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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

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Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope

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Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it

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Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.

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Speaker 3: I think they'll be praising God like that in Fort Worth, Texas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Toronto, Canada, Detroit, Michigan, Hartford, Connecticut, Newark,

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Speaker 3: New Jersey, and Washington, DC.

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Speaker 1: Elevation Nights is just a few weeks away.

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Speaker 3: Go to Elevation Nights dot com and get your tickets.

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Speaker 1: It'll be good.

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Speaker 3: We'll be there worshiping God together. We can't wait to

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Speaker 3: worship God with you. Also, thank you to all of

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Speaker 3: the amazing men and women who have signed up to

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Speaker 3: lead an e group over this next semester. Thank you

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Speaker 3: for opening your home, your heart. Thank you for saying

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Speaker 3: yes to God. Pray that God is going to bring

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Speaker 3: just the right people in those groups who can help

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Speaker 3: each other. I pray that God would make connections, divine connections,

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Speaker 3: that God would be.

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Speaker 1: Like a spiritual matchmaker.

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Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily talking about a romantic match, although if

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Speaker 3: the Lord wants to do that.

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Speaker 1: Through an E group, he's God. Amen.

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Speaker 3: But just that God would help you find somebody where

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Speaker 3: they can say, oh, I went through that, and here's

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Speaker 3: something God gave me. When theologian said that Christianity is

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Speaker 3: one beggar telling another beggar where they found bread. And

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Speaker 3: sometimes God gives somebody something.

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Speaker 1: That you need in the season that you're in.

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Speaker 3: And so when you walk through those E group tents

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Speaker 3: today or when they come online in a little while

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Speaker 3: and say hey, sign up, don't put it off and

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Speaker 3: don't tell fifteen excuses why you're too busy.

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Speaker 1: I'm tell you that's the problem with you. You're too busy.

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Speaker 3: You're too busy, and sometimes you don't slow down enough,

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Speaker 3: so you spend a lot of effort, but you don't

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Speaker 3: get a lot of result.

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Speaker 1: It's going to come through a line in this season

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Speaker 1: of your life.

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Speaker 3: So this is an amazing opportunity. Holly, You've written an

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Speaker 3: amazing study. Brit the whole team. I'm so proud of you.

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Speaker 3: I'm so excited about the change that will be experienced.

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Speaker 1: That's on.

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Speaker 3: Just go to Elevisionchurch dot Org and join an negrew.

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Speaker 3: Right now, it's time for the Word of God.

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Speaker 1: Let's go.

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Speaker 3: The Book of Philippians, Chapter one. The Book of Philippians,

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Speaker 3: Chapter one, verse twenty through twenty six. No, no, no,

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Speaker 3: let's go all the way back to verse eighteen. I

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Speaker 3: was going to speed it up for time, but I

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Speaker 3: want to read from verse eighteen.

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Speaker 1: So I'm going to read from verse eighteen. And then.

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Speaker 3: The Lord gave me this scripture, and then he gave

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Speaker 3: me a picture. And I want to give both of

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Speaker 3: you today.

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Speaker 1: But what does it matter.

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Speaker 3: The important thing is that in every way, whether from

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Speaker 3: false motives or true, Christ is preached.

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Speaker 1: And because of this I rejoice.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know

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Speaker 3: that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit

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Speaker 3: of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn

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Speaker 3: out for my deliverance.

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Speaker 1: Verse twenty says.

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Speaker 3: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no

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Speaker 3: way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that

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Speaker 3: now as always Christ will be exalted in my body,

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Speaker 3: whether by life or by death. For to me, to

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Speaker 3: live is Christ and to die is Gain. If I

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Speaker 3: am to go on living in the body this will mean.

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Speaker 1: Fruitful labor for me. Yet, what shall I choose?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm torn between the two. I'm torn

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Speaker 3: between the two. I'm trying to make a decision. I

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Speaker 3: don't know which to choose. I'm torn between the two.

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Speaker 3: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is

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Speaker 3: or by far? But it's more necessary for you that

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Speaker 3: I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know

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Speaker 3: that I will remain. Tell your neighbor you're gonna make it.

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Speaker 3: Convinced of this, I know that I will remain. Now.

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Speaker 3: I will continue with all of you for your progress

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Speaker 3: and joy in the faith, so that through my being

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Speaker 3: with you again, you're boasting in Christ. Jesus will abound

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Speaker 3: on account of me. I know you've been standing for

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Speaker 3: a long time, but stay on your feet one more moment,

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Speaker 3: because the Lord told me to give you an instruction

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Speaker 3: today that will be very specific for you.

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Speaker 1: Goes like this, look forward, not far.

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Speaker 3: Okay, been distracted, overwhelmed, feel like you're kind of going

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Speaker 3: crazy sometimes coming from every direction.

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Speaker 1: The Lord said, look forward, not far.

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Speaker 3: Tell your neighbor look forward, not far, And now on

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Speaker 3: your way to your seat. How your neighbor one thing

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Speaker 3: you're looking forward to this week. Just go ahead and

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Speaker 3: tell them real quick, one thing you're looking forward to

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Speaker 3: this week. I'm looking forward to Pastor Steven finishing the

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Speaker 3: sermons so I can go to Chipotlet.

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Speaker 1: I know how y'all are.

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Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to the sermon that the Man of

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Speaker 3: God is about to preach. I'm looking forward to. Put

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Speaker 3: it in the comments too. I'm gonna read a few

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Speaker 3: from online. Somebody shout out something appropriate that you're looking

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Speaker 3: forward to this week, real quick. In the room, looking

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Speaker 3: forward to it, looking forward to it. Everybody in the

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Speaker 3: chat put I'm looking forward to it, and then tell

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Speaker 3: me one thing you're.

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Speaker 1: Looking forward to forward not far.

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Speaker 3: It really helped me because when I walk out to preach,

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Speaker 3: it's always a little unpredictable.

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Speaker 1: I never really know how it's going to go, and so.

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Speaker 3: I do a little trick. And this is a little

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Speaker 3: bit squeamish for me to tell you about. You might

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Speaker 3: roll your eyes. And Abby's going to cringe on the

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Speaker 3: front road because she hates when I say romantic things

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Speaker 3: in front of thousands of people.

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Speaker 1: About her mother.

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Speaker 3: Bowis squeeze Holly's hand before I go back to get

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Speaker 3: ready to preach.

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Speaker 1: If she's not like deep and rapturous worship, if she's.

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Speaker 3: In the Chicaina glory, I just just walk out and

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Speaker 3: let her have a moment with Jesus. I want to

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Speaker 3: cut in, but if she's halfway aware, I'll just squeeze

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Speaker 3: her hand. And it's my reminder that in a few minutes,

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Speaker 3: however long it takes me to preach this sermon, in

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Speaker 3: about three and a half hours, no matter what happens

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Speaker 3: up here, I'm going home with her. Here's what that's

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Speaker 3: called psychologically anticipatory pleasure. And I don't mean what you

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Speaker 3: think I mean by that. The chances are all we're

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Speaker 3: going to do is eat, take a nap. If there's

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Speaker 3: something we're watching, we might watch it and probably fall

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Speaker 3: asleep trying to watch it, but something to look forward

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Speaker 3: to after it's over. It somehow fortifies me for what

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Speaker 3: I need to do up here. And reminding myself in

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Speaker 3: a role as preacher or pastor does not exist the

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Speaker 3: entire definition of who I am as a person. It

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Speaker 3: takes the performance anxiety off, because whether you love it

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Speaker 3: or hate it, I'm going home with her. And she

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Speaker 3: never told me I preached a bad sermon.

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Speaker 1: I know she probably thought it, but she never said

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Speaker 1: it out loud.

