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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation

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Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank

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Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope

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Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to

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Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

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Speaker 1: All right, let me tell you a story. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to ease into the message. We are not singing rattle again,

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Speaker 1: y'all trick me into that last week, and I never

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Speaker 1: really got to preach a real sermon. You hear me, Joey,

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Speaker 1: do not start that Joe Perry guitar thing up again.

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Speaker 1: That is the devil back there. Get behind me, Satan,

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Speaker 1: get behind me. Signa, Joey, signa everybody. The greatest rock

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Speaker 1: and roll worship guitar track of the last twenty years

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Speaker 1: was on Rattle. And let me tell you, you'll can

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Speaker 1: go ahead and sit down and stuff and if there's

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Speaker 1: any debris around, just clear it out. They're gonna come

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Speaker 1: back and sit on stools so that I don't feel

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Speaker 1: completely and totally alone. You can sit down to if

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Speaker 1: you want to. I don't care what you do. Whatever

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Speaker 1: you need to do to get your faith charged. I

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Speaker 1: saw some people listening to me preach this week and

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Speaker 1: they were doing tabata squats with my sermon. I was like, cool, man,

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Speaker 1: way to be creative, right, that's what I call exercising

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Speaker 1: your faith. Yeah, it's really cool, and we need some exercise.

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Speaker 1: So's I'm looking out for you. I realized that some

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Speaker 1: of y'all have not moved that much as you just

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Speaker 1: did in the last eight minutes, in the last eight days.

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Speaker 1: So we're just trying to look after your spiritual and

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Speaker 1: body at Elevation Church. And what God gave me today

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Speaker 1: kind of goes along with this idea of just put

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Speaker 1: this in the chat, all right, that's my thing right now.

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Speaker 1: I can't touch your neighbor. I can't hug your neighbor.

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Speaker 1: I can't do anything with neighbors. We're not even allowed

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Speaker 1: to make eye contact with our neighbors. I'm so scared

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Speaker 1: of my neighbors right now. My neighbors are wearing masks

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Speaker 1: and gloves, and I don't know what to do with

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Speaker 1: my neighbors. So we're just chatting. We're just putting it

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Speaker 1: in the chat. That's the new touch your neighbor. I

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Speaker 1: want somebody to make a T shirt this week. Put

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Speaker 1: it in the chat. It's the new touch your neighbor.

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Speaker 1: We're starting it together. It's a revolution. But just put

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Speaker 1: it in the chat real quick. Say this is not normal.

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Speaker 1: This is not normal. That's really such an expansive thought

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Speaker 1: that I think I may spend the next several weeks

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Speaker 1: just unpacking the idea of normal as we know it

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Speaker 1: is over. You realize that, right, And so last week

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Speaker 1: when we were getting ready for Easter, and I was thinking, well,

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Speaker 1: what do you wear on Easter Sunday when there's nobody

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Speaker 1: else in the room. I was like, oh, man, we

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Speaker 1: should do a nice, normal Easter service because there's going

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Speaker 1: to be more people watching us than ever before, and

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Speaker 1: so I don't want to make a bad impression on

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Speaker 1: the first time visitors or give anybody heart palpitations. And

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Speaker 1: we were releasing this song called Rattle that sounds like

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Speaker 1: an Easter song, right, I was like, God, this is

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Speaker 1: not normal. Like East There ever was, Like people getting

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Speaker 1: up out of tombs is so normal. Like the dead

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Speaker 1: rising again is just an everyday occurrence. Like the idea

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Speaker 1: that an angel just moved a stone out of the

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Speaker 1: way and somebody who had been there hours ago was

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Speaker 1: no longer there is normal, And they got me thinking

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Speaker 1: about this phrase that you're hearing a lot right now

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Speaker 1: from people, and I actually want to take my time

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Speaker 1: with this. I don't know if this message can be

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Speaker 1: completed in a week or three weeks or four weeks.

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Speaker 1: But uh, I don't know if I might preach I

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Speaker 1: might have to preach long today. Are y'all good? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I might have to preach long today. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: So you may need to cancel your lunch plans. What

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Speaker 1: am I saying? You don't have any lunch plans. You

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Speaker 1: don't have any plans for anything. This is like a

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Speaker 1: preacher's dream come true. You are so captive right now,

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Speaker 1: so we could just do it, okay, The main thing

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Speaker 1: you might have to do is turn your crockpot down.

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Speaker 1: But this is not normal. This is not normal. And

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Speaker 1: we hear a phrase a lot. At least I do

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Speaker 1: right now and listen since this is not a normal weekend.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a normal preacher. This is not a normal church.

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Speaker 1: You're not a normal person either. Matter of fact, the

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Speaker 1: only people that think you're normal are the people who

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Speaker 1: don't know you. John Hortberg wrote a book called everybody's

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Speaker 1: normal till you get to know them. So anybody that

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Speaker 1: you think is normal is somebody that you don't really know.

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Speaker 1: Come on, talk to me. There's like five people that

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Speaker 1: I'm paying to be out here and I can't get

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Speaker 1: them to talk to me. Everybody's normal. John Hortburg said,

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Speaker 1: till you get to know them. Your wife is weird.

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Speaker 1: You didn't see the weirdness of your wife when you

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Speaker 1: were dating her. You were wife. Your wife was weird

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Speaker 1: when you met her, You just didn't know her yet.

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Speaker 1: And so what we're looking at right now is a

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Speaker 1: sentiment that a lot of people feel. And here's what

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Speaker 1: I'm doing. I did not give them my title for

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Speaker 1: the message because I wanted to try something new today

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Speaker 1: rather than put it up on the screen fancy. I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do my own special effects today because I

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Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen in the next weeks

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Speaker 1: to come. But what if we can't put the title

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Speaker 1: up anymore and I still need to preach to people, Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to make my own title card. Okay, I'm

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Speaker 1: doing my own stunts today. And here's the phrase I've

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Speaker 1: been hearing from a lot of people. I'm gonna show

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Speaker 1: you this. Get ready to zoom in on it once

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Speaker 1: I write it. But I've heard this, oh man, like

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Speaker 1: I've heard it at least one hundred times, whether it's

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Speaker 1: people on the news or people that I know are

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Speaker 1: our staff here at Elevation. And here's the phrase. This

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Speaker 1: seems to be the goal. Let me shut up for

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Speaker 1: a minute so I can concentrate on writing. I'm not

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Speaker 1: a very good multitasker spell anything. Oh I love it

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Speaker 1: because I've heard this a million times, and I bet

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Speaker 1: you've said it a few times too. Here's the phrase.

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Speaker 1: I'm hearing this a lot. Can y'all see it? I

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Speaker 1: can't see whether you can see it or not, because

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Speaker 1: there's no like imag in the screen, because there's nobody

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Speaker 1: in the room that needs to see. I'm mag this

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Speaker 1: is not normal. Normally, I would just look over here

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Speaker 1: to my left or my right, and I would see

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Speaker 1: if it's a tight shot. But can y'all see it?

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Speaker 1: Is it a good shot? This is what I'm hearing

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Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about right now. And this

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Speaker 1: is just a piece of Elevation Church stationary. I just

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Speaker 1: wrote it down because this is not a normal Sunday,

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Speaker 1: So I didn't want to preach a normal sermon to

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Speaker 1: a normal title, but I'm hearing this right now, like,

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Speaker 1: oh man, I just can't wait till things get back

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Speaker 1: to normal. Okay, put that in the chat. If your

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Speaker 1: thumb still work, put it in the chat. Getting back

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Speaker 1: to normal. I'm hearing a lot of people talk about

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Speaker 1: how long is it going to be before things get

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Speaker 1: back to normal? And honestly, I'm ready for some normalcy

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Speaker 1: in the fird E zip code as well. I really am.

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Speaker 1: I'm ready for some I'm ready for some normalcy to

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Speaker 1: our schedules. I'm ready for some normalcya to date, nights

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Speaker 1: with my wife. I mean, I know that sounds like real,

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Speaker 1: fancy or freely at a time when people are hurting

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Speaker 1: so much, but there's something nice about things just being normal,

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Speaker 1: even little things being normal. Like I don't even like

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Speaker 1: sports that much, but I miss them. I don't even

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Speaker 1: care about the outcome. I just I just like to

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Speaker 1: have it in the background because it's normal. It's normal.

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Speaker 1: Normal is nice, and you really don't realize how much

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Speaker 1: you need normal until you are forced to live without it.

