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You can have all of me

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And face in the little peace

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You can have it all

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Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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To get connected or to give online,

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go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.

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If at any point during this message

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you feel called to make a change in your life,

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text changeme to 970-00.

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Thank you and enjoy the message.

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It feels good to not be the only knucklehead in this building.

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Hey, good morning guys, welcome.

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Is this your first time in the building?

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Can I tell you that you are a blessing to us?

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And I just want to welcome you from the bottom of my heart.

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You now that you showed up today

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are a part of this crazy family.

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Whether you're here in person or you're watching online,

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maybe you're on a jet ski in the middle of the lake,

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just thank you for joining us.

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Before we start,

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Chris and Jess are headed on vacation.

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They're taking a much needed rest, some sabbatical.

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And what I want to do is just spend a minute

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just praying over them.

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And we're going to do that together in a moment,

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but I want you to consider,

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to be a lead pastor of any church is no small feat.

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And the bigger the church gets, the more stress,

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the more things that you have to figure out.

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So what we want to do is we want to pray Chris up,

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we want to pray Jess up,

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and we just want to ask God to give them

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the wisdom that they need,

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the direction that they need to lead us.

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Because if it's not for Chris and Jess being obedient to God

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about 17 years ago,

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none of us are here worshiping Jesus

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and being able to party like Jesus partied.

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Okay, so if you would, just put your hands out with me,

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join me in prayer just lifting them up.

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Come, Holy Spirit.

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God, I thank you.

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I thank you for putting leaders in our lives,

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mentors in our lives.

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Chris and Jess and anyone else who's a mentor,

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we just thank you.

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We honor them.

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We ask God that as they are able to take a rest,

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to take this sabbatical over these next couple days,

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that you really speak to them,

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that you really give them direction,

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but most importantly, that they are able to just lean

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into the love that Jesus has for them

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and rest their bodies.

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And I pray that for all the rest of us,

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that we can just lean into the love that Jesus has for us.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Now, some of you have been around for quite a while,

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and you know that about two years ago,

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when Chris was on vacation in August,

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Carl and Rhett, our worship team leaders,

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did this cool little podcasty conversation.

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They didn't use a couch,

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but similar to what you're about to see.

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We got such great responses from that

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over the past couple years

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that we decided to turn it into an entire series

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called One-on-One Conversations,

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Conversations on the Couch.

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So you're gonna see, since the big cat is away,

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Rudy and the other leaders are gonna play

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the next couple weeks and switch things up.

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So if this is your first time, again, thanks for coming,

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but we do not always bring out a couch and get comfortable.

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Right?

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But you're gonna see that today.

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But there's two things I want you to keep in mind

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both today and throughout the rest of the series.

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The first thing is this.

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How many of you loved house parties last week, last month?

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Hanging out, partying?

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Because like we said, Jesus loves to party, right?

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Now, what we want to do is we want to encourage you

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to keep those parties going.

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But what happens is, once you're around people for so long,

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you start to develop more meaningful relationships

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where you can have discussions like the discussions

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that we're gonna model for you here on the couch.

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So keep that in mind.

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Keep partying, but know, partying might look like a cup of coffee

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instead of a red solo cup.

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Right?

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And then the other thing we really want you to understand,

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I want to break down some Christianese for you.

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You have two words that you hear thrown around all the time

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in churches, your testimony and your witness.

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And oftentimes we take those two words

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and we use them interchangeably, right?

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But there is a difference.

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Your testimony is your personal story.

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Thank you.

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I know I've only been not teaching for a year and a half,

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but your own personal story, right?

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That's your testimony.

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Your testimony is this is the heathen that I was.

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This is how I met Jesus.

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And this is how my life is so much different

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now that I'm in a relationship with him.

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That is your testimony.

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But let's not get confused testimony with your witness

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because your witness is a little bit different.

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Your witness is how you live your life day in and day out.

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Are you connected to God?

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When you walk out of this building,

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do you sever ties with Jesus and live your own life?

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Because trust me, people want to know your story

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when you're connected to God.

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But if you're not acting in such a way,

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they don't care about your story.

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So keep that in mind as we sit

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and we have these conversations over the next month,

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what it looks like to have a witness and a testimony,

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what it looks like to party

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and to have one-on-one relationships,

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one-on-one conversations.

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Now, are you ready for this?

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Because I'm about to bring out somebody that some of you know,

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some of you hold dear to your hearts.

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I still consider this man my pastor.

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This gentleman was the very first paid employee

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that wasn't named Schlatterbeck at this church.

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This gentleman was the first assistant pastor,

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assistant to the lead pastor at Hub City Vineyard.

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And again, we have a very iron sharpens iron relationship

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that we want to exhibit that for you today.

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So if you would put your hands together,

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help me welcome Mr. Matt Walker.

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Applause

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When I walked out, they just looked at me like,

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who's this knucklehead?

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You get a huge almost standing ovation.

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Well, you know, it's the purple couch

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and everybody knows I'm a Ravens fan.

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Cheers!

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Carrie, I'm going to need you to get all of my black and gold paraphernalia.

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I'm going to need you to bring my terrible towel,

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my stealer's blanket,

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and every single piece of stealer's clothing that I have

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so I can put it on.

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This is like, yeah, you just called her with the safe word.

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He's bringing up the Ravens.

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No, as I said in the first service, this feels very Prince.

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Like, I feel like I should have a blouse on.

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A flouse.

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I feel like I should have doves.

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This is what it sounds like when doves cry.

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That's my tryout rep for the worship team.

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Call me.

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Speaking of, listen, we have scripted this a little bit,

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but we also want to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you today.

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So while it's scripted, we're probably going to go off script.

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I don't know, I was on vacation a couple weeks ago

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and I kind of got thrown under the bus

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because Chris and I had an audition tape

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that you guys might have heard singing Let It Go.

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I mean...

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And for some reason,

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I'm not on the front line singing today.

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I don't understand.

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I just, you know, I just...

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There's no, there's absolutely no reason

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why you shouldn't be up here in your Olaf costume singing every Sunday.

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Where's Carl?

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I feel like that's where we should be.

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But, you know, there is a reason, too.

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The couch is special, right?

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It's not, and I'm not talking about this particular couch.

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I'm just talking about the idea behind the couch.

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Hub City Vineyard, in its purest form,

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is meant to be like a living room.

