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Why don't we do a talk here today that we've had a few weeks of switching from

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How to listen to God to following God

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and talking a little bit today about what following God actually looks like and

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Wanted to talk a little bit of a story that has me and my sister now

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The thing is is that when I was in college my sister was a Mexican

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Now we were both driving at the same time, but this was really

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It was a really backwards really difficult time

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See if you wanted to watch a movie you had to actually lead your home

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You had to go to this place that had these boxes

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We call them cassettes and these things cassettes

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They had tape that would play like movies and stuff and so you would take them

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You'd have to go to the place that was called a blockbuster

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I think it was a name

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And you take them from this place this store and you put in another box called a VCR

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Okay, and you have to get a reminder. It's very strange

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Now here's the worst part about it

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Is if you went to this blockbuster and they didn't have one of those boxes there for you to rest

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You could watch the movie

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I know

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Oh my goodness, it was like oh man

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This was like a difficult time third world nation has stuff right there

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I don't even know how we survived, but somehow somehow we made it through and the thing is is that my sister and I

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We were gonna go right on these cassettes and we were carrying down the blockbuster

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I have no idea why maybe she was like I want to drive this

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You know that's what you get excited about whenever you're younger, right?

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And so we're driving down and she's following behind you and we were coming up to a light and that light was yellow

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and it was definitely yellow for a moment or two and

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I really needed to go ahead and stop because it was definitely going to turn red

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But I have a behind me and I swear my sister is this far from my bumper. Okay now

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I'm sorry high schoolers. I love you. I don't need to be anxious in any way

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But you haven't been driving long enough for me to trust you to not be able to stop with that much of a warning

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So I'm like there is no way there's no way I'm stopping at this one

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So I push through that yellow which was probably a little orange and my sister definitely ran it as a red for sure

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And we finally get over to the blockbuster. She gets out of her car. She's like why in the world did you run through that yellow?

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Yeah, that's because you're on maniacs. Why?

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And she okay, so if she ever listens to this sermon. All right, you really were just that close. I promise

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It was it was it was a bit much

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So but that's the thing is that oftentimes following somebody can be harder than the oftentimes stick

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The idea of what it is to be close

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But also to realize that you need to see where you are going and

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That's a good about what I want to look at with three people today

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The first one I want to talk about the same

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Samuel was young boy

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Young boy his mother was able to have any kids and so what happens is that she asks God is that if you were giving me a child

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I would dedicate that child to you so Samuel being a

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Young boy is that going to live in the temple with the priests

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So at this point in time is a very young kid, but one night he ends up hearing

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God calling his voice. He doesn't know

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who it is

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He's not used to this and he goes to Eli because Eli at the time was a high priest

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Now you know something about Eli

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Eli

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He had been serving as priests for such a long time, but his sons

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Turn out to be really terrible people

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You see the thing is that when making this after us you're supposed to give me over and it's when you

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have

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Perky like sons

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Instead you see this was back in the days where there was no such thing as the last cross you see all the path that you wanted

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It didn't matter right that's totally not worked right cross-coded didn't exist before last century right

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Okay, well with it though is it well, I know you gotta give us some of the meat

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In advance so we can roast it because that he parts

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You know like the part of you kind of like watching it drip from the barbecue right the barbecue like I shouldn't eat it

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I'm totally going to yeah that was the thing is that they were saying you have to give a sense

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And so now the third day sitting against what I wanted, but they were causing other people to feel like the sacrifice

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The offering is time important God doesn't happen because you can take whatever you want

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But even more than that is that they were also being grudges with some of the women that were there working in the local area

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They were setting a terrible example with the offerings also with their own their own personal lives

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And God had told Eli

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This is not acceptable in your family is going to be caught off

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for the priestess

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There's a little boy and he's hearing from God and Eli realizes that you speak to him says

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Go here what it is that and say or your servant is listening

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How serious that

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To realize that God is working and speaking in you

