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Morning church. Did anybody else feel like God just, you know, he teased us a little bit yesterday.

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Anybody else feel that the clouds rolled in and we're like, oh, it's going to rain.

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And then it didn't, you know, and then I woke up this morning and I'm like clouds. Nope. Back to

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blue sky. So yeah, if you felt that way, I felt that way. And then on top of that, not only did

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we not get rain, we got more wind, which helps that thing called allergies. And so if you're new

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to the Prescott area, welcome to allergies. I never had them until I moved here. So join the club, but

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welcome to those of you on our online locations, Baghdad, that is you, Randy. I saw that you're out

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there. Welcome to you. We're so glad you're with us today and we get to journey alongside each other.

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Paulden, Mike and Sue, we love you, love your crew and what's going on there in Paulden. And just

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pray that it's special today for you guys as you gather together. We have Sheila in Canton, Ohio.

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Welcome to you. Glad that you are with us. Yeah, we can give it up for Sheila.

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And then you heard Todd mentioned overflow in this building out there right now. So while

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you're in here, there's people sitting in grafted. So can we just say good morning to them? They can

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hear you. Part of what we are is, is if you, you hang around as long enough, you're going to hear

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this family language. And if you notice what families do, families grow, right? And so there's

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this natural kind of happening that as a family grows, needs begin to change within that family.

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And so I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago, I got to speak to our youth students

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on a Wednesday night. You guys were amazing. Thanks for listening.

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But here's what I noticed. I go into age two and I'm speaking to our middle schoolers.

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And there's on the average now over a hundred middle schoolers that are gathering on Wednesdays,

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which is unreal. But here's what I want you to catch. I go in to speak and I open my Bible

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and I can barely read it. And it's not because I'm old and it's because the lighting is that bad.

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Right? And so what's happened is the family's grown, the needs that happen in that building.

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That building, we would love to use that building for celebrations, like different things that come

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along within our church family that we'd like to celebrate, like a wedding. We'd also love to use

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that building for celebrating and walking through the hardest part of losing someone and doing

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memorials. And right now that space is inadequate because our needs have grown. The groups that use

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that space have grown. And then the next night I got to go to Park Collective in Prescott Valley

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in the Commons area. I don't know if you know, if you're like me, you're like, we called it the

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Commons. It's called the Commons because so many groups use that space. If you've been to Park

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Collective, that mural that's on the wall right behind the park, behind that there's a room that's

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called the Commons. And in that room, it is our most used space across any location. There are

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groups gathered in there almost every day of the week, whether that be an afterschool group that's

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in there Monday through Friday. On Wednesday nights, you have two different groups. One is

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in the Commons side, one's in the main room. You have Bible study, women's Bible study meets in

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there. We do our meals for the community in there. And so if you've been to a Saturday night meal,

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that's the room that that's happening in. Also along with that, you've got Alpha that meets in

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there. If you don't know what Alpha is, Alpha is a group of people that get together. It's kind of

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a, I think it's eight weeks or nine weeks, something like that. But you walk through

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questions. If you've got questions about recovery, you can go to the Commons.

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If you've got questions about God, it's a safe space at any stage of the journey to ask questions.

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And so all these groups are gathering in there. While I got to go, I spoke at Youth here on

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Wednesday and Thursday, I got to go and see Youth in Prescott Valley. I have done Youth for quite a

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few years in the Prescott area. I will tell you the things that our kids and PV are dealing with,

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the kids that are showing up, they are carrying major, major. It doesn't mean kids here or students

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here aren't, but it does mean this, that the ground there is hard going. The gospel is deeply needed.

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And what I'll tell you is, as I stood there watching a portable sound system, where students

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in the room, if one of them said something, you couldn't hear what was coming from Noah,

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who was teaching that night. And I just looked at it and went, our needs have grown. We've grown as

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a family. And so with that in mind, and with that, began to look at, okay, if we've grown to this

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point now, one of the things that naturally happens is you have rhythms within the church calendar.

