Sermon
Who is Jesus to you | Elder Rosalind Ang
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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You're listening to a message to go from axt church.
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We hope this message will light up your teeth.
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Who is Jesus to you? Okay, I'm gonna give you
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a moment to think about this, and I'm gonna step
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down and I'm gonna ask for some answers. Okay, So,
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so have a think about it. Have a think about
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this question, because I realize it's a question that you
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don't often get asked, and therefore you don't often answer it. Okay,
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but this is a very important question. Okay, So I
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ever think about it as I make my way down
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ha ha ha scat now not scared to ask it,
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because for sure, I'm gonna ask the first row of verse.
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For sure, John, who's Jesus to you? Savior? Okay, Savior,
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I'm gonna ask Ellie, who's Jesus to you? My best friend?
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Best friend? Best friend, best friend? Okay, okay, let's go.
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Let's go, ah, young men, young men, Actually, who's Jesus
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to you? Ah? My provider? Jesus is my provider. Okay, okay, good, good, good.
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Let me find for more victims. Oh no, no, not victims,
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children of God? A jen, Who's Jesus to you, a
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lot of my portion, the Lord of my portion. Okay, okay, okay,
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you see some answers that are of course our brother
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hands I. Alex there just walked in, Alex, Who's Jesus
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to you, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God? Okay?
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Let me find one more or two more answers, Brother Ben,
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who's Jesus to you? My comforter? My comforter? Okay, Janet,
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who's Jesus to you? Firm foundation? Okay? Okay. So there
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is all these names of God that you know of,
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and I don't want you to just think about this
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as the correct standard textbook answer. You just think about it.
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Did you just give me textbook answer? Or are those
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names that you just told me? Are those real to you? Yeah?
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Are those real to you? Now? The thing about this
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is right, a lot of people have encounters with Jesus
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and there could be a lot of ideas about who
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Jesus is. Honestly, if you ask your neighbor right now
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who Jesus is, maybe some of them they are like, yeah,
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I heard of this name Jesus, and maybe he is
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just a legend. Yeah, legend. Do you know what a
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legend is someone who was famous. I mean, I think
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everybody knows Jesus, are right, because we set about Christmas, right,
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we sell about Christmas and everybody sort of heard of
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this name Jesus before and him I think, yeah, he
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was a legend. He's a good teacher. Good teacher maybe, uh,
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and he's dead, long past gone, legend, legend, the realer,
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okay something. Some might think he's a myth as well. Right,
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someone made him up and now he's a great story.
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Now how you encounter Jesus is what you would name him?
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So we heard just now some really good answers. Right, Savior,
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Son of God, provider, comforter. Okay, Now is it real
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for you every day of your life? Okay? Because some
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of us, when we encounter this person, this name Jesus,
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you might think of him as a liar. I Oh,
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why do I say that? Because do you believe everything
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in the Word of God? Let me ask you that.
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Do you read the Word of God and say, I
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agree and I believe everything that Jesus has said? Okay,
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because if there are some things that you say, yes,
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this part I believe and this part I don't believe.
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Jesus says, cast all your cares unto me, and I
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will give you rest.
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Do you.
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You try? Right, Jesus says, do not be anxious for anything. Right,
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I mean that's the word of God. Do not be
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anxious for anything, but in everything, through prayers application, bring
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your request to God. So do you believe that? Do
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you do it all the time? Okay? So the thing
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is right. You can know some parts of the Word
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of God and not believe it fully all the time?
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All right? Some people make Jesus out to be maybe
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a liar, and who can it be? You know, if
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you read the scriptures, you will understand. You will look
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at how the Pharisees, who are the followers of God,
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did not believe who Jesus was, even after they've witnessed
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all the miracles that they performed. Right, they call him
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a liar, and that's why he was put to death
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on the cross. He was crucified for claiming for who
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he was. Okay, some people think that Jesus is a lunatic.
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Do you know what I learning? Thing is whogo Jesus crazy?
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He says things that's impossible. You know the Other thing
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about what Jesus said, right, he says, if you don't
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hate your mother and your father, you cannot follow me.
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Have you read that in your Bible? Do you believe him?
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Do you understand what he says? Right? So some of
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these things are things that we grapple with with who
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Jesus is. I just came from the Eccines Victory CAM. Whoo,
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really really good CAM, because this was one of the
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largest teens that we had over the past few years
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coming together for CAM. And what was amazing was we
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had a lot of people who you know, are prebelievers.