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And it's up to you to just listen

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Don't even hurt her

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God tells Samuel to tell Eli that his family is being caught off

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How would that be to know that you're going to have to go to the person that you are respecting and learning from and happy to speak

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And tell them something that they're not going to want to hear

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That's one of the things about following God

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Is that all the time to find ourselves in difficult places that we don't want to have to go forward

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Because you have to not only be learning from the people who are older than you and more alright

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But there are times where you also have to speak the truth to people

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when you wonder who the money to see is

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I mean, I'm a little bit of a weird snapper. I don't have that much right here in my head

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I know that there are times in places where I have to do and say things that are difficult

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Question

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There's a time when I or somebody else has to say you're going down the wrong path

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Would you listen?

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How difficult is it to sometimes say what someone needs to hear which features more than that

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Is that Samuel speaking those words to you? I

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Was in front of you something you already knew

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See one of the things that's hard about it is that sometimes

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Are saying it

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Even if you feel like taking the already know maybe something they don't want to hear is that sometimes it's that moment

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When they're garden is down on the economy list

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It's sometimes being the person to say it's needed because you're the only one that they can hear

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The little boy who has no god living

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And he's the one to god

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But it's more than just saying we're also listening to john the baptist and don't the baptist

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It is that you know listening watch that chosen video series that shows everything and they always talk about them called crazy

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And that's really in many ways

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John the Baptist they live in the middle of nowhere and he's wearing like this skin

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I mean I get that leather comes from a cow but if you come out here wearing a hide of a deer

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You're just great over me. I mean you feel a little bit concerned. It's like a kind of a lady Gaga moment here or something like that

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And the thing is is that there he is tying around the Sun Belt walking around it

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And eating whatever you can find whole things are rocking along the ground

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Do you ever see me going out and trying to keep locusts alongside of the road?

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Just go check on me if you have a fever or something like that. It does not sound like a good idea

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But this is the guy

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Why was he like that?

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He was like that because he was called to be different

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There were times he was never allowed to drink this was a I have a personal decision. I don't feel like

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no

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To be the prophet who's supposed to be

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He was never supposed to drink alcohol. That would put a cram on the brewery ice

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Definitely, I think it just would be it just would be

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How many times though would he be willing to let something go?

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Because we know it's hitting between us and God

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Or more than that, how many times would he really be just a little bit different?

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There's times we know that we can just

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It's kind of keeping our clothes and act like everybody else and be like everybody else and somehow blend in you know

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Everything's gonna be okay because you also know

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You're making the only person in that place in that time

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And

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saying what someone needs to do from God

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What as we're coming toward next about a month we're looking toward

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Essentially letting something go or six weeks fasting or something

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When's the last time you fasted?

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I did a juice cleanse about five years ago worse three days of my life

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No, I was okay, but

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Beyond that though

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Would we be willing to do what is needed to separate ourselves because let's be honest

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We don't eat because we're hungry most of them

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We eat because we're bored we eat because it's there in front of us

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We eat because somebody marketed to us really really well or driving on the road. That was good. I'll just drive over here

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How many things do we place between us?

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And you're in for not

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That was the least of the person that John was pointing to our third person Jesus

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See there are two parts that I want to point out about Jesus one

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Was being baptized by John the baptizer and the other part was

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He's going out into the wilderness

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See here's the thing is that Jesus

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He's saying to John I need you to baptize me

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Imagine your hero coming and asking something about you

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And all John is able to say is no no no no I told you baptized by you and Jesus says no

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This is how it's supposed to be. This is the right way to do it

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Because now he's instituting

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The entrance into the kingdom for both Jews and Gentiles

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This is the beginning of how others will be brought into the church

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He's supposed to get started

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And this is the case with us oftentimes is how many things do we think about that we say oh, I don't really mean that

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You know that's not really something I don't really need to go through this part

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We do that with so much of our own studies but also even our accountability

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The times when we know that we need people in our life to hold us in check

