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["Praise Him in the Morning"]

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Praise Him in the morning, the tall and healthy trees. And praise Him in the evening, the gentle and harmonious

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people. And praise Him in the new day, the gentle blood that seeps. Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King.

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Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. And praise Him for more peaceful heart and rocking turn this way.

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And praise Him for the rolling hills, children there from hell. Oh, praise Him for the wild and small, the never-ending hell.

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Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King. Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King.

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Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. And praise Him for the blood that fire and bloom the road that

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we've been through. And praise Him that He's tender love will still be there for today. Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King.

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Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. Praise the King, praise the King.

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Let it ring, praise the King.

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Praise the King, praise the King.

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Let it ring, praise the King.

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When the winds feel a lot like the air,

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some of you seem like you're afraid to start again.

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Right now all you see are rashes with the words of the name.

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Truth is that you're not full-opted, but grace knows your name.

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God's not done with you, even when you're broken hearted and you lose and you're tired.

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God's not done with you, even when you're lost and it's hard and you're falling apart.

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God's not done with you, it's not over, it's only begun.

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So don't hide, don't run, God's not done with you.

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He'll let you notice until you're sinned and you're done.

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When there's a strength that's growing, you die and you shatter heart.

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God's not done with you, even when you're broken hearted and you lose and you're scorned.

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God's not done with you, even when you're lost and it's hard and you're falling apart.

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God's not done with you, it's not over, it's only begun.

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So don't run, God's not done with you.

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Cruisers and walkers, sons and daughters, kneel at the throne of grace.

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Cruisers and widows, saints and sinners, one day we'll see his face and we'll all bow down.

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Kings will surrender their crowns and worship Jesus.

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He is the love, I'm very proud of him. He is the love of God.

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Summer when we die, mountains and rivers, wishful destiny doesn't leave.

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Oscar and Tony, friend to the lady, forever his love will reign.

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And we'll all bow down. Kings will surrender their crowns and worship Jesus.

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So when I was 16 years old, I was attending high school and I had the opportunity to take a couple of hours of flight time down at Metcalfe Field.

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I think it's called something different like Executive Field now, but anyway, my instructor was a man named Jeff Schubert.

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And I've never forgotten his last name because Schubert is one of those names that just kind of sticks in your head.

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When we took the lessons, we had to learn how to do pre-flight checks and then we actually got to fly the airplane with him sitting next to us flying the airplane.

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And I got to fly more than anybody else because there was a couple of times when we had to do something that was a little bit like dangerous or stretched out or maybe just made the other pilots that were in there.

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Because there was a group of three of us that feel nervous about doing something and I would do it. I was just like, well, whatever, it's going to be whatever, right?

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I trusted that he knew what he was doing. He was sitting right next to me. He wasn't going to let anything go wrong, that kind of thing.

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But I remember when I had to do my first pre-flight check. So there's this big long list and you had to check all these things about the wings, the flaps.

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And then when you got past all the outside pre-flight checks and you had to get in the cockpit, you turn the plane into the wing, into the wind rather, and set the brakes and rev the engine and make sure the brakes were going to hold to test the brakes and all those kinds of things.

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And we were in a single engine plane, which was a four-seater, and the whole plane would shake as the brakes were on and you're revving the engine up and everything.

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And he said, you're going to learn how to do all of these pre-flight checks yourself. And we all did it together the first time.

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And then the next time we went, each one of us had to do the pre-flight check. So I don't remember which order I was in, whether I was the second person to do it or whether I was the next time or whatever.

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But when it came my time to do the pre-flight check, even though I trusted him and I was pretty sure that he was not going to let the plane crash with all four of us in it, when it came to doing the pre-flight checks, I remember thinking, I don't think I'm qualified to do this.

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There were things like you check the gas and make sure you're checking it for moisture, you've got a gauge I put in it, and things like somebody had to watch while you work the flaps and stuff. And I'm going, I'm surely not qualified to fly this plane.

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And so I'm pretty sure that I'm not qualified to perform the pre-flight checks without him overseeing me. But that was what I had to do.

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I had this big long page and I was supposed to work down through it. And while I was doing the pre-flight checks, he went to the bathroom.

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And I'm thinking to myself, if I don't do this right and I don't catch something that's broken, then I could be in trouble.

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Even though I'm flying the plane and if I did something terribly wrong or whatever, he's sitting there and he could catch it and I felt fairly confident we would not crash and I got more flight time than the other guys who were with me because of that feeling.

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Now I'm doing the pre-flight check and I'm doing it by myself and I'm thinking, oh boy, what if I screw this up?

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Now what I didn't know was that he'd gone out there two hours before and done the pre-flight checks before I had it, but I didn't know that.

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He just said, well now you're going to do it. And then he would take the list and say, yeah, this looks good. He'd put it away in the glove box or whatever.

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And then we'd fly the plane. And I thought I was doing the pre-flight check all by myself.

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But then I found out later that he was doing them before we ever got there. But I didn't know that.

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But I just remember that feeling of thinking, if I screw this up, we could be in trouble.

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Today we're going to talk about pre-flight checks. And I saw this in this text. It says nothing to do with airplanes per se.

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And I want to say that to you that if you'll allow me that the term flight in this will be used as our walk with God.

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That's the term that we're going to use when I say to begin a flight. I'm talking about your walk with God.

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And you'll see that develop as we look at the text. And so if you'll grab your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 14.

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Somebody say amen. Thank you very much. This is the Lord's word. And we're about to go into it.

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We're going to look at an interesting character. And his name is Asa.

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And we'll be looking at him for the next three weeks beginning today.

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And Asa's life is in these texts anyway fairly easily broken down into kind of like three categories.

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Don't hold me to this over the next two weeks. But today we're in the pre-flight category for Asa.

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Next week I believe we'll be in the flight category. And then the third week we'll be in the land or crash category.

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So Asa, beginning in chapter 14, he's going to get his job, if you will.

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And it says, So Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David.

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And his son Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his days.

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OK, so that's a good start. He's king for ten years with no wars, no real problems.

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Now history shows us that the reason it was undisturbed for ten years was because his father before him and even his grandfather before him

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had done a pretty good job of focusing on God and putting things in the right direction.

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OK, and so they set him up well, if you will. Verse 2 says, And Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God.

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So good and right. What are good and right? Well we're going to get some examples.

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Because in verse 3 it says for or because he removed the foreign altars.

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So what do you think a foreign altar is? Are you with me, Natalie? Are you with me?

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What do you think a foreign altar is? OK, what's an altar? Chris, what's an altar?

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Right, so you worship at an altar and a foreign altar would be an altar to a foreign God.

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So we've got a foreign altar and he's doing away with the foreign altars, which means he's eliminating the places of worship

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inside their country, their country being Judah, their country being God's country.

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He's eliminating the false places of worship. Now obviously this kind of reform in America might not be well received.

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We have religious freedom and if we wanted to go, if the government decided to wipe out all the mosques, for example,

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that's not going to go over well and it certainly would go against what our Constitution says.

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So by no means is this text prescribing that we should go and eliminate all the foreign altars,

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all the places where other people worship at. But notice that he's king of God's people.

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And it wasn't just the foreigners, if you will, if I can use that term, or aliens living in the land

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who were worshiping at the foreign altars. It was God's people who were worshiping in the foreign altars.

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So if we're eliminating the places of foreign worship in the area that you or I control,

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then I would be eliminating foreign worship in my life.

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So I'm going to look at the things of my life that could lead me or even my family or friends

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where I have influence to worship a false God. Yes, sir?

