Latest / Generations Church / The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 3B: Become Like Jesus | Andy Yeoh

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The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 3B: Become Like Jesus | Andy Yeoh · Generations Church

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Generation's Church podcast. We're so
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Speaker 1: excited to have you here today. It is our prayer
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Speaker 1: that God's word will inspire and help you grow in
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Speaker 1: your faith. Now let's get right into it.
0:21
Speaker 2: So the process of being formed. Next part is into
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Speaker 2: a person of love. Somebody say love, Amen, a person
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Speaker 2: of love? What is God forming us to become? What
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Speaker 2: kind of person? Successful person? Smart person? Ultimately, what's most
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Speaker 2: important in God's economy? Love? Love is the metric. Love
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Speaker 2: is the highest metric in the teachings of Jesus. Love
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Speaker 2: is the lip must test. Remember the passage? So what
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Speaker 2: in a betaphrase that so if you can sing, well, huh,
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Speaker 2: so if you can tell the future, so if you
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Speaker 2: have a big, big, fat heavy Bible. So if you
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Speaker 2: pray in kitchens version, so what if you can pleat
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Speaker 2: a job in that version? You know that passage? But
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Speaker 2: have not love? What's it telling us? It's telling us
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Speaker 2: everything is nothing if you don't have love. That's why
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Speaker 2: discipleship is God forming us into becoming a person of love.
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Speaker 2: Love is the true metric of spiritual maturity. Not how
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Speaker 2: much you read the Bible, not how much you pray,
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Speaker 2: how long you pray now don't now take this part,
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Speaker 2: take a clip and put it online like how people
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Speaker 2: do and take everything out of contact. Passed you pray
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Speaker 2: pos the Bible. Pro habits is not the end, but
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Speaker 2: we know happits. You don't get to the end. It's
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Speaker 2: understanding where the placements are. Love is the metric of
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Speaker 2: spiritual maturity. That means you are not spiritually mature because
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Speaker 2: through your Bible every day you're spiritual spristly mature because
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Speaker 2: you're a person of love. But at the same time,
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Speaker 2: you won't become a person of love if you don't
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Speaker 2: know your Bible. Every day. You see that you get
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Speaker 2: the two sets of the same coin out. So the
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Speaker 2: question is this a way to ask yourselves? Are we
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Speaker 2: become a personal love? Is am I becoming a person
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Speaker 2: of love to the people who know me best and
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Speaker 2: interact with most frequently. I go around the world, I
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Speaker 2: meet people. It's very easy for me to meet an
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Speaker 2: American pass. I say, pro I love you, and he
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Speaker 2: says back, I love you too. Man, You're so cool. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: approach you a gift. He's a T shirt. Oh wait, wow,
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Speaker 2: represent Generation's T shirt and he wears his GEN shirt
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Speaker 2: somewhere when he's preaching in passion conference and like, oh, bro,
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Speaker 2: I represented you, and I love you. I love you.
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Speaker 2: It's easy to love someone like that. That's not a
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Speaker 2: real test. The real test is the people who know
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Speaker 2: you best, your wife, your husband. I told you, I
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Speaker 2: get very nervous when I preach my own church. Actually,
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Speaker 2: there's two reason. Number one. The first reason is I
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Speaker 2: get to see you again next week, so you judge me.
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Speaker 2: I really I get nervous every time I preach. But
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Speaker 2: I get more nervous when I preach to you, guys.
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Speaker 2: Not as nervous. If I stand in front of thirty
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Speaker 2: thousand people and preach, preach, I don't see them again.
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Speaker 2: I don't have two But you, guys, I get nervous.
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Speaker 2: What's the second reason why I get nervous preaching to you?
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Speaker 2: My wife is here, my father in law is here.
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Speaker 2: They may or may not say to me, but I
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Speaker 2: like it or not. In the head, I'm thinking, you
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Speaker 2: say this, but you live like this. You say this,
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Speaker 2: you live like this. That's storial tests. Your children, your
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Speaker 2: GG members, if you interact with them frequently, are you
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Speaker 2: becoming a personal love to the people who know you best?
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Speaker 2: And you interacte with the most frequently. Are you really
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Speaker 2: easy to forgive the guy on the internet who says
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Speaker 2: something on your Facebook? Easy? Just brush it out to
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Speaker 2: block them. Forgive your husband, forgive your gig leader, or
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Speaker 2: know those around you all the time. This is a
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Speaker 2: Limus says, a true disciple is a loving person, even
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Speaker 2: with the people who know them best, the people you
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Speaker 2: cannot lie to, cheat, bluff, pretend. Ah, that's the test.
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Speaker 2: Even why if kids, coworkers, friends, People that interact with
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Speaker 2: your reactivity not proactivity, you know what that means. People
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Speaker 2: who are close enough to see your reactions, not your
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Speaker 2: pro actions. Not when you go on a date, your
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Speaker 2: first date, and you bring your best self, smell the
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Speaker 2: nicest dress, the nicest behavior. Oh, you know, you don't
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Speaker 2: fight in front of her. You smell good, you don't
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Speaker 2: say the wrong things. Hey, not that that. People who
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Speaker 2: can interact with your reactivity when you don't realize it
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Speaker 2: and you just lost your temper that one. But first,
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Speaker 2: as you talk about love, please, I'm not talking about
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Speaker 2: love like they define it in your love songs. Love
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Speaker 2: is defined by Jesus because love can mean lots of
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Speaker 2: different things to lots of different people, and a lot
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Speaker 2: of those definitions are not even close to what Jesus
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Speaker 2: means when he said, love your neighbor as yourself, love
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Speaker 2: your enemies. You know this Greek word stuff feeling your
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Speaker 2: eras when Jesus used the word, he said agape unconditional love. Amen.
