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You're listening to the sermon podcast from Christ Community Church in Artmore, Oklahoma

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Our mission is to equip people to be true to Christ be kind to all people and be the body of Christ to our community and beyond

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For more information on how we can equip you and for more resources visit artmore ccc.com

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Now here's Pastor Artie with today's message

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The year 2000 and I remember it was a year 2000 because I

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Was sitting in the airport

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While I was watching the country go crazy over chads that were not clumped correctly in Florida and they were messing up the election

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And just I think began a series of elections that we would have to wait weeks or months to find out who actually won

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And and so I was sitting there and I and I pulled open a book and

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It was one of the first times that I really read about and considered the idea of discipleship in contemporary America

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Particularly in evangelicalism and this book was pointing out and then of course after that there were many other books that were pointing out

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the fact that we

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We had reached a point where we weren't doing a great job with discipleship and one of the diagnoses is is that when we make discipleship

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Primarily academic about primarily about information that we have then we are missing the heart of the people who are

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Information that we have then we are missing the heart of the radical

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Relationality that is the heart of our faith and what's such a blessing about being able to gather in a community that doesn't just

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Target market one particular generation

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But in fact tries to create space for intergenerational

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Relationships is we create the opportunities for mentoring to be part of our spiritual formation

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And I think that obviously you know

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87.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot and so I am not saying that this is a

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Scientific statement. This is just an anecdotal response to what I've seen

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Healthy discipleship is about 10% information and 90% practice

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I believe that if we would make practice our primary form of spiritual

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Formation then we would find that there would be the encounters of the Holy Spirit would begin to make more sense because as we learn

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To follow the spirit keep and step with the spirit as Paul says then we become more comfortable the more you take

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Take the courage to listen to the teacher in your soul

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The more that teacher is going to instruct you but you've got to step out and sometimes you have to have that

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Modeled so that you can see how other people have learned to grow and keeping and step the spirit because some of those practices

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Might be helpful for your own journey

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But what we know for certain the problem is if your discipleship is primarily through books sermons and podcasts

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Then you are being

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Discipled into a theoretical spirituality and the theoretical or hypothetical

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Hypothetical spirituality will never have the power to to to enable you to encounter the grace and mercy of God in life

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transformative ways

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So I think that we need to all consider as we look at the scripture and we look at the model of Jesus and

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Even we look at the model of what we call Christian education in our churches and start considering

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Is it heavy on just the transference of information or are we actually?

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creating relationships

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Where people can be

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Mentored into the spiritual life by by doing life with someone else who's a little bit further down the road than them

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Salvation is the fruit of a way of life and is therefore best understood

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Through imitation rather than mere information

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Therefore seek a guide and learn to be a guide

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Seek a guide and learn to be a guide. You remember just a few weeks ago

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We were referencing that story that we're all familiar with that Jesus told that there was a wise man

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That built his house on a rock and the storms came

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And but the house stood and there was an affoolish man who built his house on the sand and the storms came in his house

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Collapsed there was disaster and Jesus sums that up saying the difference between the wise and the foolish is this

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The wise man heard the words of Jesus and acted upon them and the foolish man

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Heard the words of Jesus and did not act upon them

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Salvation is the fruit of a way of life and is therefore best understood through imitation

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rather than mere information

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information

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Because what God has created us for is to experience what I would call a healthy

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Interdependency it's not dependency so that it's codependent and unhealthy

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But neither is it independent so that we cultivate a life of it's us and no one else and it breeds arrogance and pride and frankly

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Causes us to live in delusion

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It's easy to be a spiritual perfect even a God when your reference point is only yourself

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God gifts us with the gift and he's created us to learn to pursue a healthy

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inter interdependent

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Relationship so I personally don't have the time to learn everything that I need that I need to know

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I don't have time to go deep into study about everything that really will will enhance my life and empower me to flourish

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I am dependent upon those who are authorities in their field and I think that we all understand that when it comes time for

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An attorney we're not gonna read a Wikipedia article and then say I've done my research and so now I can just represent myself

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Or we're not gonna just well we actually we do do this

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think of the disaster of instead of turning to a medical authority and just

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Well reading a few articles on web MD and thinking now that you're an expert over your health which either leads you to a

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dangerous place of not addressing something you need to address or

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Worse it leads you into absolute peer and fear and panic and you might as well just take the tractor and dig a gate grave and go lie down in it

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But we so we have we recognize this in certain fields that there are people that have been trained

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We want to look to those authorities

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But that but what about those people who have given themselves over to be authorities in the art of living?

