Sermon
Mountain Movers Part 4 | My Mustard Seed Size with Chris Schlotterbeck
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.
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To get connected or to give online go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.
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If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text
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change me to 970-00.
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Thank you and enjoy the message.
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Hey good morning everyone.
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So as you can tell I have a little bit of a sinus infection.
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Please bear with me today as I share.
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We had a large celebration of life yesterday that kind of hit me in the, like I was hitting
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a brick wall so, but that's okay.
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We're going to work through this and I believe and know that God has put a word in my heart
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that I want to get out to you and I know who used my voice to make a difference.
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If you're joining us from home, thank you for welcoming us into your space.
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Shout out to HHC.
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We love you guys, miss you and we'll see you soon.
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So just like you heard Steven say, our youth retreat is coming up at the end of February.
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Last year you saw the image.
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We sent 16 teenagers to upper northern Pennsylvania to a retreat center where many of them were
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changed by the presence of God.
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This year we want to send 20 plus.
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If you feel like you can give to sponsor a youth to go, please do.
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It's $160 registration fee.
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Our goal is 20 plus kids because we know that their lives will be changed.
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Real quick announcement about our soup and chili cookoff winners.
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Last week we had our growth group kickoff.
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Our second place winner was the HCV writers, Lisa Zimmerman and her soup or chili.
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And first place was the inner garden, which is led by Lisa Reese.
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So they were our two big winners.
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They received their beautiful aprons during our first gathering and a really unique high
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five and a big shout out to all you Redskins fans in here.
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I've never seen so many Redskins commander's jerseys in my life.
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It's like you came out from an 18 year playoff absence or something.
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Sorry about that.
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I'm rooting for you.
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I am.
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So in his classic book, the knowledge of the holy, A.W. Tozer writes this, what comes into
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our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
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The most important thing about us.
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So my question to you this morning is, what do you think of when you think about God?
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What do you see?
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What do you imagine?
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Do you think of an old guy with a long white beard wearing a robe and sitting in a large
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chair removed and distant from the rest of us?
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Or maybe you think of God as a close friend or a distant ruler.
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Some of you may picture eight ounce, six pound baby Jesus wrapped in a manger for you.
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There just really is no hope, but that's okay.
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That's a whole different story.
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Maybe you think of Jesus as a close friend.
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See the reality is whatever we think about when we think about God, it's extremely important
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because it impacts every area of our life.
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It impacts our beliefs, our thoughts, our feelings, our actions.
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Some people think about God again as a distant ruler.
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He's up there somewhere in majesty and splendor.
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He has all this power, but he's uninterested in his creation.
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He's not really concerned about you and me or our everyday lives.
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And if this is your view of God, then you would live your spiritual life as a practicing
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atheist because if there is a God, it really doesn't matter because he may have all the
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power in the world, but he is interested in me personally.
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So why should I trust him with my life?
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If you view God as a close friend, which remember Jesus does call us friends, that's a correct
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interpretation.
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But if you view God as only your friend that is concerned about us, but doesn't have the
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power to change anything, then every time we go to him in prayer, we're going to become
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frustrated with the reality that yes, he cares about us, but he can't impact or change my
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current reality because of my doubt.
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I personally took some time to reflect this week on how I viewed God, what image came
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to my mind, and for me, it's Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.
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And if you've ever seen Gandalf, yes, he has a long white beard, yes, he wears a robe,
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but there was at one point in the first movie where he took his staff when he was being
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faced with a demon and he shoved it into the ground and he says, you shall not pass.
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And that's the power and the authority that God has for every single one of us.
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And this morning, Jesus wants to remind us and encourage us of the correct view of God
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because again, it impacts everything, our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our
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actions.
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We're going to be reading from the Gospel of Matthew chapter seven as we close out our
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21 days of prayer and fasting, which ends tomorrow, but becoming Mount Movers, I believe
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is going to last all year.
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And with this discussion this morning, we're going to learn what it means to ask, seek,
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and knock.
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So let's open in prayer, Holy Spirit come.
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God, we're just thankful that you are here.
