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Welcome to Bible on the Beach. Glad you could join us today. I'm in the hills here in San Clemente

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in my home where I live. Glad you could be with us. We're in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 today.

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Paul writes, as a prisoner of the Lord I plead with you to walk holy in a way that is suitable

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to your high rank given to you in your divine calling. Paul points out three things quickly. One

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we're prisoners of Jesus. Our allegiance, our focus, and our priority in life is following him

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and him alone. Our goal is to be holy. That means that we're set apart for God's plan

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and his purpose for us in our lives here on earth. Did you know that God has a plan for your life

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and that you're supposed to strive in your character, in your life, and your integrity to

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line up with that plan? You know I know God's plan for my life is to pastor people, preach

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this word, preach the word of God, plant churches, and provide water. That's God's

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plan and will and desire for me. It's calling for me so I stay very focused on that because

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that's what God wants me to do. Are there people that are better than me at preaching the Bible?

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Duh! Of course! But just because someone's better than you at teaching the Bible doesn't mean that

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you're not supposed to teach the Bible. You see that's what pastors do. They teach the Bible.

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Let me tell it to you another way. How do you know if you're good at surfing in this area?

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The answer is you paddle out at lowers and you catch a lot of waves. End of story.

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If you don't paddle out at lowers and you don't catch a lot of waves, you're not great at surfing.

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Now you might be saying to yourself that's such an offensive thing to say to someone.

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No, it's the truth. You mean you're gonna have to work at things in order to get

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better at them? Duh! Bingo! Pastors teach the Bible. Are you gonna be good at it right away? No!

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Are we called, am I called to do it faithfully and consistently? Of course. So it shows humility

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when you keep practicing at something in order to get better at it. So God, Paul says

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I'm a prisoner. I'm called to be holy and suitable to your high rank. Now God wants to elevate our

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thinking and elevate our life in order to line up with his ideas for us. A lot of times we think

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here. God says no, no, no. I need you to think here. So the process of us following Jesus is

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elevating our thinking. Here's our thinking, here's God's thinking. Are we gonna bring God's thinking

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down to our thinking? No. Are we gonna get our thinking right here up to God's thinking? Absolutely.

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How do you do that? You realize your priorities, you realize your focus, you realize your calling,

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you elevate your thinking in your life so God can work in you and through you. Now verse two he says

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with tender humility and quiet patience always demonstrate gentleness and generous love towards

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one another. You can do a whole message on this verse. God says we're supposed to have tender

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humility. Talked about this yesterday. I believe it was Thomas Aquinas who was asked what are the

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finest Christian virtues. Humiliitas, humiliitas, humiliitas was his answer in the Latin.

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Milady, humility, humility. So God says we're actually supposed to have tender humility.

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Takes it even a step further. There's a descriptive word for humility. Tender humility. So

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that's our goal and quiet patience. Patience is quiet because you have to hold your tongue

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when you want to say things that you shouldn't say and the majority of people who are not

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ready to say things that they shouldn't say. The majority of the time I do pretty good. I don't

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really say things I shouldn't. However, I do to my very close family and those are the times when

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God has to keep me in check. You know like I notice I'm a little looser when I talk with my

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parents. I'm a little looser when I talk with my wife. I'm a little looser when I talk with my

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friends I've known for 20 years. That's just how I'm wired. The longer that I know someone the more

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I'm going to be. There's nothing wrong with that but God wants to keep us in tender humility,

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quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generosity. So God wants us to be. How do you know

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you're being gentle? Well when someone does something wrong or something that you need to

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forgive them for you're easy about it. You're not making people beg for forgiveness. Making people

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get on their knees and grovel and come to you. Don't be that way. God says just be gentle and

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be generous. Generosity is a spirit. Be generous with everything that you have in your life. It's

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all a gift from God. We don't own anything. We're just asset managers. We think we own stuff. We

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don't own anything. All we are is asset managers. Where do the assets come from? They came from God.

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God gave you your intellect. God gave you your education. God gave you your opportunity. God

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gave you your parents. God gave you your wealth. God gave you everything. All you are is an asset

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manager. And God's looking to see how are you stewarding your influence? How are you stewarding

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opportunity? God's watching to see if we're doing a good job with that. So

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keep that in mind. We're just asset managers for Jesus. He says be faithful to guard the sweet

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harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace. Being one body and one spirit as you

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were called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny. He says be faithful to guard the life of

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the Spirit. Yes we have to guard the life of the Spirit. There are things that we should never

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allow in our life. The Bible says I put, I guard my eyes. I guard my heart. I guard my life. I guard

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my friendships. I guard my spirit. We don't want to allow things in that can contaminate what God's

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trying to do innocent through us. So guard your life. Guard your mind. Guard your thoughts. Guard

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your spirit. For the Lord is one, so are we. We share in one faith, one baptism, and one Father.

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Here's the deal. When we get to heaven there's not going to be all these brands

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and organizations. They're not going to exist. They exist here on earth mostly because of

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you know a cynical view would say that organizations and brands exist because of ego and pride

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and power. An optimistic view would say we want to have a level of comfort with people that we run

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this race with here on earth. I've seen both. The point is whether you have a cynical view

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of religious institutions and organizations or you have an optimistic view of religious institutions

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and organizations. The deal is when we get to heaven there's one hero. That's it. There won't

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be famous pastors. There won't be famous churches. There won't be famous books. There won't be famous

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books. There won't be famous people. There'll be none of that. They'll just be servants of the king.

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People that were faithful to the hero of heaven, Jesus. I'm going to ask you a question. Are you

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being faithful to the hero of heaven, Jesus? What's he asking you to do with your life? How's he asking

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you to spend your time? What's he asking you to do with your money? Are you being faithful to what

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God has asked you to do in your life? He says he is a perfect father who leads us all, works through

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us all, and lives in us all. That's what God does. He's perfect. He lives in us. He flows through us.

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He's that living water that's bubbling up out of our life, making life beautiful for all of the

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parched people that live a life of drought all around us. Thanks for joining me today. I love

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doing this. I hope this is encouraging to you. That's why I do Bible on the Beach. There's been

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a lot of Bible in the hills lately because the surf's kind of been up and down. My routine's

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been a little different. I'm glad you joined in. Until next time, have a beautiful day.