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You have a spring kickoff and a fall kickoff. And so we began to speak, talk as leadership and began

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to look at, well, what do we do to prepare for and meet the needs of those groups that are in those

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spaces better? How do we create spaces where, if you go back to Romans, you hear about Jesus,

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right? You come to faith by hearing the word and then somebody's got to speak the word. Well,

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you got to hear it. And so if you're in a space where that's inadequate, that's going to be hard

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for you to make that connection. And so we just began to talk about what would it look like?

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One of the elders I love, he comes to me and he goes, Hey, just tell the church what you need.

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I'm like, I'm not good at that. So here you go. What we're doing in the month of March,

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so that we can get set up for the fall in those spaces is in the month of March, we are

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challenging our church family, inviting our church family, whatever language that's better for you

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to go above and beyond. So if you give on a consistent basis, that goes towards the budget.

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This is not in the budget. We have grown quicker than we had planned for. And so the idea is that

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in the month of March, we're trying to raise 200,000, right? So we're looking in going, Hey,

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this is the need. It's 200,000 to do what needs to be done in those spaces to make it adequate.

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And so we're asking the church family, this service, all the other services, our online family,

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would you be a part of helping the gospel make it to people, right? Would you be a part of loving

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these groups and these communities? And so if that's you, you'll find that when you go online,

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that when you get there, you'll see a short-term facilities vision. You can do it that way. If it's

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by check, you just write on there, short-term vision, and that works too. But the idea is this,

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that by the fall, we want to be set up to adequately do what we need to do. And it's all of us as a

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family, we get to meet the needs that God's put in our lap. And so we'll see what happens, see what

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God does. We'll keep you updated as we go. Okay. So we've been in a conversation and the conversation

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is around the critical journey. I want to do something really quick to help you kind of reframe

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know where we are on that journey. And so we have a graphic that I would love to show you that kind

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of helps you just see what have we covered so far and where are we going? Cause we're kind of in the

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midpoint of this journey, a little past midpoint. And so if you remember stage one was there has to

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be a recognition of God, right? And the critical journey, critical journey is not our language.

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It's a book that was written. We're just using it to frame up how you map the spiritual journey,

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so to speak, how you map maturity and faith. And so recognition of God is I give my life to Jesus,

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whether as savior and Lord, however that works, whenever that works. But the idea is that I've

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had a recognition of God. And inside of that now, I just want to learn. I just want to know more.

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I had a friend of mine who was here for that first week and went, I just need to know more.

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Right? And so she contacted a friend that has been a believer for a while. And that lady now,

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they're doing a Bible study together. And so it's this beautiful thing of just that need to go,

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I need to know more. I need to grow. And so life of discipleship begins to teach you things like,

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if you've never read your Bible, how to read your Bible. If you've never had a prayer life,

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how to have a prayer life, what it looks like. And what you get from that is you begin to understand

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that God made you unique. He has a plan for your life. There's a call on your life. And he gave

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you gifts for the kingdom of God. And so within that, you naturally get pushed towards a productive

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stage where you begin to work for God. You begin to take all the gifts, all the things, and you

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begin to put them into practice. And that sounds great, except for life's not that clean. Right?

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When you think about this, don't think linear, even though it feels like that. It's not, I go

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from one to the next. The reality is I may be serving God. I may be have a productive life for

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God. I'm doing work for God, but I am having fresh recognition of God inside of doing work for God.

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I may be bolstering up my life of discipleship while I'm in a productive life. I may be in a

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life of discipleship and having fresh recognition of God. It's not this clean, once you're done,

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that's it. You move on. It's this thing that you continue to grow. And so last week, we talked

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specifically about the wall. And when you hit the wall, it is a pain that you cannot get around.

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And that pain is designed to bring you face to face with the living God. It's designed to bring

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your will with God's will. It's designed to bring you to a point where you recognize Him as God

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and you surrender your ego. And then that can happen. You'll see it's next to stage four,

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the journey inward. We're going to talk about that today. But the idea is the wall could be

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the beginning of your journey inward. It could be in the middle. It could be something God uses at

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the end. But the idea of the wall is that it's something that God is using for you to lay down

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your will, your ego. And then you'll notice it carries on to the journey outward. We'll talk

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about that next week. And then notice where it ends with the life of love. Where is all this going?

