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Speaker 1: Life Audio Hey everyone, welcome back to How to Study

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Speaker 1: the Bible. I am your host, Nicole Younis, and I'm

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Speaker 1: really excited for the series that we're in together. As

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Speaker 1: we're looking at what it means to discern God's will,

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Speaker 1: how does God call us to wayfind into the good life? Because, friends,

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Speaker 1: He has promised us a good life. That life might

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Speaker 1: not look like the immediate desires that we have, but

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Speaker 1: he does promise that we can have a life of

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Speaker 1: peace and purpose and of love where we get to

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Speaker 1: serve him with our whole heart, mind, and soul and strength.

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Speaker 1: And we are together wrestling through how we figure that out.

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Speaker 1: So if you're just joining us, we are in week

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Speaker 1: two of this series. This is a four-week series, and

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Speaker 1: it has a guide that accompanies it. you can go

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Speaker 1: grab that guide at NicoleYunus.com slash decisions. Just a little

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Speaker 1: easy reflection for the week between episodes so that this

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Speaker 1: is something that stays in your mind when you're walking

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Speaker 1: or hiking, when you're doing your chores, whatever that may be,

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Speaker 1: where you have a moment to turn your mind to

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Speaker 1: the Lord. I know that for me, if I'm not focusing,

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Speaker 1: I'm turning my mind to my worries and to my to-dos.

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Speaker 1: This is an opportunity to turn our minds to God

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Speaker 1: and ask, Lord, How might I know how I can

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Speaker 1: serve you wholeheartedly? So we're going to be doing that together.

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Speaker 1: And as you know, if you've been listening, this is

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Speaker 1: also our final series on the podcast. I have been

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Speaker 1: in a discernment process and am moving into full-time local ministry,

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Speaker 1: which is where God first captured my heart for him many,

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Speaker 1: many years ago. And it's been a long season of

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Speaker 1: lots of other kinds of work that I've been doing.

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Speaker 1: while really having this longing in my heart to be

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Speaker 1: back in full-time ministry. And God has fulfilled that longing.

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Speaker 1: And I'm going to start some work here as a

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Speaker 1: church planting pastor here in Richmond, Virginia. So planting a

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Speaker 1: church in the next couple of years. So if you

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Speaker 1: have reached out and asked where will we be able

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Speaker 1: to find you after this, there's many places that we

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Speaker 1: can stay in touch, even though this podcast is going

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Speaker 1: to come to a close. You can find me on

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Speaker 1: my Substack. You can find me on Instagram. We'd love

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Speaker 1: for you to jump in if you grab that guide.

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Speaker 1: I'll send you some notes after this series about ways

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Speaker 1: to stay in touch, and then I'll be preaching every

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Speaker 1: week once we are in a church. So I'm looking

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Speaker 1: forward to that. So we can stay in touch. Don't worry,

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Speaker 1: my friends. Okay, let's get into today. We talked last

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Speaker 1: week about this idea of kingdom living and really engaging with,

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Speaker 1: wait a second, what is the good life about in

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Speaker 1: the first place? And we talked about two big things.

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Speaker 1: One was this idea of holy desire. I think a

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Speaker 1: lot of us have considered desires and longings only bad,

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Speaker 1: only sin, when in reality, as we have been created

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Speaker 1: in the image of God, oftentimes underneath what might be

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Speaker 1: our own quick fix ideas, there is a holy desire

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Speaker 1: for longing, for peace, for purpose, all the things that

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Speaker 1: God has given us. And we talked about those holy

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Speaker 1: desires and then really understanding what is the good life?

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Speaker 1: What have we been promised in the kingdom of God?

