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Before I start rolling, I want to say thank you very much to Marissa and Robin and everyone

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else who's helped out today.

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Can we give them another hand?

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Okay, here's my embarrassing story.

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There was one morning where I was preaching at another church and the worship leader and

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the pianist called about an hour before service and said, we're sick.

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And I had no other backup but a nice lady who played her guitar and sang.

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It was funny to me because she was always asking to play her guitar and sing more.

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But that morning when I called her up and said, hey, we need your help, she said, oh,

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I don't know.

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I'm so embarrassed.

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I don't know if I can.

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And so I said, I tell you what, I'll sing with you.

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If that makes you feel better, I'll sing with you.

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And so we stood out in the hallway before and she was playing her guitar and I was

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singing a couple songs and she looked at me and said, oh, pastor, I think I'd be better

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on my own.

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So my thinking, you know, I was being helpful and supportive, which I guess it did give

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her some confidence, right?

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She was like, ah, I think I'm just going to be better on my own.

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And I was okay with that.

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I was humbled, but I was okay with that.

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This morning I'm going to be sharing about a place called Galilee.

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Our sermon series right now is talking about different places, different locations in the

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Bible.

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And today's a place called Galilee.

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And one possible title for it, I thought about a few is where's Galilee?

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What is it?

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And why is it so bad?

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Because what we're going to talk about today is that it was a place that didn't have the

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best reputation.

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And if we could start by putting up a nice picture of it.

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All right, cool.

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And I wish I had a laser pointer, but I couldn't think of where to put one.

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Up there toward the top, do you see the red and the yellow?

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All right, there we go.

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Up there in the top in the yellow, red and yellow, those are two areas called Zebulun

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and Naphtali.

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Pretty weird names, but those were two places up north.

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And what made them significant was that they were pretty geographically isolated.

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You see that tan area down at the bottom?

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It says Judah.

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That's where most of the important stuff was happening.

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That's where the major cities were in this country, which was Israel.

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And up in the north was a more rural area.

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The other thing about that area was, well, I'll stop for right now.

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If you'd go ahead and take that back down.

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I'm going to be skipping over some stuff.

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This tells us how popular that northern region was.

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King Solomon in first Kings nine tried to give it away.

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Someone had helped him, given him gold and timber to build his temple, to do different

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things.

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So there's a king named Hyrum and Solomon said, you know what is a bonus?

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I'll throw in Galilee.

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You can have all of those towns.

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Sounds like a nice thing to do.

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Sounds generous.

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But after the king went and looked at them, he came back and said, that was disappointing.

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You can have them back.

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Ouch.

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Have you ever had someone give you something and they thought they were doing something

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really nice and you really didn't want it?

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That's happened to me at yard sales before.

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You buy something and they're grateful.

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So they decide that on your way out, they're going to give you something else, but you

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really don't want it.

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Thank you so much for buying those shirts.

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I tell you what.

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You can have this puzzle, this hundred piece puzzle that has 73 original pieces and 10

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pieces in the box that are actually from a different puzzle.

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And that's my gift to you for stopping at my yard sale and buying something.

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You have to, you know, you have to put it in your car and leave and pretend like you're

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grateful for it.

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So you can go home and throw it away or put it in your puzzle pile that you never plan

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to put together.

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But it's really not that much of a gift.

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And that's what Galilee was like.

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It was up north.

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It wasn't very well developed and it couldn't even really be given away.

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The other problem with that territory up there is they were the closest ones to the biggest

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enemy at that time.

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It was an empire called Assyria and up there toward the north, that's where they were.

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So when they came down to attack, the first place they were going to go through was Galilee.

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And so they were constantly under threat.

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And when Assyria did move down from the north, the first place that they took out was Galilee.

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They were the first place to have their cities destroyed and the first place to be exiled,

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which means that they were the first place to have their people taken out and sent to

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different countries.

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And then the empire Assyria brought other people in to live there.

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So their language, their religion, their culture were wiped out first.

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Then later Assyria came down and took out the rest of the country.

