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Speaker 1: Today one of God's choicest vessels is here with us.

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Speaker 1: Christine Kine is about to preach the word if we

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Speaker 1: keep bringing in Chris Caine to fill the pulpit. When

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Speaker 1: I'm gone, y'all are gonna send me out on tour

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Speaker 1: three sixty five, because really this is one of the

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Speaker 1: most anointed preachers that God raised up, I would say,

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Speaker 1: in the last decade. And of course those of you

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Speaker 1: who have been around here a long time, you know

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Speaker 1: that she founded A twenty one, an anti human trafficking

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Speaker 1: organization not just limited to that work, but most known

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Speaker 1: for that work. We've been partners with Chris and her husband,

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Speaker 1: Nick and A twenty one for years and years and years,

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Speaker 1: and today, actually Chris and Nick I didn't tell you

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Speaker 1: this yet, but on behalf of the generous people of

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Speaker 1: Elevation Church, as we get ready for our year end

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Speaker 1: giving season that we're coming up on soon, we want

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Speaker 1: to give A twenty one a gift of one hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars to stand with you for the amazing things

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Speaker 1: you're doing in the world. That's because of these amazing people,

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Speaker 1: that's because of your church. So thank you, thank you

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Speaker 1: for all you do. Thank you, Chris for all you do.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for being here today. Get on your feet.

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Speaker 1: I think you're on your feet right now, but you know,

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Speaker 1: jump up even higher, stand on your tiptoes and help me.

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Speaker 1: Welcome Christine Kane as she brings the word. We love you, Chris.

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Speaker 1: Let's go. What an honor to be here. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: Pas to Stephen and Holly and all of our etham

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Speaker 1: on behalf of Nick and I because I do have

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Speaker 1: the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh right here

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Speaker 1: at the front row and the whole crew. We've got

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Speaker 1: our eight twenty one Charlotte team here. We want to

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Speaker 1: thank your church for your generosity and partnership in the gospel.

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Speaker 1: You know the money you have been partnering with us

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Speaker 1: almost from the outset, and such a key partner. Pass

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Speaker 1: to Stephen and Holly and the whole church. So generous.

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Speaker 1: And I want you to know that during this season

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Speaker 1: we have seen an unbelievable amount of rescues and convictions

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Speaker 1: of traffickers. And just in the last couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: an entire container load of people were rescued in Cambodia,

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Speaker 1: an entire container load. Wrap your head around that. So

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Speaker 1: I want you to know that your giving is going

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Speaker 1: to good soil and we so appreciate it. People are

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Speaker 1: being reached, people are being rescued, people are being restored,

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Speaker 1: Traffickers are going to jail. I want to say thank

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Speaker 1: you Elevation, thank you to our EPAM. And I am

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Speaker 1: so that new song, y'all. I'm about to do laps

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Speaker 1: around this building. I go like, if you've got a

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Speaker 1: pulse that would raise the dead? That song, that's all

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Speaker 1: I'm saying. I cannot wait for that too. Chandler, I

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Speaker 1: don't know where you are and the team probably behind

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Speaker 1: me somewhere, but it was it is just like unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: We need to get that out in the atmosphere. I

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Speaker 1: want to thank you, Nick, and I so love your passes.

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Speaker 1: I am part of e fam. It's nice to be

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Speaker 1: on this side because I am literally on the other

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Speaker 1: side every week. Because the good thing is I live

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Speaker 1: on the West Coast, so pasta Stephens preaching at nine

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Speaker 1: thirty and it's only six thirty am, and I'm not

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Speaker 1: in a pulpit till ten am, so I've got enough

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Speaker 1: time to get a sermon down and then preach it.

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Speaker 1: So it's fantastic to do that, but I do. Actually

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Speaker 1: every single week, I feel like I'm I'm part of

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Speaker 1: our e fam. I'm your Craig cray Ossy aunt. How

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Speaker 1: many know you need a cray cray Ossy? Aren't everyone

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Speaker 1: needs one? And so and Pastor Holly. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: texting her. I've just done like fourteen countries in the

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Speaker 1: last fifteen or sixteen weeks. I think we've just done

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Speaker 1: a lap of the globe and I'm texting her from

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Speaker 1: every place, going give me a book. You know, your

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Speaker 1: pastor she's an obsessive reader, like next level reader and so,

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Speaker 1: but I give her a run for her money because

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Speaker 1: I read faster than her. So you can all tell

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Speaker 1: her that. And so she recommends all the best books

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Speaker 1: in the world to be So, I just want you

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Speaker 1: to know that we really are family. I believe I've

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Speaker 1: got a word from the lawd today. How many are

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Speaker 1: ready to hear God's work? I am you can be seated.

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Speaker 1: Thank you to the worship team for taking us into

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Speaker 1: the presence of God. I have missed you all, and

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Speaker 1: I have missed you. I can't even explain how much

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Speaker 1: I feel so home away from home here we're going

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Speaker 1: to go to Luke chapter seventeen, to the Gospel of Luke.

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Speaker 1: I've been so excited to be with you all, I

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Speaker 1: almost can't contain myself. Luke seventeen, verse twenty. Scripture says,

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Speaker 1: being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God

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Speaker 1: would come, he answered them, the Kingdom of God is

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Speaker 1: not coming with something observable. No one will say see

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Speaker 1: here or there, For you see, the Kingdom of God

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Speaker 1: is in your midst. Then he told the disciples, the

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Speaker 1: days are coming when you will long to see one

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Speaker 1: of the days of the Sun of Man. But you

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Speaker 1: won't see it. They will say to you, see there

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Speaker 1: or see here. Don't follow or run after them as

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Speaker 1: the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up

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Speaker 1: the sky. So the Son of Man will be in

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Speaker 1: his day. But first, everyone say but first. I love

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Speaker 1: that just sounds so American. But first, first, for our Epham,

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Speaker 1: I want you to say first, mate, First, everyone say first,

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Speaker 1: nay in learning how to speak like a NAUSI it's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: But first, it is necessary that he suffered many things

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Speaker 1: and be rejected by this generation, just as it was

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Speaker 1: in the days of Noah. So it will be. In

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Speaker 1: the days of the Son of Man, people went on eating, drinking, marrying,

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Speaker 1: and giving in marriage until the day Noah borded the

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Speaker 1: ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. It

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Speaker 1: will be the same as it was in the days

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Speaker 1: of Lots. People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building.

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Speaker 1: But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur

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Speaker 1: rained from heaven and destroyed them all. I bet you

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Speaker 1: are so glad you came to church today. I bet

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Speaker 1: everyone's like that, Where are we going? We have got Noah,

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Speaker 1: We've got a flood. We're now into Sodom and Gomorah.

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Speaker 1: Where is she going? On this Sunday? It will be

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Speaker 1: like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

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Speaker 1: On that day, a man on the housetop whose belongings

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Speaker 1: are in the house must not come down and get them. Likewise,

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Speaker 1: the man who is in the field must not turn back.

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Speaker 1: Remember Lot's wife, whoever tries to make his life secure

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Speaker 1: will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

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Speaker 1: I tell you, on that night, two will be in

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Speaker 1: one bed. One will be taken, the other will be

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Speaker 1: left and I tell Nick often, I am not going

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Speaker 1: to be the one that's going to be left behind.

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Speaker 1: Just putting it out there, just putting it out there.