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Not just to check on us make sure okay, but also take hey, you know, it probably wasn't the best idea

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Not because they're angry at us or they hate us is to make sure because they genuinely love us

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But so many times that we don't think we need that

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So many times when we back away from our groups and classes and the people that we need the most

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Or even more than that

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What about the times whenever we are stepping in and saying I don't need to do this to someone else

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I keep asking Linda's like do you have people for food bank and that's the thing with it

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I'm happy to go and just want to make sure that everybody else has spots to go with

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Because I'll go some other time

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But there are so many times when we say you know what I don't need to do is somebody else to make it good

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Like we have people who take care of the grounds here and they do a great job and it's amazing and I'm really glad we have been doing it

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So then does that mean that we should never have a work day we should never come here and take care of things ourselves

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Or maybe we pause and say that if we did we might talk to each other more

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Might be good they got there and work with your mans

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But also to physically connect with the place where you worship

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Because we're spending so much time in our heads saying oh we don't need to do that

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Instead of saying no we can get to do that

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And I want to believe that also to what Jesus is doing in the time of the wilderness

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See the temptation is always starting to change

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What's such a big deal of bread

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This is also actually a part of the need to exist so there were no good guys for anything back then

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If you well enough the gluten can just go away

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But with it though is we end up seeing that Jesus is being tempted to make these stones into bread

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Jesus is out there for reasons

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We all know that it is a serious communication to Jesus

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There are so many things to make yourself more comfortable

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How many times are we tempted to change things just to fit and make ourselves somehow a little more comfortable

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Instead of asking what God is already doing at that time

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Even more than that

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The intention is to throw yourself off of the temple

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That Jesus will catch you

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You and I both know that this is not how you're going to end up dying

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So let's just throw yourself off the temple

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Prove that you are the Messiah

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How many ways are we tempting God

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This time whenever we know that the choices we're ever making are not the choices that the child of God would make

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We keep saying God I'm still going to do the same thing

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You're still going to love me, I'm still your child, right?

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You're still going to love me anyway

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And God is saying God is a temple to me

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But even third, God I'll worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms

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What kingdom is it that you're wanting?

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What is it that you believe you're meant to have or to do or to get to

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And you catch yourself doing whatever is needed to get there

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Whatever it might be that whether it is fame or it is money or it is safety or it is love

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Whatever it might be and you're going to give up whatever is needed to get there

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And Jesus says no

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Because in reality he's going to need to give up himself

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That's in so many ways what we find ourselves

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You see, we end up looking at what it is to follow God

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And we keep waiting for the times when, okay, I feel complete peace about this

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Everything feels like this is exactly the way it's going to go

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When in reality all we're doing is just saying well that's the easiest way

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So I'm going to hope that that's it

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And yet God is calling us to take time with him

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To let go of the things that distract us

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To spend time in and among the people who are going to draw us closer to him

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The times when we say I don't need that

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Being the very times when we say yes to you

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What is it right now that you realize has been pulling you away?

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What is it that you've been running away from because you think it's just a little too hard or a little too much?

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And then pause and ask God is this the direction of God is leading you?

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See that's the thing is that following is not easy

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We can all at times end up taking the pride away

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And we can all at times be honest, our kids and our future and with us who are younger than us

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If they do all the dumb things that we did, if they do, if we just don't talk about them very much

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And sometimes we're afraid of saying hey don't do this knowing very well

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Yeah, I would do that

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That's the thing about God

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That God does not place us here to seek truth because we've got it now perfectly

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God calls us to speak truth saying I'm just as much of a sinner as you

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And I'm telling you what I know God has said to seek to me

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So this morning I will speak to you as people that I think have all together

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And I also will speak to you as a baby who pretends that he's out of all together

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But instead what I say is that there are times where the times when I've known I've been loved the most

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And the times when people did what was difficult to reach me

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And I invite you to do what is difficult to reach others as well

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Thank you