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What about the art of living from an awakened awareness of one's highest self that has been hidden with Christ in God?

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Where are those who don't do do not merely tell me information?

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But who can model a way of life worth?

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imitating

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This is very much a New Testament scriptural perspective on how healthy

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Discipleship evolves it happens when there are those who have become skilled in the art of living

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Those who have given themselves to understand what it means to live from their highest self who is hidden with Christ in God and

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then finding those people and and and and

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Creating relational connections so that those people can pour into our lives so that we can maybe one day do the same

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imitation is a key ingredient for healthy

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discipleship

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So what about you how have you found solutions to this dilemma?

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Who can you point to and say they are living an authentic life?

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they seem to embody wisdom mercy and love and I

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Would do well to imitate their way of life of faithfulness to Christ

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When I ask that question did anybody immediately come to your mind?

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Do you have to think about it?

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But after pondering it do you recognize that those people are at somewhere perhaps even on the periphery of your life?

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or

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Have we become so radically privatized in our spirituality?

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That it's hard to find models in public of people who are living the spiritual life and to which we can say I

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Want to imitate at least a particular aspect of who they are

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Because they are skilled in the art of living from the highest self hidden with Christ in God

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And I need to learn something more about what they've figured out that

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Should be when we become the community that God wants us to be that question should be very easy to answer

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And if it's not easy to answer then my friends

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We have to listen to what that information can tell us before the Holy Spirit and repent because we've done something very very wrong

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If the intergenerational community can't look and find those people who can mentor us in the spiritual life

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Particularly in one rooted in Christ and bearing the fruit of faithfulness to Jesus

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Well Paul speaks to this very issue in our next section of the lipeans

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Lippians 3 17 through 4 1 would you take a moment to read this with me?

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He writes

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join

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in

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irritating me brothers and sisters and

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Pay careful attention

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To those who live according to the example you have in us

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For I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ

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Their end is destruction

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Their God is their stomach their glory is in their shame and they are

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focused on

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earthly things

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Our citizenship is in heaven and we eerily wait for a savior from there

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The Lord Jesus Christ he will transform the body of our humble condition into the lightness of his glorious body

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By the power that enables him to subject everything to himself

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So then my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters

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Make my joy and crown in this manner stand firm in the Lord dear friends. I feel like I need to make a quick explanation

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I'm only 50 but my body is falling apart

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Some of that is visible to those on the outside, but it's also crumbling from the inside

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And so I have a tooth that is dissipating and this week

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I ate a very healthy almond flower cracker for which I was very proud

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But when I bit into the darn thing the tooth that is dissipating cracked again

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Only this time just for fun. It created a razor sharp point that's pointed toward the inside of my mouth

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And so I woke up the next morning and my tongue was hamburger meat

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So I'm trying to I've got it packed with wax and so I'm trying to talk around it

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But if it's a distraction, I apologize. I'm doing my best to speak normally, but anyway, so

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back to the scripture

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When you look at this paragraph and there's lots of there's lots of

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There's lots of emotive language in this paragraph. There are lots of theological reflections about the nature of

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Our future and the and the glorious bodies that we will one day have I'm looking forward to that myself

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Nah, I'm pretty content with this one to be honest. This is a gift of being 50 years old

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so

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But if you look through all of it, there's really only three commands in this long paragraph and it is

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Imitate me

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Imitate those who imitate me and stand firm

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Imitate me

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Imitate those who imitate me and stand firm

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You know, we like to hear those words those inspirational words to stand firm in our faith, but we so often

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read those words from a place of

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individualism

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and

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And and and it robs us of the real power from what of the gifts that the church really has to offer

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Which is finding those who are worth imitating now

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Can you imagine this? Let me and ask yourself this question. Don't answer that loud. Would you become comfortable telling someone?

