Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Why Your Plan Keeps Falling Apart - April 12, 2026

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Why Your Plan Keeps Falling Apart - April 12, 2026 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning. My name is Daniel.
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I'm the lead pastor here at Res Church.
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Welcome if you're new here. Welcome if you're coming back
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from Easter excited. You joined us today.
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You braved that torrential downpour of a storm, 110th of an
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inch of rain. Welcome to Res Church.
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We are continuing a series we started last week.
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Hey, have you ever, have you ever had a plan?
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Maybe a good point, you know, maybe, maybe a perfect plan that
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fell apart in in college, I got invited to play quarterback for
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a flag football team, for a fraternity flag football team.
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And I wasn't in a fraternity, but the, the Delta Chi invited
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me because they hadn't won a game in two years.
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So at that point, they're just inviting anyone with a pulse.
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And we ended up making it all the way to the championship game
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down by 5. Last play of the game, and I was
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supposed to call the play. And so I was thinking like I had
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like a razzle dazzle, you ain't nobody seen this coming sort of
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play. And I drew it out in the huddle.
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The wide receiver is going to head out and then get behind the
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defence in the back of the end zone.
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I was going to throw it over their heads.
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Everyone was going to cheer. I was going to be hero.
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And then we hiked the ball and the receiver fell down and they
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blitzed. And that's about the time that
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it dawned on me that the other team was all like 6 foot, 4 frag
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guys. And we were short and
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unathletic. And I couldn't see anything
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other than all of the defense. And so I just closed my eyes and
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threw the ball. Listen, it was a good plan in
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the huddle. You ever have plans to fall
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apart? Me too.
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Here's one of the things that I've learned about myself in the
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Christian life is that I have a lot of ideas and every once in a
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while I decide I should check in with God about his plans.
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You see, the one of the problems that we have as humans is we
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have this tendency to trust our own plan more than we seek and
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trust the Lord. And so today, as we start in
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Acts chapter 1, Jesus is going to make a point that most of us
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will probably feel pretty uncomfortable with.
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He's going to hand his disciples the mission of their lives and
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he's going to deliberately withhold the plan.
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And the reason that he does is, I believe, one of the most
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important lessons that you're going to learn about living the
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Christian life. And if you you leave today and
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you get nothing else out of it, I want you to leave with this
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concept. You actually don't need the
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plan, You need the power. You don't need the plan, you
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need the power. Let's read together starting in
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Acts chapter one. Verse one says this in the first
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book. O Theophilus, I have dealt with
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all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken
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up. After he had given commands
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through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
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He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many
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proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the
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Kingdom of God. The apostle Luke, who also wrote
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the book of Luke, opens the book of Acts by connecting this story
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all the way back to the end of his gospel.
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He's saying Jesus is still active.
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His ministry doesn't end when he died.
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It doesn't end at the resurrection.
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It doesn't end at the ascension, which we're about to see in just
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a moment. It continues through the people
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that he empowers, and those people are actually called the
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church. That that's what Jesus had
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originally promised all the way back in Matthew 18.
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The church. The church is not a building.
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It's not a program. The church is the continuation
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of Christ's mission to the world that makes the church
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indispensable. The church is Christ's plan for
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the world. It is the hope of the world
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until he returns. And that means we don't get to
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just dismiss it or ignore it and listen.
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There are a lot of problems with the church, mainly because you
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and I are in it. That makes it really messy.
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What's the, what's the phrase? You don't ever want to show up
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at a perfect church because the moment you show up, it's not
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perfect anymore. It's really messy.
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But even in that mess, the church is called the bride of
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Christ. It is the continuation of his
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work here on earth. Do you know there are no
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Christians in the New Testament who are disconnected from the
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local church and are still living on mission?
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Doesn't even exist. I just I want you to think about
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that the next time someone tells you that they that you don't
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need the church. Let's keep reading verse 4 And
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while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from
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Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he
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said you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you
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will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
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Just consider for a minute that the disciples that he's telling
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wait. The disciples have spent about 3
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1/2 years with Jesus and in that time they've they they've eaten
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their meals together, they've traveled together, they saw
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slept in the same spots that the disciples have watched all of
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these miracles happen about 40 miracles.
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They've heard every teaching and all these lessons that Jesus
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taught. I calculated it.