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Speaker 1: Because I was talking to one of my friends about

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Speaker 1: normal the other day and I promise you I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: preach from the scripture in a moment, because my scriptures

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Speaker 1: are Exodus fourteen ten through fifteen and Romans twelve one

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Speaker 1: and two. So go ahead and turn to those two books,

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Speaker 1: one of the Old Testament, one in the New. But

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Speaker 1: I've been hearing this phrase so much, oh man, I

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Speaker 1: just can't wait till things get back to normal. But

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Speaker 1: something arrested my attention the other day is that the

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Speaker 1: person who was saying to me how much that she

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Speaker 1: was waiting for stuff to get back to normal had

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Speaker 1: complained to me two months ago, before any of this

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Speaker 1: global pandemic started, about how much she hated her life.

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Speaker 1: And that was weird to me because the normal that

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Speaker 1: she had been complaining about two months ago was the

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Speaker 1: normal that she would give anything to get back to

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Speaker 1: right now. Some of us would give anything for normal

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Speaker 1: right about now, would give anything to get to deal

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Speaker 1: with the annoying person that you work next to. If

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Speaker 1: you could get back to work. Oh, I would sit

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Speaker 1: next to Teresa all day and pretend like her stories

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Speaker 1: were good and funny and interesting and her breath didn't

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Speaker 1: smell that. I would love some normal right about now.

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Speaker 1: It's like when you go to college. You know, if

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Speaker 1: you went to college and you hated your hometown and

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Speaker 1: then you get dropped off in the middle of a

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Speaker 1: new world and nothing is familiar and you were complaining.

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Speaker 1: I just can't wait to leave Monk's Corner. I shout

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Speaker 1: out Monk's corner. We sent convoy of hope and elevation,

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Speaker 1: outreach resources and teams all week to help those who

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Speaker 1: were devastated. You're gonna be seeing about that soon if

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Speaker 1: you haven't already. But man, I hated my hometown for

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Speaker 1: a minute till I left it, and then everything that

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Speaker 1: felt small to me started to feel I don't know,

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Speaker 1: like instead of confining, it felt comforting. Here here's what

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, because I think I'm being a

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Speaker 1: a little bit too vague for you. Okay, some of

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Speaker 1: the stuff that you're praying for right now is the

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Speaker 1: same stuff you were praying away two months ago. And

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Speaker 1: in the weird how quick we can shift to where

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Speaker 1: what we want to get back to is the same

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Speaker 1: thing that we wanted to escape from. Y'all ain't helping

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Speaker 1: the preacher a bit today. It is so so easy

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Speaker 1: in a moment like this for us to make our

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Speaker 1: goal getting back to normal. But here's what the Lord

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Speaker 1: showed me. This is where I need my hot pink sharpie.

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Speaker 1: I think red would have been better, but I couldn't

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Speaker 1: find one. So I'm doing hot pink and I want

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Speaker 1: us to shift our mentality today. And this may be

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Speaker 1: a whole teaching series. I don't know, because I'm hearing

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Speaker 1: so many people say I want to get back to normal.

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Speaker 1: I want to get back to the way things were.

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Speaker 1: I want to get back to I want to get

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Speaker 1: back to And the Lord post a question to me

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Speaker 1: this week, what if normal isn't something to get back to?

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Speaker 1: What if normal is something to look forward to? And

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Speaker 1: what if the normal that we knew is not the

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Speaker 1: normal that God is leading us into. Next I'm about

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Speaker 1: to throw my title card at uhale. This might be

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Speaker 1: the most annointed message that I've ever preached in my life.

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Speaker 1: It's called looking forward to normal. Why do we assume

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Speaker 1: that normal is back there? Why would we, as Christians

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Speaker 1: who serve a God who is always moving forward from

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Speaker 1: glory to glory, from strength to strength. Why would we

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Speaker 1: serve a God like that whose very essence is defined

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Speaker 1: by resurrection? Why would we serve a God who is

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Speaker 1: defined by resurrection, new beginnings, and think that the whole

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Speaker 1: goal is to get back to something that we knew before.

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Speaker 1: And I hope that certain things are normal again. I

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Speaker 1: hope for God's sake that my kids can go back

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Speaker 1: to real school again. For God's sake, that certain things

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Speaker 1: in our society change. I hope for God's sake that

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Speaker 1: there's a time where, you know, these chairs can be

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Speaker 1: full of people again. And even the obnoxious parking volunteers

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Speaker 1: at elevation, I missed them today. You know, the ones

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Speaker 1: that do too much. You know, the extra parking volunteers

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Speaker 1: where you're like, is a forty five and they'll take

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Speaker 1: all that. Just wave me to my parking man. Just

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Speaker 1: because you gotta baton doesn't mean you have to act

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Speaker 1: like a clown. But I even miss I even missed

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Speaker 1: the hyperactive parking volunteers. I even missed the people in

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Speaker 1: the church who look bored while I was preaching, the

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Speaker 1: ones who looked like terrorists when I was preaching to them.

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Speaker 1: I miss him. Now want normal back. But God has

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Speaker 1: been speaking to my spirit e family. God has been

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Speaker 1: speaking to my spirit Indonesia. God has been speaking to

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Speaker 1: my spirit and yours too, but you just didn't have

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Speaker 1: the language for it. God said, I'm bringing you into

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Speaker 1: a new normal because what you thought was normal wasn't

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Speaker 1: really normal. It was just what you knew. And I'm

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Speaker 1: going to show you this from the scripture. Turn in

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Speaker 1: your bible, or let's be honest, just wait for it

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Speaker 1: to come on the screen. I'm acting like y'all got

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Speaker 1: books spread out all over the coffee table. The fact

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Speaker 1: of the matter is you're probably stirring your meal right now.

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Speaker 1: But turn in your Bible to Exodus chapter fourteen, and

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Speaker 1: let me show you how God's people have always been

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Speaker 1: trying to go back to normal at the moments when

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Speaker 1: God is trying to bring us into something new. Now.

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Speaker 1: This message is for my business owners in the church,

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Speaker 1: those of you who are hoping things go back to normal,

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Speaker 1: but you know that they won't, but you don't know

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Speaker 1: what to do. This message is for those in the

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Speaker 1: church who are trying to deal with the level of

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Speaker 1: uncertainty that was unprecedented in your life before, and you're

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Speaker 1: just trying to even get a daily schedule figured out.

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Speaker 1: This message is for you. This message is even for

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Speaker 1: those who have lost something in this season that you

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Speaker 1: will never get back again. And the question becomes, what

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Speaker 1: is the new normal that God has known all along?

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Speaker 1: What is the what is the new normal that I

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Speaker 1: should look forward to? Now remember this and write it down.

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Speaker 1: Faith looks forward, Faith looks forward. And you'll see in

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Speaker 1: Exodus chapter fourteen, remember a nation who has only known

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Speaker 1: slavery in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years, when

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Speaker 1: that is all you've known, that's what is normal. On

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Speaker 1: one hand, they hated it. They hated it because not

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Speaker 1: only was there no freedom in it, but there was

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Speaker 1: frustration that was increasing because the Egyptian task masters had

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Speaker 1: begun to require more from the Israelites than they could

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Speaker 1: reasonably do. I mean, they'd make them make bricks, but

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Speaker 1: they wouldn't give them straw. Go fetch your own straw

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Speaker 1: and make the same number of bricks. So you still

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Speaker 1: got to fulfill your quota, but you're not going to

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Speaker 1: have enough to do it with. So now listen, this

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Speaker 1: is a generation of people who had gotten used to

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Speaker 1: never having enough. I wonder for us, has never enough

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Speaker 1: become our normal? Like I'm not talking about last week

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Speaker 1: or the week before that, and I'm not talking about

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Speaker 1: bank account. I think the spirit of this age is

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Speaker 1: the spirit of never enough. We can never get enough information,

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Speaker 1: we can never get enough what we call connection, it's

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Speaker 1: not really connection. It's just it's just the apparatus. It's

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Speaker 1: just the illusion of connection that really keeps us more

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Speaker 1: fragmented than ever before. So now we call ourselves connected

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Speaker 1: in the world because we have social media. I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: about introducing a new trend. Social distancing is catching on.

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Speaker 1: We're practicing it right now. But how about social media distancing.

