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Thank you so much. How's it going everyone? Good morning. Well, my name is Chris Britton

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and it's always a pleasure to get the opportunity to just break open God's Word. And I'm excited

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because it's week two of our exciting series, Topographical. All right, Topographical.

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And in the sermon I will reveal a, you know, because when we come up with some of the names

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for these, Greg or somebody will introduce some, like we actually think about this stuff, y'all,

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but we'll be like, what about this name? What about this name? What about this name?

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But I'll tell you, Pastor Jen, there was a name I didn't put out there, but I'm going to reveal

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it to you all. But I knew it wouldn't make the list. Well, some of those things. But this series

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is all about exploring some of the fascinating places that are mentioned in the Bible.

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And we're going to uncover not just, you know, where they're at and show you some maps just for

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the fun of it to take you back to a geography class. But we're going to dive into some of the

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stories in those locations, some of the things that went down there. And hopefully what will

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happen is that you'll discover how they still hold meaning for us today. They're not just stories,

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but we can learn because sometimes location doesn't matter. Location matters when you respond to some

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things. There's in my classroom a lot of times, you know, I work at an alternative school with

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students and a lot of students don't just wake up and say, I want to go to alternative school

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one day. So in the classroom at the beginning of the school year, I'm like, yo, we don't have to

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front. Like you're at this location for a reason, but I'm not going to beat your head over every

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single day. But does you, so I start off my semester, my semester sometimes and I ask a question,

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does where you're at determine how you end up? And a lot of them say, no, no, no. And I'm like,

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so you understand going into this school year because you're here doesn't determine how it has

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to be here for you. It doesn't mean that you have to fit all the stereotypes because you're at an

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alternative school. And I say, what do you, because you're at this location, what do people think of

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you? Like, oh, we're stupid. We just fight. We do this blah, blah, blah. Are some of the things true

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that have happened? They'd be like, well, yeah. But does that mean because you're at this location,

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it still has to continue that way. So location matters how we respond to some things. It matters

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how we respond to some questions that we might be asked. If you're at a birthday party with somebody

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and somebody asks you a specific question versus if you're just at home and someone asks you through

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a text, a lot of times you might feel a little bit more comfortable answering with a text.

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Or not even responding to the text. Amen. So location matters. Location and proximity matter.

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But one of the cool things about your pastoral staff here, I've never said that, but

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we've all had the opportunity individually to be at some of these biblical places. Some of this

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through travel and some of it through master's degree programs. But as we talked about it,

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going into this series, we were just excited to be able to pinpoint some of the places that we've

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been at and unpack some of those things collectively with our church. So again, I mentioned this before,

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but we live in a day and age where people don't just have to respond to one another face to face.

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Back in the day, you just had the option of a phone call if you could reach them, if they were

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right there where the phone was connected and plugged into the wall into some of these old

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houses your kids might be like, what is that box underground for? What is that? Can I hook my Xbox

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to that thing? But now we have the opportunity to have what some would say Twitter fingers.

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We can respond on social media to things. We can be like as crazy as we want to be sometimes,

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or we can just feel empowered because we're not face to face. Right? But because of that, there's

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some funny things that happen sometimes. Like there's companies that get involved in some of

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this online bickering, like Burger King versus McDonald's at one time. Burger King tweeted,

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we flame grill our burgers. Can't beat that smoky taste. McDonald's response, our burgers speak for

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themselves. No flame grilling necessary. I don't know about that comeback, but that was their

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their clap back. Tesla and Porsche. Tesla said electric cars are the future. Get on board.

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Porsche response, we've been going fast for decades, electrifying the present. Classy comeback.

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Some of y'all will appreciate this one. Taco Bell had some beef, no pun intended, with Chipotle.

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Taco Bell was feeling feisty one day to start this, to start it off. We've got the crunchiest

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tacos in town. You can't resist. Chipotle, we are all about fresh ingredients and real flavors.

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No compromises, or I would have put no porta potties needed, you know, to get our stuff. But I know

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some people are like, I really like Taco Bell. But in life, right, sometimes we do not have that

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luxury to respond in that way. We might be faced with things that we have to face head on. And we

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don't have time to think of a clever tweet. We won't have time to think of like, ooh, and edit

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to our liking. You know, because now we can sit on it for a whole day and come back to it and be

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like, yeah, it's time to post it now. But what happens in life when you have these circumstances

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that are difficult that you have to make quick decisions that you have to, and where you're at

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in proximity to the people and the people that are around you. Sometimes you want to, you feel like

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who wants to be a millionaire when you're just like, can I make a phone call real quick?

