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It's a school that the college bought years ago and it made into a Christian college.

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This chapel sits out there.

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It's basically abandoned and it is said that Wilhelmina lives there.

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Wilhelmina is a ghost, supposedly.

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She occasionally makes an appearance.

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She is the stuff of legends, has been for decades.

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I remember when we were living there that one of our young men from the church was a

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student at the campus strapping six foot to 275 pound football player kind of a guy.

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He was sitting on the edge of the lake there with his girlfriend.

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They were chatting away.

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It was about 11 o'clock at night and he said all of a sudden there was a flash of light

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like a light bulb exploding or the flash of a camera inside this abandoned chapel.

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He said almost immediately there came this white thing out of the chapel floating through

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the air and dissipated, the ghost on the lake.

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I remember when I went to Chicago as a student.

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Our RA in the dorm got a few of us who were freshmen around.

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There were about six of us as I recall.

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He wanted to share with us a matter of great concern for new people in Chicago.

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Well, of course, being from the farm in Kansas, I figured I needed to learn everything I could

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about it.

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He gathered us around.

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He began to tell us about the ghost that was out in Lake Michigan in a lighthouse just

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offshore from Chicago.

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I'm not sure if it was a lighthouse or a pumping station, but you can see it out there.

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He talked about the night.

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He had heard the stories.

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He talked about the night that he rode out there with some friends.

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He drew us in talking more and more quiet about this evening.

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Our hearts were just beginning to beat hard.

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You could almost hear our hearts beating in our chests.

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He got to a certain point in the story and then he said, and we at that point had to

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go change our clothing.

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Ghost stories are the stuff of legends.

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We're going to talk about a ghost story about a ghost on a lake in Mark chapter 6.

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Immediately it says, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to

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Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.

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After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

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When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land.

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He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them.

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About the fourth watch of the night, he went out to them.

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That's about three to six o'clock in the morning, walking on the lake.

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He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought

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he was a ghost.

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They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified.

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When it says they cried out, the word literally means they screamed.

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I will tell you that when that 275 pound football player told me about that story, he was as

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white as a, pardon the pun, ghost.

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He was terrified by what he saw.

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These disciples were terrified by what they saw.

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They screamed.

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Immediately he spoke to them and said, take courage.

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Look at his eye.

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Don't be afraid.

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Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down.

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They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves.

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Their hearts were hardened.

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When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.

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As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.

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They ran throughout the whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he

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was.

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Wherever he went, into the villages, towns, or countryside, they placed the sick in the

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market places.

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They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak.

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All who touched him were healed.

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All who touched him were healed.

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Tales abound about ghosts.

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They energized the imagination of listeners and scared some of us out of our wits by the

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stories that we hear.

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Usually, ghost stories are about having a good laugh at somebody else's expense, like

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I experienced in Chicago.

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But they can also generate nightmares, can't they?

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In the legends of ancient days, and particularly the days of Jesus here, the appearance of

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ghosts, or more correctly, spirits.

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You see, ghosts are usually thought of as departed people who have hung around for some

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reason.

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Such an idea is foreign to the Bible.

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When a person dies, they go to their eternal destiny, either heaven or hell.

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They don't hang around here.

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But there are spirits.

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There are spirits.

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These are fallen angels.

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These are demons.

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Some of them are good angels, of course, too.

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But the ones that play games like this one on the island in Minnesota are fallen spirits.

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The legend was, in those days, that if you saw a spirit, something bad was about to happen

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to you.

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Something bad was about to happen.

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It was a superstition regarding seeing a spirit.

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So the disciples obviously were terrified.

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They were afraid something bad is about to happen.

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But the reaction of disciples betrays something deeper than superstition.

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The Bible says it reveals hardened hearts on their part.

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Now, if you want to talk about something truly frightening, think about that, the reality

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of a hardened heart.

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You see, the disciples had failed to grasp the spiritual lessons that Jesus expected

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that they should have known.

