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Are you ready for God's word today?

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Whoo!

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Me too.

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Grab your Bibles, everybody, and turn with me to Numbers chapter 13.

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And we've been in a series of messages we called Unstuck.

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And we're talking about sometimes in life we feel stuck.

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I feel like it's almost like our whole country got stuck after COVID hit.

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And it's almost like we're all like, you know, it's almost like we're preparing for the next thing.

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It's like there's this sense of foreboding that's over all people where we have this expectation that,

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okay, something bad's about to happen or, you know, just try to survive.

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And it's like we're living in reaction to the world instead of living in response to the gospel.

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And the gospel is always about advancing.

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God is always moving forward.

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He has a plan.

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He is working His plan.

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And even when it doesn't look like it to us, God is still working His plan.

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And we are working with Him.

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We are co-laborers.

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And so we're supposed to move forward.

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Christ leads us in victory.

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And I just want to remind us as we step into this year, hey, let's move forward.

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Let's move forward in our calling, in our purpose, in our relationships, even in our health, in our spiritual growth.

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Let's move forward in all of these areas because really that is the provision of the gospel,

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that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us and gives life to our mortal bodies.

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Why?

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So we can be who God says we are and do what God says we can do, and we can live the life God created us for.

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Amen?

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Come on.

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You were made for more.

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Right?

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You were made for more.

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Maybe that's your slogan this year.

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Even if your life is great today, listen, you were still made for more.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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And so we're in Numbers chapter 13.

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Let me give you the history so everybody's on the same page.

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Probably everyone in here remembers Numbers chapter 13.

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But Moses, remember Moses, he leads God's people out of Egypt.

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They cross the Red Sea.

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They enter into the wilderness, if you will, and they finally come to the Promised Land.

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They made it through the wilderness just like Madonna.

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Everybody just made it through the wilderness.

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I made it through.

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Anyways, they make it through the wilderness, and they come to the Promised Land, and then God is like,

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Joshua, lead the people.

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Take the Promised Land.

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This is over 400 years ago.

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I promised this land to Abraham.

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You guys go.

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And then they have a vote and come up with a plan to send 12 spies, one for each tribe.

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So Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, had 12 sons.

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That is the 12 tribes of Israel.

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And so they say, let's send a representative from each tribe into the Promised Land,

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into Canaan, to explore it just to see what it's like, right?

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Now, time out.

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Here's the first problem.

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The first problem is when we assume that we need information that God already knows,

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but we need our information in order to decide if we're going to agree with God or not.

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This is a problem.

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When we come up with a strategy that doesn't come from the Lord,

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sometimes we come up with information we didn't even need to know.

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Because God's promise of taking the land was not contingent upon any intel

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that these spies were going to gain.

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Come on, somebody.

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The spies were not going into the land to get information for God.

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He already had it all.

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They went into the land and got information for them that discouraged them.

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What was it?

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The psalmist said, whose report will you believe?

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And then rhetorically he says, I will believe the report of the Lord.

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Come on, somebody.

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When my report contradicts my promise, I'll stay with my promise.

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So they go in and they get the report.

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There are giants in the land, and they come back, and there's a bit of a hubbub.

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And then we know the story.

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They end up staying or not going into the promised land,

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which leaves them stuck in the wilderness for, we know, 40 years.

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And so I want to read.

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I want to show you something that maybe you've never seen, maybe you have,

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as to why they stayed stuck.

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So let's stand as we read God's word together.

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We're going to start at verse 25, numbers 13.

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It says, And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days.

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Now, the Bible uses 40 days.

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It could have been exactly 40 days, but sometimes the Bible used the word 40

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or used the number 40 days, and it's more than 40 days.

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That's just kind of a biblical rounding thing.

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They had to cover 350 linear miles north and south, and so it could be done in 40 days,

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but it may have taken more than 40 days.

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But the Bible can sometimes use round numbers, but that doesn't make it inaccurate.

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You understand what I'm saying?

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Verse 26, we do the same thing, right?

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So, you know, it's like, how many people are there?

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I don't know, about 100.

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You know, OK, well, that doesn't mean we were lying.

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It just means we were giving an accurate report.

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Now, they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron

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and all the congregation of the children of Israel and in the wilderness of Peran and Kadesh,

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and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation

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and showed them the fruit of the land, and they told him and said,

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We went to the land where you sent us, and truly it flows with milk and honey.

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And I just have to believe some peanut butter.