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You know, you want to tap into some lifelines, but what if you just have to make a decision?

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That is big. Well, today we're going to focus on two places. And anybody ever heard of a guy

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named David in the Bible? Sweetie. Yep. He's like, yeah, that's my boy. But we're going to focus on

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two places where David, he kind of had to make some quick decisions about what he was going to do.

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And the first one is very familiar. The second one, sometimes not so much familiar, but the first

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one, there's tons of coloring books and messages about all this stuff and all that, you know,

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facing your giants, plenty of things like that. That's the title of my message. No, it's not. I

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would never do that. But David was a young lad. And as he was a young, budding leader, he made

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a quick enemy of King Saul. King Saul did not enjoy David. And we're going to talk about what

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that led to in the showdown at a place called the NGetty. Can y'all say NGetty? NGetty. It's just fun

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to say. But the first place that we'll go to, we'll show the first slide, please. Boom, boom.

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We are here. But so Israel, right at the tip of that red arrow, there's a lot of action that

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took place in that little small slice of pizza. A lot of stuff that we read about things of that

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nature went down there. And that's where we'll find, you know, David, young David being obedient

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to his father and his brothers were at war with King Saul. And there was some drama going down.

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And David happened to be kind of just delivering his brother some food. And he made a decision

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to get with the business that day. Meaning like he felt kind of frisky. He needed to get and

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engage the drama in a way where he was victorious. We'll go to the next slide, please. And yeah,

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I know we got kids in the building. So we just put a sad face right there. But I was, I was there.

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I'm not holding what young David was holding. I just hold my bottle of water, which is very

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important when you're out there. But you can't really see it. But we, on one of the first days

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when my cohort for the master's program, we hiked up, that looks like I'm, this doesn't look like

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I'm tired at all. But I really was rejoicing that I had water left for the way down. And it was our

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first day. And we went on this hike. And when you're, when you're on one of these kind of

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excursions, you know, you're trying to soak up everything that you can. And I called my professor

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at the time, I call him Indiana Jones, because he was so excited to show us everything, which was

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cool. But when you got to walk everywhere like that, your body's like, this ain't cool. So you're

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itching to go to all of these places. But it's like, it's just around the corner. You know,

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people say it's just around the corner. It's not really around the corner. It is around the corner,

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but it's not really around the corner. So in the upper right, you'll see that this, this stream

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went through. And the stream went through and there was this valley there. Later on, actually,

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when we were up there, they had discovered some ruins of a little place that David had built

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later on in his life when he was king, that would overlook this battleground where he was victorious.

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You know, when you're a king, you can do some things like that. Yeah, can I have a place where

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it's a reminder of the good things that had happened in his life? So anyway, there's this

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valley that this big showdown had took place. And we'll go to the next slide, please.

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And I actually took these photos, I didn't know what I was doing. And my camera was like

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overheating like crazy. So I just was trying to take some pictures. But where that big stone is,

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that actually it was very dry there. But that was the stream that ran through where David would have

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been able to go down and take some of those rocks. I smuggled some rocks on too. But as you hear the

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story sometimes you hear about King Saul's army hiding. So I was looking, where would I hide if I

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was here? And I looked around and I saw these bushes up there. I was like, I would be hiding

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I would be hiding up there. Right? All right, you is kind of like a bowl, if you will. So you could,

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you could definitely the pictures doesn't give the size of the shrubs and stuff. But you can see some

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foot trails up there, where it would have been a group of people that would have been able to hide

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that way. So King David, I'm sorry, as Dave young David was delivering some food to his brothers,

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he heard Goliath right there in that middle valley. And he did the whole famous David versus Goliath

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thing. David got the stone. And he did the thing and killed, you know, unlife Goliath and took him

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out. Now as a result of that, you would think that the king would be happy.

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But the thing King Saul was not says Saul has killed people made mixtapes about it. Well,

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there was a song that the people would sing. And people would say, Saul has killed his thousands.

