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Howdy. God's word is not easy. It felt almost like saying that. It's almost like I heard the

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phrase is gilding the lily, but if you try too hard to keep adding to it and it just ends up

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making it almost worse. Oftentimes the idea of what following God's word is, it's amazing how

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many different perspectives there are on what that's going to mean. And yet when we see scripture,

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we end up discovering that it's even harder than we oftentimes thought it would be.

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Some years ago, I was in my first call. It was out in California. And the lead pastor

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had called me out there because what was going on was that he was going to be creating a network of

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house churches. And he was going to help to oversee the house churches. And I was going to be the

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pastor on site for that particular congregation. It was exciting. I was really glad to get to see

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everything that was going on. In the midst of it, I was doing a lot of youth work. And I was also

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serving to then how do we create a larger youth ministry to this area, meeting with some of the

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other churches nearby who didn't have youth workers. And working on this whole plan, it was

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like going to be years in the making, so much to get done. And then the lead pastor decided to leave.

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And after a year when he went ahead and left, the hard part then was what is going to happen with

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my role. I wasn't worried at the time. There was a lot of discussion about what that might mean.

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And it was sort of like, okay, I already know this ministry is moving forward. What is the next

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step for that? And over the course of two weeks, went from finding out, oh, hey, you might be called

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to be the pastor of this place to you no longer have any call here and you're no longer ministering

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here in the next month. The thing is, is that all these things had been in place. All of these ideas

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for what ministry was going to look like. And then all of a sudden it was just cut out from under me.

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And at that moment in time, in front of the regional vice president of the district, I cried

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like a baby. It was not pretty. It was one of those like ugly weeping where if you're seeing the

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movie and it keeps going too long and you're trying to fast forward, it was pretty bad. And then what

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made it even harder was that because I cried at losing my job, I was then sent to mandatory

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counseling for six months. Because what's even worse than the idea of struggling with loss is

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that even oftentimes we're even afraid when our pastors are willing to show that they're human

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too. And that's a hard piece about this is that experiencing what we go through in trying to

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follow God's word is that this path is not easy and it doesn't always seem to flow in a way that

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makes much sense. But that doesn't mean that we stop trying. See, oftentimes whenever we're

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looking for God's blessing, it's on a path that God has in store for us, not the one that we have

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in mind. See, some of the questions I want you to have in your mind today. What are the ways in

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which God has caused us to wait on him, his way of doing things, what it is that he has in mind?

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What are God's blessings flawed because they don't fit our notion or our instincts? And would you

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rather have the blessing that you want or the blessing that God wants for you? These questions

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may seem like they should be obvious, but in real life, we're constantly showing that they're not.

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See, one of the things that I struggled with back then was knowing that I didn't feel like I was

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quite ready for what I was meant to do. But I also had absolutely no idea how to get to that point.

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What was amazing though is that in the midst of all this trying to figure out how did I mess up,

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how did other people mess up, who messed up, trying to figure out who to blame. And yet,

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looking back is that even the most broken parts that came afterwards, the person that I had to grow

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into was not the person I was before any of that happened. Is it somehow God had to utilize the parts

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of this path that I did not get in order to get me to the places where I did not know how to go?

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More than that, I would even say that oftentimes we want to place our way of doing things above how

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God wants it. The story for that, Abraham. Abraham was promised a nation. God said that he was going

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to use Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to give birth to a son who was going to give birth to a son who

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would be the beginning of a great nation. Now, they were getting a little bit older. I'm no

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biologist, but I'm pretty sure that there are some things about a guy that doesn't work the same

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when he's 99. I'm pretty sure there's things about a woman that doesn't work the same way than their 89.

