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One of the things I wanted to talk with you all about is that we have oftentimes this idea

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of whatever is surrounding us is our opportunity for what influences us. Whatever it is that surrounds

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us is the very thing that ends up affecting us the most. Now one of the things is a few years ago

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some of us were out on a boat that we had. Now while we're out there you need to realize

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something about me. I get motion sickness. It is bad. It is not a good thing. Now the thing with

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it is that being on that boat I was not feeling too great and neither were a couple of the guys

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that were next to me as well. Now as we're over there contemplating what we had had for breakfast

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that morning what we're thinking about also is that the boats captain said you know what

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you'll feel better if you jump into the water. Okay so we're out on this lake just get off the

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boat you'll get on the into the lake you'll feel much better. Now we did jump into the lake like

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we were told but you see the reason why the boat is rocking is because of the water okay. I don't

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know what it was that they were thinking at the time but we were still feeling nauseous and not

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good at all and what I realized is that the guy next to me was feeling worse than I was and I realized

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what was about to happen and that if it did it doesn't go away it stays right there with you in

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the water. So I leaned back and I just started kicking and I kicked my way I swear it was like

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a quarter mile off to the shore. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. I knew that

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whatever was going to be there I did not want to be stuck with it and about an hour later when

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they finally picked me up yep turns out exactly happened and I'm very glad I got away when I did.

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The thing with it is you know just in case anybody didn't know who it was so there you go.

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But our surroundings oftentimes decide what affects us what we are around ends up determining

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what influences us and whether we are around things that are keeping us focused on what is good and

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right or whether we're around things that are distracting us and pulling us down no matter

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what it may be whatever we are surrounded by ends up influencing us in many ways. Now one of the

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things that we discover is that we as people and not just Americans but really throughout the world

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so many of us spend about an average of seven hours a day in front of some sort of screen.

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Seven hours a day. Now I'm saying that and some of you may be thinking wait a minute I'm from an

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earlier generation I don't spend seven hours in front of a screen every day remember that's an

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average so if you're not spending seven hours in front of a screen every day half with your

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cell phone and half with a computer that's how many more hours the next generation is spending

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because even middle schoolers might end up spending nine hours a day in front of a screen.

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The thing is is that they are constantly being influenced just like we are and what are some

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of the things that are influencing us so for example as it turns out is that there have been

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different trends that happen at different points in time so for example you might end up having

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some people that are stacking milk crates up in a giant pyramid triangle and they're trying to get

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up to the top of the milk crates and then walk back down to the bottom when it turns out based

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on physics they are not going to stay upright and you're going to fall on your face but there are

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videos of people trying to do that so what is it that people try to do they try to do the exact

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same thing themselves or then there are others who apparently think that well you're going to have

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to keep your detergent closed and tightened and locked down because there are videos out there

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of people eating pods of detergent now does that sound like a good idea to be eating a pod of

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detergent absolutely not but it's on a video on the internet so what is influencing people every

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single day watching somebody eating a pod of detergent and even to the point where there are

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people in schools they they are stealing things and you might think to yourself okay people steal

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pencils or erasers or something simple no no no sinks young people in schools will steal the sink

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from a bathroom or a toilet bowl they will go in rip it out and try to steal it why because they

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saw somebody doing it on tiktok or instagram or facebook or youtube or whatever whatever we talk

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here at the church about being involved in small groups or youth group or children's ministry

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this is not just trying to give you something else to check off your box it is that all of us are

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genuinely being influenced by things each and every day and we are looking for opportunities

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to help you be influenced by what is good and right not just by whatever may come up in front of you

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see it's very easy oftentimes for us to hide the things that we're struggling with because oftentimes

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we can end up pulling ourselves into the darkness you see we pull away from what is light in the

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world and we hide away because we don't want other people to see the things that we're facing or

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struggling but are we going to be able to deal with the issues in society are we going to be able

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to deal with the issues that we see in our world better if we are by ourselves and isolated from

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each other or if as the people of god we actually come together to hold each other accountable

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to grow in faith to grow in our life and what we learned are we more likely to be able to deal with

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all of the messiness that we're seeing in our world when we isolate ourselves from each other

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or when we spend time with each other learning and praying and doing what is right together

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whenever we were isolated during the times of covid and later we were not truly isolated we were

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still being influenced each and every day either by the things that were being put online in front

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of us or by the individuals that we did see who were being influenced by everything on there

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now you may be saying to yourself well you know what I am going to church once a week

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all right pastor Jason he does ramble about marvel comics from time to time but you know what

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he does talk about the bible in there somewhere so you know what maybe a good 20 minutes in there

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I'm doing well I'm learning a lot right but you see just by sitting and listening you're only

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you're only going to absorb about 10% of what I'm teaching so out of a 20 minute sermon you may

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absorb two minutes of it and then it's anyone's guess what you'll remember by tomorrow see there's

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a whole cycle a whole method by which we try to internalize the things that we've learned you see

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this idea of going from head knowledge to heart knowledge there's actually a whole a whole process

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by which people actually internalize what they learned into their lives you have to take the

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time to to frame it as far as why is what we're discussing today a part of a larger picture