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Speaker 3: And on the chat right now, there's all kinds of

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Speaker 3: people say and I'm looking forward to the chiefs winning today.

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Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to seek him more this week. See

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Speaker 3: you got spirit and flesh, Spirit and flesh all in

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Speaker 3: the comments.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to teach my students. Well that's cool.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was cool. Just when I read it,

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Speaker 1: I thought, well, that's not.

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Speaker 3: You're looking forward to somebody doing something for you as

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Speaker 3: you're doing something for somebody. What a cool way to think.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if you've teln the truth or not,

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Speaker 3: but might as well frame it that way. Looking forward

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Speaker 3: to closing a door, looking forward to a few days

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Speaker 3: off work, looking forward to.

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Speaker 1: My I won't say that out loud, looking forward to.

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Speaker 3: Feeling better. I'm looking forward to. Yeah, it's going too fast.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how to slow it down, but I

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Speaker 3: think it's important always in your life to have something.

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Speaker 1: To look forward to.

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Speaker 3: It's real dangerous if you ever get in a place

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Speaker 3: where you can't look forward to anything and feel joy,

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Speaker 3: you need.

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Speaker 1: To talk to somebody. That's a dangerous place for you

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Speaker 1: to stay.

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Speaker 3: And I don't just mean for a moment where you're

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Speaker 3: tired or overwhelmed and you just want everybody leave you alone.

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Speaker 3: But if you ever get to a place where there

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Speaker 3: is a prolonged sense of the postponement of joy, do

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Speaker 3: you know what I mean by postponing joy? Where you're like, well,

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Speaker 3: I might be happy one day, but I can't see

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Speaker 3: anything in my immediate future that I look forward to.

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Speaker 1: That is a dangerous way to live. Now.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't mean that everything you do every day has

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Speaker 3: to be something that you enjoy, Snowflake, but it does

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Speaker 3: mean that there ought to be something, even within the

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Speaker 3: most challenging seasons of your life, that you can go.

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Speaker 1: I look forward to that.

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Speaker 3: That's why I want every married couple doing date nights.

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Speaker 3: I want you to do it so you can look

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Speaker 3: forward to that time and you can understand that even

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Speaker 3: if we've been busy all week, I mean, and then

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Speaker 3: I'd be an expensive date night, make a sandwich. But

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Speaker 3: set aside a time that you can look forward to

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Speaker 3: that you can know, you know, especially if you have

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Speaker 3: kids or little kids or something like that. Set it

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Speaker 3: up where you know, Okay, we are so busy managing

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Speaker 3: this corporation, called our kids.

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Speaker 1: Excuse me, this terrorist organization called our kids.

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Speaker 3: That we need a time set aside that I can

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Speaker 3: look forward to connecting with my girlfriend, my boyfriend, the

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Speaker 3: one that I used to spend hours on the phone with.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's really important that you put something

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Speaker 3: that you can look forward to, even if it's.

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Speaker 1: A little thing.

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Speaker 3: That's why I got the fridge stock with fair Life shakes,

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Speaker 3: because after I've done all my squats and all my curls,

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Speaker 3: I know there is the taste of artificial sweetener waiting,

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Speaker 3: just something to trigger my tongue to let me know you.

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Speaker 1: Did good today. Well done, now, good and faithful servant again.

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Speaker 3: I'm taking a moment to set this up because if

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Speaker 3: I don't set it up practically, if we jump straight

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Speaker 3: to what Paul said from prison, you will think that

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Speaker 3: this message only applies when you're going through the hardest

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Speaker 3: situation in your life. But I saw a principle this

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Speaker 3: week that was so practical that it reminded me about

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Speaker 3: something that Brendan Manning said in one of his books.

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Speaker 1: When a man went to.

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Speaker 3: Visit Mother Teresa at the House of the Dying in Calcutta,

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Speaker 3: and this brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to see her

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Speaker 3: for three months, and on the first day he met

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Speaker 3: Mother Teresa, and the report goes that he was trying

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Speaker 3: to figure out what to do with the rest of

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Speaker 3: his life and he felt foggy about it. Now stop

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Speaker 3: right here. You might feel the same way today. You

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Speaker 3: might not be going to see Mother Teresa. She came

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Speaker 3: Delevation Church, or you clicked on the link and you're

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Speaker 3: feeling like, what do I do with the rest of

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Speaker 3: the mine life? Or what do I do in this

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Speaker 3: next week? Or what do I even do for my

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Speaker 3: next step? Well, Mother Teresa, upon meeting the man, said

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Speaker 3: what can I do for you? And he said, I

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Speaker 3: would love for you to pray for me. And she said,

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Speaker 3: what would you like for me to pray for you?

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Speaker 3: And he said, pray that God will give me clarity,

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Speaker 3: that God will give me clarity. And she said, I

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Speaker 3: won't do it. I won't do it. I've never had clarity.

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Speaker 3: And he said, but you always seem to have clarity.

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Speaker 3: And Mother Teresa said, I've never had clarity. What I've

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Speaker 3: had is trust. So I will pray that you will

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Speaker 3: trust in God. The apostle Paul, writing to the church

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Speaker 3: that he founded, which was the first church in Europe

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Speaker 3: incidentally was founded when he was in.

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Speaker 1: Prison an other time. Is now writing to spend eight

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Speaker 1: hundred miles from Rome, where.

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Speaker 3: He is sitting awaiting a verdict of his current imprisonment

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Speaker 3: for preaching the gospel to the church that he loves,

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Speaker 3: and he's worried about them and burdened for them. Yodean

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Speaker 3: SYNIKEI are arguing there seems to be within the Philippian

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Speaker 3: church a since that when the teacher left class, we

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Speaker 3: can do whatever we want. He checks in to let

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Speaker 3: them know I'm proud of you, but you need to

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Speaker 3: keep making progress.

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Speaker 1: And in doing that, he shares with them an update

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Speaker 1: about his situation. As well.

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Speaker 3: As we are expecting Paul to give the exact details

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Speaker 3: of whether or not he will be released to continue

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Speaker 3: to preach the gospel or whether he will continue to

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Speaker 3: be restrained by his chains, he does something very interesting

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Speaker 3: and different.

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Speaker 1: He begins to share with them not about the conclusion.

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Speaker 3: Of his trial, but about the courage that God has

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Speaker 3: given him to face it. Y'all missed your chance to

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Speaker 3: say say, amen, I've been pastoring this church almost twenty

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Speaker 3: years and y'all still know when I said something good,

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Speaker 3: I don't.

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Speaker 1: Have to get loud for it to be good. I said.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes God won't give you the conclusion. He will just

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Speaker 3: give you courage. And the people like Mother Teresa and

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Speaker 3: the Apostle Paul who are really confident, it is not

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Speaker 3: because they have so much clarity. It's not because they

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Speaker 3: always know what to do next. It's just that they're

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Speaker 3: always focused on what God has called them to do now.

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Speaker 3: And this is a great distinction for all of us

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Speaker 3: who are overwhelmed. From a man who had every right

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Speaker 3: to be depressed and despondent, for a man who had

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Speaker 3: every right to feel and communicate his sense of total

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Speaker 3: utter despair comes a book like Philippians, where he says, yes,

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Speaker 3: I will continue to rejoice. Why are you rejoicing, Paul?

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Speaker 3: Did you just get good news that they're going to

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Speaker 3: let you out in a week? Why are you rejoicing, Paul?

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Speaker 3: Did Andy Dufrain just take a rock hammer and crack

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Speaker 3: halfway through the Shawshank wall Is Morgan Freeman narrating your

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Speaker 3: last night in prison?

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Speaker 1: Why are you rejoicing? He said, because everybody say because.

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Speaker 3: Now one day I want to do a whole series

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Speaker 3: when I get the opportunity on.

