Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Jesus Can't Change My Life While I'm Busy Creating Him - August 3, 2025

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Jesus Can't Change My Life While I'm Busy Creating Him - August 3, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

0:00
Morning, how we doing? My name is Daniel.
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I'm one of the lead pastors here at Resurrection Church.
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I have a privilege today to introduce someone to you.
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So the first time someone preaches at our church, we take
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a moment to introduce them to you in case you don't know them
0:16
yet. And so I'm going to, in just a
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second, get to introduce and then pray over somebody who's
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going to preach here for the first time.
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Let me say this. We believe at this church that
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every single person who's called to this church, regardless of of
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what you think of yourself or your own talents or your own
0:35
spiritual gifts, has a calling in ministry for the Lord.
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It's the only reason that God saved you and left you here and
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didn't take you home. And so you may not know what
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that is right now. You may not feel like you know
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what that is, but we believe that God has a call on your life
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and that there is a place to serve in the context of this
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church and in this city. And, and maybe who, who knows
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what's after that as you are sensitive to the work of the
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Holy Spirit. And I'm telling you this one
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because man, it is my heart that you, you get engaged and
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beginning to use your gifts, your talents, your energy, your
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money and the, and the spiritual gifts that God gave you for the
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glory of God. And I'm, and I'm telling you
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that secondly, because 2 1/2 years ago, nobody in their right
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mind would have believed that Sean was going to preach today,
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nobody but God, because this is who our God is.
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This is at at the very center of the character of God is that he
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takes those of us that do not deserve it, they could not earn
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it, that are not qualified for it.
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And he does magnificent things through that.
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And so will you put your hands together and welcome my good
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friend Sean Stevens. We're going to pray.
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Will you lift your hands? If you if you would?
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And we're going to pray over Sean today for the guy.
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We thank you for Sean. I thank you for JCI.
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Thank you for their their children and their extended
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family and all the people you've impacted through the testimony
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of the Stevens and Father. God, I thank you for the
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redemptive work that you do in each of our lives.
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But particularly I thank you for the privilege of us getting to
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walk with and watch and witness your work in Sean's life.
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So we lift before you, Sean, as he brings your word today.
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God, will your spirit fall mightily in this place?
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Will you give us active ears to hear?
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And will you give us soft hearts to receive in Jesus name, Amen.
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Amen. Morning.
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I mean, I didn't think I was going to cry before I got up
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here. Hey, my name is Shawn Stevens.
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I'm a small group leader also on the teaching team here at res
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Man, it is a it is a pleasure to be up here Resurrection Church.
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This location has meant so much to me even before it was rez
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when it was Calvary Bible. I've got a lot of roots where
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the Lord has done a lot of good work in my life here.
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So it really is an honor to be up here with you.
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If you have your Bible, we're going to be in John chapter 10,
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verses 22 through 30, John 1022 through 30.
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We're going to continue in the God is Good series and we're
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going to be looking at Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
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So as you turn there, I'll give you a little backdrop on who I
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am. I've known the the Lord for
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about 13 years, 1213 years. I gave my life to Jesus in 2013.
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And what I believe about Jesus in this moment that he is he's
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good, He's for me, that I can be satisfied in him, that he has a
3:41
plan and a hope and a future for my life has not been something
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that I have always believed. It may surprise you, but I am an
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addict. Hi, my name is Sean and I'm an
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addict. I was, I was addicted to pain
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pills at 16 years old. I found heroin.
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I think 18 or 19, 22 years old I was breaking into homes to
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support my addiction. Full blown alcoholic at that
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time as well. I had been jumping from house to
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house, living with different friends in different
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communities, homeless in my car for a little bit, then back to
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my parents and back to from back to my parents in this cycle
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perpetuated itself for about a decade.
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And then I'm back at my parents house when I'm 26 years old and
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in 2013 living in a shed in their backyard.
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What a blessing. And wouldn't you know, there
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came a a knock at my parents front door and I don't know who
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answered it, whether it was my mom or my dad, but it was a Teen
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Challenge fundraiser. And I don't know if you know
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anything about Teen Challenge, but I see a couple of hands
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going Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge is a Christian
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ministry that that focuses on liberating people from addiction
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and having them to get to know Jesus.