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They are new to this concept of who God is.
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So in my small group, and of course I had
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the privilege of leading a small group of eleven year
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old so cute, so cute, right, but there's so mature
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some of them, okay, And so we talked about the
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Word of God, the Bible and all that. So of
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course my first time with them, I didn't know their background,
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and so I said, oh, you know, is the Bible
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important to you? Some of them say yeah, And so
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I say, so, if it's important, how often do you
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read it? Right? And they told me in my free time? Okay,
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some of you can resonate with this in your free
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time you will read the word of God, Alini smiling,
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And so I say, oh, okay, so do you have
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free time every day? What do you think? They say, sure, sure,
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got free time on ride. So then my next question was, so,
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then do you read your Bible every day? Of course
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not right, I read it when it's convenient, okay. And
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that is how some of us actually treat the word
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of God. And we say, you know the word of God.
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It says in the scriptures that the Word of God
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is alive and powerful. So do we read the life
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and the powerful world of God every day? So if
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we don't do it? You see, Uh, you can say something.
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I believe Jesus is my savior. I believe Jesus is
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my comforter. But I can tell what you truly believe
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by your actions or by your inaction. Do you see?
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We can say anything. You can say anything you want.
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You can profess Jesus Christ, but I can see your life.
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I'm like, there's no Jesus Christ in your life. So
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this confession of our mouth finger is one thing, but
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this our life actually show that who Jesus is. Okay,
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So you know so? And and I realize, right, you
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know I put all the l right, Jesus, is he
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really legend? Is he a liar? A lunatic? Maybe actually
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add the one the done line line another l Jesus
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is the done line line. For Relasians. You will know
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what that is, right, He's like that. If it's convenient, now, Jesus.
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If it's convenient, then then you work. If it's inconvenient,
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then let me put you aside because there's other things
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that is priority. How many of us will be able
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to truly say that Jesus is Lord? Okay, We're gonna
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explore this a little bit more, because I realize that
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even many Christians do not know Jesus as Lord. He
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can be comforter, he can be your savior, he can
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be your best friend, but is he lord? And that
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has a very different connotation to how we relate to
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the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, are you with me so far?
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Sleeping already? Not yet? Right? In maybe fifteen minutes, I'll
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see some yawns already. I really precies twice a And
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I tell you the spirit is willing, but the flesh
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is weak. Okay, but this is a very important thing,
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and I want you to be really catching what the
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Spirit is saying to us about this truth? Okay, So
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let's turn to our Bibles. Yes, this is from the
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Word of God. Let's turn to Acts chapter nine. Do
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you know this guy named Saul. Tell me what you
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know about Saul? Saul is Paul? I heard Saul is Paul? Okay?
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Old Testament or New Testament? Correct? There is a There
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was a king Saul. Was he a good king or
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bad king? Back? He started off good? Okay, he didn't
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end up so well. You know, many of us can
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start very well. But the question is not how well
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you start. I'm more interested in how we all end up. Okay,
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I'm more interested. So now today's message, right, it's really
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about where are you? Where are you at in your
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journey with the Lord? Where are you at? Okay? So
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you okay, By the way, if I tell you suddenly,
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we have someone called faster Paul who was formerly Saul's
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the Saul. Anyone want to welcome him to your church?
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If you knew Saul as he was, would you welcome
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him to church? Depending on who introduced him? Is it? Okay? Okay? Oh,
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he's got kept it all right. So Saul saw in
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his original form what was he doing persecut thing the church? Okay,
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let me give you a context. Someone comes in right
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now and says, every one of you who say that
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you believe in Jesus Christ, stand up, and I'm gonna
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round you up and bring you to the klank prison.
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Is it a clank prison? I don't know where is
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our prison? I also don't know Kai Jung kai jung prison. Okay,
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that's a real one. I verify how many of you
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would stand up? Oh? I saw one hand, brave Eileen.
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She said, let's go guy, junk prison for my faith.
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Let's go together. If you're alone, would you do it?
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Saul was that kind of man. He went around. If
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you read X chapter eight. Okay, so let me give
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you a bit of context so that you know that
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I am not picking this out of air. X chapter eight,
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verse one. Now Saul was consenting to his death. At
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that time, a great persecution arose against the Church which
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was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the
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regions of Judaea and Samara except the apostles. Okay, so
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great persecution Church. We do not know what persecution is
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in this modern day and age. You in our blessed
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country we don't really know what persecution is. Our little
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persecution is I owe diesel price when, um, I know
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a petrol price? When now that's our form of secution. Okay,
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most of us, all right, So we don't really know
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what it means to go to prison for our faith.