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Speaker 1: Two women will be grinding, grained together. One will be

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Speaker 1: taken and the other left. Where Lord, they asked him,

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Speaker 1: He said to them where the corpse is? They're also

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Speaker 1: the vultures will be gathered. This is the word of

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Speaker 1: the Lord. And I bet you are so pumped up.

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Speaker 1: You're like Chris, we haven't seen you for a little while.

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Speaker 1: What do they put in the water over there in

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Speaker 1: the California. I am so fired up. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be in San Diego with elevation nights on Wednesday night.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you are just packing stadiums and arenas around

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Speaker 1: the country, putting praise and worship into the atmosphere. Stop

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Speaker 1: getting me sidetracked. But I cannot wait, That's all I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: And so I hope anyone that's on the West coast

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Speaker 1: is going to join us this week. It's going to

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Speaker 1: be powerful. We're going to be San Diego and La.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, I'm getting back to the text right now.

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Speaker 1: So Hugh Jesus, he's having a discussion about the end

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Speaker 1: times I mean, this is this is a big word

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Speaker 1: eschatological discourse. I had to practice that, say that three

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Speaker 1: times you'll be speaking in tongues even if you're a

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Speaker 1: cessationist right there, and so he is having a time

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Speaker 1: a discussion about the end times, and I mean it's

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Speaker 1: pretty intense. He's talking about the Kingdom of God being

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Speaker 1: realized in the fact that Jesus is here. Jesus came,

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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God came, but it's not fully realized yet,

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Speaker 1: which of course we're aware of. There's war and there's famine,

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Speaker 1: and there's crime, and there's violence, and there's pain and

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Speaker 1: there's loss, and there's death, and there's grief and there's

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Speaker 1: suffering and there's heartache, and there is so much going on.

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Speaker 1: So we know that the kingdom is not fully realized.

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Speaker 1: It will be one day when that sky splits and

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Speaker 1: Jesus comes back. And this text is reminding us that

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Speaker 1: when that sky splits and Jesus return, nobody is going

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Speaker 1: to be sitting around wondering going, oh did he come.

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Speaker 1: Here's what people are going to go. Are we gonna know?

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Speaker 1: I'm like, sweete, you'll know. And so it's the sky

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Speaker 1: is gonna light up. It's all going to happen. And

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Speaker 1: I mean he's talking about the already and not yet,

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Speaker 1: that's what it would be called they already the kingdom's

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Speaker 1: realized in Christ, but not yet fully until it comes

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Speaker 1: to gain. And I mean it gets intense. He's talking

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Speaker 1: and he about Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah and the

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Speaker 1: end times. And here I'm just going to give you

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Speaker 1: a disclaimer upfront. I basically don't overclue what he's talking about.

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Speaker 1: And anybody that will tell you that they do is lying.

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Speaker 1: Some of you are freaking out because I'm about to

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Speaker 1: save you a lot of hours down rabbit trails on Facebook.

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Speaker 1: I'm about to set you free right now, because right

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Speaker 1: now one would be thinking, is this text written for today?

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Speaker 1: We've had a since I've seen you last, a few

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Speaker 1: things have happened on the earth. There has been quite

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Speaker 1: a few things that have gone on. We've gone through

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Speaker 1: a global pandemic together except for you're in Florida or Dallas,

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Speaker 1: but all the rest of the e fam around the world,

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Speaker 1: the rest of us actually we've had a global pandemic,

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Speaker 1: and we've had so much pain and political instability and

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Speaker 1: social instability and moral instability in the whole world. Have

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Speaker 1: you noticed has lost its mind? It's gone, Craig grab

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Speaker 1: a lot's happened since I was here last, And you

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Speaker 1: could think, wow, Christine's now turned up if she could

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Speaker 1: to pull out like some charts. Like you know, when

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Speaker 1: I got saved in the late eighties, it was all

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Speaker 1: about we had charts and we you know, were talking

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Speaker 1: about the end times and it seemed like it was

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Speaker 1: the end. And it's kind of like, but listen, this

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Speaker 1: is what Jesus says. This is exactly what he says

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Speaker 1: about it all. Ultimately, he says, nobody knows the day

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Speaker 1: or the hour. I just got you back four hours

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Speaker 1: in your day of rabbit traus, because everyone's trying to

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Speaker 1: predict everything. And Jesus said, look, peace out, it's all right.

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Speaker 1: Nobody knows. Live like it's gonna happen tomorrow, and live

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Speaker 1: and prepare like it's not gonna happen for generations. And

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Speaker 1: you can do both things simultaneously. It's not that hard.

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Speaker 1: But you would think, do you remember, like during during

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Speaker 1: the pandemic life, there was that season that was like

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Speaker 1: natural disasters, and then there was locusts and then I'm like,

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Speaker 1: are we in the ten Plagues of Egypt? Like, what

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Speaker 1: is going on? So it would be easy, but I'm

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Speaker 1: not here to talk about that. What I'm here to

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Speaker 1: talk about is in the midst of this discourse about

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Speaker 1: the end times, in the midst of talking about Sodom

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Speaker 1: and Gomorrah and Noah and all the end and Jesus returning,

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Speaker 1: and it sounds so much like twenty twenty two, You're like,

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Speaker 1: what is going on? Everything's going great? Great Jesus drops

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Speaker 1: three random, apparently random words in the middle of this discourse.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just right there he looks seventeen thirty two.

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Speaker 1: As Jesus is talking about all of this great end

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Speaker 1: time stuff, he just drops in like remember Lot's Wife.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, okay, remember Lots The second shortest verse

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Speaker 1: in the entire scripture. Do you know what the shortest

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Speaker 1: verse is? You are such a well taught church and

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Speaker 1: you Pastor Stephen takes you deep into the Hebrew and

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Speaker 1: the Greek and the Arabaic. The second shortest verse in

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Speaker 1: the scripture. You're gonna get that on Bible trivia now,

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Speaker 1: is remember Lot's Wife? What a random thing to throw

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Speaker 1: in the midst of a discourse about the end times

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Speaker 1: to throw in the midst of a discourse about the

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Speaker 1: already but not yet nature of the Kingdom of God,

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Speaker 1: which most of us have awakened to at a whole

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Speaker 1: new level over the last three or four years, he says,

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Speaker 1: remember Lot's wife. And I'm like, okay, I've been doing

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Speaker 1: chicks ministry for like one hundred I've been doing chicks

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Speaker 1: ministry for you know, thirty years. I've had a lot

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Speaker 1: of men, but sermons on chicks. I don't remember ever

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Speaker 1: hearing one about Lot's wife. I mean, there's one hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy women mentioned in some way in scripture, one

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Speaker 1: hundred and seventy, and yet there is only one woman

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Speaker 1: in the Gospels that Jesus Christ ever tells us to remember.

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Speaker 1: Only one. There's not a lot of real estate in

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Speaker 1: the red letters of Jesus. So three words that he

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Speaker 1: gives over to that remember Lot's wife in the midst

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Speaker 1: of an eschatological discourse, in the midst of talking about

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Speaker 1: the already but not yet nature of the Kingdom of God,

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Speaker 1: he drops in three words, remember Lot's wife. I would

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Speaker 1: wonder whether in twenty twenty two it would be a

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Speaker 1: good time to remember the one woman that Jesus told

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Speaker 1: us to remember. Out of one hundred and seventy women,

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Speaker 1: remember Lot's wife. If I was one of the other

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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy cheeks, I'd be a little bit annoyed.

