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Welcome to the Harvest Center.

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We are glad you are here today.

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Good morning, good morning everyone.

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Nice to see you in church today.

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I hope you're all doing well.

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I hope your heart is in a good place today, ready to receive something from God.

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Psalm 122 says, I rejoice with those who say, let us go into the house of the Lord.

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What's your attitude today?

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Is there joy in your heart because you're here worshiping God?

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Or was like, oh, today's Sunday, we go to church because it's Sunday.

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Is your heart rejoicing because you are in the house of the Lord today?

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Amen.

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What a wonderful thing, church.

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We can actually boldly approach the throne of God without any blame.

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And you know why we can do that?

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Because Christ has given His life for us.

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Why don't we give a round of applause to our Lord Jesus.

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Let's praise Him because He is good.

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He has good plans for our life and we can boldly approach His presence because of what

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He has done for us.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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I want to say something, you know, when it comes to, you know, when I was speaking about

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the importance for the children to see, you know, Sunday we go to church.

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And the reason why it's important is because, you know, they understand that, okay, when

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a parent set a clear boundary, they understand the reason for that, something important.

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And I want to encourage all the parents here and those who are listening to learn how to

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establish clear boundaries with your children because you know better, you know, supposedly

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of what they know.

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And you know, we live in a world where they say, we say, you know, children needs to be

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affirmed.

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I'm kind of growing scared of this word whenever I hear it.

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Children needs to be affirmed when they do good things and when there are things that

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are worthy to be praised.

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We need to be affirmed, but they need as well to see clear boundaries when, you know, they

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need to maybe something they cannot grasp completely, but they will understand the boundaries.

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I couldn't understand why my parents every Sunday was church day.

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I couldn't understand why.

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It was like, okay, there must be something important about going to church.

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And the boundary that I set, you know, in our family, that was actually what brought

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me to consider the greatness of God.

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So do not be afraid, you know, to establish boundaries.

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You know, the children will do what they see.

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So if you want your boys to grow up and to become one day a man who will love and, you

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know, a woman that will get together and get married, then you got to love your wife.

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They will see how you treat your wife.

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They will be treating their wives.

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And if you've got girls that will grow, you know, you want them to grow up and to be,

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you know, accomplished in life and in family as well, you know, within the family, teach

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them, show them as well how, you know, how you relate with your husband, how you speak

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to him, because the children look at what we do at home.

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They look at the boundaries.

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They look at the behavior of the parents and they understand, you know, what is important,

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what is not important.

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They will replicate what they see around them.

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So I want to encourage all the parents here.

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I know sometimes it's difficult because it seems that, you know, you try to explain something

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that not always the children are able to understand, you know, why I cannot watch that.

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Why is it wrong to spend, you know, three hours doing something, you know?

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And sometimes it's difficult to explain, but still, you know, the boundary should stay

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in place, yeah?

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Just learn how to, you know, direct the children, your children, the way the Bible says, you

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know, to show the way that, you know, to show God's way to your children, they will not,

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you know, depart from it.

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So just want to encourage all of you, you know, as you, parenting is not easy, but,

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you know, we've got a great task, another honorable task that God has given us.

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Sorry, I'm all into parenting, maybe because I've seen my parents this week, so it just

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brought me back so many memories, but hey, oh, encouraging.

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You feel like God is calling us to believe this morning.

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You know, I don't know what you're facing, but God is calling us to believe.

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I'm reminded of the story in the Bible of the twelve spies.

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You might not know the story, but when the people of Israel, when they left the slavery

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for a little while, they walked through the desert and then God brought them to the border

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of the promised land.

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And I don't know if you've ever asked yourself this question, why did God ask Moses to send

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out the twelve spies?

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Why did he ask him to send them out?

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Because there are so many situations in the Bible where God wanted people to just trust

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blindly, you know, like, you know, this is where you've got to go and, you know, just

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believe me and I'll take you there and I'll bring you through and miracles happen.

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But in this case, God did not ask them to believe blindly.

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Now, I find that really interesting.

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He said, bring me twelve leaders of Israel, you know, twelve leaders of Israel, right?

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People who have experience, people have experience in faith, who have walked with God, who have

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been, you know, who have ticked certain boxes to become a leader and to lead people.

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And those twelve people, their job was to go, to cross the border and to go and to explore

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the promised land and to bring back a report.

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And twelve of them go in, explore and they see that the land is good, right?

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And the message here is that what God wants to give us is good.

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The promised land is good.

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And they come back and only two of them say, let's do it.

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Because they see, they don't just see the good bits, they also see there are giants

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in the land and there are fortified and strong cities in the land.

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And, you know, I don't know if you've ever asked yourself a question, why did God want

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them to go and see this reality?