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Speaker 2: And Jesus did not define love by a lexicon. He
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Speaker 2: didn't do like me, put up a slide and show
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Speaker 2: you some bunch of words. You know how, just defined
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Speaker 2: love by demonstration. Jesus defined love with his life, with
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Speaker 2: his death. John fifteen thirteen. Greater love has no one
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Speaker 2: than this, than someone who buys but their gifts for
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Speaker 2: their friends. Sometimes greater love no one in this? Then
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Speaker 2: somewhat celebrate your birthday and post it up online so
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Speaker 2: everyone can see where you went to eat. Has no
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Speaker 2: one in this? Then you know why I'm getting it.
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Speaker 2: Great love is no one and this the one who
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Speaker 2: lays down his life for his friends. Jesus didn't just
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Speaker 2: say it, he showed it. This is love. In other words,
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Speaker 2: love is defined by Jesus is self sacrificial. As I
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Speaker 2: study is I study all these things? Right? The world?
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Speaker 2: Guy is jumping at me now, don't know everything now connects.
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Speaker 2: You know why. You know why Jesus says, take up
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Speaker 2: your cross daily and all these things he said, you
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Speaker 2: put it all together. You're like, I get it, Jesus.
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Speaker 2: It may be hard, but at least I get it.
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Speaker 2: Love as defined by Jesus is self sacrificial, meaning, if
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Speaker 2: you really have love, we surrender to the good of another.
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Speaker 2: That's love. That is my actions, my non actions, my words,
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Speaker 2: my silence, all of that is for the good of another.
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Speaker 2: That's self sacrificial love. Love as defied by Jesus is
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Speaker 2: to will the good of another head of our own.
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Speaker 2: Not easy to accept and embrace this in the world
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Speaker 2: that tells us love yourself. But this is love as
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Speaker 2: defined by Jesus. And it's so easy to sometimes be
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Speaker 2: in a church. Probably you've probably been hurt before, traumatized before,
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Speaker 2: manipulated and abused before. I acknowledge those things have happened,
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Speaker 2: can happen, has happened. Yes, we get it, But it's
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Speaker 2: so easy for those of us. And I've been through
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Speaker 2: it too, But it's so easy for those of us
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Speaker 2: to go through something like that and then now turn
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Speaker 2: to the church as if you're not part of the church.
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Speaker 2: That's the whole other thing altogether. But to turn around
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Speaker 2: and point to the leader of the church, the institution
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Speaker 2: and say, hey, church is lover God is lover love me,
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Speaker 2: So don't scold me, don't disciplad me, don't ask for
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Speaker 2: more from me, because all love, Yes, love is kind,
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Speaker 2: love is patient, love is all those wonderful things. But
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Speaker 2: love is also self sacrificial. It's one of those paradogs
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Speaker 2: that we don't quite know how to explain, but we
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Speaker 2: know even we experience it. It's like love is free,
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Speaker 2: love doesn't judge, love doesn't clean us down. But no,
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Speaker 2: love is also changed. Love is also compelling. You mean
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Speaker 2: you can tell your wife I love you, so don't
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Speaker 2: expect me anything from me. I'll come home when I want,
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Speaker 2: I slip you whoever I want. I'll feed you what
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Speaker 2: I can. Can you say that, no? And if you
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Speaker 2: think of that love is pretty constricting, then you mean
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Speaker 2: I can only love one person? You mean I have
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Speaker 2: to be fitful. Isn't that quite constricting? Oh? Yes, but
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Speaker 2: that's love. Love is both free and also not. So
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Speaker 2: you can't just walk in and out of a relationship,
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Speaker 2: walk in and out of a commitment, and at your
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Speaker 2: convenience say he lover, no love is secrificial amen. Of course,
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Speaker 2: of course it's harder to love the people that you
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Speaker 2: see frequently and know you best because you can't lie
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Speaker 2: and she can't pretend. But the process of this apporship
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Speaker 2: is the process of being formed a partnership with God,
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Speaker 2: forming in us and us making us available to Him
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Speaker 2: into what type of person a person of love? Love
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Speaker 2: as defined by Jesus self sacrificial, both freeing, gracious, but
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Speaker 2: also restrictive. Love means I don't say certain things that
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Speaker 2: I don't do certain things. I don't cheat, I don't
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Speaker 2: betray you know what I'm saying. We have to live
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Speaker 2: with this tension, like it or not. For fourth part,
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Speaker 2: the process of being formed into a person of love?
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Speaker 2: What in Christ? This is one of the most important part.
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Speaker 2: You know. Without this part it just sounds like some
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Speaker 2: motivational talk. Really it can this can be a non
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Speaker 2: Christian meeting, and I can tell you, hey, it's a
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Speaker 2: process to be formed. You need to be formed, you
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Speaker 2: need to become a person of love. I don't have
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Speaker 2: to bring scripture makes sense, right, It's just a motivational,
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Speaker 2: positive tech talk. But we are Christians and were disciples.
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Speaker 2: We have to add this part being farmed into a
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Speaker 2: person of love in Christ. This part differentiates this talk
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Speaker 2: from every other talk, every other journey. This is not
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Speaker 2: self actualization. This is not becoming just any person. This
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Speaker 2: is not becoming your true self.