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I know it's hard to think in that way and kind of envision that

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because, you know, there's a ton of seats out here

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and there's a stage now and there's lights and all types of stuff.

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But the whole idea between what could be church

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and what, you know, the vision behind Hub City Vineyard was

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was to have that welcoming spirit of a living room.

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That people would walk in, you'd share a cup of coffee,

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share how your week was going.

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You'd bump into them during the week at the grocery store.

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You'd go to a small group together.

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That you'd be texting one another.

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So this whole idea of a living room is intentional.

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And so I think that that's why this series is so good

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because it really distills down that feeling of being in a living room

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and sharing conversations.

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I mean, Rudy and I have done this in living rooms together, you know.

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So we're doing a message, but it also kind of is

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what we're comfortable with as well.

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So that's one of the reasons why we wanted to do this series

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is to really hearken back to that idea of living room and how we are.

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And I know it's cliched.

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I know it's cliched to say we're family.

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But that's the feeling that we want to get from one another

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is that family atmosphere.

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Right.

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Now, we do want to be careful because if you know either Matt or I,

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you know that we could talk all day.

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And at some point you guys are going to get lunch.

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So we're going to jump into our points.

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And if you read your bulletin, if you read the email that came out the other day,

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you know that today we're talking about failure.

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So if this is your first time, hey, guess what?

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We're talking about failure.

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In fact, point one says failure is inevitable.

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So thank you for joining us.

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We're going to fill you full of joy, full of failure.

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It's a hit of the summer, failure, right?

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It's that fine transition that we made from party time, P-A-T-R-Y,

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because we got to failure.

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We're going hard in the paint on point one.

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And we've chosen a particular scripture to share with you with this point

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because when you read that point of failure is inevitable,

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you're like, oh, what am I in for?

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But there is goodness that we want to share with you

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and importance that we want to share with you.

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John 16, 33, excuse me, from NIV.

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I have told you these things, by the way, this is Jesus speaking.

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I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

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In this world you will have trouble.

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Right there, Jesus is already telling you, this is going to be a bumpy journey.

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This is not going to be smooth.

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There are going to be troubles and tribulations through your faith journey.

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But I love how he follows up that sentence.

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But take heart.

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And he's not just saying, but take heart.

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He's not doing it kind of cool and collected.

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He's got an exclamation point there.

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But take heart.

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I have overcome the world.

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And if that isn't the good news, I don't know what is.

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Right there, I have overcome the world.

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So while failure is inevitable, Jesus has defeated death,

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which we really need to talk about first.

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Which, you know, again, point one, we're going morbid.

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We're talking about death.

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Nobody likes to talk about death.

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But again, it's inevitable.

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But we really need to talk about how failure and death kind of go hand in hand.

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And what I mean by that is we need to die to ourselves.

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We need to die to ourselves.

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And before we kind of get ahead of ourselves, let's back up a little bit.

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Let's back the train up a little bit.

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Because some of you might be thinking, what does die to self mean?

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What does that look like?

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And what I mean when we say die to self is simply relying on God.

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When we depend on our own abilities, when we depend on our own understanding,

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our own skill sets, we will inevitably fall short.

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And, you know, to unpack it even a little bit further,

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when we talk about dying to self, we need to talk about control,

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which nobody in this room wants to talk about giving up control.

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Not one person in this room is like, yeah, let me give up more control of my life.

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We like to be in control.

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And so often we will even subconsciously say to God, yeah, you can have this,

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but you can't have this.

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You can be in control of this, but you can't be in control of this.

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You can be in control of this, but you can't be in control of this, or vice versa.

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Control is something we do not like to give up.

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We as humans like to believe we are in control all the time, and we are not.

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Which is, for Matt and I, was evident in just the writing of this message today,

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because when we write a message individually, it's all between me and God, right?

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I am brainstorming, I'm writing down ideas, I'm whittling those ideas down to what God wants me to say.

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I'm taking stuff in, putting stuff, taking stuff out.

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And then you sit with somebody else who may or may not have the same writing style,

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may or may not have the same delivery style, and now I don't control all of it.

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And I'm not saying I do, the Holy Spirit does, but I don't control all of the message.

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So just in the writing process, we have to put our faith in God to make sure that this message today

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comes across not how Matt wants it, not how Rudy wants it, but how the Holy Spirit wants it.

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That's tough even for a pastor that's going to stand here and say,

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give up control, but I'm controlling what comes out of my mouth.

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But think about it this way, how many of you trust yourself to wake up all by yourself in the morning?

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How many of you, some of you might still wake up to an alarm clock radio.

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How many of you, like for me and my wife, we both have about 18 different alarms set to go off

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with the snooze buttons, right?

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I can't even rely on myself to get my butt out of bed after the alarm goes off, however many times.

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How many of you use GPS, right?

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Oh, don't lie, you're not all Magellan's. Stop it.

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She's got a Rand McNally.

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Well, that's what I was going to say. OG's up here on the couch.

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We remember the Rand McNally maps. We remember getting them out and unfolding them.

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I will tell you that there is no bigger dread.

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I remember being in college and going down to concerts in D.C.

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I still don't understand D.C.'s grid.

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There are people that the legends say understand it. I don't believe that.

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But I remember that there was no greater scary moment in my life than ending up in Northern Virginia.

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Like I'd be driving around D.C. and I'd be like, oh, there's DuPont Circle, okay.

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And then all of a sudden I'm in Northern Virginia and I'm like, what? No, no, no, I need to go to Maryland.

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I need to get back to the home state.

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Did you need a passport for that?

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You do now.

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I remember coming back from a concert once and I wasn't driving and I was like, why does it say Annapolis?

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We live over there. Why? That's just how you get to Annapolis.

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I used to end up in Dundalk a lot. I used to end up there a lot because I would.

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Anyway, anyway. But see, here's the thing about GPS is we are entrusting our lives to the GPS.

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You may be like, that's a little bit of hyperbole right there.

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But no, I mean, seriously, like if you're going to visit somebody and you don't know where they live,

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you kind of know the area, but you don't really know or you're trying to find a new restaurant or whatever,

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you're putting that address into the GPS and you're like, little machine, take me to my destination.

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Like you are trusting yourself that it's going to take you there in the briefest least amount of miles.

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I'm just like and it's funny to me, like you mentioned the phone, like we put so much trust in the phone

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and then GPS and things like that. But then when we ask ourselves, am I putting that much in God in my day to day life?