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Because sometimes faith is not just about believing in a blind way and trusting God

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that he will bring us through.

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Sometimes in our walk with God, he wants us to believe beyond the problem and he wants

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us to see the promise.

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Now if you think about your own life, there is a promised land for your own life.

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There's a promised land for my life and there is a promised land for your, for your life.

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And what is the promised land?

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The promise of God for your life is that you're going to have a fruitful life and a satisfactory

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life, right?

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That's not to be mistaken.

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Sometimes we misinterpret it and we think the promised land is about prosperity and

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an easy life.

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That's not what it is.

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The promised land, your promised land for your life is a fruitful land and a satisfactory

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life, right?

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And yet God allows those twelve leaders to see the giants and to see the problems and

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to see the difficulties because he wants their faith to go up a level and he wants them to

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believe beyond the problem.

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And I just feel like God is calling us today to believe beyond the problem.

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You know when the problem is right in your face like this, that's all you see is the

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problem.

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You can't see beyond.

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But today God is calling us to see beyond what's right in our face.

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He wants us to believe for the promise.

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Good to see you all.

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Are you ready for the word of God today?

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Some of you are, some of you aren't sure.

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But we're going to have a good time.

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I was going to thank Hannah for the word but she's not here.

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It's a great word.

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You know the spies went out and they all saw the giants so they all had this very natural

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reaction but only two of them changed how they felt afterwards.

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And that's what my sermon is about.

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It's called It's Only Natural.

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It's only natural.

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Now when things come we respond in a very human way because that's what we are.

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Before we go on let's pray.

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God we thank you that you made us how we are and you don't expect us to live as robots

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Lord but as human flesh and blood.

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But we need to get your view on things Lord.

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So I just pray today for this word Lord that it would help someone today just to be able

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to change the way they're natural into their supernatural.

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Amen.

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So it's a week after Easter.

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I thought I'd get one more.

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Oh she's back.

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I thought I'd get one more.

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Squeeze one more sermon out of some Easter stuff just after the resurrection stuff.

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So tell me the meter Mark 16 starting at verse one.

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Now when the Sabbath was passed Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought

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spices that they might come and anoint him.

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Very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to the tomb and the

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sun had risen and they said to themselves who will roll away the stone for the door

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of the tomb for us.

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But when they looked up they saw that the stone had been rolled away and for it was

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large and entering the tomb they saw a young man clothed in white robes sitting on the

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right side and they were alarmed.

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Now I've got to adjust to the big writing.

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That was their custom and tradition to go when somebody had been buried and take all

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these spices so they'd obviously been preparing them all and they were expecting to find,

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I mean they were more worried about somebody rolling the stone away than they were about

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anything else.

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They were very much in the natural and they were expecting to find a decaying body smelling,

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stinking after three days but they didn't.

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But it was only natural for them to respond like that.

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See we all have a natural response but our natural response needs to be followed by something

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else.

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Their natural response got in the way of their expectation.

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It was a natural to do the traditions.

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It was a natural to be emotional in the moment, in the sorrow and the mourning.

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But our natural response needs to be changed into supernatural expectation.

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Luke 24, 9-12.

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Then they returned from the tomb and told these things to the eleven and to all the

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rest.

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It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women who were with

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them who told these things to the apostles.

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And the words seemed like idle tales and they did not believe them.

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But Peter rose and ran to the tomb and stooping down he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves

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and departed, marvelling to himself at what had happened.

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So here we have these three ladies.

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They've come back from the tomb, Mary, Mary and Joanna and the others that were with them.

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So that's at least five, it's probably more.

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So five ladies all come and give this report.

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They've been to the tomb, had an encounter with angels, then rushed back and told everybody

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what they had seen and what they had heard.

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And the disciples said, what absolute rubbish.

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What absolute tosh.

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What are you thinking?

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What a story.

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What nonsense it says in the NIV.

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What a silly story it says in the easy version.

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They didn't believe a word of it.

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Even though Jesus had told them in the gospels on several occasions that the son of man must

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die and in three days he will rise.

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See, it's only natural for them to think that way.

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It's their natural reaction when things don't make sense.

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Their intellect couldn't get round what had happened.

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Our intellect will keep us from receiving the things of God.

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It will stop our initial step of faith.

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Our human reaction to the unbelievable is not to believe.

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It's our natural reaction.

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It's only natural to be like that.

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John 20, 19 and 20.

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He's skipping around a few scriptures, but you're all right with that, aren't you?

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In the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut,

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that should be an NIV up there, it will say locked in the NIV, and the disciples were

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assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them.

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Peace be with you, he said.

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When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, then the disciples were

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glad when they saw Jesus.

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So disciples, they've been with Jesus for three years.