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Yes. So let me go back and read the verse.

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He did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God, for he, that is not a capital H, right?

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So that's Asa, for he, Asa, removed the foreign altars and high places.

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So high places, now these are interesting places because the high places were places of worship,

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but they were not expressly dedicated to a false God.

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Now there was false God worship that would go on there, right?

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And also worship of God that would go on there, right?

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But the problem was they were very unregulated.

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Years ago when Sherry and I went out to Arizona and we were going to see the Grand Canyon

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for our 20th wedding anniversary and we went into the national park there

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and they had given you, at the gate of the national park,

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they gave you this little brochure of all the places where you could go and meditate or think about higher things

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and people had claimed to have existential experiences.

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Nothing Christian about it, nothing Jesus about it, nothing God about it,

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not even recognizing that God was real, but they were the high places, right?

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So you could say, some people might say they have an accidental experience using pot, for example,

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and I had an accidental experience, man, I saw things I've never seen before, right?

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Well, that's what it's talking about, being high.

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And so they would go up there, it's bad by the way, don't do that,

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but they would go up there to the high places and they would meditate or whatever

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and they would have an existential experience.

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Now some people would do that thinking they were worshiping God

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and they had even instilled little like calves there like going back to the errand day, right?

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So we're going back, we have this little calf there, it represents God,

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that's all false worship, it's all wrong.

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So the high places were bad because they were unregulated.

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They were not God governed and they were not priest governed.

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There was nobody there to say, okay, we're going to worship God in a right way.

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So now we've got two kind of places in our lives which we might want to get rid of

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if we're going to do the good and right and the sight of the Lord that Asa did,

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places that lead us to worship false gods.

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So for example, if you're getting wrapped up in the God of money and money is all about it,

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you need to get rid of wherever would lead you to worship money

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and think money is important like God is important.

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You could do the same thing with all kinds of things in your life that might lead you to worship something that is not God.

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And high places are unregulated places of worship.

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So you got a place where you can go to get alone, quote unquote, with God,

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but when you get there you don't really experience God,

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you experience just a high or a feeling, right?

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Or get rest because you're not doing anything else, you're just sitting there, so there's rest.

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Or meditation brings you rest or whatever, but it's not godly rest, it's not based on the word of God,

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it's not with a pastor or with a teacher or with a brother or sister in Christ,

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there's no regulation to it, then that's not for you, right?

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So Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord by removing the foreign altars and the high places.

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He tore down the sacred pillars and cut down the ashram.

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So sacred pillars are just pillars that again represent usually false gods, but they're places of worship.

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And he cut down the ashram, so ashram was a specific kind of pillar to the fertility god, right?

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That had previously been worshiped in that area, so some were left over from a long time,

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we're talking about stuff that had been there for hundreds of years,

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and some were newer that people had erected and he was getting rid of them all, right?

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And that was considered good and right.

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And so whenever God says it's good and right, that's good and right.

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Verse 4, it says, and he commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandments.

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So he's telling all the people that live in the land,

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and you pretty much figure he was telling the men and the men were telling their families

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and there were women who were mixed in with the men who didn't have a man or whatever and they were taking it back.

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And so it was getting throughout all of the community everywhere in Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers

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and to observe the law and the commandments.

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So here's a three-point sermon for you that's not being preached today.

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It is what Asa told you to do, seek the Lord God of your fathers, observe the law and the commandment.

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And there is a difference between the law and the commandment.

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And I hope we kind of understand what that is.

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Verse 5, he also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah,

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and the kingdom was undisturbed under him.

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Now notice that he removed the high places from all the cities of Judah.

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So there were places in the cities where people could go to have an existential experience

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and places where they could go to burn incense, right, but not specifically to God.

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And the kingdom was undisturbed under him.

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So God gave his kingdom peace or rest.

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I submit to you that this is an outcome that the chronicler says happens.

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If you seek the Lord your God, follow his commands, listen to his law, observe what he says,

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then you can have peace. You can have rest.

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Now some of you are going, something is not quite right.

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There is a feeling about that that doesn't seem like it is the full counsel of God.

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And you are right, it is not.

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But Asa didn't have the full counsel of God even though he had access.

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He didn't understand there was a coming Messiah.

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He didn't know that Jesus would be born, die, be buried, resurrected,

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and the Holy Spirit would come to live among men.

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He didn't have that information clearly yet.

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So what is he doing? He is seeking the God of his fathers,

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who by the way gave him ten years peace to start with before he ever did anything.

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And because he is doing that and it is working and it is undisturbed,

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he tells them all, let's all do that. We are all going to do that.

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All seek the Lord God of our fathers.

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We are all going to observe the law and we are all going to observe the commands.

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Verse 6 says, and he built fortified cities in Judah since the land was undisturbed

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and there was no one at war with him during those years because the Lord had given him rest.

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So now God has given him rest, so what does he do?

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Now notice this is not necessarily part of doing good and right,

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although it kind of seems like it is good and right,

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but God doesn't say specifically that what we are reading now is good and right.

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That part is already passed.

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But this is what he did. He built up the cities, he fortified them,

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he made them ready for future conflict.

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And so if that is a good thing for you to do, then you can prepare yourself for difficult.

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Remember we talked about like it is sunny today and I don't see a storm?

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And you are like, okay, I can prepare myself for going into the storm.

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I submit to you, if you will not read your Bible now,

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then when your life goes into the proverbial hand basket to go to a place where you don't want it to go,

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you will not be the guy reaching for the book.

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If you will not pray now, if you are in a green tree, imagine what you will do in a dry.

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And so basically it was a green tree, it was restful and peaceful,

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and he decided to build up the cities and prepare for days where it might not be.

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Because the Lord had given him rest, they had abundance in materials,

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abundance in labor, abundance in time, etc. and they built up the cities.

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Verse 7 said, for he said to Judah, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars.

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This part I like, the land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God.

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We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.

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So they built and they prospered.

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So basically because God was giving them the rest, they built and prospered,

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which you could then say to some degree was giving themselves additional rest and peace

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because they've got walls, they've got bars, they've got protections, right?

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So they're using the resources that God has given them to provide a future rest and peace.

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They're trying to extend the present day rest and peace into the future,

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which on the surface sounds like a good thing.

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It's like saving for retirement, it's like putting an alarm in while you have the money,

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always doing your oil changes so your car lasts longer.

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Those all sound like good things and I want to submit to you that they are generally speaking,

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but it's not what God was after. It's not the thing.

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In fact, we're told over in 1 Kings, yeah, 1 Kings, we won't go and read it right this second,

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that there were high places during this period of time that he actually failed to take out,

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that he didn't get it all done. He was doing it, it was in process, but it never gets all done under his watch.

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But he does build walls and he does build gates and he does put up bars.

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He does fortify to try to stretch the current peace into the future

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and he does give God glory for God setting it up the way he did,

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which is that we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.

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So they built and prospered. It's interesting when you think about it.

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So if there's a simple mathematical equation here, what is it?

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Seek God, find what? Somebody said something.

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Find rest, right? Seek God, find rest, right? That's it.

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Seek God, find rest, and in rest you make yourself strong

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and you'll be able to rest into the future, right?

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That's the mathematical equation that Asa is operating his life on.

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But I submit to you that Asa is living completely pre-flight.

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I'll come back on that in one second.

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It says in verse 8, Asa had an army of 3,000 from Judah

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bearing large shields and spears and 2,800 from Benjamin

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bearing shields and wielding bows, and all of them were valiant warriors.

