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2: The Structure and the Substance · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is A Mysterious Business, bringing
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ministry and marketplace wisdom together.
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I grew up in the Anglican tradition, which
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is a sacramental and liturgical tradition, so we
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have what's sometimes called smells and bells.
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On feast days we have incense, we ring
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bells on Easter Sunday morning, our priests often
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wear robes, we have prepared prayers, there's, you
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know, our bishop has a special hat that
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he wears.
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There's all these different visual, tactile symbols that
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have this rich history and tradition behind them,
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and some of them go back hundreds of
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years, and some of them go back almost
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to the age of the apostles, or even
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to Jewish synagogue life before Jesus came, and
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it's really fun, you can nerd out about
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all these things.
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But when I was a little kid, I
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didn't know any of that, I just went
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to church on Sunday, and it was just
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church, you know, it was the only version
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of church I knew.
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So when I was in about fourth grade,
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we went down to Texas for my cousin
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Rebecca's wedding, and we visited her Baptist church
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on the Sunday before her wedding, and the
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pastor was not wearing a robe!
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He was wearing like a three-piece suit,
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and I was so disturbed by this, I
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like said to my parents afterwards, that pastor
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should know better, he should know he's supposed
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to wear a robe on Sundays.
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Like I had internalized the sensibility, the liturgical
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sensibility that pastors wear robes such that I
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thought it was just totally inappropriate that that
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Baptist pastor would not wear a robe.
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Okay, now you've probably had an experience like
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this too, where you go to a church
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that's maybe different from your tradition, and they
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just do things differently, and you kind of
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ask like, why do they do that?
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And hopefully you maybe have a friend who's
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familiar with the tradition there, who can tell
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you why they do things a certain way,
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and that's encouraging, and maybe, you know, educational,
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you learn something about the body of Christ.
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The same thing can happen in other contexts
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too, like maybe in a business context.
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So you learn things one way in your
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first job out of school, then you change
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jobs, and it's like, oh, that wasn't like
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a universal thing, that was just a thing
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at this job, you know?
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Maybe at one job they don't really keep
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careful time sheets, it's just like, ah, estimate
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your hours, put it in at the end
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of the week, and at the other job
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it's like, no, like you're clocking it with
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an app on your smartphone in the moment,
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all the time, and you're tracking it, and
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you're assigning it to different projects, and that's
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important for how we bill our customers, and,
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you know, there's just differences everywhere.
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And some of the differences seem kind of
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superficial, like the way someone dresses, right?
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But other differences seem more substantial, like, oh,
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like, you know, does it matter?
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Are we being honest in the way that
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we track our time, is there an issue
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of ethics or of integrity here, right?
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And so it can be hard to tell,
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like, okay, what kind of difference are we
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dealing with here?
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Is there just a kind of a cultural
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difference that doesn't really matter, or is there
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more of like a substance difference that can
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be right or wrong, that could lead us
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closer to what God would really have for
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us, or further away from what God would
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really have for us?
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These are tough questions.
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And so I want to look at this
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idea of structures versus substance in the scriptures.
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Well, that alliterated more than I was intending
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it to, but yeah, so structures versus substance
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in the scriptures.
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And we got a little bit into this
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last time because Dallas Willard, I quoted him
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as saying that business is itself a structure
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in the kingdom of God.
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It's a structure of love in the kingdom
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of God.
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But then I didn't really dig into how
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the scriptures themselves teach about this idea of
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structure.
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And so you might've thought, oh, is that
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just like a philosophical thing?
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And no, like there's very clear scriptural teaching
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about the importance of structures, but it's always
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in contrast to this deeper thing, which is
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what I'm calling substance.
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So if you can kind of go with
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me here, this is a little bit wordy,
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but the basic idea that the scripture teaches,
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right, is that the structure matters.
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You have to prepare the structure in obedience
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so that it can be filled with the
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substance.
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Okay.
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You have to prepare the structure in obedience
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so that it can be filled with the
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substance.
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And this applies, I would argue, both to
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quote unquote sacred and secular contexts.