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If you got milk and honey, it seems logical what follows is peanut butter, right?

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And this is the fruit.

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And by the way, they had fruit, which is jelly, so there had to be peanut butter.

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Anyways, verse 28, Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong.

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The cities are fortified and very large.

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Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

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That's giants, essentially.

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Anak's descendants were giants.

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In fact, they have archaeological evidence that there were giants about this time.

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They have two skeletons that were discovered.

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This is about 1440 B.C.

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So in the 12th century, these skeletons both date to the 12th century.

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It's two female skeletons, and they're both seven foot tall.

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That's a big girl.

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That's like if Shaq was a woman, y'all.

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That's a scary thing.

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That's like, don't make her mad.

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If she asked if these pants make her butt look big, you say, No.

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No.

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Praise the Lord.

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So the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Cellulites.

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All of those people are there.

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The Canaanites, they're all there along the banks of the Jordan.

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Verse 30, Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

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Oh, that's a good word.

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Somebody, you may need to underline that.

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You are well able to overcome it.

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Because who is on your side?

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And if God is on your side, the other side doesn't even matter.

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Are you with me?

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You're well able to overcome it.

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The men who had gone up with him said, We're not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

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And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying,

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The land through which we have gone espies is a land that devours its inhabitants.

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And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

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And there we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak that came from the giants.

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And we, now this is the part I want you to see.

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And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight.

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And so we were in their sight.

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Today I want to talk to you about a right view of you.

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A right view of you.

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Let's pray together.

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Father, thank you so much for your word.

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God, I thank you for this church, Lord.

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They are truly changing the world.

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God, today they have gathered to hear you.

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And Lord, I know that you will speak.

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I ask now, God, as we open your word and we open our hearts,

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Holy Spirit, speak words of life that bring encouragement and strength and deliverance and salvation and healing and hope.

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All the things that you do when we gather with you.

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Lord, we are listening now.

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Give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit would say to us in Jesus' name.

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And everybody said, Amen.

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You can be seated today.

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A right view of you.

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A right view of you.

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So here they come to this land that was promised over 400 years ago to Abraham.

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According to God, it's their possession.

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According to God, it belongs to them.

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I'm sure for generations they had talked about this day.

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This group of people obviously were not around.

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All they had ever known was slavery.

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But I'm sure they had heard from ancestors and ancestors, you know, one day God's going to deliver us.

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In fact, we know they had cried out to the Lord for deliverance because he tells that to Moses.

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And I'm sure they had heard the stories because the way history was taught in those days was not through writing things down.

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It was taught orally.

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They shared.

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So I'm sure they had heard the stories of Moses.

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They had heard the story, not of Moses, of Abraham, everybody.

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And they had heard the story of this promised land.

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And so here they are now.

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God, think about what God's done.

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I mean, God delivered them from Egypt, which seemed like it would never happen, I'm sure, to them.

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And God brought them to the Red Sea, which seemed an impossible situation where they believed they were all going to die.

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And then God parted the Red Sea and God destroyed the Egyptian army.

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God brings them through the wilderness.

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He feeds them.

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He gives them water.

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I mean, he takes care of them.

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And now here they are on the verge of this land that God has promised to them.

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This is the moment, right?

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Like this is this is the culmination.

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And then what's interesting is they don't actually go into the land.

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They don't go into the land.

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They don't take possession of what was promised to them.

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They don't step into the destiny they were destined for.

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They don't really step into the calling, the purpose, the provision that God has for their life.

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And it wasn't that God wasn't good.

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And it wasn't because God hadn't promised.

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And it wasn't because God wasn't powerful.

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I think the Red Sea kind of proved that one.

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The reason that they didn't step into God's plan for their life, God's purpose for their life,

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God's provision for their life, God's promise for their life comes down to this verse.

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It was how they saw themselves.

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It wasn't even how they saw God.

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It wasn't even how they saw God.

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It was how they saw.

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This is what they said.

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They said, we are like grasshoppers.

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I don't know why that strikes me, but every time I hear that, I hear it in an Asian accent.

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Ah, grasshopper.

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And I'm not being racist.

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I have an Asian daughter.

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OK, so don't send me that email.

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OK, don't send me that email.

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I don't need that business.

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OK?

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That's what I'm saying.

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It's grasshopper.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, June.

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But I just see them standing there and they're like, we are like grasshopper.

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This sermon's gone off the rails.

