Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Recognition Comes From Relationship - July 27, 2025

Transcript

Recognition Comes From Relationship - July 27, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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What's up, everybody? Come on, let's go.
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My name is Pastor Dave. I'm the middle school director
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here at RES, and God is good all the time.
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Let's go. A few weeks ago, I took my
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youngest, Kevin and Tashi, who are five and three, to the
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trampoline park, and they were going nuts in there.
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I couldn't pull Kevin off of the stuff, and it was hot in there.
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And Toshi comes up to me and she's like, dad, I'm thirsty,
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like, OK, let's go. So I grab her and I walk just
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around the corner and I'm picking her up and I'm holding
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her and she's drinking. And then I hear that
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indistinguishable call of your lost child, dad, like, oh, Tosh,
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Kevin's looking for us. And then almost immediately,
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with fear and tremble, and I could hear the tears in his
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voice, he calls out again. All right, Tosh, hurry up, let's
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go. We walk a few steps around the
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corner and I can see Tosh, I mean Kevin with a staff member
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now holding him, obvious tears coming down.
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But he had heard me. I had called out to him.
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I said Kevin, now he's looking for me.
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He's not crying, he's looking around.
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Where's my dad? I walked closer and I called out
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again. Kevin and the staff member sees
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me but just keeps looking, looking for Kevin's father,
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holding my son back, not letting him go to who he knows.
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Kevin knew instantly as soon as I called out to him because he's
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my son. We've spent thousands of hours
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together. The staff member, an adult,
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somebody more intelligent, more maturity, more experience,
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couldn't recognize me at all, looking for somebody who looked
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more like Kevin. The the difference wasn't
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intelligence, wasn't capability. It wasn't that she couldn't
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figure out. She just didn't have the
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relationship we have. That's exactly what we're going
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to learn in our text today. When God feels distant, when God
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feels quiet, when it feels like He's not communicating with us,
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know that recognition comes from relationship.
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That's our big idea for today. Incredibly, God has given us a
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primary way. He builds relationships with us.
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He speaks through his Word, which is alive.
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It's active. Hebrews 412 tells us the word of
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God is living and effective. It's not just ancient text on a
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page. No, it's God actively
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communicating with us today, right now.
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The primary way you build relationship with God and learn
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to recognize His voice is by feeding on His word.
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Feeding means three things. Reading it, considering what it
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means, and lastly, taking action, applying it, dealing
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with it in your life. Think about that, Kevin.
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How did he learn to recognize my voice?
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By spending countless hours with me, listening to me, responding
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to me. That's exactly how we recognize
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God's voice through his living word.
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So if you have your Bibles, open them up or being John chapter
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10, we're going to read from his word and remember, this isn't
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just historical text, historical information.
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This is God speaking to you today.
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But let me ask you, do you find it hard to hear God's voice?
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Have you had a decision that you just needed God to speak into,
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that you just desperately wanted direction, that you needed God?
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So you reach out to God and pray and say, God, what do I do in
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this situation? How am I supposed to handle
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this? What is?
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What is your will for me? What am I supposed to do?
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God, give me direction. Then a thought enters into your
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mind and you wonder, was that me?
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Did I just make that up? Did I answer my own question?
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Is this my desire? Is this what my heart wants?
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Or God, was that you? Did you speak to me?
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Was that the Holy Spirit pressing upon me?
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Or maybe maybe it was something else.
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Maybe it was that bad burrito I had the other day.
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This is the struggle every believer faces, learning to
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distinguish the difference between the voice of God and all
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the other voices competing for our attention.
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Wouldn't it be incredible to know exactly what God wants you
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to do? To be able to hear from God?
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Imagine if you could ask him for directions and you could get a
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super clear answer. Have you ever been driving
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somewhere and you have your your GPS on your Google Maps and then
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suddenly it cuts out? You're in unfamiliar territory.
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Maybe it's getting dark, Maybe you don't know where you're
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going, but you think you do, but you rely on all everything on
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Google Maps and then suddenly it goes dark.
