Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / What's on Your Throne? - October 26, 2025

Transcript

What's on Your Throne? - October 26, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning. Welcome to Resurrection Church.
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My name is Daniel. Last week we, we've been in the
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book of John for a while now. Last week we read about the
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resurrection of a man named Lazarus.
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And in that moment we hit a really pivotal part of the book
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of John. And and that's because the book
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of John is, is written in a, in a very unique way.
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John does not write his testimony of his time with Jesus
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in a sequential timeline. And so the book of Luke, if
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you've ever read that Luke was a, a physician, he was a
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historian. He is a little bit scientist.
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And so he is like meticulous writing this like perfect
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timeline. John is not that guy.
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Some of you are not that guy either.
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That's fine. John actually has an express
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purpose for his book and his testimony is all about
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convincing you that Jesus is the Son of God.
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And so so whereas Luke is like, this is exactly the order in
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which these things happen. John's more like, I'm going to
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show you some things and he shows you some things.
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And so the first 11 chapters of the book of John, which we've
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gone through are actually organized around the seven
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greatest miracles of Jesus, not in sequential fashion at all, to
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convince you to consider these as the evidence that Jesus is
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indeed the Son of God. And so if you're, as we've been
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preaching through John chapter 2, Jesus turning water into
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wine, Chapter 4, Jesus healing the official son.
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Chapter 5, Jesus healing at the pool of Bethesda, Chapter 6,
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Jesus feeding the 5000. And then later in chapter 6,
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Jesus walking on water. And then the 6th miracle, Jesus
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healing the man born blind in Chapter 9.
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And then here we get to Chapter 11, the 7th and greatest miracle
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of the seven great miracles, Jesus raising a man from dead.
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Now, now that we've gotten to this point where John has
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essentially made this case, we're going to transition in
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this book and he's going to write differently.
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Have you ever, have you ever like had maybe it's your spouse
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or your friend and they, they, they're, they're, they've been
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watching a show for a while and you're going to join them, But
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it's like season 4 and you just have to like jump in and catch
2:18
up. Anybody OK, So at the start of
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that season, this is what TV shows normally do is they, they
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will show like a two or three minute recap and they're
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attempting to catch you up on three seasons worth of, of
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content in like 2 minutes. And so they're just like
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highlight, highlight, highlight, highlight.
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Sometimes not even in order. That's the book of John.
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The 1st 11 chapters are essentially that when we get
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done today with, with Chapter 11, we're going to go to chapter
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12 next week. Everything's going to slow down
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in 11 chapters. This has occurred over 2 1/2
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years, almost three years of time.
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But chapter 12 is going to take place in mere days, and then
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chapters 13 through 18 are going to take place in hours, like
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hour by hour by hour, super slow.
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And it will be John's personal testimony of the account of
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Jesus going to the cross. It'll be intimate.
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It'll be gritty. It's super slow.
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So, so from this like really high level, here's these things
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you need to know down to the here's these last week, down to
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the here are these last hours, moment by moment by moment.
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That's what's about to happen in this book.
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And so if you're reading John and you're just wondering, well,
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this is what you're looking at. Now, before we read today, the
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very end of John Chapter 11, I want you to consider something.
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Have have you ever had a moment where you knew that God was
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asking you to do something, but you didn't want to do it?
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Maybe for you it was like forgiving someone who's hurt
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you. Maybe it was it was ending a
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relationship that you knew it wasn't healthy.
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Maybe it was changing jobs, even though the money you're making
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was pretty good. Maybe it was getting honest
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about an addiction. Maybe it was actually tithing or
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actually praying instead of just talking about it.
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Whatever it was like you knew. And so in that moment, here's
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what I'm saying, you, you believed that God was real.
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You believed that God was right, but you wanted control more than
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you wanted him. And that's exactly what's about
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to take place here at the end of Chapter 11.
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OK, so I want you to keep this in mind as we read this story.
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Here's the big idea. If there's like the one thing
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you need to leave with today, it's this concept.
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You don't have to understand it yet.
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We will explain it. It's this.
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We will always worship what's sitting on our throne.
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We will always worship what's sitting on our throne.
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And I will explain that. All right, John, Chapter 11.
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Let's pick it up in verse 45. If you have your Bibles, open
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them up. I'm reading from the ESV.