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That you would love like God created you to, that you would love like Jesus, that your life would be

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marked when someone thinks of you, they think of how well you love people. They don't think about

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how smart you are. And in fact, we'll get into this in weeks to come. When people reach the life of

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love, they've kind of lost touch with everything else that matters to everyone else. And they

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just literally, they go, my life is to be given away for others. And it's this beautiful expression

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of what Jesus did for us. Now, this week we are in the journey inward. And I asked you to take a risk

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last week. I'm going to take a risk this week. I'm going to read you the rabbit listened. Okay.

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You're already laughing. This could be, just kidding.

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One day Taylor decided to build something, something new, something special,

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something amazing. Taylor was so proud, but then out of nowhere, you got to watch out for those

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ravens. I'm just saying things came crashing down. The chicken was the first to notice.

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What a shame. I am so sorry, sorry, sorry. This happened. Let's talk, talk, talk about it.

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But Taylor didn't feel like talking. So the chicken left. Next came the bear.

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How horrible. I bet you feel so angry. Let's shout about it.

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But Taylor didn't feel like shouting. So the bear left. The elephant knew just what to do.

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I can fix this. We just need to remember exactly the way things are.

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But Taylor didn't feel like remembering. So the elephant also left. One by one, they came.

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The hyena. Let's laugh. The elephant just laughed. The elephant just laughed.

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The hyena just laughed. We introduced ourselves a little bit each time Stephen makes this.

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, one by one, they came. The elephant came up.

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The hyena did not think.

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let's throw it all away and the snake, let's go knock down someone else's.

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But Taylor didn't feel like doing anything with anybody. So eventually they all left

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until Taylor was all alone. The journey inward maybe is best categorized by being deeply personal,

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being disruptive, being painful, and at the end of it you feel like you are completely isolated and

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alone. The journey inward will often make you feel like I am the only one who feels this way,

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who is experiencing this. I'm the only one. No one else understands, but here is what the journey

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inward is doing. You will be forced to ask yourself questions. The journey inward will

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force you to ask questions of God. What do I mean by that? If you've ever been around someone who

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has lost a child, I can't even imagine. I pray that it's never part of my story.

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But if you've been around somebody who has, it's really easy to ask, you say God is good, but is He

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good? If you've been around somebody who has lost their job, it is easy for them to go, hey, you said

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He's provider, but is He really? Is He really provider? These questions that flow naturally

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out of the wall, out of this pain, that force you to go inside your own soul to be healed, to be

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put back together so that what is the goal of the journey inward? That when you come out the other

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side of the journey inward, what happens is you accept reality with joy. You see, the wall is to

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bring you to your knees. The wall is your will meeting God's will. It's your surrender. It's your

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acceptance. It's your awareness. It's your beginning of the death of ego, where your will,

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you realize, is not aligned. What the journey inward is doing is taking your will and your ego

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and you die to self. You die to what you want so that you can sit in the reality of what God has

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given and you can do it with joy. There is such a difference between God, I accept this. I don't like

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it versus going, God, I accept reality with joy. This is my body. This is my life. This is my home.

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This is my marriage. These are my kids. This is my story. It's a much different experience. The

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Bible, I love that the Bible didn't just give us the moments of the super saints. It didn't just

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give us these stories where you're like, oh, I could never attain that. In Matthew 16, verse 21,

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there's a moment in Peter's life and the moment in Peter's life comes on a highlight reel.

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Jesus has asked him, hey, Peter, who do you say I am? You're the Messiah. You're the chosen one.

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You're the one we've been waiting for. You are the savior of the world, to which Jesus replies,

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Peter, you couldn't have known that unless God revealed it. It's this highlight reel moment so

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much so that God goes, hey, Peter, on you, I'm going to build my church on this rock. He tells

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I'm going to build my church on this rock. He tells everybody I'm going to build my church.