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Now Zirah, the Ethiopian, and by the way, there is some question

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of the nationality of the word that's used there is ambiguous,

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and so question whether he's an Ethiopian or what, right?

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Zirah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men

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and 300 chariots, which sounds like not very many chariots

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for an army of a million men, and he came to Marisha.

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So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation

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in the valley of Zephatha at Marisha.

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Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said,

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Lord, there is no one besides thee to help in the battle

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between the powerful and those who have no strength.

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So help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in thee,

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and in thy name have come against this multitude.

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O Lord, thou art God, let not man prevail against thee.

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So let's break that down for one second.

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So now he comes to the moment, he's built up his lands,

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but he's not on it, really, a defensive battle.

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He's coming out in a meeting engagement with a huge army

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of a million men, quite a bit larger than his army.

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So by all rights, just by sheer numbers, he should lose, right?

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He is considering himself the weaker power.

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And does he say that God intervenes for the weak?

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Did you hear it in the verse?

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Lord, there is no one besides thee to help in the battle

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between the powerful and those who have no strength.

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Is he saying that God intervenes on behalf of the weak?

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He's not. That's not what it says.

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God determines who wins the battle.

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Will it be the strong or will it be the weak?

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He's saying there is no one outside the battle.

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Here's a million men, here's whatever that was,

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580,000 or whatever that number was.

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Yeah, 580,000 men. And who's going to win?

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Well, that's up to you, Lord.

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There is no one but you to intervene.

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Should Judah win? Should they win? Yes.

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They should win because we've worked at it, because we're godly.

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We're seeking after the Lord, and we already know our equation is what?

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Seek the Lord, find rest.

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So we believe in seeking the Lord, we find rest,

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and we're going to win the battle.

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Except, now wait, there's almost twice as many of them as there is of us,

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and we don't have any chariots, they have 300.

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A chariot was good for 1,000 men or more, right?

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Because you can't hit them.

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And they've got blades on the side, they're just riding people down,

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killing them left and right, right?

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So whether it's 300 or whether it's more, that's a lot, right?

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300,000 men, so we've got 500 and 8,000 versus a million men,

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plus chariots enough to kill 300,000 men.

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That's a lot, we're in trouble here.

283
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But he didn't cry out for God to protect the weak.

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He simply said, I recognize that God is the only help outside the battle.

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You get that?

286
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So he says, God is the only help outside the battle,

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and then he says, help us, Lord, for we trust in thee,

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and in thy name have come against this multitude.

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O Lord, thou art God, let not man prevail against thee.

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In other words, we believe that you'll be on our side,

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we ask you to be on our side, you're the one outside the battle

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who can make any difference, please come in on our side,

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and if you do, we know we will win,

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because there's no way you'll let that force beat you

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and the side that you choose, whatever that is.

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We'll go just a little further.

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So the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah,

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and the Ethiopians fled.

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And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar,

300
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and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover,

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for they were shattered before the Lord and before his army,

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and they carried away very much plunder.

303
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So the Judeans are plundering towns

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and the wagon train of the army and all of that.

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If you've got a million people in your army, that's a big wagon train.

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14, and they destroyed all the cities around Gerar,

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for the dread of the Lord had fallen on them,

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and they despoiled all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.

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They also struck down those who owned livestock,

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and they carried away large numbers of sheep and camels,

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and they returned to Jerusalem.

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Okay, so follow this, if you will.

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We're going to stop reading right there, because I believe now,

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I think if you're following the story the same as I am,

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that we're moving from the preflight check into the flight.

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And that would just happen.

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He said, God, we have sought you.

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You come, be on our side, and go with us into battle so we can have victory.

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And for what the Chronicler writes, that's exactly what happened.

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So if I would say of God, Lord, I'm seeking after you.

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Okay, now I'm ready. I'm yours.

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Do whatever you want. Submit myself to you.

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Come, be on my side. Be in me. Be with me.

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It's starting to sound like Christian language, right?

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Then I go through the storm, through the battle, through the difficulty, whatever,

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and he is with me.

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Then from that moment on, I am on the flight with God.

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So it sounds like we're moving from the preflight check to the flight.

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Okay, so we'll stop with the story right there,

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but I want to make a couple points out of the text we've looked at

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and show you something that really the Lord pressed on my heart.

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Okay, so the first thing I want you to see is that when the Chronicler,

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all throughout 1 and 2 Chronicles,

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when the Chronicler talks about seeking after the Lord or a heart after the Lord,

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it always kind of means the same thing.

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And it's kind of summed up pretty well in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9.

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I'm going to flip there and read it real quick.

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And it says,

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As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father,

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and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind,

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for the Lord searches all heart and understands every intent of the thoughts.

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If you seek him, he will let you find him.

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But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

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So the Chronicler is talking about seeking after God and God saying,

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Yes, I'll let you find me.

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Some years ago, I had a number of small children living in my house right now,

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and I only had one.

348
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And we would play hide and seek.

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You ever play hide and seek with a small child between the ages of like 2 and 5?

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How does that go?

351
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They always put themselves on the line.

352
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Yeah. So this is what happens.

353
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You gotta say, OK, I'm going to go in the corner and count, you go hide.

354
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And you count.

355
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Maybe we'll just count to 10 because that's like an eternity for them.

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You say, I would count to a thousand by thousands.

357
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OK, here I go.

358
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One thousand.

359
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OK, and you go look.

360
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And you start looking.

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You search a few places.

362
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And then they're like, here I am.

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So this is what the Chronicler says about God.

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If you seek after God, he will reveal himself.

365
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That's what it means to have a heart after God.

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As you seek after him, he will reveal himself.

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Now think for a moment in the story of Asa.

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Has God revealed himself during Asa's seeking?

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The Chronicler says, if you love the Lord and you seek after the Lord,

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he will reveal himself.

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That's what the Chronicler says.

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In 14.7, 2 Chronicles 14.7, which is the middle of what we just read,

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this is what it says.

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Where he said to Judas, let us build these cities and surround them with walls

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and towers and gates and bars.

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The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God.

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We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.

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So they built and prospered.

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Does that not sound like a different equation than the equation we just read

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in 1 Chronicles 28.9?

381
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He didn't say we have sought the Lord and he has revealed himself to us.

382
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And now he is on our side or now he is with us or we're having an experience of him

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in our midst or anything like that.

384
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He simply said, for we have sought the Lord and now he has given us rest on every side.

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Not even necessarily rest inside, but rest on every side.

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It's not the same exactly.

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The Chronicler talks about seeking after the Lord equaling success and peace and life,

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which is a lot like when you seek Jesus.

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So the Chronicler has an understanding of the God of the universe,

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the creator who created all, as desiring us to engage in pre-flight checks

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to lead us up to that moment in time at which we will have that relationship with God

392
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and we will start that flight.

393
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And I submit to you, there is a substantial debate as to whether or not Asa has completed his pre-flight checks.

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There we go.

395
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In Acts chapter 17 and Acts chapter 14, we see the Apostle Paul and others dealing with people who are not followers of the Lord.

396
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And so there are people who have not begun their flight with Jesus.

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They have not begun to walk with the Lord.

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So we're going to flip there and look at those two accounts.

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The first one is in Acts 17 verse 22.

400
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Now you probably already know if you've studied your Bible quite a bit that this is Paul essentially on Mars Hill.

401
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:07,400
And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus outside the city of Athens.