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Anyways, but the reason they didn't go into the promised land, listen to me.

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The reason they didn't go was not because God wasn't powerful or good.

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It was because of the way they saw themselves.

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How do you see your self?

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Psychologists tell us that our lives are moving in the direction of our most dominant thoughts.

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The Word of God tells us that it will be very hard to rise above how you think about yourself.

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As a man thinks in his heart.

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This is why he also says, Solomon says, guard your heart.

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Why?

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Because out of it flows all the issues of life, meaning however I feel about me and however I see me is more than likely going to shape how I live.

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Beliefs become thoughts and thoughts become a way of living.

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So ultimately if I'm going to step into my promise, if I'm not going to end up stuck in the wilderness,

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because there are a lot of people stuck today, maybe not in this room, but in our culture,

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a lot of people stuck today simply because of how they see themselves.

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They are stuck relationally.

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They are stuck emotionally.

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Some of them are stuck vocationally because of how they, because when they look in the mirror, come on somebody,

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they see a grasshopper in a giant world.

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I almost called this message grasshopper thinking in the giant world.

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But the reality is how I see me.

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How I see me.

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So we've got to talk about this idea of identity and this idea of really our self-image, if you will, because what we see,

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again, Paul tells us everything in the Old Testament is for an example to us and what we see is a group of people,

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literally millions of people that did not inherit their promise and it wasn't because it wasn't promised that God wasn't gracious,

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God wasn't good, and God wasn't powerful.

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And many times, let's just face it, when we're not seeing the goodness of God and the provision of God in our life,

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we're usually blaming God and laying the blame at His strength, His power, His nature.

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Maybe God doesn't love me.

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Maybe God can't do it.

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Maybe God won't do it.

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But the reason they didn't experience the provision and power and promise of God wasn't anything to do with God.

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It had to simply do with how they saw themselves.

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And because they had a wrong view of them, they didn't step into what God prepared for them.

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So I just have two things I want you to write down.

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Hopefully you're taking notes.

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If you're not taking notes, write these down.

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If you don't have paper, use your neighbor's arm.

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If you're both single, it might be a great time to write a phone number.

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But the point is, write this down.

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Number one, everybody, write this down.

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You all need to act right today.

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I'm up here trying to preach.

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You are out of control.

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Write this down.

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I am not made in my image.

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I am made in God's image.

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I put the points, both points that I have today are in, I use first-person pronouns,

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because I don't want you to write down, you are.

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I want you to make it personal.

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I am.

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I am not made in my image.

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I am made in God's image.

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To me, this is why the enemy works so hard to either keep us disconnected from God

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or to keep us from ever connecting to God.

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Right?

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This is why he works so diligently to keep people from having a relationship with God

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or being connected to God, because ultimately I'm made in God's image.

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And listen, in a culture, we're in a culture now where more and more people are disconnected from God.

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You know, God isn't real.

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You know, all the atheistic claims and all the views of naturalism that just seem to be so prevalent in our culture today.

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And because of that, more and more, we're getting farther and farther away from God.

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And what I see in our culture today especially is so many people trying to figure out who they are.

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And the problem is they keep trying to create an identity in their image.

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They keep looking to themselves to try to determine who they are.

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And I understand the, you know, kind of the philosophy of that, that why I have to go inside and look inside to see who I am.

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The problem is, well, that may make sense to culture.

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That doesn't make sense to God.

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And that's not the way that we were made.

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You weren't made in your image and you weren't made in your likeness.

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What's really cool about the way we're made, if you read, like Dr. Henry Cloud has a book that explains this.

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And he's a renowned psychologist, Christian psychologist.

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But what they will tell you is when you're determining your self-image,

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the way we actually build our self-image or discover our self-image or determine our self-image is not actually by looking at us.

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It's by looking at the image of what he would call the other.

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Meaning in simplest terms, when a baby cries and a caregiver comes to give care,

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then in the reflection of having a need and receiving care in the reflection of the other,

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the baby learns I'm cared for.

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I'm safe and secure.

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I'm valuable.

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Right. I'm loved.

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And so actually what speaks to our self-image, think about this, the way we're made, this is psychology,

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is the image of the other.

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Because of the other, it begins to tell me who I am.

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Well, what happens when I have a bad other?

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Right. Maybe I have a less than perfect parent or maybe I didn't have the privilege of having parents or whatever the case may be.

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You know, because then I have some other things like what if there's abuse?