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We're just thankful that you make your presence known to us.
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May you open our hearts and our minds to receive all that you have for us, God.
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We're just thankful for the life change that we experience each and every day.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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So our first thought this morning is God is a good father.
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Jesus assures us of this in Matthew chapter seven verse 11 where he writes, so if you
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sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
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heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him?
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God is a good father and a good father loves his children, has compassion for his children,
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extends grace to his children, desires to bring his children close.
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But notice Jesus doesn't just call God our father, he is our heavenly father, which means
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not only does he love us, care for us, and long to be near us, but he has the power to
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meet our needs, to listen to our requests, to act in our best interests.
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Church, our view of God matters.
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First John chapter three verse one, see how very much our father loves us for he calls
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us his children and that is what we are, exclamation point.
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You are a child of God.
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But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because
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they don't know him.
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And friends, that's where we have to be careful.
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Just because others in this world don't believe in God, just because others may not recognize
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his love and his power, we can't allow that to create doubt in our minds and in our hearts.
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Yes, we serve them, we love them, we encourage them, we pray for them.
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But if we have friends that are negatively impacting our faith and our hope in Jesus,
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in God's love for us, then we need to create distance from them.
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We need to separate ourselves and remove ourselves because it's not speaking life to us.
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See God is not distant and removed.
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I mean for those in a relationship with Jesus, he dwells or lives inside of us.
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Romans 8 15, so you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.
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Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children and now we
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call him Abba, father.
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So maybe you're here this morning and you're in need of a job or you're in need of a raise
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to survive and pay your bills.
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Or maybe you're here this morning and you're desire in your marriage to thrive, not dissolve.
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Or maybe you brought an addiction here this morning, whether it be alcohol or drugs.
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Friends, we all have mountains that need moved.
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How do I know that?
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Well, just look at these four crosses in our auditorium.
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Last week we all wrote down on post-its our mountains, our prayer requests and put them
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on the crosses.
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And we've been praying for several weeks now for God to break into our lives and for God
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to bring about a breakthrough.
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And we have to realize this all starts with how we view God.
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So just pause for a moment and reflect on your current view of God.
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Is he your heavenly father?
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Does he desire and long to be with you?
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Does he desire abundance for your life or is he distant, far off, judging and interpreting
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your every move?
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See, your view impacts how you pray, how you respond, which leads us to our next all.
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Jesus invites us to ask, seek and knock.
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Matthew 7, 7, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.
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Keep on seeking and you will find.
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Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you.
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See Jesus gives us a remarkable invitation that we can experience every single day.
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He desires that we see God as our heavenly father who sees us, cares for us and loves
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us.
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Then Jesus encourages us to talk to God, to pray, to connect and to share our requests
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with him.
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But notice these verses are much more than just an invitation.
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Jesus says, keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.
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In other words, this is a command that Jesus gives us to keep doing that activity, to keep
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on praying, to keep communicating with your father.
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Always be asking, always be seeking, always be knocking.
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But notice, I presented this as an invitation because we all have a choice to go to God
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and ask, seek and knock.
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Every day we're presented with that choice, but the question is, do you do it?
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Is it a priority or are you so easily distracted?
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Just look at that first word, ask, to ask is a sign of humility.
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It's an omission that we need something from God.
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And for some of you, you can't even get over that.
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You're not able to humble yourselves enough just to ask.
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You may have a question that needs answered.
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You may have a need that needs met.
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You may need direction from God in your life.
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Jesus says, ask.
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James 1.5, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you.
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He will not rebuke you for asking.
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He won't scold you.
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He won't point fingers or make fun of you.
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When it comes to our relationship with God in prayer, there's no stupid question.
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Now some of you are nodding, but we heard that statement from teachers the whole time
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we went through school.
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That we routinely, what, didn't ask any questions.
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Why?
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Because we're too embarrassed.
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We're too proud.
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We're overconfident.
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And this morning God is screaming at us, just ask.
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I'm here and I want to listen.
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James 4.2, you want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it.
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You're jealous of what others have, but you can't get it so you fight and wage war to
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take it away from them.