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I knew exactly who they were. I was not a believer.
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I didn't know who Jesus was. I didn't know really anything
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about Christianity. But I went out there and talked
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to this guy and this moment in my life was foundational for me.
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Just to let you know about addicts is they're not easy to
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talk to. May sound surprising, but an
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addict really has to be in a place of utter brokenness to
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kind of accept wisdom in their life.
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But I went out there and I talked to this guy and his name
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was James, and he leaned into my life.
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He didn't look down at me or through me, but he just left me
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with a little bit of hope. I mean, I had track marks on my
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arms, I had alcohol on my breath.
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I had a cigarette in my hand. I was suicidal, I was depressed.
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I had given up on life. I had so much potential when I
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was younger, so much hope for my future, and all of it was gone.
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So I go out there thinking, man, I will do anything to change.
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I will do anything. And he just says, brother,
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there's a place that you can go, you can get sober, you can find
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God in your life. We had a little conversation and
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he left and he said, hey, Jesus loves you.
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I love you. I hope that I can see you out at
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Teen Challenge one day. So I go in and tell my parents
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like, hey, listen, I'm going to go to Shafter to get sober.
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I'm living in a shed in their backyard.
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They could have been like, dude, if you got to go to Milwaukee,
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go, just go. So that's what I did is I left a
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Teen Challenge and once again, no idea of who Jesus was.
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The only thing that I believed was true about Christians is
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that when you become a Christian, life gets really
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easy. Is that not true?
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Life gets real life. You got some money in the bank,
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you got a house, you got a car. All of your problems go away.
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And to my surprise, this didn't happen.
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I continue to struggle with worry, with doubt, with fear,
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with insecurity about my future. I mean all of these feelings of
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shame and guilt. I found myself in this place
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going God. Why aren't things different?
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The problem was that my expectation of who Jesus was
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wasn't the real Jesus that I had crafted for myself.
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A God that would change my circumstances but not change me.
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And that's the big idea, if you're taking notes today, is
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that Jesus cannot change my life while I'm busy creating him.
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John 10, verses 22 through 30. It says at the time the feast of
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dedication took place in Jerusalem, it was winter and
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Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.
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So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, How long will
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you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us
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plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
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you. And you do not believe the works
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that I do in my Father's name. They bear witness about me, but
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you do not believe, because you are not my sheep.
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My sheep hear my voice. I know them.
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They follow me. I give them eternal life.
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They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of
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my hand. The Father who has given them to
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me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them
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out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
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So here we find Jesus. He's in the colonnade of
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Solomon. So at the Feast of Dedication,
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in Hebrew, the word dedication literally means Hanukkah.
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So it is the celebration of Hanukkah for the Jewish people.
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And they're celebrating when the temple was rededicated 200 years
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earlier. So what they're doing is they're
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looking at God's covenantal faithfulness, that God is the
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Redeemer, that God is the Savior.
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But mainly what they're looking for is a Messiah to come is that
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at this time the Jewish people were not living in a Free State.
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It was controlled by the Roman government, heavy Roman
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taxation. There was military control,
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there was political presence. And the expectations of the
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Messiah at that time would be a military Messiah king that would
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come and liberate the Jewish people is that, hey, there are
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four foreign oppressors in our land.
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Jewish sovereignty is not here. We need to cleanse that.
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It was Rambo. They were looking for Rambo
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Jesus to roll in headband, Bowie knife, blood of the I don't know
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why, but I have this like vision that it's like a buff lamb.
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He's riding on and the lamb has a Bowie knife and a headband on
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and he's coming in to like crush the Romans.
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But that was their anticipation as they said, hey, we need
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someone to come in and free us from our situation.
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And earlier in John chapter 10, before we get to where we're at
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right now in 22, what we're seeing is Jesus was doing what
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Jesus does. He goes in and he starts to
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rebuke the religious elite, the Pharisees, the scribes.
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And he's saying you had one job to do, which is to tend to the
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flock of God, to the people of God, and to lead them into a
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relationship with the Father. But instead they were expecting
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Jesus to give them more. It was more authority, it was
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more power, it was more status. They took this holy and selfless
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calling that God had on their life, and they made it into a
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means of gathering wealth and power.
