WEBVTT 00:00:00.949 --> 00:00:04.750 Well, howdy Now I have to let y 'all know is 00:00:04.750 --> 00:00:08.390 there are different TV shows that my sister I 00:00:08.390 --> 00:00:11.550 will take turns watching But she and I have differing 00:00:11.550 --> 00:00:13.990 views on which British shows are the ones that 00:00:13.990 --> 00:00:16.809 are important She's of the mindset that if somebody 00:00:16.809 --> 00:00:19.710 has not died in a British countryside, then it's 00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:23.109 not really a good British show I'm more of the 00:00:23.109 --> 00:00:26.010 sci -fi person or whatever Netflix ends up picking 00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:28.170 up. And I don't think either of us watches the 00:00:28.170 --> 00:00:30.250 great bake -offs. I don't know if they're American 00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.149 or British, but they all look like the same type 00:00:33.149 --> 00:00:36.189 of cake to me anyway. But one of the things that 00:00:36.189 --> 00:00:39.090 I really liked was watching The Crown. I saw 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:42.890 all six seasons of it, and in my mind, Vanessa 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:46.250 Kirby is still my Princess Margaret. Always will 00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:50.329 be. The thing about The Crown is that it's all 00:00:50.329 --> 00:00:53.409 this discussion about the life and times, the 00:00:53.409 --> 00:00:57.030 background of Queen Elizabeth II and everything 00:00:57.030 --> 00:01:00.210 that went into her reign. And one of the things 00:01:00.210 --> 00:01:03.770 with this show is to be able to see all of the 00:01:03.770 --> 00:01:05.969 dramas that were happening behind the scenes. 00:01:06.609 --> 00:01:08.689 And sometimes I feel like I enjoyed watching 00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:11.930 the dramas of the British monarchy, so it keeps 00:01:11.930 --> 00:01:14.129 me from thinking about the dramas in our own 00:01:14.129 --> 00:01:18.319 country. But one of the interesting parts of 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.939 the story of the royal family is that Elizabeth 00:01:21.939 --> 00:01:25.680 II's father, George VI, was never supposed to 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:29.519 be king in the first place. Is that originally 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:34.359 it had been King Edward VIII. But King Edward 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:38.099 VIII ended up abdicating the throne. He let it 00:01:38.099 --> 00:01:41.120 go. He walked away from his crown after about 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:44.540 a year of being the king. And the reason for 00:01:44.540 --> 00:01:47.900 this was because of whom he wanted to marry. 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:52.099 So he was wanting to end up marrying a woman 00:01:52.099 --> 00:01:56.079 who had been divorced but her spouse was still 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.959 alive. Now after King Henry VIII, we would have 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:02.159 thought for sure that divorces were not nearly 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:05.560 as big of a deal in England, but apparently it's 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.360 only not a big deal if the king has taken off 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:13.120 somebody's head. But in looking at more modern 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:17.400 day times, is that King Edward VIII knew that 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:20.939 he would not be allowed as the head of the Church 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:24.340 of England to marry the woman that he loved. 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:29.780 So, he walked away and he left the crown and 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:33.020 ended up marrying her, living together for the 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:36.379 rest of their lives, and King George VI, the 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:40.159 father of Queen Elizabeth II, ended up becoming 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:45.560 the king. And history would soon follow. But 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:49.280 in seeing this is that as Edward became the Duke 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.699 of Windsor, what we saw is that he ended up leaving 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:57.139 the authority and going and taking on a different 00:02:57.139 --> 00:03:01.699 title with no influence, no political position 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:07.639 whatsoever in England. Now, did Edward end up 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:11.500 changing as a person because of losing the title? 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:16.750 Well, no. But this idea of losing one's title 00:03:16.750 --> 00:03:21.469 because of the love that one has ends up showing 00:03:21.469 --> 00:03:24.569 what it was that he believed to be important. 