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Speaker 1: So with all that in mind, we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: this week about the terrain of our lives, the hills

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Speaker 1: and valleys of life and what they teach us about

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Speaker 1: what our future might look like. So this last couple

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Speaker 1: weeks before I came back to this podcast, I was

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Speaker 1: out in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, took time

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Speaker 1: for a pilgrimage before entering into this new season. So

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Speaker 1: I was out hiking for three days alone and had

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Speaker 1: a lot of time to think about terrain and think

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Speaker 1: about how we learn to about ourselves and about God

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Speaker 1: in the mountains and valleys as we move through the journey.

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Speaker 1: So I want you to imagine, and you can go

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Speaker 1: over to my Instagram or Substack if you want to

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Speaker 1: see a picture, imagine what it would be like to

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Speaker 1: be on this hike, on this trail, very long, you know,

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Speaker 1: goes on and on. The terrain shifts all throughout. Some

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Speaker 1: places are very difficult. Some places are very easy. And

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Speaker 1: then a lot of places are just sort of flat.

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Speaker 1: You're just kind of going. In some ways, you might

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Speaker 1: think this is kind of boring. This is what the

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Speaker 1: journey is like. But all of that time and that

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Speaker 1: walking and that reflecting allows the mind to clear and

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Speaker 1: allows us to see things differently. So in the midst

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Speaker 1: of that, I wanted to give us some ideas as

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Speaker 1: we move toward this concept. Many of you might be

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Speaker 1: thinking that you have a decision in front of you

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Speaker 1: right now that you are not sure about, or perhaps

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Speaker 1: you don't have a decision in front of you, but

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Speaker 1: you feel like you've been wandering. And life feels a

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Speaker 1: little aimless. And this will give you a way to

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Speaker 1: think about those things. So I want to give us

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Speaker 1: a few things to look over the terrain of our lives. Okay,

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Speaker 1: the first one that I want to bring to us

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Speaker 1: to in Scripture is the idea that we should expect

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Speaker 1: mountains and valleys. And again, this may not seem profound.

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Speaker 1: This might seem like a very simple thought. But in reality,

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Speaker 1: understanding what it means to live in the reality of

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Speaker 1: our life, that we will have mountains, we will have valleys,

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Speaker 1: and that seasons will change. If we are in a

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Speaker 1: very difficult season, it will change. If we are in

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Speaker 1: a wonderful summer season of life, that also will change.

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Speaker 1: Expecting the mountains and valleys of life is very clearly

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Speaker 1: what God wants us to understand in about life if

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Speaker 1: we read through the Psalms. One of my favorite Psalms

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Speaker 1: of the mountains of life is in Psalm 126, and

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Speaker 1: it talks about this idea of mountains and restoration. So

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Speaker 1: the mountain becomes a metaphor for restoration in life and

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Speaker 1: in joy. And it says this, I love that phrase,

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Speaker 1: we were like those who dreamed. So often, friends, when

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Speaker 1: we've been in a valley season or we've been wandering,

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Speaker 1: we may think that God has forgotten us or we

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Speaker 1: feel disappointed by life. It can become difficult to dream.

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Speaker 1: It becomes difficult to use our holy imagination to imagine

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Speaker 1: good things, to imagine ways that God wants to move

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Speaker 1: in life and move in our lives. And when I

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Speaker 1: read this psalm, I think about that idea that We

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Speaker 1: can be caught off guard with disbelief about the good

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Speaker 1: things that God has put in our life. We can

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Speaker 1: find ourselves being like, wow, I couldn't even, I could

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Speaker 1: hardly imagine that this could happen. Psalm 126 goes on

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Speaker 1: and says, Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues

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Speaker 1: with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations,

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Speaker 1: The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord

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Speaker 1: has done great things for us, and we are filled

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Speaker 1: with joy. Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev.

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Speaker 1: Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.