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Listen to what Jesus says in John 1013 and 14.
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He says he who is a hired hand, Speaking of the Pharisees and
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not a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming
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and leaves the sheep and flees. The wolf snatches them and
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scatters them. He flees because he has a hired
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hand and he cares nothing for the sheep.
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Once again embracing selfish, selfish ambition in their life
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and not caring for the flock of God.
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And then we pick up in John 10/24.
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This is what Jesus says that they are responding to Jesus.
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So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will
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you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us
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plainly, Jesus, we've seen you, you're you're going around,
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you're doing miracles. Everyone's talking about that.
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You might be the Messiah. I heard that you're doing some
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cool things, but are you the guy that we're looking for?
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This is The thing is that's not a question at all.
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That word gathered here that we see that they gathered around
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him. It's not the gathering that
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we're going to do. Some of you are going to be
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gathering at the sugar mill after this.
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It's not the way that the youth gather for pizza before they go
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into the youth youth youth service.
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The word gathered here literally means to him and to surround, to
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enclose. So this isn't a friendly
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gathering. They are circling in on Jesus.
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In this moment they felt threatened, they felt like their
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expectations of the Messiah were not being met.
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They were looking for what Jesus could offer them.
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They had invented a Jesus that had come to give them more and
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they were not seeing the true reason why he was there.
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And this is the thing, we do the same, same thing all the time.
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We fall into the same exact or is it just me?
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Am I the only one? I got these lights in my eyes
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right now, but we fall into the same position that Jesus I will
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believe that you are the Messiah if you finally restore my health
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or Jesus all believe that you are the Messiah.
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If this promotion that I have been waiting for forever.
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I can barely ends make ends meet.
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If you meet this need then you will be the Messiah or something
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I've struggled with for a long time.
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Jesus all believe that you're the Messiah.
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If I don't have to give up control in my life, can I just
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hold on to this one thing? I'll call you Lord.
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I'll go to church, I'll check the boxes.
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But submission, that's hard to do.
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We fall into the same position. I found myself in Teen Challenge
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in 2013 and things were getting better.
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I mean, it was looking good for me.
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I mean, I had clear eyes for the first time.
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Track marks are gone. I had sobriety for three or four
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months. That's the That's the first time
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in a decade that I could pass a drug test.
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It was exciting. But with all of that came these
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emotions. 10 full years of suppressed emotions.
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The shame, the guilt, the overwhelming feeling of
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uncertainty about my future. And now the frustration was I'm
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26 years old and I'm living in a community room with a bunch of
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strangers. These two guys haven't showered
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in four days. I can smell their feet right
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now. I still, it's like a trauma
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response. I can still smell their feet.
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I'm like, oh God, I find myself in this position where I'm like,
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Jesus, I'm a believer now I'm three months sober.
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Why aren't my parents telling me to to come back?
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Why can't I find the the perfect job?
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I'm 26. Don't you want me to be able to
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provide for myself to have these good things, all of this guilt?
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Aren't you supposed to get rid of all of this stuff?
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I wanted to know what Jesus could do for me.
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And if I truly understood what Jesus desired to do in my life
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today, I would be 12 years sober.
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But I'm not today. I'm two years sober because I
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wasn't. Praise God.
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But the issue is that I wasn't addressing.
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The real need is that my situation didn't need to change.
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I needed to change that. We need to allow the Lord to
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change us. But I can't have Jesus change my
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life while I'm busy creating him.
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But here's the wonderful news. Jesus knows us, family.
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He knows you. You know how you feel like you
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know your wife. Sometimes you're like, I know
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it, like Jesus knows her more. Jesus knows your kids, Jesus
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knows where you're at. Jesus knows that we're selfish
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little creatures that have misguided prayers and an agenda
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when we come to him. But as a father with his
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children, he still, I mean, I've got a, a four year old daughter,
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junior, 4-4 years old, and she the last couple of days just
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been walking around the house talking about popsicles and it's
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like really ambiguous too. Like there's no kind of like
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point. She just like no popsicle, no
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popsicle. So finally I go, what's up with
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the popsicle? Listen to how this girl
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responds. She says that's a great idea.
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That's a great, that's a dad, dad, that's a great idea.
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We should definitely go get a popsicle.