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So this includes like church structures and other
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structures in the kingdom of God, business structures,
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educational structures, family structures.
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And I'll try to make that case from
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the different Bible passages that we cite.
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So this is a little bit abstract, a
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little bit nerdy, I realized, but I think
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it's actually really helpful for us as we
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think about what it means to walk in
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obedience in business, in church, how we learn
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from each other in ministry, in the marketplace,
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this idea that God really cares about structure,
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but he cares even more about the substance
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that fills the structure.
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Okay.
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So this is going to be kind of
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like a chronological journey through the Bible.
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Where are places where we see God caring
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about structure?
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Well, one of these happens with Noah, right?
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The structure of the ark.
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So this is a Genesis chapter six.
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You know, the story, human beings are getting
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worse and worse and worse.
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And God is like, trying to figure out
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what to do.
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He's going to judge them.
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But then, you know, Noah at least is
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devout in his generation.
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And so God gives Noah this command.
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He says, this is how you are to
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make the ark.
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The length of the ark, 300 cubits, the
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breadth, 50 cubits and its height, 30 cubits.
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Make a roof for the ark and finish
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it to a cubit above and set the
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door of the ark in Make it with
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lower second and third decks.
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And it goes on.
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God really cares about the structure.
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He cares about how the ark will be
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built.
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He's giving specific coordinates, not coordinates, dimensions for
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how to build it.
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God really cares about this structure.
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And Noah has to start building it before
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there is a drop of rain falling from
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the sky.
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Noah has to walk in obedience and faith
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that he really has heard from the Lord
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and that these specifications really do matter.
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And he has to rearrange his whole life
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around doing it, even before there's any evidence
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in terms of this coming judgment of God.
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But sure enough, eventually, skipping ahead to chapter
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7, in the 600th year of Noah's life,
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in the second month, on the 17th day
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of the month, on that day, all the
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fountains of the great deep burst forth and
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the windows of the heavens were opened and
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rain fell upon the earth 40 days and
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40 nights.
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On the very same day, Noah and his
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sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife,
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and the three wives of his sons with
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them, entered the ark, they and every beast
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according to its kind.
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And it goes on.
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Okay, here's what's really important though.
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Did Noah save his family?
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Did Noah save this covenant group who are
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going to stay in the grace of God,
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despite the terrible evil that's covering the face
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of the earth that God is judging?
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No, Noah is not the savior here.
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God is the savior.
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And this is emphasized in the final moment
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of this description of them all entering the
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ark.
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They went in as God commanded him and
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the Lord shut him in.
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It's not Noah who finalizes this.
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It's the Lord.
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The Lord shuts them in.
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So God cares a lot about the structure,
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but he cares even more about what's inside
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the structure.
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He cares about Noah.
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He cares about Noah's family.
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He cares about the animals.
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He cares about the creation and the way
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it's the entire world is inside that ark.
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And God is the one who shuts it
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in.
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God is the one that saves that substance
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that really matters inside of the structure.
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Okay, let's fast forward from Noah to Moses.
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The Israelites are out in the desert.
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They've already been delivered from Egypt.
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They've received the Torah, the 10 commandments.
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What does God include in the Torah?
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He includes some architectural plans for something called
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the tabernacle.
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So this is Exodus chapter 26.
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Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10
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curtains of fine twined linen and blue and
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purple and scarlet yarns.
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You shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked
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into them.
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The length of each curtain shall be 28
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cubits and the breadth of each curtain four
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cubits and the curtains shall be the same
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size.
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Five curtains shall be coupled to one another
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and the other five curtains shall be coupled
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to one another.
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And you shall make loops of blue on
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the edge of the outermost curtain.
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And it keeps going and it keeps going
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for Exodus 26 and Exodus 27 and Exodus
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28 and just keeps going and going and
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talking about the priest's garments and how they're
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going to make the ark.
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And then there's some other things in the
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30s.
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And then eventually we get to the final
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chapter of Exodus, Exodus chapter 40, right?
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And it's them.
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They're actually putting the tabernacle together as God
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commanded.