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Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary, this is to
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the tomb, and had seen what he did, that's Jesus believed in
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him. But some of them went to the
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Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
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So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the counsel
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and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many
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signs, and if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe
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in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and
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our nation. Now I want you to notice they're
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not questioning if Jesus is powerful, if Jesus is
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miraculous. They're questioning if they're
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willing to give up control. Verse 49.
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But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year,
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said to them, you know nothing at all.
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Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man
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should die for the people, not that the whole nation should
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perish. He did not say this of his own
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accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that
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Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but
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also to gather into one the children of God who are
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scattered abroad. So from that day on they made
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plans to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked
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openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near
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the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed
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with the disciples. One of the primary themes in the
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book of John that we see over and over again that John
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highlights for us is this concept.
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The very people who should have believed in Jesus did not, and
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the people who probably shouldn't have believed in Jesus
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did. And he calls that out again and
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again in his his testimony. So, so some of the people who go
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with Mary and the family to the tomb, they see Jesus raise
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Lazarus from the dead and they go, that's the Son of God.
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They believe. And I just like for a moment put
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yourself in their shoes like you've who's been to a funeral.
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OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that none of
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you went to that funeral and someone showed up and made that
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guy get out of the grave and walk out alive because I was
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like, that's not on my bingo card.
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So they see this in their life. This is the son of God.
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John often shortens this idea of of belief in, in in the kingship
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or deity of, of Jesus as just they believed.
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That's what you'll see in the book.
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They believed and it and it means something a little more
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comprehensive, right? What we would read what, what
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that belief really is later in Romans 10.
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So in Romans 10/9 and 10, it kind of explains what they
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believe means. It means this.
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It's the type of belief that belief that changes us.
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It's the type of belief that surrenders.
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It's the type of belief that confesses publicly that he is
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king and I am not. So these people believe and the
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people that should believe the, the Pharisees, OK, so the, the
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Pharisees are kind of the ruling religious leaders of the time.
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So we're in the 1st century, the Roman Empire and the, and the
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Roman government at this point occupies most of the known
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world. But what they would do is they'd
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let the each little land, they'd let them kind of retain their
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traditions. They'd let them retain some of
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their culture. And so in this moment, the
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Jewish culture, the governance is really the church.
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It's the temple, it's the temple priest, it's the Pharisees.
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And so the religious leaders are kind of like a, like a local
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government of both church and government, but still under
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occupation. And, and, and the Pharisees are
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supposed to be the holiest people in the land.
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They study the law, they study the Old Testament.
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Like if anyone would would be on the lookout for Jesus, it would
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be them. And so when they witnessed this
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power, they should be like, that's who we've been looking
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for and they totally miss him. In fact, in John 5, Jesus calls
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them out. He says, you search the
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scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
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life. And it is they, the scriptures
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that bear witness about me. And yet you refuse to come to me
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so that you can have life. The people that should have
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believed in Jesus did not and the people that should not have
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did. Now, let me let me stop for a
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minute and just talk about this, you know, this belief that this
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idea that this belief that, that that changes this belief that
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surrenders, OK. But in this moment, these people
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that that witnessed this power, OK, but don't believe they did
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believe that he was doing miracles.
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They did. They actually say it right here.
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In fact, they knew that no one could do this, this amount of
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of, of miraculous work if they weren't God or from God.
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They knew that. And yet it isn't enough.
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Hear me? It isn't enough to know that
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Jesus is God. James 2 says that even the
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demons know that Jesus is the Son of God and it does not save
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them. Oh, you think Jesus is the Son
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of God? Good, so do the demons.
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It's it's, it's not enough. You may believe that Jesus was a
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real person who walked this earth in the 1st century.
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You may believe that he was a good teacher.
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You may believe that he did miracles.
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You may even go that far. You may in your own life, have
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seen him work in someone else's life to change their life.
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You may believe that too. You may believe in heaven and
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hell and creation and God and the Bible and none of those
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things will save you not on their own, because there's a
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distinction in the Bible about this word believe and you see it
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in their reaction in the way they react to Jesus moving in
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power. And I, and I want to see if I
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can illustrate this for you. I, I like to, I like to kind of
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think about ways to try to illustrate concepts that'll
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that'll stick with you. And so I was thinking about
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like, you know, what is it The Bible says that we were all say
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me, OK, that we were all born under what's called the curse of
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sin. Now, if you're unfamiliar with
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that, what the Bible is saying is that in the very beginning
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when God created everything and the first man and the first
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woman, there was no sin. There was no death for humanity.