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Speaker 1: Be you.
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Speaker 2: Because everyone else taken. This is not that. This is
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Speaker 2: not becoming a good person. This is not becoming a
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Speaker 2: better version of you. Go someone else for that talk.
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Speaker 2: YouTube means plenty, But this is the world of God.
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Speaker 2: You are becoming like Christ. It's becoming like Jesus. So
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Speaker 2: if Jesus is not mean and he's not racist, you
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Speaker 2: don't get to be if you want to be like
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Speaker 2: Jesus because you remove this in Christ. But you can
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Speaker 2: be a person of love. You can be found and
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Speaker 2: be racist. You needed to move to a society that
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Speaker 2: accepts you. There once upon a time in a European
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Speaker 2: country where they wanted a form of society like this.
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Speaker 2: Blond hair, blue eye for asking this is the perfect race. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: you could live in a society and be fine. But
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Speaker 2: if you want to be in Christ, you don't get
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Speaker 2: to be because Jesus is not like this. Amen. It's
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Speaker 2: becoming like Jesus is becoming that person who is like
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Speaker 2: Jesus in God, in Christ. You can separate this. Ultimately,
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Speaker 2: the whole process of formation, the process of apprenticeship to Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Our role, how we set ourselves before God, is ultimately
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Speaker 2: to come deeper and deeper. I mean having deeper and
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Speaker 2: deeper layers of ourself, be in union with God and
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Speaker 2: surrender to God. You cannot bluff this, You cannot pretending this,
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Speaker 2: Raise hand, sing song, give tithe. All that is still external.
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Speaker 2: I can't see through that. God can see through that.
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Speaker 2: But a Christian disciples allows God to go deep, deep, deep, deep,
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Speaker 2: deep down to the motive, down to the very core
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Speaker 2: of you. Amen. You know, the ancient Christians long time
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Speaker 2: ago use this word called theosis. These days, if you
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Speaker 2: use this word, it can be very scary because we've
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Speaker 2: seen too many bad examples, so we don't want to
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Speaker 2: use this word anymore. But theosis, in other words, is
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Speaker 2: sort of like deification. Become a deity. Now you can
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Speaker 2: see why no want to Okay, okay, this is hero
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Speaker 2: it's divinization, becoming divine or this is not a real word,
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Speaker 2: but godification theo God says, process becoming like God. Theosis
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Speaker 2: is a transform transformative process whose aim is likeness to
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Speaker 2: or union with God. Becoming like God in God is
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Speaker 2: actually not a bad thing to become like God. Just
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Speaker 2: remember you are not God. But in English it's kind
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Speaker 2: of this word called godly. Be godly is the word.
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Speaker 2: Theosis is the transformative process of becoming like Jesus in Jesus.
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Speaker 2: And it's not a it's a concert that Jesus talks about.
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Speaker 2: For example, I and the Father are one. But if
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Speaker 2: I do tim even though you don't believe me, believe
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Speaker 2: the works that you may know and understand that the
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Speaker 2: Father is in me and I in the Father. This
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Speaker 2: is all theosis, becoming like God in God. For you
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Speaker 2: die to this life and your real life is hidden.
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Speaker 2: With Christ in God, you no longer live. You are
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Speaker 2: not you anymore. You want to be a Christian, you died,
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Speaker 2: Your life is now he done. So it's not about
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Speaker 2: your ambition, your dream, your vision. We get this. Our
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Speaker 2: lives are hidden. It's not about you. So to be
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Speaker 2: godly is to be God like everybody, okay, and to
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Speaker 2: be godlike. So a godly person is a god like person.
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Speaker 2: So a Jesus lee person is to be a Jesus
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Speaker 2: like person. That's what we're trying to be. And friends,
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Speaker 2: this does not come just through self discipline. You cannot
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Speaker 2: self discipline your way to becoming godly. Again, don't take
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Speaker 2: that our context. I'm not saying therefore self discipline is
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Speaker 2: not needed. Self discipline is a means to an end.
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Speaker 2: You need it to get to the end. But the
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Speaker 2: end is to become like Christ. The end goal is
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Speaker 2: to become a person of love in Christ. Remember that.
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Speaker 2: So therefore, the measure of spiritual maturity is not how
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Speaker 2: discipline you are. It's not how much you have read
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Speaker 2: the scripture. It's not how often you go to church.
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Speaker 2: It's not how much you know of the Bible. That's
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Speaker 2: not the measure. Although those things are a means an end.
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Speaker 2: I feel like I'm repeating myself a million times. But
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Speaker 2: all those disciplines are important, while gret necessary since missing
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Speaker 2: the end. The end goal is to become a person
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Speaker 2: of love in Christ. This happens through a deepening union
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Speaker 2: with God and surrender to God. Someone smart say this
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Speaker 2: discipleship as a lifelong process of deepening surrender to Jesus.
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Speaker 2: The more you surrender, the that means. I presimply the
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Speaker 2: less life is about you, what you want, what's important
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Speaker 2: to you. And I'm not even scolding. I'm saying like
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Speaker 2: I'm speaking to myself because even pastes sometimes I have
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Speaker 2: our dreams, write a book, club, ministry, start a website
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Speaker 2: like endo dot com. The more you surrender, the more
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Speaker 2: it becomes not about yourself, the more god like you
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Speaker 2: will be. So discipleship is a lifelong process. It takes
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Speaker 2: your whole life to do this of deepening surrender following
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Speaker 2: Jesus over a lifetime requires layers after layers of surrender.