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Yet you don't have what you want, purpose, meaning, direction, abundance, because you
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don't ask God for it.
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See we have to stop relying on our strength.
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We have to stop relying on our wisdom, on our intellect, on our talents and our abilities.
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And yes, I believe God gave all of that to us, but imagine partnering all that he gave
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to us with the one who created the heavens and the earth.
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Friends, that's how you make a difference in this world.
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Remember James wrote, you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it.
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It all starts with the ask.
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And I want to challenge you.
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Ask God this week.
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Then we move to the word seek.
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Seek is a sign of commitment.
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I'm not going to just ask God and then drop it and walk away from it.
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No, I'm going to seek and search for the answer.
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I'm going to seek and search for that request.
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I'm going to seek and search that God makes a difference.
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And this happens when we read the Bible, when we're seeking God, when we have these answers
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or these questions to life, we go to the book that directs us.
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Or maybe for some of you, you need to get into a growth group and you need to have others
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encourage you.
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Maybe for some of you, you're in a marriage or financial crisis and you need to get into
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a course that helps you find the answers.
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To seek means we take action.
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We pray, we ask God for a job.
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Oh, and then we write a resume.
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And we send it out with applications to employers because that's how we seek a job.
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It's a responsible activity in seeking God's will for our lives.
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For example, I've been praying for marriages this week in our community of faith.
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You want to know why?
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Because every day I walked by these crosses and on all the post-its on every cross, there's
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at least one.
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Pray for my marriage.
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Pray for my marriage.
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Pray for my marriage.
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Pray for my marriage.
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So as the leader of this community of faith, I've been praying for marriages.
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I've been desiring to see them live and move in abundance and restoration and healing and
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forgiveness, whatever was needed.
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To which I say to all of you that put those post-its on those crosses, we have eight spots
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open in our upcoming winter marriage course.
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And if you are in a situation where your marriage needs change and restored, yes, you ask for
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it.
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You put it on the cross.
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And then you jump into the marriage course where you learn and change and grow.
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So husbands, sign up at the Welcome Hub.
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Believe me, your wife won't be upset with you.
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They want you to.
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To seek God is to be determined.
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It means to search for something.
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I don't have because I don't know, but I'm going to keep on searching until it's found.
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Jesus uses this parable and challenges us to keep seeking in Luke 15, 8.
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Suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one.
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Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds
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it?
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Of course she will.
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But please understand there's a big difference between seeking and striving.
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To strive indicates a struggle, like we're wrestling with something.
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Striving means it's all up to us.
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While seeking means we're walking through life depending on God to lead and guide us.
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Jeremiah 29, 13, if you look for me wholeheartedly with all your heart, you will find me.
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If we seek him with our whole heart, we'll find what we're looking for.
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And it's a reminder that we need to be all in.
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We can't have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom.
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We have to be all in as we seek for God's purpose, for God's answers, for God's meeting
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our needs in our lives, which then leads us to knock.
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Knock is a persistent desire for more.
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It's physical.
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When we knock on a door, right, we don't just knock once.
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Whoever does that?
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Right?
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When you go to a door and knock on it, well, a lot of them have ring doorbells now so they
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can see you and make sure you're not a burglar or anything else.
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But if you go old school to my house, it doesn't have a doorbell or a ring doorbell.
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Guess what?
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You got to beat on that door for a hear us.
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You got to beat on it.
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You got to knock.
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And to knock is an unwillingness to give up.
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It's an asking and a seeking.
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Revelation 320 says, look, I stand at the door and knock.
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And that's Jesus speaking to his church.
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He's not speaking to those that are in a relationship with him.
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He's speaking to his church.
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He says, if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal
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together as friends.
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See, Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts and we have to decide if we're going to open
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that door or not.
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It's a step of faith because quite often when Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts, it
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means we need to change.
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It means something isn't right.
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And here we use our spouse, our kids, our coworkers, our classmates.
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Here we use a celebration of life, a movie we're watching or a song we're listening
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to.
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But the question remains when Jesus knocks and he reveals this truth to our lives, will
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you choose to change?
