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Good morning everyone. Happy Sabbath. Happy to see everybody here this morning.

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Let me get my notes together. I apologize if you hear a little bit of nervousness in my voice.

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As I was sitting there in the front pew, my watch goes off.

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I look down and it says that my heart rate is high.

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And it also says it looks like you've been inactive for about 10 minutes.

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So I guess I'm a little nervous. So I apologize.

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As I was putting this sermon together, I was a little nervous about how long this thing was going to be.

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You know, I don't do this. So I was nervous it was going to be too short of a message.

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So I was talking to Grace about it and I told her I was like, I'm nervous this thing is going to be too short.

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But you know, the more I thought about it and I prayed about it, it's not too short. It's going to be efficient.

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So let's start with a word of prayer.

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Dear Lord Heavenly Father, I thank you for this Sabbath day that you've given us.

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I thank you that you've given us this day that we can put our worldly things aside and focus more on you.

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Dear Lord, I ask you that your Holy Spirit be present here today.

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I ask you that you guide me, guide my words and let them be the words that you want me to speak.

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I ask you that my words may be a seed that can be planted in the hearts of those that are hearing them,

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that it may grow into something bigger for you. And in Jesus' name, Amen.

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All right. So here we are. It's the middle of the year. It's summertime. It's warm outside.

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You know, I feel like just a few, I feel like it was just a few weeks ago, a few months ago maybe that I was thinking,

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I wish it was warmer outside. Right. But now I'm thinking, I wish it was a little bit cooler outside.

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Don't get me wrong. I like the warm weather better than I do the cold.

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But it just reminds me how fast time flies. All right.

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So let me ask you guys, since it's the middle of the year,

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how are your 2023 New Year's resolutions coming along?

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No, I see some heads shaking. You know, some people make them, some people don't.

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I do remember back at the beginning of the year, it was New Year, it might have been New Year's Eve,

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Pastor Aaron was up here talking about New Year's resolutions.

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He was talking about how some people said them, some people don't, how maybe difficult to follow through.

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And he gave us some pointers on setting goals for ourselves.

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And if you remember, he said set a SMART goal and he had an acronym for that and he went through it.

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So my question is, you know, how's it going for you guys?

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A little bit of some statistics on New Year's resolutions.

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And you might have heard these before. You can Google them because that's what I did.

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Thirty eight and a half percent of U.S. adults set a New Year's resolution. Thirty eight and a half percent.

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Fifty nine percent of young adults, that's ages 18 to 34.

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I'm a little bit past young adults. I see a yes back there.

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They set New Year's resolutions.

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As you can imagine, 48 percent want to exercise more.

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And the top three are actually all health related things.

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But this is where it's, you know, the data really starts to show itself of how these things go.

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Twenty three percent quit in the first week that they start these things.

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So, you know, January 1st, seven days later, you're done with it.

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It didn't didn't pan out.

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And actually only 36 percent make it past the first month.

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So January comes along. You're gung ho about it.

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February, we forget about it. OK.

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Only nine percent successfully succeed with their New Year's resolution.

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Nine percent of those that that created.

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You know, there's a lot out there that don't create it. I didn't create one.

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So I can't I can say that I didn't fail because I didn't create a New Year's resolution.

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But only nine percent successfully keep their New Year's resolution.

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So, you know, that looking at that data, it tells me that that we, you know, we struggle.

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We struggle with these things. Right.

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So why why do we struggle with New Year's resolutions?

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If we set something for ourselves, why are we struggling to keep this thing?

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Maybe it's it's laziness. You know, that could be it.

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Laziness. Maybe we didn't set the smart goal that that pastor kind of talked to us about.

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Could it be that life is just getting in the way?

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Maybe, you know, your work, you're too concentrated on work and you're prioritizing things.

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Maybe your kids, you're you're you're involved in their extracurricular activities and stuff like that.

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And you kind of put your New Year's resolution to the side.

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Maybe it's a change. Change happened.

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You know, change happens all around us.

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And, you know, that's the title of my message today.

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Change brings new beginnings.

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Maybe you set your goal and and you got a new job.

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And so that that changed the way that that you need to prioritize your time.

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Right. Maybe your your kids need extra help in a certain subject at school.

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And you've got to prioritize your time.

