps that we take after we've been recreated over into the divine image,

832
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:41,080
after we've been recreated over into this life, into this world.

833
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:44,080
We're busy looking at what we got saved out of,

834
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:48,080
and we're forgetting what we were saved into, what we've become.

835
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:50,080
We've become something new.

836
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:52,080
And when somebody does something wrong now,

837
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:54,080
when you do something wrong in practicing accountability,

838
00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:57,080
our accountability is like, you know, this is not you.

839
00:55:57,080 --> 00:55:59,080
I taught this lesson in preschool.

840
00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:01,080
Ty probably remembers it because he was there, maybe, I don't know.

841
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:05,080
And we drew these men on this big plastic tablecloth,

842
00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:08,080
and we wrote salty on there.

843
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,080
And we talked about being the salt of the earth.

844
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,080
And if salt loses its saltiness, what good is it?

845
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:16,080
And what Jesus was saying is, if you were created over into the divine image,

846
00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:19,080
and you don't act like the divine, you don't act the way you're supposed to act,

847
00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:22,080
you don't do the things that you're supposed to do, that's a contradiction.

848
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,080
Now you've got salt that's unsalty. What do you do?

849
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:29,080
Well, who made salt salty in the first place? God did.

850
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:31,080
So there's only one thing you can do.

851
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:34,080
You go back to the one who recreated you, you repent, turn back to God,

852
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,080
and you get made salty again. It's all you can do.

853
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:40,080
And if you're supposed to be traveling the divine image

854
00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:44,080
because you are a recreated follower of the Lord,

855
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:49,080
then you practice these things, if you will, ultimately in love,

856
00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:53,080
and when you fail to do so, God doesn't recognize you.

857
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,080
God looks at you and says, that's Ron Mack.

858
00:56:56,080 --> 00:57:00,080
But that ain't Ron Mack. It's like he's divided today.

859
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:03,080
Ron Mack created over in the name of the Lord, created over in my image,

860
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:06,080
created over with my Holy Spirit riding him, is doing that.

861
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:08,080
My Holy Spirit doesn't do that.

862
00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:11,080
So then Ron Mack needs to come back to God and say,

863
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:17,080
okay, God, what does Ron Mack do as a recreated divine being, essentially?

864
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:19,080
What do I do now?

865
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:21,080
And God will tell us, God will show us, God will sustain us,

866
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:25,080
God will provide for us internally, and we will do it.

867
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:27,080
He goes on to say in verse 8,

868
00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:29,080
for if these qualities are yours and are increasing,

869
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:31,080
check that out, that's super important.

870
00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:35,080
If these qualities are yours and are increasing.

871
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:37,080
So wherever you're at, it's like you could have a character sheet

872
00:57:37,080 --> 00:57:41,080
or a spreadsheet to list, I'm good at this.

873
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:44,080
On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm doing like 2.

874
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,080
I'm good at this. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm doing like 7.

875
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:49,080
This, 2, 3, 5.

876
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:51,080
You have a bar graph in front of you, right?

877
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,080
And as long as you have some of each one of those things,

878
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:58,080
and those numbers are increasing, fractionally possibly, right?

879
00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:02,080
So you can go from 2, and in a year you go to 2.1.

880
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,080
It's not increasing a lot, but it's increasing.

881
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:10,080
A decimal a day, 1, 365th of a tenth of a point.

882
00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:14,080
Just got a little bit more self-discipline this year.

883
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:17,080
Just got a little bit more moral behavior this year.

884
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:20,080
I just learned a little bit more about what God wants me to be,

885
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:24,080
about the truth of Scripture, about God, knowledge, again, just a little bit.

886
00:58:24,080 --> 00:58:29,080
He says, if you have these qualities and they are increasing,

887
00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:33,080
they render you neither useless nor unfruitful

888
00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:36,080
in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

889
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:39,080
But you could flip that around, because that's an if-then statement.

890
00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:43,080
Meaning, if you do not have these characteristics,

891
00:58:43,080 --> 00:58:46,080
or if they are not increasing,

892
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:53,080
their lack, or the lack of increase, will render you useless

893
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:57,080
and or unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

894
00:58:57,080 --> 00:59:02,080
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted,

895
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:06,080
having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

896
00:59:06,080 --> 00:59:12,080
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you.

