Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20230208 - He Makes All Things New (Now)! - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

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#20230208 - He Makes All Things New (Now)! - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Colorado, to learn more about the many
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resources available, through abounding Grace, Media, or to
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tune into our live stream Services.
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Visit us online at Calvary. Co dot church or download our
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free Calvary Church app now. Let's open our Bibles and study
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God's word. So tonight, we're going to be in
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2nd Corinthians 5. And I have a long introduction
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before we get there just to really kind of, hopefully get us
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in context. And the title of my message is
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he makes all things new now, exclamation point.
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So before we get in the word, I want us to look at how we know
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things. How is it that you know things
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have you ever wondered that? And then why look at how we know
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things? Because I want us to leave here
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tonight, owning this I want us to leave here.
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Owning the title of this message.
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This title isn't just a statement.
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It's not just a sentence, it's for us to know, deep in our
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souls, that he makes all things new now and then to truly walk
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in that. So, in the realm of knowing
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their four areas of knowing that I want us to look at, so, if
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you're a note-taker, we're going to look at propositional knowing
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We're going to look at procedural knowing.
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Perspectival knowing or perspective.
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And we're going to look at participatory knowing
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Propositional knowing so with propositional knowing we just
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know that something is the case it is or it isn't.
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You just know it. So some examples would be for
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example if I had a basketball and I was holding in my hand, I
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could say this basketball is spherical, it's round.
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I could say one plus one equals two.
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I could say the grass is green. These are true propositions.
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But what if I said 1 plus 1 equals 9?
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Hmm, that's not true. That's a false proposition.
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So, with propositional knowing we're in this realm of true or
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false, And then we get into procedural knowing.
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Now this is knowing how to do something.
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Procedures. Right techniques skills.
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And this is not referred to as true or false.
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But when we think about procedural, knowing right, since
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we're in this realm of skills, we think about it, in terms of
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Effectiveness, like how effective was that, right?
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Oh man, that was powerful. And then we get into
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perspectival knowing perspective.
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So this is about perspective and it's about our sense of
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presence. And to think about this one,
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think about how you see, right? You have your left eye, you have
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your right eye and with both eyes, you look out and you have
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a field of vision and we look into our world and we see a
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perspective that we call 3D three-dimensional.
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So we have this three dimensional space right now, we
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have this sense of space. We had this sense of presence in
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the space that we're in. And in this perspective then
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tells me right? Wherever, I'm at the sense of
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space, it tells me what? Procedural type things, I'm
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going to pull into this situation and then coordinate
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and utilize them. And then, the other neat thing
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about perspective knowing is that sometimes when we're, you
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know, in this perspective since we're like, whoa, I don't have
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that skill set so it can even be a place of where we're like, oh
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here's some things that I need to learn.
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There's some things that I need to grow in. and then we get into
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participatory, knowing How? Do you participate?
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This one's a little trickier. I'll say it like this.
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You are you? I am me.
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You participate, ever how you participate, wherever you are?
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What do I mean? Well, when I look out on the
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crowd right now, I don't see anyone holding a softball bat.
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Anybody have a softball bat good?
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No softball bats but what I do see is I see Bibles.
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I see some pins and notepads so you're participating
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appropriately. You and I are here together
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participating in forces and factors that shape us and fit us
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together. And there's a word that's used
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in this area of participate, participatory knowing called,
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affordance now, there are things that afford each of us.
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The opportunity to be here by God's grace.
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I have been afforded the opportunity to be standing here
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before you By the trust of my pastor Pastor Ed, I have been
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afforded the opportunity to be standing here before you buy the
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fact that I can teach in English.
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I've been afforded the opportunity to be standing here
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before you. So now let's look at these in
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Reverse by looking at a word that we're all aware of and the
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word is culture shock culture shock so imagine for a second
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that you're dropped in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
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There you are. Oh, the affordances are gone.
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You don't speak the language. You don't know the environment.
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Your participatory knowing breaks down.
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You don't even know how to participate or act appropriately
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and you look around you and guess what?
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Your perspective, even starts to break down.
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How do I look at my world with the right perspective.
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Pull from some procedural stuff, bring in some skills.