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So it was a tough spot.

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They were rural.

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They were up in the north.

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They were isolated.

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Their towns weren't even wanted to be given away and they were under constant military

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threat of being taken over.

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And they were the first ones to go down when Israel was attacked.

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Now that brings us to Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 and 2.

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And if you want to look up a verse today in your Bible, your phone, iPad or otherwise,

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this is one of the two that are good to look up.

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Now Isaiah was a prophet who knew what had happened to this area called Galilee.

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And he knew that they didn't have the greatest reputation.

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And so God gave him these words.

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Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress.

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In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naftali, which was the old

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name for Galilee.

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But in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations.

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By the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, the people walking in darkness have seen a great

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light on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

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So he shares these words of hope specifically for that area of Galilee.

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And he promises that eventually something great will happen there.

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Even though they were the ones who were embarrassed first, they were the first ones who lost in

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war.

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They were the first ones taken over and they didn't have a good reputation or resources

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to begin with.

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That's the place where God promises he's going to do something special.

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Now we're going to speed ahead to Galilee in Jesus time.

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God was talking about Galilee seven hundred years before the time of Jesus.

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Now there is actually a country separating Galilee from Judea.

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My example I thought of, and it's not a perfect one, is when we think of Alaska and the continental

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United States, you had to travel through another country to get here, to get from one place

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to the other.

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So it wasn't easy to get to.

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Even more difficult, people didn't like to go directly through that country because they

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didn't have a good relationship with them.

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So it would actually go around, which means it was an even longer route.

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There were long ways from Jerusalem, the capital city.

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There are long ways from the temple, the most important religious area.

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And they were also known as politically unstable and prone to rebellion.

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In Acts chapter five, a Jewish leader talks about Judas the Galilean.

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And what he's talking about is someone who started an uprising, tried to start a war

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with Rome, which was a very bad idea, and it had bad consequences for everyone else.

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So they didn't want to see them do that.

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So Galilee was known as a place where there were uprisings, where it was not politically

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stable, where there were problems coming from there.

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Now I think of more friendly versions of what it would be like with Galilee and Judea today.

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And I think of Michigan and Ohio.

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There's a constant rivalry between the two.

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It goes back a long ways when Michigan and Ohio actually couldn't become states because

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they were fighting over the territory of Toledo.

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They couldn't even get in the union because they were fighting over their boundaries.

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And again, in friendly ways, that's continued today.

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And it's especially manifested in the game of Michigan versus Ohio State in football.

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The Ohio coach doesn't even like to refer to Michigan's school by name.

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They call it the school up north.

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And if you can't win that game from Michigan to coach, you're probably going to get fired

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pretty soon.

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It means more to Michigan and Ohio State fans than any other game the entire year.

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There's that competitiveness between them.

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And when we think of competitiveness or differences in culture, I think of different states, different

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cities.

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What are impressions that we have of people from New York City?

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Maybe people who are more arrogant, people who don't really say hello, people who think

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they know what they're talking about compared to what reputation do Midwesterners have?

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Being more friendly, almost a little simple, things like that.

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I know I had a certain impression of Canada.

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I figured that it wasn't a very diverse place.

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Because in my experience, the farther north you go, the less diversity there is.

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At least it's that way in Michigan.

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And I also couldn't imagine that people from Canada were really all that proud about being

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from Canada.

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Which was purely just a bias on my part.

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Until I got to go to Winnipeg on July 1st, which is Canada Day, there were people from

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all around the world that were gathered there.

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It was a very diverse city.

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And they were so proud to be Canadian.

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There were flags everywhere.

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There were parades.

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There were festivals.

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And so I realized, wow, this place is a lot more than I'd realized.

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Now what about Galilee, switching back to Galilee and the Gospels?

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In John chapter 1, someone says, nothing good can come from there.

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In John 7, they said, how can the Messiah come from Galilee?

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So again, the expectation was that nobody really special could come from there.

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And they even had an accent.

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We see that in Matthew 26.

