Latest / Reach Church Podcast / This Is The Way Pt 2 - We Do Life Together | Dave Snyder

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This Is The Way Pt 2 - We Do Life Together | Dave Snyder · Reach Church Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to the Reach Church podcast. This is
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  Speaker 1: Dave Snyder, pastor here at Reach Church. Each week we
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  Speaker 1: share messages from our Sunday gatherings to help you discover
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  Speaker 1: the love of God, be empowered for purpose, and impact
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  Speaker 1: your world. We pray this message encourages you and helps
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  Speaker 1: you grow in your walk with Jesus. Let's get into
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  Speaker 1: today's message. There's lots of different ways out there. There's
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  Speaker 1: lots of different people that will share opinions. You can
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  Speaker 1: go online and find a slew of opinions, people that
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  Speaker 1: want you to think they've got the way, all right?
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  Speaker 1: I've found it about the Bible. I've heard people teaching
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  Speaker 1: the Bible online, and I think, oh my God, help us. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: we need help, because I don't think some of them
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  Speaker 1: have read the Bible, but they've got opinions about the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: And what I want to share to you today is
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  Speaker 1: is what this word says. See, we're talking about some things,
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  Speaker 1: some values that we're supposed to have as believers. And
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  Speaker 1: as a church, what it means to share some of
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  Speaker 1: these values together. Last week, if you remember, we talked
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  Speaker 1: about pursuing the presence of God. I want to start
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  Speaker 1: with this scripture from Ephesians 5. And here's what Paul
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  Speaker 1: has to say about it. I wish Paul had a podcast, right?
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  Speaker 1: Because then we'd all listen and we would pay attention.
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  Speaker 1: But see, you know, sometimes when it comes to the word,
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  Speaker 1: we'd rather hear the podcast than the word. No, I
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  Speaker 1: want you to hear what the word of God says.
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  Speaker 1: And look at verse 15. Pay careful attention to how
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  Speaker 1: you walk. Not as unwise people, but as wise. You're
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  Speaker 1: not unwise, are you? You're wise. You know the difference
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  Speaker 1: between right and wrong. You know something's wrong when you
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  Speaker 1: hear it because you've been trained by something. This word
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  Speaker 1: will train you. And he says, you're not unwise, but
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  Speaker 1: you're wise. Go to that next verse. Make the most
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  Speaker 1: of the time. Because the days are evil. The days
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  Speaker 1: are evil. I think you know that. But he says,
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  Speaker 1: pay attention to how you walk. That's how you live
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  Speaker 1: your life. God is concerned with how you're living your
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  Speaker 1: life in this moment, in this time, in this evil time.
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  Speaker 1: Don't let the world tell you how to live. Don't
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  Speaker 1: let YouTube tell you how to live. Don't let, there's nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Now I know there's some good things on you. I'm not,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not against YouTube. In fact, I think this sermon
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  Speaker 1: will be on YouTube. So maybe you're watching it on
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  Speaker 1: YouTube today, but listen, if I'm letting, if I'm letting
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  Speaker 1: all the opinions of online direct my steps, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: listening to what the word of God says. Let the
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  Speaker 1: word of God direct yourselves. Pay attention to how you walk.
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  Speaker 1: So God's got a better way for you. Anybody agree
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  Speaker 1: with that? His way, his way is not your way.
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  Speaker 1: It's better. His ways are higher than your ways. And
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  Speaker 1: so today I want to talk to you about this
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  Speaker 1: value that I think is so important. It's something, now listen,
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  Speaker 1: these aren't things you've never heard before, right? You've heard
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  Speaker 1: this word. I think Mark said that yesterday. He did
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  Speaker 1: a great job. By the way, Mark did a fantastic
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  Speaker 1: job sharing yesterday. Thank you, Mark, at our men's fishing tournament.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing. Bobby Kivett, I want to say
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  Speaker 1: thank you to Mr. Bobby Kivett for leading. I think
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  Speaker 1: he's still out doing the offering, but tell him I
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  Speaker 1: said so. And I want to say thanks to everybody
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  Speaker 1: who was a part of that. We had a great time. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to this word, these aren't
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  Speaker 1: things like, oh, I've never heard that before. No, you've
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  Speaker 1: probably heard this before, but you know what happens. We
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  Speaker 1: tend to let things slip. Okay, we tend to let
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  Speaker 1: things go, right? If you don't keep it in front
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  Speaker 1: of you, it's like you forget. And as you get older,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes easier to forget. Anybody, you don't have to
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  Speaker 1: receive it, but it's just sometimes it happens. And... I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about the fact that we're the body
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  Speaker 1: of Christ and we need each other, right? I need
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  Speaker 1: you and you need me. So what we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: today is we do life together. Nobody should walk alone.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody should be walking alone, right? God designed us to
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  Speaker 1: function together. I want you to think of it this way.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was asked one time, what's the greatest commandment? What
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  Speaker 1: did he say? He said, I'm going to give you
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  Speaker 1: two of them. You ask for one, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: give you two. The first one is love the Lord
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  Speaker 1: your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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  Speaker 1: That's the first and greatest commandment. And a lot of
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  Speaker 1: us like to stop there. You know, we like this
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  Speaker 1: relationship between us and God like as if it was
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  Speaker 1: the only thing going, right? And it's good. That's the
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  Speaker 1: first and greatest commandment. I should love the Lord my God.