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Speaker 1: That's when you can go more than five minutes without

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Speaker 1: your phone. Y'all ain't saying nothing. Social media distancing. It's

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Speaker 1: a thing. Put it in the chat. Five minutes without

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Speaker 1: your phone. See us now is just completely normal for

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Speaker 1: us to be overloaded all the time and just to

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Speaker 1: have access to everything that's happening in the world. And

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Speaker 1: then we wonder, why are we so fearful? Why can't

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Speaker 1: we feel It's because we were never intended to carry

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Speaker 1: so much in our minds and in our hearts. But

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Speaker 1: to us, it's just normal. We're used to making bricks

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Speaker 1: without straw. Many of us are used to never really

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Speaker 1: getting a good night's sleep. It's just normal. We're used

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Speaker 1: to running around this and that and the other. We're

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Speaker 1: used to spending too much money. It's normal, totally normal.

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Speaker 1: It's what the neighbors do, it's what my dad did,

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Speaker 1: it's what my dad's dead. So what we're seeing in

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Speaker 1: Exodus fourteen isn't just God's people coming out of Egypt

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Speaker 1: as a territory. They're coming out of what they've known

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Speaker 1: as normal. So while it sounds sexy, open the grave,

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Speaker 1: I'm coming out, I'm gonna live. But what if you've

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Speaker 1: gotten so used to death that real life seems weird?

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Speaker 1: Get back to normal? I'm not so sure. Now this

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Speaker 1: is how the Israelites expressed it. You already Exitus fourteen

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Speaker 1: to ten, As Pharaoh approached, wait, Pharaoh represents fear. Pharaoh

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Speaker 1: represents the old got it. Pharaoh said eat you eat.

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Speaker 1: Pharaoh said make bricks, You make bricks. Pharaoh is the

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Speaker 1: old boss, the old regime. Pharaoh is the old ruler.

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Speaker 1: But he's also the one who fed you. So Pharaoh

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Speaker 1: is the one who fed you, and Pharaoh is the

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Speaker 1: one that you fear. A lot of the things that

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Speaker 1: we get used to meet certain needs in our life,

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Speaker 1: and until we know a better way to meet that need,

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Speaker 1: we will always depend on the wrong source. That's what

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Speaker 1: addiction is. It meets a need that's for some of you.

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Speaker 1: What that person that you keep running back to every

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Speaker 1: three weeks that isn't good for you is that's a

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Speaker 1: form of Pharaoh. That's what certain thought patterns that we

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Speaker 1: embrace are to us. See, they're familiar. And this is

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Speaker 1: the principle that I want to show you. When you

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Speaker 1: are afraid, you reach for what's familiar. When you are afraid,

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Speaker 1: you reach for what's familiar. And this is very explicit

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Speaker 1: in Exodus fourteen, chapter fourteen, verse ten. As Pharaoh approached,

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Speaker 1: the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians, the

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Speaker 1: ones they were running from, marching after them. They were

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Speaker 1: what does the next word say? Terrified? They were afraid.

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Speaker 1: Put that right there on one side. They were afraid.

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Speaker 1: They experienced fear. They were terrified, And right out to

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Speaker 1: the Lord they said to Moses, was it because there

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Speaker 1: were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to

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Speaker 1: the desert to die? The sarcasm is dripping in this statement.

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Speaker 1: Egypt was famous for grapes. Three quarters of their land

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Speaker 1: mass was set aside for graves. So when they say,

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Speaker 1: were there no graves in Egypt, it's like saying, were

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Speaker 1: there no trees in Charlotte. It's like saying, was there

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Speaker 1: no orange at elevation? It's like saying, was there no

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Speaker 1: electric guitar in slash? I'm gonna keep trying to light

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Speaker 1: hit somebody. It's like, that's what Egypt was known for.

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Speaker 1: It was known for graves. And watch this. When you

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Speaker 1: feel afraid, you crave familiar, even if familiar is killing you,

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Speaker 1: killing them. And on one hand, they're crying out, get

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Speaker 1: us out of here. We'll go anywhere, We'll do anything. God,

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Speaker 1: just make it stop. Some of y'all were praying that

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Speaker 1: three months ago. God, I need a change. God. This

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Speaker 1: is not working. God. I'm not happy. God, I don't

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Speaker 1: feel joyful. Remember remember three months ago when you were

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Speaker 1: praying God helped me get my priorities. Remember your New

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Speaker 1: Year's resolutions. I know that was like BC before Corona.

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Speaker 1: You're like, oh, well, I've gained seventeen pounds in sin.

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Speaker 1: I'm just trying to breathe. That's my new New Year's resolution.

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Speaker 1: Take another breath, tak another breath, Take another breath. But

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Speaker 1: when you feel fear, you reach for familiar. When God

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Speaker 1: showed me this, I realized why to me, sometimes negative

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Speaker 1: feels normal. A lot of times when I'm feeling uncertain, unstable,

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Speaker 1: little thing, big thing, I reached for something negative because

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Speaker 1: negative is what I know, not because I had horrible parents.

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Speaker 1: I had great parents. But I will say this, my

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Speaker 1: dad was not normal. His childhood was not normal. His

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Speaker 1: dad killed himself when he was nine on his ninth birthday.

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Speaker 1: That was not normal. In fact, one of the last

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Speaker 1: things that my dad said to me while he was alive,

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Speaker 1: he said, I only ever wanted to be normal. He

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Speaker 1: was talking about how through his upbringing, when he was

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Speaker 1: sent to reform school, and just the different things that

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Speaker 1: happened in his life, you know, blowing through two marriages

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Speaker 1: before he met my mom and all of that. He

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Speaker 1: was saying, I just always wanted to be normal. I've

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Speaker 1: never been normal. I've never been normal. I've never been normal.

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Speaker 1: The Bible says that about Moses, who was leading the

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Speaker 1: people out of Egypt. Did you know that says in

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Speaker 1: Acts chapter seven, verse twenty that Moses was no ordinary child.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that cool? So say this as a compliment to

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Speaker 1: whoever you're sitting next to and I hope this doesn't

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Speaker 1: start an argument. Tell them you're not normal. In fact,

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Speaker 1: tell them stronger, say you've never been normal. You've never

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Speaker 1: been normal. There's nothing normal about you. And you look

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Speaker 1: at Josh and just tell him. Come on, say it

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Speaker 1: in the Josh Blackton voice. You've never been normal, Josh

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Speaker 1: blacks in the deepest voice. And the man from Michigan.

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Speaker 1: You should have sayen based in a southern gospel quartet.

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Speaker 1: Only problem is your tone deaf, but you got the

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Speaker 1: range for it. You've never been normal. You were a

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Speaker 1: boy scout, but you weren't normal. See look, normal is

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Speaker 1: just a story that you've told yourself. And so the Israelites,

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Speaker 1: God help them. They are standing at a red Sea,

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Speaker 1: which is a body of water that they have no

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Speaker 1: con coext for. Like us, right now, we have no

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Speaker 1: context for this crisis. We have no context for this challenge.

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Speaker 1: We have no precedents for this global pandemic because we've

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Speaker 1: never lived through one. So when they fell terrified, watch

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Speaker 1: what they did. They craved familiar. Were there no graves

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Speaker 1: in Egypt. We'd rather be dead in Egypt than alive

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Speaker 1: in uncertainty. They craved the grave over having to stand

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Speaker 1: in front of something in an uncertain situation, And so

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Speaker 1: do we We do it all the time. We go

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Speaker 1: back to places that kill us, people that kill us,

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Speaker 1: patterns that kill us, routines that kill us, bottles that

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Speaker 1: kill us, pills that kill us, stations that kill us,

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Speaker 1: feeds that kill us, keep going websites that kill us,

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Speaker 1: accounts that kill us, thoughts to kill us. Because it's normal.

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Speaker 1: Normal is nice. Normal is nice if you don't think so.

402
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Speaker 1: You never had a nice old sweatshirt. It's nice because

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00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,239
Speaker 1: it's normal. It's not nice because it looks good. It

404
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: looks terrible. You look homeless, but it's normal. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: like this. This is my good sweatshirt. These are my

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Speaker 1: good underwear with seven holes in it. But it's got

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Speaker 1: seven holes. But it's normal. It feels familiar. So watch this. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm annointed by the spirit of God today to help

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Speaker 1: you see normal is not all that is wanted to

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Speaker 1: be the way it was. We want to go back

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Speaker 1: to Egypt. Take us back to Egypt, the place you

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Speaker 1: were crying out to God to take you from. Now

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Speaker 1: you want to go back, Yeah, I want to go back.

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Speaker 1: I want to go back to normal. God, I will

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Speaker 1: never complain about my kid's teacher again, as long as

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Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be me. I'm going back to normal. Normal.