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At this moment in time, it is clear that they are struggling to understand what is going on in

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their lives. They're struggling to understand what God is going to do. In the midst of it,

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they went some very strange paths to get there. Sarah was even having her husband sleep with

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her concubine to have a child. And not only was that not the way God was desiring them to go,

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but it ended up complicating life for their descendants for centuries, even in some ways

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today. The conflicts that arose between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, that's still

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a story we're looking at even today. Why? Because even though God said, this is the path I have for

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you, as they're waiting and not understanding how God's plan is going to make sense, what do they

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do? They try to take it into their own hands and they try to make it work the best way they think

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how. But here's the thing about this. Before Abraham could give birth, before Abraham and

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Sarah could give birth to Isaac, Abraham hadn't circumcised anybody. They were supposed to go

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through that circumcision and be prepared for what God had to do. See, Abraham and Sarah,

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they were spending a long time trying to understand how the weird path that they were taking was

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supposed to get to where God wanted them to be. Haven't you ever had those times where it's like

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day in, day out, something isn't changing, you're not sure why it is that things are feeling frustrated,

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you're not sure how it is you're supposed to get to where you think you're supposed to go,

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God wants to do something in your family's life, you're not sure what that's supposed to look like.

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God wants to do something in your vocation, in your career, in your purposes, you're not sure

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how to find your way there. There are things where you know I'm missing something, I can't quite figure

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out why. And no matter how hard you try, he just hasn't shown what that next step is.

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But in the midst of that, how many times do we end up making things even harder? Because we're

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trying to force things based on what we think we know today. Even in the midst of that though,

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God didn't lose his plans. As much as Abraham and Sarah kept making things more difficult,

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God still had a plan for Isaac and everything thereafter. See, our way of trying to go about

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things, how often do we then pause, look back and say, why did I make this decision and then

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that follow up, does that mean that I've now ruined everything because of it? What are the

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ways in which God has caused us to wait on him? Are his blessings flawed because they don't fit

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our ideas? And would you rather have the blessing you were looking for or the blessing that God has

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in mind? One of the things that always has struck me in regard to pastoral ministry is that

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serving in a church is actually not complicated. That's like knowing that we need to preach the

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Word of God, knowing we need to serve our neighbor, knowing that it's important to stay in prayer and

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to comfort one another and to love each other. This is not complicated. What's complicated?

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Oftentimes one of the hardest parts is whenever people say, I want to see this in our church,

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in our community. And then when you let them know what's needed to make it happen,

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then I don't want to. I wish that that were exaggerating. I have literally heard the words,

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no, I don't want to. Time and time again. This is what we see that's needed. This is what we need

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to do to get there. Nope, never mind. I don't want to. Our desire to go down our path gets in the way

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oftentimes of what God is trying to show us his path is meant to be, especially we see that with

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Peter. In our gospel, Peter is discussing and sharing and so are the disciples. What do people

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think of Jesus? Now you may be wondering, why would anybody think that Jesus is John the Baptist?

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They're two separate people. Well, not everybody had seen John the Baptist. They may have just heard

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of these different people, but also remember Herod had taken John's life and was mentally,

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emotionally being haunted by thinking that that's who Jesus was now. Or Elijah. Elijah was seen to

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symbolize the end of all things. Is that what Jesus is here to do? Just to bring everything to a

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close? Was Jesus a prophet? Was he someone who is there just to be able to proclaim what God had to

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say? But it was more than just that. Moses had predicted a prophet who would be greater than

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him, the one who was going to come into usher in the new kingdom. And so when Peter says, you are the

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Christ, this is actually a bigger deal than what people were expecting. Because the Christ,

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it's not just a word. We oftentimes say Jesus Christ and we treat it almost like it's His last name.

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Okay, Christ, Jesus. It's like somebody tries to reach out from the Church of Jesus Christ of

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Latter-day Saints or whatever and the alphabetical part puts the Jesus Christ first. And so you look

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at the color ID and you're like, Jesus Christ is calling. I don't want to pick up. I don't know what

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it's about. And the thing is, is that we oftentimes just treat that name as just words. But Christ,

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Christ means the King who's come to bring forgiveness and life to his people.