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So this is verse 16.
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This Moses did according to all that the
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Lord commanded him.
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So he did.
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And the first month and the second year
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on the first day of the month, the
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tabernacle was erected.
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Moses erected the tabernacle.
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He laid its bases and set up its
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frames and put in its poles and raised
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up its pillars.
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Okay.
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So again, there's obedience here.
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Moses and the people of Israel, they have
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to act in faith.
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They have to put together this structure that
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God commanded.
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But then what happens?
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Zooming down to verse 34.
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Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting
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and the glory of the Lord filled the
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tabernacle.
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And Moses was not able to enter the
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tent of meeting because the cloud settled on
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it and the glory of the Lord filled
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the tabernacle.
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Whoa.
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Okay.
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This is even more poignant and beautiful than
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what happened with the ark.
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With the ark, you had to build the
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structure and then you wait and then God
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shut them in.
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With the tabernacle, you build the structure and
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you wait and then God himself enters in.
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God symbolized in this cloud, his presence enters
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in to the tabernacle so that he can
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dwell with his people.
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The substance of God's presence is what's precious.
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That's the whole point of the structure is
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to have a place for God to dwell
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with his people.
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So the structure really matters, right?
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God gave the specifications.
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You have to act in obedience.
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But then what really matters is the substance
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that fills the structure.
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Okay.
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Zooming ahead.
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This pattern repeats almost identically with the building
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of the temple.
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So now from Noah to Moses, from Moses
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to Solomon, as you may know, David wanted
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to build the temple, but God said no.
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So David did some prep work in advance
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to set Solomon up so that he could
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do it.
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And so this is in first Kings chapter
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six and the 480th year after the people
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of Israel came out of the land of
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Egypt and the fourth year of Solomon's reign
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over Israel in the month of Ziv, which
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is in the second month, he began to
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build the house of the Lord.
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And there's specifications here and there's cherubim with
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gold here and there's walls and there's pillars.
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And again, all of these details, right?
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And then what happens?
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This is in first Kings chapter eight.
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Now they bring the ark into the temple
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and guess what happens?
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This is very reminiscent of what happened with
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the tabernacle.
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And when the priests came out of the
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holy place, a cloud filled the house of
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the Lord so that the priests could not
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stand to minister because of the cloud for
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the glory of the Lord filled the house
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of the Lord.
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Okay.
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Just like with the tabernacle, Moses couldn't even
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get inside because of the cloud.
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This time the priests can't get inside because
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of the cloud.
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It's the same image.
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God is like, you had to prepare this
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structure, this temple, but then what really matters?
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My presence, this substance and the temple.
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Okay.
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So we see this pattern.
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God commands people to build very particular structures.
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He cares about the structural details down to
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the little nitty gritty things.
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And yet what matters, what gives purpose to
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this structure?
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What makes the structure what it's meant to
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be?
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And even more so is not the structure
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itself.
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It's the substance in the structure.
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It's the presence of God in the case
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of the tabernacle and the temple.
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Okay.
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Now you might be wondering, is this just
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like an old Testament thing?
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Is this just something in the Hebrew scriptures?
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No, no, it's not.
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Let's fast forward to Matthew, the teaching of
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Jesus.
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Jesus gives a structured teaching here.
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That's really important.
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Okay.
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And it's kind of, it kind of comes
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in obliquely.
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It has to do with a question about
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fasting, but it's really important for us to
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track with what Jesus is saying here.
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This is his teaching on wine and wineskins.
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Again, now wine in the New Testament often
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represents the presence of God.
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In a few episodes ago in our last
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series, we looked at Jesus at the wedding
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at Cana and how that miracle of turning
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water into wine represents like God's life and
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abundance and provision.
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Okay.
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So keep that in mind.
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Wine often represents the presence of God.
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So this is Matthew chapter nine, starting in
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verse 14.
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Okay.
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This passage can feel a little bit obscure,
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but I think you can actually track with
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what Jesus is saying.
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Look at the metaphors.
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He talks about a patch for a piece
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of cloth.