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imitate me

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You'll do just fine if you imitate me

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If the answers no

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Then we need to recognize and diagnose there's something really wrong with our spiritual formation

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Because the expected end of the way we engage with Christ in spiritual formation

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ought to build within us the confidence not the arrogance

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But the confidence in the grace of God to say I don't have it all figured out

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But in this area you would do well to imitate me

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And I would be happy to share the grace of God that has been shared with me in this particular area of my life

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my friends

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if we are not

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If we are not comfortable saying imitate me

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Then our spiritual formation is deficient and we need to engage in new

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Practices that form us into a way of life and the reason why most of us aren't comfortable with that idea

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It's because

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Our spiritual formation is all information up here that we know hasn't transferred into the heart and into our lifestyle

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But if you do that then the Holy Spirit will bear fruit and

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You know what that fruit can nourish the people around you

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the expected end of salvation

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Isn't my own

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Individualized comfort and knowing that if I got hit by a bus I would fly to heaven and become an angel so now

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That's all I need to worry about no

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No

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You've been called to join a movement and that movement is not primarily about you although you respond as an individual

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But the end of the day isn't for you to feel comfortable with answering the question

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Do you know if you would go to heaven when you died?

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That is not the point the point is to encounter the living Christ like the Apostle Paul did that you get knocked off your

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Donkey blinded to your old way of living and you're willing to let Jesus heal you and transform you so that you can then impart that grace

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Into the lives of other people around you you're supposed to bear fruit that nourishes other people

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That is the end game of the end go this whole

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If I were the enemy

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And I knew the power of the people of God I

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Would come up with an alternative gospel. That's just about them going to heaven

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So that then there's no danger of them actually

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Incarnating the love and grace and power of God in the midst of the people that they do life with

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But that's what we're called to do

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So

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Look at this text. Let's follow some of his logic as we walk down it. Do you guys despair with me as we go through this I

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Love you, but I'm not willing to make my tongue suffer because of you

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Look at what Paul says fine people

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worth

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imitating and follow their exam example

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fine people worth imitating and

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And follow their example now

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Don't overthink this

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You're gonna have to trust your intuition because no one is gonna be nailing it in all areas of their life

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We're all in on a journey

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But the thing is we have different temperaments and gifts and strengths that we can lean on one another and so maybe I've got one

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Area of life kind of conquered, but there are three in chaos

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And I might need to find someone who's not living in chaos in those other areas and say will you mentor me?

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Will you teach me?

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You look like you've got something figured out here and you're worth imitating and I want to be near you

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So I can learn how to imitate that now. How do you do that? Don't overthink it trust your intuition

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Let's pause right here lest we over complicate this. It's as simple as

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Sorry this wins got me all messed up, too. I'm just a mess this morning pray for me saints

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You ask God to bring the people in your life

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and then you reflect on your week because most of the time I

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Don't recognize those new mentors immediately when they're in my life

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It's at the end of the week when I'm reflecting on who I've met who I've interacted with

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What I'm thinking about the prayers I prayed before asking God to bring wisdom into my life and then I realized oh my goodness

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That lunch Tuesday at noon

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That was someone God's brought into my life. That's worthy of imitation. I

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Am not going to ask them to start a class and to assign a book

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I'm just gonna see if I can buy them lunch more often and ask questions. Will you share your life with me?

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You would be surprised once you're open to being taught and mentored if you're sincere

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You ask the God to bring them into your life. He will begin to bring those people into your life now

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They may be unexpected

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They may be a couple of decades younger than you or

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They may be a couple decades older than you and you might feel that they can't even possibly

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Understand the pressures and the stresses of your own life

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But if you pay attention and if you listen and if you take the guts to respond

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God will increase the circle of people in your life that are worthy of imitation

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And he says this

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Not everyone is worthy of your imitation

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He says do not imitate those who live only for the pleasures of the flesh

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You see he said don't don't imitate the ones whose God is their belly

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Recognize the difference between what is inspirational and what is life affirming?

