Latest / Citipointe Church Caboolture / Formed, Not Just Informed | Ps Melanie Politanski

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Formed, Not Just Informed | Ps Melanie Politanski · Citipointe Church Caboolture

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  Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.
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  Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to
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  take hold of. So we hope this message inspires
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  you and build your faith. But it helps you have more of a
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  God perspective for your day. Enjoy get.
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  Myself set up, I'm going to make a confession.
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  Is that all right? No, nobody's ready for
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  confession. Our interns have been learning
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  in the last fortnight the power of confession and I'm not making
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  a confession on my husband's behalf who can make his own for
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  lying about coming out with $10. He can do that at the end of the
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  at the altar called of the service today.
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  I'm going to make my own confession because we're in a
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  theme right now called you plus me and ChatGPT.
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  All right, so I'm going to make a confession.
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  You ready all right I had some fun on ChatGPT this week who
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  else has had some fun on ChatGPT?
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  Who loves to ask chat all sorts of unusual things.
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  I'm making a confession today. I this week had some fun asking
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  some things of ChatGPT. And so I asked all sorts of
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  things things like help me understand and unusual Bible
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  passage. Who else?
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  Come on, confess right now. Who asked for some
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  interpretation from ChatGPT this weekend?
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  All right there we go Well done. You are forgiven.
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  You are forgiven. You are forgiven.
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  I am forgiven. Hallelujah.
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  All right, I I asked help me structure a really good preach
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  for this Sunday. No, I'm kidding right there.
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  People are like that's it. I'm out of here.
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  I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but truthfully, I asked
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  some really, really serious life things this week of ChatGPT
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  because I just who who just needs to know some things and
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  you need a real wisdom. Come on, come on.
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  I know there are others in the building who are like, I needed
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  some real wisdom. So this year, this week I asked
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  chat. All right, so this week I asked
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  chat because curiosity got the better of me.
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  I asked is there a correct way to fold a fitted sheet?
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  Some things are just too important not to research,
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  right? Well, apparently there is 4
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  pages of instruction, a number of key links.
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  Now you're all doing. I can see you, see you on
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  ChatGPT. Apparently there is a very
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  specific method, and apparently some people can do it really,
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  really well. And apparently those people do
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  not live in my house, but we live in incredible times and so
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  that information is right at our fingertips.
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  Politansky family you, me and chat chi BT you can ask chat
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  anything these days. I have had some fun over the
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  last number of months asking chat all sorts of incredible
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  things, like you can learn how to fix a washing machine even if
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  you're not a qualified electrician.
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  You can write an incredible speech that sounds like a
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  presidential speech. You can learn how to cook like a
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  chef. You can learn how to build a
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  business that will absolutely succeed, and you'll receive that
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  affirmation from chat. You could even learn, or it can
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  help you understand the theology of the Bible.
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  We are living today in the most informed generation in history,
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  yet at the same time we are living in one of the most
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  disconnected generations in history.
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  Why? Because information is
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  everywhere, but formation is rare.
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  Don't enter that into chat. You can tag Mel on insta.
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  Information fills our minds, but formation shapes our lives and
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  discipleship has never ever been about information.
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  It's always been about formation, and through our
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  Scripture, God uses a beautiful image to explain how He shapes
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  people. This is found for those of you
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  who take notes. You can have a lot of fun with
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  my message today. You can write the big letter P
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  right at the top of your page, and everything falls under that
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  today. All right, but throughout
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  Scripture, God uses a beautiful image to explain how He shapes
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  people. And I want to bring us to this
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  passage this morning and unpack this a little bit and what God
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  does in us to help form us into who He's created us to be.
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  Because here's news to some of us today.
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  You aren't right now who He has created you to be.
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  I say Amen too. We're in the stage of formation
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  to whom He has created us to be. It's not a done deal when we
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  were born with $10. He spends our life forming us
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  into the likeness of Him, which is so significant.
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  So I want to bring us around a passage in Jeremiah today,
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  Jeremiah 18, verse six. I'm going to give you a moment
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  to open your passages, open your Bibles.
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  Who's got a physical Bible in the building today?
