Sermon
Making Hard Decisions - Asking For A Friend Part 1
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Well, good morning and welcome to Real Life Church.
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It is so good to see your smiling faces out in the crowd
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today. We're so pumped just to worship
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God with you today. Well, hey, if you're with us
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here in person, active. Tech and thrill Or maybe you're
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joining us online today. Just go ahead and stand your
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feet. We're going to worship God Big
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Together today. You give life an eternal spark.
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I call you healer because you can mend any broken heart.
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I call you faithful father. You finish everything you start.
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My soul is made to respond. No.
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You'll buy a. Falls in there, and you deserve
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every single one giving me a million ways.
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So you amazed you what you've done in life falls in wonder.
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I don't leave. You know you'll buy it.
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Falls in there. And I say I'm back to you.
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You deserve the highest starter. Your love is bounded beyond what
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I could drink, your craziest pictures and you never give it
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up on me. I call you bondage trader
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because you're handing out the prison keys.
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My soul. So be free to pay the free
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tomorrow. Know you'll buy 1000.
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Eggs deserve every single one. Giving me a million away to give
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you answer what you've done, honey.
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God's in wonder at all. You know you'll buy 1000.
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Sing all back. Sing all back.
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Sing all back. Sing all back.
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I came forever, the beginning and the end, while Lord answered
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it, the sign of a man, the line of the Tudor wrote.
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The reason that the second had to lead us all.
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Why always glory? Feeling.
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Fishing. Boom.
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What? Ocean?
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Carter Who? Who may go away?
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Watch it. GPA say Mom and Gray walk on the
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see while we chill. You are Jesus, my child.
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No one should die. Know you'll buy its mouth.
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In it you disturb every single one.
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Giving me a million ways. I'm the lazy way You've done
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mine. Know you'll buy its mouth in
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here. Disturb every single one Given
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me a meal away. The men do what you've done.
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And I am lost in one day. And I'll be tea.
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Don't you buy 1000 hay and I'll sing on bed to you.
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Sing on my back. Sing on my back.
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Amen. You've got some praise.
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You see all those? Names of God listed out.
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It's incredible that we barely. Touch such a small piece of all
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of who God is. But when I look at that list,
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the name that means the most to me sometimes is that Emmanuel,
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that God with us, and that God promises that no matter what
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we're walking through or we're going through, that he is going
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to be there with us right beside it.
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He is a close God. So we're going to continue to
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lift up that no matter what you're going through today,
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God's with you and he loves. You because there's a grace when
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the heart is undefined, another way when the walls are close,
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and then when I look at the space between where I used to be
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and this reckoning. I know I will never be.
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There was another in the fire standing next to me.
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There was another in the waters holding back the seas, should I
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ever need reminding. How I bet separate there's
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across that there's a burden where another died for me, there
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is another in the fire. My dad let me leave the waters
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cause I'm no longer a slave to my sin anymore.
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And should I pull in the space between what remains of me and
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this reckoning? Either way I will bound to the
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things of this world. I know and I know I will never
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be alone. Be another in the fire standing
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next to me. There is another in the waters
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holding back the seas. And should I ever meet,
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reminding the power set me free. There is a grave that holds
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nobody. And now the power lives in me.
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There is a never in the fire, fire, fire.
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There is a never in the fire. There is a never in the fire.
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And I can see the light in the darkness, and the darkness bows
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to him. I can hear the word in the
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Heather and the space we wish them.
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I can feel the glow shake the deepness, and the Prince and
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walls hate it. Another temperature.
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There is no other name but the name that is Jesus and he who
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was and still is and will. Be through it all, so come what
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may and. Space between all the things and
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scene and this reckoning, because I know I will never be
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alone. Because I know I know I will
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never be alone, Will be another in a fire that's to me.
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Go be another. We're in the waters holding back
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the seas. And should I happen to be back
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my day How good you been to me. I'll count the joy come every
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battle because I know that's way over here.
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And I can see. I can see the light in the
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darkness. How the darkness bounces.
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I can hear the. In the heavens of the face
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between us and I can feel the ground shaking beneath us.
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And the Prince and walls came in.
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Nothing's in between us. Nothing's in between But be in
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lover in the fire. The scarling looks to me But be
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in lover in the water. Holding back the scene.
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Should I play with my day? Hope you do better tonight.
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Or count the joy. Come every battle.
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There's no That's where you'll be.
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Count the joy from every battle. Count the joy from every battle.
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Battle count the joy come every battle.
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Count the joy come every battle. Because I know that's where
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you'll be. Just how comforting.
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It is to be able to say that. Then there's another in the fire
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standing next to you and things are rough and crazy and maybe
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you just don't know where to turn and God is with.
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You always He is right there, right beside you and this next
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song available, and there's just nothing more humbling and
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fulfilling than saying yes. To God, your hands open wide,
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your heart open wide, just as a willing vessel to be.
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Used by him. I mean, there's no higher
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calling than just being open and available to letting God use
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your life. There is a road may seem I'll
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follow away your spirit leads. As my life may be, I will give
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you every piece and I you call, I am available and I say.
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Kiss the Lord. I am available.
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I am with open hands, counting on your grace again.
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Listen, me and boy of you. I just want to see you move
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while here you call. I am a baby boy.
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I say yes, alone I am. The bull I hear you call, I am
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available, I say Yes, the Lord, I am available.
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My hands are open wide too. My heart is open wide.
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Come, do whatever you want to. Here I am.
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Here I am. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. Here I am.
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Here I am. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. Here I am.
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Here I am. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. Here I am.
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You can have it all. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. You can have it all.
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That the sound of true is in the room by sayings to you.
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You're the one who gave me life. Nothing is a sacrifice.
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So use me how you want to guide. Have you thrown within my heart?
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I hear you. I hear.
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You call, I am available, and I say, yes, the Lord I am
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available and I hear you call I am.
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A visible. Here I am.
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Here I am. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. Here I am.
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Here I am. You can have it all.
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You can have it all. All right, man, let's give it up
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for a big God this morning and let that just be the cry of our
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heart this morning, that we can just lay our lives down to him.
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That could be a scary thing. But, man, that we can just
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surrender to his will less of him or less of us and way, way
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more of him. I hope that's the cry of our
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hearts today. It's an honor to be with you
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this morning. It's so great just to worship
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together as a group of believers.
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And before we keep this thing rocking and rolling today, can
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we take a moment and can we recognize an awesome group of
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people hanging out with us today called Real Life online?
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So I'm wondering, can they hear you this morning?
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Can we make them feel welcome? That's that's what's up.
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Yeah. We're glad you're here real life
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online. And we're equally glad that
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you're here in the room. So I want you to take about 30
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seconds and greet someone around you, maybe even learn a name
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really quick Connect. 30 seconds.
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Then you can have a seat. Go for
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it. Awesome.
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Love watching you all connect out here in the room today.
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Well, hey, we are honored and excited to spend our Sunday
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morning with you right here at Real Life Church.
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Want to welcome anyone. That's brand new in the room
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today. If you're a first time guest,
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welcome to Real Life Church. I have a step for you.