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No, because sometimes people who can inspire us from a distance when we get close we discover

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Man their lifestyle is that life affirming at all

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Way easier to be the sage from the stage than the guide in the Bible

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Age than the guide at your side

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Sometimes those who inspire from a distance live toxic lives of chaos and dysfunction

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I think I love to read biography because I do think that that's one of the ways I can be mentored

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It's reading the live stories of people who've come before us

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It's always disappointing when I get a new book

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And I'm thinking about two or three of them that I just remembered the excitement in my heart when I pulled those things off this

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shelf, you know with Starbucks

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Aroma in the distance as I walked through

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Barnes and Noble Brick and Mortar bookstore

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And

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Read these people that have inspired me and find out

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They don't know how to live a self-disloving relationship with someone else like all the relationships are dysfunction after dysfunction after dysfunction

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And then I realized that's not it. I

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Don't want to succeed in this area and then not be able to love the people and support the people and prioritize the people

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That God has put in my life. So not everyone

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Is worthy of

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imitation

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Regardless of what they know

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It is only if they've allowed that spiritual knowledge to begin to address the actual dysfunction of their lives if they have

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Grab ahold of those people

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Buy them a burger or a Rubin and

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Ask them can I do life with you so I can learn a little bit of wisdom?

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Number three he says don't imitate those who live for pleasure rather imitate those whose life in the flesh is

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rooted in the higher experience of living as a what a

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citizen of heaven now you know my temptation here and

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I'm gonna try to discipline myself because we have food across the hall

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But it is important for us to pause and acknowledge what Paul is saying here my friends

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We do not become citizens of heaven someday in the afterlife

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We are citizens of heaven today if heaven is our homeland and Jesus is our Lord

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That's not something in the future. It is right now and it's a really important right now because what it he's using the word citizen

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Now this would have been a challenge in Philippi

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We cover this a little bit at the very beginning but remember this was not at one time part of Rome

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But because after military conquest they had all these soldiers out in battle

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They didn't want them all to come back to the city

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So they designated Philippi as a Roman colony that then was populated by some of these

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Active or reserve or retired military personnel. So over time

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I'm Philippi, Ben. I am so sorry. I

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Was hoping this would just be an attractive spring steam kind of thing, but it's not going in that direction

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So Philippi was extremely proud of its status as a Roman colony and

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Those within Philippi who were Roman citizens were extremely proud of their Romans Roman citizenship

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Just like some of you are really glad that you're never gonna vote one way or the other

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Because one political party party. Yeah, that's about right

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That wasn't a fruiting sip that was a Holy Spirit slip

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Because one particular party is supposed to embody the totality of your value system and who you are

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What he's saying is

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Your ultimate citizenship is not in the physical land of your origin

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It exists somewhere else

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Somewhere higher and above all of this and so your citizenry and your politics ought to be informed to that land to which you

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ultimately belong

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And so he says our citizenship is in heaven. So

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We imitate those whose life in the flesh is rooted in the higher experience of living as a citizen of heaven on earth

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We don't become citizens someday today. We are citizens and to live

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As a citizen of heaven does not require us to demonize life in the flesh because so often in religious circles

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That's how it's interpreted

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I'm not gonna enjoy all any of the pleasures of this life because I'm gonna be like a human being

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Like a stoic monk and be faithful to God

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That's not necessary. You do not have to demonize life in the flesh. Remember God created a tasty and aesthetically pleasing world

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In which we are destined to flourish

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To demonize it is to disrespect the Creator

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Look, he could have just said if you want to live even more than you can live in the flesh

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Look, he could have just said if you want to live eat

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That's not what he did

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He gives us taste buds

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So the thing that I have to do to sustain my life is actually one of the highest joys of my life

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Making imagine what a fajita would be without taste buds

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Now we could go on to other areas of our lives that sustain existence

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That don't have to be pleasurable, but our Creator chose to make them pleasurable

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For his glory and for our good. So he made a tasty and aesthetically pleasing world

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In which we were destined to flourish

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Know all it means to live as a citizen of heaven is to allow the atmosphere of heaven

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To

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To season our life in the flesh. It's where the atmosphere of heaven

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Seasons our life in the flesh

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You know we think of the image of a party and often that something is demonized and understandably so

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some very undisciplined and harmful things can happen at parties

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But it's also where you'll find the kingdom of God

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Brick-oven pizza and a good bottle of wine around a table with friends

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Where two or three you are gathered in my name there I am in their midst

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That doesn't just mean church

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It might mean a good dinner party where you're doing live and sharing life with other people who are traveling this road of

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faithfulness to Jesus along with you

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This too is the kingdom of God

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So the question is

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Are you willing to trust someone and seek out a guide

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But even more importantly

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Are you willing to be that guy?