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  I saw so many of my interns lifted up there, so proud, so
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  proud. Jeremiah 18, verse 6.
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  It's going to be on the screen. For those of you who do not have
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  your Bible here today, can I encourage you to bring your word
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  to the House of God? Bring it.
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  Test these messages through it, open it up, decipher it for
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  yourself. The Holy Spirit will help you.
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  Let this is what it says in Jeremiah 18 verse 6.
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  It says like clay in the hand of the Potter, so you are in my
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  hand. Clay does not shape itself.
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  Clay is shaped through pressure, through process and through
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  proximity. I told you there would be some
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  peas. You cannot shout instructions at
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  clay and expect it to change shape or change form or become
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  something beautiful. You've got to put it on the
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  wheel. You got to place your hands on
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  it because formation requires contact.
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  And This is why discipleship always requires relationship,
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  not just knowledge, not just information.
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  It requires you plus me. The problem with the with the
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  information age is this, let's be really honest, OK?
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  Many people today approach spiritual growth the same they
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  approach everything else. We consume information we
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  consume. Let's be really, really honest.
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  Maybe this is a confession moment for you too.
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  We consume podcasts, sermons or messages, books, YouTube,
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  theology, and none of those things I am saying today are
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  bad. But here's the problem.
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  You can consume hours and hours and hours and years of
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  information and still remain unchanged.
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  Because information does not shape us, vulnerability does.
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  Transformation happens when someone asks us individually
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  questions like how are you really doing?
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  Where are you struggling? Why are you drifting?
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  What has God highlighted to you through his word in this last
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  week? It's that kind of honesty that
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  we cannot we cannot have through a screen.
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  It happens in relationship. And so this morning I've titled
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  this message Formed not just Informed.
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  Formed, not just informed. God is looking for a church who
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  is formed, not just informed. Do you know this is because this
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  is the great pursuit of believers all around the world
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  as unity. This is how we come into unity
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  when each of us are being formed into the likeness of God.
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  We come together in like mindedness, like spirit.
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  When we are informed, we actually become separate from
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  one another. The truth is, is each of you
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  have your YouTube preferences and they are different from one
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  another. Some of you in the room like me
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  are like, I don't even like YouTube, right?
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  We each have our preferences or our opinions or our leans or our
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  bends to specific things. You know how those things are
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  formed through what is already in us.
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  We we get our relationships that way.
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  We find those that we want to do friendship with based on
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  likeness. Same, same, same spirit.
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  That's a real challenge to some of us in the room today who
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  might be married and they're looking at their spouses.
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  That's the problem. You chose them because you are
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  like them. Don't look at them and they're
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  the problem. You are them.
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  You are them. We actually choose this way.
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  We choose what we believe we're worth.
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  We choose same spirits. Most often we even choose.
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  It's crazy the way we're designed by God, but we often
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  even choose similar circumstances, right?
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  So then the trap in this is how do you grow when you're same
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  same, we need some same different iron sharpens iron in
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  and around our worlds church. We are not just here to inform
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  people. Even today.
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  This message will go up on podcasts, but it's purpose is
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  not to inform believers. It is to encourage and urge and
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  invite people to step into formation.
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  We are here to form people into the likeness of Jesus.
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  So because of this, here's the questions we're asking this
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  year. We're asking, is there not a
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  cause for each and every one of us to be formed?
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  Is there not a cause in Caboolture and Maury Fields and
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  a Limbaugh and all the surrounding regions so that
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  people there also have the opportunity to step into
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  formation, not information? Is there not a cause for the
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  people of our region, for our young people, not just our young
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  people in this House, but the young people of this district,
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  for the broken people in this region, for the people in our
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  city who are searching for hope? We're asking the question, is
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  there not a cause? Yes, there is a cause.
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  And that cause is people say people this morning the founder
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  of the Salvation Army had a slogan.
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  Maybe you know this, maybe some of you grew up in that
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  denomination of churches. And I love this statement.
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  Others. The mission and the vision for
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  the Salvation Army is others. When you look at that now,
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  whether you've been part of that or not, you can see what they
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  have done as a part of their churches and the missions of the
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  Salvation Army. Their entire structures,
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  systems, vision, everything funnels through others.
