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I was not given a topic for today, and so I struggled and prayed over that a lot.

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And finally, I settled on this one, you know, strengthen that which remains, and the scripture

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verse that you already heard, how can I help?

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Tell me what do you have in your house?

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And she said, my servant, your servant has nothing at all except a small jar of olive

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oil.

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And when I heard the children's story, I was just smiling because I knew for sure that

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the message that I'm sharing today, God did pick it.

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And I'm just praying that whoever is needed, who needs it, will be blessed by it because

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he knows where it needs to go.

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So bow your heads with me while I pray again and invite God to speak through me.

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Lord, these are your words that you've given me that come from your word, and I offer you

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my mouth and my being so that you can speak through me to this congregation, Lord.

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And I pray that you'll bless each person to hear in the language of their own hearts that

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these words may go forth out of my mouth to accomplish that which you please and prosper

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in the thing where to you send it, and that everyone here may be blessed in the way that

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you intend.

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For I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

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I often wish, you know, I have doctorates and master degree and bachelor's and accomplishments,

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and I often wish I could speak out of my victories and my strengths and my accomplishments and

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my achievements.

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And God seems to have me always speak out of my struggles, out of my weaknesses, out

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of my current failures.

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And so this is not one of those triumphant message of something I learned 25 years ago

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and I've mastered and I have the victory, and I would tell you all how it works.

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This is growing out of very current and real struggle, my message today.

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And what God is speaking to me about in the midst of going through that struggle.

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And so I share this message, Strengthen That Which Remains, because I am learning it in

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the present, in the moment, because of what has happened in my life within the last month

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or two.

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So I'm hopeful that today this message will be a testimony of what 2 Corinthians 4 verse

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7 says, that we have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile

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clay jars containing this great treasure.

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This is to make it clear that our great power is not, is from God and not from ourselves.

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So whatever that comes out of here that may be a blessing, if there's any power of the

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Holy Spirit, is because of him working through this cracked pot to share something of worth

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of his glory.

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And that's my prayer and blessing.

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So on July 14 of this year, this summer, I lost my closest friend.

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And it was a 30 year relationship.

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She had been battling cancer for a year.

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We had gone on a cruise to Alaska.

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The university took some of us who had done some research on a cruise.

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We spent a wonderful time together.

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One of my particular joys was that I could get away with my husband and also that I could

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spend time with my best friend and we did nearly everything together.

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At that point in our journey as friends, we would talk nearly every day, sometimes several

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times in a day.

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And she was that person you could call.

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She was an accountability partner.

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She was the one person who always could understand when others did not.

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She never condemned.

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She was always there.

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And in my mind and in her mind too, she was in a battle with cancer because when she came

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back from that trip, she realized that something was wrong.

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And finally, I was the one that was able to talk to her, talk her into going to the ER

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to see what was happening because she couldn't eat and she wasn't being able to retain, you

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know, hold fluids and like that.

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So I was like, let's just go to the ER, cut things short and find out what's going on.

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And I was there when the doctor came in and said, we found a mass.

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She started on a journey, tried to fight the cancer.

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And I believe that this was a journey she was going to overcome.

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The initial steps, it worked, but it didn't work.

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And they said, well, now we need to try a clinical trial.

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She was in the middle of that.

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She tried several other things and then a clinical trial.

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And then it was like, it all of a sudden goes from over, like the battle, we're fighting

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it to all of a sudden check.

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You have weeks left to live.

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Like they came in one day, she thinks she's in a clinical trial.

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She thinks she's getting a report of how it's going to be.

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And they end up telling her, you're not eligible for this trial to continue it.

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You have weeks left to live.

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We only have palliative care left.

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Your cancer is systemic.

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There's nothing we can do for you.

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And so it's like she goes from check to within five days checkmate and she's gone.

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And I had such a hard time believing it.

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I was stunned by the loss.

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And so I have struggled since then with that loss and many others of her friends have too.

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Her name is Victoria Joyner.

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For those of you who might know her, she was a professor at Oakwood, at Southern, at Oakwood

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and then at Southern.

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She was a radio host for 30 years.

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She was loved and known by many.

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And she was a light and inspiration to so many.

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And many of my friends are struggling with this loss.

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For me, I grew up in isolation due to religious extremism.

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I grew up without association with people.