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You could tell what region someone was from just from the way that they would talk.

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And yet in Matthew 4, 12 through 16, and you can switch back over to there if you'd like

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to look it up in your Bible, we find out where Jesus did his ministry and why.

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Matthew chapter 4, verse 12, it says, when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison,

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he withdrew to Galilee.

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Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulon

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and Naphtali.

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To fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali,

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the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the living people living

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in darkness have seen a great light.

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On those living in the land of shadow of death, a light has dawned.

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Can I switch out to a cordless mic, please?

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Somebody could come help me with that.

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And then Alex, if you could shut this one down.

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Are we live here?

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Perfect.

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That other one keeps slipping down and I didn't have a very good hold on it.

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All right.

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That's a little bit more comfortable.

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So I've tried to explain to you that Galilee was not a very popular place.

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Did we understand that so far?

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Okay.

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It had a bad reputation.

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Are we on that so far?

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Okay.

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And yet Jesus chose there to do his ministry.

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When it was time for Jesus to start preaching, where did he go?

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Galilee.

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Now was that an accident?

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Was that something that just happened by chance?

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That that's where he grew up?

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That that's where he called his disciples from?

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No.

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He chose a place that had a bad history.

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He chose a place that had a bad reputation to do his ministry from there.

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To bring hope to a people who had not had it.

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To bring honor to a people who had been dishonored for centuries.

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My next question is, are you from Galilee?

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Do you come from a place where you might be embarrassed to tell others?

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Do you come from a town where people might judge you for saying you're from there?

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Do you come from a family where people make assumptions because of who that family is?

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Do you have things in your past that embarrass you?

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Things that you're not proud of?

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Do you have characteristics maybe about you today that are places of shame?

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Things about you that you're not excited to share?

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It could even be a character, something to do with your job.

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Have you had someone assume who you are because of your job?

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Have you had someone assume your value or what your skills are because of how you work?

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Is there something in your personal life again where people might decide what kind of a person

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you are or what your history is?

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Whether you're married or not married, whether you're divorced or single, who your parents

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are or what kind of a family that was, how you grew up.

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Those places could be a Galilee.

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They could be a place where you carry with you that show your reputation in a way that

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you might not like.

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Or it might be something that people don't know about at all that you carry with you

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and identify yourself with.

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What's interesting about God, what's interesting to me is he does his best work where we are

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vulnerable.

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He does his best work where we feel shame.

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He does his best work in the places we feel challenged.

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He chose to work in Galilee because he chose to show that he can call his disciples from

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anywhere.

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He could choose to call disciples that were fishermen, not an esteemed vocation.

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He could choose the women to follow him, the women to be his disciples who were not women

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of good reputation, who were women who had been divorced, women who had been prostitutes,

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men from all kinds of different backgrounds, even though some people judged him for that.

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People judged him for his hometown, Nazareth.

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He chose to grow up and he chose to come from a place that was easy for other people to

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judge him for.

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He chose to be around people with disabilities.

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He chose to heal people who were sick, people who were bleeding, people who had things that

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made others uncomfortable.

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Often our assumption in our life is that the place where God can use us most, where he

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can use us best, are the places in our lives where we are shiniest, are the places in our

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lives where it's most easy to see our gifts, where we look the best.

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But God shows us that that's not actually where he does his best work.

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He does his best work in the places where we are the most challenged.

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I'd like to give a couple examples and then we'll wrap up.

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One place that I think you could call a Galilee that's been a beautiful place of ministry

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in our church that I've gotten to see is our food pantry at Earl Hanson Elementary.

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Earl Hanson Elementary, which I know some of you attend, so I don't mean any harshness

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on it, but it's not a school in the richest part of town.

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It's not a school that has the newest building.

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It has people in that school who have families that have needs that are hungry.

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The food pantry that we offer there during the school year, are we still doing, Michelle,

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are we doing any food pantry here during the summer?

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No, okay, that's what I thought.

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I didn't want to say it's during the school year and then have you correct me later.