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And it's crazy, but notice the increased intensity in Jesus's instructions to us.
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It's a sense of urgency in each word.
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First, first we ask, but more than that, we are to seek.
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But even more than that, we're to knock and we're to keep knocking.
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In Luke chapter 11, Jesus tells us a story about a man who had a friend come and visit
Luke 11 chapter mention
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him.
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But the man, he had no bread to welcome the friend and be hospitable.
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So the man quickly goes to his neighbor's house in the middle of the night, say like
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one in the morning, and he begins to pound on the door of his neighbor's house.
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Wake up, wake up.
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I'm a visitor and I have no bread.
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The man in the house responds by, get out of here.
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I'm sleeping.
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My whole family's sleeping.
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Get away.
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But the man keeps knocking and knocking and pounding on the door until the man of the
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house gets up out of bed and gives him the bread.
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And in verse eight, we read this, but I tell you this, that we won't do it for friendship's
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sake.
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If you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because
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of your shameless persistence.
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Shameless persistence or audacity is the same persistence that my five-year-old Phoenix
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has when he needs something from dad.
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I have this little guy named Phoenix.
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He's five years old and guess what?
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Everything's a crisis.
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If he can't find his Lego, dad!
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Can't find his jersey, dad!
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I mean it's just, dad!
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I mean just this squeal.
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I come running, I'm like, what?
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What's wrong?
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I can't find my Lego to finish the airplane.
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I'm like, bro, it sounded like you're dying.
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It's not that big of a deal.
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Yeah, it is.
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It's a big deal.
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I need your help.
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I need it now.
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You know, it's that shameless persistence, it's that audacity that when I'm on the phone
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with someone praying for someone, he's just crawling all over me.
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Play with me.
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Play with me.
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Phoenix, I'm praying for you.
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It's okay.
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Play with me.
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That is audacity.
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That's shameless.
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And you're like, I can go to God like that?
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Yeah.
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That's what God wants for us.
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He wants for us to go to Him that way so that we continue to ask and seek and knock until
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that mountain moves, which leads us to our next thought.
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You see, Jesus promises to listen and respond.
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And what an incredible news Matthew 7, 8 for everyone who asks, receives.
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Everyone who seeks finds and to everyone who knocks, the door will be open.
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This is Jesus' promise to us.
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God hears, God listens, and He responds to our prayers and to our needs.
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That's our heavenly Father.
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He doesn't just care about us.
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He doesn't just see us and love us.
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He breaks in and He releases His power in our lives to answer our prayers, to break
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our addictions, to provide a job or the resources that we need for life.
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And this is a response to our persistence in prayer as we ask, seek, and knock.
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But please understand, God is not no gene in a bottle.
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He doesn't just grant us our three wishes.
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See, our will and our desires, they need to line up with God's plan and what God's best
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is for our life.
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Look at 1 John 5, 14 to 15, and we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything
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that pleases Him.
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And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know He will give us
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what we ask for.
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See, our motives and our desires have to be pure.
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Our wants have to be in our best interest, not in selfish desires.
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James 4, 3, and even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong.
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You want only what will give you pleasure.
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See, our asking has to line up with God's will and our motives have to be right and
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pure otherwise.
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It's just sin and pleasure.
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But there can also be unforgiveness that hinders our prayer life.
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Jesus says this in Matthew 5, so if you're presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the
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temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice
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at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person, then comment off your sacrifice to
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God.
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See, this is a call to remove our masks, to get honest with God about our heart issues,
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the negativity, the judgment of others, the doubt, the frustration, so that our prayer
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life is a real life connection with God.
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I want to challenge you, don't matter how hard it is, forgive your mom, forgive your
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dad, forgive your brother or your sister, forgive your friend at church that hurt you.
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Forgive, forgive, forgive, so that our hearts can be right and we can see God as our father.
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But Chris, it's too hard.
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I was abused.
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I was forgotten.
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I was adopted.
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Listen, I get it.
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There's pain.
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I'm not saying you got to go be best friends with anyone, but I'm saying you got to forgive
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so you can be forgiven.