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  Very rarely do we hear about what's happening in the church
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  programs. We most often hear, even on the
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  news most nights of the week, the work they are doing for
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  others. The 'cause that you and I have
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  been called to is people. It's others and others being
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  transformed by Jesus Christ. So I want to just look at this
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  passage for just a minute more in Jeremiah.
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  I want to read just a couple of verses before because like
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  Jeremiah says like clay in the hand of the Potter, so you are
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  in my hand. But this is how it starts in
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  verse one. It says this, the Lord gave
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  another message to Jeremiah and he said go to the Potter's shop.
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  Go go to the Potter shop. He's telling Jeremiah I want you
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  to go to that place and I will speak to you there.
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  So I did, and he and as he told me to, and I found the Potter
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  working at his wheel, but the jar he was making oh so much in
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  this, but the jar he was making did not turn out as he had
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  hoped. So he crushed it into a lump of
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  clay again, and he started over. It goes on into the next verse
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  and says, Can I not do to you as this Potter has done to his
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  clay? As the clay is in the Potter's
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  hand, so you are in my hand like clay.
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  You and I are not shaped by information.
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  We are shaped by pressure, by process, and by proximity.
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  And if we're going to be formed into all that God has called us,
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  fashioned us, designed us to be, these same three things must be
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  present as the process of our lives.
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  So today I want to unpack these three things for us.
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  Pressure, process, and proximity.
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  The three ways that God forms us, three ways that we are
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  discipled into the nature and the person of Jesus Christ with
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  our life. So #1 pressure.
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  Hold on, it's going to be good, but pressure.
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  Pressure is what God uses to shape us.
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  Clay cannot be formed without pressure.
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  If the Potter does not apply pressure, the clay will remain
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  shapeless. It cannot contain anything
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  unless it has been formed into shape.
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  And you and I were called, were designed to carry the spirit of
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  the Lord, to carry fresh oil, to carry fresh wine.
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  But we are called by the Lord to come to the Potter's house and
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  allow how our lives to go on the Potter's wheel and be formed and
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  fashioned. Can I be real here for a second?
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  Our generation, and I'm not talking about our young
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  generation. In our generation, pressure is
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  something we are all trying to escape from.
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  Who can be honest in that? In every season, regardless of
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  whether you are a child or whether you are an older person
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  in this auditorium today, I know that pressure is something we
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  actually try to avoid in all its forms.
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  We do not like the pressure of hard work.
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  Most of us are chasing the next escape, the next downtime, the
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  next holiday. The most comfort.
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  We don't like pressure, but hard work feels like pressure.
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  We don't like wisdom. Come on, let's be real this
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  morning, wisdom is what? Pressure.
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  Wisdom challenges our preconceived ideas.
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  It challenges that we know all we should know, right?
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  Wisdom invites another voice into things, ideas that we have
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  preconceived and we've set. Wisdom is pressure.
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  That's why very few of us ask for it.
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  Very few of us go. I know you're actually an expert
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  in this field. Would you tell me what I don't
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  know? So I do this the best possible
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  way we go. I want what I want.
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  And so I'm not even going to invite that into my world
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  because it puts pressure on my preferences.
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  It puts pressure on my ideals. Pressure.
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  But God uses pressure to shape you and I not to harm us, but to
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  form us. I want to talk about a guy in
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  the Bible just to make this really easy for the note takers.
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  It's another Pi want to talk about a man that God formed and
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  his name is Peter. I want to look at this man for a
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  little bit because Peter, Peter experienced intense pressure.
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  One of the greatest moments of pressure in his life came the
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  night Jesus was arrested and he's standing around a fire,
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  which I think is a lovely place of comfort.
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  Anybody else got the fireplace is a place of comfort set in
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  their ideas right? Me too.
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  But people began to recognize Peter and said, aren't you one
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  of his followers, the man who is the spectacle right now, one of
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  the most public crucifixions that there was an innocent man
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  being taken to a cross. Now for a follower, an
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  acknowledgement of this could very well mean you're following
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  in his footsteps. If an innocent man is going to a
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  cross, is there any reason why Peter wouldn't process that?