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Some procedural. Knowing yet, your procedural
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knowing breaks down to because you don't even know what skills
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to engage. What berries are you going to
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eat? What animals do you avoid with
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these all broken down. I can't even generalize any
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patterns to start forming some general, you know, like this
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some general patterns to start forming the propositions about
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facts, even get to that Baseline level of proposition.
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So even my propositional knowing breaks down.
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Huh, it's gone. And this feels a bit like being
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at the end of a rope with nowhere else to go. so, now what
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This is often where we are when we finally listen to Jesus.
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He has some things to say to us to bring about our
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transformation. He has some things to say to us
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that feels at times like culture shock.
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Think about this for a second. If I asked you to give me a full
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set of instructions on how to tie my shoelaces, could you do
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it? I'd say to, you know, could you
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give me a full set of instructions on how to ride a
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bicycle? I would say to, you know, Could
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you give a full set of instructions for newlyweds on
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their marriage night? I would submit to, you know,
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even the teacher of Proverbs, couldn't give these
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instructions. Listen to what the teacher says
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in proverbs, 30 verses 18 and 19.
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These are the three things which are two wonderful.
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Wonderful for me. Yes, for which I do not
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understand the way of an eagle in the air.
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The way of a serpent on a rock the way of a ship in the midst
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of the Sea. And the way of a man, with a
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virgin, as these ways of knowing breakdown for us, we began to
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listen to Jesus. We can hear him, say come to me.
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We can hear him say Center my kingdom.
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You have to be born again. Born again.
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Okay. We hear him when he says I am
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the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father,
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except through me. We accept him and he gives us
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his righteousness and his resurrection power.
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We hear him when he says we are his and no one can snatch us
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from his father's hands. We hear him.
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When he says you are a new creation old things have passed
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away, behold? All things have become new
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exclamation point now Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father Lord, we do come before you and I just by way of
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introduction Lord you know everything that I even talked
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about. Lord each and every one of us in
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here are fearfully and wonderfully made, Lord, you've
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given us mines Lord, to reason and to think you've given us
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emotions Lord to respond Lord and and you're the Lord of it
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all. And soon as we get into your
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word tonight and we look at 2nd Corinthians 5, and we look at
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what it is to be made new in you Lord.
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I I ask that all of our hearts be open that our minds be open
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and that we own it. That it's ours that day to day
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were looking Lord for you to make All Things New in our
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lives. So go before us Lord, I just ask
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for you to minister to me. As I just happen to be standing
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here. Sharing Lord, what you've put on
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my heart and that you be honored that you be glorified in the
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name of Jesus. Amen.
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Alright, so we know from the opening chapters of Genesis that
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God proclaimed. All things, like, all of his
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creation was very good. It's very good.
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And then immediately, sin and death, enter the picture and
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it's good no longer. And for every one of us here,
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right? For you, from me your life, my
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life, our experiences exists inside of the K, destruction
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death and evil. And it's not good news.
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And the reality is that this will continue until the final
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judgment and the ultimate promise of Revelation 21 Five,
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which when it's fulfilled and there, what is he saying?
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Revelation? 21:5, behold, I make all things
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new. There will be a new Heaven and a
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new Earth, but not yet. And we long for that.
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Why? Because it turnit e is in our
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hearts. It's in our very DNA, even
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nature groans to be delivered from the curse As Romans 8:22
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says, for, we know that the whole creation groans and
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Labor's with birth pangs together.
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Until now, until this present moment, there are very creation
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In is groaning. And here we are in this present
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time, not yet in Revelation chapter 21, we are here waiting
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that ultimate promise of newness.
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And while waiting for the ultimate promise, in this
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context of Decay, destruction, death and evil, we don't just
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sit around like Eeyore from Winnie, the Pooh.
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Days weeks, months. Who knows?
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We don't sit around salvation is today, his grace and mercy is
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new. Today, we have promises of
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newness, to live out now. So, to explore, this will be in
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second Corinthians five, and we're going to look at verses 12
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through 21. Hopefully, you guys are already
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there, so picking up in verse 12.
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Here's what the scripture says for.
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We do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you
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opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an
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answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
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Oh Stan appearance and not in heart.
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The new the NLT would say it this way.