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Speaker 1: I just want normal, just normal, something normal. That's why

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Speaker 1: I wanted to come in the building to preach to you.

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Speaker 1: It's like, do you want to do it in a studio?

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Speaker 1: I was like no, no no, no, no no, because I

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Speaker 1: want people to get a little bit of normal. I

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Speaker 1: think it'll help people, even our e fam that meets

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Speaker 1: all over the world. And y'all, when I say all

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Speaker 1: over the world, watch the chat. Put in the chat

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00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 1: if you're from somewhere other than Charlotte, and put where

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Speaker 1: it is. And I just want you to see I'm

427
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 1: not lying, because there's nothing normal about this church. You know,

428
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: the church I grew up in, it was like one

429
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,639
Speaker 1: hundred people. It was an amazing church. But in the

430
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: town amongst corner is only six thousand. That was my normal.

431
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: So as the ministry grows bigger, to me, it's not familiar.

432
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: So sometimes I fear when something is expanding or getting

433
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 1: bigger because it's not normal to me. So it's really

434
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,160
Speaker 1: difficult for us to understand those of us that were

435
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: coming to church buildings in river Walk and Concord. Oh God,

436
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: we're building a building for Concord. Now we don't get

437
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: to use it, and so back on. Just let us

438
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 1: get back to the plan. Let us get back to

439
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,360
Speaker 1: the let us get back to the thing we had

440
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,679
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. I know I was complaining about it,

441
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,359
Speaker 1: but I'll take it. I'll take it. I'm sorry, I'm

442
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: s sorry. Give it back, get back, give me a

443
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: job back. I'm so sorry. God, give my car back.

444
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: I'll ride my Honda Courd. Just let me take it somewhere.

445
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 1: Just have something for me to do. God, I'll do it.

446
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it, because

447
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 1: when you're in something you don't know, you crave normal.

448
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 1: Do you see all those cities and hamlets and provinces

449
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:21,400
Speaker 1: on that screen. I can't read them all out. There's

450
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,640
Speaker 1: too many. That's amazing, you know. I used to say

451
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: this all the time to our church. I used to say,

452
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: to the people who could come to church here and

453
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 1: a physical location, I would say, some people came here

454
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: this weekend on their honeymoon, their vacation. They wanted to

455
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: come to Elevation for vague where you want to go

456
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: to vacation this year, I want to go to you

457
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: want to go to Dine World. I want to go

458
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: to Elevation. I want to go to Elevation, the vacation

459
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 1: destination of the world right here off of five twenty one,

460
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: and be like some people be here, like, man, this

461
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,120
Speaker 1: was on my bucket list to come to Elevation. People

462
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: would say that this is my bucket list. And I

463
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: use this say to those of y'all who were sitting

464
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: out there, I'd say, don't ever take for granted that

465
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: what God put in your backyard is on somebody else's

466
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: bucket list. Didn't I say that? And now I can

467
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 1: show you better than I can tell you. Some of

468
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,640
Speaker 1: the same people that used to complain about the parking

469
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: lot at Valentine, I bet you would love to have

470
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 1: to wait for a parking space right now if you

471
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 1: could just come to church and be in the presence

472
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:29,199
Speaker 1: of God. Now I know some of you you're like, no,

473
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 1: I kind of like this church at home thing. Better.

474
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: This is actually pretty awesome, brother Steve. I'll tell you

475
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,639
Speaker 1: what that Ephaan was onto something. This is this is

476
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: this is really an innovation right here. I mean I'll

477
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: tell you what. Right now, I'm sitting right here, I've

478
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: got my oreos and I'm getting spiritually fed as well.

479
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord Christ and carbohydrates. This is the ticket.

480
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I praise God for innovative ministry.

481
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: This is a digital revolution, this is a revival. You know.

482
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: All I'm trying to think about these days. Is not

483
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: the normal that I want to get back to because

484
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: I have a feeling. I have a feeling, and I

485
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: think you do too. Let's just let's just have the

486
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:14,240
Speaker 1: funeral right now that we are not going back to normal.

487
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: We're not. I was on a zoom call this week

488
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: with a department and our staff, and by the end

489
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 1: of it, I was beating the desk saying, y'all aren't

490
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: getting it. Everything has changed. Y'all are having a normal meeting.

491
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: This is not a normal time. People need the Gospel

492
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: more than ever before, and y'all are talking about what

493
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: happened ten days ago and right now for our ministry,

494
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: we have to be in the moment because people need

495
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: this oxygen. This is not a normal time. This is

496
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: not a normal church. And I hope, in some ways,

497
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: I hope this building is full again. But I hope

498
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,479
Speaker 1: we never just go back to nor normal where we

499
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 1: come in church and act like, you know, it's just

500
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: star right to come in here. I hope we never

501
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,479
Speaker 1: go back to normal, where we just come in and

502
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 1: we can't get the eyebooger out of our eye until

503
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,280
Speaker 1: the fourth song, until they play our favorite song and

504
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: everything has to match our preference and we just kind

505
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: of yawn and wait for it to be old. I

506
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: hope we never go back to normal. I'm never going

507
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: back to normal, never. Never. It's never been normal. So

508
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: I'm up here last week thinking, oh man, this is

509
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: not a normal Easter. I'm wearing leather, we're singing a

510
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: song that sounds more like Stone Temple Pilots and Michael W. Smith.

511
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 1: We're kicking over stuff. It's supposed to be Easter. Now.

512
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: The weirdest part about that is in twenty and eleven

513
00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 1: we did something called three D Easter. I travel to

514
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 1: Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon and everybody had three

515
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: D glasses on. It was real budget three D, but

516
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: it was enough for us to market it as three

517
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 1: D Easter, and it was good to us creative. It

518
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: was the Gospel Jerusalem Judea, Samaria, ends of the Earth,

519
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: the three different places God brings it to. And I

520
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 1: used an old church to talk about God saving people

521
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: who are religious but don't have a relationship. And then

522
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: I use Vegas to talk about Samaria the wild people

523
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: in the world. And then I talk about the ends

524
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: of the Earth, that the Grand Canyon, no matter how

525
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: far away you feel from God. And everybody's sitting there

526
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: with their three D glasses on, and I have pictures

527
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 1: of that of meat in a suit with three D

528
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: glasses on, standing there like happy Easter. Jesus. All right,

529
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: and now I want to be normal. Now you want

530
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: to be normal? Can wait till church gets back to normal?

531
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: What normal are you talking about? Because I know many

532
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: people say I just want to go back to the

533
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: old time religion. What they mean by old time is

534
00:31:55,040 --> 00:32:00,960
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, isin't that funny freeze frame. It's like,

535
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: I just like the old hymns. It's like, how old

536
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: hell you want? Like Gregorian chants? You want? You want

537
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: like you want like three ninety seven ad Oh that's

538
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: how Oh no, no, no, no no no, I'm talking about

539
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: the old hymns. Oh, you mean the ones that are familiar.

540
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: You mean the ones that you know. You want to

541
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: go back to what you know. And you know what's crazy.

542
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: Those hymns you want to sing now are the ones

543
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 1: you yawned through when you were little. You didn't even

544
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: know what you had when you had it. And now

545
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: God is teaching us to appreciate some things that we

546
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: took for granted. But we can't right now. I just

547
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: appreciate the opportunity. Some of us who complained about airports,

548
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: we're gonna be begging them to pad us down if

549
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: we can ever go get on a plane again. Please

550
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 1: tap me down, Pat me anywhere, pat pat pat me

551
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: wants pap me just anything, anything normal. We want to

552
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: go back to. Jup, Really, I thought you wanted to leave.

553
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: All I'm trying to say is God is doing some

554
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: of the stuff we asked him to do, but we

555
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 1: don't know it because we're trying to what get back

556
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: to normal. I just want to get back to normal.

557
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: You mean when you were running around like a chicken

558
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: with your head cut off? What a graphic graphic idiom? Yeah,

559
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 1: so vulgar. You see though, it's just normal. We just

560
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: say that a chicken with your head off, you stop

561
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 1: and picture it. It's grotesque, but see how anything can

562
00:33:52,960 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: become normalized. And then we get confused because we think

563
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: that what we know is what's normal. That's where a

564
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,439
Speaker 1: phrase is like white privilege come from. It means that

565
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:13,839
Speaker 1: because as a white man, certain things that I think

566
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 1: are just normal are not the same experiences of brothers

567
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: or sisters who are not white males. You think it's

568
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: normal somebody else is your normal? Is somebody else's goal.