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So if I asked you that I didn't like, oh
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is my face real? Then okay, so that's what's happening.
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At that time, Saul was there consenting to the death
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of Stephen the first Martyr. Do you remember that? Yeah,
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So this is the kind of men. Okay, this is
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the kind of man. So let's read chapter nine. So
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this is where we're gonna get. We're gonna read a
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lot of chapter nine. Act Chapter nine. Then Saul still
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breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Hello,
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if you're all disciples here, he's coming to catch you.
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He went to the high Priest and asked letters from
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him to the synagogues of the Mascus, so that if
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he found any who were of the way, whether men
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or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Okay,
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on up verse street, I see journey. He came near Damascus,
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and suddenly, ever say, suddenly, a light shone around him
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from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard
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a voice saying to him, Saw, Saul, why are you
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persecuting me? Okay, I you know, as we were worshiping
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just now a sense that some of us in our journey,
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we could be like a soul right now. Now, don't
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get me wrong, A Saul was not an entirely bad person.
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In fact, he was very zealous for God. Did you
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know that that the whole reason why he was going
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around persecuting Jesus was because he was the pharisee of
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the pharisee, right, that meanses the guru of the Guru
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of that time, Meaning he upheld every single thing of
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Moses' law. So he is very passionate for God things.
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He's not like an you know, someone who's not doing
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God's business. He was doing God's business, and he thought
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that he was doing God a favor by capturing everyone
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who deviated from the teaching of the law of Moses.
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Did get the context, That's why he's like, whoa righteous
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I'm a righteous person, you know, I'm going around capturing
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all these frauds who claim that they're following the way.
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Remember that they're caught the followers of the way. And
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because Jesus was caught the way, so not yahweh, yahweh
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as well, not Yahweh, but Yahweh. And so he was
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a godly man. And sometimes you know, and this was
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a conviction I received that we can be in church,
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we can be in ministry, we can be serving and
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still miss the monk, dangerous, sidless for the things of God,
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and still miss Jesus. Okay, some of us may not
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openly be persecuting Jesus, but in our minds and in
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our hearts and in our lives, we are right. How
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do you prosecute Jesus? What are some of the ways
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that we unconsciously persecute Jesus? When you compromise, when you gossip,
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anyone gossip? Last week? I see some smiles? Is there
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a smile of repentant when we don't know him, when
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we don't know his word? I mean, we say we
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are Christians, but we don't live as Christians, we don't
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behave like Christians. And so in this case it was literal.
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Saul was literally persecuting the followers. You see, the thing
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is right, when you hurt a follow of Jesus, you're hurting.
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Who did you ever think about it? Hello? When you
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spoke badly about another person who was made in the
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image of Christ, who do you think you're persecuting? Ouch? Ouch?
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Every time you thought something bad about another person? Right,
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who was made in the image of Christ? Who do
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you think you're persecuting? Friends? This is very real, Okay,
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every thought, every word that you say, every intention of
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the heart. Do you know the Word of God says
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every the heart is deceitful. The heart is very deceitful.
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And we can say no, but you know this is
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for the greater good. This is for I don't know
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what else. Right, there's always a justification for why we
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do what we do. But this person did that to me.
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But this person did that to me? Did you pray
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for this person? Why are we accusing? Right? So, I
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think we are all guilty. I think we've all been
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guilty of persecuting Jesus. And this is not time to
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say but the person. But no, look at ourselves. Where
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have we become like soul in our lives? Right? And
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so do you know the thing is right? There is
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a pricking in your conscience right now? There is a
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prick right now. And that's because that's the word of God. Yeah,
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And so Jesus, what I took comfort from this Rus?
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No matter where you are, no matter how bad of
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a soul that you have been, do you know that
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God still came to speak to him. Do you know
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that if you were Godla, if you were God, what
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would you do to someone like Saul who was putting
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all other Christians into jail? Think about it, if you
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were God, what would you do? Kill him, make his
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life miserable cause all his efforts to be unsuccessful, trip
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him up? Is that the heart of heart of God,
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we might want to do that, right Like, oh, this
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person my enemy. I hope you fail, man, I hope
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you fall down. I hope your business fail. But God's
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heart is no, there is hope. And with the most
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hopeless person that you think you have in your life
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right now, Jesus still wants to come. Amen. Jesus still
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wants to come because this is the worst kind of criminal, La.