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They simply did not get the picture, even after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000

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the day before, the 5,000 men plus women and children.

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The last four words of verse 52, I think, are the scariest words in the whole text.

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Their hearts were hardened.

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I want to say to you today, beware of a hardened heart.

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A hardened heart leads to critical failures.

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Some of the failures that can happen with hardened hearts are suggested in the account

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that is before us today, which we're now going to look at in more detail.

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In verses 45 and 46, we see that a hardened heart can lead to the failure to comprehend

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the Lord's program.

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What Mark does not tell us, but John and his gospel does, is that the crowds were ready

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to take Jesus by force after the feeding of the 5,000 plus people and to make him the

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king.

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I want to suggest to you that just perhaps the disciples were caught up in that movement

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too.

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That their thoughts were moving in the same direction as the crowds.

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There was a strong nationalistic, political spirit among the Jewish people.

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They hated Rome unanimously.

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They desired deliverance from Rome.

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They felt that Jesus would be the ideal leader to lead them out from under Roman oppression.

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It seems like abruptly Jesus sends his disciples off alone.

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This is a different boat trip than the one in chapter four when Jesus got in the boat

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with them.

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This time Jesus sent them off alone.

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Why did he do this?

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Because he wanted to grow their faith some more.

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He wanted to give them a lesson.

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So he deliberately sent them into another storm.

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When you listen to us pray, isn't it interesting how often we pray for our loved ones and for

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ourselves and we say, and dear Lord, keep them safe.

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Can I say to you this morning that Jesus' primary concern is not to keep us safe.

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His primary concern is that we grow up as his disciples.

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Jesus purposely sent his disciples onto that lake knowing that a storm was a reality.

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He himself turns to prayer.

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He sends them to the waters and he goes up into the mountains to pray by himself.

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This is the second of three times in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus faces a crisis and he prays.

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Each time in Mark it seems as though there is a temptation that Jesus is feeling to step

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out of God's timing for him and God's plan for his Messiahship.

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Here we understand from what John tells us that there was this movement that was very

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powerful to take him right then and to make him king, but such would not have been the

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will of God.

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Even his disciples must have been caught up in this and so Jesus abruptly says, you guys

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get in the boat and get out of here.

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And then he turns away from the crowds and goes by himself to pray in this time of temptation.

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We might expect that those who were the very closest to Jesus would have known that this

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was not yet his time, that the wraps were not yet to come off of his Messiahship, that

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it was premature.

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They did not comprehend the Lord's program.

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That is very clear here.

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They did not understand the timing.

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Now, to their defense we have to say that Jesus had not yet clearly articulated to them

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that he must go to Jerusalem and there die and be raised again.

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He would tell them that soon enough.

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But even now their hearts were hardened.

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They were not holding to the spiritual truth or the plan that Jesus was trying to impress

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upon them.

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Before we get too critical of them though, we need to look in our own hearts.

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Are we much different than they are?

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Are our own hearts calloused or hardened to the passions and the purposes of God?

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After all, what is God's program today that we, his followers, should be comprehending

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and participating in?

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Well the answer is very clear from Scripture.

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He tells us that his program is that we should go and make disciples through evangelism,

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the equipping or the establishing of converts, and then sending them out along with ourselves

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into the harvest fields of the world.

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I want to say to you without any shadow of being concerned that I'm wrong, that the

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Lord's purpose in this weekend has been the harvest crusade.

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Have you been with God's program this weekend or have you missed it because of a hardened

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heart?

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You see the passion of God is that people hear the gospel, that they have the opportunity

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to believe that Christ be lifted up, that he might draw people to himself.

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Have you cared to invite your friends and to participate in the harvest crusade?

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How receptive and willing is your heart for the Lord's program?

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I think of the global outreach celebration coming up soon and the opportunities we have

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to participate in that and to respond and be a part of the faith promise of our church

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saying I want to invest in the Lord's work through our missionaries.

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Are you with the Lord's program or not?