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Brag about having a spectacular Ministry rather than having a
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sincere heart. We know that there were false
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teachers in Corinth at this time bagging on Paul bagging on how
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I'm unimpressive pole was. But Paul had something with the
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Corinthians that these false teachers didn't have he had true
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relationship, True Discipleship. He had been in the trenches with
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the Corinthians and just as we looked at the ways of knowing
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earlier, there's a type of knowing that only comes through
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discipleship. I can't give you instructions on
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how to ride a bike but I can help you ride a bike.
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I'm not going to tell you how to tie your shoelaces, and I can
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even instructions on that, but I can help you tie.
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Your shoelaces Listens listen to Colossians, 3:12 through 14, put
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on Tender Mercies kindness, humility, meekness,
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long-suffering bearing with one another and forgiving one.
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Another, if anyone has a complaint against another even
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as Christ forgave you. So you also must do but above
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all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection.
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Now, this is a command that we need help with.
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We need someone with sincerity of heart who is living this out
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to help us Paul had that sincerity of heart, sincerity of
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heart poet. Even say, hey, follow me as I
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follow Christ. Jesus certainly had the
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sincerity of heart. He came to us in the flesh, he
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helped the disciples in the way. He lived it.
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Jesus did put on Tender, Mercies he put on kindness he put on
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humility. He put on meekness he put on
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long suffering. He did bare ass up, and he did
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forgive us. He was loved, he was perfect.
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And what is John 1 say about Jesus?
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In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God.
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And the Word was God, he was in the beginning with God.
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So this word word in John 1 and Greek is logos or logos.
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So, one has to read it to you, again, replacing word with
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logos, in the beginning was the logos and the logos was with
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God. And the logos was God, he was in
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the beginning with God logos. Dialo goes dialogue.
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Does the Bible say we're ten or more gathered together in Jesus
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name he will be with them. No, what does he say?
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He says, two or three, it takes at least two to tango.
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And Paul was in sincerity of heart, serving them dialoguing
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with them to help bring about their transformation.
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And so it is with us guys and our vertical relationship with
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Jesus. He helps us put on his
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characteristics in our horizontal relationships with
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each other. In Fellowship, we help each
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other put on his characteristic characteristics.
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So picking back up and second Corinthians five.
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It is in this sincerity of heart that Paul says verse 13.
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For, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.
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Or if we are sound mine, it is for you.
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Other translations. Use the word crazy for beside
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ourselves. So from this sincere heart,
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Paul's willing to do anything. Anything, if he's beside
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himself, IE a little foolish, a little Crazy.
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It's to bring glory to God, and if it's of sound mind, it's for
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their benefit. But either way a little crazy or
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in his right mind for Paul, it doesn't matter and why because
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of Love, look at verse 14, for the love of Christ, compels us
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because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died
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and he died for all that those who live should live no longer
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for themselves, but for him who died for them.
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And rose again. We're no longer living for
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ourselves. We are living in in for Christ
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to receive all that he has for us and to help others to be in
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dialogue. The logos to bring others to
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this way of Jesus, verse 16. Therefore, from now on WE regard
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no one according to the flesh even though we have known Christ
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according to the flesh yet, now we know him thus no longer
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Listen to this verse 16 in the NLT NLT translation.
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So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of
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view. Have you?
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At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of
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view how differently we know him now.
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At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of
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view, you know. So I don't know who all is in
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the crowd like you know, you may be a non-believer and you might
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be saying to yourself. Yeah, that's how I think of
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Christ. You know, good man.
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For his time for his culture and even for believers you know,
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some of your testimony may be the same as mine that was you
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know, Christ was just a good man.
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Just as the verse says here at one time I thought of Christ
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merely from a human point of view.
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But not anymore how differently we know him now.
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So that's it. It's different.
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Now we live a new life. We live a life of examination.
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We live a life of being accountable to each other and
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freedom not accountable to each other in How it's the word.
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I just lost it. Legalism right.
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We're accountable to each other in Freedom and together.
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We live a life of transformation, verse 17.
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation old
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things have passed away, behold? All things have become new.
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Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself
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through Jesus Christ and has given us this, the ministry of
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reconciliation that is that God was in Christ.