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And and we had this perfect relationship with God and they
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rebelled. And when they rebelled, they
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fractured that relationship and because of that entered in the
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curse of sin and death. And that means that every person
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since Adam and Eve have now been born under curse.
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The King David in Psalm 51 would say it this way.
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He would say I was born into iniquity and in sin.
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Did my mother conceive me? It's a no win situation.
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It's why we needed Jesus. But what is it?
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What does it look like to be born spiritually dead?
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That's that's a weird thing. What?
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You were born spiritually dead. OK, let me see if I can help.
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I I got on Amazon and I searched for the tiniest throne I could
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find. Hold on.
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Here we go. Please pay no attention to the
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fact that this is the Enderman throne from Minecraft.
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Just just pretend that's that didn't exist.
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The tiniest one I could find. Here you go, tiny throne.
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OK. The Bible says that you and I
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were created for one distinct purpose.
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We were actually designed for this purpose, to worship and
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enjoy God. That's why you exist.
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That's why he created us. And, and, and so whether you
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turn to Psalm 100 or Genesis 1 or Samuel 12 or John 17, like,
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like the Bible again and again builds this, this concept that
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we, we, we summed this up 400 years ago in, in, in what's
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called the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which was simply a
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kind of a doctrinal statement of church fathers.
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And it starts the very first, first moment in that whole
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doctrinal statement is this. It's a question and answer.
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What is the chief end of man? Like?
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What is the purpose of man? And here's the answer from 400
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years ago. Man's chief end is to glorify
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God and to enjoy him forever. It's why we were designed.
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It's why we were created. It's the only reason you're
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still here. And you may not believe that,
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but that does not change the facts.
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The entire reason we exist now. If that's true, what happens
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when the creation that's you and me, say me, is born to worship a
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God that we are separated from? What do we do now?
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What happens when the creation that was created for a specific
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purpose cannot, will not, does not want to fulfil the very
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reason it was created? The entire reason that we were
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created is to recognize that Jesus is supposed to be
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worshipped. So the Bible would talk about
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the desires of our heart. I like to often times we
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represent this as a throne of our heart.
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OK, so imagine your heart, go ahead.
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You can make a little sign, that's fine.
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Imagine your heart, OK, has a throne and that throne is
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whatever is the the highest priority of your life.
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Like if we were to do an inventory of your time, your
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energy, your thought life, your money, your resources, what
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dominates the things that you you, what motivates you, your
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goals, your purposes, right? Whatever.
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We put all that together and we said this is the highest
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priority of my Oh, hold on, I did it wrong here.
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This. Is the highest priority of my
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life. It's what motivates me, what
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drives me. It's the throne of my heart.
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Now we were created. See, I also searched Amazon and
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I looked for tiny Jesuses. Please pay no attention to the
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fact they're historically inaccurate.
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He was not Caucasian. OK, I looked for one.
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They come in Mass. I bought 80.
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You look like you could use a little Jesus in your life.
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There you go. Here you go.
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All right. If it hits you in the forehead,
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you're automatically saved. I heard that's a rule.
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All right. We were created because we were
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supposed to worship the Creator. Our very design, the whole
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reason we exist is to worship him.
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Now why is that such a problem? Well, because of the curse.
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We were born separated from God with an empty throne and an an
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innate desire, right? An innate like motivation to
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fill that there's a gap. And so because we were separated
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from God, we grow up as we're born and, and we start to fill
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this with stuff, stuff, stuff. Do you know what I mean by
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stuff? Oh, do we have some stuff?
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We, we worship other things because here's the, the net of
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it is whatever you put at the top of your life, you're going
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to worship because you were created to be a worshipper.
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So whatever goes here, it's going to get your affection,
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your adoration, your obsession. And we put all sorts of stuff
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there. My goodness, think about all the
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things that we shove into that throne in this country.
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We have a epidemic of sexual addiction.
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Sex, the the very thing that God gives us as a gift.
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I was like a wonderful gift from God.
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When, when, when that ends up in the throne of your heart.
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Does that not get distorted really fast?
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Look around us, food given to us for our enjoyment, to point us
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to the goodness of God. Man, if that becomes, oh man,
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can that go wrong? How about how about comfort?
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Oh man, God must not be real because I'm not comfortable when
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all of my decisions and all of my energy and all of my work is
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about me being comfortable. I wonder who I worship?