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What if there's abandonment?

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What if there's some of these big things that we deal with in our culture?

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Right.

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Neglect. What happens when neglect?

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Well, when neglect, there is no other.

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Which one does it tell me?

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What does it tell me? It tells me maybe I'm not a person.

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Abuse, there's the wrong other.

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What does it tell me?

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I'm the wrong person.

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Abandonment tells me there's something wrong with me because everybody leaves me.

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And what you need to understand, listen, Jesus calls Satan the father of what?

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The father of lies.

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The father of lies.

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So he can't tell you the truth.

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But you need to understand because we come into this world separated from God,

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Satan comes to be your surrogate father.

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And he loves to speak false identity over you.

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And he will use your vulnerable moments, your hurts and your wounds and your traumas

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to try to sneak in a little bit about this false self, this false identity that isn't you.

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And now listen, now you're not being created in the image of God,

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you're being created in the image of broken people.

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And it's what?

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It's what he does.

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So what we need, we need a right view of ourselves.

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That's why, that's why when the Bible says you're created in the image of God,

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do you know what that means?

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He's the other.

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He's the perfect father.

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He's the one that his eye is always on you and his ear is always attentive.

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He is the one that is near the brokenhearted.

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He is the one that says call to me and I'll show up.

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He is the other.

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And I, through seeing the other, I can reflect who I am.

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This is how I come to a self-image.

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I wasn't created, listen, I wasn't created by image.

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You know, one of the things that we confuse in our culture too,

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we confuse self-esteem and self-image.

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Because self-esteem is how I feel.

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Self-image is how I see.

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This is the self-esteem, the feelings I have about me,

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self-image, the picture I see of me.

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And these aren't the same.

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And we have a lot of people trying to love themselves into some kind of

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self-esteem and their identity is being built on your wrong emotions or your

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emotions, which are many times wrong.

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And do you see, do you see the pitfall in that?

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You do not want an identity that is built on your emotions.

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Because your emotions may not even be right.

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Emotions do not tell you the truth.

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They tell you the truth about how you feel.

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And those are two different things.

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Like we need emotions, but don't let them drive the bus.

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Right?

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It's okay that they're back there somewhere.

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We need them, but don't give them the steering wheel.

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There are many people this kind of in our culture, love yourself, love yourself.

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Listen, even psychologists tell you, you can't love yourself into identity.

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Because you can't get identity from you and you can't get identity from your

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self-love.

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Identity formation comes from receiving love, not conjuring up self-love.

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Every psychologist tell you that, any of them that are good.

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And so the reality is, is not that we need more self-esteem, although I'm not

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against feeling good about yourself.

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The reality is we need a right view of ourselves.

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The reality is we need the right self-image.

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We were created in the image of God.

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What does that even mean?

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Well, it must mean God's good looking, because look at me.

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Your laughter is hurting me, but that's okay.

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No, I'm just kidding.

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But you see, what does that mean?

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Because God, we know God is incorporeal.

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Corporeal would mean to have a body.

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Incorporal means to not have a body.

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So God doesn't have a body.

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Now scripture gives him, scripture is written in what they call

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anthropomorphic language, which means that they assign and ascribe to God

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characteristics and even physical attributes that he can't have because

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he's not a physical being.

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In other words, the scripture say the eye of the Lord is on you, or the ear of

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the Lord, or the arm of the Lord is strong, or the hands of God, you know.

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And that's all to help us relate to God, is to help us understand God, and those

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express true things about God, but God doesn't actually have a hand, and he

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doesn't actually have an arm, and he doesn't actually have an ear, and we're

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created in God's image, so what does that mean?

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Well, I think more it's in the ontological sense, meaning the how we exist

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sense of how we're created.

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We have rationality, we have consciousness, we have morality.

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These are characteristics and things that we have that God also has.

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We're personal, and he's personal.

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If you want the nerdy theology, there are four different views of what they call

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the imago de, you know, I don't know, some words are so easy and some words just

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don't work for me, right?

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Yeah.

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But anyways, the imago de just means the image of God, that's all it means.

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It's a teaching of the Bible, it's a teaching of scripture, it's a doctrine.

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And under that, you know, even theologians kind of have differing opinions about

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exactly what that means.

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Like they have the substantial view, it just means we have a mind and we have a

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spirit, and so substantially we are like God.

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And then there's the functional view.