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  If I acknowledge in this moment where there is pressure to be
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  honest, pressure to own my savior, pressure to speak up and
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  say yes, I follow Him, you and I are challenged to do this
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  everyday, pressure to say, Yep, I have chosen to follow him.
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  That is pressure from some of our families, pressure from some
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  of our friendships, pressure in our workplaces, pressure in our
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  world. And yet Peter finds himself in
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  this moment, standing by a comfort place, a place of
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  warmth. Are you not one of his
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  followers? And under pressure, Peter denies
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  Jesus not once, but three times. That pressure revealed something
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  in Peter, and this is what pressure does.
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  Pressure reveals something in you and I, and that revealing
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  process is vulnerable but necessary.
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  For Preeta, that pressure revealed fear, insecurity, self
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  preservation. And here's the truth.
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  Pressure doesn't create what's inside of us, it reveals it.
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  Stuff that's already there, stuff that we're trying to hide,
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  stuff that's hidden behind the surface.
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  Pressure reveals it. And This is why we need
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  discipleship. Because when pressure reveals
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  what is inside of us, we need somebody trustworthy who can
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  come and stand and walk with us to help us process it properly.
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  Someone who can say that's not who you were designed to be, but
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  let's step forward into who you were created to be.
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  That's not how God sees you. Let's have a look at how He sees
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  you and then let's walk in it. Let's walk this thing through
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  together and see healing and see strength.
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  So when pressure is applied, because we've not walked into a
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  life except in Christ and then walked out of pressure, pressure
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  comes, but pressure is good. It allows honestly those things
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  to come up. I like to say it's the Holy
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  Spirit revealing things in my life, things that he's like, I
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  want to put my finger on that. A little bit of pressure applied
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  and the surfaces is, aw, thank you that it came to the surface.
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  I want to clear that dross. I want to heal that.
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  I want to purify that. Give that to me.
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  And this is done as a part of our formation through pressure.
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  Without discipleship, pressure can break us, absolutely.
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  But with discipleship, pressure can form us.
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  Which brings me to #2 because this happens in a process.
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  So point #2 is process. God forms us over time.
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  He is not a microwave. He's a farmer.
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  That's why he did. There was.
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  I can't find. Now, correct me if I'm wrong,
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  Pastor John, you can tell me if I'm missing the microwave
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  passage, but I see a lot of farmer passages.
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  You think I'm on it? There is a process, there is
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  time involved in this. Clay is not shaped instantly, it
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  is formed slowly, carefully over time.
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  And it's the same with our lives.
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  God forms us through process. I want to talk about Peter again
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  because Peter did not become a bold leader overnight.
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  A brass one maybe, but not a bold one, right?
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  He walked through a process with Jesus while he walked with
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  Jesus. Let's talk about some of the
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  processes. He got things wrong, and he got
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  spoken to and corrected. In those moments.
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  One of the most confronting things I find about Peter's life
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  is that the Saviour of the world rebuked him.
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  And many, many times I have found myself in situations or in
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  moments and seasons where I too have been rebuked.
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  And each time the Holy Spirit has brought me back to that and
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  said and Peter continued to walk with the Lord.
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  I taught our interns last year one of the most powerful lessons
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  around Matthew 18 and just unpacking in theology, that
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  beautiful passage about if I know it's a party for a moment,
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  just to soften you up for Matthew 18 and if you know what
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  Matthew 18 is, maybe we needed that for a second.
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  That passage says if you have anything against anyone or other
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  translations said if a brother or sister has sinned against
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  you, right. Anything against anyone.
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  Now, anything against anyone covers a fence, right?
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  It it covers everything it covers.
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  I think they looked at me funny or they're not hugged me on
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  Sunday or they haven't called me in a while right through to I
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  think they told me a lie or they ripped me off.
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  They stole from me. They treated me poorly.
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  They abused me. Matthew 18 covers it all.
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  If you have anything against anyone, right?