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You're not putting the time into that New Year's resolution that that you set for yourself.

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But but change is hard. Change change can be tough sometimes.

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Right. So, you know, as an industrial engineer, I change is what I do.

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Change is my expertise.

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OK, I look at I look for ways to change things all the time.

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Like it or not, that's that's what that's what I focus on.

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OK, so I know change can be hard and it doesn't matter what type of change it is.

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People struggle with it. It could be good change or it could be bad changes.

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People struggle with change.

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We're creatures of habit and we we don't want something to change things.

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Right. We like the stability.

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Change can be scary and change can be unknown.

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We don't like the unknown.

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We like to see what's coming and prepare ourselves and what not.

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But change is going to happen and it happens all around us.

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There's two types of changes. OK.

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To simplify, there's two types of changes.

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There's the expected change.

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That's the change that we like, right, that we feel more comfortable with.

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We can kind of see it coming.

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We can prepare ourselves and it's going to happen.

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Now, when it happens, we still may feel a bit uncomfortable, but we know it's coming.

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And then there's the unexpected. The unexpected change are the hard ones.

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Those are the ones that that we get emotional about.

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Right. It disrupts everything. We didn't see it coming.

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It changes. Now, it could be a good thing and it could be a bad thing.

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But a lot of the times we just don't feel comfortable with those.

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OK. Those are the hard ones.

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All right.

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An example of a change and some of you may know this story.

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It was it was all over the news. It got popular.

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There was a movie that was put out about it.

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And there's a funny story about that.

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You can ask Grace and I. We tried to get into this movie.

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Ask us later about it.

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So there was about 13 years ago in August, there were 33 Chilean miners.

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OK. They were getting ready for work.

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It was a normal day. They got up, got dressed, got their food packed for the day,

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put their heart got their hard hats with the little lights.

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And they walked out the door to go to the mines to work.

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They loaded on those buses that that take them up to the mines.

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They got up there and they headed down into the mine.

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Now, these mines are huge. And so they headed down.

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It was well over miles and miles down into the into the mine.

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All right. It was a normal day.

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This is what they were used to doing.

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Hard work, but they were used to it.

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They get in there, they start working about lunchtime rolls around and they're

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and they're wrapping up so they can get get together and eat their lunch.

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It's not like they're going to come back up.

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They just gather their stuff and find a place down there and eat their lunch.

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So lunchtime is coming when all of a sudden they hear some rumbling.

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OK. And then they hear this loud explosion.

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And actually what happened was a boulder that was the size of a 45 story building broke loose in the mine, collapsed.

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When it collapsed, it created a an avalanche of rocks falling down.

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OK. Dust filled everything. They couldn't see anything.

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OK. I mean, you can imagine the the what they were feeling.

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Right. And it probably happened really quick.

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But you can just imagine what was going through their minds. Right.

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This is probably the thing that they're all scared most of when they first start going down into the mines.

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As the dust cleared, first thing they realize is we're still alive.

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OK. We're here.

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Then they quickly realized that their way out was now was now blocked.

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They were more than three miles in and that whole three miles was blocked by rubble.

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OK. They could not get out. They couldn't get out.

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So a change happened. Right. Something happened.

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Something that that disrupted their their stability happened.

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OK.

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As word went around the town that that a collapse happened, all the family members rushed to the mine to get answers.

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But there was no answers to be had because there was no communication down in the mines.

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They couldn't communicate down there.

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They had radios and all that. But the collapse took all that out.

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They could they didn't know there was any survivors.

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I mean, a collapse that big, you can only imagine the worst. Right.

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So the families rushed not knowing what had happened.

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The change happened for them. Right.

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Now their lives as they know it has changed.

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And they don't know they don't know what's going to happen to the unknown now showed his face.

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OK. As a matter of fact, it took 17 days before they had any word of the miners.

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Seventeen days as the miners were trapped down below, the officials above started drilling.

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OK. They had no clue that that the miners were alive down there.

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But what they did know is that there was a safety chamber down there and they knew that through their training that that if a collapse or or or something happened, they were trying to get to that safety chamber.

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So that was their goal to to drill down into the safety chamber, see what they could find or what they could see. Right.

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So they start drilling. And it's pretty tough to drill straight in and hit that point because it's so far down.