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I've gotten to go a few times and the time that I went, we count by household how many

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kids are in households and how many people serve.

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There were 50 kids served in their households by the food.

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20 different households that fed 50 kids and 80 people overall.

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If you've been in the kitchen there, which is where food is distributed from, it's a

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really small kitchen.

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The food pantry area is a small area.

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Yet, how beautiful that people are able to be fed from there.

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When I'm sitting down there, I very easily would say, you could call it a Galilee.

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There are smells of substances down there that you don't find everywhere.

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There are parents who participate in cannabis.

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There are kids who aren't necessarily from the households with the best hygiene.

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One thing I love about down there is you hear different languages.

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You get to see people from different cultures.

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You see children interpreting for their parents, whereas there's difficulty in accessing resources.

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You also see families who have needs that you wouldn't anticipate that from, who would

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look for lack of a better word, what you might think of as normal.

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There are even some staff people that help with the programs of after school where the

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kids are fed that also participate in the food pantry and take some food home.

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To me, it's a great example of a place that isn't the most polished, isn't the most heavily

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advertised, but where God in our church is and are doing some of the best work.

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Feeding those who are hungry, being a blessing, showing kindness.

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I love to see how God is able to do that there.

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My last example from my own life.

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Before my injury in 2015, I was six feet tall.

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I was about 190 pounds fit.

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I loved to play basketball.

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I loved to lift weights.

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I drove a fast car.

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My Lincoln with a V8 was one of my prized possessions.

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I bought it used and it was 12 years old, so it wasn't something extra fancy to anybody,

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but it was my great source of pride.

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When I would go and preach on Sundays, I preached then.

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I took a lot of pride in wanting to look well, my appearance, wanting to present myself well,

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wanting to present the church well.

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I did my best.

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In many ways, it was effective.

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I don't want to make it sound like I wasn't able to preach well before or that it didn't

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reach people, but now after my injury, I find myself in a bit of a Galilee.

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I have some limitations that I didn't have before.

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There are a lot of things about me that if I would have seen before, I would have found

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embarrassing.

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I would have found very distracting.

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And yet, God is able to use me in ways today that he wasn't able to use me before.

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He's able to minister through me to people that I was not able to be the same witness

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before.

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He's able to use the fact that I'm not able to wear the same clothes that I used to because

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of how they fit or trying to stay warm to change my appearance to probably something

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more humble.

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And yet, God uses that in a special way.

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He uses that in a way to bless others that I couldn't do on my own.

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I didn't choose, but brings him glory in a special way.

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And so my question is, where is your Galilee?

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Where is it that God wants to work in you and show his glory in you in a way that you

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might not pick or choose?

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It wouldn't be the first thing that you would offer up to others, but it's the place that

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he might find most useful.

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And where is that place in our community?

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Those places in our community might not be the first places that we would expect them

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to be.

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There are quite a few churches in my area building, because it's a newer developed

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part of town.

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It's kind of where the population is moving out in northeast Bettendorf.

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But it crosses my mind that means that there are fewer churches in the older neighborhoods.

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That means that there are fewer churches where people already live and have lived for years.

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And because they're moving farther out of town, it may be more difficult for people

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to find transportation to them unless you have a car.

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Where is the Galilee in our communities?

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It could be in a school kitchen, during food pantry.

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It could be in different places in town.

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And so that's why we're so proud to be a part of the Green Bush community and we pray so

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hard for God to work here.

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Because we know there are areas in our community that are at Galilee that need God's special

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work and where he desires to use us to do that work.

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Let's pray.

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Father, I thank you so much that you sent your son to a place that didn't have a great

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reputation.

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You sent your son to a place that had people with an accent, that other people judged,

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that you chose to spend your time with people that weren't accepted by others, especially

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religious people.

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And I thank you in our lives that you call us, even though some of us might not expect

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to be called by you, even though some of us might not feel worthy to be used by you.

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In those places where we feel most disqualified, most embarrassed, help us to be reminded those

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are the places you like to show yourself at work most.

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That's where you want to show your love most.

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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.