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Well, in early 2021, I was hired here at Trinity Streetsville.

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And of course, it's been awesome.

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Trinity is, I think, in a recent poll of Canadians,

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the greatest church in the world.

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I've won it hurt.

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That's what I've heard.

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I'm just telling you whatever.

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Yeah.

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But actually, starting at Trinity in 2021 was a little tricky

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because it was in the middle of the pandemic.

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And although we are super excited, there was this whole thing

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about, do we sell our house, do we buy our house,

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do we do that now, or how do we navigate that?

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And really, really, really glad that Dave Toycen

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who's here today, who was the warden at the time

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and a big help to us on the parish selection committee,

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said, Rob, don't worry about it.

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The church actually already owns a house

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that one of the previous ministers was living in.

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And you can just move into that.

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And I said, Sally, what do you think about that?

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She was like, it sounds like a good idea,

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but of course, because it's a house,

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it is going to be your home.

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You want to take a look at it first,

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and you want to make sure, because this is your home.

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You're going to be living there, right?

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And so Dave said, no problem, no problem.

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You can come by, you can take a look at it, walk through,

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and then you can decide what you want to do.

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I was super, super appreciative of that.

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So we agreed on a time.

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And a few days later, Sally and I were driving to Mississauga.

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And we wanted to get there a little ahead of Dave

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because we thought maybe be good for us

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just to get our own look at it first.

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And Dave had given us the address.

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He said it was 21 Amity Road, 21 Amity Road,

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and he would bring the keys.

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And so we drove, the GPS, we pulled up,

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we pulled up to 21 Amity Road, you guys.

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And our jaws dropped.

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Because this is 21 Amity Road.

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It was beautiful.

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It was gorgeous.

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It was landscaped lawns, beautiful rockery,

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two car garage, just a beautiful,

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is everything about it was so lovely.

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And not only that, do you know that 21 Amity Road

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backs onto the credit river?

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You have private access to the credit river.

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In fact, it has this big backyard.

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In fact, I peaked in the backyard.

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And there were unicorns running around in the backyard.

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And Sally and I, we were just like, oh my gosh,

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we only had two thoughts.

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The first thought was, this church is loaded.

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This church is absolutely loaded.

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And then our second thought was,

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we even cares about the church.

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I would take this job just for the house,

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just for the house alone.

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And so we were just, we were so enthralled.

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I think if I remember correctly,

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I scoop Sally up in my arms.

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And I said, welcome home, Melady.

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And we started walking up the steps,

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started carrying her over the threshold.

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And it was at that moment that Dave Toyson

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pulled in behind us on the curb.

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And we're like, hey, Dave, I was going,

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he's like, great, great.

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And then in a way that only Dave can say, he said, oh,

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I made a bit of a mistake.

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And it's not 21, Amity Road.

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It's 26 Amity Road.

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26, 26.

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So we turned.

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And we looked across the street.

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I think I just dropped Sally on the ground at that point.

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Because this is what we saw across the street.

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Now, OK, it didn't look quite like this.

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But that's how I remember it.

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That's how I remember the moments now, listen,

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don't get me, don't get me wrong.

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26 Amity Road was also a very fine house.

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It's the kind of house that a real estate agent would say.

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It's got good bowls, right?

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Or it's got potential.

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Or you know, just a little bit of a fixer

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proper.

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Just needs a little bit of TLC.

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And I got to tell you, for all that though, it was no 21.

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It wasn't the dream house we had hoped.

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There was no private access to the river unless you count

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the gigantic flood in the basement, right?

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And there were no unicorns in the backyard.

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Although we did find the remnants of some sort of pet

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cemetery back there that was a little bit creepy.

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But you know what, 20, 6 Amity Road has been a great place

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to call home.

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You know what?

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It did have good bones.

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It does have good bones.

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It does have potential.

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And we've even started to a few renovations there of our own

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already.

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But I have to tell you, still every morning, when I walk out

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the door, to go to work, and I look across the street,

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two thoughts count in mind.

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The first thing I say is, darn you, Dave Toyson.

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And the second thing that I say is, hi, to my neighbor over there

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at 26.

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And he's like, hello Rob, how are you?

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I'm like, I'm great.