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We were, as we were running the numbers somewhere between 14,000
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and 16,000 hours of intense mentorship.
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Malcolm Gladwell writes a book where he says that it takes
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roughly 10,000 hours to master any subject.
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They had 14 to 16,000 hours with Jesus.
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They didn't just study under him.
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They they had mastered the subject of Jesus.
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And Jesus says, hey, this thing that's coming, you're not ready,
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Wait, wait, don't move. Why?
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Because everything that he is about to ask them to do cannot
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be done by human means. No matter how much training
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they've had, knowledge is not enough.
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They're going to need something supernatural.
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What is about to happen is something that had never
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happened before. So if you're familiar the the
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first part of the Bible the the pre Jesus part of the Bible is
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called the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament the
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Spirit of God rested on specific people, usually prophets,
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priests or kings and it was temporary.
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It would rest on a person for a specific task for a specific
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time. And so when the task was done,
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the Spirit could leave. There's a man named King Saul in
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the Old Testament, and he lost the Spirit of God.
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There's a man named King David in the Old Testament.
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He prays to God. Don't take your spirit from me.
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Because it was selective and it was temporary.
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What Jesus is about to give the disciples and us had never
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existed before the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling and
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living with every single believer, not resting on a few
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living inside of us all. So Jesus says, wait, they're on
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the edge of something that would have been unimaginable to any of
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the Old Testament Saints. Now you would think after
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hearing what he just said, there would be some profound
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questions, something like really impactful.
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Let's read verse 6. So when they had come together,
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they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom
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to Israel? He said to them, it is not for
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you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his
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own authority three years with Jesus.
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They've witnessed the resurrection.
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Jesus is physically standing in front of them, risen from the
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dead. And their first question is, is
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Israel going to be in charge? They want to know about the
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Romans. Are you going to conquer the
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Romans? National politics?
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How would you imagine for a second that tomorrow night?
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So Monday night, Jesus shows up at your house and you can ask
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him anything you want and you're like, who's going to win the
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next election? What?
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What of all the questions, bro? Now notice Jesus doesn't even
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answer the question. He redirects it entirely.
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And I just want to say something for maybe a couple of you.
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This This is a word for when you've been asking the wrong
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question. Often times you don't get an
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answer, you get a redirect. And so maybe in this season of
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your life, you've been frustrated by what you feel like
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is God's silence. And I just want you to sit in
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this for a moment. You, you might be asking the
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wrong question. You see, the wrong question is
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always some version of when are you going to fix my situation on
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my terms? As if, as if Jesus is some kind
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of genie in a lamp and you have wishes left.
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The right question is what are you already doing Lord and how
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do I get in on it? And so look again at what Jesus
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says verse 7. He says It is not for you to
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know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own
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authority. But you will receive power when
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the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
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witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the
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ends of the earth. He gives them, He promises them
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power. You will receive power when the
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Holy Spirit comes, and He promises them purpose.
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You will be my witnesses, but He intentionally withholds some
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things and I don't want you to miss the fact that he withholds
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the plan and the particulars and most of the procedure of how
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this is going to work. Like you realize he is about to
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launch them on the greatest mission in human history and he
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gives them zero timeline. You may have realized that for
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the last 2000 years, people have not actually listened to that
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and have decided that they can come up with the time that Jesus
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is going to come back. It's going to be November 11th,
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1982. It is not for you to know the
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times or the season. It's not for you.
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And he doesn't give them the particulars.
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There's no step by step strategy.
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There's no details of what's coming next.
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You know what? There's not even a playbook.
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I don't. Some of you are planners.
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Got a couple planners in here. Oh, yeah, they get nothing.
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So do we need Sunday school or Bible study?
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Do we need Wednesday night prayer meeting or Sunday night
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prayer meeting? Do we need small groups or do we
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need, should we we meet in parks or should we meet in buildings?
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Should have a big church or small church.
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You don't get any of that and get any of that detail.
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Why does he withhold all the details?
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Why doesn't it give him any of the plan?
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This is this is about to be the greatest movement in all of
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human history. Objectively, if you track back
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what what will happen with Christianity, nothing in history
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will impact the world like the movement of Christianity.
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It is the biggest move sociologically and culturally
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that will ever happen in human history.