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Are you willing to give yourself to spiritual formation to the extent that you can say?

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imitate me as I imitate Christ

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Because that is the goal

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so as

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We begin to close

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Let's begin with answering a few questions

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Who are you imitating?

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Not are you imitating someone please understand this

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You don't have an option of whether or not you're being discipled

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You only have an option of whether or not you're gonna choose to be aware of how you're being discipled

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For some of you it's Jesus

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For others of you, it's Fox News

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For others of you, it's the Guardian

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For others, it's your podcast

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Or what's playing in the background on your television set

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Some of us are just being discipled by better call Saul

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You have to be aware of who you are

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I'm not trying to demonize that the Holy Spirit can use better call Saul to share truth with you

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I'm I believe I don't think God's limited, but the point is you've got to begin with being aware

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Who are you imitating?

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Secondly, who's imitating you?

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Because there's someone whether you intend for it or not

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Who is imitating you?

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Here's a challenging question. Is it wise to imitate you?

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Would you prescribe your rhythm of life to someone else in crisis because you know it will help them?

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Are you aware of the way you live your life because I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about us being aware

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Are you even aware of the way you live your life? Are you willing to become the guide that you needed when you were young?

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It is not uncommon to work with young men and hear them say

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I looked for a mentor and I looked for a father figure and I never found one

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And I would hope that the church would see that as a call to make some correction

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But whether they do or do not at some point every young man or woman that I'm working with the question comes down to

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Yeah, you didn't get that and now it's too late. You can't go back and be 28 again and get that

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But what you can do is cultivate a vision at 35 to being the person that you needed when you were 28

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Are you willing to do that?

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And then are you willing to then make yourself relationally available to those who would do well to imitate you as you imitate Christ?

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So my suggestion is this this is an idea that I've been working with for about two years now

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And it came about because I realized

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That so much of what the church does is spiritual bypassing

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We don't know what to do with the person that went through the prayer line and

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Memorize the scriptures and they're still addicted to pornography

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We don't know what to do with the person that is repented and went to revival service, but still can't get control of their anger

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Let me just say loud and clear from my personal pastoral perspective

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Sometimes you need Jesus and a good therapist

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Sometimes you just need Jesus and a sandwich or a nap

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But we over spiritualize the instruction we give to people almost to the point that we don't even expect it to be practical anymore or

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It's tinged with guilt and shame

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It's not enough just to share our wisdom, but there's this understood thing if you deny my wisdom then I will reject you

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And that is common I was just talking to someone who desperately needs interaction with the church

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And they said I just can't do it. I love God

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I want to find help in the church, but every time I've turned I've only been met with condemnation

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If I'm not perfect in responding to what's being said, I don't want to do that anymore

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Help me find somewhere outside of the church where I can get help and granted sometimes we do

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I mean, we're not medical doctors or psychotherapists and so there's a place for that

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but

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Spiritual bypassing is a problem that we need to name

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so I

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Would suggest that you think through

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Getting a mentor getting a tribe of mentors who can guide you into four dimensional flourishing

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four dimensional flourishing

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Because it is a mistake to let people think that if you are spiritual

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But you're not thoughtful about your health then your life will be just as flourishing as God intended it to be

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because it's not true

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The fact of the matter is I can flourish in one area and have chaos in two areas of my life

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And that chaos will eventually become a cancer that will choke out the good. I'm doing in the one area

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And so we have to recognize we are total beings and we need to pursue a vision of four dimensional flourishing

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So when you're looking for mentors, I

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Would suggest that you think through you don't have to use these words

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I don't really like them, but I'm told that alliteration helps the memory

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So in the area of faith family fitness and finances

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Faith family fitness and finances in your faith ask yourself is this person spiritually awake?