569
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: Just to even be treated equally, you have to understand

570
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,919
Speaker 1: just because something is normal to you does not mean

571
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 1: that it's normal to everyone. And that's very important for

572
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 1: us to understand. Like, the best example I could give

573
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: you is with my kids, Are y'all getting something out

574
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 1: of this so far? Okay? Abby said to me the

575
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:54,240
Speaker 1: other day, what would you tell nine year old Steven Ferdie,

576
00:34:54,600 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: because she's nine if you could tell him anything. So

577
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: I was like, I would tell him that one day,

578
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: you're not going to walk through Walmart looking at CBS

579
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 1: figuring out which one to buy. You are going to

580
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:18,439
Speaker 1: be able to instantly listen to any music in the

581
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: history of the universe on the device that is the

582
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: size of a note card. I would tell him that

583
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:33,240
Speaker 1: video games are going to radically change because see, for us,

584
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 1: tech mobile was high tech. Now when my kids are

585
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 1: playing video games now, they laugh at my video games

586
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 1: because their normal was something that I didn't even know

587
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: to imagine. Like we didn't have, for instance, Abby, we

588
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:56,280
Speaker 1: didn't have roadblocks and flying unicorns, neon unicorns, flying driving

589
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: neon exploding unicorns. We didn't have any of that. And

590
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 1: once you bought the game, you didn't have to spend

591
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: any more money on it. That's new, that's new. You

592
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: bought it one dang time, one time. Now you had

593
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: to blow in it until you had a seizure to

594
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:15,399
Speaker 1: get it to work. But once you bought it, it

595
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,439
Speaker 1: was yours and you didn't have to buy anything else

596
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: for it. You didn't have to grind to get your

597
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,359
Speaker 1: team ready. My god, it's a video game, not a job.

598
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: But it's your normal. It's your normal that we put

599
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: trolls on the video screen. Look at me sounding like

600
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: an old man. It's your normal that we rented the

601
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 1: movie The Trolls World Tour and we didn't have to

602
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:41,799
Speaker 1: go see back in the day. Let me give you

603
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: a history lesson back in Yonder Yonder Ye back in

604
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: the times of Jesus. Blockbuster video reigned Supreme. Come on,

605
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: y'all don't know nothing about late fees, and I know

606
00:36:57,160 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: you don't know anything about rewinding, or you pay an

607
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,359
Speaker 1: extra nine nine cents if you don't rewind the tape.

608
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 1: I'm taking you back. That was normal, not now, not now.

609
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: My daughter's never been in a Blockbuster in her life. Blockbuster?

610
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: What's blockbuster? All right? So here's the question. I'm gonna

611
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: go deep on you. Are you holding onto a Blockbuster blessing?

612
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,320
Speaker 1: Something that God is trying to put out of business

613
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,759
Speaker 1: in your life? Something that God is saying, you know what,

614
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: I'm taking you through, something uncertain right now? Who is

615
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 1: this for? I'm taking you through something right now that

616
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 1: you've never seen before. But just because you've never seen

617
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:47,800
Speaker 1: it before doesn't mean it's not normal, Thank you Jesus.

618
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 1: Just because I have never known it doesn't mean it's

619
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:54,920
Speaker 1: not normal. You mean it can be normal for me

620
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 1: to have a heart that is at peace. Yes, Yes,

621
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: that's how it's supposed to be. You are supposed to

622
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: have peace in the middle of a storm. Jesus did

623
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: he slept through stuff that we scramble about because he's

624
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: not from here. See when you're from someone else or

625
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: somewhere else, it changes what you see as normal. Help

626
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: me preach, Stand up and help me preach. Because I

627
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,880
Speaker 1: come from a different place, because I am not from

628
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,040
Speaker 1: this world, because it is not my home. I do

629
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,680
Speaker 1: not have to accept the patterns of this world as normal.

630
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:37,839
Speaker 1: I don't have to accept Egypt as normal. And what

631
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: if God is trying to bring me into a new normal?

632
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 1: But I'm so I'm so afraid that I reach for

633
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: what's familiar. Can I tell you when new normal? I

634
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,240
Speaker 1: think God is trying to give us right now, better

635
00:38:55,320 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: priorities because we are so toxic in the way we

636
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,960
Speaker 1: treat each other, what we say to each other, how

637
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 1: we categorize and box each other. Well, we can't box

638
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,719
Speaker 1: each other like that anymore. Now I need you and

639
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: you need me, And if we don't all do what

640
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: we're supposed to do, we may not ever get out

641
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: of this. God is making a nation. God is bringing

642
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:24,799
Speaker 1: the people through the red Seed together, but not for

643
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:29,480
Speaker 1: them to go through for them, for them to get there,

644
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 1: there's something that they have to give up. Question, what

645
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:39,000
Speaker 1: is God calling you to give up to get there?

646
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: What if there's a new normal. What if? What if

647
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: your true nature has been so buried and embedded in

648
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: what Romans twelve calls the patterns of this world? Can

649
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 1: I show you this? Y'all sit down. I'm still I'm

650
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: still feel like I'm just started this message. I'm going

651
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 1: to teach you again next week, but let me get

652
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 1: as far as I can today before the time runs out.

653
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:08,280
Speaker 1: What time am I supposed to be done? Like? Ten minutes?

654
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:12,319
Speaker 1: Twelve minutes? How long? I don't even know what that

655
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: clock means? How many of y'all kept stop looking at

656
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 1: clocks and days of the week a while ago? What

657
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: month is this? I don't know. But here's what I

658
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: want to show you from Romans twelve one. Some you've

659
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: heard the scripture before, but let's put it in context. Okay,

660
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,319
Speaker 1: just like the children of Israel, we're going through the

661
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 1: Red Sea. And remember all they've known as normal. All

662
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: their parents knew is normal, All their parents' parents knew

663
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:39,479
Speaker 1: is normal, All their parents' parents' parents knew is normal.

664
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:45,640
Speaker 1: This is four hundred and thirty years. Look how weird

665
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:49,320
Speaker 1: our world has gotten in just a few weeks. Okay,

666
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 1: this is four hundred and thirty years of you thinking

667
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 1: you're never supposed to have enough, you'd never be free.

668
00:40:57,560 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 1: This is what it's like to be in bondage. And

669
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: you know this because you've been in bondage to depression.

670
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: You've been in bondage to patterns of thought. And this

671
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: is a chain breaking scripture in Romans twelve to one.

672
00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 1: And I never saw it before, y'all. I never saw

673
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:16,280
Speaker 1: it before. Rob Debby, Chelsea, Dawn Lis, Sashanika May Sharon,

674
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: I never saw it before. Somebody's name on here is honey.

675
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: That is not a normal name. I like it. If

676
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 1: it's my message. My name is honey. What's your name?

677
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 1: My name is honey. That's that's one way to get

678
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:29,120
Speaker 1: a date. All right, my name is honey, Call me honey.

679
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:32,359
Speaker 1: But watch the scripture in Romans twelve, verse one. Are

680
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: you ready this revelation to me? I've read both of

681
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 1: these scriptures a lot. They're both classic passages. The children

682
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: of Israel coming through the Red Sea. They want to

683
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,359
Speaker 1: go back to Egypt. They want to go back to

684
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 1: what they've known. They want to go back to what's familiar,

685
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:50,839
Speaker 1: because they are afraid. I'd rather go back to what

686
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:57,919
Speaker 1: is negative, even if it's not really normal. So we'll

687
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 1: call negative normal because it's what we know. You see this,

688
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:05,879
Speaker 1: Some of the things that I've called normal my whole

689
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 1: life aren't normal, and this scripture shows me just the

690
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:13,399
Speaker 1: full extent of it. In Jesus Christ, now let's put

691
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,040
Speaker 1: the gospel on this Old Testament passage. Therefore, I urge you,

692
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:20,320
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy. That's not normal.

693
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 1: That's not normal. How many of you in a relationship

694
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 1: can just do wrong over and over and over and

695
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:31,960
Speaker 1: over and over again, and the person fully accepts you

696
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:37,840
Speaker 1: only God. So in view of that kind of mercy,

697
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: and that's where we get used to things. We get

698
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 1: used to things that we used to be grateful for,

699
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 1: we become entitled to. But remember, for this community that

700
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,600
Speaker 1: Paul is writing to, none of this is normal. They're

701
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: used to relating to God through a sacrificial system. So

702
00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 1: when they come before God, they have to make offerings

703
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 1: and spill blood in order to have their prayer request heard,

704
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: in order to meet with God in order to atone

705
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,920
Speaker 1: for sin. So this is not normal for Paul to

706
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 1: be talking about mercy coming to God on the basis

707
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: of grace. This is new, this is a new normal.