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Do you comprehend what he's up to?

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If our hearts are hardened, we miss the Lord's program just like the disciples did.

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We as a church have a wonderful opportunity next month to bless our community in what

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we call beautiful day.

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Later this month we have the opportunity to invite families throughout our region to come

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to our campus in the fall festival.

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Each week we carry out kids clubs on the school campuses.

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Several seasons of the year we sponsor sports teams here at the church, a sports ministry.

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We have a group of people who go to the Arbor Apartments up the road here and lovingly serve

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those folks.

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We have others who are involved in ESL.

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In December we'll have a Christmas outreach concert.

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We participate in reaching to the poor of our community through Love, Inc.

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There are lots of ways in which we as a church are seeking to participate in God's global

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and local program for outreach.

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If we talk about the Lord's purpose and the Lord's plan and the Lord's program, dear friend,

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this church is trying to do that.

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Are you plugged into it?

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If your heart is not hardened, you are.

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But the disciples, unfortunately, here are like too many Christians today.

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They simply do not comprehend the Lord's program.

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It's passing them by.

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The program of God to establish His rule and His kingdom here in Silicon Valley through

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the transformed lives of men and women, and for them to become then passionate followers

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of Jesus who carry out the purposes of God in their lives, that program is your program

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in mine.

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God is at work calling out a people for His namesake among the nations of the world.

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Let me ask you, do you comprehend that?

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Are you participating in it?

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Are you plugged in somewhere in the Lord's program?

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Or like the disciples, are you missing it?

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Do you have a hardened heart?

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One of the results of a hardened heart is a failure to comprehend the Lord's program

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and to miss it with your life.

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I don't know if there could be a greater tragedy or a more scary thing than that.

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More scary than a ghost on a lake.

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There's another failure that I see here that comes from hardened hearts, and that is the

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failure to perceive the Lord's presence.

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Verses 47 up through verse 51.

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The disciples were out there in the lake, three and a half miles or so from shore, headed

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toward their destination.

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The wind was blowing against them.

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The waves were pounding the vessel, and they're rowing into the night trying to get over there

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to the other shore.

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And it says in our text that Jesus saw them.

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Now apparently it was not a cloudy night.

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Some people think that this happened during the Passover, which would have meant a full

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moon.

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And in a full moon, one could easily have seen out into the sea that far.

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There would undoubtedly have been some light on the boat.

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Jesus saw them out there, and it says he went out to them walking on the lake.

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Don't miss that.

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He went out to them walking on the lake.

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The story is told about Mark Twain and his wife, who in the late 1800s made a trip to

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Israel.

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Unfortunately, it didn't convert the humanist, but he went there out of curiosity to learn

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what he could about Jesus.

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They were staying in Tiberias, and one night the moon was out, and he thought, will it

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be a nice night for a romantic boat ride?

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So he went down to the dock, and he saw a man with a rowboat there, and he said, sir,

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how much money would it take to take us on a boat ride?

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He was dressed in his white finest as he was customarily dressed, so he wanted somebody

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to row the boat for him.

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And the man thought a moment, and he said, $25.

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This is late 1800s.

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$25 was $25 in those days.

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And so he swallowed hard, and he said, well, this explains to me why Jesus walked.

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As like the disciples, we miss the Lord's nearness.

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We are dominated by our old way of thinking, the boxes that we put around our understanding

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of how the Lord is at work, even in our own lives.

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Most typically we see our circumstances as a chance or as coincidence.

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We face in our lives the winds of opposition, or maybe the breeze of ease, or the gust of

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an interruption, and we don't stop to ask ourselves, hmm, where is the Lord in this?

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You see, if God is sovereign, we need to view our lives within that framework.

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He is after all the shepherd, as David says in Psalm 23.

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He provides for our needs, and he protects us.

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David said, I'm never afraid for what?

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Thou art with me.

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Say those words.

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Thou art with me.

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What wonderful words those are.

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The disciples, in their hardness of heart, failed to perceive the Lord's presence.