897
00:59:12,080 --> 00:59:15,080
So if you realize that you're lacking in this area, repent, turn to God,

898
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:20,080
and do the necessary work to be all the more certain that he has called you and has chosen you.

899
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:24,080
For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.

900
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:30,080
For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

901
00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:34,080
will be abundantly supplied to you.

902
00:59:34,080 --> 00:59:40,080
So you're saved. This is how you be saved, how you get saved, and how you finish saved.

903
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:43,080
Right there. There it is.

904
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:47,080
So you're translated into the kingdom of God. You're born again, made new.

905
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:52,080
This is how you stay new, grow as new, and finish new.

906
00:59:52,080 --> 00:59:55,080
That's what Peter says. And who did he write it to?

907
00:59:55,080 --> 00:59:59,080
He wrote it to those who received a faith of the same kind as ours

908
00:59:59,080 --> 01:00:02,080
by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

909
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:06,080
Meaning, it doesn't matter which one of these categories people come from,

910
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:10,080
they can still act this way, be this way now in Christ.

911
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:13,080
Right? It doesn't matter. I had it in the youth group years ago.

912
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:16,080
We had a number of conversations about when I was a youth director

913
01:00:16,080 --> 01:00:20,080
about how some of the people in our youth group didn't really have a fantastic testimony.

914
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:23,080
They weren't saved as drug addicts.

915
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:26,080
So there's drug addicts, wah, I'm finally free from heroin.

916
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,080
Saved and never looked back.

917
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:31,080
Or they weren't criminals in jail and got saved and got out

918
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:33,080
and finally free from criminal activity or anything like that.

919
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:37,080
They were mostly raised in Christian households, introduced to Jesus at a very young age,

920
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:40,080
baptized by the time they were 10, living for the Lord.

921
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:44,080
Now some of them went on to develop a fairly extreme Christian testimony.

922
01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:47,080
Michael, for example. Michael went in the military,

923
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:51,080
went through some pretty horrific things, has paid a dear price for that

924
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:54,080
for many years now, right? Am I correct?

925
01:00:54,080 --> 01:00:59,080
And now, by his own profession, would say, Jesus first in everything.

926
01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:04,080
Right? That being said, that's a pretty crazy testimony that you may not have.

927
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:07,080
You didn't go through that.

928
01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:10,080
But that does not make you better or worse than a person who did.

929
01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:14,080
If he received Jesus Christ,

930
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:17,080
if he received it as a faith of the same kind as ours,

931
01:01:17,080 --> 01:01:20,080
he believed in Jesus, trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior,

932
01:01:20,080 --> 01:01:23,080
then by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,

933
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:26,080
he received translation into the Kingdom of God, he was born again,

934
01:01:26,080 --> 01:01:31,080
in dwell with the Holy Spirit, and yes, it ought to be Jesus first in everything.

935
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:36,080
It doesn't matter where you came from, it matters whom you have trusted in,

936
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:41,080
who is your boss, who is making intercession for you, and that's it.

937
01:01:41,080 --> 01:01:45,080
One last text, 2 Timothy chapter 1.

938
01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:55,080
2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 6 to 14.

939
01:01:55,080 --> 01:01:59,080
2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 says this,

940
01:01:59,080 --> 01:02:02,080
And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God,

941
01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:06,080
which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

942
01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:13,080
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

943
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:19,080
If you do anything out of a spirit that is not power, love, and discipline,

944
01:02:19,080 --> 01:02:25,080
then you are doing that thing out of some kind of fuel other than the Holy Spirit of God.

945
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:30,080
Because the Holy Spirit is a spirit of power and love and discipline,

946
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:32,080
perhaps among other things.

947
01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:35,080
But the bottom line is, if you don't do it in power and love and discipline,

948
01:02:35,080 --> 01:02:38,080
you cannot blame God for it.

949
01:02:38,080 --> 01:02:43,080
Because God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

950
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:48,080
Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner,

951
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:52,080
but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

952
01:02:52,080 --> 01:02:56,080
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works,

953
01:02:56,080 --> 01:03:02,080
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

954
01:03:02,080 --> 01:03:06,080
We'll stop there for one second. That was a long sentence. Paul is known for his long sentences.

955
01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:11,080
Bottom line is he's saying, even though I'm suffering in prison right now,

956
01:03:11,080 --> 01:03:15,080
which he was probably in a house chained to a soldier, but he was arrested.