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But but they had to try. And this was all over in the news.

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They had outfits from all over the world helping in this in this rescue, if you will.

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So as the Chilean miners are down below, they did make it to the safety chamber.

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And in the safety chamber, they had some food set aside and some water.

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Unfortunately, it was only they only had enough food for two to three days.

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OK. So they started rationing this stuff out.

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But they could hear the drilling was happening.

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OK. So they had some hope that maybe they could be rescued.

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After several attempts, they sat and listened after several attempts.

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They could hear the drill coming down and missed the chamber, missed the chamber.

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And as the days went on, 17 days, you got to think they were down there 17 days.

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They didn't have any answers and the people above didn't have any answers.

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But finally, they hit the safety chamber. OK.

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The Chilean miners were ready for this. And so they had written a note.

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And the note said, we're alive. We're in the safety chamber. There's 33 of us.

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Before the drill bits got taken back up, they attached it to the drill bit somehow.

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And it gets up and they see this note. OK.

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And so now they know that the miners are alive and there's 33 of them.

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Then the really hard work starts to take place. They got to figure out how to get them out.

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It took 69 days for them to get these Chilean miners out of the mine.

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69 days. These guys lived down there for 69 days. OK.

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Now, as they drilled the hole, they were able to get them food and whatnot.

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But 69 days, 69 days of change from their everyday life.

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And it really changed their life from here on out.

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Because once they got out, their life was changed forever. OK.

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So although we don't like change, change can happen, just like it did to these Chilean miners.

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Change can happen. OK.

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Now, this was an unexpected change. This was a change that just happened, unfortunately.

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It changed their life.

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I want to talk about another change, though.

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I want to talk about a change that will shape us as Christians forever. OK.

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I want us to turn to Luke in our Bibles.

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And we all know the story. We all know what the Gospels are about, right?

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This is going to focus on the death of Jesus Christ. OK.

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And we all know what that happened, what changed after the death of Jesus Christ.

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But I want to focus on the disciples in that moment, what they went through, and how they handled that event. OK.

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A change was about to happen for the disciples. OK.

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They've been with Jesus for the last three or so years, right?

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Seeing all the things that he was teaching, all the miracles that were happening, right?

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And they were seeing it. They were right there, seeing it for themselves.

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But a change was about to happen. OK.

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But was it an expected change or was it an unexpected change? OK.

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So let's look at chapter 9 verse 22. OK.

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This is Jesus talking to his disciples. This is he's predicting his death to them.

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Chapter 9 verse 22. And he said, The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

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And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. OK.

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If we go on a little bit further, he predicts his death a second time to them. OK.

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Let's look at verse 44. He says, Listen carefully what I'm about to tell you.

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The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. OK.

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Sometimes I read the Bible and I'm trying to get understanding and sometimes I don't understand it.

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Sometimes I don't understand the passages, right? But Jesus is sitting here telling them. It's pretty simple.

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He's like, Look, this is what's going to happen. It's coming. All right.

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But they didn't understand. They didn't understand. Sometimes I wish Jesus was, Hey, this is what's going to happen. All right.

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This is what I want you to understand. And he's there with them and he's telling this.

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And they didn't they didn't understand.

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And they were too afraid to ask. Ask what he meant by it. Right.

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In Sabbath school today, we were talking about the new world and what we're most excited to see or to experience when we're there.

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And we talked about being able to ask Jesus anything and getting full understanding from then on. Right.

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But they were scared to ask. They were scared to ask him, What and what are you talking about? Right.

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See, this change wasn't an unexpected change. This Jesus is telling them, expect this. It's coming.

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But nonetheless, the changes was coming. It was coming. OK.

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So we know the story well. We know what happens. We know what happens.

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Everything that Jesus was telling them comes true. OK.

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Jesus would suffer and be rejected and delivered to the hands of man.

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He'd later be crucified on the cross for you and me.

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And on the third day, just like he told his disciples, he would be raised to life. OK.

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But again, I want to focus on what the disciples went through at that moment when Jesus died.

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OK, the change that they felt at that moment.

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So when Jesus was put to death, the disciples were overcome with sorrow, with discouragement, with fear. Right.