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Speaker 1: I mean literally, if I was like Eve, I'd be going,

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Speaker 1: what do you mean? Remember that's wife? I was first

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Speaker 1: I came out of a rib, and I've been blamed

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Speaker 1: for all of humanity's problems ever since. I mean, if

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Speaker 1: I was imagine, if I was Sarah, I'd be like

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Speaker 1: I popped out a kid at ninety without an epy jewel.

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Speaker 1: What do you mean? Remember Lot's wife? If I was

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Speaker 1: like Miriam, I'd be like the first chick worship leader ever.

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Speaker 1: She comes out of Egypt, I mean, out of slavery,

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Speaker 1: out of bondage, the Red Sea parts. She's like, hang

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Speaker 1: on a minute, hold the Red Sea. I gotta grab

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Speaker 1: a tambourine. Who grabs a tambourine when you're coming out

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Speaker 1: of slavery knowing you're gonna have a dance party on

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Speaker 1: the other side of the Red Sea. But Miriam be like,

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Speaker 1: what do you mean? If I was Deborah be like,

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Speaker 1: what do you mean Lot's wife? Hi, Deborah ruse I

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Speaker 1: was the first female judge in all of Israel. Of

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Speaker 1: course we know it's because no man stood to the

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Speaker 1: I won't go there, but anyway, so we know Deborah

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Speaker 1: Rose or Mary Mary be like I popped you out

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Speaker 1: in a manger. I mean, he didn't even say to

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Speaker 1: remember his mother. A lot of people would be very

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Speaker 1: annoyed with it. He said, remember Lot's wife. So of

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Speaker 1: course that then sent me on a little a little

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Speaker 1: exposition on Okay, what is it that we know about

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Speaker 1: this woman that appears on the pages of scripture just

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Speaker 1: quick enough to disappear a woman that we don't even

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Speaker 1: know her name? I mean Lot's wife. How politically incorrect

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, like you are going to get

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Speaker 1: up very Lot's wife. So we know in Genesis thirteen,

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Speaker 1: you remember when Abraham and Lots separated because they just

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Speaker 1: had you know, there was too many animals and the

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Speaker 1: herds were too big. So in the midst of all that,

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Speaker 1: we know in Genesis thirteen that they separated. In Genesis

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Speaker 1: thirteen twelve to thirteen, Abram settled in the land of Canaan,

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Speaker 1: while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and

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Speaker 1: moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now, the men

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Speaker 1: of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. So

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Speaker 1: we know that Abram and Lot separated. Lot set up

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Speaker 1: camp right on the edge there in Sodom. And then

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Speaker 1: because of the iniquity, the Lord decides by chapter Genesis

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Speaker 1: eighteen that you know what he's going to deal with it.

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Speaker 1: He's done with Sodom and Gomora. Now, a lot of us,

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Speaker 1: especially in the if you've been around the church world,

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Speaker 1: and then even if you've been just out in the world,

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Speaker 1: you kind of go Sodom and Gomorrah, and instantly you

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Speaker 1: start thinking, Man, the sexually moral sins, that's why God,

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Speaker 1: you know, destroyed it all. And of course the sexually

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Speaker 1: moral sin that you think is the worst is the

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Speaker 1: one that you're not committing. But anyway, for everybody else,

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Speaker 1: we just choose the one that we're doing is okay

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Speaker 1: with God, but for everybody else's one, and so we

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Speaker 1: get so caught up in that. But that is true.

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Speaker 1: And also there is an aspect of the sin of

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Speaker 1: Sodom that most of us in the church have forgotten,

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Speaker 1: but is very important to God. And you'll see in

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Speaker 1: right there in Genesis chapter Sorry, I'm gonna go to

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Speaker 1: ezek you're sixteen forty nine to fifty. I want you

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Speaker 1: to see this now. This was the iniquity of your

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Speaker 1: sister Sodom. This is from the scripture. She and her

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Speaker 1: daughters had pride, plenty of food, comfortable security, but didn't

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Speaker 1: support the poor and the needy. In the next verse,

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Speaker 1: we'll get to the immorality, but I do want you

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Speaker 1: to see what the scripture says. In the prophet Ezekie

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Speaker 1: says this was the sin. I wonder with the reckoning

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Speaker 1: that's been happening over the last couple of years, and

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Speaker 1: we've seen God clean inside the house and outside the house,

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Speaker 1: there's a reckoning happening. Whether in some places the church

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Speaker 1: just got a little bit too prideful, a little bit

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Speaker 1: too comfortable, a little bit too plenty. This is why

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Speaker 1: I love this house. I mean, your pastors barely introduced

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Speaker 1: me and said, before Christine even comes, we're giving to

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Speaker 1: the work of the poor and the needy, and the marginalized,

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Speaker 1: and those that are enslaved and those that are dispossessed.

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Speaker 1: And you do this in love week, and you do

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Speaker 1: that with your end of you giving every single time,

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Speaker 1: because it matters to God. It matters to God. Do

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Speaker 1: you wonder, if we don't wonder too long, why there's

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Speaker 1: such the blessing of God on this house. Why the

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Speaker 1: Lord's taking you around the world and you're worship to

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Speaker 1: a whole other level. And of course your pastor is

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Speaker 1: preaching probably in the world while people listen to him,

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Speaker 1: because you have a holistic faith that honors Jesus, honors

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Speaker 1: the word, reaches the world, cares about the poor and

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Speaker 1: the need. He doesn't just get so comfortable. Understands we

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Speaker 1: are blessed to be a blessing, understands that we are

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Speaker 1: called to be soul and light in the midst of

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Speaker 1: a broken world. But the sin of Sodom was that

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Speaker 1: they had forgotten that. And then of course it goes

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Speaker 1: on and says they were haughty and did detestable acts

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Speaker 1: before me, and so I removed them when I saw this.

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Speaker 1: So then in Genesis nineteen, the Lord sends the Angel

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Speaker 1: of the Lord to come and rescue Lot and his

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Speaker 1: wife and their two daughters. And so literally an angel

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Speaker 1: comes and takes them by the hand, you know the story.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they were literally touched by an angel. And

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Speaker 1: so the angel comes and takes them by the hand

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Speaker 1: and leads them out. And this is the only instruction

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Speaker 1: that the Lord gives in verse seventeen. And as they

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Speaker 1: brought them out, escape for your life. One said, escape

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Speaker 1: for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere

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Speaker 1: in the valley. Escaped to the hills, lest you be

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Speaker 1: slept swept away. And this is the only thing we

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Speaker 1: see specifically about Lot's wife in scripture. Remember in the

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Speaker 1: New Testament, Jesus said, one woman out of one hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy, there's only one. I want you to remember

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Speaker 1: when the world is burning, when everything seems to be

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Speaker 1: going cret Cray aka twenty twenty two, when it all

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Speaker 1: seems like everything is crazy, I need you to remember

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Speaker 1: Lot's wife. So we go, Jesus, What is it about

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Speaker 1: Lot's wife the way to remember? So we go then,

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Speaker 1: And the only thing we see in scripture in Genesis

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Speaker 1: nineteen about Lot's wife, it says in verse twenty six,

