Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / You Were Never Meant to Figure This Out Alone - May 24, 2026

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You Were Never Meant to Figure This Out Alone - May 24, 2026 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning, my name is Daniel. It is Memorial Day weekend, if
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you didn't know. It is a season or holiday in our
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country where we pause momentarily to remember people
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that have given their lives to protect the liberties and the
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freedoms that we get to enjoy every single day.
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And so as you BBQ those hot dogs tomorrow, remember that there's
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a a bigger reason and purpose for the holiday in 1944.
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The invasion of Normandy had actually been an ongoing
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planning process for quite a few years.
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And they got to the window for D-Day when they were going to
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invade into France and the weather turned catastrophic.
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And the chief meteorologist for Eisenhower said there's about a
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36 hour window between these two storm fronts, and you may be
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able to get the invasion force over to France in time.
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But if you're wrong and the window closes, thousands of
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soldiers are going to drown on the way over.
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But if you wait and you don't go, more than likely the
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surprise of the invasion will get out and it will no longer be
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a secret, and they'll know you're coming.
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And so Eisenhower sits with that decision for hours by himself,
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and he decides to send the invasion force.
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And what's remarkable is right after he sends it, he writes a
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second letter that he he doesn't end up releasing.
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And it's a letter in which he takes full responsibility and
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blame for the failure of the invasion in case it doesn't
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work. It actually says if any blame or
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fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.
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He has to make a call with incomplete information under
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impossible pressure, and he owns all of the potential failure in
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advance. Now we know it worked because
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we're speaking English, not German.
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Our passage today in the book of James is about this concept of
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wisdom. Wisdom is the application of
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knowledge. And, and, and that story is, is
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our passage sort of wrapped up in a military uniform?
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Wisdom is more than just having the right information or the
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right facts or the right knowledge.
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It's, it's seen clearly when everyone else is panicking.
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It's making the right decision when it's hard to see the right
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decision. It's seen past the moment or
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the, the emotions or even the temporal.
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In fact, we're, we're going to look today at a concept called
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biblical wisdom. And, and our big idea, if you
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get nothing else out of today is this biblical wisdom is seeing
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earthly things with eternal eyes, seeing earthly things with
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eternal eyes. So we're going to pick up in
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James chapter one, verse 5. I'm going to spend this is
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probably going to be the most practical service you've ever
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been to at church since we're going to spend part of our time
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going through this passage and we're going to spend about half
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of our time actually doing what we read here.
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You guys sound super excited for class participation time.
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So I didn't wait until it's July and it's 110.
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So you should be you should be excited.
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Last week, Pastor Vance covered verses one through 4 and that
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was if you didn't have an opportunity to hear that, I
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would go find it on YouTube and listen to it.
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It was it was that good. We're going to pick it up in
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verse 5. It says this, If any of you
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lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all
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without reproach, and it will be given him.
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But let him ask in faith with no doubting.
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For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven
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and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose
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that he will receive anything from the Lord.
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He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
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Now this is a continuation of the thought from last week.
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Last week, James starts this out by saying we should consider the
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trials and the suffering that we go through as joy because God is
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changing us and transforming us through this process.
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And then we get into this. Ask wisdom.
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Why? Because you're, you and I are
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going to need a lot of wisdom to do that.
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You know, everybody wants wisdom.
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Everybody actually wants like what?
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Wisdom is not just more information.
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We have access to more information right now, in 2026,
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than any any culture has ever had access to in history.
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But those are just facts. Those aren't necessarily wisdom.
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Wisdom is the application of that.
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There's an old adage that says knowledge is knowing that
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technically a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it
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in a fruit salad. Let's here, let's, let's take an
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informal survey. How many of us here would like
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to make the best decision possible at every moment and
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every choice of our life? Now most of you raise your
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hands. The rest of you, you are either
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really wise or I'm already boring you.
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I'm just go with wise. We're going to talk about a
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specific type of wisdom today, biblical wisdom, the idea of
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seeing earthly things through eternal eyes.
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And this is a kind of wisdom that you and I, every person was
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born without it because the Bible says that we were born
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spiritually blind, because we were born under the curse of
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sin. When we were born and as we were
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growing, we had an inability to see spiritual things.
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We had an inability to see like God sees.