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  Speaker 1: That's great. But Jesus said there's a second thing. Don't
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  Speaker 1: forget about the second thing. Love your neighbor as yourself.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like that one as much. I love the
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  Speaker 1: relationship I have with God, but I don't always like
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  Speaker 1: this way with you. You know? Some of you, it's easy.
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  Speaker 1: And some of you make it hard. And your family,
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  Speaker 1: is it the same way? There's some of your kids
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  Speaker 1: that are easy to love, and some of them are hard.
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  Speaker 1: But you still have to love them, right? Otherwise, you'll
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  Speaker 1: be in counseling, and they'll be in counseling, and all
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  Speaker 1: this other stuff. But you're supposed to love your neighbor...
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  Speaker 1: As yourself. Did you know in the New Testament, you
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  Speaker 1: can do your own study on this. In the New Testament,
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  Speaker 1: there's over 100 passages that deal with how we treat
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  Speaker 1: one another. Do you think it's important to the heart
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  Speaker 1: of God how you treat one another? Because how you
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  Speaker 1: treat one another is related to your relationship with God.
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  Speaker 1: John says it this way in 1 John. He says,
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  Speaker 1: if you can't love your brother who you can see,
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  Speaker 1: how can you love God who you can't see? Because
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  Speaker 1: it's related. See, the way I treat you is related
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  Speaker 1: to how I treat God. If God asks something of
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  Speaker 1: me and I'm not willing to do it, then that's
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  Speaker 1: a problem. But if you ask something of me and
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  Speaker 1: I'm not willing to, it's directly related to my relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God. You know? If you need something and I
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  Speaker 1: see you have a need and I don't do it,
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  Speaker 1: what did Jesus say? He said, if you've done this
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  Speaker 1: to the least of these, my brothers, you've done it
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  Speaker 1: unto me. Right? Right? The way I treat you is
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  Speaker 1: related to my relationship with God. So again, there's over
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  Speaker 1: 100 passages that deal with this. We're told to love
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  Speaker 1: one another, honor one another, serve one another, encourage one another,
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  Speaker 1: pray for one another, carry one another's burdens, forgive one another.
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  Speaker 1: We could go on and on with just the words
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  Speaker 1: one another. Are you catching this though? There's something that
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  Speaker 1: God has for you, but it's coming through this relationship
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  Speaker 1: with each other, right? The way we love each other
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  Speaker 1: flows from our relationship with God. So here's the question
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  Speaker 1: for you today. How do I obey the one another
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  Speaker 1: commandments if I'm in isolation? If I'm all by myself,
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  Speaker 1: if I'm doing church by myself, if I'm doing life
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  Speaker 1: by myself, how can I obey the one another's? Right?
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  Speaker 1: So I want you to look this morning. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to go through these few verses in Ecclesiastes. And if
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  Speaker 1: you've got your Bibles, I want you to look at
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  Speaker 1: this with me. It's in Ecclesiastes 4, and this is
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  Speaker 1: Solomon that wrote this, and this part of it is
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  Speaker 1: kind of related. It almost sounds like the Proverbs. It
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  Speaker 1: sounds like the same thing that he wrote in the Proverbs,
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  Speaker 1: but he says it this way in verse 9. He says,
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  Speaker 1: two are better than one. That sounds like common sense, right? Anybody,
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  Speaker 1: any kids struggling with math today, right? Two's better than one.