402
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:13,400
And you can kind of go see what they think is the remnants of this place today if you ever could travel to the Middle East

403
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,400
and it's probably cost you a fortune, but if it still exists, you can probably look at it online,

404
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:21,400
some portion of it, where they think it might have been.

405
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,400
Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and he said,

406
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:29,400
Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.

407
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:34,400
For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship,

408
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I also found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God.

409
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:43,400
What therefore you worship in ignorance and this I proclaim to you.

410
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:50,400
The God who made the world and all things in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands.

411
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Neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all life, breath and all things.

412
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And he made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times

413
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and the boundaries of their habitation.

414
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:16,400
That they should seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

415
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,400
So what is he saying?

416
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:25,400
If you seek God in earnest, God will reveal himself to you and you'll realize, oh shoot, God was right there the whole time.

417
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,400
He was so close and I just wasn't quite there.

418
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,400
That's what he's saying.

419
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:35,400
So he is quoting essentially the equation that the chronicler gives us.

420
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But I submit to you it is not really the equation that Asa has walked out thus far.

421
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He says this, for because in him we live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said, we also are his offspring.

422
00:35:52,400 --> 00:36:01,400
Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

423
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:08,400
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.

424
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,400
There's the word that you need to hang on to, repent.

425
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:18,400
Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed,

426
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:23,400
having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

427
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,400
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer.

428
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:34,400
But others said, we shall hear you again concerning this.

429
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:47,400
So Paul went out of their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

430
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:52,400
I submit to you what Paul was saying to the men who were at the area.

431
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,400
What were they doing again? They were always listening for some new teaching.

432
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:03,400
They were always looking, seeking out the truth, always desiring more to know about creation, about the universe, about the gods.

433
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:07,400
They were always in discussion. I submit to you if you'll allow me to use this language.

434
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,400
They were always in preflight checks.

435
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:20,400
And then Paul comes and he says, I have seen the outcome. I have seen the hard work that you've done. I've seen all of the evidence of your preflight checks.

436
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:31,400
And now I've come to tell you that God is saying to all men it is now time to end the preflight checks and let us fly.

437
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:37,400
And the bridge between the preflight checks and the flight, Paul says, is to repent.

438
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:46,400
And I submit to you that it is to repent not only of sin, hang on now, we've talked about that, right?

439
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:51,400
That's biblical, to repent of sin, to walk away from your sins is a real thing.

440
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,400
That's part of being saved. We are supposed to do that.

441
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,400
But also a man or a woman who would come to Christ must repent.

442
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:07,400
And I'll explain what the word means in a second when I get there very clearly. They must repent of their preflight checks.

443
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:13,400
You can never fly the plane while you are still outside filling out the chart.

444
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:17,400
You can never fly the plane while the brakes are on and you're revving the engines to see if they'll hold.

445
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:23,400
You can never fly the plane while you're one by one switching every switch to determine whether or not all the gauges work, right?

446
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:28,400
As long as you're still in the preflight checks, the flight has not begun.

447
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:33,400
That's what Paul told them on Mars Hill.

448
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:38,400
That the preflight checks were no longer good enough.

449
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:43,400
While we were at camp, Dan DeWitt, the seminar professor, was the camp pastor.

450
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:48,400
And he used an illustration that I had forgotten and he brought it back to mind. It's a great illustration.

451
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:54,400
And it is this. He said that mere Christianity, that means the simplest form of Christianity,

452
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:58,400
is someone calls upon the name of the Lord, gets saved, and they enter the hallway in the house.

453
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,400
If you think of a house with a hallway down the middle, they enter the hallway.

454
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:06,400
He said, but it is never my goal to see people stay in the hallway.

455
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:13,400
The real community, peace, rest, hope, all of that is in the rooms.

456
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:18,400
It's where the fireplace is, where the refrigerator is, where the snacks is, where the stove is, right? That's in the rooms.

457
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,400
You wouldn't go in a house and go like, here's a three foot wide, about 15 foot long hallway.

458
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,400
There's the kitchen, there's the living room, there's the bedroom. Over here's another bedroom.

459
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,400
Over here's the family room, rec room. There's the living room with the fireplace.

460
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:32,400
Places to sit, read books, sit in front of the fireplace in the winter. It would be awesome.

461
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:36,400
Toast those marshmallows and maybe some hazelnuts or whatever at a time.

462
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,400
That kind of thing. But you wouldn't go, I'm only going to live in the hallway.

463
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,400
I'm just going to live in the hallway. That's all I'm going to do.

464
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:47,400
No, because when Jesus invites you into the Kingdom of God, yes, you go into the hallway.

465
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:52,400
And then Jesus says, the rooms of the mansion of your life are available to you.

466
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,400
You need to go and live there. That's the church. Live in the community.

467
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,400
Live in the community that I've created for you. Live in the gifts that I've given you.

468
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,400
Live in the disciplines that I've given you. Live as the church now.

469
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:08,400
But so many people think that they become a Christian and they're just in the hallway.

470
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:13,400
They've not gone deeper, gone further. Try the various things that God has for them, right?

471
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:21,400
Tasted of the fruit of the Kingdom of God. I submit to you that far fewer people are actually in the hallway

472
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,400
failing to go in the rooms than anyone will admit.

473
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:30,400
Because actually, most of the people who think they're in the hallway and refusing to go in the rooms

474
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:36,400
are actually still on the stoop performing pre-flight checks. They won't even go in.

475
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:40,400
They've not become Christians. They'll claim the name of Christ. They talk about God.

476
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,400
Yes, you need to be a follower of Jesus. Yes, you've got to believe John 3.16.

477
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:49,400
Whosoever believes. I believe. Yeah, John 3.16 doesn't mean whosoever believe only

478
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:53,400
because the demons believe and they don't get saved, right?

479
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,400
And so the point is, so many people think that they've just entered the hallway

480
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:00,400
and they're just practicing mere Christianity, not moving into what God has for them

481
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:04,400
when in reality they're still on the front porch doing pre-flight checks.

482
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,400
I can't go to church because the church has disagreed.

483
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,400
I can't go to church because the churches are full of hypocrites.

484
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:15,400
I can't read my Bible because it's all full of errors or the translations are all different

485
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,400
or I only can believe one translation of the Bible and not another one.

486
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:23,400
All of that is pre-flight checks. It's all before you even move into the hallway.

487
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,400
Once you're into the hallway and Jesus is with you, it's about walking in the strength of Jesus

488
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,400
to do the thing that Jesus has called you to do.

489
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:34,400
Move into the rooms. Enjoy the power of the Lord to transcend the storms.

490
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:38,400
Enjoy the peace of the rest of the Lord internally, not just externally.

491
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,400
It's a great thing to be able to say, I've become a Christian, I know I'm not going to go to hell when I die.

492
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,400
It's a wonderful thing. It's a pretty horrible thing to say, I've become a Christian,

493
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:50,400
I know I'm not going to go to hell when I die and be wrong.

494
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:52,400
And yet that's exactly where we live.

495
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:56,400
There are tons and tons of people and some of them are in the church on the membership rolls

496
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:59,400
because they think they've come into the hallway.

497
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,400
They're waiting. They're not fully committed to go into the rooms yet.

498
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,400
So they're waiting for that to all sort itself out.

499
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,400
I see this in the area of every spiritual discipline.

500
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,400
If God would just tell me to read my Bible more, I would do it.

501
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:12,400
If God would just tell me to share Jesus with people more, then I would do it.

502
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,400
He's already told you. He's already told you to read your Bible.