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Speaker 1: Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will

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Speaker 1: return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. This

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Speaker 1: is a psalm of restoration. This is a psalm that

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Speaker 1: speaks about times that are difficult and then times of

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Speaker 1: abundance and how God can even surprise us with more

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Speaker 1: abundance than we can imagine. Now, this is the promise

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Speaker 1: for all of us as we fully realize the kingdom

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Speaker 1: of God in heaven. but is also the reality of life,

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Speaker 1: that there are seasons of abundance and there are times

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Speaker 1: of restoration and joy in our life. We can expect

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Speaker 1: that there will be mountains. And also, we can expect

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Speaker 1: that there will be valleys. And valleys are actually the

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Speaker 1: largest category in the Psalms. There's anywhere between, you know,

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Speaker 1: about 60 Psalms that are individually or communally expressing lament

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Speaker 1: and distress. One of the most well-known ones, one of

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Speaker 1: the ones that I think is so piercing in how

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Speaker 1: much it resonates when you're in one of those difficult

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Speaker 1: seasons is from Psalm 13. And this Psalm starts with this,

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Speaker 1: How long, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long

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Speaker 1: will you hide your face from me? How long must

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Speaker 1: I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have

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Speaker 1: sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph

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Speaker 1: over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

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Speaker 1: Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.

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Speaker 1: And my enemy will say, I have overcome him, and

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Speaker 1: my foes will rejoice when I fall. But, but, but, but,

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Speaker 1: I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in

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Speaker 1: your salvation. I will sing the Lord's praise, for he

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Speaker 1: has been good to me. And we see in Psalm

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Speaker 1: 13 this powerful thing that is remembrance. It's remembering where

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Speaker 1: we've been. Remembering that we have had Psalm 126 seasons

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Speaker 1: as well as Psalm 13 seasons. And it's funny, friends,

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Speaker 1: to read those Psalms so close together because they're so

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Speaker 1: dramatically different. They so deeply represent the dramatic mountains and

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Speaker 1: valleys that life brings us. And I think more than anything,

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Speaker 1: I want us to maybe allow our hearts to be

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Speaker 1: open to allowing both sides of those experiences in our lives.

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Speaker 1: You know, sometimes we may be people who only want

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Speaker 1: to talk about the mountains and we only want to

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Speaker 1: think about the mountains and we just try to grit

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Speaker 1: our way through the valleys and pretend that they're not

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Speaker 1: real and we don't live in the reality of those valleys.

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Speaker 1: Or we may be valley people who are very comfortable

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Speaker 1: in the hard times, but we aren't like those who dream.

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Speaker 1: We don't dream about times of joy or abundance or

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Speaker 1: of having the imagination to continue to be patient and

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Speaker 1: wait joyfully on the Lord for what He wants to do.

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Speaker 1: And this is an invitation, whenever we're in a season

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Speaker 1: of discernment, this is an invitation to allow both parts

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Speaker 1: of those things to be true, to allow life to

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Speaker 1: be better than we could even imagine and more difficult

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Speaker 1: than we would ever desire, allowing those things to both

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Speaker 1: be true and is part of living in reality with life.

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Speaker 1: The second thing that I think all of this terrain,

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Speaker 1: all of this waiting or being in a place where

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Speaker 1: we're not sure about our decision, this can allow us

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Speaker 1: to clarify our destination. I think it is very easy

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Speaker 1: to wander in our lives of faith and wander in

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Speaker 1: our lives of just living without purpose. And oftentimes when

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Speaker 1: we're asking a decision or trying to make a decision,

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Speaker 1: It is clarification around where are we trying to go.

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Speaker 1: Discernment is not necessarily about right and wrong. When we

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Speaker 1: talk about discernment, we're not talking about right and wrong.

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Speaker 1: If we know something is wrong, if we know something

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Speaker 1: is evil, we are meant to turn away from that.

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Speaker 1: We don't need to figure out if it's the right

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Speaker 1: thing or the wrong thing. If you're feeling tempted to

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Speaker 1: steal something from a store, you just don't do it.

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Speaker 1: You just know that that's wrong. That's not discernment. Discernment

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Speaker 1: is actually about choosing between good things, the goods of life.