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I mean, Jesus went at all cost, right?
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God sent Jesus to die for us in the midst of our brokenness and our sin and just all
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the negativity that we're living in.
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We can extend forgiveness to others.
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Jesus continues in Matthew 7, 9 through 10, you parents, if your children ask for a loaf
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of bread, do you give them a stone instead?
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Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?
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Of course not.
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And Jesus is encouraging us to see God as the father and he will answer our prayers
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based on what is best for us.
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Because we have to realize in Jesus' day, a loaf of bread looked very similar, right,
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to a stone.
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Both were round, both were oval.
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And a fish, you say, well, a fish, how's a fish look like a snake?
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Well, they ate eels and eels can look like snakes.
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And quite often what happens in our prayer life is, hey, God, I know what's best for
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me.
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This is what I need.
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When in reality, those prayers, if answered, could become a rock or a snake in our life
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and pull us away.
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We think we know what's best for our lives, but only God knows.
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You see, God is gonna give us what is best.
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And we also must realize that bread and fish, they were the basic needs that God met, right?
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They weren't the Mercedes that we were praying for or they weren't the lottery that we wanna
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win.
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It was the basic needs.
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But unfortunately within our culture, so often we compare ourselves to others and that allows
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our prayer life to be taken over by these wants rather than these needs.
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And that's just not how God works.
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We're His children.
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We don't have the complete picture.
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And quite often we don't even know what tomorrow's gonna bring.
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And if we know anything about children, and I've raised six of them and raised several
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right now, they're always gonna choose what is not best for them.
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Oh, just eat whatever you want.
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I'll have ice cream.
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What would you like for lunch?
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Um, I'll have nerds.
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But as parents, we have to give them what is best for them.
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Same thing happens with God.
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He's gonna give us what is best for us.
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He's gonna answer our prayers in what is best for us.
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Which leads us to our final thought.
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Jesus challenges us to live on assignment.
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And so interesting, as I was reading through Matthew 7 here, I am focused on ask, seek,
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knock, and I'm focused on the persistence of prayer and wanting to share that.
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And then all of a sudden these words jump off the pages directly after ask, seek, knock.
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Oh, do to others whatever you would like them to do for you.
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This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
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And I began to pray, I'm like, God, why are these words here?
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Like, why all of a sudden is the golden rule thrown in to my prayer life?
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I mean, we're just discussing prayer, how I should ask, seek, and knock, and now you're
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telling me to go and live the golden rule.
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But we have to realize doing to others what we would want them to do for us is actually
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the natural outflow of our prayer life.
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It's how it works.
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C.S. Lewis says it best this way.
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I pray because I can't help myself.
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I pray because I'm helpless.
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I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping.
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It doesn't change God, it changes me.
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Prayer changes us.
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So Jesus gives us this command as a means of living in abundant life as we pray through
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life.
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How do you want others to treat you?
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Do you want others to be kind to you?
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Yes or no?
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Do you want people to be kind to you?
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Do you want people to be honest with you?
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Do you want people to forgive you?
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You do it first.
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See the difference?
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You go and do it first because we're living in this outflow of our prayer life.
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And when we start living this way, then our community has changed.
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I mean, there's just too many people.
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They're pointing fingers, they're complaining.
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It's the government's fault.
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It's this person's fault.
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I mean, just look at social media since the election.
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The world's ending.
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Have you heard?
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The world's imploding because someone, there's a new president.
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I'm just like, stop pointing fingers and judging and do something with your life.
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Do something with your life.
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And it doesn't matter how you voted.
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I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat.
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I'm neither.
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Don't want to be.
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I just want to make a difference in other people's lives.
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Jesus is my president.
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I pray for our president.
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Don't get me wrong.
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I'm thankful to live in a free country.
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But that doesn't succumb and take priority over living the kingdom life.
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The kingdom life is the upside down life and it goes against everything our culture tells
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us to do.
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And as we're living that way, listen, it's not us.
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It's Jesus living in us.
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And then that's how we point others to him.
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And then those others begin to ask, seek, and knock.