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Speaker 1: but Lot's wife behind him looked back and became a

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Speaker 1: pillar of salt. That's all we know. Lot's wife looked

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Speaker 1: back and became a pillar of salt. She became a

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Speaker 1: pillar of salt because she was torn between where God

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Speaker 1: was taking her and what she was leaving. She was

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Speaker 1: prioritizing her past over her future. She had lost sight

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Speaker 1: of the fact that the promise of God, the provision

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Speaker 1: of God, the purpose of God was ahead, and so

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Speaker 1: she got stuck in a place she was only meant

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Speaker 1: to be passing through. She was being pulled back by

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Speaker 1: what she was leaving more than she was pressing on

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Speaker 1: to where God was taking her. And she got stuck, calcified,

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Speaker 1: turned into a pillar of salt. And you and I

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Speaker 1: called to be the salt of the earth. And right

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Speaker 1: now on the earth, the Church of Jesus Christ, in

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Speaker 1: many places is stuck, stuck, and the purpose of God

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Speaker 1: is ahead, the provision of God is ahead, the promise

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Speaker 1: of God is ahead, but we are stuck looking back

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Speaker 1: instead of fixing our eyes on Jesus ahead, to move

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Speaker 1: into the promise and the purpose and the provision of God.

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Speaker 1: It's time for us to remember us wife, and to

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Speaker 1: stop looking back. Because for many people, our attachment to

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Speaker 1: the past outweighs our commitment to the future. And a

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Speaker 1: generation is at stake. And it is amazing as I

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Speaker 1: travel and I've just done fourteen nations, and I hear

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Speaker 1: so many people talking about Christine. You know, if we

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Speaker 1: could just go back, if we could just go back,

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Speaker 1: I could talk to pastors and leaders and individuals and

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Speaker 1: businesses and people in relationships, and many things could just

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Speaker 1: go back to normal. If we could just go back

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Speaker 1: to pre pandemic. I'm like, why are we talking about

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. Why are you giving me numbers from twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: This is not twenty nineteen. This is twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: And Jesus is in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three and twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. At

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, the purpose of God is ahead of us.

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Speaker 1: All the promises of God are in Christ. Jesus, Yes

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Speaker 1: and amen, his promise is still ahead. And the same

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Speaker 1: Jesus that brought us here is the same Jesus that's

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Speaker 1: going to take us there. But we've got to stop

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Speaker 1: looking back. There are people in this room, there's a

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Speaker 1: family online, and we're stuck, absolutely stuck going. Man, I

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Speaker 1: just just want things to go back to normal. Listen,

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Speaker 1: I am not denying, I am not dismissing. I am

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Speaker 1: in no way minimizing the pain, the trauma, the loss,

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Speaker 1: the grief, or the suffering over the last few years

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Speaker 1: in every realm personally, economically, relationally, politically, environmentally, sociologically, morally,

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Speaker 1: there is not one sector of society spiritually that has

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Speaker 1: not been impacted. But if you and I are going

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Speaker 1: to do what God has put us on this earth

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Speaker 1: to do, then we've got to stop looking back and

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Speaker 1: we've got to start looking forward and start pressing into

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Speaker 1: the purpose and the promise of God. You know, people

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Speaker 1: are stuck. People are stuck in disappointment, stuck in discouragement,

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Speaker 1: stuck in a fence, stuck in bitterness, stuck in unforgiveness,

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Speaker 1: stuck in disillusionment, stuck fixated on what went wrong on

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Speaker 1: the past, fixated on what we lost in the past,

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Speaker 1: fixated on who betrayed us, who disappointed us, who hurt us,

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Speaker 1: what didn't happen, Fixated on something we're supposed to face

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Speaker 1: and move on from. And you fixate instead of face,

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Speaker 1: you get stuck. And so many of us in this hour,

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Speaker 1: the herd of the Lord would be you need to

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Speaker 1: start remembering Lot's wife because she got stuck. And it's

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Speaker 1: little wonder. I mean, her life was back there, she

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Speaker 1: had other family back there, she had her friends back there.

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Speaker 1: I mean who, I don't know. Did she just renovate

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Speaker 1: her kitchen? I don't know, so would there? I mean,

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Speaker 1: imagine just one day, an Angel of the Lord comes

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Speaker 1: and out we go. And that's literally what happened to

426
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: most of us. Overnight. Overnight things shut down, Overnight things changed, Overnight,

427
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:46,719
Speaker 1: things blew up, and the Angel of the Lord, the

428
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: presence of God, Jesus said, I'll never leave you nor

429
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:53,159
Speaker 1: forsake you. His presence was with us. And the issue

430
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:54,920
Speaker 1: is did we let go of the hand of Jesus

431
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:58,919
Speaker 1: so that we could keep facing back and fixate on

432
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 1: what was back there? And we're in twenty twenty two,

433
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 1: but everything about us is still back, and we are

434
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,200
Speaker 1: stuck in a place that we were only supposed to

435
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: be moving through because God's presence is still with us.

436
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 1: I sometimes wonder how Jesus feels during all of this,

437
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,159
Speaker 1: because he's like, I didn't go anywhere. You know what

438
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 1: I've become during this is this last two or three years,

439
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 1: I've become like what I call a Hallmark pinterest Christian. See.

440
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 1: I used to like roll my eyes at those plithy

441
00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: little statements, you know, with nice little flowers and colors.

442
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:34,679
Speaker 1: And I used to kind of want something deep in

443
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 1: the Hebrew and something deep in the you know. Nowadays

444
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: I'm like, when I just see, you know, Jesus is

445
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: the same yesterday, today, forever, I'm like, thank you God,

446
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: because nothing else is the same. I'm so glad Jesus

447
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 1: is the same. Or yeah, I will never leave you

448
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 1: nor forsake. I'm like, thank you God, because everybody else

449
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: is bailed. And those little plithy statements suddenly become life

450
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,360
Speaker 1: and suddenly go, that's the stuff that actually really matters,

451
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: that's the stuff that sustains you. That that's the stuff

452
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: that keeps you going. And I wonder so many people, Chris,

453
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:07,720
Speaker 1: you know, I just I didn't sign up for this.

454
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,159
Speaker 1: I'm like, what did you sign up for? Last night

455
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: checked Jesus died for me. I didn't die for him.

456
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: Last I checked that I was supposed to deny myself,

457
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: take up my crust, and follow him. I decided that

458
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 1: I will follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back,

459
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:28,880
Speaker 1: the crust before me, the well behind me, no turning back.

460
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: I have decided to follow Jesus. You see, I'm old school,

461
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: because I'm so old that when I got saved, I

462
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: was mentored and schooled by Christian martyrs and missionaries, not celebrities.

463
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:48,920
Speaker 1: So when I gave my life to Jesus, I thought

464
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: I was laying down my life. So just the last

465
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,679
Speaker 1: few years has caused us to waiver. I don't know

466
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:57,680
Speaker 1: where we've been, because yes, we've had a bit of

467
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:59,679
Speaker 1: a tribulation, but it's not the great tribulation. What are

468
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 1: we going to do when the great tribulation comes? If

469
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:06,199
Speaker 1: that's all it took for us to lose hope, so

470
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: many of us are like you know in Luke chapter

471
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 1: twenty four, where the two disciples are going back to

472
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:16,679
Speaker 1: Emmaus back because Jesus. They saw him crucified and buried,

473
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: but they didn't know that he rose again, and they

474
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: thought that he was the Messiah, and they were so disappointed.