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  Speaker 1: Because they have a good reward for their efforts. And
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  Speaker 1: we're going to go through these next few verses. So
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  Speaker 1: let me just stop here for a second. Because he's
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  Speaker 1: talking about the fact that you need each other. And
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  Speaker 1: he goes through this list of reasons why. That you
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  Speaker 1: need other people in your life. Because if you don't,
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  Speaker 1: you will struggle with things God meant you to overcome.
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  Speaker 1: And you'll continue to struggle when God made a way
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  Speaker 1: for you to rise above. So he says two things.
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  Speaker 1: is better than one you remember uh back in the
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  Speaker 1: book of genesis right god made adam and he put
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  Speaker 1: him in the garden and what did he say it's
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  Speaker 1: not good for man to be anybody know the last
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  Speaker 1: word alone okay it's not good for man to be
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  Speaker 1: alone now why did he create him alone did god
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  Speaker 1: just create him and figure out it's not good no
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  Speaker 1: he kind of wanted adam to realize this too i'm
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  Speaker 1: not happy because i'm alone Now, he had God. He
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  Speaker 1: had this relationship with God. He was communing with God
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  Speaker 1: every day. God would come down in the garden and
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  Speaker 1: walk and talk with him. He had God, but he
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  Speaker 1: was alone. And God says, this isn't good. Man needs
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  Speaker 1: to be with someone else. And so he created a
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  Speaker 1: wife for Adam, as you know. But here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's the same for us. It's not good for you
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  Speaker 1: to be alone. Two is better than one. Okay? And
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  Speaker 1: here's the danger. In the world we live in, we're creating...
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  Speaker 1: A civilization that is isolated, aren't we? I can order
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  Speaker 1: food from my phone. I've never done it other than pizza.
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  Speaker 1: You could do that in the 80s, right? But that's
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  Speaker 1: the only thing I've ever ordered from my phone and
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  Speaker 1: had delivered. But apparently you can order Taco Bell and
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  Speaker 1: get it delivered. Come on, somebody. Taco Bell to your house.
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  Speaker 1: And you don't have to leave your house, right? If
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  Speaker 1: I need something, I love Amazon because I hate going
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  Speaker 1: to shopping stores that are crowded and especially around Christmas, right?
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  Speaker 1: I go in to buy my wife something for Christmas
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  Speaker 1: into Marshalls and that's the stupidest store at Christmas time.
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  Speaker 1: The line is all the way to the back of
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  Speaker 1: the store and I just want to buy a candle
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  Speaker 1: is all I want. But now I can just go
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  Speaker 1: on Amazon. and order it. I could get, now if
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  Speaker 1: I was young, this would be tempting. I could get
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  Speaker 1: a college degree in my pajamas, never leave the house.
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  Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with those things. Those things are
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  Speaker 1: incredibly convenient, but what we're kind of inadvertently doing is
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  Speaker 1: we're creating an atmosphere where I never have to be
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  Speaker 1: around other people. And you can see the effects on
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  Speaker 1: society if you go to some of these places and
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  Speaker 1: there's young people working and they don't want to even
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  Speaker 1: bother to talk to you. They won't look at you.
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  Speaker 1: They don't know how to have conversations with people because
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  Speaker 1: we've created a society that is isolated. So I'm not
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  Speaker 1: against those things, but here's my point I want you
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  Speaker 1: to catch today. Come on, we need to learn how
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  Speaker 1: to do life together. We need to learn how to
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  Speaker 1: be a church. How can we be a functioning body
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  Speaker 1: if everything is separated? If all your organs are laid
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  Speaker 1: out on the table and nothing is touching each other,
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  Speaker 1: you've got a problem, right? That means you're dead and
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  Speaker 1: they're doing the thing they do where they cut you
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  Speaker 1: open to figure out what happened. That's a bad place
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  Speaker 1: to be. I don't want to be like... God wants
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  Speaker 1: us working together. Are you with me? Anybody know what
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about? See... We live separated lives from each other,
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  Speaker 1: and when we do, we're missing something that God has
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  Speaker 1: for us. Last week, we talked about this conversation that
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  Speaker 1: Moses had with God about where he said, if you
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  Speaker 1: don't go with me, I'm not going, right? And so
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking about Moses a little bit, and there's
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  Speaker 1: this situation Moses had that kind of has always stumped me.