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So that one hurts a little bit. So let's talk about this saying and this is Matt's notes, but I'm still on it.

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There's an old saying, everyone wants to get to heaven, but no one wants to die. Right?

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And then go ahead and flip it, Matt. I'll let you finish your notes.

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Everyone wants to experience life in God, but nobody wants to die to self.

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Nobody wants to die to self to experience God on a level. We want to believe that we've got it. Right?

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And a lot of times, you know, and Chris has said this and other people that have been up here have said it.

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A lot of times when we're preparing messages, like we're not just preparing it for the greater masses.

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Like we don't view it. I mean, a lot of times, like these messages come out of things that we're struggling with,

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things that we're parsing through our heads and be saying, am I truly trusting God in this process?

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Am I truly dying to self? When I walk out that door, am I saying, all right, God, like this journey that you're putting me on today,

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I'm going to be open to divine appointments. I'm going to be open to stopping and helping somebody.

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Am I open to, you know, pulling a few dollars out of my pocket or am I sitting there being like, no, my day is X, Y and Z.

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I've got a list. I'm following that list.

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And I think when we start to dwell on what we want and then when we fail, we start to dwell on our failure.

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Yeah.

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And I want to make two points, kind of counter, but sometimes some of us need to hear both of this.

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Failure isn't always due to you. Sometimes failure is due to the fallen world that we live in.

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Right. So for some of you, you need to know that it's due to the fallen one.

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Now, there are others of us that need to know, hey, sometimes I just failed and I need to walk away from that failure and give it to Jesus.

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Right. But if you're like me, sometimes I just well on. I failed when it's not necessarily me.

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It might be the circumstances around me causing me to fail.

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But no matter where the failure comes from, no matter how much we get wrapped on ourselves, point two is a big one.

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God's got you.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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Let's go ahead and look at Luke 8 in verse 22.

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It starts like this. And you guys, you guys all know this story.

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You've heard plenty of messages spoken from this story.

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I want to put maybe a little bit different spin on it.

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One day, Jesus said to his disciples, let's go to the other side of the lake.

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So they got into a boat and said, as they sailed, Jesus fell asleep.

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A squall came down to the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger.

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The disciples went and woke him up saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown.

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He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters.

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The storm subsided and all was calm.

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Where is your faith? He asked his disciples.

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In fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this?

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He commands even the winds and the water and they obey him.

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Now, see, you've all heard different takes on this and we've all heard it in different messages.

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But I want to ask this. What if Jesus wouldn't have been with them?

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Would they have turned back?

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What if they weren't able to wake him up? Would they have given him?

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Would they have just given up?

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And I want to add something that's not in my notes.

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Their response should have been this.

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And he says, where is your faith?

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Their faith was exactly where it should have been.

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Because the only one that could get them through that storm is the one that was asleep and they needed his guidance.

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So when you're going through the storm, go to Jesus for guidance.

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See, but I also want to back up to the beginning of that scripture.

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Because he says, let's go to the other side.

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And what else does he tell them?

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Does he say, hey, there's going to be a storm?

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Does he say, hey, it might get a little rough out there?

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He looks at them and he says, we are here and we're going over there.

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And sometimes we have to remember that God looks at us and he says, Rudy, this is where I need you to go.

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Without giving me all the details.

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See, some of you have watched my Facebook account and you saw that I just traveled to New Hampshire a couple weeks ago on vacation.

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And then last week all the church staff was at a conference.

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We traveled down to Asheville, North Carolina.

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So what did I do?

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I took out my GPS and I punched in, how do I get to New Hampshire?

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And then I made a decision.

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Do I want to follow this route or do I want to follow this route or do I want to follow that route?

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I even said, oh, I want to stop in Cooperstown.

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So I was able to change the route.

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See, with God, he doesn't give you all the step-by-step directions.

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He doesn't say it because if you're like me, like I literally look at every single turn.

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Right.

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Like I want to know when am I turning left?

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When am I emerging or slight right or whatever that means.

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Right.

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I want to know all these things before I set out.

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But when you set out with the Holy Spirit GPS, he says this is where you are in.

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This is where you're going.

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And guess what?

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He doesn't tell you, but there's probably going to be storms on the way.

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And there's probably going to be bumpy roads on the way.

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And it may have to recalculate.

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One of the things that we're going to do today is tell some stories and some things to illustrate points.

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And years ago, when I first walked into Hub City Venue, we were like I said a little bit earlier, we were over at E. Russell Hicks Middle School.

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And this great program came to Hagerstown.

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Some of you might remember Convoy of Hope, a fantastic organization.

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But they came to Hagerstown a few years in a row.

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And that first year, nobody quite knew what to expect.

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Right. But it was it was met with a lot of fanfare and Convoy of Hope in case you're uninitiated.

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It was this fantastic organization that literally brings in 18 wheelers and has them just packed with groceries and shoes.

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And they do free haircuts and family photos.

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And there was free food, carnival games.

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I mean, there was just a sense of community happening at these places.

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Now, one of the other facets is because it's a faith based organization was there is a prayer tent.

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Very important, right. It's a community.

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And I remember Chris said to us on a Sunday morning like he often does and like was said this morning about the backpack giveaway.

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Hey, we need volunteers.

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We want Hub City Vineyard to be visible and part of this.

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And we want you to be proactive and being part of community in our in our fair city of Hagerstown.

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And so I'm sitting there and I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm fired up.

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I'm like, yeah, I want to be part of this.

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Let's clarify. Yeah. You aren't a pastor yet.

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You're no. Yeah. I was just I was very new.

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Yeah, I just I was very new.

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I mean, I think it was within the first year and I was all fired up to be part of this.

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And so I wrote down what I thought was the meeting I wanted to go to because, you know, at that point, I was like, I'm going to be security or I'll be like a food person like some like kind of behind the scenes person.

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Right. Like I don't want too much responsibility.

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I just want to I want to be part of it, but I don't want to be part of it.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so I show up at the meeting and I find it odd that they're not really talking about anything besides the prayer tent.

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And I'm like, all right, well, maybe they're starting with the prayer tent and then they're going to work their way backwards and they're going to talk about each place.

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And then all of a sudden the speakers like, all right, we'll see you on Saturday at the prayer tent at the prayer tent.

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And I'm like, what?

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And it just so happened that Barb and Patricia were there and they're like smiling at me at the end of the row and Patricia comes up to me and she's like, I'm so glad there's going to be a man in the prayer tent.