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He says, oh, the river looks beautiful today.

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And I'm like, I'll have to take your word for it.

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That's nice.

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Have a great day, friend.

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Have a good day.

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Oh gosh, you know, I hope I'm not the only one who sometimes

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gets a little bit carried away when you start to think

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of your dream home.

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I don't know.

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You could be renting an apartment right now.

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You could be trying to save up to your first mortgage,

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or you got your first place, or wherever.

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I think all of us still do think of what the dream home would

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look like.

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The big kitchen with the double island,

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and the bedrooms with the walk-in closet,

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and the pool, and the backyard, and all these things

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that games room downstairs, all of that stuff.

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But I think the reason that we call it a dream home

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is just that it's a dream.

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It's not reality.

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We don't actually ever expect to live in a home like that.

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But today, today what we heard about is not about the home

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that you live in, or the place you call home.

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We're talking about, instead, your spiritual host, spiritual

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host, you will say, I've never heard of such a thing.

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Actually, yes, that's true.

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You might not realize this, but you actually live in two

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different homes.

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There's the home or the apartment that you're in right now.

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That's your physical home.

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But then all of us also are a spiritual home.

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We are a spiritual host.

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And you say, Rob, you've lost me, you've lost me on this.

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Well, this is where we need to just remember what Paul said.

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Paul said, hey, surely you guys know.

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You know this, right?

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Trinity that your body is actually a temple

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where the Holy Spirit lives.

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You understand you are a spiritual host that God lives in you.

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And the Bible talks all about this spiritual life,

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this spiritual home that you are.

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And actually, it's the Bible's like a real turd that's really

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desperate trying to like sell this on people,

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because the pictures of the spiritual home that you can have,

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the Bible talks about just seems so like amazing

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and such a dream house.

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Like, for example, Jesus says, hey, whoever believes in me

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as the scripture has said, there will be rivers,

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just rivers of living water flowing from within them.

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And you think, man, that's even better

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than the backing onto the credit river.

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That sounds absolutely amazing.

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Or Paul's prayer, he says, I pray that you guys

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will be filled to the fullness of God,

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accomplishing far more than you could ask or imagine.

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That sounds amazing.

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What a spiritual life that is, or Peter, Peter says,

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just, he says inside of you, that life inside of you

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just rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

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pouring out of your hearts.

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I mean, you read stuff like that.

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And you say, gosh, that is too good to be true.

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That is not where I live.

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That is not the spiritual home I live in, living water.

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No, no, no, no, my spiritual life's more like a puddle

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in the basement, right?

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That is not me.

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That this sounds like 21 amity.

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I live over at 26 amity.

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I'm not filled with indescribable and glorious joy.

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Actually, I'm kind of filled with anxiety and fear.

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And I have all these uncertainties and discontentment

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and pain and boredom in my life.

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And so we may be tempted to say, all right, fine.

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It's a dream.

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That spiritual life is like a dream home.

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You're never going to live there.

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It's great.

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Thanks, Bible, for showing me that picture.

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But that is not my reality and it never will be.

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And when we think that, then we say, basically,

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that we're only only three choices left at that point.

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You can just, it's resignation.

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You can say, this is just the reality of my spiritual life.

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I have to just suck it up and get used to it.

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There's no changing it.

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This is where I live.

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This is my life.

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Deal with it.

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Right?

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Or some people, they're not just, they don't just resign themselves.

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But they actually say, the one day, I'll be able to relocate to that great spiritual

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home when I die, when I die and go to heaven, that will be the day.

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When all these things, this glorious joy, this indescribable abundance, that will be

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the day when I'll actually be able to experience that.

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So a resignation or relocation, a lot of us kind of just put it down to those two options.

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But there is a third option.

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And the third option is Renovation.

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We can, believe it or not, Renovate our spiritual life.

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Renovation means to make new again.

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So if your spiritual house is in shambles and if the walls are crooked and the ceiling

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is caving in, it doesn't have to be that way.

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And you don't have to wait till you're dead and in heaven before you experience something

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better and an amazing spiritual life does not have to be your dream home.

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It can be your real home here and now.

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But you don't get there through resignation or relocation.

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You get there through Renovation.