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Speaker 2: Emen every day, every week, every month, we surrender more
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Speaker 2: and more. So the process of being formed into a
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Speaker 2: person of love in Christ. In summary, there's two parts.
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Speaker 2: Involves two things our responsibility and God's responsibility. What's our heart?
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Speaker 2: But this victory practices that we engage active formation. You
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Speaker 2: can right prayer, worship, serving, loving your neighbor, and then
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Speaker 2: God's sovereignty, submission and surrender to his work. Potter and
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Speaker 2: the Clay. Passiveformation is God working in us, and he
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Speaker 2: does it through circumstances, sometimes suffering pain relationships. He uses
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Speaker 2: your commitments to form you. Your fidelity. Your commitments are oh,
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Speaker 2: I marry one wife and he tests that, He uses
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Speaker 2: that to form you into a person. Commitments can be marriage, work, ministry, friendship.
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Speaker 2: These things are and this is enter into our lives
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Speaker 2: and it may sometimes discomfort us, but what they're doing
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Speaker 2: is God is using them to form in us and
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Speaker 2: form us into a person that Jesus wants us to be. Amen,
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Speaker 2: and different people need different emphasis. Some of you are
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Speaker 2: just chilling and wondering why you're not going spiritually. You
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Speaker 2: need to be reminded you have a part to play,
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Speaker 2: and then there are dose of us here. Pray pray, pray, fast,
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Speaker 2: fast fast, nothing's happening. You have to be reminded it's
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Speaker 2: not about you. God is doing something. So the primary
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Speaker 2: question we have to ask ourselves is how do I
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Speaker 2: make deeper and deeper parts of myself and more and
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Speaker 2: more of myself open and available to God and his grace.
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Speaker 2: Can God touch your money? Can God touch your time?
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Speaker 2: Can God touch your love life? You can feel in
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Speaker 2: the blanks. You've heard messages before. I don't have to
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Speaker 2: do this, but what I'm trying to tell you is
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Speaker 2: how can you make deeper, deeper parts of yourself? How
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Speaker 2: can you make more and more of yourself available to God.
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Speaker 2: Because if there's some areas God cannot touch, we are
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Speaker 2: not being formed into a person of love in Christ.
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Speaker 2: Amen our participation. Let's talk about our part. Our part
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Speaker 2: is spiritual for how how do we do this? So next, remember,
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Speaker 2: formation is going to happen to you regardless, but formation
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Speaker 2: into the image of Jesus requires intentionality. Let's talk about
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Speaker 2: the theory of change. We have to give thought to
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Speaker 2: this thing called theory of change. What is it? Theory
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Speaker 2: of change is essentially a comprehensive description and illustration of
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Speaker 2: how and why a desire change is effected to happen
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Speaker 2: in a particular context. Okay, blah blah blah blah blah. Basically,
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Speaker 2: you want to change, How do you change that? Theory
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Speaker 2: of change? You want to grow slim? I want to
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Speaker 2: change from big to slim. What is your theory of change?
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Speaker 2: How do you get from big to slim? How do
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Speaker 2: you think you do that? How do you think you
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Speaker 2: do that? Is it dire thing? Is it exercise? How
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Speaker 2: many times I did you all that? That's theory of change.
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Speaker 2: Everyone has a theory of change. Everyone does because everyone
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Speaker 2: is changing. You have a theory of change. Where do
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Speaker 2: you realize you you do? The issue is, The issue
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Speaker 2: is a lot of our theories of change are unconscious,
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Speaker 2: not conscious. You don't know your theory change. You're not
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Speaker 2: aware that you believe this is how change happened. But
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Speaker 2: you're doing it anyway, are you in? You changing every day? Yes,
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Speaker 2: you have a theory of change. You are changing, You're
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Speaker 2: just not conscious how it happens. Okay, everyone has some
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Speaker 2: kind of mental map, some kind of theory about how
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Speaker 2: we change to become a different kind of person, whether
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Speaker 2: that's applied to athletics, your fitness, your health, your career,
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Speaker 2: your marriage, or to disciple ship. You have a theory
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Speaker 2: of change. So most of us, most people are who
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Speaker 2: are Christians, we have some working model roughly right you
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Speaker 2: roughly like, Okay, I just became a Christian. Now I
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Speaker 2: read Bible more. Now last time, I'm not very regularly.
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Speaker 2: Just so now I come to every Oh that's what
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Speaker 2: I see it at the back, Now I see it
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Speaker 2: in front. All those are theory of change. You think
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Speaker 2: that's how you change to become whatever. You won't think
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Speaker 2: you're trying to become. The thing is a lot of
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Speaker 2: it is unconscious. It's not intentional. You just it's just
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Speaker 2: winging it, just letting it happen. So I'm inviting us,
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Speaker 2: encouraging us. Don't let it be unconscious. Be conscious, Know
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Speaker 2: what your theory of change is, know how you change
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Speaker 2: and how you're being formed, and be intentional about it.