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So none of us naturally sees what's happening around us in
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spiritual ways. We don't share the mind or the
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eyes of God. It takes help, it takes
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transformation, it takes training.
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So let's talk about three things that biblical wisdom has.
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You can even call these the three tests of biblical wisdom
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to know if this is biblical or not.
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Here's the first. It's extremely practical.
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Why is biblicalism extremely practical?
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Well, well, wisdom in every sense of the word is about the
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application of information or the application of knowledge,
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but even more so biblically. Think about in verse 5 when when
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James says, if you lack wisdom, it comes right after this idea
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that we're going to look at trials and suffering in our life
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and we're going to count it as joy.
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See, wisdom is more than common sense because common sense
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doesn't tell you to look at suffering and call it joy.
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Common sense says we should avoid that.
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We should avoid suffering as much as possible.
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Instead, James says no, no, there's a there's a greater
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purpose behind the trials that you're going through.
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In fact, the Greek word that he uses here for wisdom is the word
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Sophia. Sophia is a Greek word that is
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is an all-encompassing type of wisdom and they have other words
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with with with narrow meanings that could have been used and
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are used in other parts of Scripture but not here.
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There's a word for knowledge called gnosis and we actually
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see it used throughout the New Testament, but not when it comes
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to wisdom. There's a word called phrenosis
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that means cleverness, but that's not used here either.
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Sophia is the all-encompassing word used in Greek for wisdom to
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know how to live rightly. Everyone would would love to be
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able to live rightly. So it's it's very practical
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biblical wisdom. If you've ever read Proverbs,
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it's very practical. Secondly, it's divine.
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It's divine. Now what do I mean by divine?
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We'll see. Biblical wisdom is so much more
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than just common sense. It can't stop at common sense
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because human wisdom won't tell you to count suffering as joy.
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There's a level of wisdom that exceeds human understanding.
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And then what James says is you can get it, you can have it, God
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will give it to you. That's good news because like
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every 3rd social media post is someone trying to tell you that
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they have something that you need and all you have to do is
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comment to get some access to some super secret wisdom.
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The Bible says, no, you don't actually have to comment on that
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Twitter post. You actually have to ask God for
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it. Here's the third and this is
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this is really critical. And as you begin to see this,
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you'll begin to see what the Bible means by biblical wisdom.
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The third is this. It's actually Christ like.
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Biblical wisdom is actually Christ, like now twice in the
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Bible, both in the First Corinthians.
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Scripture will call Christ the wisdom of God, the Sophia of
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God, almost like a noun. Look at First Corinthians 124
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put on the screen. It says this, but to those who
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are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the
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Sophia of God, the wisdom of God.
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And then you turn to chapter 2 and it says, Paul says we speak
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a wisdom not of this age, but God's secret Sophia hidden
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before time, decreed for our glory.
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Jesus is what it looks like to live as a human with the
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complete wisdom Sophia of God. To live life with God's mind and
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God's eyes and God's perspective, to be able to see
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earth the way God sees earth is what Jesus was doing.
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Yes, the Sunday school answer. Jesus is the answer in Sunday
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school. If you never know what the
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answer is, just go with Jesus. And you're right, like 90% of
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the time. It's because Jesus is the wisdom
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of God. And so if you and I want to have
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real wisdom, actual biblical wisdom, the idea, the
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understanding of how to live rightly, how to choose well, how
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to understand what God would look like as he looks at the
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earth and how he would see us, then we would need to live like
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Jesus. In fact, what we need to do is
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we need to live like heaven is real and Jesus is coming again.
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That's really what the Bible begins to press into you and I
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about when it talks about wisdom is, is to go beyond an
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intellectual knowledge of God that every day and all the time,
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in every decision, in every reaction, in all of our
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emotions, heaven is real. God is powerful and good, and
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this world is broken and this life is a vapour.
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And Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead,
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and all of us will answer to him.
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So Christ is our model. If you want to understand what
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it looks like to live on earth with an eternal mind, we look at
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the life of Jesus because wisdom, biblical wisdom, is
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seeing these earthly things with eternal eyes.
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You know, all of Scripture, especially Proverbs, Proverbs is
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the book of wisdom. All of Scripture says that
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wisdom begins with the fear of God.
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That is a perspective of God, that he's real and that he's
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powerful. And that's the starting point.