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How about family? What a what a beautiful gift
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from God. Kids, a spouse, a relationship.
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What a beautiful gift. Not if you put it there.
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Not if you start worshipping it, man, will you distort that
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quick? Can you imagine the burden that
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your family or your spouse or your kids have to wear if you're
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going to make them God? Every good gift that God has
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given us will get extremely distorted the moment you put it
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into the throne of your heart. So your kids, your relationship,
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your marriage, your job, your identity, your comfort, your
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emotions. Danger, danger.
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Will Robinson Danger don't take a beautiful gift and make it
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God. Now why am I telling you all
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this? Because in this story, people
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are going to see Jesus move in undeniable power.
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Like it is impossible to ignore a dead man getting up and
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walking out of a tomb. Think about it.
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There are people, two people standing next to one another.
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They watch those just walk out. One of them's like I believe
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that's just the son of God. Oh my goodness, the other one's
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like and they run off to the Pharisees.
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Why the different reactions seeing the same miracle.
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Here's why, and I want you to. This is really important to
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grasp. There are only.
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Two, there are only two reactions when we see Jesus move
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in undeniable power. When Jesus makes his presence to
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you known in your life and you see him, one of two things is
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going to happen. We're either going to correctly
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crown him King. Or.
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We are going to guard. Our throne.
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We're either going to crown. Him, King of kings of our life.
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Or we're going to. We're going to guard the throne.
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And so those that that rightly believe that Jesus was in fact,
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they believe not only when Jesus was king, like he was God, that
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he was the Son of God. They believe that, but they also
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believe that he was king of their life.
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That's his throne. So Jesus deserves my worship and
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he, he deserves to run my life, I mean, and he deserves to do
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whatever he wants to, to glorify himself because he actually
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created me. And let's be really honest.
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Guys, come on, you realize he is actually the only one that can
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appropriately handle the throne of your heart.
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I've had many years to attempt to run my own life, brother.
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It has not gone well. But he is.
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Good. And The thing is, and you can
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talk to any Christian that'll begin to talk to you about this.
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Nothing else really fits that that spot.
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Like every time we try to shove something else in there, we
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realize it doesn't really work. It doesn't really satisfy us.
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And so there's a there's a group of people in here, they see it,
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they believe it, but not everyone.
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See, here's the thing. In order to let Jesus.
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Sit in the throne of. My heart, I have to get out of
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the throne. One of the weirdest parts of of
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being a pastor that no one told me about before I was a pastor
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is that you would have a lot of really weird dreams.
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This is a safe place, right? This isn't going anywhere.
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It's not going online or anything.
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So you'd have a lot of really weird dreams.
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Because I. I think because you're like, I,
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I, I obsess over you guys like I'm, I'm praying for you.
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I think about you. I'm always thinking about what
22:33
needs to be done and oh who's hurting and what and so like 3-4
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times a week. I know I'm dreaming about some
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of you. Sorry if that makes you
22:40
uncomfortable. And it's just like.
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And then I found out it was common.
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So I talked to other pastors like, oh, I dream about church
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all the time, right? So I had, I have a buddy who's a
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pastor and he kept having the same weird dream.
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And in the dream, he's on this White Horse and he's riding on
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the beach. By the way, he doesn't ride
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horses. Important fact.
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He's riding this White Horse on the beach toward a group of
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people who need him and they're like calling out and they're
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like, oh, you know, I need you. And so he and he never gets
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there. And so people need him and he's
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like, oh, I got to get there. I got it right.
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And so he has a dream over and over and over again.
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Finally he has a dream one night and he actually, I don't know
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how you ride he. He rides up.
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To the group and Jesus is like there in the crowd with the
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people and he's like, Jesus, what do you need?
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And Jesus looks at him and goes, I need you to get off my horse.
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I didn't I. Didn't I didn't sleep well most
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of the week. I'd sleep more about two hours
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at a time, and I was up a lot. There's a lot going on in the
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church, right? There's been, there's been a lot
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of change, a lot of transition, walking through some messes,
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walking through the consequences of sin, walking through a lot of
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spiritual attack right now, a lot of hurting people.
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And so I just like up a lot just thinking about it and just just
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doing a lot of prayer, a lot of praying and just times a little
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angry at God. God can take your anger.
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You can yell at him a little. He's a big boy.