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And David, his 10,000s. It's a really catchy hook to this Bible verse. You can hear the song right

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now. Saul has killed his thousands and David his 10,000s in the scripture saying first Samuel

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8, this made Saul very angry. So Saul went straight to Twitter.

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Actually, he didn't. He just hated him and he let it be known. He really did let it be known.

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We'll go to the next slide, please.

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And if you can look up there, you see, and this isn't how I can say like I was really

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there just because my picture is on there. But I put like, oh, you were there. But I am in the

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location where the battle would have taken place. And like most of us, if there was a king after us

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with the whole army, what would you do? Y'all seen the new Flash movie? You know, you get out of it.

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So David had a nice little following right now. You know, comparatively, King Saul and, you know,

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I don't know, David might have had more followers than King Saul at the time and stuff like that.

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He was getting more popular. But David had a group of people as well and they retreated to this place

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called the En Gedi. If you go to the next slide, please. And it's worth noting, I know Pastor Jan

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mentioned it before, sometimes when we read these scriptures, we can go from one verse to the next

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verse. And it sounds so easy, like it's just around the corner. But from being over there

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experiencing the heat and the terrain and the ruggedness, you have to be pretty disciplined,

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you have to be pretty self-conscious. And you have to take care of yourself to get around to these

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places. So David retreated to the En Gedi. And if you can see that, the white water junction,

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that body of water right there, there's actually no white water junction. It's the Dead Sea. Why

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do they call it the Dead Sea? It's not even a joke. There's nothing that can live in there.

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You're like, why? What's that? It's so salty and it hurts when you get in there too.

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You know how salt heals wounds and stuff? So imagine like a deeper concentrate of salt and

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you just have a paper cut and you're like, let me go into the Dead Sea. And you're like, ah!

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So somebody joked when we got in there that was like, hey man, it's gonna hurt you, man.

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Any kind of open thing that you got? And I'm like, man, I don't got nothing. And yeah,

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you go in there and it... Yeah, you find out. Your body's like here, here, here, and then other

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places. But because of the salty concentration, it kind of just lifts you up. Somebody said, hey man,

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just let it be a lazy boy and it'll recline you. And I did it. And you're just like, this is so

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cool. But then when your head gets back, you automatically want to... And then it gets in

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your eye. That's a whole nother sermon right there. So we had someone that... There's always

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some people that just, for whatever reason, they don't want to listen to the locals.

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And they was trying to splashy swim and they couldn't really swim. And they didn't really

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want to do the lazy boy recliner thing. And they tried to fight it and turn. And then their head

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went in to the thing and some of the locals just backed away. Later on, I said, why you back away?

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They was like, because all that stuff was gonna get in our face. We wasn't even gonna be able

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to see and help her. So I went in, because I grew up off Baywatch and... The Dead Sea edition.

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But the Dead Sea, there was a person that wrote about that area in that region,

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in the Enghetti. And this is what they had to say about it. There's a blogger named Wayne Stiles.

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He said, ancient travelers who made their way along the shores of the Dead Sea would no doubt

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shake their heads when they saw it. Because most likely they'd ask, how could so much water stand

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in such a barren place and none of it be drinkable? Before the obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah,

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the Jordan Valley looked like the garden of the Lord, says Genesis 13 10. But afterwards,

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even the many springs that bubbled beside the Dead Sea tasted too salty to swallow.

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The plentiful waters gave nothing in the way of sustenance. They only offered a spiritual

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prompt of the need to take God seriously. And against this kind of depressing backdrop

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of death and desperation flows the Enghetti. The Enghetti is over there. And in all honesty,

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like exaggeration fails to describe the relief, if you're in that place, the relief that the

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Enghetti would have given to the weary traveler. And even today, the Oasis offers refreshment for

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the locals and tourists like us. I had a video to show, it wasn't happy with me. But you can go to

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the next slide, please. So a big question is, why did David go from a fearless warrior to becoming

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a professional in the hide and seek? He was trying to be a professional in the hide and seek. He was

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trying not to be found. He was out of there. He was like, I did that thing, but now I'm out of here.