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Speaker 1: Why you need a better?

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Speaker 3: Because a better because verse eighteen, Please again, he says,

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Speaker 3: I'll continue to rejoice because verse nineteen. Oh no, that's

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Speaker 3: not where he says it. He says in verse eighteen, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: And because of this, I rejoice.

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Speaker 1: There it is.

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Speaker 3: I went too far. I went too far. I'm looking

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Speaker 3: for that word, but I went too far. I went

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Speaker 3: too far. I dropped down to the end of it.

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Speaker 3: I went too far. I meant to show you that

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Speaker 3: word because circle because back there for me, in the back,

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Speaker 3: justin if you can. And because of this, I rejoice.

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Speaker 3: Now whatever this is controls you're rejoicing. Paul's this was

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Speaker 3: the purpose of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, what

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Speaker 3: he was sent to do. And since that was still happening,

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Speaker 3: and happening at an accelerated rate, Paul said, I have

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Speaker 3: a cause to rejoice because my calling is being fulfilled.

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Speaker 1: If your cause to rejoice is your.

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Speaker 3: Comfort being satisfied, then any moment you are uncomfortable, you will.

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Speaker 1: Not have the ability to rejoice.

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Speaker 3: You need a better because some of us need a better,

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Speaker 3: because when we come to worship, some of us only.

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Speaker 1: Praise God on the weeks where we feel grateful.

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Speaker 3: What a small god you serve that you need a

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Speaker 3: feeling of gratitude to prompt an act of faith called worship.

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Speaker 3: Your worship in a god. You can't see your worship

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Speaker 3: in a.

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Speaker 1: God who's not made by human hands.

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Speaker 3: You're worshiping a God who does not exist to serve you.

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Speaker 1: You exist to serve him.

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Speaker 3: So if the reason that I worship is tied to

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Speaker 3: the work that he does on my behalf or the

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Speaker 3: wishless that he fulfilled based on my preferences, that is

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Speaker 3: a limited lens.

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Speaker 1: Through which to see the God that I worship. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: it's good for us to lift our.

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Speaker 3: Hands because he's great, because he's holy, because he's awesome,

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Speaker 3: because he's sovereign, because he's God all by himself, because

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Speaker 3: before Abraham was, he was, because he is the great

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Speaker 3: I am, because he is perfect in all of his ways,

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Speaker 3: because I'm created to do it, because I love him,

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Speaker 3: because he first loved me, because he forgave me, because

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Speaker 3: he sent his son to die for me, because he

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Speaker 3: gave me breath and my lungs, because I'm living on

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Speaker 3: borrowed breath, because tomorrow is not promised because God brought

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Speaker 3: me this far, and if he never does anything else,

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Speaker 3: he's gone enough to be worthy of the next one.

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Speaker 3: And Paul is playing games with the devil in this

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Speaker 3: letter because at the moment that he has every right

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Speaker 3: to be discouraged, despondent, and at the dead end of

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Speaker 3: his own despair, he turns his attention outward and begins

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Speaker 3: to think about that church that God has called him

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Speaker 3: to serve. He turns his attention outward and he begins

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Speaker 3: to focus on their future. And it's almost like he's

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Speaker 3: setting up an appointment. Walk slow with me here, I

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Speaker 3: want to meet you. In this text, you can see Paul,

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Speaker 3: who's about fifty five years old at this point in

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Speaker 3: his life, saying I don't know when, but I'll see

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Speaker 3: you again.

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Speaker 1: What's he doing.

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Speaker 3: He's creating a sense of anticipatory joy even though the

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Speaker 3: timeline is uncertain. He doesn't have clarity, but he trusts God.

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Speaker 3: And you can see in this wrestling match that is

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Speaker 3: written on the page and preserved for us through the

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Speaker 3: passage of time, as Paul is wrestling with his own

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Speaker 3: volition and will because there's so much about the situation

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Speaker 3: that he can't control. It's not as if when he says,

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Speaker 3: what shall I choose, he gets a vote in whether

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Speaker 3: or not he's executed.

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Speaker 1: Now, just to make sure you understand.

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Speaker 3: The situation, Paul is about to be put on trial,

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Speaker 3: and they have the power to decide does he live

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Speaker 3: or does he die. Paul does not have the power

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Speaker 3: to decide whether he lives or dies, but he still

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Speaker 3: has the power to choose how he lives in the meantime,

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Speaker 3: and so here he is wrestling with the decision that's

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Speaker 3: really not his to make. And I thought it was

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Speaker 3: kind of funny. And maybe there's even a little swagger

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Speaker 3: on what Paul's doing here, because he's telling the devil.

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Speaker 1: I haven't decided yet. I haven't decided.

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Speaker 3: Yet whether I'm going to let them kill me so

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Speaker 3: I can just be done with this and go get

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Speaker 3: all my crowns from Jesus. I hadn't decided yet whether

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Speaker 3: I just want to get out of here and see

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Speaker 3: his face, the one who died for me, the one

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Speaker 3: who knocked me off my horse on the Damascus Road.

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Speaker 3: I hadn't decided yet whether I want to be done

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Speaker 3: with all these trifling pharisees that I used to be

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Speaker 3: one of that keep running me from.

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Speaker 1: City to city. I hadn't decided yet, or do I

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Speaker 1: want to be done with the storms and the shipwrecks.

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Speaker 3: And the stonings and just see him and be known

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Speaker 3: as I am known. I hadn't decided yet. Do I

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Speaker 3: just want to leave? Or do I want to stay?

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Speaker 3: And he is an interesting term. He said, I'm torn

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Speaker 3: between the two.

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Speaker 1: What a picture.

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Speaker 3: I'm torn between the two? Recap He's in prison. But

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Speaker 3: when it came to describing his condition, he didn't say

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Speaker 3: I'm trapped.

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Speaker 1: He said, I'm torn. Two things could happen here, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know which one God's gonna do yet.

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Speaker 3: Either my life could be over in a matter of weeks, months,

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Speaker 3: even days, and I could be with Christ. Or I

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Speaker 3: could stay here and keep serving Christ longer.

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Speaker 1: And I'm torn. Everybody say it, I'm torn.

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Speaker 3: I'm torn for everybody today who is feeling torn in

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Speaker 3: an area of your life.

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Speaker 1: Let the Apostle Paul administer to you these words of encouragement.

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Speaker 3: He says, if I am to go on living in

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Speaker 3: the body, this will mean fruitful labor. Yet what shall

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Speaker 3: I choose? I do not know. And write this down

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Speaker 3: and put it on your mirror. It's okay to not know.

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Speaker 3: It's okay to not know. It's okay to not have clarity.

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Speaker 3: It's okay to not have a five year plan. It's

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Speaker 3: okay to not know how you're going to get out

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Speaker 3: of this exactly.

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Speaker 1: It's okay not to know. If Paul, who said.

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Speaker 3: And we know that in all things God works together

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Speaker 3: for the good of them that love him and call

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Speaker 3: according to his purpose, said I don't know about this one.

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Speaker 1: You have I don't know moments.

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Speaker 3: That you have been hiding because you think that somehow

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Speaker 3: means you don't have faith. And it is okay to

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Speaker 3: say I don't know. In fact, just say it right now.

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Speaker 3: It'll feel like one hundred pounds lifted off.

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Speaker 1: Say I don't know.

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Speaker 3: She Just gonna say it proper. I do not know,

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Speaker 3: I have not the information. Don't say it formal, Just

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Speaker 3: say I don't know. Paul says, I don't know which

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Speaker 3: one I want yet. I kind of want to get

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Speaker 3: out of here, but I kind of think I need

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Speaker 3: to stay. It'd be awesome if I never had to

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Speaker 3: deal with the opposition that I'm dealing with.