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I'm like bro, a PhD in gaslighting this girl.
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Like get into politics immediately, you're going to
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kill it. But as her father, I love her
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through it. I know she comes with an agenda.
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I know she wants to to get her way at any cost.
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And I still have a plan for her life.
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And Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the good news is that he still
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desires to tend to your actual needs.
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So what are the needs that Jesus intends to meet in our lives?
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One, Jesus offers us security. About six months ago, I got
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offered AI got offered a position with a company that I
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was working for to move to Texas.
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I mean, it was like a, it was a cool offer.
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I mean, I have been poor most of my life and in and out of
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addiction and I'm, I'm doing really well in this job.
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And this company says, hey, Sean, this is what we want to do
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for you. We want to move you and your
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family out. We're going to pay for plane
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tickets. We're going to literally get a
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truck for you and, and move all your stuff, drive it over to to
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Texas. And by the way, here is your
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sign on bonus and that number. I've been poor my whole life
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that it could have been $1,000,000 on the page.
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It was life changing money, absolutely life changing.
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So me, I start to scheme. I'm like, clearly this is from
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the Lord. Obviously you see how many zeros
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are behind that number. Wow.
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And I got some friends over there too.
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And they, they love Jesus a little bit.
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And there's this one big church there.
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And definitely it has to be from God.
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I've made so many impulsive decisions in my life.
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I knew better to do that. So what did I do is I, I took it
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to my men's group. We meet every Friday morning
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totally willingly, by the way, No reluctantly, I did not want
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to do it, but I brought it to them and I bring it to them and
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I'm, and I'm trying to explain how it's a good thing.
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And I think like this is from the Lord and, and in their
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wisdom, they love Jesus so much. They're so wise.
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They love me so well. They go, hey, let's, let's put a
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pin in this and let's wait a week.
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Let's pray about it. So a week later we go back and
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I'm sitting in the room and I'm like, this is it.
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I'm moving to Texas. I'm ready.
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I'm going to have money. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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Resounding no in the room. I received it and it was great.
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Hooray. I left the room clapping and
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jumping in joy. Now I was frustrated, beyond
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frustrated. I had worked so hard in my life.
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I was 18 months sober. I'm a good husband, I am a good
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father. I'm serving my community.
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I am doing everything that I am supposed to do.
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Can I get any kind of semblance of financial freedom in my life?
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God, everything is how it is supposed to be and I feel like I
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am not getting blessed. Have you been there, Lord?
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Can I be able to pay for my kids to go to Res Mania without a
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scholarship from the church? Have you been there where
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everything is going right in your life and Jesus doesn't move
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to where you begin to think God owes you something or God is
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wrong in the situation? You know, that morning when we
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made that decision, one of the guys asked me a question.
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He said, Sean, what would you say to a guy who's 18 months
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sober, who the Lord is? The the Lord is freshly
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restoring his marriage, that God is blessing their family in ways
20:07
that are incomprehendible and they were going to uproot
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everything and move to Texas. What would you say to that
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person? Well, well, Daniel, Dave, I'm
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outing my men's group. They're like, don't do it.
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That's silly. I'd say that's an unwise
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decision. Fast forward now, the company
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that I would have went to Texas and worked for is not doing
20:38
well. The industry has completely
20:41
changed and I'm realizing that what I demanded of God then was
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a blessing and what I see now He gave me was protection.
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God knows what's best for us family.
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He knows where you're at, where you got to look at the Chase app
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every day and go, well, Nope, still not in there, dear Lord.
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Or that the car issues that just never stop.
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You're saving up money back in the shop, back in the shop.
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God knows where we're at. He knows what we need.
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Security is a good thing to desire.
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It is good to be wise. It's good to work hard.
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It's good. It's good to desire nice things.
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But things can change in a moment.
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Your health 1 diagnosis and the security of that health is gone.
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The job that you've worked at for 30 years and all of a sudden
21:37
you're laid off. It can happen in an instant.
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Everything can change. What cannot change is the
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security that we find in Jesus the Good Shepherd is that he
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promises to be with us no matter what is happening in our life.
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Listen to what it says in John 1027.
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It says my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
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We follow Jesus. We're walking with Jesus.
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He promises to be with us. Psalm 23 Four.