957
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:19,080
Even though I'm suffering under arrest, and he's not able to work, he's not able to make money,

958
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:23,080
he's struggling in every way except for spiritually perhaps,

959
01:03:23,080 --> 01:03:28,080
he was saying, don't be ashamed of that. Don't be ashamed of my suffering.

960
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:33,080
Rather, be willing to join me in suffering as God deems it's necessary.

961
01:03:33,080 --> 01:03:39,080
We were called with a holy calling, called to be new, called to be Christ-like,

962
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:43,080
called to be in the kingdom of God, and not according to our works,

963
01:03:43,080 --> 01:03:46,080
which means it doesn't matter what we were doing. This is the problem.

964
01:03:46,080 --> 01:03:49,080
We think we were called according to our works, even though we say we weren't.

965
01:03:49,080 --> 01:03:56,080
But we go, well, I was a sinner. I needed a savior. I got a savior. I was called out of my sin.

966
01:03:56,080 --> 01:04:01,080
You were not called out of your sin. The church is the called out assembly of God.

967
01:04:01,080 --> 01:04:08,080
That's a fact, right? But we're the called out of the darkness to be something, to be light, right?

968
01:04:08,080 --> 01:04:13,080
If you go into a dark room, switch on a light switch, the darkness basically goes away

969
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:19,080
because the light has come. Your darkness that you once were is gone.

970
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:24,080
That's supposed to be gone. Others don't understand that.

971
01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:29,080
They're living half dark, half light, or all dark. They need the light.

972
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:32,080
We called them out of the darkness into the light, at which point in time, 2 Corinthians 5,

973
01:04:32,080 --> 01:04:36,080
all old things have passed away. Stop thinking about what you got saved from

974
01:04:36,080 --> 01:04:41,080
and start thinking about who you're living for. Start thinking about who saved you,

975
01:04:41,080 --> 01:04:45,080
who now resides in you, and the kind of man or woman that you're supposed to be.

976
01:04:45,080 --> 01:04:51,080
That's what we're called to, not called to think about, well, I'm so much better than I used to be.

977
01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:54,080
C.S. Lewis once said, you can't judge whether a man is saved or not,

978
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:59,080
even by comparing him to who he is now with who he was before he got saved.

979
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:04,080
Biblically, you're not supposed to do that. He said, what you'd have to do is compare him

980
01:05:04,080 --> 01:05:08,080
who he is now with who he would be now if he never got saved.

981
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:14,080
And that's a person you cannot see. Maybe I would have quit lying at 30, 35, 40.

982
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:18,080
Maybe I would have eventually realized that that's not a good way to treat people,

983
01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:22,080
and it never pays anyway because you always get caught and you've got to lie some more,

984
01:05:22,080 --> 01:05:24,080
and all those kinds of problems develop and whatever.

985
01:05:24,080 --> 01:05:27,080
Like I always saw on TV that that's the way it was, you know, and stuff.

986
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:31,080
Maybe I would have eventually stopped. But that wouldn't have made me saved.

987
01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:35,080
And I'm not saved because I was convicted of my sin and I decided to leave it behind,

988
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:40,080
and I changed and became a different person. I'm saved because I trusted in Jesus Christ.

989
01:05:40,080 --> 01:05:46,080
I was called with a holy calling, not according to my works, but according to His own purpose and grace,

990
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:52,080
which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing

991
01:05:52,080 --> 01:06:02,080
of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,

992
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:05,080
for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.

993
01:06:05,080 --> 01:06:10,080
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed.

994
01:06:10,080 --> 01:06:12,080
In other words, He was suffering being in jail or imprisoned, right?

995
01:06:12,080 --> 01:06:15,080
He was going through all the terrible things He was going through, but I am not ashamed.

996
01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:23,080
For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

997
01:06:23,080 --> 01:06:27,080
So I've got people right now that I'm talking to, ministering to, praying for, that won't even talk to me at all,

998
01:06:27,080 --> 01:06:31,080
that are going through suffering and difficulty, and they're blaming God.

999
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:34,080
They're mad at God for the suffering and difficulty they're going through.

1000
01:06:34,080 --> 01:06:37,080
They won't worship. They won't go to church. They won't serve. They won't give.

1001
01:06:37,080 --> 01:06:41,080
They won't do the things that God has called them to because their life is not quite right,

1002
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:47,080
because they're not happy, because they're not content, because they can't figure out why things are the way they are.