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He think so, all right, the worst kind consenting believers
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to death. And yet Jesus came to speak to him personally.
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And I believe that Jesus is speaking to each one
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of you personally right now, none of us. If you're
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here right now, God is speaking to you. He wants
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to speak to you, amen, and he's asking us this
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very hard question, jin jin, why are you persecuting me? Sorry? Lord?
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And then this is the response of Saul, and he said,
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who are you? Lord? Have you ever asked this question?
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Who are you really? Have you ever asked Jesus? Who
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are you really? And I think this is such a
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fundamental question because if you don't have an answer from
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the low from this, I want you to ask this
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question because if you've never asked this question of him,
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all your understanding of who Jesus is came from somewhere else,
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hopefully from the word of God. But I don't know
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whether that became personal to you. You know this whole
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Jesus is my savior? Like really, I'm sure you heard
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of it before, but really, is he your savior? What
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did he save you from? Can you answer that question? No? Honestly,
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I want to help you to be very real in
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your faith. Friends, Okay, I want us to be ready
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so that when Jesus come back, we all say he
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comes back? Right? Do you believe it's coming back? And
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so when you stand before him, what would you say
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to him? And more importantly, what would he say to you?
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Because you know it says that many come to me
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calling me lord Lord? And what did Jesus say to them?
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I don't know you? A loud church, ex church. I
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don't want you to meet with the Lord Jesus and
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call him lord Lord. And Jesus says to you, who
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are you? I don't know you. I am so afraid
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that Jesus is saying who are you? I don't know you.
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I know your name is Rose, but I don't know
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you because you know me? Kenna, friends, ok can we
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get so serious with the Lord to say, God, I
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am ready to answer you when you're ask me who
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am I to you? Okay? And so Saul asked this
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very important question, who are you Lord? Then I was thinking,
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actually he really called him lord, ma, So doesn't mean
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that he acknowledged him, is lord? You think about it?
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He already say who are you Lord? So I went
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digging a little bit further because I'm so curious, right,
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I cannot Han, It doesn't make sense to me. How
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do you call someone lord when he is not lord
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in your life? So actually this word lord if you
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see it in the Bible, there's two meanings. One it
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means you you are caught honor and respect to another person, right,
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And so another way to call it in modern terms
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is sir, who are you? Sir? Just as sir, like
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out of respect? Because you know, guess one Saul, in
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his anger and all that, he already knew that something
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supernatural happened because he heard a voice from heaven and
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then he fell down. Anyone of your experiences light shining
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around you from heaven, no, right? And after that he
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got blinded and he heard a voice, so he knew
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that this is something not ordinary, extraordinary, and so he says,
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who are you, sir? Who are you? Sir? Have you
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ever asked Jesus that, who are you? Sir? Let's go on?
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What else they they say and what the Jesus is?
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And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
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It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
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Do you understand what this means? It is hard for
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you to kick against the gods anyone you'll read the Bible,
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but I don't understand. Right, It's okay, and that's why
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we are learning together. Is that okay? Yeah, I want
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you to be to develop a curiosity tea about the
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Word of God, can or not, because if you're not curious,
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you'll read it once you don't understand it has no
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significance to you. When he has no meaning to you,
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it will not transform you. Can on not. Friends, I'm
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recognizing more and more one of the greatest dangers for
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our church, and I'm speaking to our church is that
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we do not know God. We don't know God. You
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know why I dared to say that, It's because you
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don't know the Word. Many of us, when I speak
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to different ones now, even leaders, many of us don't
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know the Word of God. So how can you claim
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to know God and to know his will and to
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follow after him and to be made more like him
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if you don't read the Word of God. Friends, this
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is a real burden for me and I I think
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we will do you in justice. The leadership of the
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church will do you injustice if we do not prick
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you to say, guys, I think you need to get
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serious with your Bible. You will not grow in your
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faith if you don't know the Word of God for yourself.