503
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,400
He's already told you to praise. He says, praise with your voice.

504
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:24,400
Sing out so many times that...and still we've got people that aren't doing it.

505
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,400
Because they think they're in the hallway and they'll eventually get there,

506
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:28,400
but the truth is maybe they're not even in the hallway.

507
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:32,400
They're still on the stoop performing pre-flight checks.

508
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:35,400
One more example of the same thing is over in Acts 14.

509
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:39,400
Just go three paragraphs back, three chapters back to the left.

510
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:45,400
Acts 14. I'm going to begin reading in verse 11.

511
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:49,400
Now they're ministering. They're teaching the gospel.

512
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:55,400
And the story is about Barnabas and Paul. It says in verse 11,

513
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:59,400
and when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, and what he had done, by the way,

514
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:01,400
it was just a miracle that Jesus did through him.

515
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,400
But when they saw what he had done, they raised their voice,

516
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:10,400
saying in the Lycaonian language, the gods, small g, have become like men

517
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:11,400
and have come down to us.

518
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,400
Now what's so ironic about that is because Jesus actually was God,

519
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:17,400
and he did become a man, and he did come down.

520
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,400
And people think, well, that would have to happen in order for the gods to be real.

521
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:23,400
And they're thinking, okay, the gods have come down to us.

522
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,400
The gods, not god, but the gods.

523
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:30,400
And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes.

524
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,400
And that sounds ludicrous to us, but just hang on a minute,

525
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:37,400
because he was the chief speaker, Paul, because he did most of the talking.

526
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,400
They called him Hermes, who was the messenger god.

527
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,400
And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city,

528
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:49,400
brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

529
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:55,400
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes.

530
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,400
They ripped their robes.

531
00:43:57,400 --> 00:43:59,400
And they rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying,

532
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:02,400
Men, why are you doing these things?

533
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:07,400
We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you

534
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:12,400
in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God

535
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:17,400
who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

536
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:22,400
And in the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways.

537
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,400
And yet he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good

538
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,400
and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,

539
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:31,400
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

540
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:33,400
In other words, God was appealing to you.

541
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,400
He was giving you blessings.

542
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:38,400
And now you want to worship us as Zeus and Hermes,

543
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,400
which are false gods that mean nothing?

544
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:46,400
And it says in 18, and even saying these things,

545
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:51,400
they with difficulty restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

546
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,400
But the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium,

547
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:58,400
and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul

548
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:01,400
and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

549
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:03,400
They killed him!

550
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,400
They dragged him out of the city and threw his body in the ditch, dead.

551
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:10,400
But while the disciples stood around him, he arose and entered the city,

552
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,400
and the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.

553
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,400
I guess he didn't want to let them kill him a second time.

554
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:20,400
And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples,

555
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:23,400
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,

556
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:27,400
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,

557
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:32,400
and saying, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

558
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:34,400
Do you understand what's happening in this story?

559
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,400
There were people who had gotten so good at performing the preflight checks

560
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:42,400
that when someone came and told them it was time to fly,

561
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:49,400
they said, no, we prefer the preflight checks to the actual flying.

562
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,400
This is like going to Cedar Point and standing in line for the roller coaster for three hours,

563
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,400
and when it comes your time to get on the roller coaster,

564
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,400
you go and just walk off the exit, you go, no, I'm going to go stand in a different line.

565
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:02,400
I really prefer to go standing in line to the ride in the roller coasters.

566
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:04,400
That's what happened in this story.

567
00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:08,400
They were worshiping false gods who never did a thing for them.

568
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,400
They were carrying around statues and selling little statuettes and stuff.

569
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,400
They were sacrificing oxen to gods who never did a thing.

570
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:21,400
And when the agents of the real God, of Jesus, come and miraculously heal

571
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:26,400
and miraculously bring life, instead of embracing that God

572
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:32,400
and taking off on a flight with Jesus, many of them preferred the preflight checks.

573
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:34,400
No, we're good.

574
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,400
Zeus really doesn't really demand anything of us.

575
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:42,400
We sacrifice to him, but we do that of our own will, so he doesn't really demand anything.

576
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:46,400
He doesn't provide anything either, but he doesn't have any expectations.

577
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:52,400
This is another story where people were doing everything they could

578
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:59,400
to be right by their version of God, have the opportunity instead to take a flight with Jesus,

579
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:02,400
and they say not.

580
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:08,400
If you seek Jesus, if you seek him, he will allow himself to be found.

581
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:10,400
That's the message of the chronicler.

582
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,400
And much like a child playing hide and go seek, God desires nothing more.

583
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:20,400
There is nothing more in the universe than God desires than for humans to find him,

584
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:25,400
to join with him in fellowship, to become his people.

585
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:27,400
That's what God desires.

586
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:33,400
He wants you to be with him during this life and eternity,

587
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:44,400
so much so that he took on flesh and died on a cross to pay for the sins of mankind.

588
00:47:44,400 --> 00:47:49,400
But having found God, we are to repent, and there is that word,

589
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:55,400
there is that word that's so seldom used correctly, even in Christian circles.

590
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:59,400
I wrote a book, it's a good one, if I do say so myself.

591
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:04,400
I'm not sure everybody agrees with me, but, and it says in here,

592
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,400
Repent, it's a state of mind.

593
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,400
Okay, so, repent, it's a state of mind.

594
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:14,400
As a pre-Christian, I had heard of God, I had heard the gospel at least twice.

595
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:18,400
In fact, I believed in God and probably even accepted that Jesus was real.

596
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,400
However, at 26 years old, I was pretty self-centered.

597
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:23,400
I suppose I was adequately fearful toward him.

598
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:26,400
I remember even having some feelings that someone, possibly God,

599
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:30,400
was watching my every move and might punish me if I broke the rules.

600
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:35,400
Now, you tell me, which part of Asa's story was I living in?

601
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:40,400
I was living in the pre-flight checks.

602
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:43,400
Later, nearer to my decision for Christ, I was an effective,

603
00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:47,400
and some would say efficient, manager for a restaurant chain.

604
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,400
I scheduled myself long hours, strove to hear words of affirmation from my employer

605
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:54,400
while also being very inhibited.

606
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:56,400
Pre-flight checks.

607
00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:00,400
The psychologist among you is saying I was mentally unstable, and maybe I was.

608
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:05,400
Then at 26 years old, I began to wonder if there wasn't something more in life

609
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,400
than that existence as a restaurant manager at war within myself.

610
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:12,400
We started attending the only church we knew that had a person who behaved

611
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,400
like what we thought a Christian should behave like.

612
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:17,400
Took six months.

613
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:22,400
I decided that I would add God, however He simply would not be added.

614
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,400
I decided I would join the church, but there was no way I could go up in front

615
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,400
of all those people and profess my willingness to be called a member

616
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:30,400
because they would all be looking at me.

617
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:34,400
I felt as if they would all see right through me.

618
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:40,400
I guess I talked back to God first and said, I need to talk to my wife.

619
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,400
See, pre-flight checks.

620
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,400
God said, come.

621
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:53,400
He revealed Himself to me, and I said, I prefer the pre-flight checks.

622
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:57,400
Eventually, she accepted and supported my decision.

623
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:01,400
My wife did as I turned my life over to Christ.

624
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:04,400
When she asked me what it would mean to become a Christian, I said,

625
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:12,400
I just don't actually know, but this much I do know, it will change everything.

626
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:14,400
An earthquake changes the scene.