708
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,879
Speaker 1: And you know what their temptation was to go back

709
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 1: to the old way. So he's telling them no, no, no,

710
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 1: no no. In view of God's mercy, I urge you

711
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 1: that needs you to I'm begging you to stop trying

712
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:37,720
Speaker 1: to get back to normal, stop thinking that there's something

713
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 1: you could do to earn God's love, and realize that

714
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,879
Speaker 1: it's already been done through the gift of his son

715
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:49,480
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, that the blood has already been shed. Instead

716
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 1: of getting back to normal, moved forward into this new

717
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:57,320
Speaker 1: way of life. And instead of offering pigeons and turtle

718
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 1: doves and lambs and goats and rams, offer your bodies

719
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,920
Speaker 1: as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This

720
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: is your true, true You're true and proper worship. This

721
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 1: is your new normal. Your new normal is that you

722
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 1: are forgiven and not condemned. Your new normal is that

723
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 1: you are a child of the Most High God. I

724
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 1: am no ordinary child. I am a child of God.

725
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,359
Speaker 1: Me and Moses have acts seven twenty in common. I

726
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 1: am no ordinary child. I am a child of God.

727
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: I am a royal priesthood, I am a holy nation.

728
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:44,880
Speaker 1: I am set apart. I'm not trying to be normal.

729
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 1: Normal is broken. Normal is broken, The culture is broken.

730
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 1: The world is weird. And it didn't just get weird

731
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: when a virus was unleashed. The world has been weird

732
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: for a lot long time. I'm gonna show you in

733
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:07,880
Speaker 1: the Bible, Romans twelve to two. This is way before coronavirus.

734
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: You got it. Romans twelve to two. Do not conform

735
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,279
Speaker 1: to the pattern of this world. Why not? Because the

736
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 1: world is weird. Ohn't know about Christians, They're weird. You

737
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,280
Speaker 1: know what's you know, what's kind of cool about going

738
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 1: through something really traumatic? What used to be weird now

739
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 1: is the only thing that works. That's the only thing

740
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: I'm excited about. I'm not excited about anybody being sick,

741
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 1: anybody dying, anybody losing their job, anybody losing their company,

742
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 1: anybody losing their life's work. I'm not excited about anybody

743
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:46,399
Speaker 1: having to work twenty hour days. I'm not excited about

744
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:49,799
Speaker 1: any of it. But what I am excited about is

745
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:56,480
Speaker 1: that our faith finally fits. See, the world always operates

746
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,600
Speaker 1: by logic, but now we've come to a red sea,

747
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:02,399
Speaker 1: and so the world is trying what is always tried

748
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: ah more information ah rah, and none of it works.

749
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:11,120
Speaker 1: So now there's room to do what Romans twelve one says,

750
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: and worship isn't weird anymore. It's not weird to worship now,

751
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,359
Speaker 1: is it? Because the only thing I can do now

752
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: is call on God. People are praying right now. Who

753
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 1: used to think that praying was superstitious? It's not weird anymore.

754
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 1: For once, we're not the weird ones. We're not weird

755
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 1: for just a minute. Let's just take this moment. It's

756
00:46:32,239 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: like it's like we're a middle school boy who finally

757
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:36,920
Speaker 1: hit a growth spur and our voice isn't cracking, and

758
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:40,840
Speaker 1: we finally fit. The church finally fits. You could send

759
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 1: this link to somebody today and they wouldn't be annoyed

760
00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 1: that you invited them to church. They'd be excited. They

761
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: are bored to death. They've got three ulcers. They've got

762
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 1: ulcers in places where you don't even normally get ulcers.

763
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 1: So faith finally fits. This is our moment, this is

764
00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 1: our time, this is what we were born to do. Oh,

765
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 1: I'm born to be normal. We fit this amazing moment.

766
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 1: Finally there's space for faith in your life as long

767
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: as everything's normal, there's no space for faith. Oh I

768
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:22,200
Speaker 1: got this, I figured this out. Here's what I do.

769
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:24,719
Speaker 1: I took the kids here, and I took the kids there,

770
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 1: and I took the kids there, and I take the

771
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: kids here. The Lord said that in this season, he

772
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 1: is helping people reset their schedule. And since you didn't

773
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 1: want to do it manually, now as the whole thing

774
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 1: is shut down, one of the new normals that God

775
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,360
Speaker 1: might bring us into is that we have a different

776
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:58,279
Speaker 1: baseline for busy or a reordering of priorities. Think about this.

777
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:03,000
Speaker 1: Many of us us worshiped soccer more than we worshiped

778
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 1: the Savior. I know that sounds like one of those

779
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 1: cliches I would normally do it in the country preacher voice, Oh,

780
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:13,840
Speaker 1: worship soccer more than the Savior. But it's the dang truth.

781
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,319
Speaker 1: And I don't have anything against soccer other than I

782
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,920
Speaker 1: hate it. But listen to me, Church, listen, you're listening

783
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 1: to me right now, Sit up and listen to this.

784
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:26,440
Speaker 1: God said, I'm not trying to get you back to

785
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:30,560
Speaker 1: the normal to where you worshiped your kids' activities and

786
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:33,919
Speaker 1: left no space for me. I'm not trying to bring

787
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 1: you back to that Egypt where you had to make

788
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:41,800
Speaker 1: bricks without straw, and you were just spending your money

789
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 1: and spending your time and never full and holds in

790
00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 1: your purses and just running after this and running after

791
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 1: that to impress people. So now you're going through a

792
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 1: season where you can put on any clothes you want,

793
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna see them. God's reordering some priorities because Romans

794
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:00,280
Speaker 1: twelve to two. Put it back on the screen. Please

795
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,000
Speaker 1: I feel this message. I want another week of this

796
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:10,000
Speaker 1: next week. Thank you Jesus. Do not conform anymore to

797
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 1: the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the

798
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 1: renewing of your mind. Why the world was weird to

799
00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: begin with. It's not normal, and even the way you

800
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,719
Speaker 1: develop your construct of the world is important. Right. If

801
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:28,880
Speaker 1: you get your construct of what the world is like

802
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 1: from the news, you will not know normal. The news

803
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 1: does not make money by showing you normal. The news

804
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: makes money by showing you the most extreme example to

805
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:47,360
Speaker 1: keep you watching. You think the news is there to

806
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:50,799
Speaker 1: inform you. The news is not there to inform you.

807
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,320
Speaker 1: The news is there to engage you, so you'll keep watching.

808
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,439
Speaker 1: So you're getting your construct of the world right. Now

809
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 1: from the news, the news, the news, the news. That's

810
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:05,000
Speaker 1: not normal. I'm not telling you not to check the news.

811
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:08,320
Speaker 1: I'm telling you not to watch it. Just all the time.

812
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:11,279
Speaker 1: It's not normal. That is not normal. You know how

813
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,600
Speaker 1: the world has these patterns. It's like all these patterns

814
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: of the world where we overextend ourselves all the time,

815
00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 1: and we do all these things to impress people. That

816
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:26,880
Speaker 1: has never been normal, that's just been culturally accepted. That

817
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: doesn't make it normal. What does God call normal? That's

818
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,279
Speaker 1: what I want to know in this season. What does

819
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,680
Speaker 1: God call normal? I've told Elijah the other day, I

820
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:41,440
Speaker 1: don't care if you like sports or don't like sports,

821
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 1: if music is your thing, because I grew up with

822
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 1: this too. The kids who did sports were normal. The

823
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: kids who liked music were weird. You know what. I'm

824
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 1: forty and I probably can't play sports anymore either, even

825
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:56,759
Speaker 1: if I was good at them at one time. But

826
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 1: I can still make music. So watch this. What was weird?

827
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: There is making ministry happen? Now? Can I preach? Do

828
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:09,439
Speaker 1: not be conformed. That's to be acted upon by the outside.

829
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 1: That's conform. You can make it what you want it

830
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:14,719
Speaker 1: to be. That's what the world has done to us

831
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:18,560
Speaker 1: for so long. Your faith goes here. Don't talk about

832
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:22,800
Speaker 1: your faith. Your faith is just Thus that's not normal.