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  I was teaching our interns about the process because there is a
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  godly process in how we do this. Just it's a whole nother sermon,
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  but it's definitely not talk to your neighbor to get wisdom
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  before you go and speak to them. It's not in there.
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  It says go to them, doesn't say to call a friend that's a
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  television show says go to them and talk about it with
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  reconciliation as the goal, with forgiveness as the goal, to talk
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  about it so that your relationship can be restored and
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  made whole and robust and more intimate and deeper.
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  As we were doing this particular passage, I thought I, I, I was
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  reminded all the time that Peter was rebuked by Jesus and he
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  didn't walk away from Jesus. Too many of us walk away or
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  retreat from relationship when we are given the gift of a godly
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  rebuke. And you know why?
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  It's 'cause it's foreign today, it's foreign to have somebody
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  tell us and I, I'm going to be really honest.
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  The older I get, the harder it is to be rebuked.
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  Anybody else with me on that? No being honest.
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  Thank you for being honest. The older it is often put on our
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  young adults because in psychology, and it is true, they
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  hit a stage of independence where they know it all.
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  I am kind of thinking now at 44, we don't grow out of it.
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  We keep pointing at our young adults and saying you wait, They
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  think they know it all, but they'll get some wisdom.
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  I'm yet to see it. We don't grow out of it.
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  We actually become more certain and less curious the older we
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  get. I find that Grey and I, as a
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  young couple, we used to fight over all the regular things.
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  You don't put your tail up, you don't do that and you know all
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  the things. Now it's the challenge of
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  curious and certainty. Do you have somebody who's
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  allowed to challenge your certainty stance and keep you
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  curious to learn, to grow, to remain on a Potter's wheel?
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  Because this happens in process. Peter is rebuked when he gets
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  things wrong. He speaks too quickly.
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  Come on for all of those in the room and go, yeah, that's me.
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  Speaks too quickly and then goes, we shouldn't swallow those
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  words, right? He misunderstood Jesus multiple
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  times and then he denies him. His most closest companion of
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  the discipleship relationships. This is the epitome Jesus and
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  Peter. And Peter denies him.
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  I don't even know him. No, I don't follow him.
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  But Jesus doesn't give up on him.
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  He keeps walking with him, teaching him, correcting him,
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  shaping him, forming him. One of the most powerful moments
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  of Peter's process is this. The night after sorry, the night
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  that he denied Jesus, Peter stood by a fire.
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  I'm not going to cry. But after the resurrection,
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  Jesus restores Peter beside another fire.
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  That detail is not accidental. Jesus brings Peter back to the
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  place of failure, not to shame him, but to restore him and
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  reform him. This is process.
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  God doesn't ignore our failures, church.
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  He also doesn't just move on from them, He redeems them.
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  And so maybe you've even heard the statement before that he
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  takes your background, the mountain.
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  He might be bringing you back to the fire, the place of failure,
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  so that he can redeem you, restore you, reform you.
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  This is why discipleship matters, because process takes
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  time and we need people who will walk with us, be patient with
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  us, remind us of truth, encourage us to keep going, and
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  yes, rebuke us. Discipleship says I'm not just
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  here for your highlights, I'm here for the process.
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  Which brings me to the final point this morning, and that is
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  proximity. Proximity formation happens up
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  close. Say up close.
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  If you're sitting beside somebody you really love this
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  morning, say up close. Just like that, Gray.
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  Don't do it, John. John, you do it with Rach.
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  Get it right. Otherwise there's going to be a
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  whole nother confession moment after this.
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  The right person up close, Clay must stay close to the Potter.
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  I feel like I just lost you. Gather on a Potter's wheel
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  again. Clay must stay close to the
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  Potter. If it moves away from his hands,
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  it cannot be shaped because formation requires proximity,
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  right? Jesus didn't disciple people
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  from a distance. He didn't say watch this from
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  afar or just come in one day a week and that's enough.
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  View it, consume it. He said come, follow me.
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  The disciples lived with him, walked with him, observed him,
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  and followed him. Because of this, they didn't
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  just get information, they caught something.
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  They caught who Jesus was. For all of the conversations
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  that Graham and I have had with our children over the last
• 35:44
  nearly 20 years of raising children, they do not do what I
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  say. Anybody else feel the same?