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They thought it was a ghost.

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Now, I can't condemn them too much, and I will tell you, I would have screamed louder

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than any of them had I been there in that boat.

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Out of hardness of heart, Jesus expected that they should have known about the feeding of

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the 5,000, that he was sovereign, that he could take care of them, but their hearts

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were hardened.

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And so Jesus says to them, after they cried out, they screamed, Jesus said, hey guys,

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wait a minute.

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Take courage.

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And you know what he says then?

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He literally says, I am.

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I am.

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The text is translated, in my translation at least, it is I.

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But literally he says, I am, drawing upon all that that would mean to a Jewish man.

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And then he says, don't be afraid.

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Don't be afraid.

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By the way, Peter wanted to get out of the boat on this occasion.

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You remember that?

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Mark doesn't tell us about it, which is interesting, because Mark probably relates Peter's viewpoint

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on things, but Matthew does tell us that after they had recognized Jesus, he had identified

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himself and they recognized him, that Peter said, Lord, if it's really you, if it's not

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just a spirit, if it's really you, then let me come out there with you.

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And Jesus said one word, come.

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Come on.

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Come on out here.

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And you know what?

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He did.

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00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:02,240
I saw a bumper sticker a couple of weeks ago, you've seen it undoubtedly, it said, the next

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00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:06,920
time you think you're perfect, try walking on water.

285
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You know what, you don't have to be perfect to walk on water.

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Peter wasn't perfect.

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He walked on water.

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Why?

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Because Jesus was there.

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The Lord was present.

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When our hearts are hardened, we fail to see the Lord's presence in our lives, and we get

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scared just like they did.

293
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We look at the news that we got from the doctor.

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We look at what's happening in our family.

295
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We take a look at the economy or our work situation or what's happening in our marriage,

296
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and we get scared and we cry out, God, where are you?

297
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He says, don't be afraid, here I am.

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Will you believe that this morning?

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You see, more scary than a ghost on a lake is having a hardened heart and allowing yourself

300
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:11,480
to be dominated by your circumstances, your fears, instead of realizing the Lord is with

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00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:13,760
you.

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Be not afraid.

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The hardness of heart and the hardness of heart of the people generally at that time

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00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:31,440
led to a third failure, and that is a failure to understand the Lord's power.

305
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:38,960
After all, they had seen the miracle of the feeding the day before.

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John tells us that after this night, after this time on the lake, Jesus explained to

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his disciples and to the crowds, he said, you're looking for me not because you saw

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miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

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Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.

310
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Believe in the one whom God has sent.

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I am the bread of life.

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He who comes to me will never go hungry.

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You see, what is impossible for man, Jesus can do, and his power is more than to do miracles

314
00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:34,620
by extending a life or restoring a limb or delivering from a demon.

315
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His power is so great, he can even give eternal life to one who believes on him.

316
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That's how great he is.

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Consider how few of the people who ate the loaves or who touched him and were healed

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00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:59,080
experienced a changed life.

319
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,280
They ate to get full.

320
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:08,080
They touched to get over their disease, but they did not understand his power to give

321
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:12,900
them eternal life.

322
00:25:12,900 --> 00:25:19,520
They recognize Jesus, yes, for what he could do for them, but how deeply did they allow

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00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:26,400
him to work and his power to bring them what they really needed, which was forgiveness

324
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:32,000
of sin and eternal life.

325
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:39,440
A hardened heart causes one to fail to understand what the Lord's power is and how he is able

326
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to even transform a life and an eternal destiny from hell to heaven.

327
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:51,400
What creates a hardened heart?

328
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:55,080
Let me just suggest some things that create hardened hearts.

329
00:25:55,080 --> 00:26:00,560
First of all, learning truth without practicing it.

330
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:06,840
Head knowledge, you see, puffs up, and it deceives one into thinking that he is spiritual

331
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,920
or mature.

332
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,800
There are some people who take pride in knowing their Bible.