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And they get no plan, no tips, no organization.
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I was at a wedding yesterday and man, if you've ever any of you
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want to use a planner and like your spouse is not or vice
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versa. I was at a wedding and I kid you
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not, I open, I open the, the the the bulletin and the bride has
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organized all of the photographs of all of the people in the
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wedding by three minute increments.
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It's like 443-440-6440. I was like, this is a I like
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this person, this is a planner. Her husband texted me the day
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before want to be in the wedding.
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I'm like, really? Why would God hold back all the
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planning and all the details and all the how TOS?
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If you're familiar with the story of the Bible, kind of how
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it starts, there's a book called Genesis in the beginning and in
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and in chapter 3 of the very first book is the story of the
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Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. And in that story we get the
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story of the first rebellion against God.
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All everything's perfect until we rebel against God.
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We call that sin. And the first sin is the first
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man and woman sinning against God.
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And Eve takes a fruit she's not supposed to take, and she does
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it because she's tempted by this serpent.
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And here's the here's the promise.
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Here's the trick that he gives her to get her to do this.
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He says you can be like God. You can be like God.
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You see, at the at the root of our sinful nature, because we
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have all come from Adam and Eve, is a desire to be God, not to
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serve God as we were created to do, but to replace him, to be
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him, to not need him. And see what happens for me, and
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often times what happens for you is that when I get the plan and
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when I get the details and when I get the strategy, I begin to
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think that I don't need God. I got this, I can handle it, I
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don't need you. The desire to have all the
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details and have all the plan and to map it all out and to
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control it and to execute it all on our own is as old as the
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Garden of Eden. We haven't changed.
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If you give me the plan and give me the procedure and give me the
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details, then I won't need to depend on you, God, because I'll
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be in control this way. You turn to the Lord's Prayer
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and he says, what? Give us this day Our Daily
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Bread. You don't even get to know if
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you got tomorrow's bread because I want to be in control.
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And Jesus says it is not for you to know these things that should
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make you uncomfortable. Sure makes me uncomfortable.
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That's my flesh fighting against the Holy Spirit because I hate
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this. I hate this in every area of my
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life. But you're in school.
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You want to, you want to plan out the classes you're going to
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take every single semester and how long is it going to take and
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what internship are going to be at what was my first job going
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to be and how much is that going to pay and where I'm going to
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live when I'm going to come here?
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I want to plan it all out. I want to know what those
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details are. I want to I want to, I want to
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climb the the corporate ladder. I want a career path.
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I want it all laid out for me and Jesus says no, you don't
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need to have all the details of the things that I'm going to do
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in your life. Here's what you need.
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What you need is is a helper that you learn to follow.
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Oh, negative. No, do not like that at all.
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Zero out of five stars. Would not recommend unsubscribe.
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I don't like that I depend on other people.
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Oh no, depend on the Holy Spirit.
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You see in our church. If they're up to me, I would
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like whiteboard out the next 10 years.
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I would have every wall filled in the office and it would look
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like the conspiracy theory guy with the threads and the strings
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and I. And yet all of the greatest
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things that have happened in this church have not come
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because we came up with a plan. They happened because we got on
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our knees and we saw the face of God.
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And then when he prompted us, we obeyed.
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Wrest Mania, this big thing that we're talking about today, our
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big kids camp. Y'all really think we were
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sitting around one day and we thought to ourselves, you know
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what? What if the church worked
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themselves half to death, took vacation time from work, dressed
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up in horribly silly costumes and danced like no one was
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watching for Jesus? We did not know.
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That is not how that happened. We were praying and seeking the
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face of God, and then when he responded, we obeyed radically.
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You see, this is what we're actually supposed to do.
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Is the purpose of the Holy Spirit the recipe that Jesus is
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going to leave them with His Wait, seek and obey.
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Wait, seek and obey. Now we're not waiting for a
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feeling. We're not waiting for a vibe.
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We're waiting for a person. The Holy Spirit, the disciples,
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had been living with God in the flesh.
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That's Jesus and he's transitioning so they will be
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ready to live with God in the Spirit.
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That's the Holy Spirit, and that's us too.
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The recipe for us is to wait, to seek and to obey.