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Speaker 2: Otherwise you just become whatever we want to become. Like Jesus, Amen,
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Speaker 2: a lot of us never really thought about our theory
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Speaker 2: of change that deeply, just kind of have these assumptions
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Speaker 2: that we live by. We never seriously question it. And
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Speaker 2: some of it's deeply flawed. It actually does not work,
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Speaker 2: or it's actually turning us to a worse person. A
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Speaker 2: lot of it is haphazard, not intentional. At hoc, someone
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Speaker 2: says something to do, Hey, you know what, you know
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Speaker 2: how you can lose weight? Take gully. The suddenly you you,
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Speaker 2: oh no, the garlly, Hey garlic you can garlic, cannot
23:04
Speaker 2: must take sugar, fight fire away fire, Oh yes, sir.
23:08
Speaker 2: Then you suddenly oh not the sugar. This is our
23:11
Speaker 2: lives are same thing Christianity. Someone gonna tell you, hey,
23:15
Speaker 2: no need to pray in tangue tongues are is optional.
23:19
Speaker 2: Then you become a non tongs person. Then suddenly you
23:22
Speaker 2: go to some big conference tongues are will change your life.
23:25
Speaker 2: Then you come back tung tangkas all the way. Hey,
23:27
Speaker 2: why are we like that? Hap hazard this next part?
23:35
Speaker 2: Please listen with a pure open heart. Okay, it's shocking,
23:41
Speaker 2: sometimes surprising even how much how much intention, discipline, time,
23:51
Speaker 2: planning some people put into their careers, their fitness, their health,
24:01
Speaker 2: raising their kids, hobbies. Please listen. I'm not knocking it.
24:08
Speaker 2: I am doing it too. I wake up in the morning,
24:10
Speaker 2: I run five km every morning. I do it. I'm
24:13
Speaker 2: just noticing that as human beings, we do put intentions, discipline, time,
24:20
Speaker 2: planning details into things. Amen. I won't mention name, but
24:27
Speaker 2: someone told me when his wife got pregnant. You know
24:30
Speaker 2: what he did. He committed to sleep only four hours
24:35
Speaker 2: a day and wake up every two hours to get
24:38
Speaker 2: used to the rhythm the moment. If I am I
24:42
Speaker 2: worst pregnant, he said, you know what, I'm gonna do this,
24:44
Speaker 2: and he did it. Hey, all of you are capable able.
24:52
Speaker 2: We've seen it. I've seen how some holidays are planned.
24:56
Speaker 2: By the way, if you're going to Taiwan, Osaka Ato,
25:00
Speaker 2: Hong Kong, ask me for my itinery I can give
25:05
Speaker 2: you free. The itery is so detailed. You will tell
25:08
Speaker 2: you what time the train will arrive at what station,
25:11
Speaker 2: and how much and how long you will take to
25:12
Speaker 2: get to the next Marcan place, and at that place,
25:15
Speaker 2: how much doo doodles will cost you, so you can
25:18
Speaker 2: budget before I take all the credit. I reprepare it
25:22
Speaker 2: someone in my family did, mm hmm, but yes, yes,
25:32
Speaker 2: So people can be very intentional. See, I'm not saying, hey,
25:37
Speaker 2: why are you Christiana? Don't spend more time on your
25:39
Speaker 2: running now, don't spend more time on your computer. I'm
25:41
Speaker 2: not saying that because if I say that, I have
25:44
Speaker 2: to stop too. I run, I play games, I watch football.
25:51
Speaker 2: The point is we can and imagine you put the
25:56
Speaker 2: same discipline, intentionality, planning detail into your spiritual life. You
26:09
Speaker 2: plan what time to get out of your house to
26:11
Speaker 2: get to work on a particular time. What if you
26:14
Speaker 2: plan what time you woke up so that you can
26:17
Speaker 2: get one chapter in? If that's what you're aiming for,
26:22
Speaker 2: Because most of us do this, you know what, Tomorrow morning,
26:24
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be spech. I'm gonna be one chapter. But
26:26
Speaker 2: you give yourself only three minutes between waking up and
26:30
Speaker 2: getting out of the house. How to read one chapter
26:32
Speaker 2: not practical. It's not gonna work. So if you want
26:36
Speaker 2: to read one chapter, I'm not saying you must, But
26:38
Speaker 2: if you want to, then you can time yourself law
26:42
Speaker 2: and say, oh, therefore I have to wake up at
26:44
Speaker 2: this time, and then I have to appropt my tea.
26:46
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do that. I can get what chapter in
26:52
Speaker 2: the same thing you do with your runs and your
26:54
Speaker 2: gym and your sports and your meals and your diet
26:57
Speaker 2: and your holiday and your how you plan to get
27:00
Speaker 2: the girl. I talk to lots of young people, bro.
27:05
Speaker 2: They plan the conversation, after the conversation, after the conversation,
27:11
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say that. But before I say that, but
27:13
Speaker 2: say this first name. We had a conversation aiden, didn't
27:16
Speaker 2: we about where to go on first dates? Didn't we
27:22
Speaker 2: say go mama or the second date? Not the first
27:25
Speaker 2: date because first day won't impress her. Take me to Hamma,
27:28
Speaker 2: but you take her to second day so that you
27:30
Speaker 2: bring her back down to earth. Right, That's what happened
27:35
Speaker 2: YouTube about friends Mama, second date, first date, can can, don't,
27:40
Speaker 2: don't be too impressive, impressive up a second day bring
27:44
Speaker 2: her back down to earth. Hey, this real life. Ah,
27:47
Speaker 2: we do this, we plan, we organize. Hey, use the
27:51
Speaker 2: same intention, discipline, fervency into your spiritual life, and guess
27:57
Speaker 2: what you'll become a man. Because too many of us
28:02
Speaker 2: Christians are just winging it. I just wake up and
28:07
Speaker 2: see what happens. I just pray in tongues a few
28:10
Speaker 2: seconds and see that. Maybe called removema, maybe go removela.