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Speaker 1: Again, it's hard out here for a preacher, but.

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Speaker 3: I kind of think you need me because you all

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Speaker 3: are fighting back home.

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Speaker 1: I kind of think you need me because I've heard

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Speaker 1: some rumors about you.

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Speaker 3: And I don't know if I want to get out

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Speaker 3: of here or if I need to stay in this

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Speaker 3: for a little while. And he's acting like he gets

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Speaker 3: to choose, like he won the coin toss, but nobody's

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Speaker 3: coming to ask him. So what is he really wrestling with.

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Speaker 3: Paul is wrestling with detention, of looking forward into a

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Speaker 3: future that is uncertain, with unwavering confidence in Christ. Everybody

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Speaker 3: in this room is facing the same challenge. Your future

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Speaker 3: is not certain and your hope is Christ. I just

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Speaker 3: hit everybody in the room.

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Speaker 1: How do you preach to so many backgrounds of people?

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Speaker 3: And there's rich people and poor people, and there's young people,

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Speaker 3: and there's old people, and there's religious people, and there's

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Speaker 3: people whose eyes look like they just that, you know,

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Speaker 3: right before they came to church, they may have something

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Speaker 3: they went in the Holy Spirit. And how do you

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Speaker 3: to all those people? Because every single one of you,

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Speaker 3: your future is uncertain and your hope is Christ. And

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Speaker 3: in this way you are no different than Paul. And

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Speaker 3: so he says, I don't know, I'm torn I kind

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Speaker 3: of want to just see Jesus gotta be nice that

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Speaker 3: this was all over. I guess because I was preaching

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Speaker 3: on prison I was doing research and I mentioned Shaw

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Speaker 3: Shank redemption and then turn off the TV, all of

440
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 3: you that are real religious. We watched The Green Mile

441
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 3: this week too with John Coffey, and The Green Mile

442
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:37,640
Speaker 3: is trippy. I'm gonna give you spoiler alert. The movie

443
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 3: is like forty years old, so if you haven't seen

444
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 3: it by now, you deserve to have it spoil But

445
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 3: at the end you find out that the man, the

446
00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:50,720
Speaker 3: prison guard, he can't die. Well he's gonna die, but

447
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:52,199
Speaker 3: he's like one hundred and two and he doesn't know

448
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 3: how long he's going to have to live.

449
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 1: And that's the end of the movie.

450
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 3: And me and Graham were watching it together and he goes, well,

451
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 3: that was kind of anti climactic.

452
00:23:58,359 --> 00:23:59,479
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be scary.

453
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,280
Speaker 3: I said, son, that is the scariest thing I've ever

454
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 3: seen in a movie. You don't understand now, but you

455
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 3: will that the thought that this is gonna go on

456
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,919
Speaker 3: forever like this. I said, that sounds cool to you.

457
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: Right now.

458
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,679
Speaker 3: You're seventeen. I'm forty four. Trust me, this is a

459
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 3: horror movie. That was the scariest scene I've ever seen it.

460
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 3: I've never seen anybody jump out the bushes.

461
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,640
Speaker 1: That was scarier. I've never seen a chainsaw that was scarier.

462
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 1: The fact that I don't know how long I'm gonna

463
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: be here. In fact, they've even done studies. They did

464
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: a surgery on people and they told them, now.

465
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 3: The surgery, after six months, the condition might be reversible.

466
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 3: And then they did other people and they said it's

467
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 3: not reversible.

468
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 1: You're just gonna have to live with this.

469
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 3: The people that they told in six months, will check

470
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:53,639
Speaker 3: and it might be reversible.

471
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,120
Speaker 1: You might get better, come back in six months. They

472
00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: were less happy. Then the people who were told it's

473
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:01,719
Speaker 1: this way forever get used to it.

474
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 3: Because the people who were told this is how it's

475
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 3: going to be, they began to adapt.

476
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: And when they begin to.

477
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 3: Adapt, they started to see that I can live with this.

478
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 3: It's not what I wanted, but I can live with this.

479
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 3: It's not what I asked for.

480
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,639
Speaker 1: But I can live with this. It's not what I

481
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:24,639
Speaker 1: would have chosen, but I can live with this.

482
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,400
Speaker 3: The people who were told it might be reversible, they

483
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 3: were living in a suspended state of anticipation that.

484
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 1: It might get better and it might not.

485
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,240
Speaker 3: And what was worse than the pain they were suffering

486
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 3: was the deferred hope that it might get better. Because

487
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 3: if you just tell me this is the way it's

488
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 3: going to be, then I'll make arrangements around the way

489
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,479
Speaker 3: that it is. But to give me the possibility that

490
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 3: it could change, but I'm not sure when or how

491
00:25:54,880 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 3: it might is the most painful hope at all.

492
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,159
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the ache of faith for

493
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 1: a moment.

494
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 3: I want to talk about when you know there's something

495
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 3: more in you, but it can't express itself because of

496
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 3: what's blocking you. I want to talk about when you

497
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 3: know you have love to give but no one to

498
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,160
Speaker 3: trust to give it to. I want to talk about

499
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 3: the ache of faith today when you know that God

500
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:23,879
Speaker 3: brought you through this for a reason, but you can't

501
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 3: see what it is yet.

502
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 1: Paul said, I'm torn right now. I'm aching in faith

503
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:30,439
Speaker 1: right now.

504
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 3: A part of my heart wants to be with you,

505
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 3: but a part of my heart says this is hard,

506
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 3: and I don't know.

507
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: Which one is better.

508
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 3: On one hand, he says, I think it's better to

509
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 3: be with Christ. In fact, he says something interesting in

510
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 3: twenty three. I desire to depart. I want to get

511
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 3: out of this. It's better by far.

512
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: But let's go.

513
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 3: Real slow, so everybody can apply this in their life

514
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:10,199
Speaker 3: how they need to.

515
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: It would be better for me if go back to

516
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: verse twenty three.

517
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 3: And I'm torn about it, and I think it would

518
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 3: be better for me if by far.

519
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,800
Speaker 1: But okay, so notice what he's doing.

520
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 3: He's setting it up that my preference would be that

521
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 3: I go to Jesus now and get my reward. And

522
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 3: I'm not saying anybody in here just wants to die.

523
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 3: I'm just setting that up as a metaphor. I would

524
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 3: like for this to be over, but I would like

525
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 3: for this to end. But twenty four it is more

526
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,399
Speaker 3: necessary for you that I remain in the body.

527
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: Twenty five.

528
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,719
Speaker 3: Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and

529
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 3: we'll continue with all of you for your progress and

530
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,400
Speaker 3: joy in the faith. I want to do the whole

531
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 3: sweeping thing again.

532
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: From twenty three on.

533
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 3: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is

534
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 3: better by far. So there is something drawing Paul. He says,

535
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 3: to live is Christ, to die is gain. I could

536
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,399
Speaker 3: just go to heaven. That would be easier for me.

537
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 3: It would be easier for me twenty four. But you

538
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 3: need me, and this would be easier, but this would

539
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 3: be needed, and I'm torn. It would be easier for

540
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 3: me just to let go and surrender and ask God

541
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,719
Speaker 3: to take me now. But you need me here, and

542
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 3: because you need me, I'm gonna let go of what

543
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 3: would be easy, And Paul says, I'm gonna let my

544
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 3: purpose pull me. Wow, come here, Graham, come here, Gavin

545
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 3: Grahama on my left arm, right over here, all the

546
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 3: way down the stairs, Gavin on my right arm.

547
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: Real, gentle Gavin is going to be with God.

548
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 3: Graham has stay here and help us pull me a

549
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 3: little bit.

550
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: I want, I want to be easier. You need me.