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  Speaker 1: I thought, like, why did this happen? But I think
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  Speaker 1: in light of what we're talking about today, I'm starting
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  Speaker 1: to understand it a little bit more. Moses, as you know,
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  Speaker 1: he heard from God, right? He led the people out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt. He's doing God's will. But yet, as they
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  Speaker 1: come out into the wilderness, he's having people stand in
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  Speaker 1: long lines all day so he could hear their problems.
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  Speaker 1: And he's trying to fix... all their problems and he's
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  Speaker 1: so he's doing god's will but he's doing it in
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  Speaker 1: a poor way this isn't the best way and so
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  Speaker 1: what happens is moses father-in-law his name was jethro he
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  Speaker 1: comes to visit moses and he sees this happening and
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  Speaker 1: he says moses this isn't good what you're doing isn't
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  Speaker 1: good you're going to wear yourself out you're wearing the
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  Speaker 1: people out nobody's going to be happy and he gives
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  Speaker 1: him the solution to the problem and but here's what
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  Speaker 1: i thought moses was literally talking to god every day.
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  Speaker 1: He was doing God's will. He was being led by God.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if there was somebody who was hearing from God,
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  Speaker 1: it was Moses. And yet Moses didn't know from God,
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  Speaker 1: this was the wrong way to do this. He had
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  Speaker 1: to hear it from his father-in-law, right? Anybody like getting
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  Speaker 1: advice from their father-in-law? He'll tell you, he'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: what you're doing wrong and why you're doing it wrong. No,
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  Speaker 1: I love my father-in-law though, but here's, but here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: Why didn't God talk to Moses? Why didn't God come
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  Speaker 1: down and say, Moses, here's how you should do this.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what I believe. God had something for Moses that
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to bring through relationships in his life. God
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  Speaker 1: has things for your life that he will not give you.
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  Speaker 1: They'll only come through relationship. They'll only come through other
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  Speaker 1: people in your lives. And when you get separated, you're
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  Speaker 1: missing what God has for your life. I think about Paul.
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  Speaker 1: And he told the church in Romans, in Romans chapter 1,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I've been longing to come and visit you
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  Speaker 1: because I want to impart some spiritual gift. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: a gift of the Spirit, but it was some kind
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  Speaker 1: of spiritual gift he was going to bless them with.
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  Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Couldn't God give it to them?
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  Speaker 1: Of course he could. but there's some things that only
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  Speaker 1: come through relationship. God has things for you, but when
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  Speaker 1: you cut yourself off from people, now I know I'm
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  Speaker 1: talking to the church and you all are in here
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  Speaker 1: and you're listening to this word, but listen, you can
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  Speaker 1: sit in a room but still be isolated. You can
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  Speaker 1: still have relationships but never open up to people and
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  Speaker 1: not let people into your life. And what God wants
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  Speaker 1: you to hear is there's things that he'll bring, but
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  Speaker 1: he'll bring them through other people. Now you need to get,
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  Speaker 1: let me just make a disclaimer. You need to get
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  Speaker 1: discernment because there are some people who will tell you
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  Speaker 1: some crazy things. Just like online, some people in person
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  Speaker 1: don't have a problem telling you crazy things. So you
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  Speaker 1: need to have discernment and understanding. I don't listen to
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  Speaker 1: every person who speaks into my life, but who are
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  Speaker 1: you allowing to speak into your life? Who are people
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  Speaker 1: that you trust enough to allow them to speak? See,
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  Speaker 1: because here's the thing. You can pray for healing. in
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  Speaker 1: isolation and you can receive from god i believe that
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  Speaker 1: but yet in james chapter 5 do we have that
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  Speaker 1: verse 16 we're going to look at this a couple
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  Speaker 1: times he says the last part uh or the middle
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  Speaker 1: part pray for one another so that you may be
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  Speaker 1: healed well wait a minute i thought i could just
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  Speaker 1: reach i got i thought i could go alone in
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  Speaker 1: a room and close the door and pray and receive
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  Speaker 1: from god you can't But in this passage, he says
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  Speaker 1: there's some things that will only come as you begin
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  Speaker 1: to connect with each other. Pray for each other so
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  Speaker 1: that you may be healed. See, there's this principle of
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  Speaker 1: sowing and reaping. Whatever you give, it comes back. But
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  Speaker 1: what you withhold, you are not able to receive. So
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  Speaker 1: he says pray one for another. See, sometimes what I
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  Speaker 1: need comes through somebody else. So here's my point. We
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  Speaker 1: do life together. No one walks alone. I want you
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  Speaker 1: to look at the next verse of Ecclesiastes chapter 4.