475
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: They were so discouraged. They were so disillusioned. And then

476
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,199
Speaker 1: Jesus came and was physically walking with them, God incarnate

477
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: walking with them. But they were so obsessed, and they

478
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 1: were so downcast and so overwhelmed by their disappointment, and

479
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 1: the disillusionment that the God of the universe was walking

480
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: with them and they didn't even recognize him, and they said,

481
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: we had hoped he was the one, and so many

482
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,439
Speaker 1: of us we had hoped that business was going to succeed. Man.

483
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,399
Speaker 1: We had hoped that person wasn't going to die. We

484
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: had hoped that marriage was going to make it. We

485
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: had hoped that kid was going to start following the Lord.

486
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: We had hoped that that promotion was going to come.

487
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: We'd hope that that opportunity, And because our hopes didn't

488
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: come to pass, we're sitting here in twenty twenty two going,

489
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: I'm just so disappointed, I'm just so offended. Now we

490
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: won't add the last bit, but if we were honest

491
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 1: and not fake Christians, we'd say disappointed with God that

492
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: he didn't do what I wanted, Disappointed and offended with

493
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: God because he didn't come through, and Jesus is standing

494
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 1: right with us, going I'm right here we had hoped.

495
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 1: I wonder if the last couple of years has actually

496
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: served to make us, because it hasn't shocked God, God's God.

497
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: I wonder if it has helped us to realize where

498
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: perhaps we had some misplaced hopes in our life. I

499
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: wonder whether if we're stuck in disappointment and stuck in unforgiveness,

500
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: and stuck in offense, and stuck in disillusionment, and stuck

501
00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: in discouragement, and stuck in comfort, and stuck in apathy

502
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,479
Speaker 1: and stuck in indifference, and stuck in this place, is

503
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: it because we have a misplaced hope? Because hebrew Sick

504
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 1: says that Jesus is this hope we have as an

505
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: anchor for our soul, both firm and secure. Yes. Are

506
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: we living in a world with war and with trauma,

507
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 1: and with pandemics, and with pain and political instability and suffering. Yes,

508
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: but my hope was never meant to be in that

509
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for

510
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: our soul, both firm and secure. And then the writer

511
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 1: to the Hebrews says, do not throw away your confidence

512
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 1: in this hope, for it has great rewards. Let us

513
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: not lose the confession of our hope. Let us hold

514
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 1: on to it in fact without wavering. I wonder how

515
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: much wavering there's been over the last couple of years,

516
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: Because the minute we lost the thing that we thought

517
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 1: we needed, we just tapped out. It's just too hard.

518
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: We had hoped, man, we had hoped and got stuck.

519
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: You know, if Jesus is this anchor and all that

520
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 1: we've seen in this season, is Jesus truly the anchor

521
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: of your life, because then your hope doesn't waver, even

522
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 1: when everything in the world wavers and everything in the

523
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: world is wavering, everything in the world is wavering. But

524
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: if you're anchored, you know. I remember my husband loves boating,

525
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: and one of the first times we went out. You know,

526
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: I believe the purpose of boats is for sun baking.

527
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: It's the will of God in Christ Jesus for us

528
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: to sun bake. And so I was out there and

529
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: Nick was disturbing my sun baking because he parked the

530
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: boat in the anchorage and he's like, Chris, can you

531
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 1: throw the anchor out? And I'm like, how just this

532
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 1: is bugging me? Okay? And so I go down, yes, yes, yes, honey,

533
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: And so I I threw the anchor out and then

534
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: I went back to sun baking. And then about thirty

535
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: minutes later, we kind of hit this other boat in

536
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 1: the anchorage and Nick's like freaking out. Christine. Christine, I

537
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: told you to throw the anchor out. I go, I did,

538
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: He says, yes, But did you make sure we were anchored?

539
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: Are we? You didn't tell me that, he said, throw

540
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 1: it out? And I think what some of us have

541
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: realized over these last couple of years is that our anchor,

542
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: because our anchor isn't going to fail, our anchor doesn't

543
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: actually go down to the seabit. Our anchor goes into

544
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: the other side of eternity and is secure up there

545
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:42,719
Speaker 1: in eternity. But some of us have wavered and started

546
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: drifting and gotten stuck. And you know, an anchor, when

547
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: it's attached to a boat, it's got little links in

548
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,479
Speaker 1: a chain. Some of us have discovered that maybe some

549
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 1: of those links are a bit rusty, or maybe we've

550
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: been disconnected. Because the anchor will, But are we holding

551
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: the anchor? And if you and I are going to

552
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: go forward and not turn into a pillar of salt

553
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 1: and be the salt and light on the earth that

554
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: we have been called to live because God chooses in

555
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: the Book of Acts, says the times and the seasons

556
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: and the places that he puts us in. So he

557
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: knew exactly what would be happening in the world in

558
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. And you know what,

559
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: You and I are not his Plan B, where his

560
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 1: Plan A. We are a product of eternity, not a

561
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: product of time. God has plucked us out of eternity.

562
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: He has positioned us in time. He's given us gifts

563
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 1: and talents for the purpose of serving our generation. This

564
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: is not a time for the church to get stuck.

565
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 1: This is a time to remember Lot's wife and to

566
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,080
Speaker 1: move on and to press on into the purpose and

567
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: the promise and the provision of God in the future.

568
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: But you've got to stay connected to the anchor that

569
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:56,479
Speaker 1: will keep us stabilized in a very unstable world. Jesus

570
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: is this hope we have. So how do you know?

571
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: You know, in the Writer to the Hebrews, he wrote

572
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: this to the Jewish Christians, that we're facing such persecution,

573
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: like real persecution, not like the kind of persecution we think,

574
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: you know, we call here in the Western inconvenience of persecution.

575
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,080
Speaker 1: But that's another sermon. And so they were like really

576
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: losing their lives and losing their jobs and their families

577
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: and their assets everything for being Jesus followers. So they

578
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: were like, you know what, it would just be easier

579
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: to go back to Judaism, be much easier because we'll

580
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: be accepted by culture, we'll have opportunities again. It would

581
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 1: just be a lot easier because it's just really, really hard.

582
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: So the Writer to the Hebrews is writing to Jewish

583
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: Christians that are just drifting, that are wavering, that are

584
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: just going back, like the two disciples on the road

585
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: to Emmaeus. They were going back because you know what,

586
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 1: when you start wavering, when you get stuck, when you

587
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: lose sight of your hope, you'll go back to the

588
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 1: thing that you came from. And you're wondering why so

589
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: many people are going back to Amaus, Because if you're

590
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: not moving forward with Jesus, you will go back to

591
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 1: what you came from. You just go back. It's just

592
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 1: the way that it is. So the Writer to the

593
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: Hebrews is writing to the Jewish Christians in Hebrews chapter two,

594
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:19,879
Speaker 1: and he says, for this reason, he's just talked about

595
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,600
Speaker 1: the supremacy of Christ. He's just talked about the sufficiency

596
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 1: of Christ. He's reminding them Jesus is better than the law.

597
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: Jesus is better than the prophets. Jesus is better than Moses.