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They have had fantastic teaching.

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They've seen numerous marvellous miracles.

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They had a testimony of these ladies who had come back and shared, and John and another

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disciple had actually been to the tomb and seen that it was empty and marvelled at what

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was going on.

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I'd be absolutely buzzing and excited, wouldn't you?

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And where were these 11?

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They were in a room with the door locked because they were fearful.

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They were fearful in that situation.

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They were afraid.

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Again, it's only natural when we're in situations like that to be fearful.

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It's a natural occurrence.

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It's our normal response to threat.

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If I was to come up and threaten Sam, Anna would jump in front and speak to me in German

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and I'd run away.

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But it's our natural response, isn't it?

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If we let it, fear will keep us locked in like the disciples and unable to move.

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It's said that we have two responses to fear, flight, which is running away, or fight.

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If you face it, it may beat you down, and if you run from it, you'll always be fearful.

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When I was at school, it was a snowy day, and I'd picked up this snowball, and the snow

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was getting a little bit hard, and I just launched it up into the air as high as I could.

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And it happened to hit one of those, one of those boys, the big guy who was in the swimming

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club that was V-shaped, you know, and had the skinny waist and the big shoulders.

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As he was running, it came down and he went, it's quite a good sound effect, it's quite

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high, hit him right in the head, and he came after me.

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And I ran, and I ran, and I ran, and being small and nippy, I managed to get away from

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him.

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But after school, I knew what was going to happen.

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The crowd gathered, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, and I couldn't run anymore.

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So I knew if I fought back, I'd probably get more of a beating than if I'd have just ran,

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ran.

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So I did this.

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I stood in front of him, fist clenched, he hit me twice and knocked me down, and I got

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up, looked him in the eye, and walked away.

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So I thought that was almost like the story.

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It was semi-surrender.

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I was looking the palm, but not.

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Jesus, that's our strategy Jesus gives us.

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We don't fight, we don't fight, we surrender.

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Not to the fear, but we surrender to him.

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And when we surrender to him, we overcome.

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John 20, 24, just down the bottom of that page if you're using your Bible.

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Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

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The other disciples therefore said to him, we have seen the Lord.

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He said to them, unless I see his hands and the print of the nails and put my finger into

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the print of his nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

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And after eight days, the disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.

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Jesus came, the doors being shut and stood in the midst of them.

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Hang on a minute.

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They've already seen Jesus.

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The doors are still locked.

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See fear will have a real grip on you, won't it?

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They've seen Jesus after his resurrection.

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He's spoken to them, they've spoken with him, they were happy to see him.

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And the doors are still locked because they're scared.

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What's going on?

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But it's just natural because they don't understand what's going on.

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Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here, look at my hands and reach your hand

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here and put it in my side.

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Do not be unbelieving but believing.

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Thomas must have thought that the disciples were playing some sort of prank or something.

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All of them were saying the same thing, but he had this doubt.

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Have you ever been in a situation like that where someone, lots of people agree and you're

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like, no, I'm not sure about that.

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Sounds a bit weird, sounds a bit strange.

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He's probably looking for the hidden camera in the corner.

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My hair is in my eyes.

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This, like that.

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Dictionary definition of doubt, a feeling of uncertainty, not being convinced, a lack

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of conviction.

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James 1, 6 and 7, I don't think I gave you, so you just have to trust me, says this, let

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him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and

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tossed by the wind.

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For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

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He is double minded and unstable in all his ways.

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Doubt is only natural.

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Even when many believe doubt will bring confusion, not clarity.

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There's a man walking on a mountain, good Christian man, enjoying the weather, the views,

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enjoying creation and he's so busy looking around that he slips and falls off the edge.

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But like in all those good movies, he grabs hold of a branch and he's hanging there and

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he's hanging there and he starts crying out, God, God, God, please help me.

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And God says, I'm here, just let go and I'll catch you.

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And he's like, no.

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And he's hanging there and his arm's getting tired and he says, God, God, please help me.

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And God says, I'm here, I am here, trust me, just let go and I'll catch you.

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And he hangs on and goes, oh, is there anybody else?

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We often get in situations where our natural takes over and we can't let go.

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Where trials and troubles come and we react naturally but we can't get past our humanness.

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It's absolutely fine to react in those ways, to be in tradition like the ladies went and

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not have the expectation.

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It's absolutely fine to think before we act but that sometimes gets in the way.

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It's absolutely fine to be fearful.

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It's absolutely fine to have doubts but we need to get beyond our initial reactions.

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It's what we do next after our initial response that really matters.

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But how?

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I hear you say, well, I could give you scriptures and scriptures and scriptures but how?

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How?

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Scorches will give you insight but I want to bring something practical for you to help

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you and it involves doing something very, very easy.