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  Who is spending way too long on a phone with a child at this
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  season? How do you lead them?
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  You follow the Lord, you continue to walk in His ways.
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  Don't deny Jesus at the fire. Acknowledge Him as your Lord and
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  Savior. You're not going to beat this
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  over your heads. They're going to see
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  transformation in your life and they're going to want to.
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  They're going to want to crave it, and they're going to want to
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  step into it because your life looks like victory.
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  I am so grateful for struggling parents who were incredibly
• 36:35
  broken, taking step after step after step after step into
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  victory and wholeness. Are they perfect?
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  No. Were the scars made on the way?
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  Yes, I'm so grateful for seeing and witnessing and catching that
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  God can form and transform somebody's life from brokenness
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  to ministry, from something that seems worthless to actually
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  having an incredible impact in the Kingdom of God.
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  I haven't been told it. I've witnessed it.
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  I've caught it, I've seen the process, I've watched the
• 37:23
  pressure, and I know God is faithful and he does what his
• 37:31
  Word says he can do. And the evidence is how they
• 37:36
  walk today. They might, like Jacob, have a
• 37:40
  limp, A scar that bears reminder of where they've come from, but
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  they are not the same. Is there anybody in this
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  building who craves that for their life, for their children's
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  lives, for their grandchildren's lives, for their great
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  grandchildren's lives, For the children of our community, for
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  the families of our community, for the adults of our community,
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  for the seniors of our community?
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  This is what God can do, but He does it up close.
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  It is court. Peters life was shaped because
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  he stayed close to Jesus. Even when he failed, even when
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  he got it wrong, he stayed in proximity.
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  He didn't retreat, he didn't hide.
• 38:38
  And that proximity is what allowed transformation to take
• 38:41
  place in his life. Why does this matter today?
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  Here is the challenge of our world.
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  We think we can grow spiritually at a distance from one another,
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  through content, through screens, through information,
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  even through large gatherings. But formation does not happen at
• 39:09
  a distance. It happens in relationship.
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  This is the tension of our time. We are living in a time where
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  people are talking AI about their deepest feelings and
• 39:23
  struggles. They're asking AI why am I
• 39:28
  lonely? How do I deal with my anxiety?
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  How do I get out of debt? And that tells you and I
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  something, something significant.
• 39:40
  People are surrounded by information but starving for
• 39:45
  connection. Church, this is where you and I,
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  you plus me, come in. Because the answer is not more
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  information. The answer is you and me.
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  I wonder if you would say that in faith this morning.
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  The answer is you and me. This is where it becomes really
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  personal for us as a church, because discipleship has always
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  had two sides. I need discipleship and I need
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  people who will help shape me. All right.
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  I need discipleship. I need people who will shape me.
• 40:23
  And you're ready. I am needed to disciple others.
• 40:30
  I need discipleship and I am needed to disciple others.
• 40:35
  There is someone behind you in their journey who needs what God
• 40:41
  has done in you for them to take their next step in their
• 40:45
  relationship with Jesus Church. This matters so much for our
• 40:49
  community. Caboolture does not need more
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  content. It needs more people who are
• 40:56
  formed, people who walk with others, disciple others, build
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  strong relationships, and bring hope into homes one person at a
• 41:08
  time. Because when discipleship
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  becomes normal in a church, say normal in a church, we're going
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  to step into the new normal. Transformation flows in a city.
• 41:25
  I wonder if you heard that? Transformation flows into a
• 41:31
  city. This is who we're called to be,
• 41:35
  a church where people are formed, where disciples are
• 41:38
  raised, where relationships are strong and robust and no one
• 41:45
  walks alone because the cause is far too great in our region.
• 41:51
  Is there not a cause? Yes.
• 41:56
  Come on, yes there is. And the cause is people, I want
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  to, for a moment, as we close this service today, I want to
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  just take us on a particular response moment.
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  So I'm going to ask in this house if each person would close
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  their eyes. And I want you to picture Clay
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  sitting beside the wheel. Some of you got great
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  imaginations. You've got it.