551
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 3: And at some point during Paul's wrestling match, because what

552
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 3: he's doing here is modeling for you what to do

553
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 3: when you are caught in a space where you don't

554
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 3: have clarity but you need courage, where you don't know

555
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 3: how to handle this, but you need his help and

556
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 3: you can't really figure out what to set in front

557
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 3: of you. For some of you, you don't even know

558
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 3: what to look forward too, so it is difficult to

559
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,240
Speaker 3: attach faith to a future that you can't even articulate.

560
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 3: So you don't even really know what you're asking God

561
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 3: to do. And it would be easier just for you

562
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 3: to give up, but the need started pulling out. Graham

563
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 3: pulled me like you're stronger than Gavin. And at some

564
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 3: point the need keep going. The need became strong enough

565
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 3: to release Paul from what he wanted so that he

566
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 3: could respond to what was needed. I am teaching the Bible.

567
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 3: I guess my last day in Valentine.

568
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: You see what I'm doing.

569
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 3: I'm pulled by purpose. So watch this come here. One

570
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 3: thing is pulling me.

571
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: To give up. Oh, it'll be easier to go up

572
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 1: to heaven in the suite.

573
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 3: By and by fly away, Oh glory.

574
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: But just by the time he's ready to fly away,

575
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: something's pulling him back.

576
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 3: And he said, this would be easy, but this is

577
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 3: what you need. And so at some point, Christians, we

578
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,479
Speaker 3: got to decide. Are we just going to be driven

579
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 3: by decisions of what's easy.

580
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 1: Are we going to be pulled by purpose into what

581
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: is necessary?

582
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 3: And I came to let you know that there is

583
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 3: a necessary next in your life.

584
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 1: Help me Hamm in Oregon. There is a necessary next

585
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: if the brook dried up, there's a widow in Zarapat

586
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: down to her last.

587
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 3: Meal, and God is positioning you in this season for

588
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 3: a need you don't even know about yet. So it's

589
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 3: very important right now that as we look at the

590
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 3: example of Paul, which to me I told you was

591
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 3: a picture, it's a picture of somebody being pulled.

592
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 1: It's a picture of everybody.

593
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 3: In this room who is being pulled the easy thing

594
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 3: and the needed thing, the easy thing and the needed thing,

595
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 3: the thing that you want.

596
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: Let's see.

597
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: Sometimes when you get old, you get far sighted. You

598
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 3: get far sighted. Holly, start looking me funny.

599
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: The other.

600
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 3: We were in a restaurant and she was looking at me, funny.

601
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 3: I was paying the bill and she was looking at me, funny,

602
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 3: What are you looking at it? I thought she was

603
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 3: looking because I tip bigger than her. I thought she

604
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 3: was scrutinizing my tip percentage because y'all pray for her,

605
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 3: because I'm generous. And I thought she was scrutinizing the bill.

606
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 3: But then later that night she was looking at me funny.

607
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 3: I was in bed reading the book and she was

608
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: looking at me, funny. She was looking at me funny.

609
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 3: And a few days later I came home and she said,

610
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 3: I left something for you in the bedroom beside the bed.

611
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, She's like, no, it's still something that

612
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: I think you need. And that woman looked at me

613
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 1: stone cold ice in her veins and said, it's time.

614
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: I watched it at the restaurant.

615
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna sit there while you pull out your flashlight.

616
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: For fifteen minutes trying to read is it a five

617
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: or a seven? They keep it so dark in the restaurants.

618
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: Can I preach about.

619
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 3: How the devil is busy with the light dimming ministry.

620
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:29,959
Speaker 1: The Prince of darkness? She said, it's time. I said, no, No,

621
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: I got more year.

622
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 3: I can make the font seventy two, and I'll use

623
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 3: my iPad when I preach.

624
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: She said, no, you might want to use a paper bible.

625
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 1: It's time. And you're far sighted.

626
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 3: I said no, I'm actually close sighted or whatever the

627
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 3: other one, because I can I can see it at

628
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 3: this far. I just can't see it at it's close.

629
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 3: She said, that's what far sighted means, means you can

630
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 3: see far, not close. She said, there's another name she

631
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 3: had done researched. She said, there's another name for it

632
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 3: when you get over forty, it's called aging eyes. Soft

633
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 3: way to say getting old, aging eyes, aging eyes. There

634
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 3: was even some Greek words she used for I don't

635
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,720
Speaker 3: even remember. It had presby something in it. Somebody can

636
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 3: Optimologists can send us a text about this message and

637
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 3: correct everything I'm saying this wrong.

638
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 1: But she said, it's time. Y'all can't even take me

639
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:24,840
Speaker 1: seriously with those own things.

640
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,840
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to get used to it, because I

641
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 3: need to see what's right in front of me in

642
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 3: this season, and I'm afraid that if I can only

643
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 3: see what's far away. Paul said, I want to be

644
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 3: in heaven with Jesus. But God said that's too far. Paul.

645
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: One day, one day, I'll give you a well done,

646
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: but not to.

647
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:57,719
Speaker 3: Day, because I still got stuff.

648
00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 1: For you to do that's right in front of you.

649
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 3: And convinced of this process, I decided that I'm going

650
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,680
Speaker 3: to make what's right in front of me that I

651
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 3: could miss if I was too far sighted my focus.

652
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 3: So the word of the Lord is whatever is right

653
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 3: in front of you that God has given you to do.

654
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 3: That is your focus in this season, and all you

655
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 3: have to do with the parts you don't know about

656
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 3: God's plan for your life, because you know Jeremiah twenty

657
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 3: nine to eleven is a wonderful scripture, for I know

658
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 3: the plans I have for you, plans to prosser you,

659
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 3: not the harm you plans to give you hope in

660
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 3: a future that was spoken to prepare them for their

661
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 3: captivity in Babylon, which would last seventy years. And he said,

662
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 3: in the meantime, while you're in Babylon, you need these

663
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 3: because while you are waiting for the future that you

664
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:57,680
Speaker 3: believe God has for you, I don't want you to

665
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 3: get far sighted and miss what's right in front of you.

666
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 3: Put it in the comments. I don't want to miss it.

667
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 3: Tell your neighbor, I don't want to miss it. And

668
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 3: sometimes the reason I miss it is because it's right

669
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 3: here and I'm looking.

670
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: Out there now.

671
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,400
Speaker 3: This is for all of the worriers that call themselves planners.

672
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 3: You do know that every time God gives a gift,

673
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:22,800
Speaker 3: the enemy attacks.

674
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:23,360
Speaker 1: It with a perversion.

675
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 3: Planning is God's gift to you. Worry is the perversion

676
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 3: of God's gift called planning, And people who are good

677
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 3: at planning.

678
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: Are also world class warriors.

679
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,240
Speaker 3: So worrying is watch this when I don't have clarity

680
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 3: about the situation because.

681
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: I'm looking so far.

682
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:45,400
Speaker 3: And I'll illustrate this one other way because I'm passionate

683
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 3: that you get the picture. Because I don't want to

684
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 3: just preach these messages. And when they say Tuesday, do.

685
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: You go to church? Yeah?

686
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 3: What he preaches by own God. I want you to

687
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:57,839
Speaker 3: have something that you can remember. And what I see

688
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 3: you doing is this going forward? Right, God direct my past.

689
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 3: But you are looking so far. I promise you I

690
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 3: will not take one more step. Get a white shot

691
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:12,719
Speaker 3: so they can see what I'm saying, y'all. I will

692
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 3: not take one more step. It's too risky for.

693
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,839
Speaker 1: Me to go forward looking that far.

694
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe I could do it.

695
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 1: It's way, it's way.