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And I woke up. Tuesday just just kind of just
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kind of angry and mad and just I like to fix things and I'm just
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getting to this point where I can't fix anything and feeling
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powerless, which, you know, that's that's pride And and so
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I'm just kind of complaining to the Lord about like, you know, I
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just can't, I can't do anything about any of these things.
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And you know, God is so gracious.
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He's just like very, very gently taps me on my shoulder and he's
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like. You can't.
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Do anything because I, I granted you access to my throne room and
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told you to bring all of your requests and all of your
24:55
supplications to me. In fact, I actually commanded
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you to do it and I told you that you have not because you ask
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not. So I mean, are you going to just
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talk about praying or you can actually do it?
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Well, thanks, I just got out. I just got out those.
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I got the list of members and I put them in a spreadsheet
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because we all do that when we pray, right?
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We we pray from spreadsheets. That's just me.
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OK, I'm weird. Fine alphabetical order.
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I started praying like, like person by person, just seeing
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their face and writing prayers for each person.
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And about an hour in I was like. I'm not powerless.
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It's. Just my job to.
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It's like, it's like a, it's like in your, in your work, you
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like when there's a problem, you, you go to tech support and
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you write a sport ticket, right? Like I just my job is to write a
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lot of sport tickets. I just keep turning them.
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In just keep turning them in. Just keep praying.
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Just keep praying. And here's why.
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Because guys, that's all I I have is a phenomenal Heavenly
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Father who is in control. I don't have a horse or a Cape.
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And if we're? Being really honest, I don't
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need one. I I don't need to be in control.
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I actually am really bad at it. I make a terrible God.
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And you do too. The greatest lie that was ever
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told was told all the way. The beginning of creation with
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Adam and Eve are in the garden and the serpent shows up and his
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whole mess started. And the lie was we.
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Don't need Jesus on his throne. We would make much better gods
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if we were in charge. Man, that is a lie.
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I have. I have years of life to tell you
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that is a lie. Like forget.
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Jesus, take the wheel. Jesus, baby, lock me in the back
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seat please. I don't.
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Need to touch the steering wheel.
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I probably shouldn't be around the navigation system.
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We make terrible. Gods.
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To, to, to. Acknowledge Jesus as King to to
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grant him and say no Jesus, you should be in the throne of my
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heart actually means we have to get out because he doesn't want
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to sit in our lap. That means granting control,
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acknowledgement that Jesus is king of our life.
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We crown him as king or we guard our throne.
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So in our story, some believe, but some they're only worried
27:36
about guarding the throne. Pastor Rich Sanford.
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Said it this way, he said. There's two choices.
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I yield to Christ or demand that he yields to me.
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That's a hot claim. What about you?
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Who does your life? Say that Jesus is.
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Because every single one of. Us is going to answer with our
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lives. Because it's the throne.
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Of our heart that we need to surrender to Him.
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And The thing is that. We will always worship what's
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sitting on our throne. There's a, there's.
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Another part of the story and we won't, we haven't even read it
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yet. It'll come in in the in the
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later chapters of John. It'll happen in a little bit.
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But here's the thing, since since you and I have grown up
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your time before Jesus, we've grown up filling our throne, the
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throne of our heart, with all sorts of other things, all sorts
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of created things, all sorts of unworthy things, from our family
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to our job to our identity, to our comfort.
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What will happen is. That even if you've given your
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life to Jesus, even if you surrendered your heart to Him.
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Holy when things get tough, when it hits the fan.
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Boy, there's going to be. A temptation to pull Jesus right
29:03
back out of there and take control again.
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Jesus, I don't. Know if you've been paying
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attention. I sent you a.
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Plan in PowerPoint. Maybe we should.
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Maybe he's just maybe I'm just going to have to pull him out of
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there and take take control again.
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I know you're we're going. To be tempted when it gets
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really difficult guys to to pull Jesus out of the throne and
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replace him with a cheap substitute.
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In a in. A few chapters Jesus is going to
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get arrested. And and he's going to.
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Go to the cross and when that happens, every single person who
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did genuinely believe in him, like we know it was genuine
29:45
belief, every single person's going to run away.
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They're going to. See the moment, the crisis, the
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storm, and they're going to go and they're going to pull him
29:58
out and they're going to take, they're going to go.
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I, I, you know, that's too risky.
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I better take control of this again.
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The apostle Peter, probably the boldest, loudest disciple of
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Jesus, is going to be like, I would never not follow you G and
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then immediately show him out and run away.