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I want to tell you that coming to church is great,
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going to homes is fantastic. But your daily discipline, do
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you encounter God daily with the Word of God. You know,
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there's a research done in the America and it goes
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to show right that those who read the Bible three
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days or less of the week is similar as those
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who don't read the Bible at all, meaning our engagement
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in behaviors like porn violence, alcohol abuse, drug abuse. The
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percentage shows that those who do not engage in scripture,
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it's the same as those who just read the Bible
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three times a week. So even if you read three
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times a week, it's not enough. So the research shows
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that those who read four times or more in a week,
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those are the ones that you see a drastic change
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in their life. Because it is the Word of God
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that transforms us, right, not it is nothing else. Do
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not be confirmed by the pattern of this world, but
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be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And how
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do you do that? This part is not renewed when
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we don't know the word of God. You see that
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and the word of God in what John one says,
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and the Word was made flesh, and who's is flesh
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is Jesus, Right, So how important is this world of
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God to you? Again? Because you can come up with
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all kinds of ideologies about who Jesus is, and I
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can tell you where did that come from? And I
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will ask you where did that talk come from? It
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has to come from the world of God. Otherwise everything
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else that you have is a figment of your imagination
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or the world. Okay, I know I'm a bit serious
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with this, but I think this is very very key,
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very very key. Friends. So he says that it is
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hard to kick against the gods, and for this this
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problem is hard to kick against the gods. There's a picture.
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There's a picture that you can see right now. Do
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you see the animals there? There's two cattle right, and
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they use this farming and then legy. What happens is
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where would you want your goads to move in as
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your place in the ground? Right, So you have a
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plot of land and you want them. What they are
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doing is they are going to plow the land. Right.
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So the animals, the bulls are going to carry something
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heavy yolk together and they are going to plow the land. Now, animals,
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if you leave them lose, how would they walk? Do
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you think they walk in a straight line. Even some
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of us do the walk in a straight liner drunk. Okay.
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So what happens is animals, because you want your your
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your plot of land to have you know, straight roles,
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so that you can sow your seats right, it's orderly,
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there's an order to farming. And so what happens is
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with the animals. They will usually want to turn, turn
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to the left or turn to the right, because that's
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like all of us are right, true, not we all
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want to turn to the left, all turn to the right.
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And the more we turn to the level or to
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the right, what would the farmer do? They will take
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a stick with a sharp pointy thing at the end
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of it and pok you laugh, No, I suggested the parents,
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you want this are not for your kids. The moment
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they turned to the leg and like palk a little
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bit so that they walk in the straight line. Okay.
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And so this analogy was given by Jesus to Saul,
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who understood exactly what that meant. It men that saw,
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why are you doing something useless? Why are you going
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against the divine you know, nature of who God is?
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Why are you doing something that is not useful at all?
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Persecuting Jesus is not useful. You cannot overcome God's plan
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no matter what you do. And I don't want to
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say that to your friends. That God has a plan
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for each one of us. He has a will, he
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has a plan, he has a purpose. And sometimes we
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fight it. We fight it so much, and Jesus saying
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hello this morning, I'm gonna prick you so that you
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know that, don't fight. Don't fight the Holy spirit? Friends,
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why do we do that? It's you know, God wants
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to help you walk in a straight line. So he says,
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don't kick against the goats. It is hot. You know
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why if you keep doing that, what's gonna happen? If
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you keep kicking against the goats, what's gonna happen to you?
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Guess what? You get? Very holy? And this kind of
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holy is not h O L y, but h O
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l e y. You be full of You will hurt yourself?
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Why do you keep hurting yourself? Friends? Right? And you
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get tired when you get tired, like why my life
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is still like that? How long has it been or
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being trapped? Years of being bound, years of not breaking
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free of my bad habits, year of not being able
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to wake up. I don't know. What is it that
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you're struggling with? Years of unforgiveness? Why do you want
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to keep yourself bound like? That? Is hard? It's very tiring,
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you know, when you keep going against what God wants
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us to do. So, so what happens? So Saul, being
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a little bit more wise now trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, sir,
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what do you want me to do? Have you ever
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asked Jesus this question? Jesus, what do you want me
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to do? Most of the time? Right, our relationship with
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God is God, This is what I want you to
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do for me. Yes, examine your own prayer life. It's like, God,
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can you do this for me? God? Can you do
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this for me? Heal, provide comfort, breakthrough? Yeah, how many
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of you have ever prayed God? What do you want
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me to do? What shall I do in this case?
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What shall I do? In this relationship? What shall I do?