28:14
Speaker 2: Today I opened by and see what's going to jump?
28:16
Speaker 2: And me like jump in me? Hey, I know love.
28:18
Speaker 2: We hear stories before. What the day I opened the
28:20
Speaker 2: pipeline and whah the first book to me? Man, sure
28:24
Speaker 2: very good, I know it can happen. What happened to
28:25
Speaker 2: me before? Too? How many times? Huh? How many times
28:28
Speaker 2: in your thirty years? Christians? A journey jump? You know?
28:32
Speaker 2: Most of the time it's just read and then ten
28:35
Speaker 2: years later you realize you read something that will help you.
28:39
Speaker 2: Now it's a deposit. You know, if you don't put
28:43
Speaker 2: money in your bank, how to withdraw money later? You
28:51
Speaker 2: have to put in. You have to deposit first so
28:55
Speaker 2: that when you need it you can withdraw, not when
28:58
Speaker 2: you need to withdraw. You realize I am because I
29:00
Speaker 2: never read my Bible, I never prayed, I never had
29:03
Speaker 2: a relationship with God. Right deposit then withdraw. So I'm
29:08
Speaker 2: not asking us to habit stack. It's not about habits
29:12
Speaker 2: is a means to an end. So there is a
29:15
Speaker 2: measure of intentionality that we need to bring into apprentice
29:19
Speaker 2: apprenticeship with Jesus. Amen. Next, don't kip this wine. You
29:24
Speaker 2: know why you spend so much time on your wedding,
29:26
Speaker 2: on your vacation, on your career, on your fitness. You
29:28
Speaker 2: know why? Because the matter it matters to you. A
29:33
Speaker 2: few weeks ago at hyper pressure. That's why. No, I'm
29:36
Speaker 2: running like better better it prop supplements every morning, twelve bills.
29:42
Speaker 2: Why why my health matters? It matters. So nothing wrong
29:47
Speaker 2: with that, do it, go ahead. But discipleship matters to
29:52
Speaker 2: your spiritual life also matters. Next, life matters, discipleship matters,
29:58
Speaker 2: level of intentionality, detailed discipline matters, eat matters, your listenally
30:04
Speaker 2: we got matters. So make sure your theory of change,
30:10
Speaker 2: how you change. So if I'm gonna lose weight, I'm
30:13
Speaker 2: gonna do this, do this, do this. If I'm gonna
30:16
Speaker 2: become a person of love in Christ, I'm gonna do this,
30:20
Speaker 2: do this, Do this, some simple things I've started. Just
30:23
Speaker 2: when I wake up in the morning, the first thing
30:25
Speaker 2: I look at is verse Scripture. I don't know if
30:30
Speaker 2: there's some magic in it, psychosomatic or whatever, but I
30:34
Speaker 2: experienced change in myself, even physical change. I told you
30:37
Speaker 2: last week. I now wake up with no headaches. I
30:40
Speaker 2: used to wake up with headaches. I don't I can't
30:42
Speaker 2: explain this. The only thing that I've changed now is
30:44
Speaker 2: I wake up earlier and I look at scripture first. Now,
30:48
Speaker 2: if you do the same thing, suddenly, suddenly your head
30:51
Speaker 2: will grow and you go, no, heir, I don't know.
30:53
Speaker 2: Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I don't know. Try
30:56
Speaker 2: What I know is it will have an effect. It
31:00
Speaker 2: will have an effect. Amen, So make sure your theorial
31:03
Speaker 2: change is conscious, not unconscious, intentional, has it, because otherwise
31:08
Speaker 2: we will be ineffective rather than transformational. Amen. If we're
31:13
Speaker 2: going to think deeply, carefully, slowly about how we are formed,
31:19
Speaker 2: can I introduce to you there are four forces of formation,
31:23
Speaker 2: four things that formed us the form us. Okay. This
31:27
Speaker 2: is compiled over hundreds and thousands of studies, both in
31:31
Speaker 2: the spiritual world and the psychological world, and most were
31:35
Speaker 2: they will all agree hundred percent, but most will agree
31:38
Speaker 2: around these four things. These four forces form us as
31:41
Speaker 2: human beings. Number one, the stories we believe narrative. If
31:47
Speaker 2: you want to be a Christian, you can talk about
31:49
Speaker 2: what is your belief, your faith, those things are, but
31:51
Speaker 2: basically the stories you believe, your narrative, or another word
31:56
Speaker 2: is mental maps. How does the your brain works? What
32:01
Speaker 2: you believe about life and things. What we think matters,
32:08
Speaker 2: meaning what we believe to be good and beautiful and
32:12
Speaker 2: true matters. Okay, for example, let's use an example money.
32:17
Speaker 2: The stories you believe about money will form you. So,
32:22
Speaker 2: for example, if you believe something like the narrative narrative
32:25
Speaker 2: is more money, more happy. That's a narrative. That's a
32:31
Speaker 2: story about money. And if you believe that, guess what
32:34
Speaker 2: you will be. You will be chasing for more money
32:37
Speaker 2: because you believe that to have more money, I will
32:39
Speaker 2: be more happy. So then you become that kind of person.