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Me too, Peter, me too. One of the things we begin to
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say around our church lately is that crisis reveals character.
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You can say you. Believe a lot of things until
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the storm hits. And when crisis?
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Hits I'm going to find out if Jesus is really on the throne of
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my heart or if I've been faking it.
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And let me be real, sometimes I've been faking it.
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Sometimes I fail. I yank him right out of there
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and I want to take control. And sometimes it's because of my
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comfort or it's my apathy, and I just pulled Jesus right out of
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the top spot of my life without even noticing.
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Here's the beauty of the gospel. Jesus doesn't.
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Abandoned me when I fail. He convicts me and then he
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restores. Me and he invites me back into
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active relationship every single time.
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That's Grace. Not a license.
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To sin, but a power to keep coming back.
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This Christian. Life is 1 in which every single
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day we have to do a heart check to see who's on the throne.
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To see if we're still. Surrendering that we're
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surrendering our will and our volition and our own plans and
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the control of our life to Jesus.
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Jesus actually explains this to his disciples in Luke 9/23.
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He says if you would come after me.
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You need to. Deny yourself, take up your
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cross daily and follow me. The cross.
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The implement of death. Every day we wake up and we
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choose again to surrender to Jesus.
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That means we deny ourselves the temptation of pulling him out of
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the top spot and replacing him. We submit in.
32:01
Humility to His will, not ours. And we go hard after Christ
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daily. Daily what?
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Does it look like? To do that, well, let me ask you
32:15
this. This is the this is kind of the
32:17
inventories. You, you take an inventory and
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here's what it looks like. Do I seek the face of God to
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worship Him and experience His presence daily?
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In how I. Read my Bible in how I pray and
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talk to him in my thoughts, in my passions.
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Like what does my daily pursuit of the King look like?
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And listen if. It's not good if if if you're
32:45
taking inventory of your own pursuit of Christ and you're
32:47
going it's, it's not good. What has to change?
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Nothing changes. If nothing changes.
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What has to change? Do this.
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Pick one new way to pursue Him, one new way to stir up your
33:06
affection for Jesus, and tell someone about it.
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That's called accountability. Like, oh, I liked everything up
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until that point. Pastor, tell someone about it.
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Hey, here's what I'm going to do.
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Here's the second inventory. Question.
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Have I let? Something else crawl into the
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throne of my life. Do do do I?
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Value something. Prioritize something over
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Christ. A job, my reputation, a
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relationship, tradition. Pride.
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My feelings. My emotions, right?
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Anything. Have I let anything else crawl
33:43
in there? Because when that happens.
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When that happens. God will reveal that.
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To us in different ways, right through prayer, by asking David
33:53
would say search me and try me O God, and see if there is any
33:57
unclean way in me. Meaning, man, I might not.
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Even notice that I pulled the Lord out of his throne in order
34:05
to replace him with something else.
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So ask the question. Sometimes the Spirit will reveal
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that as you're reading scriptures, you're singing a
34:11
song, as you're meditating, as you're praying, as you're
34:13
talking to others. In accountability, in a small
34:16
group, there's lots of ways. If you're asking, you'll see.
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And when He reveals that to you? Our response is.
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To repent, to repent, to confess our sin.
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To turn from. It.
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When? When?
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We are worshipping something other than God.
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That is the biblical definition of idolatry.
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You have made. A gift of God, An idol.
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The Bible will call. Anything other than God that you
34:52
put, you worship an idol. And, and the irony of ironies is
34:56
we would literally take the creator of all things out of his
34:59
throne and take the things that he created and put it in there.
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Over and over. And over again in my life.
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The the, the the. Christian recipe is to press
35:11
pause and to do a spiritual inventory.
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And just. Ask God, hey.
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Have I let things creep? In and listen, he is a jealous
35:26
God. He is jealous for the.
35:28
Spirit he put in US. And he will.
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Gently, lovingly, but jealously point out idols in your life.
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For me, it's usually my desire to control things.
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What about you? Might God.
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Be revealing to you in this moment things you've been
35:52
worshipping idols in your life. The the Wild.
35:59
Thing about our the end of our story today in verse 49, the the
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priests they're they're they're plotting.
36:06
To kill Jesus. And and, and Caiaphas, by the
36:08
way, Caiaphas doesn't get enough, enough credit for
36:10
probably being one of the most evil people in the Bible.