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And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wrong, dude, wrong, dude, wrong, dude, wrong, dude.

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I at this point, like I, you know, from me coming from a backer, like I was raised Presbyterian, like, I mean, and no offense to anybody that came from Presbyterian might be Presbyterian that's here.

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But they you know, the nickname is the frozen chosen.

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And, you know, we didn't we didn't lay hands on people that we prayed for people, but we didn't lay hands on people.

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We weren't like, you know, proclaiming healing and stuff like that.

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That's going to get at me in trouble. My mom's going to text me after this.

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And so I'm mom.

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So, yeah, so we're in the prayer tent.

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I'm thinking, oh, I'm just going to be behind the scenes.

431
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I'm still going to be behind the scenes.

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I'm not going to actually do anything in the prayer tent except for hallelujah.

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Amen. All right.

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I'm hoping like I'm just going to stand back and let other people do the thing.

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Well, everybody decided to go to lunch except for me.

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And so I was there all by myself.

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And wouldn't you know it?

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Somebody comes in and asks for prayer.

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And I have no idea.

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And man, was it a whopper?

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Somebody was like, I've got a tumor on my leg.

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Will you pray for it?

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I'm like, can you come back in 15 minutes?

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No, I was like, I was like, OK, all right.

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All right, God, now's the time to show up.

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And so I have a good dad.

447
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No, I'm just kidding.

448
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So I but here's here's the beauty of this.

449
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I was so naive.

450
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And I wish I could go back to that naive because I like to you know, we were talking earlier about keep it simple, stupid.

451
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Right.

452
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There is a beauty in simplicity and our gospel message is simple.

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And we like to add all the extra stuff to it.

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But when it comes down to it, our Lord loves us and wants to be with us and wants to share that with everybody.

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And that's the simplicity.

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And so when I was praying, I just did a simple prayer and it wasn't me.

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The Holy Spirit healed that man.

458
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I could feel it underneath my hand.

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I could feel the tumor go down.

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And I was like, oh, boy, you've really brought me to something here, Lord.

461
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And all of a sudden, I realized that it was intentional.

462
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I had a different idea of where I was going to be at that convoy of hope.

463
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Right.

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And it wasn't to say if I would have worked security or, you know, food or whatever, I wouldn't have had the same experience.

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But the Holy Spirit rerouted my GPS and brought me to that place.

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And I will say that that set me on a course that totally changed my life.

467
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,000
It totally brought me closer to the Lord.

468
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
It pushed me into ministry.

469
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:45,000
It just completely changed my outlook of who I wanted to be because of that moment.

470
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,000
God knew it.

471
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,000
The Holy Spirit moved.

472
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:53,000
I didn't know it until later.

473
00:30:53,000 --> 00:31:02,000
And that's the beauty, beauty of this faith is because when we depend on God, where can he take us?

474
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:09,000
So I just I just want to pause there for a second because there's a lot of doubt.

475
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,000
Right. And many of you probably have a lot of doubt.

476
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,000
Like, I don't know about you.

477
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,000
I've been here for eight years.

478
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:21,000
And sometimes when Chris says, hey, let's pray for our neighbor, sometimes I'm like, I'm the assistant pastor.

479
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,000
Sometimes I'm like, oh, Gary's on him.

480
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,000
He's good. I don't.

481
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,000
Right.

482
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,000
Because I have doubt.

483
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,000
But I want to pause and I want to get back to something.

484
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,000
We sometimes try to overcomplicate our prayers.

485
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:38,000
The prayer for that tumor is as simple as this.

486
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,000
Wait, you have a tumor?

487
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:45,000
God, take away this tumor. Amen.

488
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,000
Don't overcomplicate it.

489
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,000
Don't worry about the Christian ease.

490
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,000
Don't worry about the these or the Dalles.

491
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,000
That's going to give you more doubt.

492
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,000
God, take away this tumor.

493
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000
That's it.

494
00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:02,000
So when you're in this building and you see someone needs prayer, don't be like, hey, Rudy, I need this guy to be prayed for.

495
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,000
Pray for him.

496
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,000
He can't throw because his rotator cuff.

497
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:12,000
God, please fix his rotator cuff so he can throw.

498
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:13,000
That's it.

499
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Right.

500
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000
But what happens is we doubt.

501
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:16,000
And it's OK to doubt.

502
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:26,000
And I want to read Luke 7 to you because John the Baptist, who was sent to pave the way for Jesus and Luke 7, we read this about John the Baptist.

503
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:31,000
John's disciples told him about all these things, things that Jesus was doing.

504
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:41,000
So John calls two of them and he says he sends them back to Jesus and they're supposed to say, are you the one who has come or should we expect someone else?

505
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:52,000
When the men came to Jesus, he said, John the Baptist, they said, John the Baptist sent us to ask, are you the one who has come or should we expect someone else?

506
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,000
Even John the Baptist doubted.

507
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:03,000
So when you find yourself in areas of doubt, it is OK to have doubts.

508
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,000
It is not OK to live in doubt.

509
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,000
You push it to the side and you lean on the Holy Spirit.

510
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:18,000
OK, because we all have failures in life, which leads us to our next point.

511
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:23,000
Everyone has failures in life, but our failures do not define us.

512
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:24,000
Yeah.

513
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:25,000
Yeah.

514
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:31,000
We don't want to allow our failures to grip to us like tar.

515
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:32,000
Right.

516
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:44,000
Think about like you think about if you've ever gotten like something sticky on your hands like like super glue or, you know, maple syrup or, you know, something like that.

517
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,000
It's hard to get off.

518
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Right.

519
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:51,000
And failure and that feeling can kind of stick to us like that.

520
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,000
And if we're not careful, it becomes our persona.

521
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:03,000
And what I mean by that is that's who we start to define ourselves as.

522
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,000
We start to be.

523
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,000
I'm a failure.

524
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,000
I failed at marriage.

525
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,000
I failed with my kids.

526
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,000
I failed at my job.

527
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:20,000
I failed at, you know, staying clean.

528
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:31,000
All these things weigh on our shoulders and we start to walk around our shoulders kind of rounded in our head down and we start to associate more with that failure.

529
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:35,000
The the life that Jesus gives us.

530
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:43,000
And so we need to be very cognizant of how we're thinking about failure and how we're allowing it to rest on us.

531
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000
And we'll talk about this a little bit more in a little bit.

532
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:50,000
So I just real quick.