627
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:18,400
Now all the prisoners are free, and the chief jailer is probably going to kill himself

628
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:20,400
because he has lost his charges.

629
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:24,400
They call out, though, stopping him and reassuring him that all the prisoners

630
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:25,400
are still present and accounted for.

631
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:27,400
No one has run.

632
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,400
The jailer calls for a light, comes in and falls at the feet of Paul and Silas,

633
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,400
and he asks, what must I do to be saved?

634
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:37,400
In other words, he says, I'm done with pre-flight checks.

635
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:39,400
I realize I'm at the end of myself.

636
00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:42,400
You tell me what must I do to be saved?

637
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,400
And they say to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

638
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:49,400
and you shall be saved, you and I house.

639
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:53,400
To repent means everything is changed.

640
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:59,400
You have moved from the pre-flight checks to the flight with Jesus.

641
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:01,400
Everything is changed.

642
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:03,400
You've got to think differently.

643
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:05,400
I want you to think about your life right now.

644
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:07,400
This is you personally, alone with God.

645
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:13,400
Are there things that you are still doing that are of debatable value

646
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:17,400
that go all the way back to before you were saved?

647
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:21,400
You would say, that's just who I am.

648
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:23,400
Do you favor them?

649
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:25,400
Do you prefer them?

650
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:29,400
Do you prefer them to a God of heaven unleashed in your life

651
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:31,400
who can do anything he wants to do?

652
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:33,400
You do realize that at some point in time,

653
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:37,400
you're going to face a terrible storm or a massive army of evil spirits and demons

654
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,400
that are way more than you personally can ever be,

655
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,400
that are way more than you seeking Jesus can ever be.

656
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:48,400
And there is only one God who can intervene in that conflict when the time comes.

657
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:52,400
If you didn't by some chance, if you made it through your whole life by some chance,

658
00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:56,400
you are going to face a day of judgment for what you've done in this life.

659
00:51:56,400 --> 00:52:01,400
And in that moment in time, there is only one God who can declare you innocent,

660
00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:04,400
who will judge you by his son Jesus.

661
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:07,400
And Jesus was perfect.

662
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,400
And you can't be perfect, but you can have the righteousness of Jesus

663
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:12,400
so that in that day he looks at you and he says,

664
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:15,400
Yep, this guy is a screw up, this gal is a screw up,

665
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:20,400
but it's my screw up, she's mine, he's mine.

666
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:22,400
Hands off.

667
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:25,400
He's the only one that can intervene.

668
00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:27,400
Having found him, repent.

669
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:29,400
Think of all things in new ways.

670
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:31,400
It does not mean just turning from your sin.

671
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:36,400
It means no longer thinking of your life as pre-flight,

672
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:41,400
and now thinking of your life as in flight.

673
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:43,400
When we give up our lives, when we give up our foul language,

674
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,400
when we give up our temper, when we give up our misbehavior,

675
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:51,400
when we give up our feelings of a lack of peace, a lack of rest, a lack of understanding,

676
00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:54,400
when we give up those things, it is a repentance.

677
00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:56,400
We are turning away from you.

678
00:52:56,400 --> 00:53:03,400
Listen to me, you do not want to feel at peace outside of Jesus.

679
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:08,400
If you feel at peace outside of Jesus, you're bound for hell for eternity,

680
00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:12,400
you will burn forever.

681
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:17,400
I didn't say it, the Bible says it, and you will be okay with it.

682
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,400
You'll be like, yep, I'm good, I'm going to hell and I'm fine.

683
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:24,400
No, you're not fine, and where you're going is not fine, and you should not have peace.

684
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:28,400
You get the peace when you repent and turn away from a lifestyle,

685
00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:35,400
a person who was pre-Jesus, and now begin to become a person who is with Jesus,

686
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:38,400
in Jesus, and Jesus is in you.

687
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:42,400
That's the only way to fly from here to where we're going.

688
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:48,400
It is the only way, having found him, rethink everything.

689
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:50,400
Your eyes have to be retrained.

690
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:55,400
Your desires, so you desire to eat, taste food that is good,

691
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:58,400
now your desire for food has to be retrained.

692
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:02,400
Your desire to sleep, your desire for sleep has to be retrained.

693
00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:06,400
Your desire to get your way, your desire to get your way has to be retrained.

694
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:13,400
All of what you are must be day after day, inch after inch,

695
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:19,400
brought in line with who God can make you into.

696
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:25,400
That's where Asa should have gone.

697
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,400
That's where we must go.

698
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:40,400
But the third point, and the problem is that pre-flight checking for your whole life is acceptable.

699
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:42,400
It's okay.

700
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:52,400
It's okay for you to come to church, to sing the songs, to check out your Bible now and then,

701
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,400
maybe sign up for a reading plan and only do a little bit of it here and there,

702
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:59,400
get back to it, maybe go to a Bible study and then get tired of going to a Bible study

703
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:01,400
because it doesn't fit your schedule all that well or it's too much trouble,

704
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:03,400
so you're going to cut that out and maybe you'll add it in again later.

705
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,400
It's okay.

706
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:07,400
It's okay.

707
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:12,400
In fact, you'll be better than most.

708
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:15,400
You probably could judge yourself as better than most if you just remove yourself from the equation

709
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:22,400
and say, yeah, I know the Bible, some, and I know how to live for God, some.

710
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:23,400
I mean, I'm not perfect.

711
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:25,400
Everybody makes mistakes, right?

712
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:27,400
God doesn't make any mistakes.

713
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:35,400
And God says that your daily journey must now be about becoming new.

714
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:39,400
And all old things passing away and all things becoming new.

715
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:46,400
And really, that happened when you got saved and now you're just living it out.

716
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:51,400
And so that part of you, the part of you that you don't like very much,

717
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,400
God doesn't like it either.

718
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:56,400
And he can actually do something about it.

719
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:58,400
Now, that ain't being done.

720
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:04,400
It's not because you're not seeking God.

721
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:06,400
Asa was seeking God.

722
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:09,400
Are you prospering financially?

723
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:13,400
If you're prospering financially, it doesn't have to be because you're saved.

724
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:17,400
It could just simply be because you're seeking God.

725
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:24,400
You're seeking God and so God has provided you rest on the edges of, are you basically honest?

726
00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:29,400
Tell the truth most of the time, almost all the time, all the time?

727
00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:31,400
Won't save you.

728
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:32,400
It's just preflight checks.

729
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:36,400
Just you going, well, there is a God in the universe and I'm going to stand before him one day

730
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,400
and I'm going to be judged, so I've got to get this right.

731
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:39,400
And so you're getting it right.

732
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:41,400
You terrified?

733
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:44,400
If there was a really big man came in your house, put a gun to your head,

734
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:49,400
and he told you to clean up your living room floor or take your garbage out

735
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:57,400
or start recycling to save the world, wouldn't you go, okay, fine?

736
00:56:57,400 --> 00:56:58,400
And he leaves.

737
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:00,400
He takes the gun with him and you're fine.

738
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:02,400
If he comes to your house with a gun, he tells you to start recycling.

739
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,400
From that point on, wouldn't you recycle?

740
00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:06,400
I mean, what if he comes back, right?

741
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:09,400
He sees you not recycling one day and shoots you from the street.

742
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:11,400
You'd be like, I guess I better recycle.

743
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:13,400
That's where people are living.

744
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:17,400
People who have accepted that God is real, they're seeking him,

745
00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:22,400
and they've moved to the front porch and God's like, I'm here, like a little toddler.