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I would love for you to take on your seat.
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Maybe you're sitting on it, hopefully not.
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Probably on the ground in front of you you'll see a long card
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and a pen. That's our connect card and I
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would just love to invite you right now while I'm talking.
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Go ahead and grab that. Man, I want you just to fill out
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as much information as you're comfortable filling out.
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Here's what we would love to do. We'd love to connect with you
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this week. Nothing weird.
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No one's showing up at your door.
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Want to mail you something and want to just send you a message
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of encouragement this week to check in with you.
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So go and fill that out. You actually drop that in the
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bucket at the end of The Gathering today, so fill it out
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now. Hang on to it there till the end
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and everyone else in the room, I invite you to also pick that up.
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This is an all skate moment because even if you call real
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life home, even if you serve on the dream team, you've been here
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a long time. If you're not brand new, there's
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still so many things on there we would love for you to fill out
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on that card. Like your prayer request.
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Want to celebrate some praises that are going on in your life?
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We don't want anyone at the end just to throw in throwing a card
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in the bucket all by themselves. So kind of weird to single out.
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So we're all going to do it. So go ahead and do that.
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This morning. We would love to just celebrate
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with you. Pray over those cards this week
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here at Real Life Church a little bit more about us.
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We are at church on a mission. That mission is to see people
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far from God discover their real life and purpose in Jesus.
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Why is that our mission? Because souls matter to God.
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That's what it's all about. People matter.
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Souls matter, and that's why we exist, is to bring Jesus to
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people. So we invite you.
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If you're currently not on mission at a church anywhere, or
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you've been hanging out with us and you're not on mission with
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us just yet, we invite you to join us side by side.
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We would love to serve side by side with you on mission.
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God's done an amazing, amazing job this year through real life
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and it and it years not even close to being over with.
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We're excited to see what happens here on this home
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stretch show. We'd love for you to partner
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with us. There's some cool ways you can
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do that you'll hear about coming up later.
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Man, I'm excited because this week we're going to kick off a
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brand new series called Asking for a Friend.
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There's so many questions that we have like real personal
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questions, kind of hard to ask out loud, really to be
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vulnerable and talk to people about.
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And so this series is going to try to tackle some of those
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questions we might be too nervous to ask and really answer
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them in a a Christ centered way, a meaningful way, a practical
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way, full of grace, but also full of truth.
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And so I'm excited we get to welcome a special guest to kick
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this off. So I want you to give a big real
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life welcome to our very own Barry Hardy as he leads us in
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asking for a friend. Bring us to the throne, Barry.
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Don't you guys love Drew? Give it up for Drew.
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Here's what I know about Drew. He always dresses for success.
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I love your shirts. I know your wife doesn't always
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appreciate him, Holly. Is that right?
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But I love how you how you just present yourself.
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That's right. You know what I also love about
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Drew? Drew's got a big heart, and he's
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emblematic of so many of you guys here.
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So I'd love listening to you guys worship.
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Isn't it a great day to be in God's house?
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You guys excited? We have another praise.
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Our mission team made it back from Columbia all in one piece.
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And that's good, because half of them were my family and I
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almost. I almost died.
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We ran out of macaroni and cheese.
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I didn't know what to do. We were me, me, and Bree.
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We were. We were on our last or last.
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Life support, right? So I want to invite you guys
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back next week. We're going to hit a pause.
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I know we're launching the series today, but we're going to
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hit a pause next week just to hear what the mission team
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experienced. I know that God really moved.
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They saw some awesome things they were able to minister and
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they were ministered too as well.
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And I'm excited to hear just the whole breath of what God did in
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that trip and how you guys invested in them to send them
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out. So be ready to come back next
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week and just hear those awesome stories so as we kick off today.
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Asking for a friend. Have you guys ever asked that
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question that you were too embarrassed to ask, you didn't
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know the answer to? And so you're like, I've got
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this friend Drew, and he's got this issue right.
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And I love you, Drew. I appreciate you sitting up
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here. We all have those, right?
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We have those questions that if I were to verbalize it, that
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person would judge me. I would have condemnation.
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I'd have guilt. I'd have shame.
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Well, I'm too embarrassed. I, you know, you ever hear the,
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the, the sayings? Like there's no such thing as a
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dumb question. I really believe that because if
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you don't know, you might as well ask.
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It's better to be thought a fool than to act like one.
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I want to know what I don't know.
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And so when we're talking about asking for a friend, these are
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the questions that we're going to lean into.
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These aren't easy questions. They're not.
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They're not ones that often are dealt with because they're so
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sensitive. And they're the ones that,
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especially in church, we don't want to bring up because we know
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or we think we know the answers to them already and we don't
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want to hear anything that's going to go against what I
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already believe. What I have are already hold.
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And so that's why this idea of asking for a friend is so
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important. And once you guys know something
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else, this isn't a wingtip church.
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We wear steel toes around here, right?
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There's too many collapse for that one.
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I don't know. We step on each other's toes,
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but we do. And the reason, as Drew said,
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it's not because there's any condemnation here.
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There's no judgment. We want the best for you and we
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don't hold just. I hold myself accountable.
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I'm wearing these steel toes because I don't want you guys to
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step on my toes when I need it as well.
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So as we go through these questions, I want you guys to
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keep in mind that there's a vision for where we're going and
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we're going to spend the majority of our time today on
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laying out that vision that call in our life.
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And at the end, we're going to ask one question, and I'm not
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going to be able to do it justice, but we're going to
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spend just a little time going through that one question.
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But before we get there, I want to lay this out for you because
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I want you guys to have a heart for what we see as leadership
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here at real life. Because if I just jump into this
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and start answering questions, I'm going to be, I'm going to be
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messing some of you guys' Cheerios up.
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You know what I'm talking about. I'm going to upset some people,
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and I may upset some people here anyway.
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And again, that that's okay. We can have disagreements, but I
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want you to know what we're going to bring to you.
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It's not. What Pastor Sean says is real
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and true. Just based on Pastor Sean.
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It's not just what I think is right and it's true.
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It's going to come back to the most important thing that we can
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give you, and it's based on God's word, right?
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Because if it's just me, it's just what I want you guys to do.
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What does that mean? And if it's just what you want,
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what good is that? Because we can all be wrong.
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And so we're here as a church, as a body, as a people called
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out by God in this community to live on mission for him, to hold
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each other accountable. And so my prayer for you guys is
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this is that sit back and let go and give it to God.
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Because maybe there's something that we can learn, maybe there's
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something that we can take and it comply to our lives that will
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help us individually and help us as a church to move forward.
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And so I know if we allow the Holy Spirit to do that, it will
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radically change not only our today, but our tomorrow.
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And that's what God has for us. I remember the other night,
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while the family was still gone, did you guys see those cool
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storm clouds that were coming in the distance?
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They were on the north side. I think it was Friday night.
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I mean my daughter, we walked outside and you just see these
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massive clouds and it was dark and you just see the lightning
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move through those clouds. It was so cool.