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and then you can't try to learn all of it at once you have to take it piece by piece a little at a

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time one bite-sized chunk at a time and then you have to have a debrief to discuss the key points

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about what was learned now are we stopping in the middle of the sermon to debrief

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no because we're Lutheran we don't do that but then even afterwards is to pause

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and to let whatever we learn sink in for a few minutes first and then when we do

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to come back together to discuss it again in the bigger context and finally to give you a chance

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to say what did you learn how is it that we oftentimes conduct a church someone's supposed

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to teach you the right answers you learn the right answer and then you go back to your life

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but everything we know about how we learn is that that does not stick you have to have an

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opportunity to share what did you pick up what did you actually absorb what did you learn and

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actually share it with other people have we given ourselves as the church that time that

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opportunity to process or is all that we want do we just want to have a 20 minute data dump

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and hope that maybe one or two things stick and that's one of the harder parts about this

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is that the life of discipleship is not a one hour data dump it is a life that is transformed

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and lived together it says in our passage wake up sleeper rise from the dead and christ will

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shine on you if you're looking at it in the in your bible in front of you it probably has it set

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aside as a quote the apostle paul is quoting something and if you try to go and do a search

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and try to figure out what he's quoting you're not going to find anything because what he said is

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not an exact quote from anybody and that's why i think that the apostle paul is like me because

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it doesn't matter how many times i may see the same television show or the same movie or listen to

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the same music i am going to quote it wrong every single time i'll get one word wrong i'll get 10

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words wrong i will get something wrong but it still matters to me and i still like to do my best to

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say it and that's the thing about paul is that he's trying to get across something that still

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stands out in his mind and even though he's in prison and he doesn't have all this books he

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cannot quote it exactly he's trying to get a point across to you and so the debate comes down to are

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you discussing something that isaia said or something that jonah said now you may be wondering why

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does that matter because isaia was sharing the difference between do the things that are good

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rather than the things that are evil but jonah was a little different because jonah had to come back

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from the dead jonah was swallowed by a fish if you are swallowed by another animal that's pretty

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well assuming that you're probably dead by now and yet what happens is that god moves that fish to

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spit him back out so he could do the work he'd been sent to do do we really want to stay in a world

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of death if you found yourself in a box sealed up and six feet below the ground and someone

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were to come and dig you out and open up the lid would you want to stay in that coffin or more

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than that would you want to go back to it if you realize that you are living in a home with hoarding

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where the rooms are so packed and so cluttered that you cannot even think or you cannot even move

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and someone were to come and to clear out everything for you and give you your house back

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would you want to go back to where you were before and yet what do we continually do

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we want to make space and time and energy for everything else that is around us

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that has no interest in our well-being and yet we want to shrink more and more and more of the time

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that we have with the people and the presence of God how much more do we want to narrow down

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how little we have to spend with God because the thing about our life in Christ is that it's not

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something that just happens by osmosis we're not just hoping that we absorb something maybe a little

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piece but it is about our whole life being formed and shaped and influenced by the one who is around us

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but you see this is not pastor Jason trying to come up and just get you to try to add a bunch

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of more things to get on your plate that's going to exhaust you and bore you and wonder why in the

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world that I do this because living a godly life it's meant to be one of joy and friendship

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it's meant to be one where we get to live in ways that bring us hope and that bring us to a place

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where we want to be there was a time in my life I was a little bit young where I thought that when

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I saw a musical that I thought that those were people who were genuinely just in their life

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singing and dancing without any preparation in exact harmony and exact step with one another

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I thought when I was a little kid that all the people those musicals they just naturally knew the

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songs and they just naturally knew how to dance with each other and I thought as long as I'm a good

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dancer and singer someday I'll be able to do that no matter where I am what I'm doing I will not

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tell you how old I was when I realized that that was staged and that that doesn't happen in real life

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but what I did think about one time is what would be the closest I could come to that

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and so when I was in my 30s and I went with a college group to go to a mission trip to New Jersey

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it had a a hurricane that blew through there and they we were going off to go and do a

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bunch of work out there to clean up and while we were doing dishes I just looked over at some people

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and I realized I hadn't been able to sing karaoke for a while and I just started saying you never

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close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips because of course I love top gun you have to

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know the words after top gun and so I'm singing through it and people are like looking over

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and everything and I just finally go and gesture everybody baby I know it you lost that love and

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feeling and they were singing whoa that love and feeling and I think they got the words right you

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lost that love and feeling now it's gone gone gone whoa whoa see and a few more people saying this

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time than in the early service so thank you for that because whenever we are with people

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that's the time whenever we influence them the most but then what we did after laughing

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and singing is we went we prayed together and we talked about what we did and we found joy the

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next day for the rest of our trip that's the thing about this life of discipleship with each

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other y'all this is not about trying to add extra tasks this is about finding joy with each other

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and that in that joy we have purpose and meaning and we grow in God's word together

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so I hope and pray that this year and in the years to come that when we talk about being

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accountable to each other we see the joy that we get to have about being that influence with one

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another and I hope you'll be here next week because we have a lot of this to do together

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as a community that loves one another finds joy together and grows in faith and in relationship

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with God and with one another with that thanks be to God