533
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:55,000
Somebody told me this failure is not a person.

534
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,000
Failure is not you.

535
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:58,000
It's not your identity.

536
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
Failure is an event that happened.

537
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:03,000
Your identity is not your failure.

538
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,000
You are still you.

539
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:06,000
Now, we we both have a story.

540
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:14,000
We're going to pause on this point just for a minute, because many of you know that Matt left Hagerstown to go to Alaska to plan a church.

541
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:27,000
So I want to talk real quick and fill some of you guys in about that story from Alaska, because because his story and in the follow up story really, really speak to what we're talking about today.

542
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:31,000
All right. So this is one of the reasons why we wanted to do this.

543
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:36,000
And it was real important to use these examples.

544
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:44,000
Because a lot of times people feel like if you're speaking in front of church that you've got it all together.

545
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,000
If you're a leader in the church that you've got it all together.

546
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:52,000
If you're, you know, visible in the church, you've got it all together.

547
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:53,000
You don't have it all together.

548
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,000
None of us have it all together.

549
00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:02,000
And so in 2017, I set out to plant a church in Juneau, Alaska.

550
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:12,000
Beautiful, beautiful capital city of Alaska, southeast Alaska, that nice panhandle that kind of is against Canada there.

551
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:16,000
And prior to that, I didn't want to be a church planter.

552
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:21,000
Like Rudy said, I was I was happy here. I was an assistant pastor. I loved my job.

553
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:29,000
I loved hanging out with people, going to get coffee and just being around the whole atmosphere of church.

554
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000
I just loved being around church.

555
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:41,000
But this this still small voice in my head kept on saying, hey, go plant a church, go plant a church.

556
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,000
And initially it wasn't Alaska.

557
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,000
Alaska was never like the choice.

558
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:57,000
Right. Like initially thought, oh, Baltimore, where I'm from or or the beach, Florida, Hawaii.

559
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,000
I know. Why couldn't it be?

560
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:08,000
So I thought about Morgantown, WVU fan, thought Morgantown maybe thought, you know, just Ocean City, right?

561
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,000
Somewhere, somewhere nice like that.

562
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,000
None of them felt right.

563
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:14,000
None of them felt like a good fit.

564
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:21,000
And then one night had a dream about Alaska and it just felt right.

565
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:28,000
And so through this process, decided, yeah, this is this is the next step.

566
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,000
This is where God is leading us.

567
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:37,000
And I still to this day believe that this is where God was leading us to Alaska.

568
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:46,000
And through the grace of God and through, you know, people having, you know, believing in this this mission,

569
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,000
we were able to get to Alaska.

570
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:55,000
But the thing about Juneau is Juneau, you can't get to it by roads and you can't get to it just by driving there.

571
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,000
You have to take a ferry in.

572
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000
So either you get to it by ocean or by air.

573
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:01,000
There's no driving into it.

574
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,000
So the journey to four thousand miles away.

575
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:11,000
Somebody told me that Poland is closer than Alaska, which is just mind boggling.

576
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:14,000
So didn't know anybody in Alaska.

577
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:18,000
Effectively parachuted in.

578
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:26,000
And so we decided, all right, we're going to take a year, year and a half to kind of feel the rhythms of the city.

579
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000
Right. We're going to we're going to try to figure out what makes this town click.

580
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,000
I mean, we had done our research.

581
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:33,000
We knew where we were going.

582
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,000
But, you know, you don't know someplace until you go.

583
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,000
Right. Which, by the way, we had only visited one time.

584
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,000
So that's a whole nother thing.

585
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:55,000
So we got there, waited a year, kind of met with people, had a lot of coffee, had a lot of people over to the living room, did a lot of friends giving, did all types of stuff.

586
00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:04,000
Decided, all right, now's the time after like a year and a half decided, all right, now's the time we're going to we're going to have a Sunday service.

587
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:11,000
Wouldn't you know it, a little thing called covid came up.

588
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:18,000
To to say that I felt defeated is an understatement.

589
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:25,000
That you travel four thousand miles away, you say goodbye to your friends, your family.

590
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,000
You jettison all your stuff.

591
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,000
And you say, Lord, I'm going to follow.

592
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,000
And then you feel alone.

593
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,000
I was depressed.

594
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:46,000
That was probably the lowest I have felt in my life.

595
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,000
Hopelessness. Absolutely.

596
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,000
I felt like I had been deceived.

597
00:39:51,000 --> 00:40:00,000
I felt like there was a miscommunication that I had misheard.

598
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,000
Covid, covid, you know, whatever.

599
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:11,000
And then people start opening up again like businesses and all that stuff.

600
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,000
And we decide, all right, we're going to start it up.

601
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:21,000
And in Vineyard, if you know Vineyard Lore, the first Vineyard service was on Mother's Day.

602
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:26,000
And so it just so happened that we were like, hey, let's do our first one on Mother's Day.

603
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:32,000
How about that for that? That's going to be a statement.

604
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,000
So we did that.

605
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:40,000
And then divorce it.

606
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:47,000
And again, you're just thrown into this maelstrom of of just emotions.

607
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:56,000
And to say that I felt like a failure, that I couldn't keep everything together.

608
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:00,000
That I was, you know, I fancy myself a strong person.

609
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,000
And one of my favorite movies is Never Ending Story.

610
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:08,000
And there's this scene, right, in it.

611
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000
And if you know the movie, there's this guy named Rockbiter.

612
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
He's like, I got these hands.

613
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:21,000
I tried to hold on, but everything slipped away.

614
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:27,000
And I just felt like everything was slipping away.

615
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000
Felt like a failure.

616
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:37,000
Felt like God had abandoned me, but he didn't.

617
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:47,000
And I had so many friends who called me, checked in on me, texted me, and made sure I was OK.

618
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:53,000
Family members who were making sure I was OK.

619
00:41:53,000 --> 00:42:01,000
And I tried to hold it together, and it just didn't work.

620
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,000
And then I started in my prayer time asking God, why?

621
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:13,000
Why did I come 4,000 miles for this to happen?

622
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:16,000
Failing at church.

623
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,000
Failing at marriage.

624
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,000
Failing in a job that I wasn't crazy about.

625
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:28,000
Why did you bring me 4,000 miles away?

626
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:33,000
Why did you make me leave a community that I loved?

627
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,000
Why did you bring me away when my sister had cancer?

628
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,000
Why did you bring me away when my grandfather died?