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What does it look like to wait? You all realize we're a culture
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that hates waiting, right? I mean, we've got drive through
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so you don't have to get out of your car to get food you didn't
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prepare. And if the line is too long, you
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drive past it. We are turning in patients into
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an art form. What does it look like to wait?
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It is active positioning. It is not passive sitting.
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It is getting ourselves, our minds and our hearts in a
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position to hear from the Lord. And so so Monday morning when
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you wake up, before you open your phone and you start doom
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scrolling, before you start the To Do List of all the things
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that are on your plan, we stop and we wait and we talk to the
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Lord. We read our word in the
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stillness of the moment. Been reading through Proverbs a
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lot lately in the daily reading plan.
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And it's weird because it's almost like a biography because
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it keeps talking about this guy named a fool.
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Man do I relate. But, but you're reading through
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it and, and, and, and, and this has maybe happened to you
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before. You're reading, you're reading
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through some verses and you're speaking to the Lord and all of
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a sudden someone comes to mind. It has nothing to do with even
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what you're reading. You're like, why did that person
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come to mind? And in that moment you go, man,
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I should start praying for that person.
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You've got to pray for them. And you go, I need to reach out
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to them just to check on them. And you text them or you call
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them. And then as you do, you realize
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that God's working in their life and there's an opportunity that
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you have maybe to, to, to respond to a need that they
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have. And, and that's God working
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through his word, through prayer, through time to lead
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you. And that comes while waiting.
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I'm, I'm, I'm struggling with some things that are going on in
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this church right now. I want to just run out and fix
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all of them right now. And God is just pressing on me.
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Wait, slow down, be present with me.
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Psalm 4610 Be still and know that I am God.
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Wait, but in the waiting seek Him.
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What does it look like to seek God?
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It is to pursue His presence, to pursue His face, not just His
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answers. We have to learn to stop asking
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God to bless our plan and start asking God to show us where He's
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already moving. Practically, you wake up and you
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ask God, Father, what are you doing today and where do you
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want me? And then pay attention, God,
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where are you at work? Father, what does it look like
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to do your will today? If you're, if you're brand new
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to this and you're like, man, I've never even heard of this
21:54
idea of seeking the Lord. I'd start here.
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Just talk to him even out loud. God, if you're real, show me
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where you're moving. What a great start.
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And when you realize where He's leading, obey.
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When you see it, you move. Even when it's costly,
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especially when it costs something.
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The moment that you begin to realize real conviction, we act
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on it before we talk ourselves out of it.
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Because I'm really good at talking myself out of it.
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I have a lot of excuses about why not to obey God.
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Don't do that. That could be taking a risk,
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making a phone call, having an awkward conversation, signing up
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somewhere to volunteer. This past week, I was sitting in
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a meeting for this secular business, non Christians just
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kind of sitting in the room and talking about some stuff.
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And they begin to talk about some employees that that had
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done some really evil stuff in their company and that they'd
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gotten rid of. And as they're talking about
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like, finally we got rid of these bad people.
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And I and I heard the Holy Spirit just go like, there
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aren't bad people, you're all bad people.
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And I was just like, well, well, I'm, I'm a bad person too, but
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but for the grace of God that they're no different than me.
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And just, you know, people that are Christians are looking at
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you like what? Those awkward moments where
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you're like, no, it's true. They're going to be moments
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where the Holy Spirit calls you to do something in a moment that
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is very awkward, that is going to require a risk that might
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even seem radical. And if you're paying attention,
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you will obey. And it was awesome.
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And it was also scary. See, The thing is that wait,
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seek, obey sounds really simple, but it's actually pretty hard
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because in order to be good at it, you have to practice it.
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And most of us, most of us have this tendency to, to, to lean
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away from that in one of two ways.
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I would, I would describe them like like ditches on the side of
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the path or the side of the road that we often find ourselves
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falling into and on and on one side is this ditch that is
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religious formalism. It's when I replace wait, seek
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and obey, I replace dependency on God with a checklist.
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Went to church today, check. Read my Bible, check.
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Give some money to God, check guess I'm good.
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It's when I'm managing God instead of following him.
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It's when I'm managing him. The Holy Spirit, though present
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in my life, I completely ignore. I've stopped noticing I built
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such a religious performance instead of a relationship that I
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I can't tell when he's moving. There's no formula, guys.
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It's a person, it's a relationship.