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Come find me. You know what I mean? So it's kind of funny because you hear about the heroics of

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David, but this kind of begs a question where we see David and what if retreat is stronger than your

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gut response? What if everything doesn't get handled in the way where you kill something

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and say, look, and what if David showed an alternative way to get to a place where he needed to be so he

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can be refreshed, figure things out before he tried to respond to this situation? And he actually let

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the situation come to him. But as we were tourists, and you can go to the next slide, please, as

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tourists on this, this is a picture that I took because the Engedi was not on our trip plan.

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And I want to be honest with you, and the video would have showed this. I'm kind of glad it didn't

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work. Very revealing because I was upset when I was taking the video. We had just spent time at

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the Dead Sea, and we was out there. And really the rule of thumb was we're going to get up very early.

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We'll go on our bus. And we had to be very just like when he opens the bus door, say, let's go.

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Let's get to the place, do what we got to do. And after like noon, you want to eat and go to

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and just chill for the rest of the time. And we'll talk about it. We'll do our homework and stuff

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like that. But we didn't want to be out there at 1 o'clock or 2 or 3. So it was about that time.

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In Indiana Jones, he said, oh, I know this isn't on there, but how many of you want to go to the

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Engedi? And I was just like, man, my Bible knowledge was like, I don't even know where that's at, bro.

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Like, let's keep going. And there was people that were like, oh, the Engedi, the Engedi.

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And he called the audible and he said, hey, he was talking to the bus driver. And then I realized

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that we're pulling into the Engedi. So he says, hey, if you guys don't want to go, it's probably

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it's around the corner. We're going to go see this waterfall. It's around the corner.

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It's about a 30 minute walk, just 30 minutes walk. So I'm not very good at math, but I was like,

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dang, 30 that way and then 30 back. And I know we're going to stay there and probably do a Bible

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study and pray or something. And then I do that. So I'm factoring like 30, 30, 30,

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hour and a half out there with me. I'm like, I'm cool. I'm staying on here. And I was trying to

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be like a leader to see if people follow people that follow Chris Britton that day. They follow

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Indiana Jones. So I'm on the bus. Somebody say, hey, you coming, man? And I was like, all right,

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let me let me go out here with my bad attitude. So I grabbed my camera and I'm in the back and

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I'm just taking the pictures. So I'm taking the pictures because I'm kind of mad that my group was

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way up there. They was leaving me. And I'm like, they don't even care. I'm out here. Something

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could happen to me. I'm tired. And then my camera was like overheating. I never knew it even had

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that the words on the screen like that. It just was hot. It was like going off. So I was I tucked

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it under my arm. And I'm just like, then you sometimes you go and you get to that point of no

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return where it's like, I don't know where I'm at. If I turn around, I don't even know if the bus

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is still there. So I got to catch these fools going up this thing. And every time we just kept

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going up and I turn around the corner, they're going up and I'm running out of water.

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When people say waterfall, you can go to the next slide, please.

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You say waterfall. I don't do no justice, but just sometimes to look at these. But in this picture,

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I like it the most because it kind of show you some of the depths of where we were going to a

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little bit as you look at the pictures. So our tour bus went in and that big circle was like,

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you know, they make some things touristy. They had a snack shop right down there. But then it says

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like, you're kind of on your own when you start walking after this gate. And in there, we all

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these little twists and turns until you end up in where that red circle is that you go to the next

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slide, please. Now, in the video, you hear me saying like, why do we keep passing these little

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waterfalls? Why I thought I was like, man, it seemed like he was going to take us swimming at

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first because I'm like, I can hear water. And every time I turn the corner, I hear water, I'd be

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excited. But there'd be tourists and kids playing in there happy. And then I will look up and

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Indiana Jones is still walking higher. And I'm like, what? So we keep going up and up and up.

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So the picture on the top left is like these little kids are having so much fun. And I just wanted to

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be like, hey, y'all, like, let me come down there and just hang out with y'all. But they kept going

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until that picture right under the scripture, first Samuel 2329 says David hid in the cave

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at the end Getty when running from Saul. So I'm going up, I finally catch up to one of the

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professors that was towards the back. He asked me if I was okay. I think I lied and say, yeah, I'm

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good. And but this fresh mist was blowing. And I'm like, man, what's around this corner, man? He was

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like, this is where we're trying to take you guys. And it was like a Disney movie when I turned the

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corner. I literally felt like the birds were singing to me. They were everything was so beautiful.