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Speaker 1: It's about choosing or discovering between good things. We have

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Speaker 1: to be willing to see that we need to know

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Speaker 1: where we are trying to go. If we are not

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Speaker 1: trying to go towards serving God as the highest commitment,

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Speaker 1: then discernment will fail us. And this is not that

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Speaker 1: helpful if you're in that place. We could have a

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Speaker 1: conversation about making good decisions, but the conversation about making

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Speaker 1: good decisions is just about human wisdom, and that's a

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Speaker 1: self-help podcast, and that's not what we're doing here. You

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Speaker 1: can find plenty of self-help podcasts that will help you

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Speaker 1: on making a decision. But when we're talking about discernment,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about being open to living the way that

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Speaker 1: brings us the highest ability to serve God. Serving God

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Speaker 1: is the highest priority. Actually serving God and enjoying Him

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Speaker 1: in our lives is the number one commitment. Everything else

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Speaker 1: is a means to serving God. This is highly clarifying

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Speaker 1: if you've never thought about this before. If our highest

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Speaker 1: priority is to love the Lord our God with all

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Speaker 1: our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbor

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Speaker 1: as ourselves, our highest priority is to say every single morning, God,

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Speaker 1: anything that gets in the way of me serving you,

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Speaker 1: remove that. then everything else we do is just a

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Speaker 1: means to serving God. So now our career is not

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Speaker 1: about us advancing in our security or our salary or

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Speaker 1: our success. Our career is a means of serving God.

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Speaker 1: Now our relationships are not about our personal comfort or

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Speaker 1: our personal experiences or fulfillment. Our relationships are about a

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Speaker 1: means to serving God. Now the provision that we've been

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Speaker 1: given the money that we have, the resources that we have,

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Speaker 1: the time that we have, these aren't about our personal

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Speaker 1: comfort and security. These are all means of serving God.

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Speaker 1: None of those things, which honestly, friends, are usually what

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Speaker 1: our decisions are about, none of those decisions are the

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Speaker 1: end goal in themselves. If you are looking for a

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Speaker 1: decision that you're making to be the end goal in itself,

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Speaker 1: it's like you're on a rabbit trail. You're not on

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Speaker 1: the actual main trail. The main trail is is about

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Speaker 1: what is the highest use of our life so that

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Speaker 1: we can serve God wholeheartedly. Now, I understand that this

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Speaker 1: is very rigorous, and this is very much a place

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Speaker 1: of wrestling for all of us. And oftentimes, the more

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Speaker 1: we have, the more difficult the wrestling becomes, because we

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Speaker 1: begin to make prerequisites to God's plan for our life

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Speaker 1: before we even start talking to God. We're like, well, no, no, no, like,

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Speaker 1: you can't, I mean, don't take me off this career track,

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Speaker 1: or no, no, no, God, like, I mean, I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to leave my city or No, God, of course

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to be single by choice. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have these things that we immediately start to be

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Speaker 1: conditions to our serving God. And anytime we create conditions

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Speaker 1: to our serving God, what we are actually doing is

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Speaker 1: creating idols. Because we're saying, God, I want to serve you,

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Speaker 1: but I'm also going to serve these other things that

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Speaker 1: are really important to me. And so, God, you're my

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Speaker 1: number one. You're my number one, God. But on the

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Speaker 1: altar with you are all these other things, too. And so, like, no,

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Speaker 1: I can't leave my career or leave my country or

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Speaker 1: leave my community or not be in a relationship or

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Speaker 1: make less money or, you know, all these things become idols. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is life. This is what we all do. This

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Speaker 1: is the reality of the human condition. So there's no

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Speaker 1: judgment here. It's just reality. And the more we live

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Speaker 1: in reality, the more we're willing to wrestle through reality

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Speaker 1: and the more we realize, oh, maybe on this journey,

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Speaker 1: maybe the reason that a decision hasn't come my way