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And it was a very deep meaning that Peter didn't quite get. You see, when Jesus is asking Peter

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and he's saying, who do you say that I am? It's actually not singular you. Okay, see, this is

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actually one reason why it is that they need more Texans to translate the Bible. It should have been

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y'all. It should have been y'all. Because Jesus is saying, okay, all of you disciples, what have

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y'all been discussing with each other? What have y'all understood? Peter's just the first one to say

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it. He's the loudest and he's the one who jumps in there. But it also turns out that Peter didn't

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even quite know what it meant in the first place. Because when we're looking at next steps, are we

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asking what those steps are going to be that God is desiring of us? Or are we asking what next steps

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we think make the most sense? You see, here's the part about that just similar to the way in which

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I will oftentimes keep talking longer than I should have on a first day and then somehow not find my

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way to a second date. Even so, Peter had a habit of continuing to keep talking when he should have

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just closed his mouth. And that's the thing about what ends up happening next. Jesus is trying to

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explain more about what the Christ is meant to do. What is the Christ meant to do? But what does

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that include? Suffering and dying and then rising again. Did that make any sense to Peter whatsoever?

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Absolutely not. And what does he do? He takes Jesus and he says, you've got to stop this. He rebukes him.

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When you have the king of kings standing there telling you the path that he needs to follow,

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what sense does it make for us to tell him what path makes better sense to us?

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And unfortunately, this happened in front of a lot of people. So Jesus can't just ignore it.

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He has to make it very clear to Peter. Get behind me, Satan. There are times whenever this road,

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you have to look at the people that you care about the most and you have to tell them to stop sometimes.

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You have to tell them the parts that they don't want to hear. And sometimes that's not just on my

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end of it. That's where many of you find yourselves too. It's the times whenever the Christian life

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is not going to just be the happy sermons and feeling good after a Bible study. This is also

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the times when you have to sit down for coffee with somebody and say, hey, this is a bad idea and you

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need to stop. This didn't mean though that God had given up on Peter, just like God has not given up

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on us. You see, as we're looking at this question of are we genuinely asking how God is leading us

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at each step, even when it requires sacrifice, serving, and humility on our part? This is not an

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easy ask. There's also a lot of really difficult stuff that we're going to have to do. And I don't

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just mean in general. I also mean as a congregation here. You are going to be pushed. You are going

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to be challenged. And there are going to be times where things are going to be hard and you're not

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going to be sure how to figure it out. But that doesn't mean that either you've messed up or that

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somehow God's plan has somehow failed. It just means that sometimes the path is going to be difficult.

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But that's the thing about Jesus is that Jesus is not here to affirm your old ways of looking at

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things. Some of you are a little bit older than me, maybe by a year or two. A few of you are a

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little younger than me, maybe by a year or two. Jonathan, you're only like two or three years

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younger than me, right? Yeah, we'll go with that. I swear, he goes to the same gym that I do. It was

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great. I totally out bench pressed him. I have absolutely no idea. But it was good to see you

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though. With it though is our ways of looking at God and what we expect of his plan. God isn't here

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to try to let you know that you've got it all figured out. When we're pursuing what we want

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instead of ignoring what it is that God is trying to say, that's idolatry. But you're also not being

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left in that place. So this is not me coming up here to say, okay, now all of your ways of doing

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things, you know what they're messed up, just let go. Yeah, there's the door. This is also to say that

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your sins are forgiven. Even the times when you thought that you had it figured out and you just

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said, I don't want to. Because even so, God still has a plan and a direction for you. God still has a

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plan. So sometimes God is calling us in spite of us. But that's a good part about grace.

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Is that that forgiveness is today. And that path is still in front of you for tomorrow.

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So whatever God may be challenging you with today, doesn't mean that you've fallen off the path.

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Just means that he's showing you what that might look like. And that it may be a little different

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for tomorrow. Thanks be to God.