746
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,400
I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.

747
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:28,400
And instead of letting God have his way, instead of being born again and starting fresh

748
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:31,400
and letting everything become new, they're still seeking him.

749
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:33,400
And they'll keep right on seeking him.

750
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:34,400
And I've done it.

751
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:37,400
A three-year-old jumps out, I'm here, Daddy, I'm here.

752
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:40,400
And I'll say, no, go hide again, go hide again.

753
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:41,400
I'm still looking for your sister.

754
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:45,400
You've got time, go hide again.

755
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:47,400
Are we doing that to God?

756
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,400
Are we living the preflight checks all the way from now until our physical death,

757
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:53,400
thinking that's what it means to be Christian,

758
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,400
because that is not what it means to be Christian.

759
00:57:56,400 --> 00:57:59,400
If there was anybody who was good at preflight checks, it was Nicodemus.

760
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:02,400
We're in our conclusion now.

761
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:05,400
Fast two days a week, memorize whole books of the Bible,

762
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:12,400
preached sermons across all of the surrounding lands,

763
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:15,400
probably not Samaria because they were pretty ticked off at the Samaritans,

764
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:19,400
so he probably didn't preach in Samaria, but all over the place.

765
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:25,400
And Jesus said, unless you'd be born again, you shall not see the Kingdom of God.

766
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:28,400
This is what I'm afraid of.

767
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:33,400
What I think seriously might be true is that there's a whole bunch of people

768
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:35,400
claiming the name of Jesus.

769
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:41,400
They've sought him just enough to know what he's like.

770
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:44,400
They're even on the stoop of the house,

771
00:58:44,400 --> 00:58:47,400
knowing the hallway is right on the other side of the door,

772
00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:50,400
knowing the flight could begin at any moment.

773
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:55,400
They're even claiming that the flight has begun in many cases.

774
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:59,400
Have you ever wondered why in the world so many people,

775
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,400
even people who claim to be Christians,

776
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:05,400
are actually against people flying with Christ,

777
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:10,400
actually against people stepping outside their box and doing something crazy,

778
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:14,400
doing something godly, something that God would want them to do?

779
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:18,400
Why would anybody that is truly a Christian be against that?

780
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:20,400
They say, now be careful, now be careful.

781
00:59:20,400 --> 00:59:22,400
You're overextending yourself.

782
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:24,400
Don't go so far. Don't give so much. Don't work so hard.

783
00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:26,400
Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes.

784
00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:29,400
Don't let them abuse you or use you or whatever.

785
00:59:29,400 --> 00:59:32,400
Listen, anything you do right up into sacrificing your life,

786
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:34,400
if you truly are doing it for the Lord,

787
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:36,400
God will determine the outcome.

788
00:59:36,400 --> 00:59:41,400
And he'll pay back more than you could ever collect by being careful,

789
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:47,400
by building better walls, by doing less in the Kingdom of God.

790
00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:52,400
I know people that they are careful to make sure that their families are protected,

791
00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:55,400
cared for, bills are paid, everything like that.

792
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:58,400
And then they got all kinds of excuses why they can't stick their neck out

793
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:06,400
or their family's neck out, but then their kids walk away from the Lord.

794
01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:08,400
Because why?

795
01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:12,400
Because the generation that comes after us knows this.

796
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:14,400
They've already figured this out.

797
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:17,400
They don't want to spend their whole life doing pre-flight checks.

798
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:21,400
Either the flight is worth it or it's not.

799
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:28,400
Either we're going to fly with Jesus and be all in all the time 24-7,

800
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:30,400
or it's not.

801
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:33,400
In which case, I'm not going to keep checking off checklists

802
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:35,400
and then just go get another checklist.

803
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:39,400
I'm not going to just keep doing the things that you're telling me I have to do.

804
01:00:39,400 --> 01:00:41,400
Either we're all for Jesus or not.

805
01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:44,400
And what people need is to be born again in the Lord,

806
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:47,400
and then it's a progressive transformation from there.

807
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:50,400
And what is offered? Both.

808
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:52,400
Absolutely both.

809
01:00:52,400 --> 01:01:00,400
Final text of the day, Luke chapter 14.

810
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:04,400
Interestingly enough, there's a very good chance that Luke wrote both the book of Luke

811
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:08,400
and the book of Acts, and so those two accounts were near and dear to his heart,

812
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:14,400
possibly, even as he tells us what Jesus said in the story we're about to read.

813
01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:18,400
Luke 14, beginning verse 27.

814
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:20,400
Jesus is speaking and he says,

815
01:01:20,400 --> 01:01:25,400
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

816
01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:30,400
And they totally knew that that meant be willing to sacrifice your life and be crucified.

817
01:01:30,400 --> 01:01:34,400
So if you're building up your life and you're doing well in Christ,

818
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:36,400
then you're pretty partial to doing well in Christ and stuff.

819
01:01:36,400 --> 01:01:40,400
And then if someone would come and give you the opportunity to be crucified for Jesus,

820
01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:42,400
if you didn't do what God wanted you to do and you're like,

821
01:01:42,400 --> 01:01:45,400
well, I'm not going to get crucified, and I'll draw the line right there and not be crucified,

822
01:01:45,400 --> 01:01:51,400
Jesus says you cannot be his disciple.

823
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:52,400
That's pretty harsh.

824
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:56,400
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

825
01:01:56,400 --> 01:01:58,400
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower,

826
01:01:58,400 --> 01:02:02,400
does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?

827
01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:08,400
Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him.

828
01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:12,400
Do you think that there are a lot of people who think that they moved into the hallway of mere Christianity

829
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:16,400
and now they're being ridiculed as Christians and even Christ himself is being ridiculed

830
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:19,400
because they never moved into the hallway, they just said they did,

831
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:24,400
and now they're back performing pre-flight checks at best,

832
01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:28,400
saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.

833
01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:30,400
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle,

834
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:34,400
will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men

835
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:37,400
to encounter the one who is coming against him with 20,000 men?

836
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:41,400
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to ask terms of peace,

837
01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:47,400
so therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions.

838
01:02:47,400 --> 01:02:51,400
So now it's everything that you own you have to put on the table for Jesus,

839
01:02:51,400 --> 01:02:54,400
and if you're not going to put everything that you own on the table for Jesus,

840
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:57,400
then you cannot be his disciple.

841
01:02:57,400 --> 01:03:03,400
Jesus said, therefore salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless,

842
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:05,400
with what will it be seasoned?

843
01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:07,400
In other words, you're salt to the earth, so you're good as salt,

844
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:10,400
but if you become tasteless salt, what good would you be?

845
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:14,400
If you went back to pre-flight checks after taking off flying

846
01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:18,400
and then you wouldn't get off the pre-flight checks and fly, what good would you be?

847
01:03:18,400 --> 01:03:21,400
It's useless either for the soil or for the manure pile.

848
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:23,400
It's thrown out.

849
01:03:23,400 --> 01:03:26,400
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

850
01:03:26,400 --> 01:03:32,400
The good news is repentance, being born again, and progressive transformation are available.

851
01:03:32,400 --> 01:03:35,400
If you're seeking the Lord includes getting rid of false worship,

852
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:41,400
sacrificing for his name, praying, reading your Bible, giving, being found faithful,

853
01:03:41,400 --> 01:03:44,400
and his reward is peace, rest, success, and life,

854
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:51,400
then there is amongst all of those things an example of discipline put to good use,

855
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:55,400
which ought to lead you to repentance.