833
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:28,600
Speaker 1: The world is weird. Faith is normal. Faith is the

834
00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:33,240
Speaker 1: substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things

835
00:51:33,360 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: not seen. And now we get it that the unseen

836
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 1: is the most significant. I've been preaching this since the

837
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:43,719
Speaker 1: beginning of the year, but now we finally get it

838
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:48,719
Speaker 1: that what is unseen is most significant. We get it

839
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 1: because we're fighting a virus that we can't see. So

840
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:55,799
Speaker 1: now we understand that the things which are seen were

841
00:51:55,800 --> 00:52:00,600
Speaker 1: made of things which do not appear. Faith finally fits

842
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:03,600
Speaker 1: because we are standing in front of the red Sea

843
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:06,800
Speaker 1: and we no longer understand, and we can't count on

844
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,879
Speaker 1: the things we used to count on. And in one

845
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,800
Speaker 1: sense we want them back for comfort. But God cannot

846
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 1: bring change while we hold to comfort. There is a

847
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 1: new normal. There is a better you, a truer you,

848
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 1: are real you. The patterns of this world are just pretend.

849
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:25,760
Speaker 1: It is not real. There is a peace that comes

850
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:29,239
Speaker 1: from above. There is a wisdom that whispers, and it

851
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: doesn't show. And God said, I'm not trying to get

852
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:36,279
Speaker 1: you back to normal. I'm trying to bring you into it.

853
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:41,879
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to normal. Somebody say it in the check.

854
00:52:42,080 --> 00:52:45,880
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to God

855
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:50,440
Speaker 1: reinventing me. I'm looking forward to God increasing my capacity

856
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:53,719
Speaker 1: to connect with people for real. I'm looking forward to God.

857
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:55,839
Speaker 1: I prayed that God would help me with my gratitude.

858
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:57,799
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to being able to put it into

859
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,920
Speaker 1: practice in the next season. I'm looking forward to normal,

860
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:06,400
Speaker 1: not trying to get back to it. I left Egypt

861
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:10,240
Speaker 1: not trying to conform to the pattern of this world.

862
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:15,759
Speaker 1: I want God to transform me by the renewing of

863
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:20,600
Speaker 1: my mind. And that starts with what I thought was normal.

864
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:28,080
Speaker 1: What I thought was normal wasn't normal. It's just what

865
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: I knew. I'm so glad my dad wasn't normal. I

866
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:39,839
Speaker 1: mean at times I wasn't, But looking back, I got

867
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:42,360
Speaker 1: my passion to preach from the fact that he wasn't normal.

868
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be normal. I found out that

869
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:53,560
Speaker 1: what the world calls normal, God calls broken. So when

870
00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:56,719
Speaker 1: I pray for healing, understand I'm not just praying for

871
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:00,640
Speaker 1: bodies to be healed in the season. I'm not just

872
00:54:00,680 --> 00:54:05,360
Speaker 1: talking about immune systems. I'm talking about belief systems. Do

873
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 1: you hear this preacher? I don't know. He looks kind

874
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 1: of wild today. I am wild today. I'm ready. I'm

875
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,839
Speaker 1: ready to flip this thing upside down. And what the

876
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:21,560
Speaker 1: world calls weird, God calls normal. Jesus was the only

877
00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:25,840
Speaker 1: one on the boat who was normal. Everybody who was

878
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:30,480
Speaker 1: freaking out in fear, they were weird. So I pray

879
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:35,920
Speaker 1: that God would bring us into watch this a new normal.

880
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 1: There's nothing normal about faith. There was never meant to be.

881
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:47,680
Speaker 1: There's nothing normal. There was nothing normal about a shepherd

882
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:53,480
Speaker 1: boy fighting a giant with a slingshot. You thought that

883
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 1: was normal. What was normal was all the boys with

884
00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:58,320
Speaker 1: the heavy equipment who didn't know how to do anything

885
00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:03,000
Speaker 1: with it. There was nothing normal about a virgin birth.

886
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:08,839
Speaker 1: You ever had one? Did you get here that way? Well,

887
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:11,200
Speaker 1: if that's the way Jesus came into the world, what

888
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:15,319
Speaker 1: makes us think it's gonna be any different now? So

889
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:17,920
Speaker 1: when we pray for him to show up, he's not

890
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:23,080
Speaker 1: gonna show up looking normal. There's nothing normal about stretching

891
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 1: your staff over the sea. There's nothing normal. There's nothing

892
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:30,520
Speaker 1: normal about what we're going through. Right now. There's nothing

893
00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:33,200
Speaker 1: normal about the panic. There's nothing normal about the fear.

894
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 1: There's nothing normal about the order of things. There's nothing

895
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,080
Speaker 1: normal about the rules. I pulled up to a red

896
00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:39,520
Speaker 1: light today on the way to church, and I was like,

897
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 1: do we still stop for these? I don't know? Is it?

898
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: Maybe we don't anymore? Nothing is normal, And yet maybe

899
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,279
Speaker 1: God is bringing us closer to what He wanted for

900
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:59,880
Speaker 1: us all along. Maybe maybe God is resetting and revealing, resetting, revealing.

901
00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:03,759
Speaker 1: Be not conformed outside into the patterns of the storld,

902
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:09,120
Speaker 1: but be transform inside out, transform inside out. Stuck in

903
00:56:09,160 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: my house, but God transformed my family, Transform my mind,

904
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:17,800
Speaker 1: transform my habit. Give me new neural pathways, give teach

905
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,400
Speaker 1: me new wayte to trust you. I'm not trying to

906
00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 1: get back to normal. I'm moving forward into a new normal.

907
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:27,920
Speaker 1: That's what the Kingdom of God is. It's a new normal,

908
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:30,719
Speaker 1: a new way of being, a new form of humanity,

909
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:36,160
Speaker 1: a new level of faith. Do it, God, That's what

910
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:40,480
Speaker 1: faith is. It's a new normal. Blessed or the poor

911
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:43,839
Speaker 1: in spirit? Huh, that's weird. No, that's the way it is.

912
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:46,520
Speaker 1: We've just been weird for so long that we got

913
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:50,000
Speaker 1: it out of order. But God is bringing us into

914
00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:54,640
Speaker 1: new normals. How long until we get back to normal?

915
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:59,640
Speaker 1: You can keep waiting all you want, or you can worship.

916
00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:06,839
Speaker 1: You could keep resisting, or you can receive, not love.

917
00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 1: What God told Moses when the people were looking for

918
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:14,040
Speaker 1: someone to blame, you know how we do. Yeah, it

919
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 1: was the bats, It was the lab It was to this,

920
00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 1: It was the that it was heard that God, we

921
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:22,320
Speaker 1: always want somebody to blame. But blaming somebody doesn't bring

922
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:26,600
Speaker 1: you into what God is taking you into. And no,

923
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:29,440
Speaker 1: sooner did they get to this uncertain place till they

924
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,520
Speaker 1: start to say to Moses, didn't we say to you

925
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 1: in Egypt, leave us alone? This is verse twelve Exodus fourteen.

926
00:57:36,240 --> 00:57:39,080
Speaker 1: Let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better

927
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in

928
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:48,000
Speaker 1: the desert. But Moses answered the people, hear the word

929
00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 1: of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. Do

930
00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 1: not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the

931
00:57:56,080 --> 00:58:02,480
Speaker 1: deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you

932
00:58:02,600 --> 00:58:09,840
Speaker 1: see today, you will never see again. What does that mean?

933
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 1: You're never going back to normal, You're moving into a

934
00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:19,920
Speaker 1: new freedom. I minister this to you like it was

935
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,480
Speaker 1: just us. I love it because it can just be

936
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:26,000
Speaker 1: like we're having a conversation right now. We're not in

937
00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:28,040
Speaker 1: a big crowd right now, it's just me and you,

938
00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:31,479
Speaker 1: and the Lord told me to tell you you're never

939
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:36,160
Speaker 1: going back to normal. In fact, some of the stuff

940
00:58:36,200 --> 00:58:39,000
Speaker 1: that you thought was normal, it wasn't really normal. It

941
00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:45,560
Speaker 1: was just old. This is a season to embrace the

942
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:54,720
Speaker 1: new normal. Lord, God of our fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses,

943
00:58:56,760 --> 00:58:59,000
Speaker 1: the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We

944
00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:01,200
Speaker 1: call on your name now because you never change and

945
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:05,600
Speaker 1: you never fail. We stand before you, not only as

946
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 1: a nation, but as a planet, and we so crave normal.