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I don't know about you, but when that happens to me, my anxiety
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goes through the roof. Which way do I go?
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Am I going the right direction? Did I miss my exit?
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I would give anything to hear that voice say in 500 feet, turn
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right, or even recalculating route something.
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Just give me something. That's how many of us feel
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spiritually. We're trying to navigate through
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life's big decisions and we're desperately wanting to hear
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God's voice, desperate for a clear direction.
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God, should I? Should I take this job?
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Should I move? Should I get married?
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Should I have kids? Should I forgive them?
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Should I say something or stay quiet?
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Wouldn't it be incredible if you could ask God, ask him any
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question and get a really clear answer, like a spiritual Google
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Maps? God, what do you want me to do?
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And then in that calm, clear voice, the voice that we've
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heard many times, it says in faith, step into that new thing
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or wait, I'm working on something else for you, or stop,
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go the other way. But here's what happens often.
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We're going through life. We think we hear something, but
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we're not 100% sure. God, Was that your voice or is
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that just my own thoughts? Was that the Holy Spirit
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directing me my emotions are are my emotions taking over what's
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happening here? Am I am I justifying what I
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really want to do or gotten? Is this your will for me?
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So let's read John chapter 10 verse one.
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It says truly, I tell you, anyone who doesn't enter the
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sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and
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a robber. Sometimes we are so desperate
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for direction, longing to hear from God, that we're willing to
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listen to anything to anyone, to any friends, even our bad
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friends. The friends that give us we know
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we they give us bad advice. We'll listen to fortune cookies.
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We'll listen to our hearts. That's the worst of all, by the
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way. Or like in verse one, we'll
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listen to false teachers who sneak into our lives.
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Verse 2, the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the
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sheep. The real shepherd, the legit
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shepherd is Jesus. He's not sneaking around.
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He's not playing funny business. In fact, the whole story of who,
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of why and how Jesus is going to come to earth and to save us was
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told hundreds of years before it even started.
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Jesus is not trying to trick you and I into following him.
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In fact, he's laid out a plan that seems kind of bad to some
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of us. Jesus given the title the King
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of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but he's not the king that
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forces you to follow him. A king who's come to earth as a
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humble servant to live a sinless life, a life of grace, teaching
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of kindness, teaching of love, showing what actually looks
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like. To do that, finish with me,
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verse 2. The one who enters by the gate
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is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him,
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and the sheep hear his voice. That's us.
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We're the sheep. He calls his own sheep by name
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and leads them out. That is incredible.
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Jesus calls us by name. He speaks to us individually.
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Think about that. God is so good that He wants to
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be there for you and you individually.
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He wants to guide us. He wants to give us directions.
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Isaiah 3021 tells us whenever you turn to the right or to the
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left, your ears will hear this command behind you.
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This is the way. Walk in it.
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Jesus is there for us. He's leading us.
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Recognition comes from relationship.
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He is the one who actually wants to know and does know you
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personally. He calls you by name.
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This isn't just some giant blanket statement that God loves
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the world. It's personal.
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He sees you. He understands you with all your
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talents, with all your traits and even your trials.
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God's not here building robots. He's building relationships.
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He knows exactly what's going on in your heart.
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He knows the stuff you're proud of.
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He knows the stuff you're ashamed of, and he knows the
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stuff you're trying to hide. And get this, he still loves
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you. He loves you fully even during
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all of that. Verse 4 And when when he has
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brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them, the sheep
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follow him. Why?
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Why would the sheep follow him? Why would we follow Jesus?
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It says because they know his voice.
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They never follow a stranger. Instead, they'll run away from
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him because they don't know the voice of a stranger.
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At first, the thought of hearing God's voice seems impossible.
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It's not impossible, it's incredible.
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Then it becomes recognizable and familiar and then discernible.