598
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: Jesus is better than the angels. He's reminding them of

599
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: the greatness of Jesus. And I've come to elevation to

600
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 1: remind you of the greatness of you, because he is

601
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,800
Speaker 1: better than anything that you left. Because he is better

602
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: than anything else there you can see, touch, tastes, smell,

603
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 1: or feel on this earth, because he is supreme over

604
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: the angels, over the Law, over the Prophets, over Moses.

605
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 1: He is supreme and says, therefore, we must pay attention

606
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 1: all the more to what we have heard, so we

607
00:34:54,880 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: will not drift away. We must pay extra attention. In

608
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: the Greek that phrases betty sought at us proso hiin.

609
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: And why do I know, because I know a little Greek.

610
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 1: I'm little and Greek, and so it says. But my

611
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: mother used to say that to me when we came

612
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: to a big freeway that was busy, hustinner. Betty's sought

613
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: in us proso kiin, be extra careful, And I would say,

614
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit is saying to his church right now, Hey,

615
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 1: Betty's sought a us proso kiin extra careful, be careful

616
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: lest we also drift. My dad would take us to

617
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 1: this beach that had this big undertow in Australia, and

618
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: he'd always put a big beach umbrella on one side

619
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 1: and towels on the other side of the sand. And

620
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 1: he'd say, kids, when you go out there swimming, I

621
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: need you to check those markers really often, because you're

622
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: going to be having so much fun out there and

623
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 1: you're not going to realize the undertoe is going to

624
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 1: take you out, So regularly check your markers. And he

625
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: would always say, because kids, never forget, the only thing

626
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:03,960
Speaker 1: you have to do to drift is nothing. And while

627
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: many of us right now have got so many misplaced types,

628
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 1: we're just like doing nothing. It's too much hard work

629
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: to pray, too much hard work to read my Bible,

630
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 1: too much hard work to come to church. It's very

631
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 1: quiet in this Presbyterian church right now, you're you're all

632
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 1: in the room. It's too much hard work. But I'm

633
00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 1: here to remind you all you have to do to

634
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:33,440
Speaker 1: drift is not commit some great sin. Just do nothing.

635
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 1: Just do nothing. And all of a sudden you go,

636
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: why am I stuck? Why is it twenty twenty two

637
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 1: and I don't feel anything fresh in my relationship? With Jesus.

638
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: Why am I stuck? And I don't feel like I've

639
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 1: gone anywhere and I'm just on a treadmill? Why am

640
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:53,000
Speaker 1: I stuck? Because inadvertently you're drifting because you're doing nothing.

641
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 1: And we got good at doing nothing, didn't we. I mean,

642
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: it's hard work putting on hard pants. Nowadays we just

643
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: like our sweats. Twenty twenty changed our fashion for life.

644
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,280
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, who wants to get up and do something?

645
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: What do you mean? Do something for the Lord? What

646
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 1: do you mean fulfill the mission of God? What do

647
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: you mean? Move forward? And we're stuck. We're stuck spiritually,

648
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: we're stuck emotionally, were stuck physically, was stuck relationally because

649
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: we do not How do you know, well, what might

650
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,280
Speaker 1: be some signs in this day that you might be drifting?

651
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:28,759
Speaker 1: I don't know. You go like, how do I know

652
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,839
Speaker 1: if I'm stuck, if I'm drifting, if I've lost sight

653
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 1: of my hope Jesus? Well, well, maybe he's just a

654
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 1: few things. Pretend we're connected to an anchor and we're

655
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,759
Speaker 1: checking the links in the chain. Maybe you know that

656
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: you're drifting if a blue check mark matters more to

657
00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: you than a heart checker. Oh, it's so we're obsessed. Man,

658
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,440
Speaker 1: If I could just be verified by man, it doesn't

659
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: matter that God validated me two thousand years ago at Calvary. Oh, oh,

660
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 1: if I'm just verified. If it's more important for you

661
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: to be known than to make Jesus known, if it's

662
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 1: more important for you to have likes than to become

663
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: like Jesus, if you care more about how many are

664
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 1: following you than how many are not following Jesus. Just

665
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,480
Speaker 1: maybe you've drifted, just maybe and lost our source of

666
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 1: hope when my will becomes more important than God's will,

667
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: when I just am so encouraged in the whole world's

668
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,800
Speaker 1: like you, you wonder why we're stuck. We're stuck because

669
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,719
Speaker 1: we're seeking our own will, because we just and then

670
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 1: we just have all of these misplaced hopes because we

671
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: think God, you didn't come through for me. And He's like,

672
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 1: I never really promised you that I said. All the

673
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 1: promises of God are in Christ, Jesus, Yes, and in

674
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus amen. Not all of everything that you want,

675
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 1: not your selfish ambition, But the promises of God are

676
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 1: in Christ. Jesus, Yes, and in Christ Jesus. Amen. In

677
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 1: Look twenty two, remember Jesus when he was in G seventy.

678
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: Even God himself had a moment where he said, I

679
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: don't want to do this, but nevertheless, is there any

680
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: other way? Would you take this cup from me? When

681
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: was the last time that you thought, Oh, everything in

682
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: me wants to jump into bed with that person that's

683
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 1: not my spouse. But nevertheless, everything in me wants to

684
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 1: watch that. But nevertheless, and then we wonder why we're stuck.

685
00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 1: It's so amazing to me where we've lost sight of

686
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: our source of hope. It was never in other things,

687
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: It was always in Jesus, and he hasn't gone anywhere.

688
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: I know we've had a pandemic, but Jesus is still here.

689
00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 1: I know we've had political instability, but Jesus is still here.

690
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 1: I know we've got inflation, but Jesus is still on

691
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,799
Speaker 1: the throne. God is still on the throne. All the

692
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,280
Speaker 1: promises of God are in Christ. Jesus. Yes, and amen,

693
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:53,920
Speaker 1: Maybe you've drifted when you know you care a whole

694
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 1: lot more about everyone else's business than you do about

695
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: the father's business. We've got a whole industry on that

696
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 1: we're wondering why people are stuck because everyone knows everything

697
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 1: about everyone else's business and has an opinion about it.

698
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: It is amazing. Did you remember that in Luke where

699
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 1: Mary lost God for a few days? Do you remember

700
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 1: that when Jesus was a boy and she lost him

701
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 1: for three days? For every mother on Ephan watching this,

702
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,040
Speaker 1: every mother in the room, that just sets us all free,

703
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: because we've all forgotten our kid sometime at school, in

704
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: the supermarket somewhere. But Mary lost God for three days.

705
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:37,560
Speaker 1: I mean, that's awesome. And then when she comes to

706
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 1: the temple and finds him. Now, I tell my kids

707
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: never do what Jesus did in this instance. You're to

708
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 1: follow Jesus in every way, but not this, because he

709
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,759
Speaker 1: says to it, woman, I'm like, do not try this

710
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:52,360
Speaker 1: at home? He says, why were you looking for me?

711
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: Did you not know? I must be about the father's business. Oh,

712
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,800
Speaker 1: we are so distracted and stuck in everybody else's business,

713
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 1: forgotten to be about the Father's business on this earth

714
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 1: and to do what God has called us to do.