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Speaker 1: or I'm not sure about a direction is that God

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Speaker 1: is still purifying my destination. He's helping me see all

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Speaker 1: the other things that I'm trying to serve in addition

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Speaker 1: to serving him. And it's not that God will necessarily

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Speaker 1: take those things away. We don't serve a God who's

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Speaker 1: punitive in that way. He's not fickle and judgy and

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Speaker 1: trying to say, no, I'm going to take away these

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Speaker 1: things until you tell me that you really, really mean it,

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Speaker 1: that you really love me. That's not love. But it's

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Speaker 1: also not love to say that we love God and

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Speaker 1: we'll do anything for him while we also hold on

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Speaker 1: to all these other things. And sometimes the terrain is

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Speaker 1: allowing us the opportunity to say, ooh, I am really

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Speaker 1: committed to those other things. And God, I need your

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Speaker 1: help to actually align my heart with your heart. I

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Speaker 1: need your help to actually commit to you more than anything.

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Speaker 1: I need your help to see that these other rabbit

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Speaker 1: trails that I take are empty and fruitless, and they're

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Speaker 1: not going to give me what I'm actually looking for,

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Speaker 1: which is you. So time often is what helps us

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Speaker 1: with that, and we'll talk about that next week when

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Speaker 1: we talk about patience. a couple of things that are

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Speaker 1: prerequisites to actually getting to discernment, to getting to that direction,

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Speaker 1: to making sure we're clear on that location. And the

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Speaker 1: one that we've been talking about all throughout really is

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Speaker 1: this commitment to reality. It is only possible to hear

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Speaker 1: from God fully when we live in the reality that

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Speaker 1: He has given us. I was reading, just feeling a

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Speaker 1: little aimless myself the other evening, and so I was like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to read the Sermon on

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Speaker 1: the Mount. I always go back to Jesus' greatest sermon

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Speaker 1: whenever I'm wanting to get clarity and make sure I'm

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Speaker 1: not on a rabbit trail, that I'm walking on the

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Speaker 1: path that he set out for me. And it just

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Speaker 1: struck me as I read in Matthew 5. I'll read

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Speaker 1: it to you. Listen to the three top things that

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Speaker 1: Jesus says as he talks about the kingdom. He says,

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Speaker 1: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the

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Speaker 1: kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they

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Speaker 1: will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will

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Speaker 1: inherit the earth. Okay, the first three things that Jesus

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Speaker 1: says is blessed are the people who live in actual

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Speaker 1: reality to our actual condition on earth. This isn't about

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Speaker 1: that there are people who are poor in spirit and

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Speaker 1: mourn and who are comforted or meek. It's saying that

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Speaker 1: we're all those people and that is what it is

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Speaker 1: to be human and to choose to live in that reality.

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Speaker 1: It's not like Jesus is saying there's only a certain

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Speaker 1: people group who can experience his blessing. He's saying that

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Speaker 1: There are people who choose to live in reality, and

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Speaker 1: those are the people who experience my blessing. All of

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Speaker 1: us are poor in spirit. All of us mourn. All

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Speaker 1: of us experience loss. We may run from it. We

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Speaker 1: may pretend like it's not real, but we all experience loss.

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Speaker 1: That is the condition of the human. And all of

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Speaker 1: us have the opportunity to be meek, to be humble,

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Speaker 1: to realize our weakness. It's those who live in reality

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Speaker 1: who experience loss. the blessing of God, who actually can

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Speaker 1: experience what it feels like to live in the kingdom,

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Speaker 1: to be comforted, to actually inherit reality, to inherit this

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Speaker 1: earth in all of its goodness, which is there as well.

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Speaker 1: So it's only possible to experience God's direction and his

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Speaker 1: discernment when we are living in the reality of our condition.