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She's out there taking pictures. Anybody else in here like
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thunderstorms? You guys enjoy that.
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It's cool just to see it. And I really think that people
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are are are interested in storms different way and people see
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storms in different way. There's people that I know that
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morning they could have said without knowing the news or the
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forecast, they said, hey, we're going to get a storm tonight
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because they could see some signs in the sky.
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Now I'm more like the person. I I can't do that.
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But I see a storms coming when I see the clouds coming and I see
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the lightning. And then there's some of us in
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here. We enjoy the storm.
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We're the people out there walking the tornado signs are
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going. Tornado signs are going off.
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We're out there with a camera. Right?
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Ethel, look. The cows flying through the air.
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Anybody in here? That you?
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Anybody here? Tornado chasers.
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You go out there. You're the idiot like me.
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Yeah, I can't. I don't see it yet.
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That's right. I knew you would be, Tim.
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Can I tell you guys something? And I don't think this is an
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opinion. I see storm clouds coming.
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I feel raindrops already starting to land.
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And am I going to sit here and say, like, this world is falling
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apart in the sense, like, this has never happened before?
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History repeats itself. I'm a student of history and I
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think history is repeating itself.
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And I see these storm clouds building and I see a couple
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things very, very clearly. I think we're in a time.
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In this world, in this country that we're facing something that
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we haven't seen for a while. And you can't stop and listen to
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the news or listen to the political factions and know that
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this world is broken and set itself against itself.
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Because this world so divided on its values, what we believe,
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what we think should happen, that there is something coming
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and I don't know what it is and and that's not my purse here, to
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tell you that we're in for the next civil war.
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But I think back in history, what was happening in 1855, five
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years before the Civil War, do you think those people knew that
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something bad was going to happen?
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I think anybody with a half a brain might not have picked it
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out, but they would have known something's going on.
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What about in 1929, Germany? Nobody knew Hitler was going to
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take over the world, but they could have known something was
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going to be going on. And I think we're in that state
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here. And that's the first thing that
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I see. There is something brewing.
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There's something different right now that's happened in the
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last 10 or 15 years. Something is coming and it
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starts with our values. If you'd have gone 50 years ago,
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most of the people in this country would have claimed the
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title Christian. Now, I don't have any illusion
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that they were all Christians, but they would have all said
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something along like, yeah, well, yeah, I think what the
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Bible says is real. Whether or not they live that
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way or not, they would have, they would have, they would have
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made a statement that way. A high, A high proportion.
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A high majority. We live in a time now that
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that's not the case. I remember when I was little,
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they used to fight about should we have prayer in school now?
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We talk about what happens if you teach your kids something
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different. Do you get reported to DFS?
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And if you think that's something that's crazy, watch
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the news. This battle lines are moving and
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they're going further and faster than I ever dreamed would have
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happened. The second thing I see clearly
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is this is that. In this world, we have no
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grounding. We have no common ground to have
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discussions. And that's why I I believe in
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this presidential candidate. I believe in that presidential
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candidate or no, I believe in this or I believe in that.
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And we can't have a discussion anymore because we don't even
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have a belief in truth. And the thing that follows out
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of that is this, is that the whole world is spinning and
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falling apart. And the question that comes to
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my mind is this. Where's the church?
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Have you guys ever asked that question?
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And here's the issue that I see is that sometimes the church
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disappears because the church doesn't look any different.
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Why do the divorce rates, Why do the the pornography rates look
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no different in the church than they do in the outside world?
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And this is something that is, is, is is is a burden to those
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that that have a call of God in their life.
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And it's something that we have to evaluate not only on a church
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level, but as an individual level.
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I also see a a third thing and maybe it's because I've missed
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it, but I see and this is this is the uplifting part.
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I see for whatever reason men of God, pastors that are
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recognizing the things that are coming at our doorstep and
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they're saying no more. We have to take account, we have
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to take responsibility for what God's called us to.
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And so I see men like Pastor Sean in these discussions that I
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have with him. How do we alter?
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How do we change our life groups?
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To pour truth into people's lives because we have people
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without hope. We have people without purpose.
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We have people that are just lost.
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They're mores and they're people that come to church, even people
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that would call themselves Christian.
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And so I see them in like Pastor Shawn and some other pastors
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that that that I follow. And they're running back to the
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word of God in a way that though we've always valued the word of
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God here, they're running back to an emphasis of like.
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This is where we have to start from.
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This is what we have to get into our people's hearts.
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Because if I go and tell you guys, here's an issue you should
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be dealing with, but you don't have any way to communicate the
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gospel, the basic thing that God's given to us, your
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leadership has let you down. And so our responsibility is to
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give you guys the things that God has given us.
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And then your responsibility is to take that and apply that to
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your lives and teach the next generation.
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Because if you don't do that, we'll have a generation that
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doesn't know God in the in the consequences that come from that
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will be ones that we should have seen, we should have seen those
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storm clouds coming. There's a guy that most of you
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probably don't know, His name's Augustine, Saint Augustine, and
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he was a Bishop in Africa in in the in the early 5th century.
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And he wrote this cool book, and it's called The City of God.
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What he told his, his peers and his church back then, it would
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apply to us as well, he said. You guys have to be part of the
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city of God, not the city of man, and I would wholeheartedly
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agree with him. Now I want to say this real life
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is known as a little rough around the edges.
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Would you guys agree? We're a little salty and you
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want to know why? Is because we have this value.
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We want to see people far from God discover their real life and
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what? And I love that.
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And I know as long as Pastor Sean's here, is here, and as
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long as I have any say at all, we will always be a church that
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is open to the broken, the hurting, the people that are far
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from God, the people that have been burned by church.
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That's who we are. And so we're always going to
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have an element of having people that have broken, messy lives.
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And that's great. And that's awesome.
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But I can I tell you this is that is, as a church, if we stop
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right there and we get people to to the to the message of
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salvation and they accept Christ, that's good.
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But we can't stop there, because that's not where the gospel
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start stops. The gospel comes into a person's
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lives and it gives them salvation, and it reunites them
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with the purpose that God had for them.
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To to worship him and be in in, in in a relationship with God.
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That's what was lost in the Garden of Eden.
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But it has a ramification that has to change our entire lives.
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We can't have Jesus on Sunday and then I run my own life on
-
Monday through Saturday. That's not how it works because
-
if you do, we're going to live like a person that has a broken
-
mind and you're going to go this way and then you're going to go
-
that way. James talks.
-
It talks about it being tossed to and fro.
-
And that's what the church is in a lot of ways today.
-
We don't know which way to go because we don't know who's on
-
the throne on that day. The things that affect us and
-
destroy us are the things that we allow to come into our lives.
-
And so I believe that we have a call on our church in Augustine
-
in the city of God. What he was reacting to was this
-
is that he had some people coming along.
-
You guys know, Rome, the Roman Empire.
-
It was one of the most powerful, most significant empires to ever
-
exist. And in the time of of Augustine,
-
it was in decline. It was falling apart.
-
And you had these people that were coming along and saying,
-
hey, you know why Rome is falling?