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These are the things that the world puts in our face when things don't go the way we want. OK.

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And the disciples let the weight of that fall on their shoulders.

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They didn't remember what Jesus was told them before. Like, hey, guys, this is what's going to happen.

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They forgot. They didn't remember.

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See, perhaps their worldly hope was that Jesus would become king

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and kick out the Romans that have taken over their country. Right.

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And that's what they were focused on.

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So when Jesus died, that worldly hope went out the window for him.

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And that's what they could. That's all they focused on was that worldly hope. OK.

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Disciples had just spent three or so years with Jesus.

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Like I said, seeing his miracles, learning about the love of God.

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But a change occurred.

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And because of that change, they quickly forgot about those.

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They couldn't remember. They didn't remember what was going on because they were focusing on that worldly hope that they had.

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I like to think of it as the disciples, just as they were overcome with sleep at Gethsemane, they fell into temptation when Jesus died.

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And they needed a wake up call. Right.

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They forgot what Jesus told them. Hey, this is coming. This is coming.

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And they forgot. They forgot what they were taught.

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So they needed a wake up call.

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Like in the mornings when you wake up, how many of you guys set an alarm?

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How many of you guys set three alarms?

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Meaning you snooze the first one, you snooze the second one, and you hope you wake up on the third one.

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Yeah, I see you, Alex.

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I do that too. Right.

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The first one is kind of like a, okay, it's getting close. Turn it off.

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Second one's like, all right, it's coming. And third one's like, get out. Get out of bed.

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Okay. So they needed a wake up call.

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All right. So let's look at what their wake up calls were.

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All right. Stain and Luke was turned to chapter 24.

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All right. This is the third day.

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This is the third day after Jesus died.

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He is raised back to life. Okay.

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And in the morning, the women took spices to the tomb.

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But what did they find?

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They didn't find anything, did they?

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That tomb was open, so they were looking for Jesus.

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They were looking for Jesus.

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But then in Luke, it tells us that two men appeared and gave them what I think was the first wake up call.

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Okay. So Luke 24, verse 6 and 7.

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They say, He is not here. He has risen.

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Remember how He told you while He was still with you in Galilee,

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the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners,

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be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

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First wake up call.

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All right. He's reminding them.

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Look, remember what He said?

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And the women remembered.

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And they went back to tell the others. Okay.

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And they told the other, but what did the others do?

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It tells us they didn't believe what they were saying.

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They didn't believe it.

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How many times does your man, does your wife tell you something and you don't believe it?

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Okay. Just remember that.

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Wake up call number two. So the alarm was snoozed.

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Wake up call number two is coming.

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As two of Jesus' followers were on the road to Emmaus,

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they're discussing what just happened.

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And I can imagine them walking down this road, this big event just happened.

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They're still full of sorrow.

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Maybe they're not understanding.

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Their heads are down. They're kicking a rock down the road.

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And they're sitting there talking between themselves of what just happened. Right.

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But then Jesus appears and starts to walk with them.

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But they don't recognize Jesus.

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And sometimes I think like how do they not recognize Jesus?

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But they didn't recognize him.

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And Jesus asked them, what are you discussing?

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And they said, what do you mean what are we discussing?

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Where have you been?

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Look at this event that just happened.

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Jesus just died. They just crucified Jesus.

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Where have you been?

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And so they go on to explain what happened.

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And then they even tell them that we have found the tomb empty.

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And here's where the second wake up call happens.

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You look at verse 25.

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He said to them, how foolish are you and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken?

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Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

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Second wake up call.

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Now Jesus continues to explain to them what was all said about him in the Scriptures.

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Now remember they don't recognize him.

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They don't recognize him.

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As they're walking, Jesus continues to explain everything about him in the Scriptures.

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Now evening is coming and they tell Jesus, stay with us because it's getting late.

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Break this bread with us.

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And Jesus did break the bread with them.

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As soon as that happened, they realized who that person was, that it was Jesus.

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And then it tells us that Jesus disappeared.

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When they realized it was Jesus, they quickly get back to, they quickly go back to tell the others what just happened.

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So they get back and tell the others.

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And while they're telling the others, wake up call number three happens.

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So as the disciples were gathered and talking, Jesus stood among them and said, peace be with you.