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There was birds flying in and out of the cave. And there was kids playing in this big mist that

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just filled this whole place. You were like in this refreshing place. And along the sides of it

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under the waterfalls, you see little divots. And I was like, I'm not going in there, but

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this is cool because I could see how David obviously would have tried to follow this water

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flow because that's the only thing that was given life out there. And over and over, if you've seen

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the video, I've say it too much. But at that location, it makes sense. I kept saying like,

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oh, I need this living water, the living water. I understand why if Jesus said I have this living

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water, water really meant something. It was life. It gave life. My head was throbbing when I got up

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there. And there was a video that I put in there and they have this waterfall. And then they have

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this chain. I think it says don't cross this line. I couldn't read it. It says don't cross this line.

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I couldn't read it though. So I stepped over it and I went under the waterfall for just a moment.

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And I'm not making this up just for today. It's because we in church nothing. But after about 10

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minutes, my headache went away. I felt totally refreshed. I was soaking wet and dry by the time

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I got back to the bus. However, on the way down, I experienced this peace like all this water

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and all this grumbling I did up here. And I felt like I was on this journey where David reached

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this place where he spent some time with God there. He was refreshed. So when King Saul picked up the

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GPS and found out where he was and sent people, and we'll go to sorry about that. I'll read this

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very quickly. But this is what happened. David gets into this situation that's kind of goofy.

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But check this out. So when Saul returned from following the Philistines,

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he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of the En Gedi. Somebody dropped his location.

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Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all of Israel to go seek David. Saul didn't, he didn't like them.

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If somebody say 3,000 people for you, Chris, you're a bad man. 3,000? 3,000 people. It says,

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now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him,

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here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand,

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and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose and I'll skip the little

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part. Well, King Saul goes into one of the caves. They ended up going up there, and I'm guessing,

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and when you go there and you look at all the vegetation, you look at all the green,

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you know there's a path of water. You're going to know. People are like, how do they know David

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was up there? David's going to be where the water's at. So they're figuring that David's not going to

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be out at the Dead Sea. We're going to keep following this thing up until we find him.

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So funny thing that happens is King Saul and his men, they go up there, and then King Saul

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needs a porta potty. He had Taco Bell or something. But King Saul goes into the cave that David and

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his boys were hiding at, and the Bible cutely says to relieve himself. And David's guys are like,

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yo, this is time, bro. Like, look at this. God just gave them to you right on the toilet.

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That's a good God. And David says he stealthily went and cut the corner of Saul's robe off. Go

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to the next slide, please. 1 Samuel 24, Saul entered to the cave where David and his men were

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hiding, and David cut off part of Saul's robe while Saul relieved himself. That is a real scripture.

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That's a good memory verse for the kids. He cuts off part of the robe. Why would he do that?

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And we see

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all of David's guys was probably stunned, but afterwards David's, after David had struck him,

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he cut off his robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this

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to my Lord, lowercase l, I should point that out, the capital L, Lord's anointed,

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to put my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men

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with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up, that's funny,

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and left the cave and went on his way. And afterwards, see the story could have ended

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right here and have been like, no, this is really, this is cool. Like he could have, but David,

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he showed himself. It said after my Lord, the King, and Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his

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face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men

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who say, behold, David seeks your harm. Behold, this day, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave

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you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you, bro.

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I said, I will not put my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See my father,

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see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe

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and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have

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not sinned against you, though you hunt my life with 3000 dudes. May the Lord judge between me

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and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. David,

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I believe because he chose to retreat to be refreshed, to get his mind right, he realized,

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I could kill him. I don't have to kill him. I want to do what God is calling me to do in this

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situation. Even when his voice was like, bro, like he's right there, go ahead and take him out.

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And David didn't even listen to his guys. He's like, yeah, you're right, but that's not what

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I'm supposed to do today. And not only that, all right, we see in the story where David lifted up

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the head. In this case, David lifted up the Yeezys. No, I'm just playing. But he lifted up the garment

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and to me, I was talking to somebody about, I was like, that shows to me the same amount of strength

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killed Goliath just by lifting this because the power was in his hands to take someone's life in

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that situation as well. Next slide is just for the kids. You can try to make this at home with the

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Legos, do Bible study. I'm going to try to make this at home with the Legos, do Bible study.