32:43
Speaker 2: You shap your life, detail your life, plan your life,
32:45
Speaker 2: schedule life so that you can get more money so
32:47
Speaker 2: you can be more happy. Right, that's a story we believe. Now,
32:51
Speaker 2: Jesus's view of money is very different than that He
32:55
Speaker 2: didn't say more money, more happy. So if you adop
33:00
Speaker 2: Jesus's story of about money, then you become the kind
33:05
Speaker 2: of person money is to be a blessing, and so
33:09
Speaker 2: you live your life that way. You get what I'm saying.
33:12
Speaker 2: What you believe to be good, to be true, to
33:16
Speaker 2: be beautiful, that matters. You can replace money with anything else. Time.
33:27
Speaker 2: What do you believe about time? Success? What is success
33:32
Speaker 2: to you? What you believe will form you? Love self?
33:39
Speaker 2: Number one of the stories we believe. Number two, our habits.
33:44
Speaker 2: These are four forces that form us. Yeah, stories, we
33:47
Speaker 2: believe our habits. Your habits will form you. So what
33:51
Speaker 2: we think matters this one. What we do matters. The
33:54
Speaker 2: things we do on a regular basis do something to us,
33:58
Speaker 2: Your habits will form you. This is both scientific and
34:02
Speaker 2: also spiritual. It's how God created us to be. We
34:07
Speaker 2: respond to our habits the power of habit. Amen. That's
34:13
Speaker 2: why I was spiritual. Disciplines are just a means when
34:15
Speaker 2: and it has an effect on us. It's still habits.
34:18
Speaker 2: It's still disciplines. But we're not just talking about the
34:21
Speaker 2: habits that you do, like read your Bible walk. Remember
34:24
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago with talk about the habit of
34:26
Speaker 2: your mind, where your mind goes when for example, when
34:29
Speaker 2: you're bored, where there's a mind goal, that's a habit.
34:32
Speaker 2: Some people when they're borught they go to pawn. That's
34:35
Speaker 2: a habit. So when they're angry to go to like
34:38
Speaker 2: how to plan your demise, that's a habit. And we
34:43
Speaker 2: need to renew our mind. You know. Our habits also
34:47
Speaker 2: reveal the stories we believe, meaning we can look at
34:51
Speaker 2: each other's habits and kind of tell what stories we
34:54
Speaker 2: believe in our head. So if I see your habits
34:56
Speaker 2: towards money, I can tell the story you believe out money.
35:00
Speaker 2: So your habits show what your most value and what
35:03
Speaker 2: your most love. Do you need to pretend how you
35:07
Speaker 2: wake up in the morning, how you go to bed,
35:09
Speaker 2: how your response, the situations, all of that show for
35:12
Speaker 2: your most value or your most love. In fact, you
35:15
Speaker 2: will inform you too. You realize, oh, I didn't know
35:17
Speaker 2: I love this as much. Stories we believe our habits.
35:20
Speaker 2: Number three our relationships. We are formed by our relationship.
35:26
Speaker 2: Relationship matters. You become like the people you're with. You'll
35:31
Speaker 2: dress like them, think like them, vote like them, act
35:34
Speaker 2: like them, talk like them. It just happens. We are
35:39
Speaker 2: all deeply relational beings and this is not a bad thing.
35:44
Speaker 2: It is a good thing. We are made for relationships.
35:47
Speaker 2: But because it's a good thing, it is very easily
35:51
Speaker 2: manipulated by evil. Evil will use the power of relationships
35:56
Speaker 2: to mess you up. There are a lot of good friends,
36:00
Speaker 2: but they are bad ones too, and you will become
36:04
Speaker 2: like them. This is why we believe that discipleship has
36:10
Speaker 2: to be relational, not programmed, not class. It has to
36:14
Speaker 2: be relational, but relationships have to be healthy, otherwise easily manipulated.
36:21
Speaker 2: You mix with a bunch of friends who don't pray
36:23
Speaker 2: when have problems, you will not pray when hes problems,
36:27
Speaker 2: because then you will adopt the story they believe in
36:30
Speaker 2: and start to have the rooting they have. So oh,
36:33
Speaker 2: whenever you get your friends ok, proma, heye see the
36:36
Speaker 2: bamona o proma, talk to your bossona. That's the habit.
36:39
Speaker 2: You become like them. That's what distress realiities that put you.
36:42
Speaker 2: Has to be a relational, but relationship have to be healthy.
36:45
Speaker 2: You need to learn to recognize if the community with
36:48
Speaker 2: is healthy for you or not. We want healthy relationships,
36:52
Speaker 2: healthy community. We need to be very intentional about who
36:56
Speaker 2: we are in relationship and in community with We need
37:00
Speaker 2: to watch what type of person we are becoming by
37:04
Speaker 2: looking at our community. Can I ask you some questions
37:07
Speaker 2: to check yourself? Are you becoming more hateful, hurtful, more complaining,
37:13
Speaker 2: more murmuring, more gossiping, more bread biting, envious, bitter, angry, mistrusting, insecure, stingy,
37:23
Speaker 2: selfish or sinful? First place, you look at your friends.