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And if you believe that, like truly believe that, it actually
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begins a path where we begin to be able to see like God.
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You and I can't be God. That's actually where it all
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went wrong back in Genesis when Adam and Eve decided they wanted
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to be God. We can't be God.
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But the Bible says we can begin to see like God.
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We can be able to share His perspective of earthly things,
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and that's really the key for us.
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Seeing like God leads to living like Jesus.
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I want to say that again. Seeing like God leads to living
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like Jesus, And living like Christ develops in us the
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ability to see right from wrong. You see, everybody wants wisdom,
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but wanting it is not the same as having it.
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James 5 tells us how to get it. If any of you lacks wisdom, let
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him ask God. You know what I don't read there
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at all is like? Make sure you get into a really
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good university. Nope, not there.
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Make sure you get a certain number of Instagram.
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Nope, not there. Let him ask God.
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Listen, church, sometimes I get frustrated with myself when I'm
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dealing with the problem because the Bible makes it so clear.
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Ask God. You know what I spend more time
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doing? Thinking about the problem.
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You know, I spent a lot more time thinking about the problem
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that I do asking God. That's a little weird, how much
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time I can spend talking about the problem, thinking about the
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problem, telling other people about the problem.
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But then there's this whole ask God part.
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I ask God, ask him out loud, ask him silently, ask Him in
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writing, ask him in a small group, ask him in a prayer
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group, ask him in a prayer request, ask him in the
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corporate environment, ask him on Facebook for all I care.
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Just ask him. We spend so much time thinking
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about the problem, talking about the problem, and failing to ask
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God about it. Because God gives generously,
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without strings attached. That's what the Bible tells us.
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How do you ask God? There's a very specific way to
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ask God this here. In these verses, it's actually
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the opposite. What we're going to get is we
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get 3 verses as a warning of how not to ask God.
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And in that is actually the inverse, the secret of what it
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looks like to ask God. We have to ask in faith without
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doubt. We have to ask in faith without
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doubt. Now to ask God in faith without
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doubt is a three-part A3 part process.
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We're going to make this really simple today.
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So if you're writing this down, it looks like this.
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Asking for wisdom involves seeking sensitivity and
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swapping. Seeking sensitivity and
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swapping. I'm Baptist.
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Of course they all start with the same letter.
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I'm almost legally required to do that.
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That's a pastor joke. Seeking sensitivity and
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swapping. What is seeking mean?
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If you want wisdom from God, we have to ask Him, which means we
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need to proactively pursue God's presence and His answer.
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So, so, so you don't flippantly ask God.
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Asking God the creator of the universe is not like walking by
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a wishing fountain and flipping a coin in and throwing a little
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wisher wishing on a falling star.
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What if one of those Disney things is it is pursuing, it's
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pressing into seeking God's face, seeking God's presence in
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a passionate and and persistent way.
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We are pursuing and that requires real faith.
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Listen to me when I say like we are, we are.
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We're putting real heart and effort into pursuing God.
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Like, I talk to young men about this all the time when they're
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struggling with initiative and discipline.
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I'm like, listen, if there was a really, really attractive young
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lady that you're interested in, I wouldn't have to motivate you.
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Amen. And all I'm saying is maybe you
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could pray at the level that you keep blowing up her DMS,
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pursuing God's presence with all of your heart because you can't,
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you can't seek what you don't believe in because you won't put
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your full heart into it. If God is just some concept out
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there, you're not going to press into pursuing his presence.
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It's like having a ladder. If you if you think that that
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ladder is shaky and you're not sure that any of those rungs is
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going to hold you, you're not climbing the ladder.
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You have to believe, you have to have some confidence in that
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ladder to climb all the way to the top, because there's a risk
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if we're going to pursue God's wisdom, it will be with our
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whole life. And to do that, you must believe
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that he is good. This is actually the way the
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Bible describes it in Hebrews 11/6.
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It says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists
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and that he rewards those who seek him.
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To please God, you must draw near, and to draw near you must
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believe you want to seek God. If you want to ask Him for
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wisdom without doubt, you're going to have to believe that
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nothing is more important or impactful in this world than
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drawing near to God. And the God that you're drawing
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near to is not some some distant, abstract concept.
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He is the God who came to us and wrapped himself in flesh as
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Jesus Christ. That's who you're seeking
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because Jesus is the wisdom of God.