• 42:23
  Others are you going to have to work for this?
• 42:25
  That's OK. I want you to picture Clay
• 42:29
  sitting beside the wheel. It's close to the wheel, but
• 42:36
  it's not being shaped because it hasn't stepped on to the wheel.
• 42:45
  And today some of us are that clay, close to God, but not
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  allowing Him to shape us through relationships, through
• 43:04
  discipleship, to be formed into the likeness of Him.
• 43:11
  Some of us today need to step into discipleship.
• 43:19
  And that challenge is huge because for some of us, we've
• 43:23
  followed the Lord for many years, but we're beside the
• 43:28
  Potter. Potter's wheel.
• 43:32
  Some of us need to begin discipling someone else, but
• 43:41
  unlike Jeremiah, we don't answer the call to the Potter's shed to
• 43:46
  witness what God wants to do in somebody else's life.
• 43:53
  Church, we're not just here to be informed.
• 43:56
  We are here to be formed through pressure, through process,
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  through proximity, through relationships, through you plus
• 44:07
  me. So for just a second, we're not
• 44:10
  going to rush this, not going to distract it with something else,
• 44:13
  just you and God. Because this is this message is
• 44:19
  not something we just need to hear.
• 44:21
  It's something we got to respond to.
• 44:24
  I want you to picture that image again.
• 44:26
  Clay sitting beside the Potter's wheel, close but not being
• 44:31
  shaped, near but not surrendered.
• 44:38
  And I wonder how many of us in this room are close to God, but
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  we are not allowing Him to truly form us because we're formation
• 44:53
  requires something of us. It requires pressure, process,
• 45:01
  and proximity. It requires letting someone in.
• 45:05
  It requires vulnerability. It requires saying I don't want
• 45:09
  to just stay the same. So I want to ask you 2 questions
• 45:12
  today, and I want you to answer them honestly before the Lord
• 45:18
  number one. Who is shaping me?
• 45:23
  Who has permission to speak into my life?
• 45:27
  Who knows my struggles? Who is helping form me into the
• 45:33
  likeness of Jesus Christ? Or am I trying to do this alone?
• 46:00
  Question #2 Who am I shaping? Who am I walking with?
• 46:09
  Who am I encouraging in their day-to-day walk with the Lord?
• 46:16
  Who am I helping grow in their faith steps towards Jesus?
• 46:23
  Because there is somebody behind you on this journey who needs
• 46:29
  what God has done in you to be caught by them.
• 46:34
  So here's what we're going to do.
• 46:37
  If you're here today and you are saying I need to step onto the
• 46:39
  wheel, I need to be discipled, I need to allow God to shape me
• 46:45
  through relationship, or I know God is calling me to disciple
• 46:53
  someone else and I need to stop holding back and start investing
• 46:59
  in others, then I want you to respond in this moment, not for
• 47:03
  me, not for a moment in a service, but as a decision
• 47:10
  before God. And if either of those are you,
• 47:14
  I wonder if you would simply stand where you are, where it's
• 47:19
  time to step onto the Potter's wheel, where it's time to start
• 47:24
  discipling someone, would you just stand right where you're at
• 47:28
  in response to the Lord? It's a response that says, God,
• 47:33
  I'm stepping onto the wheel. I'm choosing formation.
• 47:37
  I'm choosing discipleship. I'm choosing you plus me.
• 47:44
  Let me pray for you this morning.
• 47:47
  Beautiful vulnerability, Father, you see every person standing
• 47:52
  up. You see the hunger, you see the
• 47:54
  surrender. And right now we place our lives
• 47:57
  in your hands as the Potter. Shape us, form us, use
• 48:03
  relationships to strengthen us, refine us and grow us.
• 48:08
  Give us the courage to be discipled and the boldness to
• 48:12
  disciple others. Let this church be a place where
• 48:18
  people are not just informed, but are transformed for the sake
• 48:24
  of our community, for the sake of your Kingdom, in Jesus mighty
• 48:30
  name, Amen. I thank you for your boldness
• 48:37
  and vulnerability. I wonder if everybody would take
• 48:39
  it.