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About four years ago at my previous church, I was asked to
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shut down youth group. Shut it down or change it
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significantly. Let me tell you, our youth group
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was blowing up in numbers. We had 75 to 100 students
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showing up every Wednesday. Doesn't that sound amazing?
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I agree, it was amazing. Students would skate into our
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parking lot, we'd hang out with them, we'd love on them, we'd
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give them water, we'd tell them the gospel, and eventually,
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eventually they started inviting their friends back.
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And then all of a sudden, we had this explosion of skaters at the
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church. Let me tell you, there's nothing
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wrong with skaters or skating. In fact, the church we purchased
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rails, we purchased ramps, we set it up so they could skate
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there at the church. We loved having the students
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there, but we connected to a group of students that were
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hurting, that had parents in their lives, that were just
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adults, really. No parenting happening.
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Kids who lived from couch to couch, who never went to school,
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who always had a vape that had weed or nicotine in it.
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Kids that brought significant issues to our church.
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You get me. Eventually that group grew to
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twice the size of our normal Sunday congregation and we
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continue to share the gospel over and over, week after week,
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we would share the love of Jesus Christ of these students.
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So when the time came, when the statement came at me that it is
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time to shut down youth group because the students were just
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totally out of hand, I was livid.
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How could we shut down youth group?
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This is all they have Shut down sharing the gospel.
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This is insane how I I was so angry, I was so mad.
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Every emotion in me was firing off.
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I wanted to yell, I wanted to quit.
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I cried my heart. It was broken for these lost
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kids. I was given two weeks.
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Shut it down or change it significantly.
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I had no idea what to do, so I did the only thing I knew what
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to do. I went to the sanctuary where
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the 100 kids would be and I got on my knees.
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I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, and eventually my knees got so
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tired I just laid there. I asked God, what am I supposed
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to do? Give me something, God.
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Give me direction. This doesn't feel right, God.
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Eventually, I picked myself up off the floor.
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I walked out of that room with no answers, silence, no
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explanation, no direction of what I was supposed to do that
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night. We had youth group and like
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always, a ton of kids showed up so big that we had to split up
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our game. We split it up into four groups.
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We had the high school boys, the high school girls, middle
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school, and quickly we ran the boys through the through the
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game and then we sent them straight to the sanctuary as
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quickly as possible. Next we sent the girls, sent the
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other half and I was, I was walking out to go to the
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sanctuary like I always do to do our lesson, share the gospel of
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Jesus Christ. I get to the leader who's in
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charge of making sure that every one of those students goes from
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point A to point B and he looks at me and he says they all left.
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What? What do you mean they all left?
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All of them? He's like, no, well, not all of
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them. There's probably about 10 to 15
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kids are normal church kids. And at that moment, the Lord
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spoke to me, not audibly, but he said in these words, Dave, I
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know you love those kids. I know you love them with all
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your heart and so do I, but they're not here to learn about
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me anymore. And he told me I'm going to do
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something that you can't do. And he gave me a vision of a
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hand gently wrapping around students and leading them off
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the church. Grounds that following Wednesday
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was our last Wednesday all the students gathered like normal.
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I shared the gospel one last time and then I let them know
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youth group as you knew it is over.
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They were in shock what it's done Wednesday night, it's done.
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I told them if you have any desire, just a tiny inkling of
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desire to learn more about God, to get connected with God,
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something with God to show up at church on Sunday morning.
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I will personally connect you. We'll start small groups.
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We'll do something that will guarantee that we will continue
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your focus towards God. But if you're not, if you have 0
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interest in God, let's say goodbye.
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When I said that, about 30 students stood up.
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They got in a line and they proceeded to give me a hug,
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shook my hand and said goodbye and the rest of them just walked
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out back doors. The room had gone from this
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energetic massive amount of kids.
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She just a few of us leaders in this darkened room.
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Am I call to God? Show me what's going on in my
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failure to see how hard it was for me to let these kids go,
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that my leadership already knew what God was working on because
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these students were not even here for God that night.
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There's a detail that I didn't learn about till later.