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Speaker 1: So then the second prerequisite is that openness, that confession

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Speaker 1: to say, oh, yes, that is who I am. Like,

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Speaker 1: I am poor in spirit. I don't know what, I

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Speaker 1: do serve all kinds of other gods and not just God. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I am mourning. I am sad about things. I am

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Speaker 1: finding it difficult to live in reality, Lord. Those are

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Speaker 1: true for me. And then I am meek. I am humble.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what's right. You know, those are the

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Speaker 1: places of openness and confession that we can come to

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Speaker 1: God really as his child and able to say like, wow,

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Speaker 1: I really don't know what to do. And I really, God,

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Speaker 1: I need you. I need you every single day. And

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Speaker 1: when we do that, then we are aligned with Psalm 66,

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Speaker 1: the end of Psalm 66, verses 16 through 20 that

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Speaker 1: say this, Come and hear all you who fear God.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you about what he's done for me.

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Speaker 1: This is what it means to be living in the

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Speaker 1: goodness of God. Verse 17 says, I cried out to

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Speaker 1: him with my mouth. His praise was on my tongue.

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Speaker 1: If I had cherished sin in my heart, now that

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Speaker 1: sin is like we talked about. That's not living in reality.

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Speaker 1: That's living with idols. If I had held on to that,

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Speaker 1: if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord

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Speaker 1: would not have listened. But God has surely listened and

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Speaker 1: has heard my prayer. Praise be to God who has

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Speaker 1: not rejected my prayer or withheld his love for me.

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Speaker 1: And so, my friends, my application for you as we

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Speaker 1: go into this next week is that the greatest prerequisite

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Speaker 1: for discerning, for really knowing God's direction for your life,

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Speaker 1: is to be able to embrace listening, listening both ways.

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Speaker 1: Number one, knowing that God is listening. All throughout scripture,

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Speaker 1: we hear that God listens to us. He has heard

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Speaker 1: our prayer, that even if it feels like he's silent

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Speaker 1: or even if it feels like there's darkness, continue to

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Speaker 1: cry out to God. Continue to not cherish the sin

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Speaker 1: in your heart, but to confess that sin, to say,

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Speaker 1: oh God, there are so many ways I've put idols

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Speaker 1: in front of you. I want to confess that. And

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Speaker 1: then we listen to God intently. We listen to God

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Speaker 1: through nature, through what he's created. He teaches us through nature.

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Speaker 1: We listen to God through wise counsel from others who

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Speaker 1: are seeking God, from those who are further along in

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Speaker 1: the journey. We listen intently to the counsel of others.

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Speaker 1: We listen intently to God's word that he's given us

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Speaker 1: so that we might understand him. And we listen intently

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Speaker 1: in prayer. We're silent before God. We listen for what

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Speaker 1: he has to say to us. And then we can

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Speaker 1: examine where we've been to understand where we are going.

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Speaker 1: We can listen to our life. We can ask the question,

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Speaker 1: what has been true before? What are my Psalm 126

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Speaker 1: seasons that I know will be true again? And we

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Speaker 1: wrestle like Jacob does in Genesis 32. We wrestle for

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Speaker 1: the blessing. We stay true. in the uncomfortable zone of

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Speaker 1: not knowing. We stay in the uncomfortable zone of waiting.

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Speaker 1: We stay in the uncomfortable zone of listening. We walk

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Speaker 1: out that terrain knowing that our God is good and

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Speaker 1: that he has abundance in his hands and that he

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Speaker 1: desires to bless us, and we wait on the Lord.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about that next week. All right, friends, if

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Speaker 1: you haven't yet, go to pick up that guide to

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Speaker 1: help you as we continue to journey forward in the

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Speaker 1: work of discernment. We'll talk next week about patience. Talk

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Speaker 1: to you then. How to Study the Bible with Nicole

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Speaker 1: Younis is a production of Life Audio and Salem Media.

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Speaker 1: If you like what you heard today, please take a

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Speaker 1: second to rate and review the podcast in your favorite

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