629
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:46,000
Why? Why? Why?

630
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,000
And it was to strengthen me.

631
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,000
Because I fully believe that God works through strife.

632
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:59,000
He doesn't cause strife, but he will use it to make you stronger.

633
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:05,000
And there are people in this room who are so strong, because you have gone through that strife.

634
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,000
And God has brought you outside the other end.

635
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:16,000
Whether that was through life circumstances of just not having a family.

636
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:19,000
Maybe you've been divorced.

637
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:24,000
Maybe you've got kids that just don't want to call you parents anymore.

638
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,000
Maybe you've just been through the wringer.

639
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:31,000
Maybe you've been subject to addiction.

640
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,000
You feel those feelings that I felt.

641
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,000
We have a kinship.

642
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:42,000
Every single person in this room has felt those failures before in their lives.

643
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,000
I'm not special.

644
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:48,000
But this is my story.

645
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,000
But you have stories as well.

646
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,000
And it cannot define you.

647
00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:02,000
If I let it define me, honestly, I don't know if I would be here.

648
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,000
And I'm not being morbid or whatever.

649
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:10,000
I'm not trying to make it dramatic or anything.

650
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:16,000
But you and I both know there are times that you are so down in it.

651
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:24,000
You are so face down in the mud that all you feel is failure.

652
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:35,000
And if I hadn't have placed everything, every fiber of my being into my faith,

653
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:43,000
into trusting Jesus and putting the rubber on the road that I said I believed,

654
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:47,000
I don't know what the outcome would have been.

655
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:55,000
We cannot allow our stories of failure to define us.

656
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:58,000
Because God will see you through.

657
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:06,000
It may not be the story that you thought you were going to have or that you signed up for.

658
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:13,000
But God is good all the time.

659
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:17,000
So let me read Hebrews and then we'll go on to our next point.

660
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:23,000
Hebrews 11 says this, these were all commended by their faith,

661
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,000
yet none of them received what had been promised.

662
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,000
Since God had planned something better for us,

663
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:34,000
so that only together with us and with God they be made perfect.

664
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,000
Which leads us to our step four.

665
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:43,000
There is a difference between failing and not finding success.

666
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:48,000
And I want to real quickly just tell you my story because many of you know right before I became a pastor,

667
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,000
a little over a year ago, I was a middle school math teacher.

668
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:57,000
What many of you don't know is back in 1999 I graduated from Shepherd College

669
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:59,000
with my degree in health and physical education.

670
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:03,000
So while I was a math teacher now, I was a physical education teacher.

671
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:08,000
I got a job in 1999, I taught for two years and I failed at it.

672
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:14,000
I was too young, I didn't do all the things I needed to do, I didn't stay the course and I quit.

673
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,000
But I remember having this conversation with my students saying,

674
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:22,000
hey Mr. Rudy it's time for me to move on a different chapter, da da da.

675
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:26,000
And some of the kids would be like, ah, but Mr. Rudy do you feel like you failed?

676
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,000
Like no, no not at all.

677
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:29,000
And here's why.

678
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,000
All the schooling that I got, they can't take away that knowledge.

679
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:38,000
All the experience that I got from teaching you, they can't take that knowledge away.

680
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,000
So I'm good, right?

681
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:45,000
Now fast forward about 12 years later, Carrie's pregnant with Kingston.

682
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,000
I'm a restaurant manager and I know that when my son comes,

683
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:53,000
I do not want to be a restaurant manager driving an hour to work, working.

684
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:57,000
If you've ever been in a restaurant, it's a marathon.

685
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:03,000
I would have been away from my family more than half of the time, right?

686
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,000
So I needed to make this shift.

687
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:10,000
So I'm at a party, house party with a bunch of my friends, like I need to make a shift.

688
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,000
What should I do?

689
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,000
I have a degree, what should I do with my degree?

690
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:17,000
And somebody says, you should teach again.

691
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:23,000
Mind you what I said to my students, my initial thought process was, yeah right,

692
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:29,000
I failed at that already, not going to do that again.

693
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:33,000
But there's a difference between failing and not finding success.

694
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,000
What I did find was lots of experience, like I mentioned,

695
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:41,000
that made me a better math teacher than I was a physical education teacher.

696
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:47,000
I had plenty of times that I screwed up then that gave me the tools I needed

697
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,000
to be an effective math teacher.

698
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:53,000
Now was I always an effective math teacher? Probably not.

699
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:57,000
But if I didn't learn from all those failures from before,

700
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,000
I would have never been the math teacher that I was.

701
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,000
And that's what we want to do today, okay?

702
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,000
We want to shift, we want to shift your perspective, right?

703
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:16,000
Zephaniah says this, Zephaniah, it's a real book in the Bible.

704
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:23,000
Zephaniah 3, 17, the Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves.

705
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,000
He will take great delight in you.

706
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:36,000
In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

707
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:44,000
And what I think is a failure before, he turns into a success as a math teacher.

708
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:48,000
If I would have dwelled and not shifted my perspective,

709
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:51,000
and thank you to those friends that were at that house party with me

710
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:57,000
that really shake me and say no, you can do this again, right?

711
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:01,000
Chris mentioned this quote a couple weeks ago when he was preaching,

712
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:04,000
and I wrote it down. It's A.W. Tozer.

713
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:14,000
How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.

714
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,000
That's a good one.

715
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:18,000
My failures become a limitation, but through God,

716
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:27,000
there are successes that become a stepping stone to the next great thing that he has in store for me.

717
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:30,000
Okay, think about a baseball player.

718
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:34,000
They hit the ball four out of ten times, they're batting 400.

719
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:35,000
That's good.

720
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:43,000
There's only two men who have ever hit 400 in a year, not career, a year.

721
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:49,000
So what we're saying is, if I only make four out of ten, man, I failed.

722
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:54,000
But if they have a 300 batting average, they succeeded that year.

723
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:59,000
So what we want to do with you today is we want to change your perspective.

724
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:04,000
We want you to adjust your lens.

725
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:08,000
See, nobody escapes failure and disappointment.

726
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:15,000
So we might as well plan on it and prepare for it with a view that we can profit from it,

727
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:18,000
which leads us to our first action step.

728
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:21,000
We need to move.

729
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:25,000
Matthew 28, it's the Great Commission.

730
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:31,000
It says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

731
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:35,000
teaching them to observe all thy commanded and behold, what does it say?