696
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 3: Remember I'm forty four. It's way too risky for me

697
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:34,560
Speaker 3: to take that step. If I'm gonna go forward, that's

698
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna look at next. Now, somebody who wants

699
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:40,359
Speaker 3: me to come up there and give them a hug,

700
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 3: wave at me real quick. Okay, I'm coming for you

701
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 3: in the back row right there. I see who I'm

702
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:45,800
Speaker 3: coming to. Everybod else, put your hand out I'm coming.

703
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 1: All the way to you. That's my future. But I

704
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:51,399
Speaker 1: am not coming to.

705
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,200
Speaker 3: Give you that hug, which I'm going to give you

706
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 3: in just a few moments.

707
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: I am not I'm gonna come that far. I'm gonna

708
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:00,839
Speaker 1: I'm gonna. I'm gonna come toward you. That is the.

709
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 3: Future, But I am not going to look that far,

710
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 3: because if.

711
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 1: I look that far, I'll fall.

712
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 3: That's the definition of anxiety. That's why Peter didn't make

713
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 3: it all the way to Jesus, because he saw.

714
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: The wind in the waves. And when you look too far,

715
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 1: you fall.

716
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 3: But if you take this next step by faith and

717
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 3: say to the devil, my purpose is pulling me. Now.

718
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: This is the next sandwich I need to make. This

719
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: is the next bill I need to pay.

720
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna think about the other eighteen thousand dollars

721
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 3: in debt right now. This bill, this baby step, this

722
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 3: phone call, this workout, this breath disappointment, this phone call,

723
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 3: this day, this hour, this minute. And I'll tell you

724
00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 3: what I found out that the word of God I'm coming, Sis,

725
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 3: I'm coming. I found out give me my camera before

726
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:06,480
Speaker 3: I come, that the word.

727
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,200
Speaker 1: Of God is like headlights on a car.

728
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:12,839
Speaker 3: When you're driving at night, you can only see as

729
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 3: far as your head lights, but you can make the

730
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 3: whole trip that way three feet at a time. I

731
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 3: promise you, I'm gonna look here while I'm walking there,

732
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,400
Speaker 3: And this, to me is the balancing act of great faith.

733
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: Look forward, but not far. Look forward now, No, watch,

734
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:43,360
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do this. I'm definitely not gonna do that.

735
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:44,279
Speaker 1: I got that much down.

736
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 3: But if the enemy can't get you to look back

737
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 3: on your past, he will try to get you to

738
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,320
Speaker 3: go so far into your future.

739
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 1: Okay, what's u that?

740
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,480
Speaker 3: It is just as dangerous for me to look at

741
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:04,799
Speaker 3: where I'm going all the way up there as it

742
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 3: is for me to look back at where I came from.

743
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 3: So it's dangerous not to look forward. It's dangerous not

744
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 3: to have anything to look forward to. It's dangerous for

745
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 3: you not to have a plan for this year of

746
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 3: your life. It's dangerous for you to not have structure

747
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 3: around your day. It's dangerous for you to not have

748
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 3: a budget. It's dangerous for you to not have an

749
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 3: eating plan. It's dangerous for you not have a Bible

750
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 3: reading plan, because you will need a plan to produce

751
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 3: what you're called to produce. It's dangerous not.

752
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 1: To look forward.

753
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 3: It is just as dangerous to look too far forward,

754
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 3: to try to control things that only God can control.

755
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,360
Speaker 3: To start thinking about the product while you're still in

756
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 3: the process.

757
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: Of making it.

758
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 3: You don't know what it's going to be. And if

759
00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 3: you look too far and go, Okay, I'm going.

760
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,120
Speaker 1: To be sober the rest of my life.

761
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:59,320
Speaker 3: Too far, too far. That can be where you're headed,

762
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 3: that can be where you're going. But what I want

763
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 3: you focused on right now is that the presence of

764
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 3: God is enough to keep me out.

765
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: Of these chains. Today. I'm not drinking it today.

766
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 3: I'm not doing it today.

767
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 1: I'm never eating sugar again. That's too far. Don't eat

768
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,319
Speaker 1: it this week? Can we do this week?

769
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 4: Who?

770
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,120
Speaker 1: Big old jump? Just like that? Can we do it

771
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: for a week? And in this way, your faith is

772
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: like headlights? Paul said in verse twenty. I eagerly expect

773
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 1: you're taking my video. You could do it. I a

774
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: preached this just to you. Paul used the term that

775
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,360
Speaker 1: you can tell them it too. I want you to

776
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 1: remember it. Oh, this is amazing. You're getting a hug

777
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 1: on the way to the hug. Ooh, that's awesome. You

778
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 1: don't even know what you just did for me. You

779
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:03,080
Speaker 1: preached the sermon.

780
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 3: You see how much that meant to him that I

781
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 3: hugged him. You see how much that meant that didn't

782
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:10,319
Speaker 3: even what I came up here to do. What if

783
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 3: God wants to use you on the way to where

784
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 3: you think you're going in a greater way than you

785
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 3: could ever be used when you get there.

786
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:24,680
Speaker 1: What if I had been far sighted?

787
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 3: What if I couldn't see where I was supposed to stop?

788
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 1: You? Like the glasses, I feel dignified with these. I

789
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: feel theological with these.

790
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 3: I feel like I need God to hand me these

791
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:46,680
Speaker 3: for the times of my life when I can't see

792
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 3: what's right in front of me.

793
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:59,919
Speaker 1: Soap here this is not back forward, but not far

794
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 1: What is there along the way that God wants to

795
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 1: show you? What is there along the way that God

796
00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:09,320
Speaker 1: wants to do? Paul was so good at glasses.

797
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 3: He looked and saw, Oh, these chains that are on

798
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 3: my wrists are going to be a testimony so that

799
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:15,360
Speaker 3: the guards can get saved. Because I want to have

800
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 3: a bigger church when I leave this prison. Then I

801
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 3: did cool. I'm going to have a prison campus That's

802
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 3: how Paul thought about it. That's what happens when God

803
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 3: gives you a glasses. God give me the glasses this

804
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:27,840
Speaker 3: week to see what's right in front of me. And

805
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,959
Speaker 3: then along the way, I see some things. I learned

806
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 3: some things.

807
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: We'll have some moments, but I'm gonna get there.

808
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do what I promised to do, what I

809
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 3: set out to do. And I'm hug the one that

810
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 3: I thought.

811
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:50,479
Speaker 1: God bless you, God bless you. You're like my.

812
00:43:55,239 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 3: Holly, gave me this set his time, at his time,

813
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,879
Speaker 3: and God wants to give you these because you are

814
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 3: missing what's right in front of you. I have one

815
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 3: more thing I want to show you. Are you full?

816
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 3: I can save it until next week, or I can

817
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 3: bring the whole thing and break it down right now

818
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 3: in case you don't feel bad. You know, I can't

819
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 3: trust you to come back every week. I got to

820
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 3: give it to you while you're here.

821
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:27,399
Speaker 1: Now.

822
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,360
Speaker 3: Listen as I make my way back down, Notice what

823
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:35,720
Speaker 3: I'm doing. I'm going far. I'm not looking far right.

824
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 3: I'm going far, but I'm not looking far.

825
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 1: That's what God.

826
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:43,200
Speaker 3: Wants you to see. I eagerly expect and hope Verse twenty.

827
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 3: It's a Greek word that Paul used, not for glasses.

828
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:49,440
Speaker 3: But he makes this word apple carudokia, or any of

829
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:51,120
Speaker 3: you in the church the first year that I preached

830
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:52,800
Speaker 3: that apple carldokia.

831
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: It means to stretch the head forward, apple carudokia.