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God is at work all around you did like we always.
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I wish I wish I knew what God was doing.
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God is at work all the time. God is at work in your life.
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He's at work in your family, he's at work with your
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neighbors. He's at work in your workplace,
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he's at work in your gym and that the restaurant in the
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supermarket. God is at work.
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We're generally just too busy to notice, and we're missing it.
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We're too busy with religion to notice God at work.
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Think of the irony of that. The Holy Spirit doesn't start
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working when you walk in those doors and stop working when you
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get to the parking lot. You all know that, right?
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This is the building. The Holy Spirit lives in you.
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He's at work all week long through you.
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Or he's trying to be and so we have to start paying attention
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and then responding when we recognize it here.
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Hey, lean in real quick. I got something for you.
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I'm going to give you a money back guarantee.
25:53
You ready for this one? Come on, everybody likes a money
25:55
back guarantee. Money back guarantee.
25:59
If you will start really earnestly seeking God and then
26:06
just obeying when you realize He's moving, your Christian life
26:10
will go from boring to sizzling money back guarantee.
26:16
If that doesn't happen, I will give you every dollar back that
26:19
you paid to get saved. Pastor jokes If one ditch if one
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extreme is religious formalism, then the other ditch on the
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other side of the road is emotional decision making.
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This is when I can't tell the difference between something the
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Holy Spirit is doing and my own emotions.
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Anytime you feel something intensely, you call it God.
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And this is where we get dangerous.
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When we act out of hurt and call it conviction.
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We act out of fear, shame, excitement or even a wound and
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we call it God. Hebrews 4514 is the author is
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talking to a group that lacks spiritual maturity and he's
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explaining the concept to them and he says this he says solid
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food is for the mature for those who have their powers of
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discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good
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from evil. Now, the Greek word that is used
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in this verse for trained is the word gagumnasmanah.
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That's a tongue twister, but it means athletic training, like
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you're training a muscle. You build it by using it
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repeatedly over time. Spiritual maturity is not
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referring to how long you follow Jesus.
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It's referring to how well you've developed the ability to
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tell the difference between right and wrong, to tell the
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difference between what the Holy Spirit is doing and what your
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emotions or your wounds are doing.
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You know, most of the decisions that you're going to make in
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life are morally neutral decisions there.
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There's not going to be no Bible verse for a lot of the things
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that you do in life. You're going to have to have
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exercised your powers of this sermon, your recognition of
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where God is moving and leading in order to get those things
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right by design. And when you get saved, that
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muscle is completely undeveloped.
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You have no idea it's going to take work and both of the
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extremes on either side of the road, whether it's religious
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formalism or emotional decision making, miss the whole point.
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They don't even use a power of discernment.
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And you can actually have built this muscle up and then stopped
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using it for a while and it actually it gets weak again.
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It atrophies when you neglect it and either side neglects this
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training. Being religious does not use
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this muscle. Following emotions doesn't
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either. About about 4 1/2 years ago I
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just had an absolute emotional meltdown over some stuff and I
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was ready to quit. And I had a really good friend
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who called me and he said so Daniel, are you emotional right
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now? And I was like, yes, clearly.
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And he said, well, do we make good decisions when we're
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emotional? No, it's like, OK, let's not
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make any decisions then I'll call you in a week.
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I've been, I've been dealing with some of this even in this
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last season, in this year, I've, I've had some just significant
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relational wounds over the last couple months, like really deep
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ones. And I've been working with my
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accountability partner and with my mentor and, and with my wife,
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just talking through, trying to process through those things
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and, and, and I, and in the process, I realized, man, I'm in
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a really dangerous place right now, Not not because I'm broken,
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but because wounds speak loudly and they feel like conviction.
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They feel like righteous anger. And I've been walking with the
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Lord long enough to understand what that combination can
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produce when you're not careful. And so I started to see a
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therapist about 3 weeks ago, particularly one that
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specializes in pastoral counselling.
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And then at the end of the first session, the therapist said to
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me, hey, what's what's your goal with counselling?
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And I said, I want to have emotions.
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I don't want them to have me as a leader.
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I don't have the luxury of not dealing with my wounds because
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they will hurt someone, and so I need to work through those.
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I don't believe that time heals all wounds.
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I think working on those wounds actually heals them.