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The functional view says we have an assignment from God in that we can do

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what God, kind of like God rules over the universe, and so he says to Adam and

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Eve, you guys rule over creation, have dominion, so in that sense he gave us a

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function that is similar to him.

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And then there's the relational view, that God is personal and we can be

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personal, or we are persons, and so we can have relationships.

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And then really there's the composite view, which is the view I hold, which is

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that really it's like D, all of the above, because they all, there are parts of

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all of those that make sense.

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It is true substantially, I am like God, just what I said, I'm rational and I'm

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moral, well I'm rational in some days, and I'm moral and I have a spirit and I

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have a mind and I have emotions, right?

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And then also I'm relational, I have a relationship with God, a relationship with

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people, and then functionally, like I believe God called us and purposed us,

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right, to expand his kingdom and to work with him.

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And so what does it mean that we're in the image of God?

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This is the great thing, this is what I want you to understand.

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Everything I read, because this is going to help somebody, everything I read has

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nothing to do with your physical appearance.

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Well I didn't read it, everything I just told you.

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Everything I just told you, listen to me, your identity has very little to do with

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how you look.

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And in our culture, it seems how we look has a lot to do with our self-image, but

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I want you to understand when it comes to God, the reflection of the other, he's

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the other, and your identity is the fact that you can have good relationships and

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you can be personal.

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Your identity in the image of God means that you have a sound mind, not a sick

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mind.

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In the image of God means that you're created on purpose for a purpose.

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That's what it means to be created in the image of God, not the color of your

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hair, not the number on a scale, right?

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Not the size of your bicep, right?

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I don't measure mine, it's too depressing.

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But it's because God has made me for relationships and God has given me

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rationality and consciousness and God has given me purpose.

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That's what it means to be in the image of God and I need to understand that he is

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the one from which my identity is derived, not the mirror, not the scale,

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not the culture, not my past experiences, not wounds and hurts and traumas.

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No, I was made in his image, not in my image.

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In fact, look at how God thinks about you.

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I love this.

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I love this.

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In Psalm 139, David kind of talks about the omniscience of God, that he knows

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everything and the omnipresence of God, the fact that he's everywhere and then he

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kind of brings those together to talk about how God sees him.

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It's incredible to me.

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Psalm 139, 13, for you created me in my inmost being.

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You knit me together in my mother's womb.

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I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Come on somebody, you are fearfully and wonderfully.

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That means carefully, intrinsically, with great intentionality, yet marvelous

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and wonderful are you.

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Are you with me?

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That's what he's saying about you.

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And he said this I know full well.

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He said, look at this, your works are wonderful and that I know.

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Come on somebody, the next time you look in a mirror, just look in that mirror

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and say, God, your works are so good.

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Are you with me?

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Say, God, you did a good job.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Now I will admit men are better at this than women.

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We just are.

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I don't know what it is.

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We can have furniture disease where our chest is dropped into our drawers.

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We're getting a little squishy and all that, yet we can walk by a mirror and just,

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oh yeah, I still got it.

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You know, I don't know, you know, and then we exhale and everything blows up again.

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And I don't know why we are, but I'm just saying, listen to me, according to the Bible,

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when you look in that mirror, say, God, you did good.

475
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,000
Ephesians 3 says, I'm a masterpiece.

476
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,000
You understand?

477
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:43,000
Said, my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret.

478
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000
I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

479
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:46,000
Your eyes saw my unformed body.

480
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,000
All the days ordained for me.

481
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,000
Look at this, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

482
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,000
God, you have a plan for me.

483
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,000
You have a purpose for me.

484
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,000
Do you understand when God has a plan for you,

485
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:06,000
the nature of trust and faith he is placing, investing in you?

486
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Have you ever thought about this?

487
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:14,000
God's best plan to save the world after Jesus was the church.

488
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,000
That is how highly God thinks of you.

489
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,000
Like, I think self-awareness is wonderful.

490
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:20,000
Don't get me wrong.

491
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:25,000
We've all been around people who don't have self-awareness, and that's rough, right?

492
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,000
Because they don't know, and you're just like, bless them, Jesus.

493
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000
You know, they don't get it.

494
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
They're always doing weird things.

495
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,000
They're very awkward, you know, and they say the wrong things.

496
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:37,000
They hurt people's feelings.

497
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,000
I mean, they're just not self-aware.

498
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:40,000
I think self-awareness is good.

499
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,000
A right view of me is good.