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Reconciling Telling the world to himself not imputing their
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trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of
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reconciliation. Christ is reconciling the world
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to himself and now we are commissioned to do the same
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thing. This reconciliation has been
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committed to you and has been committed to me.
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Verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for
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Christ as though God were pleading through us.
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We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God for.
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He made him, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
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become the righteousness of God in him.
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So let's hear that again. Believers, you're a new
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creation. You live, you breathe, you move,
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you have your very being and Jesus, which makes you an
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ambassador to be in dialogue. With the people in your world.
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Reconciling them to God. That's the game.
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That's what we're up to. And if you happen to be a
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non-believer hearing my voice right now.
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I say what Paul just said, I say to you, that God is pleading
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through me. I implore you on Christ's behalf
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be reconciled to God once and for all Now, if you've heard
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everything up to now, and you've heard me talk about logos and
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dialogue and dialogue, owes, and you might even be saying, well
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JJ, you're doing all the Talking sounds like a monologue to me.
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well, I'll tell you this when the spirit hits you and his
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words are resonating in your heart, you're in the most
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precious dialogue of your entire life Because you see your
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dialogue is first with Jesus, with the very logos, you have to
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get that dialogue handled first. And then there's the rich
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dialogue of The Fellowship of the Believers.
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So we have this new life, it is ours.
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So let us own it and live it. All right.
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I'm a new creation. Yes.
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And that guy cuts me off and I-25.
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Or my two teenage boys are Knuckleheads and I want to do
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the old Three Stooges eye poke. So it can be interesting can be
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interesting. We want this promise to be ours
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and we want to live it out but sometimes it takes time.
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And our emotions and our actions at any given moment sometimes
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can even kind of bring down Wonder right.
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Am I a new creation? Yes, if you're in Jesus.
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Yes but it doesn't always feel this way.
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So to illustrate this I want to give you a little bit of my own
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testimony. It's a part of my testimony that
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comes out of grief. Now, the thing about grief is,
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it has a way of shattering expectations as a way of
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breaking down all the ways of knowing that I shared earlier.
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Grief has a way of putting you at the end of your right at the
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end of your rope. Why Lord?
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Why why why? And I love what Pastor Ed shared
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in a previous message. He said asking why is just a
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never-ending cycle of seeking more information when it's not
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information? We need Jesus, reveal yourself.
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Be the word in my life. Be the logos.
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Jesus dialogue with me, help me. And so before sharing my
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testimony, I do I do want to just I want you to know that I
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have chairman this testimony a few other times but it's been a
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different context and the Lord is used at each time in a
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different way and even tonight he's using it a different way.
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And I say this because I want to point out to you what the word
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tells us and in Revelation the word tells us how we overcome
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our ancient. Enemy is Is there the blood of
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the lamb and the word of Our Testimony and you to have a
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testimony share it? Share it.
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So, September 15th 2021. My mom died from covid and so is
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the baby of the family and the only boy I was definitely a
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mama's boy. I love my mom and she was the
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matriarch of our large extended family.
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A wonderful Southern cook. Soul food.
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And the thing about mom was everybody was welcome through
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table. There was always enough for
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whoever would show up. So when I arrived in town, she
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was on a ventilator. I was able to spend time with
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her play worship music and read the word to her.
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This was a hard way to go. You have to know that my mom was
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weary. And she was ready for heaven.
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Her time on the ventilator was not looking good.
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And my dad was a beginning to put on me to put it on me, to
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make the choice of taking her off the ventilator.
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The Lord was giving me the Divine strength to just be there
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for him and be there for my family.
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I didn't have to make any decisions because the Lord took
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my mom. So at the time I received this
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as pretty as his protection And I was even able to do the eulogy
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for my mom which brought tears. We laugh together.
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And then my dad he asked me. He said, son, will you be my
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we'd be my right-hand, man during the funeral and I was
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able to do that to be with him as he sobbed like a baby His
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tears, when I kept apologizing for crying because you know, my
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dad's 76 now. So some of the older folks like
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you guys are old school guys. Don't cry much but for him this
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was different. I was able to protect them from
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Commerce 8 conversations that he didn't want to have.