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You leave them, they just get infected.
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That is the work of building discernment.
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That is the work of Hebrews 514 in real life, working through
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those things that you can recognize where God is leading
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and then obey. And every one of us has to work
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on that. You see, there's a difference
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between a religious routine and being spirit led and there's a
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difference between being emotionally driven and being
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spirit led and the difference matters and learning to tell the
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difference is not optional. It is the marker of spiritual
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maturity. And if that's where you find
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yourself right now in, in the fog of a, of a wound or a hurt
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or an emotion, not sure what's the Holy Spirit and what's your
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own pain, Jesus doesn't actually ask you to sort it out all out
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on your own. He asks you to come to him.
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The disciples in this moment of the ascension, we're going to
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read it in a second. They're up on a hillside and
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they're going to, they're going to walk off that hillside.
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Not with a plan. They're going to walk off with a
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promise of power from the Holy Spirit and with a brand new
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purpose. Jesus doesn't hand him a
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whiteboard. He actually hands them himself
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in the form of the Holy Spirit who was about to come and live
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inside them permanently in a way that no human being in history
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had ever experienced before. And then he leaves.
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That's what the next verses say. Verse 9 says this.
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And when he had said these things and they were looking on,
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he was lifted up, and the cloud took him out of their sight.
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And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, 2 men
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stood by them in white robes. And he said and said, Men of
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Galilee, why do you stand looking at heaven?
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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the
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same way as you saw him go into heaven.
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What are the angels saying? They're like, Hey guys, what are
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you waiting for? It's time to go.
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You have what you need. Go work.
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So you don't need the plan, you need the power.
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So for any of you here or online, even listening to this
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and realizing in this moment you have just been grinding out
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religion, You've been grinding out a checklist, checking those
33:24
boxes, managing God, going through the motions.
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I want you to know that is not what God is offering you and for
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any of you the likewise that are on the other side of you, you're
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thinking about, you know what? I've been running on emotions,
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making decisions out of my wounds, confusing how you feel
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with what God is doing. He is offering you something far
33:46
more stable than feelings. What He's offering is a person,
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the Holy Spirit living in you, guiding you, empowering you to
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do things that frankly have no business working by human
33:59
standards. And so if you have been
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minimizing the Holy Spirit and trying to control your life and
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God, in fact, if you realize today that you are in one of
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these ditches, I want you to take a moment.
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I just want you to write that down on your insert because you
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can make a choice today to wait, seek and obey in a moment.
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As we respond to the sermon, I want you to tell someone about
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that commitment. Don't keep it a secret.
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For some of you in the room perhaps, or watching online, you
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don't have access to the Holy Spirit because you haven't met
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Jesus and surrendered to Him. And if that's you, today could
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be your day One. Jesus died on a cross to pay the
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penalty for our sin. Three days later, He walked out
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of the tomb. He is alive and He is offering
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you salvation, forgiveness of our sin, and eternal life with
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the Father. So here's the invitation that He
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extends. Repent and believe.
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Repent and believe. So I want to offer you that
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invitation that Christ offers you today.
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Will you all bow your heads for just a moment as we close?
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If you would like to surrender your life to Christ and follow
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Him as King, I just want you to repeat this prayer after me.
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Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner who can't save myself.
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I want you to save me, so I surrender everything to you and
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I receive your promise of forgiveness, of adoption into
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your family, of the Holy Spirit, and of eternal life.
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Be my Lord. Please Jesus, if you said that
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prayer for the very first time, would you be brave and raise
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your hand for me to see? Thank you.
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You put your hands down in Jesus name, Amen.
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Real quick as we close, if you just committed your life to
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Christ for the very first time. Welcome to the family in just a
36:46
moment as we respond to the sermon.
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There are tables in the back that say I raised my hand,
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there'll be people back there. We would love to talk to you.
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And so if you've made a decision today or recently to follow
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Christ and you haven't told anyone about that yet.
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I want you to go to the back. We have a gift for you.
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We would love to celebrate with you.
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Will you stand? We're going to sing a song.
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If today you made a decision to wait, seek and obey, or if today
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you would just like prayer for an area in your life, our prayer
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team is going to be up here. We love praying for you.
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You can come up here and receive prayer for any reason.
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You move as the Lord leads you. We love you, Church.