500
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:46,000
Romans 12 verse 3, Paul talks about to the Gentiles, he said,

501
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,000
have a view of you that's consistent with faith.

502
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,000
In other words, he's like, don't think of yourself better than you really are.

503
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,000
The reason he's talking to Gentiles who have come to Christ,

504
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,000
because Israel hardened their heart.

505
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:05,000
And so this is in his, his really, I mean, it's like his magnus, you know, opus to the Romans.

506
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,000
I mean, it's incredible everything that he packs in the book of Romans.

507
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,000
But he's saying, hey, have a right view of you.

508
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,000
So I'm all about self-awareness.

509
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:14,000
Are you, are you right?

510
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,000
But he says, don't think of yourself better than you are,

511
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,000
but be honest in your evaluations.

512
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,000
And then he says, according to your faith.

513
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:22,000
So let me say it this way.

514
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,000
God's like, be self-aware, but factor me in.

515
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,000
Here's what I'm saying.

516
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,000
Self-awareness is good.

517
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:35,000
God awareness is great because God will not let you be proud,

518
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:40,000
but God will not also, he will also not let you degrade yourself.

519
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,000
Are you with me?

520
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,000
Like he is not going to let you think of yourself too high,

521
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,000
but he is not going to let you think of yourself too low.

522
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,000
Come on somebody.

523
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,000
We need some God awareness.

524
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,000
And the way God sees David, he talks about, he goes on to say, he said,

525
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,000
how precious are your thoughts?

526
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,000
How vast the sum, when I count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

527
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,000
In other words, like God, you're thinking all these wonderful things.

528
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,000
Maybe you just need to hear this today.

529
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:13,000
God thinks really good things about you all the time.

530
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,000
God thinks good things about you all the time.

531
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,000
Maybe you just need to write that on your mirror.

532
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,000
Today, God is thinking good things about me.

533
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:28,000
I may be thinking bad things about me, but God is thinking good things about me.

534
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,000
Listen, if we're really going to be conformed to the image of Christ,

535
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:35,000
we cannot afford to have one thought about us that God does not have about us.

536
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:36,000
And God's thinking good things.

537
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:37,000
I could read more scripture.

538
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,000
I don't have time.

539
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,000
First Peter talks about where his chosen people, his royal priesthood,

540
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,000
a holy nation, his possession.

541
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,000
It kind of reiterates some things we see from Deuteronomy,

542
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:51,000
where God's people were his possession and also his treasure,

543
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:55,000
that God sees you as his very own and his treasure.

544
00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:00,000
Psalm 17, 8 says, we're the apple of his eye, meaning that center part of the eye

545
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,000
that's so precious, and that's why it's so protected.

546
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,000
And then Jeremiah 31 says that he's loved us with an everlasting love,

547
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:12,000
and he's faithful to us, meaning that we are worthy of love,

548
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,000
and we are worthy of someone being faithful to us.

549
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,000
Somebody needs to hear that.

550
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:23,000
You are worthy of someone being faithful to you.

551
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:28,000
And if someone is unfaithful to you, that doesn't say anything about you.

552
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:33,000
It just says some things about them.

553
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,000
Are you with me?

554
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,000
And so I'm made in God's image, not mine, and so what follows?

555
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:39,000
This is the second thing.

556
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Write this down.

557
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,000
So what follows from that then?

558
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,000
What follows?

559
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:44,000
I'm made in God's image.

560
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,000
I'm not made in my image.

561
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:52,000
So number two, I can't know me without knowing him.

562
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,000
I can't know him.

563
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,000
I can't know me without knowing him.

564
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
Colossians 3, 10, look at what Paul says.

565
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:03,000
He says, and having put on a new self, come on, a right view of you,

566
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
having put on a new self, look at this, which is being renewed in what?

567
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:09,000
In what?

568
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,000
Knowledge.

569
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,000
In other words, the knowledge of God.

570
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,000
He's saying if you want to put on, if you want to have the right view of you,

571
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:22,000
if you want to put on a new self, then you have to have the knowledge of him,

572
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:28,000
the knowledge that you are in the image of your Creator.

573
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:33,000
And so ultimately, I can't know me without knowing him.

574
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:39,000
This is why God, one of the functions, if you will, of the Holy Spirit,

575
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:43,000
this is why the Holy Spirit is so, it's why you need a relationship with the Holy Spirit.

576
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:44,000
The Holy Spirit is not weird.