732
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:40,000
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

733
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,000
Go.

734
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,000
He starts his sentence with go.

735
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:44,000
He doesn't start it with pray.

736
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:46,000
He doesn't start it with read your Bible.

737
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:48,000
He starts it with go.

738
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:52,000
Now, that's not saying we're not going to pray and we're not going to make a plan,

739
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:55,000
but this is what needs to happen.

740
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:02,000
If we're in stasis, if we're not moving, God cannot give us direction.

741
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:03,000
Right?

742
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:07,000
He might blindfold us and spin us in circles, but he can't.

743
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:12,000
An object at rest tends to stay at rest.

744
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,000
So I need to take the first step.

745
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:18,000
If he wants me to go west and my first step is east, who cares?

746
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,000
As long as I'm moving.

747
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:25,000
Because the first step might be that way, but if I'm truly engaged,

748
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:28,000
what's the second step?

749
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,000
Right?

750
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:35,000
Which leads us to our next one, our next action step.

751
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:38,000
Sometimes we need to reroute.

752
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:43,000
Going back to that GPS scenario, we need to reroute.

753
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,000
Sometimes there might be traffic.

754
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,000
Reroute.

755
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:49,000
Also, sometimes we may have to sit and try.

756
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:53,000
That's right.

757
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:59,000
Because recently we were going to a concert and it was going down to

758
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,000
Merriweather.

759
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,000
So of course, you're going 70, right?

760
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:05,000
That's the route.

761
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:08,000
You're going to hit 70 all the way and then take, you know,

762
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:12,000
you guys know how to get that down to Merriweather, I'm sure.

763
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,000
But you go down 70.

764
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:17,000
Well, the GPS is saying, hey, you need to get on 40.

765
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,000
You need to get on 40 towards Boonesboro.

766
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:21,000
And I'm like, what?

767
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:23,000
No, I'm not doing that.

768
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,000
And then guess what?

769
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:26,000
Traffic.

770
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:27,000
The GPS knew.

771
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:28,000
It's not like God.

772
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:30,000
Like God will tell us, hey, you need to go over here.

773
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:32,000
And we're like, no, I know the way.

774
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,000
And then all of a sudden, the proverbial traffic.

775
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:39,000
And, you know, I want to talk to you about how we can reroute.

776
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,000
There's three ways that we can reroute kind of our thinking.

777
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:48,000
So that, you know, I was talking about how failure can become our persona, right?

778
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,000
There's really three things that we can do.

779
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,000
I mean, there's a lot of things that we can do.

780
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:57,000
But three things that we want to do in the face of failure.

781
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:02,000
Number one is we need to acknowledge our feelings.

782
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,000
Don't push them down.

783
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:07,000
I know that sounds really crunchy granola, right?

784
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:11,000
Like, hey, man, you got to, you just got to be with your feelings, man.

785
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:13,000
But it's true.

786
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:18,000
Like, you have to be, you have to be with your feelings, right?

787
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:19,000
Like, you have to understand.

788
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:20,000
Like, I'm feeling depressed.

789
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:22,000
I'm feeling upset.

790
00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:24,000
I'm feeling this way.

791
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:26,000
That's legitimate.

792
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:28,000
Like, we have feelings for a reason.

793
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,000
God gave us these emotions and things like that, right?

794
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:33,000
There's a reason why we feel those things.

795
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,000
So we have to be cognizant of that, all right?

796
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:41,000
The second thing is we need to accept that you don't need approval from others.

797
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:42,000
All right?

798
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,000
You don't need approval from others.

799
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:46,000
You just need it from God.

800
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:51,000
And God loves you unconditionally, so you got that covered, right?

801
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:56,000
So like Bill Murray said in Caddyshack, so I got that going for me.

802
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:03,000
And then the third thing is you got to allow Jesus to mend your wounds.

803
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:08,000
You got to allow that time for Jesus to heal you.

804
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:09,000
Take your time.

805
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:12,000
You don't have to jump into things right away.

806
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:18,000
When I was going through what I went up in Alaska, I had a lot of people praying for me,

807
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:23,000
praying with me, and therapy, you know?

808
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:27,000
You know, you have to take time for Jesus to work through those feelings.

809
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:29,000
It's very important.

810
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:36,000
Let's talk about time because in John 15, we are told to abide in Jesus.

811
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:40,000
If we stay in Jesus, we'll produce fruit, right?

812
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:45,000
Now, the opposite of abiding is giving up.

813
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:48,000
Giving up on Jesus, giving up on ourselves.

814
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:50,000
I want you to think about this.

815
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:55,000
If you were to plant a grapevine today or at the beginning of the season,

816
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,000
if you got to the end of this season, guess what?

817
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,000
You're not going to have fruit.

818
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:02,000
Why?

819
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:09,000
Because it takes two to three seasons of growing before you get fruit.

820
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:16,000
So if you're not staying in Jesus, if you're not abiding, if you're not allowing him to reroute,

821
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:20,000
if you're not doing step, action step number three, listening,

822
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:28,000
you can quickly give up on your garden and walk away from the grapes thinking you have sour grapes.

823
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:34,000
But if you stay the course, you listen, you allow him to reroute you,

824
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:40,000
you'll have grapes just in his time, not in your time.

825
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:43,000
Which leads that when you think about that, that word listen,

826
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,000
you think about Matt's scenario about the GPS.

827
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:47,000
What did the GPS say?

828
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,000
Re-route, buddy. But what did Matt do?

829
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,000
I got this.

830
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:55,000
He didn't listen, right?

831
00:55:55,000 --> 00:56:01,000
Proverbs 1-5 says this, let the wise listen and add to the learning.

832
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:04,000
And let the discerning get guidance.

833
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:10,000
I was not wise.

834
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:18,000
There's a quote that I heard on a podcast a while back and it's from Joseph Campbell.

835
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:23,000
And Joseph Campbell is, or was, I can't remember if he's still living.

836
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:27,000
Anyway, he wrote this book called The Hero Has a Thousand Faces.

837
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:35,000
It's basically an anthropological study of our heroes and how a lot of these themes come up and up and up.

838
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:44,000
And he has this quote, it says, it is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.

839
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:49,000
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

840
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:56,000
And what that meant to me when I heard it was, sometimes I'm afraid.

841
00:56:56,000 --> 00:57:00,000
I'm like a small child. I'm afraid.

842
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:04,000
Remember when you were a kid and like thunderstorms would happen?