-
It's because of those Christians.
-
If we would have stayed with the old pass and the old gods, this
-
never would have happened. We would have never lost our
-
power, our prestige. And Augustine comes along and he
-
lays out this beautiful book and he says no, no, no, you guys are
-
missing it. The city of God, the real
-
church, the people that are living on mission for God.
-
If they weren't here, it would have been so much worse.
-
And you know why? That you are destroyed and
-
you're falling and you're declining is because you have
-
allowed the city of man to rule your world.
-
And the Roman Empire fell apart from an internal rot and
-
internal decay and internal loss of values for what the reality
-
of God says is true in our world.
-
And when you read a book like The City of God that Augustine
-
wrote. Over 1500 years ago.
-
I can't look at our culture now and not see the same
-
similarities that is happening today.
-
If Christians would just get out of the way, this world would be
-
better. If Christians weren't so bigoted
-
and backwards, we would be better in that battle.
-
That we fight is one that most of the rest of the world they
-
won't understand. And I look at our world and I
-
can't. I can't help.
-
But point to the things that God has done, the blessings that God
-
has brought through the church to the world and say, hey, look
-
what this is. Look what God is doing.
-
But the world pushes back. And it's something as simple as
-
as a movie called The Sound of Freedom that talks about the
-
exploitation, the trafficking of children.
-
When that gets pushed back from Hollywood and gets no notoriety
-
and no recognition, I'm, I'm dumbfounded.
-
I'm blown away. I love, I love Avengers.
-
I love Marvel movies too, right? But I want to know what's
-
happening in the real world and the values that this world is
-
pushing and that the church is accepting are ones that will
-
destroy us if we allow it to happen.
-
Paul Paul dealt with this issue in a church called Corinth and
-
he wrote a couple different letters, letters.
-
First Corinthians, the 2nd Corinthians.
-
And Paul comes in and he chastises the church in a way
-
that. That I I think that Paul would
-
chastise us as well. And then here's the issue with
-
Corinth. Corinth had the message of the
-
hope. They had the gospel and they
-
gave their lives to Jesus, but they didn't want to give up the
-
things they had before. And so we would take a little
-
bit of Jesus over here and they would add a little bit over of
-
whatever they wanted to do. I'm going to worship God on on
-
Sunday, but I'm not going to allow God to change my identity
-
the rest of the week. And Paul looked at Corinth and
-
said, what are you guys doing? You guys think you have this
-
liberty in the gospel to do whatever you want to do, and
-
it's so bad. And if you don't know what I'm
-
talking about, he calls the church out.
-
And he says this. He goes, you're doing stuff that
-
even the pagans are shaking their heads at.
-
And does the world shake their heads at us sometimes For what
-
are you guys doing? We don't even do that.
-
There are search churches out there like that that have gotten
-
so far away from the gospel. And even the world looks at them
-
like, ah, you, that's too far. So as Paul chastises the the the
-
Corn Church, that chastisement comes back to us today and it's
-
not one out of judgment and hate.
-
Paul wanted the best for that church and Paul would wanted the
-
best for us. And so as we as we move forward,
-
we have a couple different choices and that we have to make
-
and these are the hard decisions that you have to make today and
-
as we move into these other questions throughout the rest of
-
the series. When you get your toes stepped
-
on, I want you guys to think back to this, this platform,
-
this, this framing, this common ground.
-
And you have to ask yourself, am I going to be upset by what
-
Pastor Sean or whoever speaking up here has to say?
-
Or am I going to allow God to touch my life and work through
-
that through the common ground and what God wants for our
-
lives? Because if we come to a
-
situation and a decision that it has to be about me, where does
-
that leave us? If I'm going to do me, and I'd
-
only care about what I want, what does the church even exist
-
for? At that point, we might as well
-
be a Country Club, something that we just hang out, play some
-
cards. I don't play bridge, I play
-
pitch or spades, but I don't know what else they do at
-
country clubs. We might as well be a Country
-
Club. Or we might as well just be a
-
selfhelp seminar that meets once a week just to make ourselves
-
feel good about what we're going through the rest of the week.
-
But there's no life change. There's no ultimate
-
significance. There is no real life and
-
purpose in that. And so the hard decisions that
-
we have to make have to come back to, am I going to submit to
-
what God wants for us? And we think of submission is
-
giving up. We go through the freedom group
-
and we talk about that. What does submission look like?
-
And we have this negative connotation of submission is
-
surrender. I give up and it's over.
-
But submission to God is freedom.
-
It allows you to live the life that God has for you, the one
-
that you were created for originally.
-
That freedom pulls you away from just the the brokenness and the
-
messiness that we all have. There's nobody in this room that
-
doesn't have damage and trauma and issues that have come from
-
either what has been done to us or what we've done to ourselves.
-
And God wants something better for us to get to that next
-
level, to get into that battle. I want you guys to realize this
-
is that you have an enemy. You guys have an enemy.
-
Who is that enemy? Satan.
-
We have an enemy. We get it messed up all the
-
time, though. Who is the enemy?
-
Yeah, a lot of times. So if I listen to Kanye West,
-
who are the enemies? It's all the Jews, right?
-
I'm like Kanye, you're What are you doing, man?
-
You sound like Hiller. It's like, no, no, no, no.
-
You're messed up. My grandma, my mom's mom, she
-
had an indelible impact in my life.
-
And when my parents were getting divorced, she was one of the
-
rocks in in my life. But she had a lot of issues.
-
And you know who the enemy was for her.
-
You guys know the word Illuminati.
-
The Illuminati. Don't get me started on the
-
Bilderbergs, the Trilateral Commission.
-
There's also lizard people living in the center of the
-
earth, right? This is the enemy.
-
I believe that if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're
-
better. You're better off.
-
Who? The enemies that I I point out
-
all the time. If you're friends with me on
-
Instagram and the politicians and the policymakers, I shake my
-
head every day. What are you guys doing?
-
Even the ones that I would supposedly have agreed with five
-
years ago. I'm like, you guys are missing
-
the boat. Or Holly.
-
We mentioned Hollywood, either or the media is that.
-
Are those the enemies? They are against God, but
-
they're not the enemy that you should worry about.
-
I want you guys to read with me in Effusions chapter 6, and this
-
is where we're going to land today.
-
If he's in chapter 6, we're going to go through this fast.
-
Who is your enemy? Verse 12 says for our struggle
-
is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
-
the authorities, against the powers of this Dark World, and
-
against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.
-
Your enemy is not flesh and blood.
-
It is not the other political party.
-
It is not your boss. It is not the person that
-
disagrees with you. It isn't.
-
Again, it's not Hollywood. It is not any of these things
-
that we point to as being in opposition to us, even though
-
that that's true. Your enemy is a super
-
intelligent, super super strong, dark evil spiritual force.
-
The King James Version puts it in this way, Powers and
-
principalities. That's how I learned that verse
-
growing up, the powers of principalities and what we don't
-
realize is, is that God has given Satan dominion over the
-
world in some level. That's why when you when when
-
Jesus was tempted in the in the desert, it was a real temptation
-
because Satan came to him and said I will give you the entire
-
world and that was in his power to do it.