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I grew up without going to school, being kept at home, being kept away from media and not

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even having electricity and running water and all this because we believed, I came in

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this morning, we're having a message on end times and it was like reminiscent.

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We used to have a lot of messages on end time.

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My father believed that Jesus was coming by such and such a date and there was always

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the date setting.

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And I wore a bonnet and a long dress along with my mother and we were separate from the

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world because we were preparing for Jesus to come and therefore separating from the

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world.

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And I didn't have friends.

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I didn't grow up like that.

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I grew up in isolation.

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And so to have a close friend like this was very meaningful and not much replaces that.

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Not that I don't have a lot of acquaintance friends and associates, but to have a really

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close friend was a rare thing in my life.

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And so this loss was particularly hard.

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Why did I come here today?

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Did I come here today to talk to you about my loss?

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No.

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I come here today to talk to you about the fact that all of us are experiencing or many

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of us are experiencing loss of some kind.

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It may not be the loss of a friend to death like what I'm struggling with, but many of

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you are struggling with loss too.

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It could be the loss of a friend due to a change in relationship or location.

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It could be the loss of a relationship due to a divorce or separation.

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It could be the loss of an ability due to aging or an accident or some change that has

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come in your life.

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I remember the day I woke up going blind in one eye and I ended up finding out within,

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you know, I was hospitalized, this and that when they said it wasn't the eye because it

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turns out it was multiple sclerosis.

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And I've experienced a lot of loss of ability as a result.

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Those changes are difficult to deal with and many of us are dealing with loss.

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And then there's the type of loss that comes from retirement.

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You might be glad to retire, but it can be the loss of a status, a position, a daily

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routine where people recognize you, you have a purpose, something you're accomplishing

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and now the days may seem empty by comparison.

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It could be a loss of something as simple, which is not simple, of a sense of a purpose,

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a sense of a vision, a sense of a direction in life.

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You're just out there floating.

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Life doesn't make any sense anymore.

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That too is a loss.

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And the message that I want to share today is about dealing with loss.

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What God is saying to me in the middle of my dealing with loss, it could be the loss

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of a meaning, hope, a job, whatever it is.

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But is there anyone here that can recognize and raise your hand to testify the fact that

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you either currently are or have recently dealt with a sense of loss?

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Just want to know who I'm talking to.

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Okay, good.

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It's definitely not good that you feel that way, but good that I'm not alone, that you

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also have experiences and know what I'm talking about.

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And so my message today, what loss does is it creates a sense of void, it creates a gap,

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it makes a hole in the side of ourselves.

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There's a vacancy that's unsettling and it hurts.

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It results in a sense of emptiness and neediness, which is unpleasant to feel.

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It can often create a sense of helplessness, which is distressing, and it creates a sense

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of longing that is unsettling.

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We find ourselves saying, God, why did you let me go through this?

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Why did you let this happen to me?

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Well, God doesn't always answer our questions directly, but he does speak to us and help

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us through this.

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And one reason why God allows the loss, the pain, the deficits, the gaps, the holes to

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occur in our life is because as long as we have a need, as long as there's something

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that's making us reach out or driving us to want to reach out, he can reach in and help

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us.

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One of the worst things that was ever pronounced upon a church was the Laodicean Church.

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Remember, they had need of nothing.

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One of the most dangerous places in our life can be when we don't feel the need for anything.

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And loss does open us up to being needy.

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And so what God is now saying to me as I experience this loss, as I move through the grief and

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grapple with the void that's in me, it comes from 2 Kings, chapter 4, verse 2, the words

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of Elisha.

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How can I help?

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And I'm hearing God talking to me.

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How can I help?

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Tell me, what do you have?

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What do you have in your house?

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Remember he came to the widow.

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She had lost her husband.

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She had lost her security and protection in life.

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She was about to lose her freedom and her house.

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She was about to lose her sons.

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She had no protections left.

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And in desperation, she went to the prophet and the prophet said, how can I help?

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Tell me, what do you have in your house?

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There are other examples of this type of thing being posed to individuals.

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It's not obvious, but it's there in scripture.

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In Moses, remember Moses had been the prince of Egypt.

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He had had status and privilege.

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He had had an adopted family.

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He also had a birth family that he was beginning to connect with.