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It was a good funeral. My mom was honored and the Lord
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made sure of it and then I came home And soon as I got home, I
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was blindsided by anger. My medical background came back
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to me as I just sat on my own and just began to run everything
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through this medical background filter and ultimately was
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through a filter of anger and judgment, ripping apart the
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medical staff and doing the whole what they should have
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done. I vividly remember the missing
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button on the doctor shirt as he comes into the waiting room.
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And there we sat, you know and I'm like remembering this.
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I'm like come on man, he presentable button up your
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shirt. Angry?
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And I was angry for two months. Why God what's the purpose of
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all this? So notice the change of focus.
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So, remember my mom was ready to go.
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But that was no longer my focus. During this time during my
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anger, I bought all I could do as I was able to write some
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poetry. So all of the Poetry that Iraq
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that I wrote was saturated with anger, if you call prayer
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arguing with God or Asking the why questions and I guess I was
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praying. I didn't read the word a whole
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lot, but I did read a ton of books on Grief because I wanted
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to hear from those who understood.
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Fellowship during that time, period was hard, right?
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Because during that time period, all I could hear was everything
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that, you know, if you'd said something to me during that time
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period, you know, I would smile and say thank you, but really,
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in my inside voice, I was like yeah, whatever, whatever.
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Really couldn't hear from anyone.
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And the idea was like pretty much everything anybody had to
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say to me. It's like I already knew it and
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I just felt like it was cliche like yeah, you're just saying
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the thing that you need to say, but then through it all landed
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on the biggest cliche of all God is good.
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God is good. And when you guys to feel that,
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right? It's true.
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God is good, this attribute of God.
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His goodness is now mine. So I give you that testimony,
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right? Because I just wanted to come at
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this from every angle that I can of like he makes all things new
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now. Like I don't want that to be a
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sentence for us. I wanted to be a statement for
25:54
us. I want us to own it.
25:56
So I give you that testimony to tell you where I landed, right?
25:58
Because I landed through that trial and tribulation.
26:00
I landed on one simple statement.
26:02
God is good. God is good.
26:05
That's mine now, So now listen to this one.
26:10
Hey you, you in Christ, you are a new creation old things have
26:16
passed away. Behold?
26:18
All things have become new, you are a new creation.
26:23
So I pray that for you that you own it.
26:27
And I've learned that on this side of Heaven, it can take some
26:29
time to own his promises. I've also learned to appreciate
26:33
that. It's trials, tribulations and
26:35
sufferings of life that teach me to own his promises and many of
26:39
you know exactly what I'm talking about.
26:42
And if I could right now, I would jump off stage with a
26:46
microphone and I would, we would do a testimony night but I can't
26:51
do that, right? And for for me to just see and
26:55
for us to see, like, what have you gone through?
26:59
What is your one liner from God? What are you owning in Christ?
27:04
Right now? What is the promise that is
27:06
yours? And no one can take it away from
27:09
you. So I can't do that with
27:12
everyone. So what I did in preparation for
27:19
this message, I did talk to some people and I just said, hey kind
27:22
of gave them the situation and said, you know, through a trial
27:24
tribulation through something in your life.
27:26
Like what is a one-liner like something at the end of it that
27:29
God just gave you something and here are a couple.
27:33
So, after a hard time, making some family decisions.
27:35
One family was given this. Here's a one-liner go forward.
27:40
That's there's they own it. They made.
27:43
Can you come on up? One of the teachers, I talked to
27:47
her the academy shared this one here.
27:49
Was there, one liner? Learn trust obey.
27:54
Here's another one in terms of leadership.
27:55
This one was shared lead from a place of giving not from a place
28:01
of proving something, who That's a one liner.
28:04
I what? I wonder what they went through
28:06
to get to that one. Maybe some bad leadership,
28:09
right? Maybe some rebukes, maybe some
28:12
admonishment, but the Lord had something for them.
28:17
All right, not everybody can give their testimony but I have
28:19
asked Damon to come up and share with us.
28:24
And for him to give us a one liner that the Lord has given
28:27
him. Love you, bro.
28:31
Love you. What's up Church fam?
28:35
So he's like, you get three minutes I'm like, really?
28:39
So I'm like, Daddy. Like it 5 that just like, not my
28:42
heart. Just slow down a little bit.
28:46
So, first off, I'm going, I'm going to be real.