-
And there's powers of principalities set up across
-
this world. And I don't know what they are.
-
I just know that they're real and that they're active and
-
they're looking for one thing and that's your destruction and
-
my destruction. And this church is destruction.
-
What is affecting your life? Who is attacking you?
-
And I've told you guys this story before and this isn't if
-
you're new here, I know this is going to sound all kind of
-
weird. And let me trust me.
-
This isn't the church that finds a demon.
-
And under every rock, we're not the ones.
-
Like, hey, I stubbed my toe. I got to get rid of that demon.
-
I got to exercise that one, right?
-
That's not this church and that's not me.
-
But we live in a world that discounts the supernatural so
-
much that when we start talking about these things, whether it's
-
Satan or the OR the demonic world, we're like, I'm done with
-
that. It's not real.
-
It's not true. But that's not, that's not the
-
case. There is something out there and
-
there's a reason I think that we love the movies that we love and
-
we read the books that we read and the stories that they come
-
across of good versus evil. There's a reason those resonate
-
with us. And if you've been in in the
-
church at any time at all and you've been in the ministries,
-
whether they're in the prison ministries or recovery, recovery
-
ministries, you have faced and you have seen and there's
-
testimony of something that's other outside of this world.
-
It's more than physical account on a dozen different men in
-
here. They have experienced it, have
-
seen it, and they will tell you they've seen it with their own
-
two eyes. But for the rest of us, we live
-
in an enlightened age. We live in a postmodern age.
-
The only thing that we see and touch is what we what we can
-
experience here, and we discount everything else.
-
And we do that to our detriment as a church.
-
When we misidentify who our enemy is, we're swinging at the
-
wrong fence. We're in the wrong battle.
-
And can I tell you this is that if you're a Christian and you
-
believe the Bible, can I tell you the biblical writers believe
-
in the supernatural world. Jesus believed in the
-
supernatural world, supernatural world, believed in Jesus.
-
One of the one of my favorite stories in the gospel.
-
Jesus comes up to this guy that's possessed and he he can't
-
be bound. And every time that he's
-
chained, he just destroys it. And when he walks up to this
-
guy, this guy comes running to Jesus, he says, Jesus, son of
-
God, are you here to torment me? How did he know who Jesus was?
-
Jesus only been around 33 years at that point, give or take.
-
But he had prior history. Jesus had prior history with
-
these, this demonic world. And so if that happened, then do
-
we think that anything's different now?
-
It may manifest if different depending on where you're at,
-
but the demonic world, that super intelligent agency, he's
-
here for us. So here's the choice that we
-
have. Are we going to fight or are we
-
going to cut bait and run? There's this guy that I follow,
-
there's a couple other guys Patrick follows and this guy's
-
name is Jocko. Do you guys know who Jocko
-
Welnick is? Some of you do.
-
He does a lot of leadership stuff and got good, good stuff
-
if you ever want to check it out.
-
Ex Navy SEAL and I was watching this podcast one time and he got
-
this question. He said, hey Jocko, what is the
-
best martial art that I do that I need to learn to get into a
-
fight if you know, to to win because I want, I want to be
-
able to take anybody out. And Jocko's response was kind of
-
interesting to me. He said, you know, the first
-
thing you should be able to learn to do in a fight, run
-
away. And I'm thinking this dude's
-
huge 63240, There's a story about him actually breaking a
-
guy's neck, just wrestling, just messing around.
-
This guy would destroy almost everybody.
-
And his advice was run, he goes, because nobody wins a fight.
-
But he says, but if you're in the fight he goes, you got to be
-
prepared. Now there's some fights you can
-
run away from, but there's some fights you can't run away from.
-
And this spiritual fight that I'm talking about, the the thing
-
that is looking to destroy you, there is no neutrality.
-
You don't have a choice. So you can either ignore it or
-
you can face it. And the interesting thing is
-
this, and I know there's some of you guys in here, you guys love
-
to physically fight, right? You guys have been in a couple
-
brawls. I don't love it.
-
You know why? Because the, the, the, the
-
outcomes never, always is never guaranteed.
-
So we can pull a gun, so we can pull a knife, whatever.
-
With the fight that we have against Satan, can I tell you
-
that the the victory is already assured?
-
It's already won. We're in the midst of a battle,
-
but God has already declared victory.
-
So when we walk into these fights, you don't have to walk
-
in wondering what's going to happen, Am I going to win these
-
decisions, these questions for a friend that are going to destroy
-
me or or or set me up for victory depending on my choices.
-
You have a way to to have victory.
-
And I want to go through the rest of Ephesians chapter 610
-
through 18 and this is going to be your quipping this you're
-
going to call and we'll get into one last question that we're
-
going to deal with. So read with me in verse 10.
-
These are the this is what Paul gives us.
-
To go into this fight that we have, says finally be
-
strengthened in the Lord and the strength of His power. close
-
yourselves with the full armor of God, so that you will be able
-
to stand against the schemes of the devil.
-
The devil is scheming to come after you, for our struggle is
-
not against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
-
powers of this Dark World, and against the spiritual forces of
-
evil and heavily realms. And therefore, put on the full
-
armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be
-
able to stand your ground. And after you have done
-
everything to stand, stand firm. Then, with the belt of truth
-
buckled around your waist. Who knows that we need truth?
-
We have to have. We have to know what the truth
-
is and what it's not. We have to have the blessed, the
-
breastplate of righteousness. Are our lives lined up with the
-
righteousness? Not as we define it, but it's
-
how God defines it. This is, that's your next
-
weapon. And with the feet fitted with
-
the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, we have to
-
know the gospel. We have to really.
-
We have to know it better than than than we currently do.
-
When somebody comes and talks to you, do you have that hope?
-
Can you articulate that hope? That's our job, to equip you
-
with that, to be able to to to to articulate what the the
-
gospel is. In addition to all this, take up
-
the shield of faith. Our faith has to be strong.
-
We can't waver with which you can extinguish all the flaming
-
arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the
-
sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
-
And again, I'll pause right here for a minute.
-
We we don't know the word of God the way that we need to know the
-
word of God. We don't go do it.
-
We don't go do a job and not know the manual to do our job.
-
Well, how do we do the job of life without knowing what the
-
word of God says? No wonder that we we mess up and
-
we have disagreements about what we we should do.
-
No wonder that we have these these fights in our church about
-
do I accept this or is that allowed because we don't know
-
the word of God And he finishes with this is the Praying the
-
Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and
-
requests. And with this in mind, be alert,
-
Always keep on praying for all of the Lord's people.
-
This is the tools. This is the fight that we have.
-
What is the decision that we make?
-
Can I tell you this? When we get lost, we think the
-
battle's going to be won on pulling the vote station and who
-
we put to DC? Or we think that we're going to
-
win by going to a picket line. Or we think we're going to win
-
by boycotting the right, the wrong type of beer.
-
Right. I never thought I would see
-
Baptist preachers boycotting Bud Light.