37:28
Speaker 2: If you mix a bunch of friends and complaining about
37:30
Speaker 2: the government all the tim how long can you last
37:32
Speaker 2: that without complaining, You're really gonna sit there for the
37:34
Speaker 2: next five years, you become. It's just what happens. Don't
37:40
Speaker 2: fight it, It's what happens. Change groups. That's what you
37:43
Speaker 2: can do. Oh hey, friend, Are you becoming more loving forgiving,
37:49
Speaker 2: more joyful, more helpful, more selfless, more sinless, more humble,
37:54
Speaker 2: more gracious, more hungry for God, more holy, more flul
37:58
Speaker 2: of the spirit? Watch yourself? Number four our experiences. We
38:04
Speaker 2: are formed by the stories we believe. We are formed
38:06
Speaker 2: by our habits, We are formed by our relationships, and
38:09
Speaker 2: we are formed by our experiences. That means what you
38:13
Speaker 2: experience in life. Now this one in particular, especially our
38:17
Speaker 2: experiences with pain and suffering. That's why God allows it
38:24
Speaker 2: because nothing form you more than the pain and suffering
38:27
Speaker 2: you go through. Pain and suffering can be either God's
38:30
Speaker 2: open door to healing and transformation. You can see that
38:33
Speaker 2: way the story you believe about pain and suffering. When
38:36
Speaker 2: you experience pain and suffering, what do you believe about
38:38
Speaker 2: these are? There is God juchment these are or you
38:40
Speaker 2: believe wow, God must be doing something in me. It
38:44
Speaker 2: can either become an open door to God's healing and
38:46
Speaker 2: transformation or an open door to lies the seat, bitterness, wounding, trauma,
38:54
Speaker 2: et cetera. So think about these four forces in your life. Stories,
38:57
Speaker 2: you believe, your habits, your relationships, we experiences. Listen, Yeah,
39:04
Speaker 2: none of you are blank slates. You don't come into
39:07
Speaker 2: this world blank sheet. All spiritual formation in the way
39:14
Speaker 2: of Jesus is actually counter formation. Because you're born to
39:19
Speaker 2: this world with sin, you're already deformed. We all start deformed,
39:29
Speaker 2: so we need to be formed counter form. Even if
39:34
Speaker 2: you got safe today, you're already deformed by sin, so
39:39
Speaker 2: we need to counter form. You need to change the
39:43
Speaker 2: stories you used to believe. You need to change your habits.
39:47
Speaker 2: You need to change your relationships even for some of you.
39:49
Speaker 2: And you need to look you have a new way
39:51
Speaker 2: of looking at your experiences. So I end with this.
39:56
Speaker 2: We need to learn to push back. We need to
39:58
Speaker 2: push back in at least three of the four forces
40:02
Speaker 2: intentionally push back. So Number one story stories we believe.
40:06
Speaker 2: We need to push back against the stories we believe
40:09
Speaker 2: with the Truth of Jesus. Whatever you believe that it's
40:12
Speaker 2: not true, now you get to push it back with
40:15
Speaker 2: the world of God. Someone tells you money is everything.
40:17
Speaker 2: You say, none is not everything. You can have got amendment. See,
40:20
Speaker 2: now you know what The Word of God is so important.
40:22
Speaker 2: We need to push back the stories the world tells
40:25
Speaker 2: us with the truth of Jesus. Number two, we push
40:28
Speaker 2: back on our habits with practices of Jesus or spiritual disciplines.
40:34
Speaker 2: Your habit is to complain, but then you learn a
40:37
Speaker 2: new habit to bless and be encouraging. You get I'm
40:40
Speaker 2: saying your deformed hapbit is to be lazy. But you
40:43
Speaker 2: push back and say, you know what, I'm gonna wake
40:46
Speaker 2: up at a certain time. I'm gonna do this. We
40:48
Speaker 2: need to push back because this is our part. Number three,
40:52
Speaker 2: we push back against unhealthy relationships with godly community. Nobody
40:58
Speaker 2: needs to be perfect, but your friends need to be godly.
41:01
Speaker 2: We all need to be on this journey. Amen. Are
41:04
Speaker 2: your friends also trying to be more patient? Are your
41:08
Speaker 2: friends also trying to be more prayerful about things? So
41:13
Speaker 2: we push back? Number four, it's not push You can't
41:15
Speaker 2: push back on your experiences, but you become you open
41:19
Speaker 2: to them to God. I say, okay, I'm suffering pain
41:22
Speaker 2: right now. I've experienced betrayal, I've experienced herd and trauma.
41:25
Speaker 2: I'm going to open this up to God so that
41:27
Speaker 2: God can take this and turn it around and change
41:32
Speaker 2: my life. Amen. So this is the framework of how
41:36
Speaker 2: we become like Jesus. You can everybody here you can
41:41
Speaker 2: become a person who is like Jesus. It is not impossible.
41:45
Speaker 2: In fact, I hope from hearing what you've heard over
41:48
Speaker 2: the last few weeks, it's actually very doable. It is
41:52
Speaker 2: a narrow way that requires intention, but it will lead
41:59
Speaker 2: to life. So friends, let's be intentional about the stories
42:03
Speaker 2: we believe, our habits, our relationships. This one is tough.
42:08
Speaker 2: We don't want to lose our friends or neighbors, but
42:12
Speaker 2: If you want to become like Jesus, some of you
42:14
Speaker 2: may have to make some tough choices. And Fourthly, experiences
42:18
Speaker 2: happen to you. You can't choose them. But what you
42:20
Speaker 2: do your experiences, how you opening up to God, how
42:23
Speaker 2: you become available to God. This is the type of ship.
42:26
Speaker 2: It's becoming more like Jesus. Amen.
42:30
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on the Generations Church podcast.
42:33
Speaker 1: We trust you've been blessed by the message today. Remember
42:37
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42:39
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42:43
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