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When he said that, the disciples were shocked and thought this was a ghost.

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This is a ghost talking to us.

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But wake up number three happens.

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Let's look at verse 38 through 39.

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Luke 24 verse 38 through 39.

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So as they're startled and frightened, he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts rise in your minds?

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Look at my hands and my feet.

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It is myself.

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Touch me.

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See a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.

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So he's like, hey, I'm here.

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Touch me.

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Touch me.

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And they still struggle to believe.

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OK.

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But let's let's look down a little bit at verse 44.

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He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.

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Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.

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Verse 45 tells us, then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

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Wake up.

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Call number three happened and they wake up.

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Their focus now becomes on Jesus.

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They now forget about the worldly focus that they have been been going through since Jesus died on the cross.

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And now their focus turns on Jesus.

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They woke up.

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So soon after, Jesus gave his last instructions to the disciples.

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And that brings me to our purpose as Christians.

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If I had to summarize our purpose or a purpose for me as a Christian, I would say one love God.

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Two love one another and three bring people to know God.

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Jesus instructs us to go out and witness about him.

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But with changes that occur every day, we let our worldly things get in the way sometimes of what that purpose may be.

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We because those were we take our eyes and our focus from that purpose.

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And sometimes we forget to love God first.

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And if we forget to love God first, it makes it harder for us to love our neighbor.

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And if we're struggling to love our neighbor, it's going to be even harder for us to go out to witness to our neighbor about God.

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So you can see the trickle effect that that our worldly issues can get in the way of.

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We lose our focus. We lose our focus and it can trickle down.

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Since the disciples encountered that change and they lost focus on Jesus and who he was,

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this allowed the weight of the world to rest on their shoulders and they didn't believe.

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As soon as they put their eyes back on Jesus, their new beginning felt greater and more blessed.

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Changes are going to come our way.

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It's going to come our way no matter what we do, expected or unexpected changes.

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They're going to come our way.

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We're kind of going through that right now at our church.

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Pastor Aaron is leaving us. He's going to seminary.

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We're currently waiting on a new pastor. We're in a transition phase.

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It's a change for us, right?

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But after a change, there's always a new beginning.

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But the new beginnings are going to be full of blessings if we keep our eyes on Jesus.

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Our scripture reading today was Hebrews 12, 2.

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Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneering perfecter of faith.

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For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame,

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and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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See, in my line of work, I continue to look at ways to improve different processes.

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I look at the data, I study it, and I try and figure out how to change it,

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hopefully to improve it. That's my goal.

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But I know personally that when I'm making a change, when a change happens,

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that a decision has to be made, a conscious choice, to face that change straight on.

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And our scripture reading reminds us that Jesus should be our focus when a change occurs.

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See, then it goes on to tell us why.

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Because he's the author and perfecter of our faith.

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He kept his joy, or he kept his focus on the joy that was set before him.

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You know, Pastor Aaron last week was telling us to keep our eyes on the goal, on the end line,

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just a half mile more.

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And this passage can relate to that. Jesus kept his focus on that joy that was set before him.

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And because of that, he endured what was meant on this world to be an execution that brought shame and humiliation.

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But that didn't bother him because he kept his focus where it needed to be.

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So this verse reminds us, yes, we have a goal, but if we keep our focus on Jesus,

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it's going to help us get to that end goal, no matter what changes get thrown our way.

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So keeping our eyes on Jesus as a Christian involves seeking him in everything, in every area of our lives,

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allowing him to guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

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It's a continuous process of growth and transformation.

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As you seek to become more like Jesus Christ.

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I'm sorry, it's a continuous process of growth and transformation.

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As you seek to become more like Jesus Christ.

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It's a new beginning.

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A change happens and it's a new beginning.

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But it's a new beginning in him.

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When we keep our focus on him.

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Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we worship you because you're awesome.

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You know the plans that you have for us and these plans are intended not to harm us.

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We know that changes can come our way and sometimes make our lives a little bit uncomfortable.

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Lord, I pray that in the period of change that you give us the wake up calls to keep our eyes focused on you.

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That we have an opportunity at every change to have a new beginning with you.

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Thank you for always being with us, especially through periods of change.

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Be with us now as we go our separate ways.

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We love you and in Jesus name, Amen.