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He had his Egyptian people that he knew and he was beginning to connect with his own people.

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And then in a moment of passion, he acted in rage, killed someone, and he ends up losing

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all of that.

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He's a fugitive out in the desert.

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He ends up in Midian raising sheep for 40 years.

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And yes, he gets a wife and a family and so forth.

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But I can only imagine his life felt empty and purposeless, his vision gone, him feeling

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like God had forgotten him.

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And yet God came to him one day and called him from the burning bush.

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And he didn't focus on what Moses didn't have.

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Instead, God said to him, Moses, what is in your hand?

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Once again, what do you have?

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What's in your hand?

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And then there's a story of Esther.

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You may look at Esther.

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I know I did as a child.

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Oh, Esther was a queen.

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She was like, oh, this celebrity was able to.

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I want to be a queen.

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I can tell you one thing.

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I never want to be a queen like Esther.

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Imagine where you have no choice over who you marry.

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You have no, the romance is not there.

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If you read the scripture about how that went down, it's not the story that we were told

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that she paraded in front of him and he said out of all those women, oh, she's the most

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beautiful.

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Read the story again.

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It's an X-rated story.

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It didn't happen like that.

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She didn't get to choose, leading up to that, she didn't even get to choose her bath soaps

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and her perfumes.

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Ladies, how many of you would like someone to decide what you're going to wear, what

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scents you're going to put on, what clothes?

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None of us would want that.

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And then she's married.

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He picks her.

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Wow, big deal.

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She can't even see her own husband.

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Okay?

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And testified by the fact when the call came to her, she said, it's been 30 days and I

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haven't seen her.

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In other words, Esther had lost her home.

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She had already lost her parents.

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She had lost her home with Mordecai.

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She had lost her freedom.

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She had lost her independence.

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She had lost her control over life.

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And she had lost this great king of a husband that she supposedly had because she couldn't

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even see him.

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Lost, lost, lost.

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And that indication of how helpless she felt is reflected in her words back to Mordecai

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when he told her what was happening.

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She basically said, there's nothing I can do.

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You know, I'm a pretty prop in the kingdom.

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I can't do anything.

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And what came back as the answer, Mordecai's words challenged her to consider the one thing

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she still had, which was a choice.

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What do you have?

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You are there.

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You have a position.

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You have a choice.

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Yes, you can't control the outcome, but you still have that.

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And she accepted the challenge and decided to go before the king.

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And we know the outcome, but she didn't know when she went, whether that scepter would

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be extended or not.

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Another example I want to point out is Ruth.

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In the book of Ruth, Ruth had lost her husband.

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She had lost her family.

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She lost her sister, her country, everything that was familiar to her because she decided

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to go with her mother-in-law who had also lost everything.

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It was finally returning back to her home country.

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Naomi, in the story, the book of Ruth, if you go back and read it, from beginning to

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almost the very end, Naomi mourns throughout that book what she doesn't have.

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Her words are about what the Almighty has done, what he has taken from her, what she

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does not have.

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When you read that book, everything Esther says focuses on what she does.

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Your people will be my people.

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Your God will be my God.

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Where you go, I will go.

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In other words, I have one thing left, and that's you, and you're my connection to God.

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And when she got to that country, instead of sitting in the house like Naomi did, she

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got out there and she picked up sticks, wheat, gleaned the fields to support her and her

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mother-in-law because that was the one thing she had left to do.

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That's why I love the story of the grasshoppers.

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Everything gone and they collect the grasshoppers.

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I just like it.

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Lord Jesus, thank you.

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What do you have?

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In the middle of your loss, God is coming to you and saying, but what do you have?

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What is in your house?

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What is left in your hand that I have provided for you?

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Is God saying that I didn't experience a loss, that I don't need to grieve, that I have no

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reason to feel empty, heartbroken, lost, confused, hurt, unsettled?

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No, he's not saying anything like that, but he does have a blessing for those who experience

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loss.

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He says in Matthew 5, verse 4, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

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And when God's blessings rest in our lives, even the worst things can become a victory.

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So what I hear him saying is this, and this is from Revelation, verse 2, and this is the

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title of our message.

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It says in the Berean Standard Version, wake up and strengthen what remains, which is about

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to die.

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For I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of my God.

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Or in the New Living Translation, it says, wake up, strengthen what remains and is about

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to do.