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And perhaps the most important scripture that we're going to come back to again and again

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over these next five weeks is this that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation,

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the old has gone and the new has come.

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Now Paul had a couple different words he could choose when he came to that Greek word

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for new.

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He could have chosen the word Neos which basically means to kind of refer a bit or touch

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up or he said he chose a different word, Kynos.

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Kynos is more like the jaw dropping.

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Look at what you've done with the place kind of knownness.

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And that's possible for you and me.

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Do you understand what that means?

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Real spiritual change.

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Okay, it's doable for you and me.

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And it's not just for special saints or celebrity Christians that can experience this kind

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of thing.

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Look at the first word.

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If anyone is in Christ, anyone can be made new.

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But the question is how, how does this renovation take place in our hearts?

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Well that is exactly why Jesus came.

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Jesus came to accomplish the renovation of human hearts.

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I find it very interesting that Jesus' occupation, human occupation when he was on earth,

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was he was a builder, a renovator or the Bible would call him a Greek attack time.

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That's what his human job was.

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But of course, Jesus didn't come to renovate homes in first century Palestine 2000 years ago.

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No, he came primarily to renovate the hearts of people.

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You see, when Jesus wanted to change the world, he didn't start by going and trying to change

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the social structures and change the politics and change the big problems that the world was

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facing that day.

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As if somehow, then he could, you know, force change these things through like some kind

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of imposing a better world order.

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No, no, Jesus knew that the goal was instead to renovate hearts and it was out of

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renovated hearts that the world would be changed.

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And that means that the changing of the world and the changing of your life is an inside

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job.

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It is not an outside job.

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Now many people even sitting here today, some of you be like, I don't, I don't like

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teaching series like this.

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Because this is going to be way too spiritual.

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It's all about the inside, the inside.

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But Rob, I'm passionate about making a difference in the outside.

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I'm passionate about making a difference in the community and writing the wrongs of society

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and confronting injustice and transforming the world and helping kids and helping kids

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and Honduras.

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That's the kind of thing that gets me excited.

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That's the kind of thing I want to do.

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I don't really want to spend five weeks talking about all this spiritual stuff going on

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inside of me.

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But don't you understand.

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We live our lives from our hearts.

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That's where it all starts.

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The way that the world is now and the way that the world will be in the future is to a large

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degree what comes out of the depths of our being, what comes out of our hearts and our

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spirits.

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It's from our hearts that we make choices.

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It's from our hearts that our actions are spring.

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So it all starts with the hearts.

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So as you can look, the world has got famines and war and bigotry and prejudice and all

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starts suffering, but all of those things, maybe not all.

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Many of those things are the outcome of human choices which sprang from the human heart.

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That's why Dallas Willard writes, since he says, the greatest need that you and I have,

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in fact, the greatest need of all collective humanity is the Res renovation of our hearts.

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That spiritual place within you from which outlook and choices and actions come.

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That's been formed for so long by a world away from God, but now it must be transformed.

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So yes, this is going to be kind of a more spiritual teaching series, but that's exactly

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what the world needs, that's how the world is changed.

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And when we talk about renovated hearts, just to kind of make sure we're all on the same

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page, we're actually really talking about an ancient, an ancient process that has for

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millennia been known as spiritual formation. Spiritual formations, the process by which

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our inner life is remodeled and reshaped into something.

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It's reshaped into something, spiritual formation, but this is where it's really important,

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because not all renovations are the same.

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Not all remodeling are the same.

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In fact, you know this in real life, like, look at this, someone installs a faucet right

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over top of an electrical outlet.

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That's not a great renovation.

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Or how about this one, the shower that shoots into the toilet?

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I don't understand that one either, right?

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This is one that I would do, that the drawers that are like, kind of useless because you

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can't pull one or the other out.

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Or I found this famous one on the internet that somebody put shutters on their house.

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This is the famous poop house of Omaha, Nebraska, right?

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So there are good renovations and there are bad renovations.

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There is good spiritual formation that you can have, and there is some pretty nasty spiritual

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formation that you can have.

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This is the thing we have to get at.

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Every single person has been spiritually formed.

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The most wonderful and admirable people you know have been spiritually formed, and the

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most despicable people you know have also been spiritually formed that way.