1003
01:06:47,080 --> 01:06:53,080
Paul says, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed.

1004
01:06:53,080 --> 01:06:56,080
I know who God is, basically what he's saying. God has saved me.

1005
01:06:56,080 --> 01:07:00,080
And I'm convinced that He's able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

1006
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:09,080
In verse 13 then he says, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

1007
01:07:09,080 --> 01:07:16,080
Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

1008
01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:21,080
So we join God in that work of guarding the treasure that has been entrusted to us.

1009
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:29,080
We started talking about introducing Jesus. We started talking about a power that requires, that desires to witness.

1010
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:35,080
The Holy Spirit desires to witness about Jesus because that's how people get translated into the Kingdom of God.

1011
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:41,080
That's how people leave behind some other version of God. That's how people overcome sin and death.

1012
01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:45,080
That's how people live for eternity because it's all good.

1013
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:53,080
So we're supposed to go and witness and even suffer and die if necessary to deliver that message because it's all good.

1014
01:07:53,080 --> 01:08:00,080
But then we suffer a little bit. We're crying out to God, God I can't understand why you're not fixing this problem.

1015
01:08:00,080 --> 01:08:04,080
I can't understand why you can leave me here and let me be like that.

1016
01:08:04,080 --> 01:08:10,080
Why life is not fixed. Why the world is the way we're vexed by the unrighteousness of the world. We're upset.

1017
01:08:10,080 --> 01:08:18,080
We want it all fixed. And God's only message is that it will all be fixed.

1018
01:08:18,080 --> 01:08:24,080
It will all be renewed. It will all be perfect in time.

1019
01:08:24,080 --> 01:08:31,080
But I am patient now with you that all men might come to repentance.

1020
01:08:31,080 --> 01:08:42,080
So let me say to you, if only just today you're realizing that you too have sin and need a Savior, flee to the safety of Jesus.

1021
01:08:42,080 --> 01:08:54,080
Flee to the safety of Jesus. And He will stand at the right hand of the throne of God and make intercession for you until He comes again and ends this earth as we know it.

1022
01:08:54,080 --> 01:08:58,080
Or until you die and go into His presence.

1023
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:09,080
If you've never actually embraced the idea that there is a rain of sin in your life and you need somebody to break it, flee to the safety of Jesus.

1024
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:14,080
And that is a message you can take everywhere in the world and use all day long every day.

1025
01:09:14,080 --> 01:09:20,080
If on the other hand you would say, I recognize it's who you know in this life.

1026
01:09:20,080 --> 01:09:28,080
Who you know and what they can do. I've got a good plumber on speed dial. I've got a good furnace guy. I've got a good parking lot guy. I've got a good lawyer.

1027
01:09:28,080 --> 01:09:33,080
It's who you know. You don't call the parking lot guy to go to court with you when you're being sued.

1028
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:42,080
It's who you know and what they can do. Then understand that Jesus is the one. He is the one that God made, the one we need to know.

1029
01:09:42,080 --> 01:09:49,080
Life is all about coming to know Jesus and get connected to Jesus.

1030
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:56,080
Stop looking for your wisdom, your knowledge, your training, your experience, your solution somewhere else and look first in Jesus.

1031
01:09:56,080 --> 01:10:02,080
And let Jesus direct you if you should need to get it somewhere else.

1032
01:10:02,080 --> 01:10:10,080
If it's possible that you think, well I know Jesus but now you're wondering as we're talking today because Jesus never really spoke to me.

1033
01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:14,080
Or I don't read the Bible and I don't really experience the presence of God or whatever.

1034
01:10:14,080 --> 01:10:20,080
I've been interpreting science and I think I should be going this way but I'm thinking maybe now I missed something along the way.

1035
01:10:20,080 --> 01:10:25,080
Then you need to repent and turn to Jesus and know Jesus.

1036
01:10:25,080 --> 01:10:32,080
And stop interpreting science for your direction and let Jesus, if anyone's going to interpret the science, let Jesus interpret the science.

1037
01:10:32,080 --> 01:10:35,080
But Jesus is better than that. He'll just tell you. He'll show you.

1038
01:10:35,080 --> 01:10:40,080
There ought to be a burning in your heart, a recognition that you need to be with Jesus.