947
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 1: We stand before sees that we don't know how to park,

948
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:18,960
Speaker 1: holding nothing more than a stick in our hand, and

949
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: our natural defenses are nothing for the principalities that we

950
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 1: face that we cannot see. If there were only a

951
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:27,840
Speaker 1: virus that we were fighting, we could solve it on

952
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:31,000
Speaker 1: a physiological level. But God, the truth is, we need

953
00:59:31,040 --> 00:59:35,080
Speaker 1: something more than that. Many of us were controlled by

954
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:39,360
Speaker 1: fear long before there was a virus to fight. Many

955
00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:43,480
Speaker 1: of us were dominated by depression, way before we were quarantined.

956
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:47,600
Speaker 1: So when we've been asking you, God, make it normal again,

957
00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 1: make it normal again, get us back to Egypt, we've

958
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:55,560
Speaker 1: been really praying the wrong thing. We've been praying for familiar,

959
00:59:55,600 --> 01:00:01,800
Speaker 1: but what we really want is freedom. And I pray

960
01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:04,840
Speaker 1: that you would use this season in our life, as

961
01:00:04,880 --> 01:00:07,680
Speaker 1: horrible as it may be, weird as it may be,

962
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: to make something beautiful, creative, supernatural. Do it, God, do

963
01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:20,120
Speaker 1: it for your people, Do it for every man, woman, boy,

964
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 1: and girl. Give us a new normal. The old one

965
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:32,720
Speaker 1: wasn't really normal. It just felt familiar. We trust you Lord,

966
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:39,640
Speaker 1: not always like we want to, but we kind of

967
01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:44,000
Speaker 1: feel like the Disciples did in John six. Where else

968
01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:47,360
Speaker 1: are we going to go? You're our hope, You're our normal.

969
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:53,320
Speaker 1: We pray like you taught us to pray, and I

970
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:56,400
Speaker 1: want you to repeat this prayer after me, our Father,

971
01:00:57,480 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 1: who are in heaven Hell. It would be your name,

972
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:06,520
Speaker 1: your kingdom, Come, Your will be done on earth as

973
01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:11,200
Speaker 1: it is in heaven. That's what Romans twelve two says

974
01:01:11,280 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 1: that after you have shattered the patterns of this world,

975
01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:18,520
Speaker 1: you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

976
01:01:18,560 --> 01:01:22,640
Speaker 1: and you will be able to prove what his will is,

977
01:01:24,160 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 1: his good, pleasing and perfect will. God. I pray that

978
01:01:30,080 --> 01:01:34,520
Speaker 1: you would reveal your will to people right now. We

979
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:40,560
Speaker 1: need strategy. We need you to speak. We need you

980
01:01:40,640 --> 01:01:45,360
Speaker 1: to speak into the unseen places of our life. Part waters, God,

981
01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:48,680
Speaker 1: do it, part the waters of worry until we can

982
01:01:48,720 --> 01:01:52,640
Speaker 1: clearly see how your sovereign hand is moving through it all.

983
01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:56,280
Speaker 1: We thank you Lord, What a great God you are.

984
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:03,280
Speaker 1: What an awesome cove that we have in you, that

985
01:02:03,360 --> 01:02:05,640
Speaker 1: you will lead us through it. And the Egyptians that

986
01:02:05,680 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 1: we see today, We're never going back to normal. With

987
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:14,760
Speaker 1: your head bowed and your eyes closed. Right where you are,

988
01:02:15,920 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 1: The scripture says in tewod Corinthians five point seventeen that

989
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:22,240
Speaker 1: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

990
01:02:23,080 --> 01:02:30,040
Speaker 1: The old has gone, the new has come. I believe

991
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:34,240
Speaker 1: that today there may be somebody who needs to give

992
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:37,960
Speaker 1: your life to Jesus Christ. You've never surrendered control of

993
01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:41,280
Speaker 1: your life to God, and you've heard this message today

994
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:45,320
Speaker 1: about a new normal. God wants to create a new

995
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:49,920
Speaker 1: You give you a brand new start. On the cross

996
01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:54,000
Speaker 1: was nailed everything that stood against you, and when Jesus

997
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:57,760
Speaker 1: rose from the dead in his body, it was that

998
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:00,840
Speaker 1: He might raise you to life in your spirit and

999
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:02,400
Speaker 1: you never be the same. Right now, I want to

1000
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:05,240
Speaker 1: pray with you. We do this every single week. This

1001
01:03:05,320 --> 01:03:07,760
Speaker 1: is our custom, this is our normal. But for somebody,

1002
01:03:07,760 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 1: there's nothing normal about this moment. This is your moment

1003
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:13,600
Speaker 1: to come home to God, to come back to God,

1004
01:03:13,840 --> 01:03:15,920
Speaker 1: to come to God for the first time. Pray this

1005
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:20,080
Speaker 1: prayer after me out loud, Heavenly Father. I am a

1006
01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:24,880
Speaker 1: sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that

1007
01:03:25,080 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior

1008
01:03:29,160 --> 01:03:33,439
Speaker 1: of the world. And today I make Jesus the lord

1009
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:37,040
Speaker 1: of my life. I believe he died that I would

1010
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 1: be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I

1011
01:03:41,640 --> 01:03:47,360
Speaker 1: receive this new life. This is my new beginning in

1012
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:50,400
Speaker 1: Jesus's name. If you just pray that, I want you

1013
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:55,200
Speaker 1: to type in the chat I receive Jesus. I receive Jesus.

1014
01:03:55,840 --> 01:03:59,680
Speaker 1: We're going to celebrate with you. Right now. We're clapping

1015
01:03:59,720 --> 01:04:05,600
Speaker 1: our he has angels are rejoicing. Come on. It's a

1016
01:04:05,640 --> 01:04:13,280
Speaker 1: new day, a new nature, a new normal. I'm looking

1017
01:04:13,360 --> 01:04:18,720
Speaker 1: forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking

1018
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:22,240
Speaker 1: forward to it new found freedom. I'm looking forward to it.

1019
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:25,880
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody say I'm looking forward to it. I'm

1020
01:04:25,920 --> 01:04:29,480
Speaker 1: going to preach part two of this next weekend. Somebody say,

1021
01:04:29,520 --> 01:04:32,360
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it? Are you looking forward to it?

1022
01:04:32,960 --> 01:04:36,560
Speaker 1: A new normal, a new nature. I did not even

1023
01:04:36,680 --> 01:04:39,840
Speaker 1: get to these notes today. Do you know how many

1024
01:04:39,920 --> 01:04:43,040
Speaker 1: notes God gave me to talk to us about normal?

1025
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:47,160
Speaker 1: Look how abnormally I wrote my notes. I couldn't get

1026
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:50,760
Speaker 1: it down fast enough. I'm telling you, I'm excited about

1027
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:54,439
Speaker 1: the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by

1028
01:04:54,520 --> 01:05:00,400
Speaker 1: the word of God. We're not normal. Is not a

1029
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:03,920
Speaker 1: normal church, never have been, never will be. God deliver

1030
01:05:04,040 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: us from normal and bring us into new. I am

1031
01:05:08,440 --> 01:05:13,959
Speaker 1: so thankful for you, so thankful. I'm headed home now.

1032
01:05:15,040 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: The Graham's been begging me to leave the church for

1033
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:22,000
Speaker 1: about three hours now, Ain't that right? Abby? Definitely right?

1034
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:26,080
Speaker 1: And we can't see you. Definitely right. Hey, don't worry,

1035
01:05:26,120 --> 01:05:30,120
Speaker 1: Holly's driving completely safe. But I just wanted to thank you,

1036
01:05:31,160 --> 01:05:34,400
Speaker 1: thank you for not being a normal church. I just

1037
01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:36,440
Speaker 1: quoted a verse at the end of that message. Faith

1038
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:39,920
Speaker 1: comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. But

1039
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:43,360
Speaker 1: the verses right before that in Romans chapter ten say,

1040
01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:46,840
Speaker 1: how can they preach unless they're sin And it takes

1041
01:05:46,840 --> 01:05:49,160
Speaker 1: people like you, a family like this, to send the

1042
01:05:49,160 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: gospel into the world. Thank you for your giving, Thank

1043
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:55,160
Speaker 1: you for sharing the gospel. Don't stop now. God is

1044
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:58,680
Speaker 1: bringing us into new opportunities. Just so we're praying for you.

1045
01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:01,400
Speaker 1: We're here for you. Make sure you subscribe, make sure

1046
01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:03,640
Speaker 1: you share. I want to hear from you this week

1047
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 1: what this message means to you. And let's get ready

1048
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:10,480
Speaker 1: for what God has next. Into one thing, it's not

1049
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 1: going to be normal.