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For I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

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And what I hear God telling me is that you are still alive.

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You are not finished.

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Your work is not done.

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Your battle is not over.

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Your victory has not yet been won.

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You still have something to finish, Rachel, that I've called you to.

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You have your grandchildren to raise.

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You have another book to write.

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You have a job.

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And I know all that factually, but when you're in the midst of loss, sometimes it doesn't

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feel the same as what the facts are that you know.

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And God is saying to me, and I'm sharing on to you, that we are to hear God saying to

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us in the midst of what we don't have, what do you have left?

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What is in your hand?

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What is it that I have left you with?

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What is in your house?

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Loss and grief and loss can cause us to feel dissatisfied with what we have left.

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I've had that.

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I've always had that.

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But now I've lost something that meant so much to me.

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That marriage that I thought was going to work, it's gone now.

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And it meant everything to me.

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I thought, put everything into it.

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I thought, sure, it was going to succeed and it's over.

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And God is saying, yes, I know that you feel dissatisfied with whatever's left.

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It looks empty.

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It looks gray.

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It looks out at the world and it's just like nothing left.

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It feels like that.

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But I want you to know you still have me left.

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And there's also something else that I've left you with, whether it's a pot in your

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house or a staff in your hand or a choice that you can make.

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But there is something that I have left with you that you can use as a point in which your

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faith engages with what I've given you so that you can move forward with me.

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Strengthen what remains.

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Don't cling to what's left, but strengthen what's left.

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And there is a difference.

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Sometimes when we experience loss, we find ourselves clinging to what's left.

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Oh, I got to hold on to this child, this relationship, this picture, this love, this little bit I

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have because I'm going to lose that too.

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And so I'm hanging on to it, lest tomorrow it's gone too.

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You got to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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Don't cling to what's left.

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Strengthen what remains.

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Strengthen what remains.

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Assess what you have and then choose to maximize that.

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Choose to enhance that.

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Choose to strengthen that.

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Choose to build that.

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Don't hang on to it as if it is your God because it is not.

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I am your God, but I have left you with something to strengthen.

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And why?

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What's the reason?

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Because your work isn't finished.

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Your story isn't over.

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I have left you with something by which you can finish the journey that I have given to

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you.

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In fact, because you have me, you actually have everything because I'm the source of

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everything.

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Remember Job?

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He lost.

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I'm not going to even ask you who's gone through a Job experience because whatever you've gone

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through, I don't think it compares quite to what Job went through in that one day.

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And then within a week, I guess, even losing his body, control of his body, sickness and

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everything breaking out all over him.

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Very few, if any of us, have ever gone through the degree, magnitude, and momentum of loss

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that Job went through.

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And yet after that was over, no, God didn't raise his sons and daughters and his servants

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and cattle back to life.

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He did not do that.

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But he ended up giving him a sevenfold what he had before.

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And what that implies is even though that relationship that he had that is now gone,

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God gave him new relationships with which he could still find joy.

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Okay?

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God still restores.

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There is in Ezekiel, where Ezekiel in the vision, he had nothing but a valley full of bones,

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dry, broken, empty bones.

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It doesn't get worse than that.

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And the question was posed to him, son of man, can these bones live?

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Everything's gone now.

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There's nothing but bones.

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And he said, I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know.

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Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word

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of the Lord.

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This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones.

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I will make breath enter you and you will come to life.

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So I prophesied.

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He did the one thing that remained, which was to speak the prophecy God gave him, right?

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I prophesied as he commanded me and they lived and stood upon their feet in exceeding great

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army.

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Verse 10.

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One other example I want to bring to you is that in Haggai, verse 2, chapter 2, it talks

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about the older men who were standing there looking at the new temple that had been built

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and after Solomon's temple had been destroyed and the Jews had been taken into captivity.

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And then later they came back under Nehemiah and they tried to rebuild the wall and later

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the temple.

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And so they're looking at this new structure and it pales in comparison to the previous

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one, right?

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And so some of the new ones are looking and they're shedding tears because what they have

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now does not in any way compare to or reflect what they had.

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And yet the Lord said, the glory of this latter house will be greater than the former, says

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the Lords of Hosts, for in this place I will give peace.

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Why did he say that?

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Because in that latter temple Jesus came to walk.