1039
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:46,080
And the others need to be with Jesus and we ought to be looking at people when we walk in a restaurant, order fast food, we should be thinking about,

1040
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:50,080
I wonder if that person needs to know Jesus.

1041
01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:54,080
The answer is yes. If they don't already know Jesus, they need to know him.

1042
01:10:54,080 --> 01:10:56,080
And they may not.

1043
01:10:56,080 --> 01:11:04,080
But we're talking about finding people who are fertile fields and you're never going to find them unless you go looking with an eye,

1044
01:11:04,080 --> 01:11:08,080
knowing that they need to be introduced to Jesus.

1045
01:11:08,080 --> 01:11:18,080
And then lastly, and maybe most importantly because it comes straight from the words of Jesus, we're talking about recognizing that Jesus is the way.

1046
01:11:18,080 --> 01:11:25,080
And everybody could back off self-discipline on a bad day.

1047
01:11:25,080 --> 01:11:33,080
Everybody could choose to do the wrong thing because in that moment it seems to make more sense.

1048
01:11:33,080 --> 01:11:39,080
But when you're walking with Jesus, he is the way and you walk with him all day long.

1049
01:11:39,080 --> 01:11:44,080
And you do something and you go, oh wait, that really wasn't walking with Jesus.

1050
01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:49,080
Jesus never would have done that. And you immediately repent and turn back to God.

1051
01:11:49,080 --> 01:11:55,080
And that, as Peter said, leads to practicing discipline.

1052
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:58,080
Ultimately, it leads to love.

1053
01:11:58,080 --> 01:12:06,080
I'm asking you today to consider that as we are sent out to be witnesses to the world by the Holy Spirit power that's taken our residence,

1054
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:13,080
if we're going to encounter people in all different locations, I'll share with you two quick illustrations and we'll be through.

1055
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:20,080
First one is from high school. Seems like forever ago now, but this memory is very vivid and real.

1056
01:12:20,080 --> 01:12:24,080
I thought from hot moment I was going to be a track star.

1057
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:28,080
I was in high school, I was a freshman and I went out for track.

1058
01:12:28,080 --> 01:12:34,080
And we got on the track and we did this thing called Indian runs. I didn't know what an Indian run had to be explained to me.

1059
01:12:34,080 --> 01:12:40,080
So there was eight of us in a row. We're all running single file around the track on the inside lane.

1060
01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:45,080
And when you fell to the back of the track, you had just a few seconds.

1061
01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:48,080
You're supposed to be able to count to five if you really wanted to.

1062
01:12:48,080 --> 01:12:55,080
To break out into the right wider lane and run around all seven of the other guys and cut back to the front.

1063
01:12:55,080 --> 01:12:58,080
To do that, you had to run faster than everybody else.

1064
01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:03,080
And if you want to do it at any reasonable amount of time, you had to run a lot faster than everybody else.

1065
01:13:03,080 --> 01:13:05,080
Otherwise, you'd be stuck in the outside lane.

1066
01:13:05,080 --> 01:13:09,080
And if you were on a turn stuck in the outside lane, that's a longer run.

1067
01:13:09,080 --> 01:13:17,080
You're running a lot further. So by the time you run a quarter mile, you're running a lot further. We were running a half mile.

1068
01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:21,080
So thinking to myself two things. First of all, I'm thinking I don't ever want to be in the back, but I know I'm going to be in the back.

1069
01:13:21,080 --> 01:13:23,080
And eventually I'm going to have to run around everybody.

1070
01:13:23,080 --> 01:13:27,080
Secondly, I'm thinking when I have to run around everybody, I sure hope it's not during a turn.

1071
01:13:27,080 --> 01:13:30,080
So I don't have to be out in the wider lane and run the longer distance. Right.

1072
01:13:30,080 --> 01:13:34,080
So we go through the first lane and I'm getting one at a time pass. I was probably like third.

1073
01:13:34,080 --> 01:13:40,080
And guy passes me blows up to the front. Everything's fine. He's huffing and puffing on the way by, but he's all good.

1074
01:13:40,080 --> 01:13:45,080
Next person goes by and we get to the second turn. Sure enough, going to the second turn. It's my turn. I'm in the back.

1075
01:13:45,080 --> 01:13:52,080
And I'm thinking to myself, I got to run around seven guys. We're keeping a pretty good pace. Right.

1076
01:13:52,080 --> 01:13:55,080
And I run around seven guys fast as I can get ducked into the front.