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And you wait for his answer? Most of us it's
-
never been that kind of two way conversation. Right, It's
-
more like, Jesus, you do this for me? If not,
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then okay, all right. So when he asked, by the way, friends,
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can I tell you that if you ask a lot Lord,
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what do you want me to do? He will answer you.
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That's why maybe we don't want to ask that question
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because we might not like the answer. Okay, And he says,
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then the Lord said to him, arise, go in to
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the city and you will be told what you must do. Okay. Now,
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everything that we have right now, right I think as believers,
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it starts with an encounter with our Lord. Do you
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have you had a personal encounter with the Lord with
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Jesus himself. Some of us we live on borrow faith.
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Do you know what that means? It means you're in
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church because someone asks you to come. It means you're
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in church because your parents are in church. It means
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you're in church because your friends are in church. How
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many of you came to church because you wanted to
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be with the Lord. Is this really for you for
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yourself or is this for other people that you're here
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for an encounter personally? Think about it, When was the
-
last time you have that encounter with the Lord? Because
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without that encounter with the Lord right all this will
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be meaningless because you don't know, you won't have that
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knowledge of who God is. And so if you're in
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that journey, like can I can I say that again
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that I just want us to know and recognize where
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are we in our journey right Where are we right
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now in our journey with the Lord? If you're at
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this stage right now, you say, actually, I have not
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had an encounter with the Lord. What do you do? Pray? Pray?
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I say, God, I have this idea about who you are.
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I heard about you from my parents. I be coming
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to church for fifteen years, seventeen years, but I want
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to know you. I pray that this will be your prayer.
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You say, God, I really need to have encounter with you. Right.
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It starts with an encounter, because without the encounter, you
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cannot carry on in your understanding of who God is. Okay,
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are we okay? So the first one is an encounter,
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and God wants to encounter you. Our God is a
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personal God. He's not just a God almighty up there
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that we worshiped. He came down to earth, he walked
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the earth, He ate and breathed and ministered with his disciples,
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and we all called his disciples, right, And so that's
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why we need to know him as our own God,
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all right? And so the Lord told him what to do,
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And let's read on verse sevent he says, and the
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man who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice
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but seeing no one. Okay, so he was blinded as
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his point verse eight, then saw a rose from the ground,
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and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one.
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But they led him by the hand and brought him
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into Damascus. And he was three days how many days?
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Three days without sight, and neither ate nor drink. Now,
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you see, the thing is when you have that first
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encounter with the Lord, it leads to this place of
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deep search. We need to come to that place. Okay.
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I want you to really come to that place where
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you're like, God, I'm grappling with you, I'm wrestling with you.
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Have you ever wrestled with the Lord? Yeah? If you've
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not wrestled with a lot over something very real, then
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I want you to have that. I want you to
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ask him the hard questions. I want you to say, God,
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I don't understand this, is this real? Are you real?
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Engage him because he's not afraid to engage with you.
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Other people might be afraid, like don't go into this
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deep part. But God is not afraid because it is
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in that place of deep darkness Solah three days without sight,
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no eyesight, Everything was dark to him. And some of
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us need to go into that place of darkness without food,
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without water, without anything else that distracts us. Actually, many
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of us don't have to be quiet, right, it's very
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hard what quiet time? Five minutes are three days of
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real engagements. I don't know what Saul was thinking at
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this point. What do you think? What he was thinking?
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What was he feeling? Imagina, his whole life theology was
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to bring Jesus down. My mission in life is to
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bring Jesus down. And then he had an encounter with
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Jesus and now he's searching, he's requestioning his whole life.
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You know, I don't know if you've ever asked, actually,
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what's the purpose of my life? Why am I here?
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Why am I in ex church? Today? Was the deep
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search a soul searching moment that we all need? Yeah,
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it's because it is in this place that transformation happens.
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You know what transformation is? How many of you heard
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of this word repentance, repentance? Maybe act if you can
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you help me with this, Like, what do you understand
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by this word repentance? I know in church, you've heard
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of this term before. What is repentance? Who said that?