715
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 1: You know, maybe you've stuck and drifting when you talk

716
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: about it to everyone else more than you pray about

717
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,760
Speaker 1: it to God, when you post more than you pray,

718
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: your source of hope is no longer Jesus, because man,

719
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 1: I just hope someone hears my something. And I am

720
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 1: trying to get from people what I can only get

721
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 1: from God. And I wonder why I'm stuck. So I

722
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: could go on and on, but we're stuck in so

723
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 1: many different ways. We're stuck in our attitudes. We're stuck

724
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 1: in where we're looking for affirmation, where we're looking for significance,

725
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 1: where we're looking for security, where we're looking for this

726
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:44,919
Speaker 1: sense of value, where we're looking for this self actualization.

727
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 1: I mean, they're going to build some dig up a

728
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 1: time capsule sometime in the future and go what was

729
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 1: the most common phrase in twenty twenty two, And it'll

730
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 1: have this thing like you do you boo, And they're

731
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 1: going to need the interpretation of tongues. And then they're

732
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 1: going to need to go no, don't do you boo.

733
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: I feel like running around going no, no, no, no no,

734
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,840
Speaker 1: don't do you boo? Do Jesus boo. It doesn't go well.

735
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: Do you remember in the Book of Judges, when everyone

736
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 1: did what was right in their own eyes? It never

737
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: goes well. We get stuck. Stuck, remember us, wife, stuck

738
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 1: because we lose sight of our source of hope. He

739
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: hasn't gone anywhere. So what do we need to do

740
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:36,400
Speaker 1: as we move forward? Church? Because see, you have to

741
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 1: know your source of hope if you and I are

742
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,319
Speaker 1: going to keep moving forward and fulfill the will and

743
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,799
Speaker 1: the purpose of God. We were not finished elevation Church.

744
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,399
Speaker 1: Our greatest days are ahead of us and not behind us.

745
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:50,839
Speaker 1: There are more people to reach. There are more people

746
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,280
Speaker 1: to be saved, more people to be delivered, more people

747
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 1: to be healed, More marriage is to be restored, more

748
00:42:55,920 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: have seen relationships to be reconciled. We cannot stop, we

749
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: cannot look back. We've got to press on and lay

750
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: a hold of all of that for which Christ Jesus

751
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 1: has laid a hold of us. But that is entirely

752
00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:14,760
Speaker 1: cultural in this moment, because everyone wants you to stay

753
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: stuck in your offense, stuck in bitterness, stuck in unforgiveness.

754
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:22,720
Speaker 1: And what's at stake is a generation in the future,

755
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 1: That's what's at stake. Stay stuck in your mistakes and

756
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:29,480
Speaker 1: stuck in your figures. As if you can't move on

757
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 1: and into the promises of God. The whole narrative of

758
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: this generation is to stay stuck, and yet everything about

759
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 1: the Kingdom is moving forward towards God's grand tell us,

760
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 1: so we can't get stuck. Jesus is in the middle

761
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:48,759
Speaker 1: when the world is burning down and the bank can

762
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:53,040
Speaker 1: come up. While the world's burning, Jesus is like, could

763
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:57,880
Speaker 1: you remember Lot's wife? Don't look back, don't even look

764
00:43:57,920 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: back at your great success days. We glance back at

765
00:43:59,920 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: the God for them. By some of you were still

766
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,719
Speaker 1: talking about your trophy from high school football. That was

767
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: forty years ago, and you've been stuck ever since. We

768
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:15,839
Speaker 1: don't want to become that as a church. We don't

769
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 1: want to be talking about what God did, what we

770
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: used to, seeing what we're used to. No, no no, no, no,

771
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:23,919
Speaker 1: have greatest days right hand. We can't look back. We've

772
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 1: got to press on. We've got to move forward. And

773
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: the only way we're going to do that going into

774
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:34,360
Speaker 1: this season is that you and I, as followers of

775
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:38,080
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, all our epham around the world, we've got

776
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 1: to remember what our source of hope is so that

777
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,799
Speaker 1: when trials come, because they will, Jesus said, when trials

778
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 1: do come, you will have in this world trials. Peter says,

779
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: do not be surprised by the Fiery Travel Trial. I

780
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:53,800
Speaker 1: feel like, to all half the Christians, why were you surprised?

781
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 1: Don't you read the Bible? Obviously not. I think James

782
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 1: was considered it pure joy. I'm like, consider a joy.

783
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's whatever is that we have to know

784
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 1: where our source of hope is because that hope is

785
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,960
Speaker 1: limitless in a world that is hopeless, in a world

786
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 1: that is gripped with fear, in a world that is

787
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 1: gripped with animosity, with divisiveness, with chaos. We Christians have

788
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: to have this sense of hope. But it only comes

789
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 1: in christ That's what we've learned. It's not going to

790
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: come in money, position, title, accolades. No, no, no, we've

791
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: seen all of that the last few years. Full anywhere

792
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 1: we had misplaced hope. Jesus is like, how about a

793
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: hope realignment? Because I'm about the only one that you

794
00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:42,920
Speaker 1: could be sure of. And so the very first staff

795
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 1: meeting we had on Zoom. So we're in March twenty

796
00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 1: twenty three and twenty twenty. I'm already prophetically into next year,

797
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 1: and so we're in March twenty twenty and no one knew.

798
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: It was like week one of the pandemic, so nobody knew.

799
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 1: So we would meet like everybody else. We've got at

800
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,759
Speaker 1: a twenty one nineteen offices in fifteen countries, so we

801
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: had everyone on zoom. And for the last two years,

802
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: I've been calling it the upper Zoom Room, and so

803
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:14,440
Speaker 1: we've been meeting in the upper Zoom Room, and all

804
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 1: of us were on lockdown. I live in California, so again,

805
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 1: unless you were in you know, Texas or Florida, the

806
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: rest of all of our country offices were on lockdown.

807
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 1: And so I said to them, we're prisoners of sorts

808
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 1: right now. But we can't we can't change that. We

809
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: can't change that. We're all prisoners. We're all on lockdown

810
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,880
Speaker 1: around the world. I said, But although we can't choose

811
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:40,960
Speaker 1: the fact of whether we're prisoners or not, we can

812
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,400
Speaker 1: choose the kind of prisoners that we're going to be.

813
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,840
Speaker 1: And in Zachariah chapter nine, verse twelve, the prophet says,

814
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: return to a stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Today I

815
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:54,640
Speaker 1: have declared that I will restore to you double And

816
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 1: what happened was the children of Israel were in bondage,

817
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 1: and they were in captivity in Babylon for seventy years.