00:03:24.909 --> 00:03:27.509 Now, it turns out that many people who had worked 00:03:27.509 --> 00:03:30.930 with him while he was in office would end up 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:33.849 saying that he never really cared that much about 00:03:33.849 --> 00:03:37.909 being the king anyway. But it also ends up asking 00:03:37.909 --> 00:03:42.960 the point of why it was okay for him to lay down 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:47.539 his crown and the influence that he had. Now, 00:03:47.699 --> 00:03:51.960 not looking at a romantic type of love, but rather 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:55.900 a deeper, more of an agape type of love, the 00:03:55.900 --> 00:04:00.060 love of God, we end up seeing Jesus who lost 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:04.580 his throne for the whole world. What we see is 00:04:04.580 --> 00:04:09.620 that Jesus ends up stepping away from the apparent 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:14.120 glory that he had being God the Son in the presence 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:18.920 of God the Father in the realm of heaven. Now 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:22.519 it says in the scriptures some interesting terms 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:26.420 and it said that he had the form of God and I 00:04:26.420 --> 00:04:28.920 want to point out a few things to you because 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:33.319 it can be easy in our English language to misunderstand 00:04:33.629 --> 00:04:36.730 what they are trying to get across in this. You 00:04:36.730 --> 00:04:41.009 see, it wasn't as if Jesus was somehow just looking 00:04:41.009 --> 00:04:45.310 like God. That's not what form means in this 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:47.870 original Greek. In fact, you could translate 00:04:47.870 --> 00:04:53.040 it to nature. having the nature of God. It would 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:55.779 be sort of like if you were to take clay, and 00:04:55.779 --> 00:04:58.839 if you were to make the form of the clay into 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:02.000 a cup, then it would be a cup. If you were to 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.100 make the form of the clay into a horse, then 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:09.269 it would be a horse. form of the clay into a 00:05:09.269 --> 00:05:11.329 vase but you would not because it's pronounced 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:13.589 vase and we need to tell everybody else that's 00:05:13.589 --> 00:05:16.430 how you pronounce it it is not vase it is vase 00:05:16.430 --> 00:05:19.329 okay clearly Europeans you need to get on the 00:05:19.329 --> 00:05:21.629 right track and stop putting you in the word 00:05:21.629 --> 00:05:25.069 color I don't understand that at all anyway but 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:28.970 in understanding that the form the Greek word 00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:33.610 morphe it is looking at the idea of one's essential 00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:37.399 nature Okay, so the idea is that Jesus truly 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.740 has the nature of God, but when it points out 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:44.639 that he has emptied himself, it is not talking 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.920 about emptying himself of his divine nature. 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:51.620 But what we also need to point out is that it's 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:54.100 also saying he took on the form of a servant, 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:58.500 which means he has the nature of a servant. The 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:02.120 only way you can have the nature of being a servant 00:06:02.589 --> 00:06:06.290 is if you also have taken on the nature of being 00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:09.370 a human. And that's what we end up seeing here, 00:06:09.589 --> 00:06:12.649 is that the idea of emptying himself, it's not 00:06:12.649 --> 00:06:15.410 about emptying himself of his divine nature, 00:06:15.490 --> 00:06:21.870 but rather the divine privileges. The idea that 00:06:21.870 --> 00:06:25.290 he's able to then proclaim and show in this overt, 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:29.790 obvious sense that he himself is God. that that 00:06:29.790 --> 00:06:33.050 is something that He is stepping away from. You 00:06:33.050 --> 00:06:38.009 see, emptying Himself, it's not the nature, but 00:06:38.009 --> 00:06:40.769 maybe what might look like the attributes, what 00:06:40.769 --> 00:06:44.350 might be the appearance. Because even though 00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:47.569 He's the same person, He's stepping away from 00:06:47.569 --> 00:06:50.610 the title. He's stepping away from all of the 00:06:50.610 --> 00:06:55.329 things that might appear to come with that. But 00:06:55.329 --> 00:06:59.670 the thing is, is that who He is, does not change 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:03.290 based on the way that he appears in human form. 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:08.149 The way he has taken on a human servant nature 00:07:08.149 --> 00:07:12.829 alongside being truly God. But that's what we 00:07:12.829 --> 00:07:15.290 end up discovering about what it is for Jesus 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:19.449 to humble himself for us, is that in humbling 00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:22.930 oneself, it is not about losing who you truly 00:07:22.930 --> 00:07:25.819 are. Because think about all the things that 00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:29.839 Jesus continued to do all the things about who 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:34.600 Jesus continued to be as the Messiah sent by 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:39.980 God Because none of that changed in being a servant 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:42.939 see that's something that we oftentimes lose 00:07:42.939 --> 00:07:46.660 sight of is the idea that who you are and that 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:49.680 the true power and strength of what it is to 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.819 have your character and nature does not change 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:56.360 because of what you've stepped away from. We 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:59.319 wonder sometimes, I wondered when I was a kid, 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:04.100 how long that some