843
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:11,000
I don't know, if you were like me, you might be a little scared by the thunder and the lightning.

844
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:14,000
Sometimes life is like that.

845
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:16,000
There's thunder, there's lightning.

846
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:19,000
And you're scared, like you don't want to move.

847
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:20,000
You don't want to listen.

848
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,000
You don't want to do anything because you're scared.

849
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:27,000
You want to hide under the covers until it goes away.

850
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:43,000
And I feel like sometimes when we push into that, we listen to the Holy Spirit and we move and we go into those dark places that we're unfamiliar with.

851
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:51,000
We find treasure and we grow and we become further.

852
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:55,000
We become further and further into our journey.

853
00:57:55,000 --> 00:58:03,000
And man, I'll tell you, when that happens to you a few times, your faith just goes up and up and up.

854
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:09,000
Because you learn to rely more and more on God because you've been through those battles together.

855
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:12,000
And you see that God's got to get you through it.

856
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:14,000
He is the best wingman.

857
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:19,000
He is the best shield carrying person.

858
00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:21,000
I don't know.

859
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:27,000
It's like on The Office when Michael's like sometimes I talk and I hope it's going somewhere.

860
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:32,000
Hopefully you get there by the end of your sentence, which leads us to our last fourth and final point.

861
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:37,000
Don't be afraid to fail.

862
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:41,000
I used to tell my students all the time, I want you to fail.

863
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:47,000
You can fail 20 times and still get an 80% if you know how to do the math.

864
00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:53,000
You can fail 30 times and still get a 70% as long as you keep going.

865
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,000
Right?

866
00:58:55,000 --> 00:59:01,000
John 16, 33, I have told you these things so that you may have peace.

867
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:05,000
In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

868
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:06,000
Listen to this.

869
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:08,000
This point I wrote down last week at the conference.

870
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,000
They interviewed Rick Warren.

871
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:12,000
Super cool quote.

872
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:21,000
In God's garden of grace, even broken trees produce fruit.

873
00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:27,000
And we are all broken.

874
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:34,000
And then the last thing I want to leave you with is Thomas Edison said this in creating the light bulb.

875
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:36,000
I have not failed.

876
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:42,000
I have just found 10,000 ways that don't work.

877
00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:44,000
So the point here is keep going.

878
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:46,000
Keep moving forward.

879
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:48,000
Keep tapping into God.

880
00:59:48,000 --> 01:00:03,000
Change your perspective so that you can look back and take every failure that you feel is a failure and allow God to use it as a stepping stone to the next big thing.

881
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:18,000
So first service, it felt prompted to, and I feel the same thing, because I feel like sometimes we are up on the stage and it feels like, hey, there is a separation.

882
01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:20,000
At least I feel that way.

883
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:34,000
And I, we, we have to go through this life and it's not easy.

884
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:39,000
Make no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

885
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:49,000
Each person in this room, in this world is fighting battles every single day.

886
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:52,000
It could be that you have kids that aren't listening to you.

887
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:56,000
It could be that you are going through divorce or trying to recover from that.

888
01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:02,000
It could be that you are in a job that you just feel that you are ill-equipped for.

889
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:10,000
It could be that you woke up today and you said, Lord, I'm going to give you one more chance.

890
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:17,000
I'm going to give you one more opportunity to speak to me.

891
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:26,000
And today maybe that's, this is the Holy Spirit maybe talking to you, saying, hey, I love you.

892
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:29,000
You are special to me.

893
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:32,000
You have a place in this world.

894
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:43,000
No matter how hard things get, I will lift you up.

895
01:01:43,000 --> 01:01:51,000
And no one should leave this room not feeling that they are valued.

896
01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:54,000
You are so loved.

897
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:59,000
And this world would not be what it is without you.

898
01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:02,000
It would not be as bright a place.

899
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:09,000
And I guarantee you no matter what darkness you may be going through today,

900
01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:15,000
or you went through yesterday or you are going to go through tomorrow, no matter what darkness you go through,

901
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:20,000
the Lord will shine his light on you.

902
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:25,000
We are taught, knock and I will answer.

903
01:02:25,000 --> 01:02:26,000
Maybe got that backwards.

904
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:27,000
Anyway, we are in the moment.

905
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:28,000
We are in the moment.

906
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:37,000
The idea is if you ask the Lord to come, he will come.

907
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:41,000
But you have to relinquish control.

908
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:49,000
You have to allow yourself to open this and open this, your mind.

909
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:57,000
Throw away all that whatever you want to call it of I got this.

910
01:02:57,000 --> 01:03:00,000
No, you don't.

911
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:02,000
But the Lord does.

912
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:07,000
And that is even better.

913
01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:11,000
Would you stand with me?

914
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:15,000
And I know we are really running over on time, but I don't want to let this moment go.

915
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:21,000
If there is something in today's message, if you feel, yes, God, I need to give up control, I need to give it back to you.

916
01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:26,000
If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want you to raise your hand right now.

917
01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:34,000
We are about to say a sinner's prayer, salvation prayer together as a family to invite Jesus into our hearts.

918
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:37,000
So as a family, we all say this together.

919
01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:40,000
Jesus, I'm broken.

920
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:43,000
I need to give up control.

921
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:46,000
I need to give it to you.

922
01:03:46,000 --> 01:03:52,000
Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God.

923
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:56,000
Jesus, I believe that you died for my sins.

924
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:59,000
Come into my heart.

925
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,000
Make me new.

926
01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:03,000
Give me new life.

927
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:06,000
Give me new direction.

928
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:10,000
In Jesus' name, amen.

929
01:04:10,000 --> 01:04:13,000
Now in a moment the worship team is going to play.

930
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:16,000
We are going to have the prayer team come up here to your left.

931
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:21,000
If you need prayer because there is something in your life that you are hanging on to that you feel is a failure.

932
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:26,000
If you are living in a spirit of failure, I want you to come up and get prayer.

933
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:31,000
Also, if you are a parent that has a kid back there, don't stay in worship.

934
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:34,000
Go get them now because I'm going to get my butt kicked.

935
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:38,000
Otherwise, thank you guys for an awesome time.

936
01:04:38,000 --> 01:04:43,000
I hope you truly felt blessed by this speech, by this message.

937
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:44,000
Enjoy your week.

938
01:04:44,000 --> 01:05:12,000
Take it away, worship team.

939
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:16,000
Amen.