832
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:00,120
Speaker 3: When he says, I eagerly expect and hope that I

833
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:01,960
Speaker 3: will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient

834
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 3: courage so that whatever happens, Christ will be exalted in

835
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,800
Speaker 3: my body, he says, apple carldoki. He says, I stretch

836
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 3: my head forward, but not far, because I'm in chains

837
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:20,480
Speaker 3: right now, forward, not far, little steps, little things, little

838
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 3: moments forward, but not far. And not to make this negative,

839
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:32,320
Speaker 3: but I want to give you the antithesis of Paul's perspective.

840
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: Late to so much.

841
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 3: See, when the children of Israel had the opportunity to

842
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 3: enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, they

843
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 3: forfeited that. They forfeited that it was theirs, and they

844
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 3: forfeited that it was what God wanted them to have,

845
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 3: and they forfeited that. So the account is pretty well known,

846
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:53,239
Speaker 3: but I don't know that the details have ever really

847
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:57,359
Speaker 3: been looked at up close. When the spies that went

848
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 3: to check out the land where they would have to

849
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 3: fight the battles to win the promise.

850
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: You have to fight the battles to win the promise.

851
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: You have to fight the battles to win the promise.

852
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,640
Speaker 3: And when they came back and said, you know, it's

853
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:13,040
Speaker 3: pretty amazing in there in numbers, chapter thirteen, go ahead

854
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 3: and put that scripture on the screen, please, They gave

855
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:16,640
Speaker 3: Moses this account.

856
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:20,279
Speaker 1: We went into the land to which you sent us, and.

857
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 3: I'm gonna stop on the sentence for a moment. It

858
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 3: does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit?

859
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 3: Where is its fruit?

860
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:28,479
Speaker 1: Here?

861
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 3: They brought it back on a pole. Two of them

862
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 3: carried the fruit of Canaan. These people had never eaten

863
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 3: the fruit of the land.

864
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 1: Many of them had only.

865
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 3: Existed in Egypt, and so they had never had this kind.

866
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 1: Of fruit before.

867
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 3: Well, just about the time that they're looking at the

868
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 3: fruit and seeing a picture, catch this phrase of what

869
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 3: their tomorrow could taste like, what they're tomorrow could taste like.

870
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 3: Sometimes God will give you a taste of what your

871
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:00,839
Speaker 3: tomorrow could be like, what it could be like if

872
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 3: you were open and free of what it could be like,

873
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 3: if you were focused and not distracted of what it

874
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 3: could be like if you were a servant, rather than

875
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 3: seeing yourself as a continual chaser of status. God will

876
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:16,240
Speaker 3: give you a glimpse and a taste of what tomorrow

877
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:16,759
Speaker 3: could be like.

878
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:17,640
Speaker 1: Here is it's.

879
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 3: Fruit, But the people who live there are powerful and

880
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 3: are fortified and very large.

881
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 1: We even saw.

882
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 3: Descendants of anak there. Go back to verse twenty seven.

883
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:39,800
Speaker 3: Here is its fruit. It's fruitful, it's beautiful, it's amazing.

884
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 3: We saw it with our own eyes. It's fruitful and

885
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:47,200
Speaker 3: it flows. But watch this verse twenty eight. It's fortified

886
00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 3: and we're going to have to fight.

887
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 1: Now.

888
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:55,920
Speaker 3: Fortified means that it's protected. Some of you will remember

889
00:47:55,920 --> 00:48:00,680
Speaker 3: that the first city that they thought was Jericho. Significance

890
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:02,880
Speaker 3: about Jericho was not the size of the city.

891
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:04,240
Speaker 1: It was the height of the walls.

892
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,239
Speaker 3: So when they said it's fortified, they said, it's got

893
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 3: really big walls. Right, it's fortified. It's fruitful, but it's fortified.

894
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:18,600
Speaker 3: Now here comes the decision. Paul said, what shall I choose?

895
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 3: One is pulling me toward purpose, one is pulling me

896
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:24,360
Speaker 3: toward what is easy. I'm gonna go with the purpose

897
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 3: of God in this season of my life, Apple Caradoki,

898
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 3: I'm stretching my head forward, and that.

899
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,680
Speaker 1: Just the moment that the people of God could have

900
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:37,160
Speaker 1: gone forward, they got far sighted.

901
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 3: They started thinking about who they were gonna have to

902
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,879
Speaker 3: fight when they got there.

903
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: But here's the bad thing about.

904
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,600
Speaker 3: Forecasting a fight before you are even on site to

905
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:53,400
Speaker 3: fight it. You don't realize that God is going to

906
00:48:53,440 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 3: give you the backup when you show up. You don't

907
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:04,359
Speaker 3: know the future that when you look at those fortified

908
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:08,280
Speaker 3: Jericho walls, those hard things in your life, those tall things,

909
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 3: those strongholds in your life, you don't realize that as

910
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 3: you think about them in the future, they are fortified.

911
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 3: But when you get there, God's gonna give you a

912
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:22,880
Speaker 3: trumpet to blow, and when you blow that trumpet, something

913
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:27,279
Speaker 3: supernatural is going to happen that only God could do.

914
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:28,319
Speaker 1: You couldn't do it.

915
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 3: I like shaking my glasses at you feel like a

916
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:37,959
Speaker 3: wise old man full of passion and insight, because when

917
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 3: you get there you will have to strength for there.

918
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:47,560
Speaker 1: You've got to go forward, but not too far. You

919
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: gotta go forward and don't start thinking about what is

920
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 1: this gonna be in three years? What is it gonna

921
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 1: be at three minutes. When we first start tech.

922
00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:55,719
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this trunk, but people

923
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 3: used to always meet with us. The church grew so fast, right,

924
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 3: and we would meet with people. And at the time,

925
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 3: most of people coming to the church were teenagers and

926
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 3: their parents. There was no in betweens. And I figured

927
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:09,560
Speaker 3: out what happened. The teenagers came, they thought it was cool.

928
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 3: The parents came to see if it was a cult,

929
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,799
Speaker 3: and that exactly what happened. And we just grew both

930
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 3: ways there and then the parents came there like not

931
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:20,839
Speaker 3: a cult, but it is pretty cool, you know. And

932
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 3: everybody stayed and we preached Christ and God did amazing miracles.

933
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 3: But when we sat down for the first time to

934
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:28,200
Speaker 3: meet with many of the couples that were coming, they

935
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:29,719
Speaker 3: would ask a question, and I think three in a

936
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 3: row asked this.

937
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: They said, well, what's the plan.

938
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:35,280
Speaker 3: For Elevation Church if you get hit by a bus pastor?

939
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:38,440
Speaker 3: And when the first person asked it, I was like,

940
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,040
Speaker 3: oh no, Second person asked them like, I don't know,

941
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 3: third person asked them like, do you know something about

942
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:45,120
Speaker 3: a bus driver that is there?

943
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:48,840
Speaker 1: I mean bus phobia.

944
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 3: Still kind of cringe when I see a bus kids

945
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:56,560
Speaker 3: just traumatizing. What is the church going to do without you?

946
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 3: They would ask, And I finally looked at the third ones.

947
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 3: I don't even know what church gonna do with me.

948
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:03,880
Speaker 3: I never did this before.

949
00:51:04,920 --> 00:51:06,320
Speaker 1: What happens if you get hit by the bus? What

950
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 1: happens if I don't. I don't even know the second one.

951
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:10,640
Speaker 1: How could I know the first one?

952
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 3: And I believe in a succession plan, and I believe

953
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:19,759
Speaker 3: in contingencies, and I believe in plan beasts. But I

954
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 3: also believe that you need to trust God, that you

955
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:32,840
Speaker 3: need to trust God, trust him so you don't trip.

956
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:39,719
Speaker 1: Trust him, so you don't trip trust him.