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So a piece of cloth has a tear
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in it.
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You need to put a patch on it.
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If the cloth of the original garment has
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been treated in a certain way that it
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shrinks, don't put a patch on that hasn't
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been treated in the same way, or else
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you'll just get a worse tear when you're
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done.
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The patch needs to match the garment that
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it's fitting.
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You need a match with the patch.
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Ooh, that's a rhyme I wasn't expecting.
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I'm really just rolling with it today.
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Okay.
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So you need a match for the patch.
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Then he talks about wine and wineskins.
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He says, look, if you've got some old
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wineskins and then you pour new wine into
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them, the wine is going to burst the
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skins.
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Now, some of what he appears to be
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referencing here is that wine would continue to
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ferment, right?
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So it wasn't as technologically refined as wine
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that we have now.
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They would press wine in these wine presses,
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you know, by foot, it was a manual
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process.
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And then when it ran out, they would
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bottle it with leather bottles, wineskins, and it
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would continue to ferment while it was in
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those wineskins.
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And so if you had an old wineskin
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that had already been expanded through the process
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of fermentation before, and then you fill it
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up to the brim with new wine, there's
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no room left to expand.
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It's going to, it's going to burst.
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It's not gonna work.
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So he's like, okay, so don't get an
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old wineskin that's already been expanded.
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Get a new wineskin that's, that's leather.
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It's supple.
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It has room to expand, pour the wine
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and leave room.
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That way as the fermentation process continues, nothing's
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going to burst.
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Just like you need a batch for the
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patch.
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You need new wineskin for the new wine.
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Now what is Jesus actually talking about here?
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Jesus is talking about structures and substance.
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The wine is the presence of God.
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The wine is the substance.
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The wine is the thing that really matters.
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It's the life that God wants to give
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us.
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You have to have a structure for that.
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You can't just like, what if, what if
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they didn't have any wineskins at all?
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Just pours out of the vat onto the
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dirt or into people's hands.
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Like here's some wine, take it.
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See if you can carry it somewhere.
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Like that doesn't work.
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You have to have something to contain the
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wine.
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This is the way God operates.
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He gives us structures.
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He told Noah to build the ark.
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He told Moses to build the tabernacle.
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He gave Solomon the instructions that he needed
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to build the temple, right?
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The structure matters.
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And then when the structure is ready, when
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it matches, when there's a match for the
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patch, right?
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Then the presence, the substance, the wine can
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fill the structure.
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So the structure really matters.
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You need to prepare the structure in obedience
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and in faith so that it can receive
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what God really wants to give us, receive
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his life.
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Okay.
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So again, there's no way to have a
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structure-less Christianity.
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Sometimes people have tried.
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It turns out really badly, right?
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Just like we talked about in our last
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episode, you don't, you don't want a body
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without a skeleton.
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You don't want a pile of goo.
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Um, you, you need a structure to receive
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God's life.
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So in our church life, that means you
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have something that the pastor is going to
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wear on Sunday.
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You have some sort of order to your
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service.
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You have the traditions that maintain your community
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and your, your family life together somehow.
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Right?
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In a business, it means here's what our
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business model is.
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It means here's how we handle things in
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HR.
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Here's how we handle things, uh, in terms
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of, uh, dealing with our customers.
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Here's how we handle things with our, uh,
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financial accounting, right?
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You have to have structure.
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There's no structure free way to do life
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or business or anything that matters in life.
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But the structure is not the point.
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The structure is not the point.
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The point in church and in business is
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that the structure contains that wine of the
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life of God.
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You see how this is a teaching that
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Jesus is giving us.
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And so like with, in this particular case
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with John, the Baptist disciples and the Pharisees,
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it was like the structure of spiritual disciplines
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of fasting.
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It's like, Hey, we have specific traditions and
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your disciples aren't following them.
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And Jesus was basically saying like something more
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important than, than your traditions around fasting is
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here, right?
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The Messiah is here.
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I am here.
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Right?
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So it's the subtext here.
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Something more important is here.
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And so you need a new wineskin.
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You need a new structure.