28:48
We're all adults in here. I think because what I'm going
28:52
to tell you guys about, is I'm a sap.
28:55
I cry a lot. I'm going to do my best.
28:58
You heard this, man? He's the same way.
29:00
So I can, one of my best friends on the planet right here?
29:02
Aren't we blessed though? Like, For real as a church like
29:05
we're filled with just men and women who love the word and the
29:08
testimonies in this room. And so here's what I want to
29:11
talk to you about, I'm going to try to condense about five and a
29:13
half years, in a five minutes. Okay.
29:15
So my wife and I who actually met in this church, right?
29:19
Over here in the sanctuary, we have a prodigal, son and
29:23
daughter. We haven't seen them in many
29:25
years. We started a journey to try to
29:28
have her own children in 2017. After my daughter, was born in
29:33
04, My kids are from a previous marriage.
29:37
I had a vasectomy done and as a selfish, 23 year old man didn't
29:42
know the Lord. I didn't get saved until I was
29:44
30 years old. Many years later, I wanted to
29:47
not have any more kids didn't want any more responsibility, so
29:52
move through a lot of pain and suffering with drugs and alcohol
29:55
and addiction gets saved in 2011, and then get out of a
29:59
rehab. That's where I got saved.
30:00
And I mean, my wife and this church and we get married in
30:02
2014 Now and then like we have this desire that we want to have
30:08
a baby so I go and have a surgery to try to make that
30:13
happen and initially it was successful and then it wasn't.
30:18
And so, this started this long period of just like JJ said,
30:23
just grief, like the questions and all those things, I believe
30:28
that I've been filled up with a lot of faith.
30:31
I believe my wife, and I have a tremendous amount of
30:33
perseverance. And so like there is the other
30:36
things on the table we just did not think was something that we
30:39
wanted to do. One of those would be IVF in
30:42
vitro fertilization. I don't know if you guys know
30:44
what that is but then fast forward a few years and we had a
30:47
lot of NOS like because of my past we tried to adopt and we
30:51
were told no another closed door and that was really really hard.
30:56
And so then a couple more years goes by and a family in our
30:59
church who we love dearly sent us this very strange text
31:03
message on on. There's a couple that they know
31:07
that have a fertilized egg. We know you guys were trying to
31:09
have a baby so we thought of you and we're like that's a really
31:13
strange text message to get and so, but here's what's
31:17
interesting. So we just started talking about
31:19
it because our conviction years ago was, we felt like that was
31:23
forcing God's hand. Well, here's the reality over
31:27
time as you mature in the Lord your conviction should change.
31:32
Okay. Now your conviction should line
31:33
up with the Bible know. One Riley can't contradict the
31:36
word, but I just want to encourage you with that because
31:39
now we were talking about this and we were praying about this
31:42
and we decided to take a step of faith and we did and we started
31:46
IVF, which if anybody in this room online on the radio has
31:51
ever gone through IVF, it is incredibly.
31:54
It's difficult, it's painful. Not to mention how expensive it
31:59
can be and we went through two cycles and neither of them were
32:03
successful. Awful.
32:10
This is the hardest thing that we had ever had to go through.
32:15
I mean the first cycle, we actually had an implant.
32:18
We had a little girl and you didn't, it didn't take We didn't
32:24
give up. We're we just kept hearing from
32:27
the Lord and he never removed this desire from us to want to
32:31
have a child. So we tried again and it wasn't
32:35
successful. So through this though, like I
32:38
have had to have this other procedure done in order to make
32:41
the IVF possible. So now I was at surgery, number
32:44
three, my wife who's an absolute Soldier going through, IVF
32:49
hundreds of shots and just preparations and all this.
32:52
I mean it is a lot guys. And It twice.
32:55
So now we're at the stage where we're like, okay, are we
32:59
supposed to stop? But we just felt like we're can
33:03
suppose to continue and the verse that the Lord had given us
33:06
in the very beginning. When we read it to you, it's do
33:09
not remember, the former things nor consider the things of old
33:12
behold. I will do a new thing now.
33:15
It shall spring forth, shall you not know it?