people had as influence. in 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:06.720 our world and one of them was George Washington 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.759 and I always thought it was very strange that 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:12.620 George Washington is a very popular person, very 00:08:12.620 --> 00:08:14.980 popular at the time with the revolution, very 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:17.439 popular as a military leader and then it's very 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.560 popular going into the presidency and that he 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.579 was there for two terms and that people continued 00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:27.379 to want him in that position and he deliberately 00:08:27.379 --> 00:08:32.659 said no. Why? That's what I think about this 00:08:32.659 --> 00:08:36.399 is that Washington was not looking to serve himself 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:41.299 or his ambitions is that instead Washington leaves 00:08:41.299 --> 00:08:45.480 after two terms because he knows that if he were 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:49.379 to stay there longer It would become more about 00:08:49.379 --> 00:08:54.460 him Than it would be about the people If he were 00:08:54.460 --> 00:08:57.120 to be there for longer than that amount of time, 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.039 is that it would become more about a nation shaped 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.519 in his image. But a nation is never supposed 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:09.279 to be in the shape of one human's image. And 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.159 that's the thing what we end up seeing here, 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:15.720 is that stepping away from a role, from an appearance, 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:20.279 from a title, is oftentimes what is needed in 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:23.240 order to truly do what is right for the people. 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:25.720 And that's what we end up seeing with Jesus. 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:29.240 Jesus is coming in today on this Palm Sunday 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.879 into Jerusalem. And all the people are crying 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.159 out, Hosanna! And yet with this realizing that 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:40.620 the King has come is that Jesus is not there 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:46.720 to now make himself the one to dominate and to 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:50.600 lord it over the Roman government. or even the 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:55.620 people of Israel. Why is He there? He's there 00:09:55.620 --> 00:10:00.080 to serve. The thing with making it about the 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:02.820 people is that when He comes into Jerusalem, 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.820 He knows that He's going to be giving His life 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:10.399 because He knows that the leaders, the teachers, 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:14.620 the law scholars, they are the ones who are going 00:10:14.620 --> 00:10:17.980 to be looking to make sure that one man dies 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:21.320 for the people in the words of Caiaphas. And 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:23.799 so as he comes into the city, he knows what is 00:10:23.799 --> 00:10:27.059 to come, but he also knows how important that 00:10:27.059 --> 00:10:30.679 is going to be. Because unless a leader is willing 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:36.000 to sacrifice and to be humbled, then that leader 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.500 will never truly be able to do what is right 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:42.259 and needed for the people. Even as we were the 00:10:42.259 --> 00:10:49.299 ones who needed our sins. our death taken away 00:10:49.299 --> 00:10:55.360 by God Himself. See, obedience is not meant for 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:59.960 glory. It's not meant for power. As Jesus is 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:03.000 obedient to the Father, we wonder, you are God 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.799 Himself. Why is this so important? Because of 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:10.139 the role that is needed to do what is needed 00:11:10.139 --> 00:11:13.799 for us. See, sometimes we have to step away from 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:16.960 the very thing that might make life easy because 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:19.919 we know what our calling is truly meant to be. 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:23.820 One of those that comes up is Mother Teresa. 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:28.480 Because Mother Teresa ended up stepping away 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.940 from where she had been in order to pursue what 00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:34.759 it was that she knew was needed. Is that as much 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:37.620 as we may think about how those who would spend 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:40.879 their life in monasteries and convents and to 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:44.740 think, well, they've already left all of the 00:11:44.740 --> 00:11:48.679 fun and the joy and all of the ease and luxury 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:52.720 of the world to serve God. But let's be honest. 