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Terrorists have gone through a spiritual formation, but so have saints.

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So the question is not, you know, can we have a spiritual formation?

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The question is, we need a certain person to do this formation, and we need it to be to a certain

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end.

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So we don't just need our renovation done by anyone.

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We need it done by God himself.

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God himself, the spirit of God working in our hearts as the general contractor, if you

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will.

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And we don't just want to be formed into anything.

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We actually, the goal of spiritual formation is to be remodeled into the likeness of Jesus

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Christ himself.

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Here's where we often stumble though, because when I say the goal is to be remodeled into

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the life of Jesus, so you look more like Jesus, we think of just doing a big patch job.

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Here's your wall.

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The wall's got a great big crack in it, so you think, okay, we'll just wall paper over

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that.

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There's a lot better, but of course that doesn't get to the problem.

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We really wanted to get to the problem.

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You're going to have to rip down the wall, rip down the drywall, figure out what the problem

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was in the first place, and then rebuild the whole thing.

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And in the same way, spiritual renovation cannot just be like wall papering over our lives

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and acting a certain way or saying things a certain way, behaving a certain way, praying

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a certain way, and think, now I'm more like Jesus.

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It's just wall papering over the problem.

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And Jesus warned people again and again, this is not how spiritual formation works.

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In fact, once when he was talking to the Pharisees, he said, you know what you guys are like?

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You guys are just like, you're like a cup or a saucer, and you're really good at cleaning

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the outside of the cup or saucer, but inside it's filthy.

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And no one would ever want to drink anything out of it.

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Or he does, again, he says, you know what you guys are like, you guys are like a tomb,

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but it's been painted up so very nice on the outside.

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It looks beautiful, but it's a tomb.

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And inside it is full of bones and it is full of filth.

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It is no good Jesus says to just look good on the outside.

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Oh, it made full people and you may even fool yourself that look, I have been spiritually

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formed.

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I'm doing really, really good, but I'll tell you, there's only a matter of time to those

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pipes in the wall, burst, and the wall crumbles down, and we are all exposed for what

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is really going on inside of us.

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Jesus, Jesus is an interested in behavioral modification.

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He's interested in spiritual renovation.

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So this summer, I got a bit of reading for you.

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You've heard me mention Dallas Willard already once or twice.

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He's written a lot of great books in his life.

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He passed away, but this one is kind of an category of its own.

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It's called, wouldn't you know it, renovation of the heart.

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And we're going to be referring to this book a lot throughout the summer, over the next

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throughout the next few weeks, I shouldn't say all summer.

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So I would encourage you to grab a copy of this, you can get an audio book, you know,

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get the one for your co-bow or your Kindle or whatever that case may be and read along.

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Because here's where we're going.

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We are going to move into your hearts, into my hearts, and we are going to go through

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our hearts almost like room by room and see the renovating work that needs to take place

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inside of us.

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So for example, in a couple of weeks, we're going to start by moving into one room, and

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that's our minds and our thoughts.

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Because the way we think and the way the images we have in our minds and the ideas that

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we build our life on as a huge part of who we are spiritually.

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And sometimes those ideas need to be blown up and rebuilt, we need to renew our minds.

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Secondly, we're going to move into another room where we're going to start to deal with

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our feelings.

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And you might say, Rob, there's no changing feelings.

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The way I feel is the way I feel it.

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Can't be changed, actually not true.

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Spiriously speaking, our even our feelings can be renovated and need to be renovated.

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And then we're going to move into another room.

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And this is the room that, as all involved with our will and the choices that we make in life,

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we need to realize that the choices we make have a big impact on the people we become spiritually

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speaking.

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And then, of course, relationships have another huge bearing on our spiritual life.

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So we'll move into another room later on down now, we're in July by the time we get here.

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But we're going to talk about how to restore relationships and how those can just make

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our spiritual life thrive.

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And of course, though next week, Eric Han's going to be preaching.

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And she's going to remind us that, hey, renovations are expensive.

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Any home renovations expensive, as many of you will know, and the renovation of our hearts also

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has a cost to it.

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Are you willing to pay the cost?

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And so we're going to talk about counting the cost of renovations.