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In my life when I have faced, I have faced some impossible
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decisions like impossible situations, moments of of my
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leadership or in my career or conflict.
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What were the choice in front of me had massive implications as a
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pastor, as a dad, as a husband. And in those moments, what I
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needed was not more information. I needed wisdom.
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In the past three months, I've spent more time than I've ever
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spent in my life praying because that's how you get wisdom.
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So you ask God, our entire leadership philosophy in this
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church reflects this. Our leadership philosophy in
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this church is not, hey, we're smart enough, we'll figure it
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out. We are not, It's not, hey, we've
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been here before, we know exactly what to do.
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We do not. Our leadership philosophy is
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let's get on our knees and beg the God of the universe to show
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up and show us what he's doing because he said he will.
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And when he shows up, let's do what he says.
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So. So when I'm when I'm begging God
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in the middle of the night for understanding about the chaos
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that's going around me. When in this past season when
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the ache inside me is giving me insomnia.
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I don't know if you've ever been there where you cannot sleep and
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you're just sitting in bed and you feel like you're living out
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Psalm 42 where your tears have been your food day and night and
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you are screaming out to God. You are.
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It's like, it's like getting to the top rung of the ladder and
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you're leaning on God, knowing that either he holds or
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everything comes tumbling down and you're going to be broken.
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That's what it looks like to seek God with all your heart, to
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be desperate for his presence. It reminds me there's an ancient
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proverb of a young man that goes to an old wise man and he says
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how do I get wisdom? And the old man grabs the young
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guy by the back of the head, drags him over the river and
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shoves his head under the water and holds him there for 30
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seconds. And he's thrashing around and he
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pulls him back up. And the young guy's looking at
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him. He's like, what did you?
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And he goes, listen, when you want wisdom as badly as you
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wanted air right now, you'll find it.
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In this last season, I have sought God like He is oxygen
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because he's life. So we seek.
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And then secondly, we have to be sensitive.
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You have to pay attention when the Holy Spirit speaks through
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the Word, through prayer, through circumstances, through
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his people, the church. And you won't be sensitive to
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something you don't think is real.
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That's why you have to believe God is at work all around you
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right now. Church have taken the time to
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seek him and listen, we're about to practice this in just a
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moment. It reminds me of a man is
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trapped on his roof during a flood and he's crying out to
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God. The God would sit angels to save
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him And a guy comes floating by on a log and he looks at him.
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He says, hey, I think this will hold both of us.
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Why don't you get on here? He's like no, no.
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And the guy floats on by and then a family comes by this
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little rubber boat with a bunch of food in it.
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And they go, hey, we'll, we'll make space for you.
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We. And he's like, no, no, I'm
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waiting on God. So they move on.
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And then a helicopter comes and he waves them off.
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He hasn't want to be rescued. He ends up dying in the flood
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and he drowns. He goes to heaven and he's angry
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at God. He's like, why didn't you?
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Why didn't you send your angels? I was praying.
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And he's like, well, why do I have to send more than three?
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Gods that work all around us all the time, but we're too busy to
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pay attention, got our nose stuck in our phone.
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We're thinking about our problems.
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We're worrying about something we don't need to be worrying
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about. So we seek and then we're
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sensitive. Where is God moving?
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Where is he leading me? That's why one of the one of the
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best ways to start your prayers is to open up your Bible.
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Begin to read the word of God. Let God start the conversation
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with his words because often times whoever starts the
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conversation directs it. So like God, direct your
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conversation. We don't inform God when we
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pray. We align ourselves to what God
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is already doing. So start in your Bible, then
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ask. That's not a technique.
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That's probably the most ancient path there is to prayer.
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We seek. We're sensitive.
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And then third, we have to swap our priorities.
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You have to reorient when, when we begin to realize that God is
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moving, it's going to require us to change some things in our
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lives. There's going to be some
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uncomfortability. When God speaks.
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We reorient our life to obedience.
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You know, I used to plan my entire summer vacation based on
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whenever, whenever we're going to have VBS at church, that's
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when I would go on vacation. You all have fun with those
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kids. Don't need me, I'm an adult
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ministry. And then we as elders begin to
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pray through what God was doing and where he was moving.