-
And yeah, you guys should drink Modela.
-
I'm like, that's not the Baptist preachers I grew up with.
-
We're not going to win that battle.
-
We're not going to win that battle that way.
-
I love what it says right here at the end of the Ephesians.
-
You know what our battle cry has to be, Has to be God, what you
-
want us to do. And our first action of our war
-
isn't running in to beat somebody up.
-
It's to fall into our knees and submission and prayer to God.
-
And if we don't start there, we're doomed.
-
Submission has to be to God. Our strength comes from God
-
asking for a friend. This is where we'll land.
-
Pastor Sean was in here. I'd like Pastor Sean.
-
I've got this friend and we're going to deal with this.
-
One question. Pastor Sean, I've got this
-
friend, man, he's a Christian, but he deals with depression and
-
anxiety and he doesn't think God shows up in his in in his life
-
and he does. He's not sure why he should
-
continue to go to church is because if God doesn't take this
-
from him, is God really real and his faith really is.
-
Is is faith really real? And this is a question that a
-
lot of us have dealt with. So what do you think Pastor Sean
-
says in that situation? What do you say in that
-
situation? If you've asked yourself that
-
maybe you don't know and depression and anxiety is a
-
thing that can destroy our lives, tie this back to what I
-
already said. We think that that that anxiety
-
and depression is just something simply that everybody deals
-
with. And it's true at some level and
-
there can be different reasons for it.
-
But there is a factor here that so many of us don't take into
-
account. Is the enemy trying to attack
-
you? Because what is the goal for
-
Satan to attack us? To bring anxiety and depression
-
to our lives is to take you out of the fight, right?
-
Because who wants to fight when you think there's nothing to
-
fight for? This issue is something that has
-
affected my family in in in ways that are is very real and very
-
personal. And I'll wrap this up with
-
sharing just a a bit of my story from from my family.
-
I mentioned my grandma earlier, the Illuminati grandma, right?
-
I loved her and she did so much for me.
-
But one of the things that she struggled with was the
-
depression that she had all the time made her so negative and it
-
just brought everybody down around her.
-
And there were times I know that she questioned God because of of
-
of how she felt all the time. And it wasn't till I as a kid I
-
didn't understand it. I I just knew it was like she's
-
cranky. I don't like being around her
-
all the time. And I didn't, I didn't know why,
-
what was the issue? And I found out later the things
-
that she'd experienced in her life affected where she was at
-
at that point and really the rest of her life.
-
Because what I didn't know was, is that her mother, we struggled
-
with some of the same issues. And in the in the in the 20s and
-
the 30s there wasn't a lot that we could do.
-
And can I got can I tell you guys right now there's a reason
-
why we we sponsor people. We send people to counseling.
-
We pay for the first four sessions because we believe that
-
that's a good thing. Counseling is good and the
-
blessings that we get from doctors and and the medicines
-
and the and the drugs they give us can be a very good blessing.
-
It's the same way that we treat heart disease or cancer.
-
So I would never discount that. And again, if you, if you or
-
your loved one or somebody you know need that, we would love to
-
connect you. But in the 20s and 30s, they
-
didn't have a lot of that. So here's what I didn't know
-
about my grandma. Her mom was done with that life
-
couldn't live that way anymore. And my grandma came home one day
-
after school and found her mom hanging in the basement.
-
I can't imagine. I think what what would that do
-
to you? Maybe you've experienced that.
-
I I haven't. So I saw what my grandma dealt
-
with, with depression, and it came from the trauma, the things
-
that she saw. The person that was supposed to
-
love her the most walked away through this act and she didn't
-
have a mom anymore. My grandma ended up finding hope
-
in Jesus, but she had this constant battle of is Jesus
-
enough? Is Jesus going to walk away from
-
me? The interesting thing, the cool
-
thing that really has has been a blessing in my life and it's
-
changed me. Is this is that she?
-
Even though she struggled with it, she put something in my mom.
-
The idea that you can rely on God, that faith is enough, that
-
God has your best in mind, and she lived with that gospel in
-
her life to change my mom's life.
-
And then my mom passed that on to us, and that generational
-
curse ended up being broke. The one that my great, great
-
grandma had, that great grandma had, and that my grandma dealt
-
with was broken because of a reliance on God, because they
-
didn't believe the lie anymore. They knew that they were under
-
attack from Satan, and they gave that to God, and they went in
-
and they won the battle by believing the gospel and having
-
that shield of faith and relying on the sword of the spirit.
-
Again, I can't touch this whole issue in this 5-6 minutes and
-
I'm not doing it justice and we may touch on this again later.
-
My whole impetus in bringing up this question at this level is
-
this is that God has an answer for you, but God has called you
-
to a hard decision. What are you going to do with
-
that call in your life? What are we going to do with
-
that call in our life as a church?
-
Because if we don't want to be that Country Club, if we don't
-
want to be that, just that health self seminar, selfhelp
-
seminar, we have to rely on something more than just
-
ourselves. We have to rely on each other.
-
But more importantly, we have to rely on God, on Jesus as
-
revealed in the word of God. Because He's called us to
-
something great. He's called us to be the hope of
-
the world, the light on the hill, the city of God.
-
Will we take up that call? Will we make that hard decision
-
to do the the thing that God has for us?
-
Can I tell you this lastly before I pray for you guys, I
-
don't like the alternative because I see where it leads.
-
I see where it takes a family, I see where it takes a church, I
-
see where it takes a nation, and it's all bad.
-
I want to walk into that battle with you guys and not be fearful
-
of that super intelligent, dark, heavenly force that has our
-
destruction of mind. Guys called us as a church to go
-
break down the gates of hell. Will you guys go with me?
-
Let's pray God as we as we ponder the things that you've
-
given us. God, I just thank you for this
-
this church. Number one.
-
God, I thank you for the people that have come here and God just
-
thank you for their willingness to to hear what you've got for
-
them. I want to pray for two groups of
-
people. Number one, I want to pray for
-
the Christians that are in the house today.
-
God, I know that every person here has a struggle of of a
-
choice they have to make. Are they going to put you on the
-
throne or are they going to put themselves on the throne?
-
And this is a daily decision. So God, I want to pray for each
-
person here that calls real life home in any way, shape or form,
-
whether you're online or whether in in person.
-
God put a blessing on their life.
-
God bless them in a way that you you're so real.
-
And everything they have to gain by living their own life is just
-
pills in comparison to the to the abundant life that you have
-
for them, the freedom that you have for them.
-
You got to. I pray that not just for their
-
benefit, but I pray that for the benefit of what you've called
-
them to do. God, you've called them to do
-
wonderful things in your name, to be an influence wherever
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they're at, to lead their families.
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Well, to lead this church. Well, God, I pray as a church
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here at real life that we are known as a people that know your
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word, as a people that follow your word.
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I want to pray for one last group of people.
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Maybe you're here today and this is new for you.