1077
01:13:55,080 --> 01:14:07,080
And I remember the coach saying as you run around them, make it look like you're not laboring because the whole point of the Indian run is so when you pass somebody in a race, they'll think he's got it.

1078
01:14:07,080 --> 01:14:10,080
I'm not going to try. He's so much faster than me. He's not even laboring. Right.

1079
01:14:10,080 --> 01:14:13,080
And you'll and you'll defeat them. You'll make them think they're defeated.

1080
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:21,080
And so I said, OK, here I go. I did a couple of good breaths and I bust out into the right lane and I'm trucking and I'm flying faster than everybody.

1081
01:14:21,080 --> 01:14:28,080
And I'm looking like I'm not laboring. And and the fastest guy on the track team was by that time he was like two in front of me because he started out running in the front.

1082
01:14:28,080 --> 01:14:37,080
And as I blew by him, I could hear he was kind of labor and running, you know, and I got to the front of the line and I dropped in and I'm trying to keep the same pace everybody's keeping.

1083
01:14:37,080 --> 01:14:46,080
So it wouldn't look like I was going to get up there and slow everybody down. And as I dropped into the front of line, I was pretty sure I was the next up and coming track star.

1084
01:14:46,080 --> 01:14:52,080
I had blown by the whole group. I was not breathing heavy any more than I was before. It was all good.

1085
01:14:52,080 --> 01:14:56,080
And in the front and they all looked like they were really panting heavy.

1086
01:14:56,080 --> 01:15:01,080
And I get back in and I call my breathing down and I'm running in the front. I think I'm going to be the next track star. Right.

1087
01:15:01,080 --> 01:15:07,080
And the next guy broke out from me on the line. He passed me. But he was labor and like he was like breathing pretty heavy as he went by.

1088
01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:14,080
I'm going to see I'm going to be the next track star. We go to the next curve and we're on the third curve at that point in time.

1089
01:15:14,080 --> 01:15:22,080
And the guy who was the track star breaks out from the back of the pack and he blows by the seven of us like we're all standing still.

1090
01:15:22,080 --> 01:15:28,080
He's not breathing heavy and he cuts back in. But when he cuts back in, he doesn't slow back down.

1091
01:15:28,080 --> 01:15:34,080
So now he's two guys in front of me, but he's 20 feet out and the guy in front of me starts to run to keep up with him. Right.

1092
01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:38,080
And now I'm trying to run to keep up with him. And now he's 30 feet out. We're all trying to run really hard.

1093
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:42,080
We hit the curve and the guy in the back, he's trying to pass and we hit the next curve.

1094
01:15:42,080 --> 01:15:46,080
It's coming around to the finish line on the first lap and he couldn't get past.

1095
01:15:46,080 --> 01:15:53,080
He's stuck out there the whole time. He's running as fast as he can trying to keep up. And the guy that's in the front is like 50 yards ahead.

1096
01:15:53,080 --> 01:15:59,080
We know I never had to pass the pack again because the guy in the front was 50 yards. He left us.

1097
01:15:59,080 --> 01:16:05,080
There's that moment that I realized that it wasn't me. It was him. He was going to be the track star.

1098
01:16:05,080 --> 01:16:11,080
I thought I was so good because I could pass. Sometimes you look at your situation, you're serving God and you go like, I'm doing so good.

1099
01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:16,080
Look at that person over there. They're really struggling, really suffering. They're really going through some difficulty.

1100
01:16:16,080 --> 01:16:22,080
And you start thinking how awesome you are, how well off you are. And think I'm a rock star for Jesus.

1101
01:16:22,080 --> 01:16:29,080
Nobody's a rock star for Jesus. I hate to burst your bubble. Nobody. Not the pastor, not the deacon, not the teachers.

1102
01:16:29,080 --> 01:16:38,080
Nobody's a rock star for Jesus. Everybody's in the same place. If you receive Jesus the same way, then you're in the same place.

1103
01:16:38,080 --> 01:16:43,080
You say, well, he does more devotionals than I do. He reads his Bible more than I do. He preaches or teaches more than I do.

1104
01:16:43,080 --> 01:16:47,080
He witnesses more than I do. Everybody's in the same place.

1105
01:16:47,080 --> 01:16:53,080
If you have those characteristics and you're growing in those characteristics, you will never be useless to Jesus.