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Renew all of my okay lia, She went straight to
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the answer, the typical answer. Most of you would say,
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I feel sorry, right, I feel regret. I feel guilty
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about something and I say sorry about it. But that
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is not repentance. That is an emotional response. I don't
-
want you to have an emotional response to who God is. Remember,
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you understand with your mind. So the word repentance come
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from this Greek word called meta noeo meta noeo, and
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this word mata simply means change, change, Right, you know
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the word mata morphosis? Ah, you'll remember your science. What
-
is metamorphosis? Transform? What transform? The form? Right? The form
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of being a lover, a pupa to a butterfly. How
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many of you want to be butterfly? Some say no,
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I don't want to be a butterfly. So metamorphosis is
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a change of form. But meta noya means a change
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of your mind, a change of your thinking, a change
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of your perception. So when we repent, we are saying
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we are changing our mind. Do you see that we
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are changing our mind? So God wants to not just
-
change your heart. He wants to change your mind about
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who he is. Who is he really to you? Your mind,
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your mindset? Is he really your savior? And if he's
-
your savior? How do you live your life? Do you
-
live your life as you want? Or do you live
-
your life in gratitude? What is a response to a savior? Gratitude? Right?
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So do you live every day out of gratitude? Or
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are there many complaints? Do you see what I mean?
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How you there's a nate? Who Jesus is is how
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you will live your life? Right? What else? What else?
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Mata noia, Let's move on to the next part. So
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repentance is what Jesus was after when he first started
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his ministry. Do you know what Jesus? What was the
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first thing he started after when he started his ministry?
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What was the word that he used? Repent? He didn't
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say God loves you. He didn't say, you know, this
-
is my testimony, this is how we will share God
-
to others. Right, Yeah, God really loves you. You know
-
Jesus didn't say that the first thing he did. If
-
you read the Gospels, he says repent for the Kingdom
-
of God is at hand. So Jesus. What Jesus is
-
after is really a change of mind. Friends, how many
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of you are willing to change your minds? That's what
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repentance is, because when there's a change of mind, then
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there's a change of behavior. It all starts here, right,
-
don't get swayed by emotions and feelings. But who is
-
the Lord really to you? I'm gonna ask you this
-
question again. Who is Jesus to you? If it's just
-
your comforter and he is only that, then he just
-
comforts you and nothing else. Did you do? You know
-
what I'm saying? If you know him as a provider
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only as a provider, and if he withholds something, what
-
would you think about him? Right now? It's not holistic.
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Some of our mindsets about Jesus is not whole, Okay,
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So we want to get to a more whole understanding
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of who Jesus is, all right, So when you have
-
an encounter with the Lord, then there is a deep search,
-
there's a deep transformation, and there's a repentance. And I
-
think that's what Saul was going through in that three days.
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Three days he was just thinking everything that he thought
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about Jesus, and he had to reframe his whole point
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of thinking about who Jesus is, because what's gonna happen
-
after that? You think about it, What is going to
-
happen after this? You see? The thing is right. God
-
was interested not only in Saul, but he was also
-
interested in his other disciple called Anonius. Anonaius. Good guy,
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back guy, so far, good guy. Right? So what kind
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of change of mindset did he want to transform in
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Anonius as well? Let's read on Okay, let's read on
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X chapter nine. All right, so verse ten, are you
-
there with me? Vers? Ten? Now, there was a certain
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disciple at the name Ananaius, and to him the Lord said,
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in the vision Ananaius, And he said, here, I am Lord,
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So I don't know this is sir or Lord? It
-
should be Lord, right? And the Lord said to him,
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arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire
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at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.
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For behold, he's praying. So remember this bad mister Saul,
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who's coming to imprison all of us. And God is
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saying to one of us, hello, he's coming to you.
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He's praying. And in a vision he has seen a
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man named Ananaius, let's call him Alex now coming in
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and putting his hand on him, so that he might
-
receive his sights verse sitting. Then Ananaius answered, Lord, I've
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heard from many about this man how much harm he
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has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he
-
has authority from the cheap priests to bind all who
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call on your name. So at this point, do you
-
think Anonaius was four saul or not? Totally not right,
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He's totally against this guy. But the Lord said to him, go,
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for he is a chosen vessel of mind to bear
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my name before gentles, kings and the children of Israel. Well,
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I will show him how many things he must suffer
-
for my name's sake. Out do you want this anointing?
-
I saw it was a great apostle, right, And how
-
many of you want to receive this anointing? Because the
-
anointing is to suffer the wan Lah give it to Quancin.
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I think he can suffer well. Or Ellie, I think
-
she got a lot of four barons, long suffering, elish patience.