333
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,040
They know so much of it.

334
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:21,880
They're sort of the Bible answer man, and yet the truth has never transformed their

335
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:24,200
lives.

336
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They know a lot, but they've never applied it, and consequently their hearts have become

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00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:30,960
hardened.

338
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They are merely a database of information, not a changed life.

339
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,120
A heart can be hardened by pretending to be something it isn't.

340
00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:48,640
In other words, play acting.

341
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:53,600
Participating in a Bible study or in a small group or being involved in student ministry

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00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:58,840
or being a part of a life community and acting like a Christian while you're in a certain

343
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:04,680
context, but as soon as you get out of that, then reverting to old patterns.

344
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You cater to the friends who are around you.

345
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You act like they do.

346
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:09,720
You talk like they do.

347
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,800
You live like they do.

348
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:20,640
Pretending to be something that you're not hardens your heart.

349
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:26,840
I talked to one person a while back who said, I'm not coming to your church anymore.

350
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:31,360
I'm tired of people in church who are not real.

351
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There are too many people who put on a show, they're phonies.

352
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:41,320
You know what that person was really saying?

353
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,760
I'm not real.

354
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:50,740
She was saying I'm a phony, and she was projecting that on others.

355
00:27:50,740 --> 00:27:53,440
She was saying I'm a hypocrite.

356
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:59,320
See, when we're hypocrites, pretending to be something that we are not, then our hearts

357
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:03,960
get calloused.

358
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Our hearts are hardened by resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit, number three.

359
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For every time that we say no to God, it's like we build up a callous on our hands.

360
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,440
When I came off the farm, I had calloused hands.

361
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I don't anymore.

362
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:25,280
But in those days, I had callouses all over my hands because of the work of farming.

363
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:31,120
The more that you use your hands in manual labor, the more there's a hardness that builds

364
00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:32,120
up.

365
00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,280
And the same thing can happen to the heart.

366
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:41,320
When we say no to God, it forms layers of callous in which our hearts become less sensitive

367
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:43,400
to God.

368
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,080
We get hardened hearts by being too busy to listen to God.

369
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:53,360
I'll tell you the truth, I worry about families in our church who are so busy.

370
00:28:53,360 --> 00:29:00,720
I worry about their kids, kids who are kept so busy in sports and in dance and in activities

371
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:06,020
and all kinds of other things that they don't have time to connect with the student ministries

372
00:29:06,020 --> 00:29:08,840
in our church.

373
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,480
And someday the parents are going to say, well, the student ministries never ministered

374
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:20,720
to my kids and the fact is the kids were never here because they were too busy.

375
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:27,940
I want to tell you parents, you're developing hardened hearts in your kids when you allow

376
00:29:27,940 --> 00:29:32,820
yourselves to get too busy for God.

377
00:29:32,820 --> 00:29:37,220
When you have them involved in so many things that they can't be involved in the spiritual

378
00:29:37,220 --> 00:29:43,960
things that they need the most at this time in their lives, being too busy to listen to

379
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:50,800
God with family activities, with work, whatever.

380
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:57,000
Our hearts get hardened when we grow casual about holy things.

381
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,900
When we come to church and we just kind of stand around while others sing, I've stood

382
00:30:01,900 --> 00:30:06,720
at the back of our worship center and I've watched and I've seen people just stand there

383
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,560
while others are worshiping God and singing.

384
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,580
It's not that they don't know the words, it's just that they don't care to worship.

385
00:30:12,580 --> 00:30:17,800
They just kind of stand and look with this dazed look in their eyes and you say, was

386
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,960
the television show that good last night?

387
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,520
Was the party that much fun?

388
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,880
What's going on in your mind?

389
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:32,440
They're very casual about being in the holy presence of God and every time that happens

390
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:37,120
there's a hardness that develops in the heart.

391
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:42,200
We have students who come to church and send text messages to one another instead of listening

392
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,480
to the word of God.

393
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,600
It hardens the heart.