577
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,000
He is God.

578
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,000
And if you were in a place where they talked about the people,

579
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,000
the Holy Spirit, and they're all weird, now listen,

580
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,000
I understand there are weird people who have the Holy Spirit.

581
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:54,000
I understand.

582
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,000
There are also boring people that have the Holy Spirit, you know.

583
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,000
And so the Holy Spirit is not weird, and he is not boring.

584
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,000
The Holy Spirit is God, and he is a person, and he is with us,

585
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:11,000
and he is in us, and one of his functions is that the Holy Spirit reveals God to us.

586
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,000
Like the Holy Spirit helps me know God.

587
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Paul talks about this, 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

588
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:23,000
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he talks about how we can't really know the mind of God,

589
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,000
but the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God,

590
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000
but we have the Holy Spirit so we can know the things of God.

591
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000
So he's saying, hey, the Holy Spirit helps us, right?

592
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:37,000
The Holy Spirit reveals God to us, but you know what else?

593
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:43,000
The Holy Spirit reveals us to us.

594
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:47,000
The Holy Spirit reveals us to us.

595
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,000
I'm going to give you two ways he does it.

596
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:54,000
I'm going to give you two verses so you know I'm not making this stuff up, everybody.

597
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:59,000
But the Holy Spirit reveals us to us in two ways.

598
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:06,000
The first one is he confronts who we are not,

599
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:12,000
and the second one is he champions who we are, or he communicates who we are.

600
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:13,000
So let's look at this.

601
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Number one, he confronts who we are not.

602
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,000
John 16, this is Jesus talking, this is the upper room discourse

603
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:23,000
before he goes to the cross, before he's arrested,

604
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,000
the night that he was betrayed.

605
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,000
Verse eight, it says, and when he comes, talking about the Holy Spirit,

606
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,000
Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit,

607
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,000
he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

608
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:34,000
Well, what does that mean, Jesus?

609
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,000
Well, luckily he continues to expound on it.

610
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,000
He says, now concerning sin because they do not believe in me.

611
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,000
So he's talking about now this is the conviction of the world, right?

612
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:47,000
So he convicts the world of sin.

613
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:50,000
And then he says, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father.

614
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Now he's talking about the believers.

615
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,000
So he convicts the world of sin, but check this,

616
00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:00,000
he convicts the believer of righteousness, right?

617
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,000
And then he goes on to talk about the enemy who is already judged

618
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,000
and essentially damned, right?

619
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:09,000
But listen, he convicts the unbeliever of sin.

620
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,000
He convicts the believer of righteousness.

621
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:18,000
In other words, when a believer falls short of who we really are in Christ,

622
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,000
he doesn't come with condemnation.

623
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:25,000
He comes to say, oh, you dropped below the line, let's ascend.

624
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:29,000
In other words, lovingly, this is what he says,

625
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000
that outburst you just had, that is not actually who you are.

626
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,000
And I know who you are because I'm in you

627
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,000
and I'm in you to help you be who you're supposed to be.

628
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:44,000
When the Corinthians, and we know the Corinthian church was pretty screwed up, everybody,

629
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:49,000
like if you're having a bad day, let's just talk about them.

630
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:54,000
Like, I mean, they're, like, they got temple prostitutes at church,

631
00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:00,000
they're getting drunk on the communion wine, they're acting crazy.

632
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,000
And you would think Paul would write to them and say,

633
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:07,000
you bunch of fill in the blank, right?

634
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,000
But instead, you know what he does?

635
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:14,000
He says, let me remind you that you're not your own.

636
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,000
You were bought with a price.

637
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:21,000
Let me remind you who you are.

638
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,000
I don't need to tell you what you're doing is wrong.

639
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:33,000
I need to remind you who you are because identity trumps condemnation any day of the week.

640
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,000
And that's what he does in our lives.

641
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Listen, listen, in our lives, it's true when we sin,

642
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:42,000
you know, the Holy Spirit will come and say, wait a second, that's not you.

643
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,000
And I know who you are, and that's not you.

644
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,000
But also when we have a self-deprecating thought, right,

645
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,000
and we're thinking bad about ourselves and we're being hard on ourselves,

646
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:57,000
he comes and says, wait a second, wait a second, time out here, that's not actually you.

647
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:03,000
And I know who you are, and I'm here to help you understand who you are, and that isn't you.