-
Maybe you have never been to church or it's been a long time
-
or you don't have a relationship with God and you don't
-
understand everything that I that I've set up here today and
-
that's okay. But can I, can I, can I speak to
-
you just for a second? If you don't know God, you're in
-
a battle as well. But you're you've set yourself
-
up against the wrong side. And I'm not saying that you
-
follow Satan in the sense that you're a Satan worshipper, but
-
you've put yourself on the throne.
-
But you were created by a God that has brought everything to
-
existence by his word and he's loves you and he's looking for
-
you. You're the prodigal that that
-
has run so far. You don't know where to turn
-
because of the things that have happened in your life through
-
the sexual trauma, through the addictions, through the sense of
-
loss, through the broken relationships that you've been
-
in and you don't know where else to turn.
-
And maybe you're here today because this is the last place
-
you have to go. Can I tell you that you're at
-
the right place and you're at the right place Because we will
-
show you and and tell you about the person that you are looking
-
for. And that person is Jesus, the
-
one that came and died. He gave up everything to reunite
-
you with God, and that's who you were created to worship.
-
That's who you were created to love.
-
So if that's you today, I would encourage you and invite you to
-
pray a prayer. A prayer that the words don't
-
save you, but your heart behind them does.
-
And that heart is this is that you're tired of living your own
-
life and in your own way. And that God has reached out and
-
he wants to change your heart and is changing your heart right
-
now. And your next step is to accept
-
what he has for you. So if that's you today, and
-
you're done, you're done with living life your way, and you're
-
ready to live God's life from what he's got for you.
-
Pray something along these lines with me.
-
God, God, I know that I've messed up.
-
God, I know that my life is so screwed up that I can't fix it.
-
And God, the things that I've done, I can't go back and change
-
and there an offense against you and the sin that I have in my
-
life. I need you to take that away.
-
And God. So today I asked you to take my
-
past and my brokenness and my sin and take that off of me.
-
And I accept your son is the one that has made that possible.
-
And in today I accept the life and the salvation that he's
-
given me. And I accept that today.
-
Amen That we give it up for everybody here today that has
-
just made that decision. And come to Christ as you guys,
-
as we as we get into the series. I'm seriously encouraging you
-
guys. There are things you're going to
-
hear that you're not going to like, things that you don't
-
agree with. Allow the Holy Spirit to open
-
your hearts. Because I know that God wants to
-
do a work here and He will do it through us if we allow him to do
-
it. Amen.
-
Hey, let's give it up for Barry sharing that word this morning.
-
It's no easy day to get up into, just talk about the things of
-
the word of God. But I'm just appreciative to
-
have a team of people willing to jump in and do that whenever as
-
part of real life, we do. Here, the early believers in the
-
Bible are actually called the People of the Way.
-
And how powerful is that to be something that we'd be known of
-
me. And those people are after God's
-
heart. Those are people who wanting to
-
follow God. And so I'm just excited to see
-
where the series goes. I'm excited for today.
-
I'm glad that you were all here with us, that you've come to
-
worship with us, spend your Sunday morning with us.
-
It is so special for us that you're here.
-
And maybe today you are. You've heard this word, the
-
gospel that Barry shared his prayer and he said, you know,
-
maybe today this is all new for me.
-
I've never heard this story of Jesus who died for me.
-
I've never heard about a God who would love me above all else.
-
And if that. You and you're like, you know
-
what, That I made that decision today.
-
We want to celebrate with you and we have some steps that you
-
can take to help you on your journey with Jesus.
-
Because we really, we know that God has something for you.
-
And I want you to be able to hold on to that truth here at
-
real life. And so here I have a few things
-
for you. One is Congrats, we're happy for
-
you. We're so excited that you're
-
putting God into your life. We have a couple of resources
-
for you and there's a few ways you can get them.
-
You can text RL next to 97,000 that's going to connect you to
-
part of our. Our website where we can get
-
your information. We'd love to send you this book
-
that's behind me called Begin. It's a short book.
-
It's about 100 pages, but it really like what do I go from
-
here? How do I know about God?
-
What do I do on these first steps in my faith.
-
And we would love to send. We'll mail you that resource.
-
If you fill out that, you can scan the QR code.
-
We also have the connection card on your chair.
-
You can check that box that says I committed my life to Jesus.
-
We'll also send this book out to you this week.
-
We want to be here as a resource for you as you're on this
-
journey with Jesus. The second thing is this, and
-
this is just put in the back of your mind.
-
It's not this week, but in about a month on our birthday
-
celebration, we're going to be doing baptisms.
-
So maybe you're like, I've been following Jesus a long time but
-
never decided to get baptized. I never made that decision for
-
myself. Or maybe you've just recently
-
came to know, Christ, we're going to be baptizing.
-
You can go to our website, reallifechurchcasey.com click
-
events, and there's a place to sign up to get more information.
-
We'd love to get connected with you in this step, but keep that
-
in the back of your mind that's coming.
-
Coming up and it's such a special time of celebration of
-
what God is doing here at real Life Church.
-
And the next one is this for this same group I, you know,
-
just started following Jesus. I've known God for a while but I
-
don't know how to make my faith my own.
-
I am on these baby steps of my journey with Jesus.
-
Next week during the first gathering we are starting the
-
next session of our No God class and this is a place where you
-
can say you know what, I have questions and it's not only
-
okay, it's awesome. We have very wise and awesome
-
people coming alongside. You to say, let me show you how
-
to understand the Bible. Let me give you some resources
-
as you're taking these steps on your faith to know the basics of
-
how do I read the Bible? How do I know how to pray?
-
How do I know what is baptism? Why should I do it?
-
Why do we go to church? You know, all these questions
-
that are kind of like, I just want to know more about that
-
stuff. I'd love to sit down.
-
We offer that it's four weeks long and it's during our first
-
gathering time, So you can still come on in and go to the second
-
gathering, still be a part of what God's doing in real life.
-
But even if you serve on a team or you come alive.
-
But I would say our team would love to push pause on your
-
serving for a month to get into that class and say I want to
-
know more, I want to go deeper in my faith.
-
So that starts next week. We'd love to give you more
-
information if you need some, but it's in the next steps room,
-
which is just pass the bathroom starting next week.
-
You can sign up for that. You can reach out to us.
-
We'd love to get you connected with that class.
-
And then you know what? There's a lot coming up at Real
-
Life. I have a note card today because
-
I could not keep it all committed to memory.
-
There's so many things, but for all of us, not just those of us
-
who are newer to the faith, there's several next steps.
-
And the first one is this. Maybe you're not new to God, but
-
you're new to real life. And you're like, I want to know
-
a little bit, what is this thing about?
-
Well, today, right after the second gathering, so you guys
-
can go out, grab a brunch, come on back at 12:15, there's just
-
going to be a few of us from the leadership team in that same
-
Next steps room just talking about real life.
-
What is this place? Why did you start it?
-
What is your story? We would love.
-
To hear that about you, how did you hear from us?
-
What's your story with God? How can we encourage you?