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Jesus healed the sick.

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Jesus cleansed that temple.

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And the former temple in all its splendor did not have the creator of the universe walking

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in its midst.

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So no matter what you have left, no matter what it looks like, when we have God, we have

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the source of all that gives us joy, all that gives us completion, all that gives us satisfaction.

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Every relationship is unique and nothing can replace it, but fulfillment and joy are in

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God, not in what we had in what we lost, whether it's relationships or possessions.

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And if God, and God still has joy, friendship, love and fulfillment for you, even though

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that may seem impossible, may be completely different from what you had, but he still

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has something for you.

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God hasn't died and he is the source of all that is perfect, good and beautiful.

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God can give you what you need now, even though it may be different than before.

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Isaiah 61 verse says, console those who mourn in Zion and the goal is to give them beauty

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00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:32,320
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness

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that he may be glorified.

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In closing, this morning a friend of mine who's a counselor sent me this and he was

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telling me how in counseling, one of the reasons why people have so many problems is they're

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focusing either on the past or on the future.

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They're either mourning over what they've lost and regretting the mistakes of the past

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or they're feeling anxious about the future.

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And he sent this to me to read, not to read, but I decided to read it.

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I was regretting the past and fearing the future.

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Suddenly my Lord was speaking.

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My name is, I am.

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He paused.

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I waited.

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He continued, when you live in the past with its mistakes and its regrets and I'll say

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with its losses, it is hard.

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I am not there.

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My name is not, I was.

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When you live in the future with its problems and its fears, its emptiness, what you don't

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have, its lack, I am not there.

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My name is not, I will be.

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When you live in this moment, it is not hard.

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I am here.

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My name is, I am.

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God is telling me that he is still here, that he is still the joy and the strength of my

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life.

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Words of a favorite song.

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He moves all pain, misery, and strife.

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He promised to keep me, never to leave me.

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He'll never, never come short of his word.

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I've got to fast and pray, stay in the narrow way, keep my life clean every day.

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I want to go with him when he comes back.

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00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,880
I've come so far and I'll never turn back.

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00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:09,520
God is, God is, God is my all and all.

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00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,480
So my appeal is this.

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00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,160
Have you experienced loss?

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Do you feel the void and the emptiness?

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00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,200
Are you struggling with that and maybe asking God what comes next?

440
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,760
My question to you is what remains?

441
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:30,440
What has God left you with that you can still use, that you can take, that you can grasp

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00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:38,240
a hold of and as your symbol of faith and trust in the one who is everything, move forward.

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00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:43,080
I have found in my life repeatedly that I've come to obstacles and limitations, stopping

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00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,920
points where I can't move forward.

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00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:51,160
And God always helps me to realize that he has one step, if nothing else, there's always

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00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:57,560
like one step, one thing that I can do.

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00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,600
One thing that I may not even want to look at but that's left that I can take a hold

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of and do something with.

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00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:09,280
My question to you this morning is if you've lost, if you're empty, if you're struggling,

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00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:14,160
what's that one thing that he's left with you, even if you've turned your mind and heart

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00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:21,240
away from it, what is it that remains that he's calling you today to strengthen?

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00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:26,760
I'm not a pastor and I don't do calls to the altar, but I am going to invite you, if you've

453
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:32,680
heard God speaking to you today, if you hear in the words that have come to you something

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00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:38,280
of a call of God to your heart, and I just want to invite you to stand with me as I,

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00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:39,720
can I offer the closing prayer?

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00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,840
As I offer a closing prayer, I do want to invite you to have a stand with me.

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Don't feel like you need to stand, but this is just if God has spoken to you.

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Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to us in the midst of our grief and suffering.

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Thank you for promising to comfort those who mourn.

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00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,840
Thank you for the promise that you would give beauty for ashes and the spirit of praise

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in place of the garment of heaviness.

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And thank you for challenging us to look beyond what we have lost, to ask ourselves what remains

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and help us to see that with the eyes of faith.

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May the former, may the latter glory, the latter joys, the latter blessings that you

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still have for us be greater than that which was before.

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Not because we haven't lost something valuable, not because we don't hurt, but because you

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00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:35,440
are the source of our joy and the beginning of all that matters and the end in the middle.

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And you are God who is and we are thankful that we know you.

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In Jesus' name, amen.