648
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,000
One of the greatest things the Holy Spirit can do in our lives is tell us who we're not

649
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,000
because we've got so many, so many times wrong thoughts about us

650
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,000
and wrong beliefs about us that didn't come from God.

651
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,000
And the Holy Spirit says, wait a second, that's not from me.

652
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,000
That didn't come from me.

653
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,000
That's not you.

654
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,000
And so I'm here to tell you who you're not.

655
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:32,000
And then the next thing the Holy Spirit does, watch this, he tells us who we are.

656
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000
So he tells us who we're not, but then he tells us who we are.

657
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,000
2 Corinthians 3, 17, for the Lord is the Spirit,

658
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:42,000
and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

659
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,000
Do you know what freedom is? Do you know why we talk about freedom as a church?

660
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:50,000
Do you know why we have a discipleship class based on freedom called live free?

661
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000
Do you know why we do that? Because freedom is not about not doing bad stuff.

662
00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:00,000
Freedom is about being free to fully be who God created you to be.

663
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,000
It's not about not sinning, and it's not about not drinking,

664
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,000
and it's not about not looking at porn, although none of those things are good for you, right?

665
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:13,000
It's about being free to be the son and daughter of God that he destined you to be.

666
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:14,000
That's what freedom is.

667
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,000
So Paul's saying, yeah, that's a good word.

668
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:23,000
And Paul's saying, he's saying wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

669
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:25,000
So what does that mean? Where the Spirit of the Lord is,

670
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:29,000
he's going to help you be free to be who God created you to be.

671
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:34,000
So all of us who've had the veil removed, that's the law, can see and reflect.

672
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:38,000
Remember, ooh, do you see that word reflect?

673
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:45,000
What did we talk about? My self-image is a reflection of God's image.

674
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,000
There it is right there. The psychologist got it right, everybody.

675
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:56,000
See and reflect the glory of the Lord, and the Lord who is the Spirit makes us more and more like him

676
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:59,000
as we are changed into his glorious image.

677
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,000
So what does the Holy Spirit do? He tells me who I'm not.

678
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,000
He says, oh, that's not you. That's not you. Nope, that's not you.

679
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,000
And then you know what else he does? He tells you who you are.

680
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,000
You are loved. You are chosen. You are royal.

681
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,000
You're God's treasure. You're God's people. You're God's possession.

682
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,000
You are worthy of care. You are worthy of someone being faithful to you, right?

683
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:27,000
You are the head and not the tail. You're above and not beneath, right?

684
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:31,000
You're blessed in the city. You're blessed in the—you can go through it all,

685
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:37,000
but the Holy Spirit tells me who I am.

686
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:42,000
He gives me a right view of me.

687
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:47,000
I'm telling you, church, if you want to move forward, so many times we get stuck in the ways we think,

688
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:50,000
and many times those are the ways we think about ourselves.

689
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,000
We don't take a promotion because we think someone else should take that promotion,

690
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:58,000
or we don't take a promotion because we think, well, I really can't rise to that.

691
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,000
I don't know that I could do that. Well, what if I fail, right?

692
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:06,000
We don't get in relationships because we're scared that they're going to turn out to be like somebody else.

693
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:10,000
We don't get in relationships because we're scared we might be rejected,

694
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,000
and the list goes on and on and on.

695
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:18,000
We don't get close friends because we think, well, if they really knew me, they might not like me.

696
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:25,000
The list goes on, and we stay stuck because of—not because God isn't faithful,

697
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,000
not because God isn't good, not because God isn't powerful.

698
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:37,000
We stay stuck because not even how we see God, we stay stuck because of how we see us.

699
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:45,000
And I feel like today God wants to give us and you, he wants you to have a new view of you.

700
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,000
Amen. Can you give Jesus praise?

701
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:16,000
Are you with us?

702
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:24,000
Are you with us in the purpose for which God made and created and redeemed you for?

703
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,000
We love to connect people to purpose.

704
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,000
We thank you for giving us this opportunity.

705
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:34,000
And if you're ever at Longview or you are at Longview, I'd love to invite you to join us in person each weekend.

706
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:37,000
Listen, I pray God that you're going to be with us.

707
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,000
I pray God that you're going to be with us.

708
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:40,000
I pray God that you're going to be with us.

709
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:46,000
I'd love to invite you to join us in person each weekend. Listen, I pray God's best for your life.

710
00:42:46,000 --> 00:43:14,000
I believe if you follow Jesus, your best is ahead.