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And then this is what we have recorded next. Verse 21, from that time on, Jesus began to explain

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to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders,

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the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day

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be raised to life. Peter took him aside. Okay. Him is God in human form, just so we're clear, right?

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Like he takes Jesus and pulls him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said,

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this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a

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stumbling block to me, and you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

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I mean, this is a moment for Peter, right? I don't think there's anybody in the room that goes,

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oh, I wish Jesus would look at me and go get behind me, Satan. Right? Like I don't think

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there's any of us that want that experience, but Peter is holding onto a truth, right? That Peter

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is going, this is my will and my understanding. And so in this moment, what's happening is what

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he thinks the savior should be, what he thinks the Messiah should be. It is not lining up with what

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Peter has come to believe. And what it's creating in Peter is a crisis of faith. What it's creating

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in Peter and what can often feel true in the journey inward is that you feel like you are losing

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your faith. That there is a theological point. There's something that I know about God, this

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biblical truth that has been challenged. And because it's been challenged, now I feel like

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everything else is in crisis. And with Peter, you have this moment where he's got this view of what

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God should do. If you're the Messiah, here's what the Messiah is going to do. So what you're saying

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right now, Jesus, does not make sense. I will not accept it. It's not the way it's going to go.

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To which then Jesus goes, hey, you've got your concerns in mind, not my concerns in mind. It's

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the death of the will. He has an invitation by God to die to himself. It's interesting.

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Kind of a buzzword in Christian circles, buzzword in our culture has become deconstruction.

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Right? And so, common story, you go to high school, you're in a youth group, you graduate,

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you go to college, and at college somebody comes along and they challenge something that you say.

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They challenge something that you believe. And because our theology is more like a brick wall,

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that brick begins to crack and crumble because of what you've been challenged with. And all of a

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sudden the whole wall comes down. And what happens is if we begin to look at things,

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that we begin to look at biblical truth and we hold everything as accurate as I believe it,

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I'm just here to tell you that what I believed in my twenties, I don't believe in my forties.

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Right? God has matured and changed me. He's changed the way I view this book.

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He's changed the truth that I understand in this book. And so we have to create space.

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Our growth as we mature has to create space. Now, don't get me wrong. Don't walk out of here and go,

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well, we don't believe in it. No, no, no. Jesus, the centrality of Jesus, and Jesus is the Son of

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God, and Jesus went to the cross and paid my penalty that I could not pay, that He was raised

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to life again. And resurrection, because resurrection is real, I have new life today

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and I will live with Him forever. That's not up for debate. But there are so many other things

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that you've picked up along the way that you think is true, like Peter going, hey, when the Messiah

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comes, the Messiah is going to save us physically. He's going to go and get rid of Rome. So no, you

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can't go and die, Jesus. And now all of a sudden, His faith is shaken. I heard this picture of this.

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It's not mine. I heard it this week. There was another speaker and he was talking about

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the idea of a house, right? So if you can't, a little while ago, there was a knock on my door,

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and I didn't realize this was controversial till I said it out loud on the stage.

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But there was a knock on my door and it was a guy who has a roofing company, and he came

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to my house after a hailstorm and he goes, hey, it looks like your roof has damage.

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You know, your insurance will pay for that. And I'm like, hey, if my insurance will pay for it,

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sounds like a good deal to me, right? Well, he didn't know. He didn't know. He didn't know.

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What he didn't know is that ever since we moved into that house, we've been fighting a leak

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in the roof. Now, how ridiculous would it sound if I looked at him and went, you know what? We don't

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want a new roof. That one's leaking. We're just going to rip the whole house down and start again.

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You'd be like, bro, your house had a leak, right? Go fix the leak. But isn't it interesting when it

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comes to faith and theology, there's one part that doesn't line up with what we thought.

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There's one part that's challenged, and we go tear the whole thing down,

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right? Destroy the whole house. No, no, no. You deconstruct to reconstruct.

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We deconstructed our roof. Why? So that we could reconstruct and fix what? The leak.

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And so somewhere along the way within our culture, we've got this thing of, well, if I come across

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one thing, it's like a thread, and I'm just going to keep pulling it, and the whole thing unravels.