394
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:53,920
Or who write notes, talk to one another during church, who make jokes, or who pretend to

395
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,560
come to church and then walk around our building.

396
00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:57,560
They don't come in here.

397
00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,520
Parents don't know that.

398
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:06,480
Parents, if your children are doing that, then you need to have them sit with you in

399
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:12,880
the service until they can learn what it means to listen.

400
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,680
Because you see, it's very dangerous for them to come to church and to mess around in the

401
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,680
time of holy things.

402
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,640
It hardens their hearts as it does any of us.

403
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:28,480
Your heart can be hardened by allowing yourself to become too self-focused.

404
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:36,760
Demanding to be left alone because you have your own needs to be concerned about.

405
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:41,720
I heard about one father who comes home from work and he demands that no one talk to him

406
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:48,840
for an hour because he is so stressed out.

407
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:52,200
Come on dad, get real.

408
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:53,200
Don't be so self-focused.

409
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:58,800
It's a good thing to turn the telephone off by the way.

410
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:08,200
What about dragging your family to another church when you get your feelings hurt?

411
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:12,160
Allowing yourself to become so self-focused that you and somebody else have a falling

412
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:17,360
out and so you take off and drag your kids away from their friends that they've connected

413
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,800
with here.

414
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:21,360
All of these are the kinds of things.

415
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:25,200
I by no means exhausted the list that hardened the heart.

416
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,840
How do you recover from a hardened heart?

417
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:31,280
I only know of one way and that is to repent.

418
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,400
By repentance I mean to change your mind.

419
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:39,560
A change of mind that includes an open, unguarded acknowledgement to God of your condition.

420
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:44,220
Say, oh God, my heart is hardened.

421
00:32:44,220 --> 00:32:45,880
I am missing your program.

422
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,600
I don't get your presence in my life.

423
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:50,560
My life, I overlook that.

424
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:52,960
I'm not connected.

425
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:58,560
I'm not experiencing your power in my life because my heart is hard.

426
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:04,160
And then to turn away from your current direction to follow Jesus and to surrender to him.

427
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:08,360
I don't know of any way to get past a hardened heart but that.

428
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:19,640
But I'll tell you what, far more scary than a ghost on a lake is a heart that has grown

429
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,600
hard to God.

430
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,040
That is truly frightening.

431
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:33,040
Let's pray.

432
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,960
Where's your heart this morning?

433
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:37,560
Is your heart soft toward God?

434
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,760
Is your heart receptive to the things of God?

435
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,960
Is your heart hungry for God?

436
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:48,160
Or would you have to say, no, I'm afraid my heart needs to be changed and I want it to

437
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,280
be changed.

438
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:53,840
I've been doing my own thing.

439
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:55,000
I haven't been listening to God.

440
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,960
I've been too busy.

441
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,200
I've been very self-focused.

442
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:03,360
I've gotten my feelings hurt.

443
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,080
I have an unforgiving spirit.

444
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,280
I'm bitter.

445
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:12,680
Whatever the issue is, my friend, bring that to God in an open, unguarded acknowledgement

446
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,460
of your sin.

447
00:34:15,460 --> 00:34:18,080
And then turn to him.

448
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:23,200
You see, he's waiting for you to cry out.

449
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:27,880
He's waiting for you to cry out so that he can say to you, don't be afraid.

450
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:28,880
It's me.

451
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:29,880
It's me.

452
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,080
I just want to come and get in the boat.

453
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:33,080
I want to be with you.

454
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:34,760
I want to soften your heart.

455
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,320
I want to teach you how to walk with me.

456
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,760
Will you let the Lord have his way this morning?

457
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,440
Will you let him change your heart?

458
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:47,680
Will you ask him to?

459
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:52,160
Father, have your way with us, I pray, and do what needs to be done.

460
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:54,360
In Jesus' name, amen.

461
00:34:54,360 --> 00:35:18,120
Would you stand together with me, please, and let's sing together.