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One of my leaders was so angry, just like I was.
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He was in the back of the sanctuary, pacing back and
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forth. He was calling out to God.
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God, if this is really you, God, this can't be you.
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God, prove to me. Prove to me that this is really
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your will. Show up.
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God do something. The rest of us leaders were
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standing in the front of the sanctuary, kind of in sorrow.
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Then I heard a familiar voice, a voice of a young lady who had
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been in the group for a long time.
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She said Pastor Dave and I looked up and she just walked
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through the back doors. She said, sorry I'm late.
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Oh, seriously, You don't know what just happened.
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You have no idea that we just change everything.
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Before I tell her anything she says, I just want you to know
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that my friends here are not good for me.
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So I haven't been coming to youth group for the last couple
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of weeks and I decided on my own that I'm just going to come to
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church on Sunday mornings. I couldn't see it, but God was
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working in all of this. He was working through the
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toxicness. I couldn't cut through it.
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And yet here He was proving to me that He is in charge.
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He is working. He's dealing with all of this.
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God actually wants to be our spiritual Google Maps even more
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than you want to hear from Him. He's not playing hide and seek
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with the plan for your life. He's not trying to make it
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difficult for you to try to figure out what you're supposed
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to do. Wouldn't it be amazing for you
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to clearly hear the voice of God?
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You can, but it comes from a relationship with God.
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It comes from experiencing God. It comes.
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What First Corinthians tells us is it comes from having Christ
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in their life. 1st Corinthians 214 says but people who aren't
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spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit.
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It all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it,
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for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit
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means. The spiritual person is someone
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who receives the Holy Spirit and sees life through God's lens.
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But we don't start off this way. Romans 512 tells us that
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therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,
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death, through sin, in this way death spread to all people
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because all have sinned. You see, we are all born into
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this world spiritually dead, full of sins, full of issues.
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But we don't have to stay that way.
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Romans 58 tells us God proves. He proves it his own love for
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you and I for us that while we are still sinners, Why are we
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while we're still enemies of God?
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Jesus died for you and I and God gives us a simple yet heart
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surrendering instruction to deal with this.
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Romans 10/9 says if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord
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and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead,
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you and me and anybody who does this will be saved.
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You must surrender to Jesus if you want Christ in your life.
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The truth he has to give, the direction that he promises.
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You have to surrender to God. Jesus died and he raised from
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the dead three days later to offer you freedom from sin,
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freedom from shame, a new life with God in control as your
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spiritual guide. So today, if you'd like to
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surrender to God, if you're willing to ask him for
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forgiveness, for salvation, right now, I want to give you
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that chance. So if everybody could please bow
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their heads, close your eyes just for a moment, just so you
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can focus between you and God, I'm going to give you an
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opportunity to talk to God. I'm going to give you an
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opportunity to accept Him. You can repeat these words or
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say something similar, but this is just between you and God.
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Jesus, I know I am a Sinner. I know there's all kinds of
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stuff in my life that shouldn't be there, and I cannot save
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myself. I want you to save me, adopt me.
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Adopt me into your family. Jesus, I surrender everything to
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you. I receive your promise of
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forgiveness, your promise of adoption, your promise of
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eternal life and guidance. Lord, please be my Savior.
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With nobody looking around, if you prayed that prayer for the
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very first time today, would you be brave enough to raise your
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hand? Thank you, I see you.
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You can put your hands down in Jesus name, Amen.
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All right, if you just committed your life to Jesus for the very
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first time, welcome to his forever family.
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In just a moment, we're going to respond to the word of God.
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And during that time, there's tables on the back corners that
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say I've raised my hand. These tables have people that
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are going to congratulate you. They're going to love on you.
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They're going to give you a Bible.
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We want to take the next step with you in your journey with
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Christ. And I want to give you a couple
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application things that you can do in your life that will help
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you hear from God. If I told you to wake up
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tomorrow morning at I was going to say 3, but ain't nobody's
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doing that at 5:00 AM to just pray to God and then just be
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quiet for a few minutes that God will speak to you.