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It's not meant to be that way. The journey inward, hear me please. If you hear nothing else,

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the journey inward, you asking questions at your core, you figuring out what you really believe

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is just as vital, just as vital in your maturity to a life of love, your maturity to be like Jesus

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as it is that you step into a life of discipleship in stage two. It's just as important as you

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getting a productive life, you stepping out and doing work for God. It's just as important

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as those. It's a necessary step that you would have a moment where you feel like I am losing my

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faith. It's so important that we don't run away from it. It's so important that we don't abandon

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it. You think about what happens. People come and they have questions, and what often happens?

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We don't have answers, so who gets nervous? We get nervous. We don't have answers for their questions,

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right? And so what happens is we begin to push them away, and pretty soon they begin to pull away.

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And before you know it, they are outside of any church family, any community, and they are left

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in this deep questioning that guess what? Somebody will come alongside them and validate.

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And church, we have to be a place. We have to be a place where people can wrestle with their faith

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and not be afraid because it is a necessary part of growth. And in this context, Peter, right,

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you go a couple of chapters later, and they just got done with the communion meal that we talk about

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often in here. They sang a hymn, and now they're on the way out, and it says in verse 31, chapter

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26, 31, then Jesus told them, this very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is

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written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have

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risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Peter, here's Peter again, Peter replies, even if all fall

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away on account of you, I never will. Truly I tell you, Jesus answered, this very night before the

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rooster crows, you will disown me three times. But Peter declared, even if I have to die with you,

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I will never disown you. All the other disciples said the same. What do you have after this? They

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go out into the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus begins to become troubled. Jesus goes and prays,

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and he begins to pray, hey, could you take this away from me? What's going on? Is there any other

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way? And he's aligning his will with God's. He comes back, right? He's taken Peter and two others.

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He comes back to them and they're asleep. And all he'd asked them to do is stay awake for one hour.

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This is, remember, this is Peter who had just said what? I will die. Right? And here he is.

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It's only an hour, champ. I'm just so tired. And everything begins to shake for Peter, from his

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belief about what the Messiah was doing to this moment now in a garden where he sees Jesus

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troubled and it's all too much. And then is that the last, in verse 46, it says rise, let us go.

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Here comes my betrayer. So as they're leaving the garden, verse 47, while he was still speaking,

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Judas, one of the 12 arrived with him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the

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chief priests and the elders of the people. What happens? Jesus is arrested and he is taken.

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What happens? Jesus is arrested and he is taken. One of the things that happened

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in the stage of the journey inward is that you are going to feel like you have a loss of things

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that were once certain. Things that you were so sure on at one point, like Peter, I'll die with

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you. This is not going to happen. And now he has no control over what's happening. Right? Did he not

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believe it? No, I think he believed it. And you're going to have these moments where the certain,

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you were so sure this was a hill you would die on. And now all of a sudden you're going, I'm not so

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certain. Why? Because of the wall you faced and now the questions that are coming. And you begin to

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wrestle with those questions. And the more you wrestle with those questions, the less that you

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find you have answers. I can remember coming out of Bible college, man. I was like, I know this

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book inside out. We studied it. Right? Like I'll tell you what it is. And I told everybody what it

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was. I would argue in a heartbeat. You know who was normally arguing with me? Now that I think back,

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people the same age who all thought they had the answers. You know who wasn't arguing? People who

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had journeyed with Jesus awhile. Because the longer you journey with Jesus, the less answers you feel

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you have. There's less hills you'll die on. Why? Because within the journey inward, there is a

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loss of certainty, which sounds terrifying. Why? Because we all want security. We all want certainty.

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We all want our cute little boxes. I love that when you read some of the Psalms in Psalm 42,

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it says, as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. Sound like a song?

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Anybody remember a song? As the deer pants for the water. Right? And it sounds so cute. Maybe you've

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seen a picture. And the picture is it's lush, it's green, and there's this deer and it's down by the

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stream and the brook is flowing. That is not the picture that's created here. As the deer pants for

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streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

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When can I go and meet with him? There is a desperation. The picture that is given here

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is that the deer was so thirsty and at that point where I just, I have to get a drink,

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went down to the brook and the brook was dry. And now there's this desperation of where can I go?