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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
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and adversity and confusion and weariness and depression,
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feeling isolated, I will fear no evil.
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For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they
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comfort me. The Good Shepherd promises that
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he will be with us and He will comfort us no matter what we are
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going through in our life. Jesus offers US security number
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2. Jesus offers us satisfaction.
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Needless to say, satisfaction has been a constant battle in my
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life. Remaining satisfied, like I
23:01
said, I am. I'm actually two years, two
23:03
months, and two days sober today.
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Praise God. Yep.
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Listen, family, it ain't me. By the grace of God, I stand
23:13
here today. But two years, three months ago,
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2 1/2 years ago, as Daniel was saying, the bottom fell out of
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everything where I was at. 2 1/2 years ago I was was a heroin
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addict, then 2 two years three months ago fully addicted to
23:30
meth, only drinking vodka all day long, little bit of water.
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When I felt my body shutting down I quit a career job paying
23:36
me $80,000 a year. I had a 2 year old daughter.
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We were about to get evicted from our apartment.
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My wife is 7 months pregnant. She's divorcing me and there are
23:46
two plane tickets to move to South Carolina with her father
23:48
in her e-mail. That's my situation by the grace
23:53
of God. Mariana Morgan realizes, man, I
23:56
haven't seen JC in a while. I'm going to give her a call,
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Calls JC. JC explains the situation that's
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going on. And then I get the call that
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everybody wants to get. Your head pastor is calling you
24:07
as I'm homeless in my car. Daniel just says, hey, we need
24:12
to meet up. Let's meet at the church office.
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We need to talk about some things.
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I sat there with the elders, some other people who had
24:18
battled addiction and and found recovery and sobriety, and I'm
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talking with them and it's that moment that I had to ask myself,
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what satisfies you? You tried to find the
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satisfaction 10 years ago doing the same exact thing.
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Is it more alcohol? I know some of you in this room
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struggle with alcohol, and I just want to let you know that
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Jesus has so much more for your life.
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This isn't in the sermon, by the way.
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I just feel God loves you so much.
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God had to speak to me in that moment.
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Sean, is it more alcohol? Is it more drugs?
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Is it more porn? Is it more immorality?
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Is it more debauchery? What?
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What do you need? There's a verse in Psalm 23 that
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says he makes me lie down in green pastures.
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Sounds amazing. So I get to lay down in green
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pastures. It ain't an invitation.
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Jesus didn't ask me. Hey, Sean, if you're willing,
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maybe would you consider there's a a nice shade tree and there's
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this fluffy grass under there and I think you need to take a
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break. Can you please go lay down?
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The Lord made me lie down. I was running off a Cliff.
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And he said, all right, time to take a break.
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And that's what the Good Shepherd does in our life, is
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that he wants to ask us where we find our satisfaction.
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I get that most of you guys ain't hanging out with homeless
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people behind Walmart, but the Lord is asking you in this
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moment, where does your treasure lie?
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Where does your treasure lie today?
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Is it in possessions? Is it the cars?
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Is it the toys? Is it the big house?
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Is it the vacation? Is that where you are trying to
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find your fulfillment? Is it in your position?
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I think of a lot of youth. They go, man, I'm only in junior
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high, I'm only in high school. I can serve the Lord later.
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Or what about time? There is a lot of seasoned
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Saints in this room, a lot of people that are in the latter
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stages of their life. You've worked hard, you've
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sacrificed a lot, and you may be holding time as your treasure
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that you want to control it. This is mine now.
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I don't want to give this up. The problem always lies in that
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when we put our treasure in created things, they are going
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to continue to let us down over and over and over, even if
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things are going well. Have you been in a position like
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that where like all is good, yet you just still not content?
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You're like, why? I mean, look at my 2025 Denali
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HDAT 4 Super X, whatever triple Z truck that you have.
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Why am I not finding satisfaction?
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We go to Lake Tahoe every every July in our family.
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And it is it's a fun trip. It's it's super relaxing.
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It's great. We love to do it.
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And I know that we get ready for this trip.
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It's it's June, it's starting to get hot in Bakersfield.
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We're like, hey, we're leaving in six weeks and then it's two
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weeks and then it's like, hey, it's right around the corner.