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And Jesus kind of commissions the new structure
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of the early church by sending out the
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apostles.
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We need to be ready in our lives
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to hear the voice of God when he's
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telling us to prepare a structure or to
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prepare a new structure, right?
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Sometimes it's just, Hey, you know, there's going
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to be something coming to you.
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You got to build an arc.
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There's gotta be a structure.
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We start with faith and obedience.
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Sometimes it's, Hey, this structure has gotten us
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so far.
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Now we need to change.
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We need to have a new structure to
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respond to what God is doing right now.
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That really matters.
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Paying attention to those structural details matters.
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Figuring out the nitty gritty things of how
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your church bylaws work really matters of how
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your, your company bylaws work really matters.
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Having policies.
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It really matters.
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Having structure.
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It really matters.
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But it's not the most important thing.
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The most important thing is the life and
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the presence of God that he wants to
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fill that structure with so that it can
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be a structure of love in the kingdom
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of God.
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Okay.
18:57
So I know that was maybe a little
18:59
bit abstract, but it's right there in the
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Bible.
19:01
It's repeated many, many times.
19:02
It's right there in the teaching of Jesus.
19:03
So I think it's important.
19:04
So I'll kind of come back to this
19:06
as we go through the series, talking about
19:07
the wine versus the wine skin, um, and
19:10
thinking about, okay, is this a wine issue
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or is this a wine skin issue?
19:14
Right.
19:15
And both matter, but the structure is not
19:18
the same as the substance.
19:18
The substance is what matters most of all.
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So by way of application, in terms of
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what you can do, think about what are
19:26
the structures of my faith community?
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See if you can name them.
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Like what, what is your pastor wear on
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Sunday?
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Maybe you've never really thought about it.
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And then think about like, could this structure
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change and still hold the same substance?
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Can a pastor wear a three-piece suit
19:42
on Sunday and the presence of God still
19:43
be in that church?
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Fourth grade Chris didn't think so, but adult
19:46
Chris thinks so, right?
19:48
That's at the level of structure and it
19:50
can change and it can adapt to different
19:51
cultural settings and, and that's okay.
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That's not the point.
19:54
But think about this.
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Think about what are the things in your
19:56
community that couldn't change without compromising the substance?
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Okay.
20:00
Now it's the same questions about business, about
20:02
your work setting, whatever it is.
20:03
What are the structural things?
20:04
Like how does your HR handle payroll?
20:06
Right.
20:07
That's probably a structural thing that could change,
20:09
but then what's the heart, what's the essence
20:10
of what you all do in the world
20:12
that couldn't change without it being compromised somehow?
20:15
How are you loving God and loving neighbor
20:17
through the enterprise of the business itself?
20:19
This is really important to see what's the
20:22
substance that God is filling this structure with.
20:26
Because if you can't distinguish between the structure
20:28
and the substance, then you won't be able
20:29
to make key decisions when the time comes.
20:32
But God helps us with this.
20:33
So, so reflect on that.
20:34
Reflect on what are the structures in my
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faith community?
20:36
What are the structures in my business or
20:38
my work?
20:39
And how much of that is tied to
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the essence of the substance versus how much
20:43
could change?
20:44
See if you could just jot a few
20:45
notes about that down and that'll help you
20:47
as we kind of continue through the rest
20:49
of the series.
20:51
Lord Jesus, thank you that you give us
20:53
that new wine, that you want to pour
20:56
your life, the life of the Father, the
21:00
Son, and the Holy Spirit into us and
21:03
into our world.
21:04
And so we ask that we would have
21:05
the humility to walk in faith and obedience
21:08
to prepare the structures even before that wine
21:11
shows up, to be ready to receive it
21:13
and to be ready for change, to be
21:16
ready for whatever's new when you're doing something
21:18
that we need to pay attention to.
21:21
Jesus, do your work in us as we
21:23
do our work with you.
21:29
Thanks for listening.
21:30
Finding God at Work is a production of
21:32
Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
21:35
dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
21:37
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21:40
listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
21:42
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21:52
go to our website, missioncentral.church.