1106
01:16:53,080 --> 01:17:01,080
Everybody's in the same place. You say, well, he was broke and poor and losing everything and then he came to Christ and it all turned around for him.

1107
01:17:01,080 --> 01:17:05,080
And now he's solid. He went through a horrible relationship situation and it all turned around for him.

1108
01:17:05,080 --> 01:17:12,080
Now he's such a great witness. He's a rock star for Jesus and I'm not. Nobody's a rock star for Jesus.

1109
01:17:12,080 --> 01:17:19,080
Nobody's a rock star for Jesus. Jesus is the rock star. He's the one that's at work in us.

1110
01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:24,080
You just get out of bed in the morning and turn your life over to Jesus and practice the things that you know and continue to improve.

1111
01:17:24,080 --> 01:17:33,080
A little bit, little bit, little bit. And you can improve a tenth on that scale on each one of those things a year and be perfectly useful for Jesus.

1112
01:17:33,080 --> 01:17:40,080
And somebody else improves by five points this year. In every one of those categories, you're like, oh, they're a rock star for Jesus and I'm not.

1113
01:17:40,080 --> 01:17:46,080
And next year, it's gone. It's over. They're not living for Jesus at all.

1114
01:17:46,080 --> 01:17:52,080
They were such a good rock star for Jesus and now they don't need the rock star anymore.

1115
01:17:52,080 --> 01:18:00,080
You live for Jesus. You make the daily choices in your life that make you more like Jesus.

1116
01:18:00,080 --> 01:18:07,080
Discipline yourself. Work at it. Put Jesus first in everything. Learn more.

1117
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:12,080
Don't miss the opportunity to study the Bible. Don't miss the opportunity to sit on a sermon. Don't miss the opportunity to learn and grow.

1118
01:18:12,080 --> 01:18:20,080
There's more opportunity to learn and grow and study and take in Bible studies and stuff like that in our church than probably any church anywhere.

1119
01:18:20,080 --> 01:18:27,080
You've got Right Now Media, Podcast, LifeStation. You can go back and listen to sermons from four years ago on the podcast.

1120
01:18:27,080 --> 01:18:31,080
Some of them all the way back to 2014. That's 10 years ago.

1121
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:38,080
There's more opportunities and we are a reaching new heights in Jesus' church. But no one person here is any better off than anybody.

1122
01:18:38,080 --> 01:18:43,080
If we all came by the way Jesus would have us come, which is faith in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior,

1123
01:18:43,080 --> 01:18:52,080
then we all can have those characteristics and be growing in those characteristics and we never fail to be useful to the God of Heaven for the task that He has selected us for.

1124
01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:59,080
But boy, it's so hard. I had a man tell me this week that I'm out of touch with what it means to be a Christian.

1125
01:18:59,080 --> 01:19:06,080
Because I have not suffered like you suffered. And I said, I've not suffered like you suffered.

1126
01:19:06,080 --> 01:19:14,080
You're right. No one has. You alone. You're the only person who has been through what you've been through.

1127
01:19:14,080 --> 01:19:21,080
And hear me now. Saved in Jesus? Jesus kind of doesn't care what you've been through.

1128
01:19:21,080 --> 01:19:29,080
He really cares about who you are walking in Christ. So walk in Christ.

1129
01:19:29,080 --> 01:19:36,080
Don't compare yourself to others. Don't question God as to why some one person suffers and another person doesn't.

1130
01:19:36,080 --> 01:19:41,080
It's in the purview of the Lord. We have people in this room.

1131
01:19:41,080 --> 01:19:45,080
If we ranked ourselves, we'd get down to there's one person who has suffered more than anybody else in this room.

1132
01:19:45,080 --> 01:19:49,080
I don't know who it is. I don't know that we actually could figure it out.

1133
01:19:49,080 --> 01:19:54,080
But that means it's almost certainly not you.

1134
01:19:54,080 --> 01:19:58,080
Somebody has suffered more than you. Unless you're the one.

1135
01:19:58,080 --> 01:20:05,080
And if you think it's possible that you are the one, then you have the same problem that what I'm talking about.

1136
01:20:05,080 --> 01:20:12,080
Put your eyes on Jesus. Follow Jesus daily. Introduce everyone to Jesus that you possibly can.

1137
01:20:12,080 --> 01:20:19,080
Because He's the way, the truth, and the life.