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Just a fun little side thing.

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As we're doing this series, at the very same time, Scott and Libby, so Libby are worshiped

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with your Scott, who is on drums this morning, are actually in the middle of a massive

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renovation in their own home right now.

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And we thought it'd be fun to, as we go through these weeks, to keep checking in with them.

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And so I just want to show you a little video.

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We went down there just as they were getting started.

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A bunch of church friends showed up.

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I must say, I seem to be the only one who dressed for the park.

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But anyways, here's where their renovation got started.

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Alright everybody, so here I am with a proud home owner.

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Libby, my grass.

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Libby, how are you feeling today?

404
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I excited, excited.

405
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Yeah, and well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well what kind

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it comes here?

407
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Well, I think it's a good opportunity for our families to be able to just share this space together

408
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To be good for my dad

409
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Is good to get for us and pretty kids first all be able to be together

410
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This project kind of overwhelmed you to get stressed out by this oh

411
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Yeah, we said it with the idea of the house and I'm stressed out with the reality of the house

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It's a lot of work. We have another house. We have kids who are in school and programs and what is it that you really love to

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I just love that there's room for everybody here and that we can throw into it

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So as we move into different stages that are coming in the future, right?

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That we'll be able to handle those things in the house. We'll support that right now

416
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I'm standing here with the homeowner himself, Mr. Scott McLeod

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You got yourself a bit of a fixer up right here a little bit more of a tear down or yeah

418
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Yeah, so tell me what's the plan of attack?

419
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That's right Peter start somewhere and pull stuff out

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Okay, and so what room are you working on here? This is gonna be this will be my parents sweet

421
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So this will be one of their spaces

422
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Okay, we touched that yeah, so how long do you think a job like this is gonna take the pads?

423
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Yeah, 10 so many volunteers from the church we got

424
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Some big job

425
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Let's get robbed to take down some

426
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She's right, so already for you rock. Absolutely. Here we go. All right

427
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Take the camera

428
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All right

429
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Here we go, I can just go right through here

430
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Load bearing wall to gonna get my hands dirty a little bit today

431
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Gonna show you some proper technique for the taking down of dry wall and demolition. Here we go

432
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Fun

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That is how we do that

434
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There you go

435
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So

436
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Just I just an ending today. Here's a few takeaways. I think we can take away from Scott and Libby's renovation

437
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That will help us with our own heart renovation the first is this the biggest step to make in a home renovation is making the decision

438
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Committing to actually doing it you may dream about doing it you may talk about doing it

439
00:23:54,040 --> 00:24:01,480
You may really want to do it, but until you actually pick up that sledjamer and start swinging you haven't really got going or you may

440
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:07,280
Been procrastinating doing this say one day will get around to the kitchen one day will get around to doing this bathroom

441
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But we never get around to it. So so the thing is as this video made clear

442
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You've got to commit and believe me Scott and Libby they pass the point of no return

443
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They are all in they have committed it to this process and the same thing happens in your heart

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There it begins with a commitment in your heart to say Jesus Jesus begin this renovation

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It begins with almost a prayer like this from Psalm 37 commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will do it

446
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Do you know how you tell if somebody on your street is serious about a renovation?

447
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Right the dumpster shows up on the driveway and then the safety fence goes up and then the porta potty gets plunked in the front yard

448
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And it's then that the neighbors say, oh

449
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Ooh, they're serious about this. They're gonna do something over there and the same is true in our lives

450
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Certain things just indicate that we're getting serious

451
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We commit to prayer and to study and to being in worship and to confession and to being part of a community and when people see that in your life

452
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They say, ooh, ooh, they're serious about this spiritual renovation

453
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So don't just talk about it. Don't just put it off. Are you ready to commit to a heart renovation?