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That's how it all works, which leads us to our action steps.
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Daily living as a child of God, three simple steps.
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And daily living as a child of God.
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First, we have to admit we are evil.
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Yeah, you're evil.
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You're sinful.
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So am I.
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Matthew 7-11, so if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how
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much more will the heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask them?
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I mean, look in the mirror.
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We're sinful, we're selfish, we're born into it.
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And it's a battle that you're going to be in for your life.
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It's never going to end.
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We're never going to be Jesus.
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We want to be more like Jesus, but we're never going to be Jesus.
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And that's why it's so important.
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That's why Jesus is telling us, no, daily, hourly, admit your sin.
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Because guess what?
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There's not an hour that goes by that our thoughts aren't on something we shouldn't
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be on.
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You say, how'd you know that?
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Because that's the way my thoughts work.
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It's called sinful.
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But I know 1 John 1-9, if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive
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us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness.
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He's going to forgive us because he's a good father and he desires to give us good gifts.
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Most importantly, he desires to give us himself.
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And if you're here and you're not in a relationship with Jesus, my question to you is, why not?
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Why not?
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I mean, just listen to this promise that Jesus gives us.
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For everyone who asks, receives, everyone who seeks finds, and everyone who knocks,
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the door will be open.
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And if you simply admit your need and invite him in, abundance awaits.
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That's the purpose you've been searching for.
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It begins right now.
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Amen?
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All right, let's pray.
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We pray a simple prayer every time we gather as a community of faith because we believe
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that God brings people into our midst that are distant, far from God, or never started
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a relationship with him.
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So we're going to pray a simple prayer right now and we're all going to join in on it.
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Jesus, I'm broken.
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I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin.
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Change me.
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I believe you're God's son.
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I believe you died for me.
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Make me new.
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Set me free.
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Fill me with your spirit.
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Help me, God, to serve others.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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So if you prayed that prayer for the first time today or recommitted your life, let me
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know when you leave.
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Give me a high five.
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Hug me.
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Say, hey, I prayed that prayer and I'm going to tell you some next steps that you need
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to take.
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Amen?
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Which leads us to our next step.
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Receive the good gifts.
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So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
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your heavenly father give good gifts?
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And please understand, these good gifts that God desires to give to us starts with him.
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He is the gift.
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He fills us with his presence, with the Holy Spirit.
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Again he said, peace be with you.
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And it's so cool here in John 20, this is after Jesus rose from the grave, right?
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The disciples, they locked themselves in this room.
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They're fearful for their lives.
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They have no idea what's going to happen.
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Jesus just, hey, what's up, guys?
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Peace be with you.
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They're like, what in the world?
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He has to show them his hands and his side.
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It's me, guys.
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Peace be with you.
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And then he says, as the Father sent me, so I'm sending you.
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Then he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
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If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven.
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If you not forgive them, they are not forgiven.
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See when we receive the Holy Spirit, when we're full of the Holy Spirit, we have the
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ability to walk in abundance.
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We have the ability to believe in the miraculous, to live with purpose and meaning, for God
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to meet our needs, to bless us with the gifts of the kingdom.
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And it's my desire that our community of faith is full of the Holy Spirit, that he blows
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through us, that he breathes on us so that we as a church are living in abundance, which
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leads us to our final step.
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Go and do.
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Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.
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So here's part two of our crosses.
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So last week, if you weren't here, I know it was snowing, I get it.
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I challenged our community of faith.
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You got a mountain that needs move, if you got a prayer request, I want you to write
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it on a post-it and put it on these crosses, right?
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As a means of saying, God, I'm giving this to you.
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I'm praying, I'm believing.
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Well now it's part two.
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So today, what I want to challenge you to do, okay, if you weren't here last week, you
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can write your post-it, put it on the cross, that's good.
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But for those of you that were here, I want you to take a prayer request that's not yours.
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So if you go to this cross and you see your prayer request, go to that cross.
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I want you to take a request that's not yours and I want you to pray for it.
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And I want you to pray for it this week, next month, and for the rest of this year.