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Where can I go to quench this thirst? The Psalmist is in the midst of wanting answers.

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Life has changed for the Psalmist. There's later in here where it's believed that the names that

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are used are as far away from the temple that you can get in Israel at that time. There is

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distance between the Psalmist and between God. And the Psalmist is speaking to that distance.

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I don't feel you anymore. You're not present anymore.

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My tears, verse three, my tears have been my food day and night while people say to me all day long,

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where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the

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house of God under the protection of the mighty one with shouts of joy and praise among the festive

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throng. Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? That word disturbed

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can be translated depressed. Why are you depressed internally? Put your hope in God. That word hope

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can be weight, weight on God, for I will yet praise him my savior and my God. What is the

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Psalmist doing? He's putting language to this deep ache of the journey inward where my soul is so dry.

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My soul is so burdened. I heard it put this way this week. Have you ever been to church and you

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well, you've been to church, you're here, right? But you got here and you went to worship and it

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tasted like there was ash in your mouth. Is there maybe no better description of just the dryness

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that you came to worship and it was dry. It felt empty. You sat and you've prayed and you're like,

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I swear my prayers aren't making it past the ceiling. You sit and you pray and you're like,

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God, you're not answering. I don't hear you. You're not doing what you've normally done.

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That's what the Psalmist is saying. The things that I've normally done, they're not

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working. Why? Because God is moving the Psalmist through an inward journey.

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Why? The Psalmist would come to a point to die to self and accept the reality with joy.

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It's this incredible moment. You think about Peter, another characteristic of these moments

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are that there's a box that God's got to stay in, right? And Peter kind of comes to the conclusion

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or comes to a point where he realizes the box isn't working. In Matthew 26, now Peter was sitting

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out in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him and said, I'm going to go to church.

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And the servant girl came to him. You also were with Jesus of Galilee, she said, but he denied it.

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So Jesus is on trial at this point, right? But he denied it before them all. I don't know what

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you're talking about. He said, then he went out into the gateway where another servant

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girl saw him and said to the people there, this fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth. He denied it

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again with an oath. I don't know the man. After a little while, those standing there went up to

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Peter and said, surely you are one of them. Your accent gives you a way. Then he began to call down

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curses and swore to them, I don't know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered

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the word of Jesus, the word Jesus had spoken before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.

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And he went outside and wept bitterly. What will the inward journey do to you? It will show you a

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God that does not fit your box. It will show you a God that is not going to act the way you think

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he should act or demand that he acts. What is the inward journey doing? It is destroying these

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preconceived ideas that if you are God and you are good, then you can only show up in this way.

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If you are God and you are provider, then you can only do this.

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I remember I was telling you about studying. I remember studying in the stream of theology I was

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in, they had whole constructs built so that they could explain God's behavior.

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And I'm just here to tell you, you will never have the market on God's behavior.

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His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours. He is not going to fit a nice

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clean box. And the problem is when we lose our box, it becomes really unsettling.

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What I love about Peter's story, you guys, is he has to go through Good Friday. What is Good

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Friday doing? It's pushing him into this journey that is so deep within himself that he's asking

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questions. He is walking away, weeping bitterly. But what does Peter do? Peter comes out the other

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side, right? He has to go through Friday. And Saturday when Jesus is buried and Jesus is in

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the tomb, it's silent. And then Jesus is raised to life. New life has come. And it's a picture

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of what happens that you have to make it through Saturday. Why? Because new life is coming on the

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journey with God. That you may be sitting today going, I've got more questions than I got answers,

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John. It's okay. Keep going. Don't give up. Sunday's coming. I mean, are we not surprised

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that who gets to preach the very first message? Who is it? It's Peter. God chooses Peter,

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who has gone through a journey with God where God brings him to accept with joy in John 21,

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the reality of who he is and who God is. But you got to keep going.