856
01:03:55,400 --> 01:04:04,400
And we can see how close Asa got, how close he is getting.

857
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:09,400
But if all these things don't take on new meaning for you,

858
01:04:09,400 --> 01:04:15,400
if praying your Bible doesn't become you and Jesus together learning more,

859
01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:22,400
what to live like, being encouraged, if praising doesn't become you and Jesus praising,

860
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:29,400
and if sacrificing doesn't become you giving up something for the glory of God, and so on,

861
01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:33,400
if all the things that you are doing are just things that you are doing,

862
01:04:33,400 --> 01:04:37,400
and they have not been transformed into things as part of the flight,

863
01:04:37,400 --> 01:04:47,400
then you're going to be in pre-flight checks until you go to hell.

864
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:52,400
But that's not what he wants for us.

865
01:04:52,400 --> 01:04:58,400
In God we know recognizing his greatness and his power,

866
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:02,400
and whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

867
01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:04,400
This is the good news.

868
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,400
Let's say just on an off chance while we've been hearing this sermon today

869
01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:10,400
and we're closing out now that you've been thinking,

870
01:05:10,400 --> 01:05:18,400
you know, I feel like I've been in pre-flight checks instead of actually flying with Jesus.

871
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:23,400
I feel like even after I said I was actually flying with Jesus, I've still been in pre-flight checks.

872
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:28,400
Like I've still been kind of cautious and guarded, or I've still been acting out in my temper,

873
01:05:28,400 --> 01:05:35,400
or I've still been sleeping, living, eating in a way that's not godly,

874
01:05:35,400 --> 01:05:38,400
or I've still been using my mouth in a way that's not godly.

875
01:05:38,400 --> 01:05:40,400
And I feel like maybe I'm just in pre-flight checks.

876
01:05:40,400 --> 01:05:47,400
Then the word offers you this, whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

877
01:05:47,400 --> 01:05:51,400
It does not matter if you've been saved three times before by your own estimation.

878
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:56,400
If you find yourself to not be flying with Jesus now, just say to Jesus,

879
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:58,400
I want nothing more than to fly with you.

880
01:05:58,400 --> 01:06:04,400
If you've actually been seeking him and not inventing your own version of religion, then you know.

881
01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:09,400
If you've actually been seeking him and not inventing your own version of religion,

882
01:06:09,400 --> 01:06:17,400
then you know that he's right here, right now, waiting for you to say,

883
01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:24,400
okay, that's it. He's begging you to truly turn your life over to him.

884
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:29,400
He is that toddler jumping up, here I am, here I am.

885
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:34,400
Except in this case, he's the daddy that you need for the rest of your life.

886
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:38,400
He's the only one outside your fight who can offer any real help.

887
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:43,400
The choices that you have to make, the difficulties that you will face,

888
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:46,400
some of which you will not see coming because they're in the spiritual realm,

889
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:53,400
but if he's there, you win. And if he's not, you lose.

890
01:06:53,400 --> 01:07:02,400
Stop the preflight checks today and say yes to God through his son Jesus Christ.

891
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:05,400
Be born again if that has not already happened.

892
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:16,400
And begin your progressive transformation to become Christ-like if it has already happened.

893
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:20,400
It doesn't matter how good the things of this world look

894
01:07:20,400 --> 01:07:23,400
when you've been separated from God for an eternity.

895
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:26,400
It doesn't matter how good the things of this world look,

896
01:07:26,400 --> 01:07:29,400
how much rest or peace you have on your borders,

897
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:32,400
or if you've built up your life and fortified everything and you think you know,

898
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:37,400
you think you can, you think you will, none of that matters.

899
01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:44,400
If he calls on you and you say no and you're unwilling to fly,

900
01:07:44,400 --> 01:07:47,400
what happened to Lot's wife? She turned into a pillar of salt.

901
01:07:47,400 --> 01:07:50,400
All she did was look back.

902
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:53,400
What will happen to all those people when Jesus says come?

903
01:07:53,400 --> 01:07:56,400
He calls the church to go. And some want to go.

904
01:07:56,400 --> 01:07:59,400
Some are looking forward to it. Some are coming.

905
01:07:59,400 --> 01:08:02,400
They already know it, but others are still in preflight checks.

906
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:05,400
Okay, Jesus, just let me finish the list.

907
01:08:05,400 --> 01:08:09,400
Too late. No, too late.

908
01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:13,400
If you're still in preflight checks when Jesus says fly this earth,

909
01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:19,400
you'll still be in preflight checks after everyone else has flown.

910
01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:23,400
The good news about preflight checks, you fill out enough of them,

911
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:28,400
they'll feed your fireplace or your pot belly stove because they burn real good.

912
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:35,400
And so do the people who fill out the preflight checks but refuse to fly.

913
01:08:35,400 --> 01:08:40,400
I ask the praise team to come forward, or I guess it's Tim, Josh, if you're coming,

914
01:08:40,400 --> 01:08:44,400
and listen to this final song, this is our opportunity to say to God,

915
01:08:44,400 --> 01:08:51,400
okay, I hear you. I hear you put down the check list and walk with you

916
01:08:51,400 --> 01:08:56,400
and let you live and live. I hear you saying that I must be willing

917
01:08:56,400 --> 01:09:03,400
to put all of the things of this life on the altar.

918
01:09:03,400 --> 01:09:09,400
He says, if you will not surrender all that you own, you cannot do my work.

919
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:13,400
I'm not willing to pick up your cross. I'm not willing to die if necessary.

920
01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:15,400
I'm not willing to suffer in whatever way if necessary.

921
01:09:15,400 --> 01:09:18,400
You're not worthy of doing all this stuff. That's the decision you're making when you get saved.

922
01:09:18,400 --> 01:09:22,400
So let's make that decision and fly.

923
01:09:22,400 --> 01:09:25,400
Can you stand with me and sing this song as the Lord has spoken to your heart

924
01:09:25,400 --> 01:09:28,400
and calling on you today to repent of some specific sin

925
01:09:28,400 --> 01:09:33,400
or to give up your preflight checks, repent of your preflight checks and to fly with Him?

926
01:09:33,400 --> 01:09:36,400
Then you come and you tell me what's on your heart today.

927
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:43,400
We'll pray to God together and we'll begin that journey.

928
01:09:43,400 --> 01:09:48,400
When your mind's eyes see God jumping up, I'm right here. I'm right here.

929
01:09:48,400 --> 01:09:51,400
Don't tell Him no. Don't push Him back.

930
01:09:51,400 --> 01:10:07,400
Oh, so fly you weary and troubled, now lie in the darkness you see.

931
01:10:07,400 --> 01:10:21,400
There's life for a look at the Savior and life for a abundant and free.

932
01:10:21,400 --> 01:10:26,400
Come on, you can do it. Call on your heart today.

933
01:10:26,400 --> 01:10:29,400
You're like me. You're walking on the roots of the nation.

934
01:10:29,400 --> 01:10:32,400
Wave to me and say, Pastor, man, that's me.

935
01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:43,400
Remember, fly. Be courageous.

936
01:10:43,400 --> 01:10:48,400
Those things of earth, they are the food, they are the money, they are the safe, they are the relationships.

937
01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:53,400
They are the gods. They are the David's struggles.

938
01:10:53,400 --> 01:11:00,400
They will all grow dim compared to the great blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

939
01:11:00,400 --> 01:11:07,400
Who death into life everlasting.

940
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:35,400
Go you therefore and fly with Jesus.