818
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:05,000
Speaker 1: And they came back and they thought Jerusalem and the Temple,

819
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: they were coming back, Man, things are going to be

820
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 1: back to normal. Except it wasn't. The city was decimated,

821
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 1: the temple was in ruins, the city walls were in ruins,

822
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:22,239
Speaker 1: and they were surrounded by enemies. And the prophet said

823
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:25,520
Speaker 1: to them, you were once prisoners in Babylon. Now you've

824
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:27,839
Speaker 1: gone back, and there's a big rebuilding project that has

825
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: to happen in Jerusalem. But you need to become prisoners

826
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 1: of hope. So he says, return to your stronghold, Jesus,

827
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 1: you prisoners of hope. And I said, oh, we're making

828
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 1: a decision in this ministry. We're not going to be

829
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 1: prisoners of despair, or prisoners of fear, or prisoners of doubt,

830
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 1: or prisoners of negativity, or prisoners of unbelief. But we

831
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 1: are going to be prisoners of hope. Why Because Jesus

832
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,759
Speaker 1: is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul,

833
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,920
Speaker 1: both firm and secure. And he hasn't gone anywhere. He

834
00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 1: said he'll never leave us, not for say, he said,

835
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,439
Speaker 1: all of the promises of God are in Him, in

836
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, Yes, and I am amen. Yes we've got

837
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 1: a pandemic, Yes we've got political instability. Yes we've got

838
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:14,280
Speaker 1: a lot of problems morally and sociologically and environmentally. But Jesus,

839
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: is this hope I have as an anchor for my soul,

840
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 1: both firm and secure. And then I made them all

841
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 1: right down, and I said to them, the prophet said,

842
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: and I will restore to you double nay. Listen. During

843
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 1: a pandemic and during there's a war, we had to

844
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 1: evacuate our Ukraine office and move them to Warsaw. Of course,

845
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 1: just the women and children. Some of those kids haven't

846
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: seen their dad for a year. They're still over in Kiev.

847
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 1: And we had to evacuate that office. And in the

848
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,439
Speaker 1: midst of it all we said to them, I said,

849
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 1: I need you to get a pen and paper. Of course,

850
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 1: they were millennials, all my staff, so they didn't know

851
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: what that one was. So I had to show them.

852
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:55,920
Speaker 1: This is a pen and paper, and I said, I

853
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: want you to write on that piece of paper the

854
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 1: word double. I said, I don't know how this is

855
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:02,040
Speaker 1: going to happen, I said, but in a sense. I'm

856
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,960
Speaker 1: glad this has happened, because you guys are about to

857
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:07,839
Speaker 1: realize how much you've been writing in the slipstream of

858
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: mine and Nick's faith. I said, you think, I said,

859
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:13,040
Speaker 1: You're about to learn that it's not a blue check

860
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:15,360
Speaker 1: mark or a cute Instagram post with a nice filter

861
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:18,280
Speaker 1: that's got the anointing on it. See, I said, before

862
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:20,880
Speaker 1: before there was ever any Internet, or before there was

863
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:25,279
Speaker 1: ever any you know, social media, or before there was

864
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: any marketing plan, I said, I don't know. I see.

865
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:28,960
Speaker 1: I know what it is to be marked by God,

866
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:30,239
Speaker 1: and I know what it's like to go into the

867
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:32,480
Speaker 1: prayer closet and to lay a hold of God and

868
00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:35,200
Speaker 1: the promises of God and the purposes of God and

869
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:37,720
Speaker 1: the provision of God. I said. For some of you,

870
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 1: you think, but you know, marketing does all of this.

871
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,000
Speaker 1: I said, You're about to discover that being marked by

872
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: God is much better than being marketed by man. That

873
00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: all the promises are in God. I said, So you're

874
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 1: going to go into your rooms and you're going to

875
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 1: learn how to pray, and you're going to learn how

876
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: to see God breakthrough. And I said, and when we

877
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: come out of this lockdown, period. I'm believing God that

878
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,719
Speaker 1: during our lockdown, when it would seem in possible to

879
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 1: see people, women and children and men rescued, when it

880
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 1: would seem impossible to see traffic as prosecuted and sentenced

881
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:10,200
Speaker 1: and in prison, I said, I'm believing God that we're

882
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:12,680
Speaker 1: going to see double This is in March twenty twenty.

883
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 1: I said, because the same God's with us now that

884
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: he's with us when we're not in a lockdown. So

885
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 1: I'm believing for double the rescues. I'm believing for double

886
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 1: the convictions. I'm believing for double the partners. And as

887
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,120
Speaker 1: I live and breathe by the grace of God, I'm

888
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 1: here in October twenty twenty two, by the grace of God,

889
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 1: during some of the most catastrophic unstable times on the planet.

890
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:40,400
Speaker 1: We have never had more victims rescued in the history

891
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:43,680
Speaker 1: of A twenty one, never seen more people away or

892
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:49,640
Speaker 1: reaching more people in the same way that this ministry

893
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 1: has exploded. You can be seated, and I'm going to

894
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,719
Speaker 1: wrap up because we're prisoners of hope, not because we're

895
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 1: also but because God's awesome. Because when you know your source,

896
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 1: and you know what your source of hope is when

897
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,360
Speaker 1: all your circumstances don't align, you don't crumble, and you

898
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 1: don't drift, because Jesus is this hope we have. So

899
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 1: let me read this over you. Elevation Philippians three thirteen.

900
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 1: It's time, elevation, to start forgetting, to start straining, and

901
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 1: to start pressing. It's time, brothers. I do not consider

902
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 1: that I have made it my own, but one thing

903
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:32,919
Speaker 1: I do for rights, forgetting what lies behind and straining

904
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 1: forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the

905
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:43,280
Speaker 1: goal for the price of the upward call in Christ Jesus.

906
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:45,840
Speaker 1: So what we need to do is to be a

907
00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 1: church that says, you know what, I'm not staying stuck.

908
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:52,279
Speaker 1: Whatever has happened in my life. Yes, I know there

909
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,200
Speaker 1: have been challenges. Yes I know there's been trauma. Yes

910
00:51:55,280 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 1: I know there has been bitterness, and there's been unforgiveness.

911
00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:01,000
Speaker 1: And yes I know there's been offenses. I'm being disappointed

912
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:04,879
Speaker 1: and I've been discouraged, and I've been disillusioned. I understand,

913
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: but it's time that I forget. That doesn't mean that

914
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:11,080
Speaker 1: I pretend it didn't happen. I'm not diminishing that at all.

915
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: The blood of Jesus doesn't give you amnesia, but it

916
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: does give you a life beyond your past. It gives

917
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 1: you a life you know, and your history does not

918
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:22,040
Speaker 1: need to define your destiny. You say, I'm forgetting those

919
00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 1: things don't lie behind both the good and the bad.

920
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:28,080
Speaker 1: And I'm straining. Oh. I haven't strained for a while

921
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:30,400
Speaker 1: because I've been needing my cheerios in my fed. But

922
00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:32,759
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start to get a little bit uncomfortable now

923
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,799
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start to strain. I'm gonna start to

924
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:39,280
Speaker 1: exert a force, and I'm gonna press We're gonna press

925
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: on to what it is that God has. I'm gonna

926
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 1: exert a steady force against empathy, against indifference, against comfort,

927
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:52,239
Speaker 1: against defense or bitterness or disappointment or disillusionment. And I

928
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:54,439
Speaker 1: determined that I am gonna lay a hold of all

929
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:58,000
Speaker 1: of that for which Christ Jesus letty a hold of me.

930
00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 1: I might be small, but my Goddess bid I might

931
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 1: be limited, but my God iss littless. I might be finite,

932
00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:07,160
Speaker 1: but my God he's in for that. And I am

933
00:53:07,239 --> 00:53:12,640
Speaker 1: able to do exceedingly abundantly about and beyond anything that

934
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: we don't ask hypel thing according to that power that

935
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:22,720
Speaker 1: works in our Elevation Church. Remember Lot's what don't look back,

936
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,920
Speaker 1: press on forward in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you

937
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:30,719
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love

938
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,880
Speaker 1: for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and

939
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 1: review this podcast. You can also help us reach others

940
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash gift

941
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.