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It's tomorrow. We're leaving and we pack the
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kids up and you know all of their snacks and we get their
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drinks and then our snacks and our drinks.
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Then we take the kids pee 20 times before we leave, yet they
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still have to pee 10 minutes after we leave.
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And then you're leaving Bakersfield and you're looking
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at the weather app. You're like, it's 157° in
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Bakersfield right now and you're going up the five.
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You get to Tahoe, 72°. It's, it's so beautiful.
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Unpack the stuff in the hotel, you just, you're, you're just
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chilling. You get the kids to the beach,
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the sunscreen, the umbrella, you get your drinks and then you sit
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there and after about two minutes you go.
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It's nice. I mean, it's it's good, but it
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doesn't completely fulfill when we try to look to these things
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for fulfilment, the eternal weight of our fulfilment and we
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try to have created things fill that it's going to let us down
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over and over and over. So what do we do?
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Do we continue to look to these moments, to these things, or
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could there be something more to satisfy our soul?
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Look at Matthew 621. It says for where your treasure
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is, there your heart will also be.
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Jesus always comes for the heart.
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Jesus wants our heart. He wants us.
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He wants us to to be made into the person that he has created.
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And he ultimately wants to offer us satisfaction and #3 Jesus
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offers us salvation down to John 1028.
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It says I give them eternal life.
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They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of
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my hand. The Father has given them to me
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is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch
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them out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one the
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ultimate gift of God in our lives.
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The ultimate need of humanity is not merely the ability to feel
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secure or satisfied. It is God himself is that Jesus
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wants to have a relationship with you.
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That is the ultimate need that we have.
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And that is the claim that Jesus is making in John chapter 10.
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It's the claim he's making in this room to your hearts right
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now is yes, I'm Messiah, yes, you can trust me, yes, I'm
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Saviour and yes, I am God. And I want to shepherd your
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soul. And that's what we need to ask
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ourselves today is that do we want to allow Jesus to shepherd
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our soul? Because there's other people in
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John chapter 10 who had witnessed the miracles of God,
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the withered hands healed, the demons exercised, the leprosy
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gone in an instant, the 5000 people fed.
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Yet some of them were still saying Jesus, But what about my
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Kingdom? But what about me?
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What about my pleasures, my preferences, my desires?
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If you don't meet those, then you are not Messiah.
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Jesus would ask, what other proof do you need in your life?
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Is it the historical evidence that Christianity is real, that
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the resurrection happened, that there's countless miracles that
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were performed? Is it that lives have been
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radically changed? Is it that all of the apostles
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died a brutal death and had nothing to gain from it?
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Jesus asks us today, what other proof do you need?
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So how will we respond? Will we respond like religious
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leaders saying, Jesus, how long are you going to keep us in
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suspense? Or will we respond like sheep
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who merely hear and follow and that Jesus is offering us
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security and satisfaction. So how do we experience these
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things? Security and satisfaction,
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Little application points #1 allow the Lord to minister to
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you. Allow him to minister to you.
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I use Jesus as a bungee cord in my life family.
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I'm I'm two, 2 1/2 years sober ish.
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Sometimes I still see a Cliff in my mind and I'm like time to run
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off that Cliff. And sometimes I do.
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And as I'm falling in these intrusive thoughts and
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everything is hopeless and why even try as I'm falling, I look
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back up and I go Jesus, I'm secure in Jesus.
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I'm satisfied in Jesus. My identity is founded in Jesus
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and then I bungee back up and I land next to Jesus and he's like
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you going to keep doing this over and over and over again.
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Why are we doing this over the last month?
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We live at the Manor where my Manor people at right now and we
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go my wife and I live at the Manor, the church apart
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apartments right over here. And over the last month, we've
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had some very unfortunate circumstances that have happened
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to our car. So about 3-4 weeks ago, we had
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two tires slashed on one car and we had one tire slashed on
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another car. And then on Thursday, I wake up
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and my driver side window is busted out of the car.
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And we're trying to save up money, we're trying to be
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responsible. And these things continue to
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happen. I'm like, Lord, can we get a
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break? So I'm driving to Chase to pull
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money out to pay for this window and I sit in the car and my eyes
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are just filled with tears and I'm furious and I'm so confused
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and I just don't understand. So I stop and I just allow the
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Lord to minister to my heart in that moment.