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And this was the plan. And do you know for
-
Ananias right, from a person who was like no God,
-
this guy is hopeless, beyond hopeless. There's nothing that I
-
want to do with him. And the moment the Lord
-
spoke about this guy, a prophecy over Saul. What the
-
an and Ias do verse seventeen. And Ananias went his
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way and entered the house, and laying his hand on him,
-
he called him enemy, Saul. No, what do you call him? Oh, brother,
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bra the bro, you're bro. The Lord Jesus has, who
-
appeared to you on the road as you came, has
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sent me so that you may receive your sight and
-
be filled with the Holy Spirit verse eighteen. Immediately say
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immediately that fell his eyes something like skills. And he
-
received his sight at once, and he arose and went
-
and was baptized. Do you see how the transformation happened?
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Transformation was going on for Saul as he was wrestling
-
with the Lord. Transformation had to happen to Annius to
-
go to friends. I think for some of us, right,
-
we need to go and be like an Annius to
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a Saul, someone who is struggling, who is persecuting Jesus.
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Would you go to them and say, yes, brother, yes, sister,
-
there is something greater for you. Right? And then he
-
was stilled with the Holy Spirit, and immediately his eyes
-
will open. I pray in the name of Jesus that
-
some of our eyes will be open this morning, because
-
our eyes are still blinded to who Jesus is. Yes,
-
you can be here, but our sight, our eyes, our
-
vision of who Jesus is is still blinded. And God
-
wants to remove that blindness, and it says he will
-
be filled with the Holy Spirit. We need more of
-
the Holy Spirit, and man in a moment's time, I'm
-
gonna open the altar, and I want to pray for
-
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because I realized that
-
without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, our eyes will
-
not be opened Amen, Verse nineteen. And when he had
-
received food and he was strengthened, then Saul spend some
-
days with the disciples at the Mascus and verse twenty.
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Immediately think about the change, think about the transformation. Immediately
-
he preached the christ in the synagogue that he is there.
-
Who's Jesus, Who's Jesus? Do you believe that? Do you
-
believe that he is the son of God? Do you
-
believe that as the son of God he has power?
-
Do you believe that as the son of God. He
-
is sovereign. Do you believe that as the son of
-
God he can break every yoke over your life? You
-
have to believe that, because otherwise you are just saying
-
he is the son of God, and then there is
-
no power, there is no transformation. The other thing I
-
want to bring to you is this word Lord. Have
-
you ever confessed Jesus as your lord? Because you know
-
it says in Romans ten nine, if you confess with
-
your mouth? What do you confess with your mouth that
-
Jesus Christ is Lord? Have you ever confessed that? Ess
-
you are? Or? What does lord mean? Firstly, if you
-
confess him as Lord means he is God of your life. Yeah,
-
he is God. He is sovereign, He's supreme, he's divine.
-
Second thing, if you confess him as Lord, you are
-
calling him Master. What is master? Master means not God.
-
You do what I tell you to do. Master means God.
-
I will do what you tell me to do. God,
-
you tell me what to do, I will do it. Master.
-
If Jesus is your master, how does a servant respond
-
to the master? How does a servant respond to a master?
-
You are constantly watching, You are constantly waiting on him.
-
You are constantly hearing one thing to hear God, What
-
is it that you are saying? How many of us
-
then live our lives with Jesus as our lord? You
-
know he can be your savior. You say, okay, God,
-
I have my ticket to heaven. Thank you for being
-
my savior. But you are not my lord. I will
-
still dictate my life. I will still spend my money
-
the way I want it. Getting very real. Now, how
-
do you spend your money? Did you ask God? How
-
do you spend your time? Do you say, God, I
-
have twenty four hours. How do you want me to
-
spend the time? Or do I do everything and then
-
liver left over? Leftover? Another l right? Is he left over?
-
Or is he lord? If his lord means he first,
-
he's first in everything. How many of us really really
-
have ever confessed that, God, Jesus, you are my lord,
-
and that means I will live my life in alignment
-
according to your word. Again, coming back to the word.
-
If we call him lord and we never open our Bible,
-
then that's not cutting it. Prince, then he is not lord.
-
La Whatever else that you hold in your hand all
-
the time is lord. And for most of us. I'm
-
guilty of it. It's our phone. Our phone has become
-
our Lord. True, not think about it. Think about how
-
much time you spend on your phone versus how much
-
time you spend with God. Do I need to argue
-
the case any further.
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We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more
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information on our church, please visit church dot org. We
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are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that
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this week is going to be a good week, a
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hit for you.
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God bless