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The brick testament is really cool. I'm not going to go really long on that one. Okay, let's go to

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the next slide. But as I walk down, as I walk down, hey, we got the kids in here now, so we're trying

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to have some fun. Some of y'all can be like, I could tell you were a youth pastor.

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At the end of the day, I think that we can learn a lot from this because there's sometimes we

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need to get to a place or location around people in the presence of God that can help to recharge

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us, to help us get to the place that we need to be. And so I think that's the way that we can

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get to a place or location in the presence of God that can help to recharge us, to help to motivate

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us, to help us to think deeper than that gut response when we face adversities or other things

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in life that just kind of smack us right in the face because I don't know about you, but if you

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know that there's some people that are after you for something, your gut response is to get away

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and everybody around is probably going to agree with you. And I'm like, yeah. And even in this

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case, David, I believe gained a lot of his strength from retreating to this location,

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the location that gave him time to be refreshed in this kind of an oasis and this verse.

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So you can go to the next slide, please.

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Leave us the last slide. Is there any more slides? All right. But one thing that as I walked down

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to go back to the bus and I just was kind of rejoicing, I was thinking about when we have

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time in the location of God's goodness or in a place, wherever that is, I know some people

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set up places in their homes where they can relax or some people might have to go to the

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certain place. I know somebody that used to live in very hard circumstances and sometimes the only

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place that was their oasis was the bathroom. I know it sounds funny and I'm not trying to actually

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be funny because that, you know, is a part of the story that happened was all relieving himself.

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But sometimes there was a person that told me sometimes there was things in the house that

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was so crazy. When I went to the bathroom, that was the only place nobody wanted to mess with me.

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They'd be like, oh, we're not going in there. And I was sometimes like, oh,

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we're not going in there. And I would sometimes have to pretend like I'm doing something, but I'm

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not. I'm just getting peace. And when I leave the bathroom, I go back and I could be in a better

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space. But that's what I believe the fruits of the spirit. We see that with David in his life as he

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grew up to be an awesome leader. And David wasn't perfect. We didn't understand that, but neither

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did we. However, we do see David's fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

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goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, those things that you can't go to Dollar General

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and just pick up. How do you get those? When I used to be in the U.S., how do you get that? How do

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you get that? And there's no easy way. And that's when we do need the spirit of God to bring that

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within us so we can display that. And I'll close with these last thoughts.

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Let's consider areas in our lives where we can cultivate greater fruitfulness. Are there areas

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where we can bear more of the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

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gentleness, and self-control? How can we as individuals or even as a community commit to

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nurturing these fruits within ourselves and sharing them with others? Secondly, like David,

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how can we seek out our own life-giving oasis? What does that mean for you?

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Where can we find solace or where can we find renewal? Where can we find a place, a location,

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a space where we can connect with God in the midst of some of the hardships of life?

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Or how can you identify a place and make it a priority to retreat to them

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instead of offering that gut response sometimes that we do very often? And lastly,

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let's honestly assess where we are drawing our strength from.

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Right? If I'm in that situation with David in the cave, I probably would have listened to my voice.

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Yeah, you're right. It makes sense to me. Why am I just going to take some of his clothes?

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Like I could just get rid of the whole problem right now and it's done.

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But where are you drawing your strength from? Are we relying on sources of energy,

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are we relying on sources that may leave us empty or parched, or are we continually drinking from

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the well that would be God's living water? And my prayer is that we can be reminded to draw our

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strength, our sustenance and guidance from God, allowing his presence to flow through every aspect

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of our life. So in conclusion, as we leave today, I pray that we can strive for greater fruitfulness

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and intentionally seek life-giving oasis in our life, draw strength from God's living water,

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and find solace in the safe places that he provides. May our lives be a testament

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to his transformative presence. Let's pray. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you, God, that

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you provide some of these stories that sometimes they seem goofy, sometimes they seem just so

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far-fetched for us, but I pray that within some of the funny stuff today that we can find ourselves,

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Lord, wanting and desiring to draw closer to you. And may we leave this place, Lord, just

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encouraged and searching and exploring for places that we can find a personal oasis to connect with

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you. In your name I pray. Amen.