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And it may look different for each one of us.
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I know mine is prayer and a lot of times it's angry prayer.
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Family, can I tell you that God is big enough for you to get
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angry with them? Get angry.
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It's OK. My daughter yells at me every
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day. Seriously, she's something else.
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That girl, the popsicles, like what?
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But I love her and I want her to bring those prayers to me.
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I want her to talk to me. Our Father wants us to talk to
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him. Is it prayer on how the Lord
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ministers to you? Is it worship?
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Is it just blaring A Hillsong song and just, I mean letting
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the Lord minister? Is it calling that friend who is
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the superhero of affirmation in your life?
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We all need that person. They just show up and they're
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like, you're blessed, you're doing great.
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You actually keep up the good work.
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Who do you have in your life that can speak that security
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over you? They can look at you and say,
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hey, you're a child of God. Guess what?
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A window might get busted out next week.
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You're a child of God. Everything might fall apart.
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You're a child of God. You might be taking the GET bus
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coming up soon. You're a child of God.
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You are secure in him. Allow the Lord to minister to
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you #2 recount the blessings. I have to recount the blessings
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every day. Lord, speak these truths over my
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life on how you've showed up in miraculous ways.
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Recount the blessings, America, the land of prosperity, the land
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of wealth, and we're not satisfied.
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I have to let the Lord speak satisfaction into my heart.
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And I would ask you today is that if nothing were to change
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in your life, if everything stayed the same, the hardship
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that you're in right now, if it all just stayed, would you still
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be satisfied in Jesus? And if no, ask the Lord to find
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your satisfaction in Him, and He will give it to you.
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But I have to repeat these things all day.
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I have acted like a child most of my life, yet the Lord has
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blessed me with children that I get to steward these beautiful
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little babies. I can't even look at my wife
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right now. I have a beautiful wife.
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She should be in South Carolina. I should be homeless, but God
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being rich in mercy with the love that He has for us, He sent
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his Son to die on a cross that I find satisfaction in Him.
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Recount the blessings in your life and salvation.
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There's only one step practical application to salvation and
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it's this. Jesus loves you so much and you
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know how I know is because if unlovable was a category to
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Jesus. I've checked all the boxes and I
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am so loved by him today and so are you.
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He wants to be in a relationship with you.
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He lived a perfect life for you. He died a brutal death for you.
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He rose on the third day so we can embrace forgiveness and
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redemption. He loves us and I want to give
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you that opportunity today. I know that there are people in
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this room that you have maybe never been in a church before
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and this concept and idea of Jesus doesn't even make sense.
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It didn't for me 12 years ago. But I know that the Good
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Shepherd of all of heaven and all of earth has his eyes locked
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on you in this moment. And he is saying, son or
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daughter, let today be the day. Let today be the day where you
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embrace me. He wants to love you.
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So if you would, we're going to bow our heads.
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This is what the Bible would tell us.
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The Bible would tell us that God designed us to live in a
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relationship with Him, but our sin has broken that connection
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and that through Jesus life, death and resurrection that we
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can have new life when we believe in Him.
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If you feel that pressing on your heart in this moment, that
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invitation, we want to give you the opportunity to accept Jesus.
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So if you would just repeat after me, Father, I know that I
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was created to be in a relationship with you.
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I know I cannot do this on my own.
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Today I look to your son Jesus, his perfect life, his death and
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his resurrection for the forgiveness of my sins.
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Today, God, I embrace new life with Jesus.
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I thank you for giving me the faith to believe in Jesus name,
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Amen. And with every head bowed, every
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eye closed, still, if you prayed that prayer for the first time,
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can you be courageous in Jesus and raise your hand for me?
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Thank you Lord, thank you. In Jesus name, Amen.
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If you prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the
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family of God. Family, would you please stand
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with me? We're going to enter into a time
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of worship and prayer. Our prayer team is actually
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going to be coming up right now. We want to pray for you.
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We want you to encounter the love of Jesus in your life.
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We know that we bring burdens, we bring hardships, we bring
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troubles into church every single day, and God wants to
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speak to those troubles. So if you feel called, please
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come up for prayer. You move as the Lord leads.