-
It's a very casual, conversational time to get to
-
know a little bit about real life for us, to get to know a
-
little bit about you. And if you're like, I'm not sure
-
where I'm going to land. This is a perfect first step to
-
say, I just want to get to know some people, ask some questions,
-
hang out. We will have food for you, we'll
-
have food for your kids. Our real life kids team will
-
continue to hang out with those kiddos, keep them having a fun
-
time, having some lunch. So come on back at 12:15, We'd
-
love to connect with you at the New Year Social.
-
And also, let me challenge you Barry unpacked a lot of
-
information in a very short time and a cool resource that we have
-
or you can continue the conversation is the YouTube.
-
I'm sorry, the YouTube. Wow, EU Version Bible app.
-
I don't recommend staying up all night and then talking.
-
It's not a good idea. EU Version Bible app is a very
-
cool tool that a lot of you may use to read the Bible.
-
But what you might not know is if you go down to the bottom of
-
the app, there's like 3 little lines.
-
You can get a whole bunch more resources.
-
If you click events, it's actually going to bring up our
-
message notes for the day. Yeah, you can save those.
-
You can screenshot them. But it has these cool things
-
called talk it over, questions that you can talk about in the
-
car on the way home. Use it to challenge each other
-
throughout the week. Talk with your spouse about it.
-
Ask your kids about it. It's a way that you can continue
-
the move of what God's doing on here through your whole entire
-
week. A lot of our life groups, when
-
they start up, use this as a tool to have conversations about
-
spiritual stuff. So that's not just we're
-
believers on Sunday. And then the rest of the week we
-
kind of move about our own way. So I challenge you if you
-
haven't downloaded. That it's on all the platforms.
-
It's free, there's not ads. It's an awesome app.
-
But we use it in a special way so that you can continue to see
-
what God is doing. Okay, we're almost made it
-
through my long list. If you got saved, if you didn't
-
get saved, if you have all the things.
-
The last one is this. If you're like Okay, I've been
-
coming for a little bit of time and I think I like what's going
-
on here. I wanna dive in next.
-
Sunday we are having our crash course and this is about two
-
hour long time hanging out at our Hope center.
-
So you get to check that place out.
-
It's awesome what God's doing there.
-
We get together with a few of our leadership team and this is
-
the okay. I'm ready to take the step in my
-
faith where I want to get more involved in what God is doing in
-
your real life. I want to know what things there
-
are that I can be a part of. Ways that we can pour into you.
-
Ways that you can use your gifts and your abilities to pour back
-
into serving and the purpose of God.
-
That's that real life and purpose piece.
-
We love to connect you with who. God made you to be what?
-
How he's gifted you and then how you can use that to make a
-
difference for the Kingdom. And so this is a really fun 2
-
1/2 hour interactive again, casual time.
-
It's at our Hope Center. It's next Sunday, so if you want
-
to come, there is a sign up online for you.
-
I don't know if this QR works, but if not, that's okay.
-
But go to reallifechurchkc.com, click events.
-
There's room for you. You know what?
-
If you just show up, we'll still be there whether you sign up or
-
not. So we'd love to have you.
-
It's next Sunday, 2:00 to 4:30 at our Hope Center.
-
Ask one of us if you need an address.
-
Who we made it. It's going to be great.
-
And you know why it's an awesome week?
-
Because our Columbia emissions team had just got back yesterday
-
morning, which is why my brain doesn't work and I need some
-
coffee. Yeah, let's give a hand.
-
Our team had an awesome week. You are not going to want to
-
miss. I promise.
-
Next week we are sharing about what God did through our team,
-
what God did in our lives. And it is going to be a very
-
inspirational and exciting morning because we get to take a
-
step back and say not just what is God doing in real life,
-
What's God doing? We belt and what's got to in our
-
community, What is God doing across the world and how has he
-
called and given us the opportunity to be a part of
-
that? And by you all praying for us,
-
giving here your generosity money here allows us not only to
-
send a team to go, but it allows us to take on some of the
-
responsibility and the weight we've been giving to say that
-
there are incredible men of faith across the world.
-
You want to do more to reach more people, and we need your
-
help. Because the stuff that they want
-
to do isn't just something that, you know, that Sean and I can
-
just fork out some extra money and say, let's do this.
-
They have big dreams, big goals, they serve a big God, and
-
they're excited about what he's doing in their country to reach
-
the World. And so we get to encourage them
-
in that. And so when you give here,
-
you're a part of partnering with our global partners.
-
We have partnerships with different pastors, different
-
ministries, different missionaries across the world,
-
and we get to be a part of that. And so when you give a real
-
life, that's fruit to your account.
-
The gospel has moved forward across the world because of you.
-
And so thank you. For those of you who do that,
-
thank you for those of you who've taken that step of faith
-
to say, I want to give, I want to be more generous.
-
I promise you, when you see what is happening across the world,
-
it breaks your heart. So you can't say like, it's OK
-
take it all, Lord, you know, like the song we sing today,
-
like you can have it all, but when you give, you can make a
-
difference. And so if you haven't given, I
-
challenge you too, because there's three ways you can do
-
that. If you call real life home, go
-
to reallifechurchkc.com. Click give text any amount to
-
84321. We'll have some buckets in a
-
moment, or we have a giving box in the back if it's more
-
convenient for you to put cash or check in there.
-
And I'll say that if you and your family are in immediate
-
need of food, clothing or shelter today, please reach into
-
the buckets when they pass by. Take that out.
-
Because our heart is also to be generous here and to be generous
-
to you and your time of need. And so I would encourage you to
-
grab and take advantage of that. God can do big things through us
-
when we give, and so I would challenge you to take that
-
mantle today. So check out what else is coming
-
up in real life. This is Paul.
-
It's backyard Hangouts, couches and kitchen tables.
-
It's story shared and moments worth remembering.
-
It's hoping and praying and taking chances.
-
It's jokes and laughter and shoulders to cry on.
-
It's questions and answers and I don't knows knowing.
-
You don't have to figure it out by yourself.
-
It's messy and imperfect. It's giving and serving and
-
growing Better Together. It's life, and we weren't meant
-
to do it alone. Life is Better Together.
-
Find a life group today at reallifechurchkc.com.
-
Literally today, life groups are going Live Today.
-
You'll see a big wall out here. You can scan the QR code for
-
those different groups. I just encourage you to take
-
that to heart. Don't do life alone this
-
upcoming semester. There's a group for every single
-
one of you and just be praying over that.
-
We love to just interact with you and they'll start meeting in
-
person the week of August 27th. So you can Sign up today, but
-
we're not going to meet for another couple weeks or so.
-
Awesome. Like.
-
And said let's press pause on asking for a friend next week as
-
we come back at 9:30 or 11:00 and hear about everything God
-
did on this missions trip. Huge God.
-
Huge wins. Can't wait to see you here as we
-
celebrate with that team next week.
-
If you want some prayer this morning, we'll have people down
-
in front that would love to just pray with you this morning.
-
And remember, whoever finds Jesus discovers real life and
-
purpose. Have a great week.
-
This is the end of this podcast. We hope you've enjoyed it.
-
If you have, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don't
-
miss another inspirational podcast for more great content.
-
And updates visit reallifechurchkc.com.