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We just kind of gloss over this. But this is like top five
36:14
villain stuff. Like we all, we all get on
36:17
Judas, but Caiaphas is way worse.
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Caiaphas says. They should murder Jesus to
36:24
protect their throne. This is what?
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He says you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is
36:32
better for you that one man should die for the people, not
36:35
that the whole nation should perish.
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Now what is he actually saying? He's saying Jesus is going to
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try to become king. I know it's all big to talk
36:44
about like no kings, no kings, right?
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No, nobody will care. Jesus going to try to become
36:54
king, and if he tries to become king, then the Romans are going
36:56
to think that we're trying to overthrow them with an
36:57
insurrection, so we should just kill Jesus and save everybody.
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Which is a bald faced. Lie and he knew it because the
37:06
crowd had already tried to make Jesus King multiple times and he
37:09
wouldn't let them. So he knows he's lying.
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How many times have we? Lied to protect an idol.
37:17
Lied to ourselves. Lied to others.
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He's lying now. The the.
37:25
Real irony of this moment is that simultaneously he is
37:30
prophesying what will happen that Jesus will die for everyone
37:32
and he doesn't even realize that's happening.
37:35
Oh and by the way, his his supposed fear that Jesus would
37:39
cause an insurrection and the Romans would come in and and
37:41
take them out of power happened a few years later.
37:44
They actually had an insurrection and the Romans gave
37:47
it to tore everything down. Whoops, wasn't even Jesus.
37:54
I mean. In this moment, these these
37:57
religious people are supposed to be holy and they're supposed to
37:59
love God, supposed to be looking for Jesus.
38:02
Successful, respected leaders. All they care about.
38:06
Is what they have to lose. Reputation.
38:10
Influence comfortable position in society.
38:12
All of us threatened by Jesus and and what should make you and
38:16
I uncomfortable as we read that is, we are way more like the
38:19
Pharisees than we'd like to admit.
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Because when Jesus. Shows up in power in my life.
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When Jesus shows up in that moment in your life, you're
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going to have the same choice that they did.
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Will I let him be Lord of my life, even if it costs me
38:36
everything I'm holding on to? I'll just tell you.
38:41
Personally, Jesus is worth it. He is worth it, he who did.
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Not consider himself when he went to the Cross on our behalf.
38:52
He is good, He is wise, He is powerful, He is worthy of honor
38:58
and praise and majesty. And no one else can.
39:02
Handle the throne of my heart, and every day you will learn how
39:06
much better He is than you think He is, and how much more He
39:08
loves you than you think He does.
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How about you? Will you?
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Let him be Lord of your life. Because only you.
39:23
Can answer that question about the throne of your heart.
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Today, if you have. Never surrendered your life to
39:33
Christ I. Want to give you an.
39:35
Opportunity to do that. As we close, will you?
39:40
Bow your heads and close your eyes for a brief moment if.
39:43
If you are. Willing to ask God for
39:46
forgiveness and salvation as we close our eyes.
39:50
I I want you to do this silently or quietly repeat this prayer
39:53
after me. Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner.
40:00
Who cannot? Save myself.
40:05
I need. You to save me.
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I make a terrible. God, so I surrender everything
40:15
to you, and I receive your promises.
40:23
Be my Lord. Please, Jesus.
40:29
If you prayed. To surrender your heart to Jesus
40:32
for the first time right now. Would you be brave and raise
40:35
your hand for me to see? Thank you.
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Thank you. You can put.
40:43
Your hands down. In Jesus.
40:45
Name Amen. All right, real quickly as we
40:49
close. If you just gave your.
40:53
Life to Christ, welcome to the family.
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In just a moment. As we respond to this message,
41:05
our praying team is going to be up here.
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We love praying for you guys. If if you in this service or or
41:11
recently gave your life to Christ and you haven't told
41:13
anyone about it, I want you to go to the back.
41:15
There are some tables back there and say I raised my hand and we
41:19
want to celebrate with you and we want to talk about what it
41:21
looks like to follow Jesus. And so go back there in just a
41:24
moment where you stand. We're going to close our service
41:27
day with a song. We love to pray with you and for
41:32
you. If you need prayer for any
41:34
reason, we're going to be up here.
41:35
We would love it if you come and pray with us and if you gave
41:38
your life to Christ recently and haven't told anyone, make sure
41:40
you go to those tables. You guys move as the Lord leads
41:43
you. I love you.