00:11:53.520 --> 00:11:56.100 Convents and monasteries are really not that 00:11:56.100 --> 00:11:58.799 bad. I remember a friend of mine in St. Louis 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.659 spending a week with some men at a monastery 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.360 just on the other side of the river and finding 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.480 out that apparently monks in East St. Louis really 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:12.500 enjoy watching the Simpsons. No, I was surprised 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:15.860 as you are as well. But the truth is that... 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:19.399 We don't have to always easily walk away from 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:22.320 everything. I know how blessed I am to have a 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:25.120 vehicle, to have a home, to have opportunities 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.139 to go to Taco Bell, and then to spend the evening 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:32.019 regretting it. And it's so important to realize 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:34.679 that that's something that's easy to step away 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:38.759 from, but at the same time to realize what Teresa 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:42.539 was going toward. Because as she was leaving 00:12:42.539 --> 00:12:46.720 an easy teaching job at the convent, she was 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:51.580 moving toward the slums of Calcutta. As she is 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:54.740 founding the Missionaries of Charity, what we 00:12:54.740 --> 00:12:59.059 see in her is that she knows that it's more important 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:03.059 to do what was needed than it was to stay in 00:13:03.059 --> 00:13:07.480 what was comfortable. And that's a question that 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:11.450 I think we all need to pause and to ask. Have 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:16.149 you discovered anything that requires you to 00:13:16.149 --> 00:13:21.269 empty yourself to live out your true calling? 00:13:22.649 --> 00:13:25.990 That's hard to say in our nation. We are a place 00:13:25.990 --> 00:13:28.450 where we continue to talk about the American 00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:30.669 dream and about all the things that we want to 00:13:30.669 --> 00:13:33.529 make sure that we achieve. But in reality, has 00:13:33.529 --> 00:13:38.450 it actually made us better as people? Maybe wealthier 00:13:38.450 --> 00:13:42.100 than other nations. Maybe making sure that things 00:13:42.100 --> 00:13:44.820 are prettier and we have a McDonald's in every 00:13:44.820 --> 00:13:49.799 neighborhood, but has it made us better as people? 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:54.679 Because truly if we are to ask what it is to 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:59.980 follow after God, to be people who follow Christ 00:13:59.980 --> 00:14:05.220 Jesus even into Jerusalem, is that it means that 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:08.620 we have to be the people willing to empty ourselves. 00:14:09.269 --> 00:14:11.929 Because we have to know and to trust them to 00:14:11.929 --> 00:14:14.750 believe that even emptying ourselves of what 00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:17.750 might appear great of the titles of the things 00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:22.909 that give us some level of comfort and joy Is 00:14:22.909 --> 00:14:27.629 to realize that it doesn't change our being doesn't 00:14:27.629 --> 00:14:34.990 change who we are in the eyes of God That is 00:14:34.990 --> 00:14:38.549 something that we need to have this week Before 00:14:38.549 --> 00:14:42.929 we can get to Easter, we have to have the time 00:14:42.929 --> 00:14:47.470 of empty. We have to have the opportunity to 00:14:47.470 --> 00:14:50.929 see that as much as the people may praise the 00:14:50.929 --> 00:14:54.870 man coming into the city on the back of a donkey, 00:14:55.690 --> 00:14:59.409 we remember that it's not on top of a giant steed. 00:15:00.750 --> 00:15:04.190 It is on an animal that is lowly, one that has 00:15:04.190 --> 00:15:08.169 continued to work. and to slave and to push. 00:15:09.490 --> 00:15:11.970 That instead of being the one who takes on the 00:15:11.970 --> 00:15:14.789 glory is instead it is the one who takes on the 00:15:14.789 --> 00:15:21.350 humility. Because Jesus was exalted because of 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:24.929 humility. See, that's the thing about the exaltation. 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:28.129 Was Jesus already exalted being God the Son? 00:15:29.250 --> 00:15:33.830 Yes. But it wasn't the type of exaltation that 00:15:33.830 --> 00:15:38.940 would bring us life. As long as we are serving 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:42.539 a God who is exalted up on a throne that never 00:15:42.539 --> 00:15:45.340 comes down to be with us and to go through everything, 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:49.080 then we are a people who are forever to be pitied 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:52.019 because we are a people whose God has not brought 00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:57.039 us salvation. But the exaltation of who Jesus 00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:03.000 is now is as God the Son who is also our Savior. 