957
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:42,760
Speaker 3: Right now, Paul says, so that now as always, Christ

958
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 3: will be exalted in my body. So there are two

959
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 3: groups of people in here. The first one is like

960
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:52,120
Speaker 3: the Israelites and when they thought about what was ahead

961
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:53,640
Speaker 3: of them in the fight and the expense of it.

962
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:55,919
Speaker 3: And those of us who live in states of mind

963
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 3: that are always forecasting the fights in the future. This

964
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:01,640
Speaker 3: is what happens in Fen of Exodus. I think this

965
00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:03,520
Speaker 3: is one of the or in numbers. This is one

966
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 3: of the saddest scriptures that you will ever see. The

967
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:08,200
Speaker 3: people of God who were poised in promise to be

968
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:11,840
Speaker 3: possessors of the land. They start questioning, God, why is

969
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 3: the Lord bringing us to this land only to let

970
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:17,399
Speaker 3: us fall by the sword our wives and children will

971
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 3: be taking as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us

972
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:25,360
Speaker 3: to go back to Egypt? And you can't go forward

973
00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 3: looking back like that, and you can't go forward trying

974
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 3: to forecast what's going to happen with a wall that

975
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 3: God is going to knock down that you don't even

976
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 3: know about yet.

977
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?

978
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:41,759
Speaker 1: First four? And they said to each other, we should

979
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:47,680
Speaker 1: choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Paul does

980
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:52,160
Speaker 1: just the opposite. In the moment of uncertainty. He says,

981
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:54,320
Speaker 1: I'm not going back anywhere.

982
00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:58,719
Speaker 3: I'm going forward, and I'm going to focus on what's

983
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:01,879
Speaker 3: right in front of me at this moment, and I'm

984
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 3: letting go of what I can't control. Is this your word, man,

985
00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:08,160
Speaker 3: because there is somebody in here who is being.

986
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:14,279
Speaker 1: Pulled back, dragged back, pimpted back, distracted back. And the

987
00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:18,799
Speaker 1: word of the Lord is forward, not far, not far.

988
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 3: This is going to be a step by step miracle.

989
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:25,240
Speaker 3: This is going to be a breath by breath miracle.

990
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:28,080
Speaker 3: This is going to be a day by day, moment

991
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:33,200
Speaker 3: by moment miracle. And God is doing it in your life.

992
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:36,720
Speaker 3: Just so long as you know that you can stretch

993
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:41,680
Speaker 3: your head forward in faith. You can only see three feet,

994
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:46,839
Speaker 3: but you can make the whole trip that way. And

995
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,840
Speaker 3: by the way, Holly, they were one hundred and fifty

996
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:56,839
Speaker 3: miles from Egypt, only fifty miles from Canaan. It would

997
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,200
Speaker 3: have been closer for them to keep going forward than

998
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 3: it would to go back. I came to tell somebody,

999
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:04,799
Speaker 3: You're closer than you think you are.

1000
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:09,880
Speaker 1: You cannot go back now. No, No, listen to me.

1001
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:12,960
Speaker 1: You have come too far, you hear me.

1002
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:18,399
Speaker 3: You have come too far to forfeit this. After all

1003
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:23,359
Speaker 3: that He's done, after all that you've seen, after all

1004
00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:24,880
Speaker 3: that he brought you through.

1005
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,239
Speaker 1: Don't you want to run on and see what the.

1006
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:29,640
Speaker 4: End is going to be?

1007
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:40,800
Speaker 3: Somebody say, I will go. I sall go, and Father,

1008
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 3: I thank you for your prevailing word. All flesh is

1009
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 3: like the grass of the field. It pales and it withers,

1010
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 3: and it fades and it dies.

1011
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:52,800
Speaker 1: But the word of the Lord stands forever.

1012
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 3: God, I thank you for the great faith of the

1013
00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 3: Apostle Paul, who gives us a picture today of what

1014
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:04,000
Speaker 3: it means to be in a space that never would

1015
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 3: have been his choice. But I thank you Lord that

1016
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:10,839
Speaker 3: he gave us a picture of what to do when

1017
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:14,960
Speaker 3: the situation that is surrounding us does not correspond to

1018
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 3: the promise that is inside of us.

1019
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:18,960
Speaker 1: I'm stretching forward.

1020
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:22,400
Speaker 3: If all I can stretch forward is my head, I

1021
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 3: stretch my head forward. If all I can stretch forward

1022
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:29,280
Speaker 3: is a weak prayer, I stretch that forward too, because

1023
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:33,359
Speaker 3: I know that you did not bring me this far

1024
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:34,840
Speaker 3: to leave me.

1025
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 1: I thank you God that you do have.

1026
00:55:39,280 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 3: Plans, a hope, a future for each and everyone that

1027
00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:50,680
Speaker 3: you sent me to minister to today. I thank you

1028
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 3: that this week they're going to get your glasses. I

1029
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 3: pray God this week that when parents are starting to

1030
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:02,319
Speaker 3: worry too much, teenagers would hand them some glasses. I

1031
00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 3: pray that when teenagers are starting to get too distracted

1032
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:06,640
Speaker 3: by what's out in the front, that a parent will

1033
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:07,719
Speaker 3: hand them some glasses.

1034
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:10,440
Speaker 1: I pray that when we're all alone in.

1035
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:14,080
Speaker 3: The secrecy of our own self sabotage and the thoughts.

1036
00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:15,800
Speaker 1: That we think that torment us.

1037
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:19,200
Speaker 3: That you would give us your glasses so that we

1038
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 3: would go forward and realize that you are not far.

1039
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 3: Thank you for drawing near to us today. God, it's

1040
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:30,759
Speaker 3: amazing how you meet with us. Thank you for the

1041
00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:32,359
Speaker 3: promise that when we draw near to you, you will

1042
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:34,160
Speaker 3: draw near to us, and that if we humble ourself

1043
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:36,720
Speaker 3: under your mighty hand, you'll lift us up in due time.

1044
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:41,000
Speaker 3: I pray for each person today who is experiencing a

1045
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:44,920
Speaker 3: prison sentence of sorts. I pray that they would not

1046
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:52,720
Speaker 3: have clarity, but that they would trust in God.

1047
00:56:54,520 --> 00:57:04,400
Speaker 1: I pray that you would trust in God. I trust

1048
00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:08,840
Speaker 1: in God. Singing myself.

1049
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 3: Will never fail. That's my prayer for you. That's what

1050
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,400
Speaker 3: Paul said, Trust God.

1051
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:30,880
Speaker 1: Ye see, that's for me. In my house, we trust

1052
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:37,920
Speaker 1: in God. We will serve the Lord. Serving win is cloudy.

1053
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:41,520
Speaker 1: Serving Winn is tight.

1054
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:48,920
Speaker 5: Trust in God serving winness confusing. My purpose is pulling

1055
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 5: me forward. Right now, come on, let the word think in.

1056
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:58,800
Speaker 1: Respond in worship, and the word will go deeper. The

1057
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:02,840
Speaker 1: word will go deeper. You worship hard, trusted.

1058
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 4: You must sa.

1059
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:19,400
Speaker 1: I want that bridge. Now lift your hands a head

1060
00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:20,320
Speaker 1: the f Come.

1061
00:58:20,200 --> 00:58:42,960
Speaker 4: On, sap my the mine.

1062
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:35,959
Speaker 1: Have the bye.

1063
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:46,240
Speaker 3: I gotta read, I gotta read.

1064
00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:49,600
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.

1065
00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to

1066
00:58:52,400 --> 00:58:55,920
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.

1067
00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:58,560
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give

1068
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:02,800
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more

1069
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:06,600
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.

1070
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:08,200
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.

1071
00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and

1072
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:12,960
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at

1073
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.

1074
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:15,560
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you