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You have to keep pressing in. There's a time in my life, in my backyard,

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the elders that come is roughly about a decade old. And I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to

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lie. The elders that come is roughly about a decade ago. The elders that come and gone, hey,

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we need you to take a break. And at that point, youth ministry was thriving. The church was

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doing well. We'd taken some new ground, new ideas, new vision. God was moving and we're trying to

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fall. And the elders came and said, we need you to take a break. And I'm going to be honest with you.

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Well, good luck without me. In my backyard, God began to ask me questions as I remodeled my backyard.

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I don't know if you've dug with a pick in Arizona. Some of you have. It's all rocks.

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And God's just asking me questions that I don't have answers to. And I'm trying to justify my

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behavior. And he's asking me, John, there was a three day period where my hands are blistered.

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I'm frustrated. Still digging. It's hot. And he's asking, John, is it enough if you are a son

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and nothing else? Yeah. But, and I go into the hole, but you gave me these gifts and I got to use

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these gifts and no, no, no, no, John, is it enough that you are just a son? Yeah. But God, I'm so

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valuable. No, no, no, no. Is it enough that you are just, and it came to the point where I finally

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surrendered and went, God, I accept that if all I ever am in your kingdom is a son, that's enough.

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And for the next three months, God did surgery on the inside of me. Why? Because your spirituality

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and your emotions, your will, your psychology needs to be fully healed.

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And the journey inward is how God takes everything that you think is spiritual

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and changes your soul with what it means to be connected to the living God.

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And it is deeply painful. And it is painful to be connected to the living God.

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And it is deeply painful. It's completely disrupting. It is not convenient in the slightest.

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So what do you do? You remember our little friend, Taylor? Taylor's all alone.

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In the quiet, Taylor didn't even notice the rabbit, but it moved closer and closer

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until Taylor could feel its warm body. They sat in silence until Taylor said, please stay.

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With me, the rabbit listened, the rabbit listened as Taylor talked.

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The rabbit listened as Taylor shouted.

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The rabbit listened as Taylor remembered and laughed.

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The rabbit listened as Taylor cried out in the silence.

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and laughed. The rabbit listened to Taylor's plans to hide, to throw everything away, to ruin things

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for someone else. Through it all, the rabbit never left. And when the time was right, the rabbit

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listened to Taylor's plan to build again. I can't wait, Taylor said. It's going to be amazing.

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What do you do with someone who you know who is journeying through the inward journey? Just be

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there. Just show up. Don't feel like you got to have all the answers. Don't feel like you got to

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fix them. Don't get scared by all of the things that they're struggling with, but just show up.

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Pray and be present. And what? Just listen. It's God's job to walk them through the journey inward,

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not yours. Yours is to be there. If you're in the inward journey today, don't give up. Sunday is

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coming. Resurrection, new life is coming. It is worth it. There is life on the other side. I know

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today it might feel dark. I know today it might feel like you don't have answers, but just keep

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going. Keep praying. God is present and he is providing. Don't give up. I love that both

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responses that the person in it prays and the person with them prays. What I love about it is

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this, that the Bible talks about your prayers rising up like incense to the throne room of God,

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and he collects it in a bowl and it becomes the fragrance. Your prayers are the fragrance

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of heaven. And so while you think I'm not doing much, your prayers are in the very presence of

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God today. So keep going. Keep showing up. Would you pray with me? God, thank you. Thank you for

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being the God who is in it with us. Thank you for being a God who is not in a box. The God,

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you don't have to do what we tell you to do, but we honor you as God and we accept your will with

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joy. And so God, would you help those that are walking through the journey inward? Would you give

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them strength? Would you give them courage? Would you allow them to keep going on days they don't

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want to? Would you allow them to stay connected? God, for those that are walking alongside,

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would you allow them to just show up, to be present, to pray and to walk with them?

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God, as we pray and we worship, we know today that in heaven, in heaven, it is incense to you. Thank

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you for caring so much about what we do that it would be the very fragrance you are surrounded

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by. Thank you for your love. Thank you that you don't give up on us.