00:16:04.019 --> 00:16:08.850 See, being comfortable in all of this. It's not 00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:12.649 the idea of comfort that we might look for. There 00:16:12.649 --> 00:16:18.909 was a book that was saying, I believe it was 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:22.289 called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a, well, 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:25.809 a word that I can't say in church. But one of 00:16:25.809 --> 00:16:28.789 the things about it is how to just let go and 00:16:28.789 --> 00:16:31.289 stop worrying about the things that don't really 00:16:31.289 --> 00:16:34.830 matter. And what it says is the idea of have 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:39.539 we Become comfortable with the idea that each 00:16:39.539 --> 00:16:44.940 of us will someday die Because if we think about 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:47.639 the things that we truly put our time and attention 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:50.899 on that truly make life so difficult It's the 00:16:50.899 --> 00:16:53.620 things where we want to try to somehow make life 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:56.799 Comfortable or avoid our mortality or somehow 00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:59.220 have a legacy that makes us look good in the 00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:02.019 future Something where we can try to hold on 00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:06.259 to this world no matter what Then what we end 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:10.240 up doing is making life harder for ourselves 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:12.980 and for the people around us when we realize 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:16.079 the things we can't control. When we realize 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:19.480 the things that are truly bogging us down and 00:17:19.480 --> 00:17:23.980 harming us. But when we pause, we're willing 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:26.079 to be comfortable with the fact that each of 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:30.279 us is going to a place where life will not have 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:35.849 its light upon us. Then we realize what it is 00:17:35.849 --> 00:17:39.349 that truly matters. We discover the things that 00:17:39.349 --> 00:17:42.309 are important, that at each and every moment 00:17:42.309 --> 00:17:45.509 in this life, we're asking this question of, 00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:50.269 where am I going because of where Christ has 00:17:50.269 --> 00:17:56.650 gone before? See, Jesus embraced death, but it's 00:17:56.650 --> 00:18:00.109 also because he knew that there would be hope, 00:18:01.109 --> 00:18:03.349 that there would be life beyond the things that 00:18:03.349 --> 00:18:06.170 were right there. how difficult it must have 00:18:06.170 --> 00:18:10.650 been to follow and obey the Father, with how 00:18:10.650 --> 00:18:13.730 many times people kept chasing Him and pushing 00:18:13.730 --> 00:18:18.109 Him and taking away from Him what little He may 00:18:18.109 --> 00:18:22.509 have already had. But He also knew what the purpose 00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:29.329 was. And that's my question to you. Do you know 00:18:29.329 --> 00:18:32.470 what it is that you are meant to pursue now? 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:36.380 Are you willing to realize that your life is 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:40.400 not about the comforts and the ease that we have 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:44.220 at this very moment, but to know that our future 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:48.299 does not lie here? Are you willing to admit that? 00:18:48.420 --> 00:18:50.319 Are you willing to see that? Are you willing 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.940 to realize that we need to stop trying to avoid 00:18:52.940 --> 00:18:56.119 the pain that comes from being a disciple of 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:01.980 Christ? We need to stop trying to avoid the pain 00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:06.140 that comes as a disciple of Christ as those who 00:19:06.140 --> 00:19:11.240 follow after God in Christ Jesus We need to stop 00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:15.220 being so afraid Whenever we don't always get 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:19.079 our way We need to stop being afraid whenever 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:21.940 we don't think that we have power. We need to 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:27.180 stop being afraid Whenever we have to let others 00:19:27.980 --> 00:19:30.720 Take the glory instead of ourselves. We have 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.619 to be stop being afraid when we don't get the 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:37.900 credit We need to stop being afraid of letting 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:41.900 go Letting God be the one to determine our future 00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:48.160 Because the more we cling The more damage we 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.720 do and the only hope that we have of proclaiming 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:56.440 Christ to a world that truly needs him is if 00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:58.940 we're willing to let go and go to the cross with 00:19:58.940 --> 00:20:03.819 Him and to let Him be the one to give our future 00:20:03.819 --> 00:20:07.660 and our hope. So whatever it is right now that 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:09.839 you are afraid of pursuing because you don't 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:13.059 know how difficult it may be or how much you 00:20:13.059 --> 00:20:16.859 may lose in going to it, my hope and prayer is 00:20:16.859 --> 00:20:20.500 that you are no longer afraid and that you'll 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:23.720 be willing to let go of this life so that we 00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:28.140 can gain the one. that is truly eternal. Thanks 00:20:28.140 --> 00:20:28.640 be to God.