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I want you to pray for it until you hear a testimony that God moved that mountain.
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And it may be two years, it may be four years, I don't care.
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I want you to keep praying for that mountain to move.
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You know why?
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Because quite often, when we pray for others and we pray for God to meet other people's
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needs, guess what happens to our needs?
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They're met and our mountains are moved.
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When we get our focus off that mountain that's not really a mountain for God and we're praying
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for others, then all of a sudden our needs are met and our mountains move.
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That's our challenge to go and do.
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But it's also a practice that we're going to do for the rest of this year.
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Because God put on my heart this week that these crosses are going to be out for the
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rest of this year.
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Because it's called moving mountains.
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For the rest of this year there will be post-its and pens on these crosses for you to write
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requests, needs that you have and put them on the cross.
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And every week, guess what you can do?
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You can take another need and start praying for it.
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As long as it's not your need, because then you're being selfish.
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You're praying for someone else's need.
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And it's a simple, practical practice that all of us begin to learn and all of us begin
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to grow in our faith and our relationship with Jesus.
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Man, isn't it amazing how simple God is?
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He's elementary.
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But here's something else I need from you.
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I want to hear the testimonies.
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So many people, they have their mountains moved and I don't hear about it or know about
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it.
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I want to start sharing what God is doing with our community of faith because when we
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start sharing our testimonies, you know what it does?
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It raises the faith of everyone so that everyone is asking more, seeking more and knocking
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more.
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And that's the point of a church, that we challenge one another to grow.
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Will you stand with me?
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Here's how we're going to close.
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I'm going to ask for some of you to be vulnerable and honest.
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By a show of hands, if you've been praying for a mountain to move in your life and it's
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not moving and you've become frustrated and doubt, full of doubt, put your hand up.
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We want to pray for you.
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That's you.
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Hand up, Rohat.
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You've been praying for a mountain to move.
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Nothing's changed.
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The addiction's still there.
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The marriage is falling apart.
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The finances are in shambles.
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The kids aren't listening.
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Put them up, Rohat.
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All right, keep them up.
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Now here's what I need you to do.
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Men with men, women with women.
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Keep your hand up until someone introduces themselves and starts praying for you.
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Go.
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Real quick, let's go.
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All right.
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If someone's praying for you, put your hand down.
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Otherwise you're going to confuse me.
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Got it, got it.
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Put your hand down.
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I need a guy over here.
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I need a guy over here.
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Need a lady on my left.
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Good.
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Hands.
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I need a couple people over here.
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There we go.
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There we go.
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I need Ron.
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Ronnie needs prayed for up here.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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All right, pray for him.
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Go.
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Holy Spirit, come.
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God, we speak against doubt.
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We speak against frustration, against negativity.
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We speak against the lies of the enemy that be coming into their minds and into the thoughts.
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We pray that they are silenced in Jesus' name.
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We pray, God, whatever their request is, whatever their need is, that you would meet it right
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now in Jesus' name.
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You would release your kingdom.
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You would release your good gifts.
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And we're just thankful, God, for life change, for hope.
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Just build hope, release hope into this community of faith.
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So not only do we see mountains move, God, but we see the miraculous come.
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We see healings happen.
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In Jesus' name.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Before you go, no one leave and we're not done.
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I had two words of knowledge that we want to pray for.
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If this is you, you have a skin or a muscle condition on the left side of your face and
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you need healing.
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You have pain in your big toe and your left foot.
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That's an easy one.
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If that's you, go get your foot prayed for.
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If you have any other need, wait, wait, people are leaving.
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If you have any other need, our prayer team will pray for you.
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Now on your way out, I bought for you some mustard seeds.
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Now don't eat them, but just use them as a reminder that as you pray, pray big, bold
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prayers.
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Because God wants to move the mountains in your life.
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Amen?
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All right, we kick off Under Armour next week.
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We're going to be talking about the armor of God.
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You may or may not see a suit of armor on stage.
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I promise you anything, but I look forward to it.
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God bless you guys.
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I'm going there, so they're going to wait for me to open the door.
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Have a great week.