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If you're seeking a guide and if you're seeking to become a guide then ask yourself

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Are you aware of living from the higher self that is hidden with Christ and God?

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Because that's your only source of usable wisdom

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What about family do they cultivate healthy relationships?

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Family is just a placeholder word, but beyond just the family relationships in relationships in general

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Do they prioritize healthy relationships?

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Can you see the fruit of that in their lives or if you're seeking to become a guide?

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Do you purposely communicate your love for the people in your life? That's all I'm suggesting not perfection

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We're gonna constantly have to go back and say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it that way

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I said something to my daughter yesterday and immediately I texted back that was completely inappropriate

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It was none of my business and I feel ashamed. Will you forgive me?

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That too is healthy relating. It's not not making the mistakes

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It's being willing to own them and practice and model humility

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So are you communicating your love?

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Love for the people in your life and what about fitness or the physical body?

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Do they honor the temple of the spirit and again, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not talking about

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Aesthetics I'm talking about

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Making choices that liberate the body to function correctly rather than hinder the functioning of the body

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That's all clearly. I'm not trying to make a case for physical perfection

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But I'm 15. I don't care anymore. Sorry, babe

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But if you're wanting to become a God are your choices making your body more efficient or less efficient in

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Doing its job of connecting you to the physical world in life affirming ways

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That's what it's there for

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You need it. It is not who you are. You are a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body

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But this is the thing that local locomotes me

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Unless I get the ministry of Phillip where I can just transport

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I gotta take care of this thing because it's going to locomote me as I seek to accomplish the mission that God has for my life

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and finally finances if

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You're looking for a guide

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Don't just ask for financial stability

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But rather do they practice a stewardship that empowers generosity?

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And if you are becoming a guide does your current stewardship empower generosity?

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I'm not saying that it has to be the perfect portfolio

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I am just saying are you learning a stewardship so that you're a worshipping in this area of your life in such a way

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That you can practice contentment and generosity

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Not putting a number on that but as a value is it bearing fruit in your life?

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My friends can you imagine the freedom you would experience if your faith

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Relationships physical health and financial contentment were affirming and abundant

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Here's the deal most of us are probably really good in one of those areas

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If we're lucky and I imagine these people exist I am not one of them

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There may be those who master who have mastery in two of those areas

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But most of us are not equipped to have mastery by ourselves in all four areas

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Because we're called to live

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Interdependent lives where we get to share our strengths and knowledge with one another and help each other through mutual submission

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Grow together into maturity into the fullness of who God intends for us to be and

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That we recognize we have a healthy theology of the body

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Well, we're not gonna say the ball at the body and the mind and emotions can be healed as long as I'm spiritual

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That is not true

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You can have faith in Christ and be redeemed and be so emotionally toxic and dysfunctional that you're harmful to other people

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It's not enough to just say their sinner's prayer

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You have to pursue a larger vision to the person that's calling you to be not in perfection

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But in submission to the Lordship of Christ

436
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Can you imagine the blessing our church could be if we prioritize holistic flourishing

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Rather than mere

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ideological conformity I

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Think we could change the world. I think that we could be the body of Christ at home and beyond

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Seems like there's a good mission statement that says that

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It won't happen if we can parmark compartmentalize and pretend that being spiritual is all that matters

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Jesus

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Was to liberate you into holistic

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flourishing

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He wants to bring you into four-dimensional shalom

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not just one or two

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Don't sell yourself short and don't discount the power you have

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To be a mentor in someone else's life in one of these areas

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Would you stand with me as the worship team comes forward and we get ready to close and communicate?

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I kept the application generic because I

451
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Don't want to come up with some kind of narrow

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Legalistic idea that everybody's supposed to follow because I believe there's a teacher in your soul

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You all have access to inner lucidity if you would just begin to have the courage to question it and respond to it

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So that's what I'm gonna ask you to do is we take communion

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as we place off their music and dim the lights and we

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Come to the Lord's table and we have a moment to reflect

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Ask the Holy Spirit

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In one area of your life, do you need to seek out a guide or a mentor worth imitating?

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But don't stop there

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Ask the Holy Spirit how he's equipping you

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To be a mentor and a guide for others in some particular aspect of life that he's gifted you with wisdom