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And we begin to realize through our prayer and our prayer
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retreats and our fasting and our leaders coming together, where
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God was really moving was through kids in this 10 minute
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window. And then what we needed to do in
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order to participate with God's work was do things through a
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kids camp. Which sounds foolish and silly
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and made me change my vacation. But when God moves, and we
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realize God's moving and it is our job to reorient around Him,
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not him to us, we make lousy gods.
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And so we asked, and we were paying attention.
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And then when God moved and meant we had to change, listen,
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I could have made plenty of excuses about why I didn't need
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to be here for a kids camp. Or I could actually see God's
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invitation and reorient my life around Him.
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And you can too. So we're going to transition
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into putting this into practice today.
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But before we do, I want to mention something.
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You can't ask God for wisdom the way James is describing here in
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chapter 1. If you've never entered into a
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relationship with God, the wisdom of God isn't a resource
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that you get to tap into like a Internet site.
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It's not an upgrade that you can download.
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It's a person. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
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God, and to have wisdom you have to have him.
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So the question today is it, do you want to be wiser?
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The question is, do you know Jesus?
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Because that's who wisdom is. Wisdom is seeing earthly things
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with eternal eyes. Now.
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Every single one of us born into sin have done things that have
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separated us from God. The Bible calls that sin.
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And sin isn't just giant big things.
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It's just a pattern of living life like God doesn't exist.
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That's the double mindedness that James talked about earlier.
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It's the root of the human condition.
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But because God is merciful, he didn't leave us there.
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A guy named Paul who once haunted Christians for sport
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before Jesus stopped him on a road wrote this in Romans 5/8.
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He said that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Not once we clean ourselves up. Jesus died for you. 3 days later
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he rose. Which means the death doesn't
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have the final word. There's a way back to God.
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And his invitation often starts with a prayer.
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Not a perfect prayer or a polished prayer.
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Just desperate and honest, full of faith.
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And so if you're willing to surrender your life to God for
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the very first time today, I want to lead you in a prayer.
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Will you bow your head and close your eyes with me?
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If that's you today, whether you're here, you're watching
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online, and you've realized that God is calling you to salvation,
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I want to invite you to respond. Just simply repeat after me,
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quietly, silently, however you'd like this prayer.
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God, I'm a Sinner and I believe Jesus died and rose again.
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I surrender everything to you. I want you to save me.
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If you said that prayer for the very first time, would you raise
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your hand for me to see? Thank you, thank you.
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You put your hands down in Jesus name.
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Amen. Amen.
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If you just surrendered your life for the very first time,
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welcome to the family. All right, I mentioned we were
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going to put this into practice today, so go ahead and stand up
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and I'll give you some instructions for today.
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If moments ago or maybe sometime this week you surrendered your
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life to Christ and you haven't told anybody about that yet,
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there are tables in the back that say I raised my hand in
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just a moment when we break up, we'd love for you to go back
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there and share that with someone.
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We'd love to walk with you and talk about what comes next, what
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it looks like to pursue Jesus. Now, hopefully you got a prayer
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card, a little prayer prompt card when you came in.
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If you did not get one, we have some more in the lobby.
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We'll try to run them out there to you.
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Here's what you're going to do. You're going to take one to four
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people. How many?
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There we go. So when I see 12 of you, I'm
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going to know you can't count 1 to 4.
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We want to stay small enough so you get a chance to actually
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pray one to four people and whether you we want you to walk
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the campus if you can, if you can't walk, we want you to just
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stay in here and pray or stay in the lobby.
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If you're online, they're going to lead you in the chat on how
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to do that. You have 25 minutes.
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We put a bunch of instructions on that prayer prompt card.
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We're praying for some very specific things in this next
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season, for you, for your family, for church, for the
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gospel. We put about 9 different
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locations and we put a bunch of scripture prompts that start
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with Scripture so you can start with the word first.
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You have 25 minutes. We have a running clock.
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When you start hearing the band play the song, that's your cue
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that's been 25 minutes. You should come back in so we
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can close out our service. Your job is to ask God full of
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faith without doubt, and then be sensitive to what he's going to
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begin to do in your life as he begins to speak to you about
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what he is doing, where he's at work.
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And that is an invitation for you to join him.
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So three very specific things. 25 minutes, and then we'll meet
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back in here. Ready, set, go.
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All right.