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God will actually hear you. You will hear him.
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A lot of you would do it. You would be excited about it.
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You would be talking to your friends about it.
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Hey, I'm going to do this. It's pretty cool.
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God talks to me. He's real, He's alive.
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He actually answers me. Well, here's the thing.
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The Bible says that the word of God is alive.
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It deals with our everyday situations.
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Even more incredible says that the Scripture is God breathed.
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It says that His word is a light, like a flashlight that
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opens your view, guides us, and gives us direction.
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Sometimes the reason that we can't hear God's voice clearly
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isn't because he's not speaking. It's because we built barriers,
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barriers between Him and us. How often do we read His word?
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We read what it says, we think about it, and we say, hmm, I
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don't think that applies to me. That seems like kind of a lot of
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work. God calls us to treat our
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marriages as the covenant they are, yet we treat them as
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contracts to be dissolved when our expectations are not met.
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The Bible calls us to get rid of bitterness and to forgive
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others, and yet we can't imagine forgiving somebody else.
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We can't let them off the hook for what they did.
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Deep down, you know the things that God is asking you to deal
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with. Sometimes we're asking God for
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steps 234 and five, and he's still waiting for us to deal
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with step #1. Application number one is to
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live in dependence. Dependence.
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Our culture heats that word dependent.
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Such a bad thing, but it's obvious we are dependent on God.
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He even calls us to be dependent on Him.
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So fulfill that dependency by being in His Word.
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A few weeks ago we talked about abiding in God's Word to let it
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soak in, to be in it. So dedicate time with Him.
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Maybe it is 5:00 AM, maybe it's 5:00 PM, but find a time to be
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in His Word. Open it.
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Let the truths of it come alive. Shape your mind, your character,
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your path. Let it allow you to step into
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directions that you don't really want to deal with.
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It will start to answer your questions.
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Maybe you're thinking, I don't know where to start with this.
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I don't know how to read the Bible.
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Read John with us. It's 1 chapter a day. 21 days
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later you'll have more than you even started with.
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And don't worry about understanding what it says.
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You'll understand a lot, but you won't get everything.
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That's OK. Just read it like you're getting
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to know a person because that's exactly what you're doing.
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Application #2 Don't do it alone.
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I can't tell you the amount of times our men's group have
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opened the Word of God. And then we were open about
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what's happening in our lives. And I can't tell the amount of
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times that we threw out bad ideas into the group and allowed
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others to speak into it or spent a week praying about somebody
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else's idea or decision or thing that's going on in their lives,
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only to have a discerning voice of God come back and tell us,
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no, they shouldn't do that. This is a good thing, having
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people in our lives. This saves us from a lot of bad
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choices. If you don't have people like
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that in your life, start small. Find one person who loves Jesus
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more than they love making you happy.
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We would love for you to join any of our community groups.
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Pray over the things in your lives.
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Be real together. Any of our staff, any of the
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leaders, anybody at the checking tables will help point you
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towards that. Lastly, application #3 pray
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about everything. Seems simple, but it's really
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not. Do you have God on retainer just
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waiting to use Him at the most pivotal, pivotal moment?
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This is the perfect time to use God.
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Or are we giving Him everything? There's things in our lives that
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we don't know how to deal with God.
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I don't know how to deal with the emotions of my preschooler.
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God, I'm worried about money, but I don't want to seem like I
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don't trust you. God, I hate my job, but I don't
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know what else to do. God, I'm attracted to somebody
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else, but I shouldn't be. We need answers, but we don't
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dare say it out loud, let alone tell God or tell wise counsel or
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tell our godly friends. But that can stop today.
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Our prayer team is coming up right now not only to pray with
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you, but to stand with you as you come before the Lord with
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something that you have never talked to Him about.
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So as the music starts, come forward.
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Please stand. Pray as the Lord leads you.