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Looking first of all, look up.

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A lot of our time is spent looking down.

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In fact, some of you are looking down at your phones or your tablets or your Bibles or your

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books, even when you're eating a meal, you're looking down.

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We spend a lot of time looking down.

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Trouble is when we're looking down, we can only see what's in front of us.

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Psalm 121, verse 1 and 2 says this, I will lift up my eyes to the hills.

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From whence comes my help?

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My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

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From the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

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You see, when you look up, what happens?

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You look up, you see the creation around you or the creation around you and you start going,

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wow.

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You see the creation and then you see the creator.

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You see your source.

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You see, when you look up, your breathing changes because you're not like this.

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So your posture changes.

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Your countenance then changes because you're thinking, oh, that's better.

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I can see my source.

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I know what's going on.

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Your focus changes from what's in front of you to him.

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So firstly, look up.

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So right now, if you are in a situation, if you're feeling anxiety or anything, look up.

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Look up and see God.

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Next one.

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You can only do this if you've looked up because that gets your initial focus off of what?

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All these other ones, you can only do them after you've looked up because you've got

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to get your focus off of what's going on and on to God.

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Look in.

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Look at your heart.

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Psalm 139, 23 and 24.

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Search me, oh God, and know my heart.

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Try me and know my anxieties and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me to the

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way everlasting.

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See, God's not only in creation and up, he's everywhere and he's in here.

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So when you look in at your heart, you can look into the Holy Spirit.

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Ask him to search you.

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Ask him to reveal sin in your life.

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Ask him to reveal things that you don't know about that's making you anxious.

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Look in.

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Often we get ourselves in places that we're not supposed to be, where we're fearful and

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scared because we're just not in the right place ourselves.

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Because there's sin and we end up moving away from God.

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Look in.

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Look in ourselves through the eyes of the Holy Spirit so that we can see our sin.

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And after that, look back.

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Look back to the cross.

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Look back to the cross of Jesus.

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John 1, 29, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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When we have found sin in our lives, we need to be clean.

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We should look back to the cross where we can be cleaned and freed.

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So so far, we've looked up, we've looked in.

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We've looked back at God's saving and cleansing provision of Jesus.

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And if you're still like Thomas, if you're still doubting, then look around.

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Look around for those that have been struggling and have come through.

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Revelations 12, 11 says, they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their

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testimony in their love, not their lives, even unto the death.

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Look for people who have a testimony that can encourage you to believe.

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You know, God put people there.

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He knows what you're going through.

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He's not going to leave you on your own.

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Look for people that have a testimony that can encourage you to believe, a testimony

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to help you through.

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And if you don't think you're going through anything, then look for someone that you can

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testify to.

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That's why we gather together as well, not just for God, not just to be a family, not

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just to worship, but because we have something to give to somebody else.

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And when we come.

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So tradition will keep you in the past and stop your expectation.

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Your intellect will stop your next step and will stop you from knowing the mind of Christ.

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Fear will keep you locked in and debilitated.

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And doubt will confuse you and keep you confused.

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But when we look in, look up, look in, look back, and look around, then we can look forward

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to our destiny and our calling and everything that God has for us.

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So let's stand.

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If you can stand, stand.

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If you can't, look up.

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I want us all to look up and see our God and see our maker.

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And then when you've done that, just take some time to look in.

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Because I want you to leave here changed.

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I want you to leave here different.

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When you've done that, look back at the cross.

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Look back at the cross.

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And when we've finished here, if you're still doubting, look for someone.

394
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Share it with someone.

395
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Share it with Sam if you're struggling.

396
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Share it with me or somebody else.

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Share it with someone.

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Don't walk out with it.

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And then we can bring a testimony to release.

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And finally, right now, if you don't know where you're going, if you don't know what

401
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your destiny is, if you don't know that there's a heaven to have and a hell to run away from,

402
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if you don't know that you can focus on your destiny and your calling, again, make it known

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to someone.

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If you want to receive Jesus as your Savior, come speak to us.

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We'll help you on your first steps.

406
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Let's pray.

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Father God, we just thank you, Lord, that you make us flesh and blood.

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And so often we get our reactions wrong.

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And so often our reactions are very human, and that's what we should be, Lord.

410
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But Father, help us to take our eyes off of the natural after and switch it to the supernatural,

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Lord Jesus.

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Because when the supernatural is here, when we can see what God can do, when we can see

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what you can do, Lord, then things change.

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Then faith arises.

415
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Then hope comes.

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So Father God, I pray today you'd bring hope to the hopeless, Lord.

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You'd let faith arise and let our enemies be scattered, Lord Jesus.

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And let you be glorified in Jesus' name.

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Amen.