454
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If so please just join us over these next five weeks and begin that process

455
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The second thing that we learned from Libby and Scott's video there is that we need to ask for help

456
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I mean you saw all the the folks from Trinity running around there helping them out

457
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I mean there have been many home renovation DIY people who have said oh my gosh

458
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I realize now I cannot do this alone

459
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Spiritual renovation is not a DIY project. We cannot do it alone

460
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We need help from each other. That's why here at Trinity. We're always encouraging people be part of a group

461
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Be part of a life group because the spiritual work that God wants to do in our lives best

462
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Happens when we're in community together, but we also need to ask help from God because God is the one doing that

463
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renovation work with in us. It's a spirit driven

464
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Process so again

465
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Renovation of the heart begins with a prayer where we're inviting God to do this work

466
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Search me God

467
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No my heart test me. No my thoughts God point out anything in here that

468
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Offends you and lead me in the way of ever lasting life. Are you ready to pray a prayer like this?

469
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Can you pray a prayer like this?

470
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Trust Jesus the master builder, but but it begins with

471
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Inviting people into that process and inviting a God into that process. The third thing is is actually I think to prepare for the

472
00:26:52,780 --> 00:26:58,260
worst now having asked Scott and Libby how things are going down there, but my hunch is that once they got into it

473
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They realized that things were not quite as simple as they thought there's always a surprise

474
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There's always something that it's it's probably worse than it looks is the way it goes with renovations and the problems are probably bigger than you think and

475
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When we undertake a spiritual renovation in our lives we may

476
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We need to be ready. It's gonna be worse than it looks in many ways

477
00:27:20,260 --> 00:27:25,940
The problems inside of us are bigger than we first think you might want to minimize those sins in your life

478
00:27:25,940 --> 00:27:32,460
You might want to overlook the problems or you know, oh my anger issues. I don't really that that's that's easy

479
00:27:32,460 --> 00:27:38,300
We can do that later or my insecurity. That's an easy fix or it's no big deal my addiction

480
00:27:38,300 --> 00:27:44,600
But chances are it's worse. It's worse than it looks and it's gonna require more work than you think

481
00:27:45,380 --> 00:27:49,460
Tim Keller that amazing pastor who passed away just a couple weeks ago

482
00:27:49,620 --> 00:27:55,020
Said this the gospel is this we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves

483
00:27:55,020 --> 00:27:58,540
Then we ever dared believe and yet at the very same time

484
00:27:58,780 --> 00:28:03,020
We are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared

485
00:28:03,420 --> 00:28:08,580
Imagine prepare for the worst go deep go deep and

486
00:28:08,980 --> 00:28:15,860
Finally take your time, you know these are renovations we're talking about and very rarely does a renovation finish on time

487
00:28:15,860 --> 00:28:18,780
Our finish on schedule usually it takes way longer than you think

488
00:28:18,780 --> 00:28:22,420
I don't know when Scott and Libya are anticipating theirs will be done by my hunches

489
00:28:22,420 --> 00:28:27,940
It'll take longer than they thought and they'll probably still be working on things long after they've moved into the house

490
00:28:28,140 --> 00:28:32,780
Still working on it and renovating our lives takes a lifetime

491
00:28:33,100 --> 00:28:40,580
We decide to begin this work today, but we'll be doing it until the day we die and yet here's the wonderful thing

492
00:28:41,380 --> 00:28:42,980
Every day

493
00:28:42,980 --> 00:28:47,860
The restored beauty of our lives will become more evident to us and

494
00:28:47,860 --> 00:28:55,220
To others as our heart becomes a more beautiful dwelling place for God's spirit

495
00:28:56,340 --> 00:28:58,340
So on that note

496
00:28:59,140 --> 00:29:01,140
We're all fix our upper

497
00:29:01,380 --> 00:29:09,700
But real transformation is possible your dream house doesn't have to be a dream it can be a reality the old is gone the new has come

498
00:29:09,700 --> 00:29:11,380
So why not begin today?

499
00:29:11,380 --> 00:29:14,540
Jesus comes to you today with the blue prints in hand

500
00:29:14,540 --> 00:29:19,860
Already to teach us new ways of thinking new ways of choosing new ways of feeling new attitudes

501
00:29:19,860 --> 00:29:22,580
So make the decision ask for help

502
00:29:22,820 --> 00:29:30,340
Be prepared to go deep and take your time because yes renovations like this are lengthy and they can sometimes be painful

503
00:29:31,180 --> 00:29:34,180
But in the end nothing is more rewarding

504
00:29:34,180 --> 00:29:45,060
So thanks be to God, Amen