33:18
I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the
33:20
desert. So, we just kept holding on to
33:22
that verse. We just kept holding on to that
33:24
verse. And then after the last
33:27
unsuccessful IVF cycle, my It just happened to be doing some
33:32
research and we found another doctor, a surgeon in Arizona
33:38
that specialized in reversals and had thousands of success
33:44
stories. So, we took another step of
33:47
faith and I had another procedure done.
33:50
And here's what's incredible. When we got our first result,
33:55
every having six years, almost six years of no, after no, after
33:59
no after no, but not giving up, not giving up.
34:04
And just saying like, we really want a baby, we want an
34:06
extension of our Legacy. We were actually with j.j. in
34:11
the car in Georgia, because we went with them to for Christmas,
34:15
on our way up to a resort and I put the the doctor on
34:19
speakerphone. The levels that I had were so
34:25
high. It was if I never had a
34:27
vasectomy in the first place. I mean.
34:30
Absolutely unbelievable. So I mean you want to talk to me
34:32
about making a roadway in the wilderness and streams in the
34:35
desert. So here's where we're at though.
34:36
Like we still aren't pregnant. We're trying.
34:40
But here's my here's my one-liner that JJ's talking
34:43
about and like taking ownership of it.
34:45
If I look back on my life and even the sum and substance of my
34:48
whole life, this still holds true.
34:50
But even in this five and a half, almost six years thus far,
34:55
he has helped us. Now here's what's incredible
34:58
about that, that started at the cross, right?
35:00
So like, if all Jesus did was die for our sins, that's it.
35:04
That's enough. Thus far, he helped us right.
35:06
But we look back at all these Ebenezer's stones.
35:09
And so, my encouragement is just don't give up and if any of you
35:13
in the room online on Grace, FM are listening and you are trying
35:16
to have a baby and you're like are we supposed to stop?
35:19
I'm just telling you guys don't Give up because thus far, he has
35:23
helped us love you, dude. So whether we like it or not
35:36
suffering is a great teacher of dependence on him.
35:40
And we go through this life experiencing suffering and
35:43
owning his promises. And here's the thing.
35:45
Guys, we can also glean and own promises just by living out, his
35:49
will, and call for our lives and learning to give up what we
35:53
think is good for what he knows is best for our lives.
35:56
And with that statement, I know that some of you might even go
35:58
like, well what is God's will for my life and I just want to
36:01
encourage you to look at what's right in front of you.
36:03
What's in front of you? Because if you believe and know
36:06
that God allows things in your life, Right to train you to
36:12
guide you then look right in front of you and then commit to
36:15
those things, may it be Family, School Church, Fellowship,
36:18
whatever it is that the Lord has on your plate because he truly
36:22
wants you to be faithful with the small things so he can give
36:25
you more. And remember that, whatever the
36:29
more is that he gives you. It's not meant to hoard away,
36:34
but it's meant to be used for his glory being an ambassador
36:37
for Christ and reconciling the world to God.
36:41
So for tonight, let this be added to you and let's own it.
36:45
He makes all things new now, amen.
36:50
All right. Heavenly Father Lord, we come
36:52
before you, and we thank you for your word.
36:54
We thank you for the testimony. That was given learning, I
36:57
think. For every life that is that is
36:58
here Lord, the families that are represented Lord the even you
37:05
know there's some grief that came up tonight.
37:07
The grief that's represented here.
37:09
Lord I pray for your comfort in their lives.
37:12
Lord, I pray that the promises that you have for them.
37:16
Are there's Lord and to just hold on to you Lord.
37:20
Just you as the anchor of Hope. Lord.
37:23
And and also if there's anyone here, if there's anyone here
37:27
that That doesn't know you. That needs to be in dialogue
37:30
with you father. Dialogue with them and I know
37:35
you are and if you happen to be that person come up afterwards,
37:39
there would be a, there's the prayer team up here and and each
37:41
individual here will be willing to dialogue with you as the as
37:45
Jesus dialogues with you. So Jesus, we love you.
37:49
We praise you and we give all things to you in your name.
37:53
Amen. We pray that you've been
37:55
encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
37:58
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer, call us at 877.
38:03
Zero Grace. That's eight 77304 2:53 to
38:10
listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
38:13
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38:21
blessed as you worship Jesus this week.