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  Speaker 1: In verse 10. So two is better than one. If
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  Speaker 1: either one of them falls, his companion can lift him up.
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  Speaker 1: But pity the fool. No, pity the one. Anybody know Mr. T?
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  Speaker 1: Pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.
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  Speaker 1: When you have someone in your life, they're there to
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  Speaker 1: help you, right? If you fall down, you can get
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  Speaker 1: back up and you go through, you know, all these
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  Speaker 1: different things, the scenarios. But here's the thing. We all
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  Speaker 1: have moments in our lives where we fall down, right?
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  Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be a sin, but maybe
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  Speaker 1: it's a sin. Someone falls to a sin and they
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  Speaker 1: fall to some kind of struggle they have in their lives.
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  Speaker 1: And if they don't have anyone to help them get
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  Speaker 1: back up, they stay down. And sometimes it's just staying
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  Speaker 1: down in their shame. And staying down in their sin,
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  Speaker 1: staying down in the pit where they fell, know that
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  Speaker 1: you need someone to help you back up and be like,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be okay. God's going to help you
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  Speaker 1: through this. Let me encourage you with this. See, but
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  Speaker 1: if I don't have anyone to help me back up,
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  Speaker 1: I could stay down. But God made a way for
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  Speaker 1: me to get back up. Go back, put that verse up,
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  Speaker 1: James 5, 16, one more time. This is why he
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  Speaker 1: says at the beginning of the verse, confess your sins
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  Speaker 1: to one another. Confess your sins. Now, I don't mean
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  Speaker 1: we're going to have an open mic up here and
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  Speaker 1: everybody come down and share everything you've done, because personally,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to hear it. I'm better off if
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. But you need to have someone in
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  Speaker 1: your life you can be honest with and say, man,
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  Speaker 1: I've been struggling. Man, this has been hard. God's been
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  Speaker 1: with me, but I need someone to pray for me
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  Speaker 1: right now. So that's why you need to have someone
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  Speaker 1: in your life you can be honest with, because what
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: happens is otherwise we tend to hold things. And we
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: tend to think things are bigger than they are. And
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: when things seem to get in control of us, no,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: he says you need to release those things because if
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: you don't release them, they'll grow. But you need somebody
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: in your life you can be honest with. I'm kind
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: of teaching you this morning, and I know some of
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: us have heard this before, but you need to be
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: reminded of it because God wants you to be connected
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: with others. Because sometimes in our lives, the tendency is
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to get separated. The tendency is to let things slide. Well,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I went to I went to that life group. I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: was part of this ministry team. I was doing this
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: or doing that. But I don't want to do it anymore,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and so we take a step backwards. No, God wants
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you to stay connected because if all you do is
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: come and sit in a room and not connect with people,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you're missing part of the Christian life. But he says,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: if you fall down, someone can help you back up.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And I think of fall here, it doesn't just have
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to be a sin. It could be a struggle. It
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: could be a financial problem. It could be a problem
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in your marriage. It could be discouragement, whatever it is,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: facing grief, facing some kind of trouble. But listen, what
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: you need is someone to lift you up in those times. See,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: maybe you say, well, I'm not going through one of
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: those times, Dave. I don't need someone to lift me up.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: But listen, there's people in this room who do. I'm
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: going to say it again because I want you to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: understand this. There's people sitting around you this morning who
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: are struggling. There's people sitting around you in this room
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: who are facing financial difficulties, facing problems in their home,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: facing problems in their life, and they need someone to say,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it's okay. I'm here for you. I want to pray
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: with you. I want to encourage you. in the Lord. See,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: we all need that at different times, but if we don't,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: if we're just looking for who can, who can fill
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: my needs, then it's a microphone. We just, who's going
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to fill my needs. Then we're missing each other. We're
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: missing the people that God's put into our lives. We're
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: not connected to the body. Look what it says in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Philippians two, Verse three, do nothing out of selfish ambition
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: or conceit, but in humility, consider others more important than yourselves.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Let me go back. Let me read that one more time.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: In humility, consider others. We could stop right there because
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of our world doesn't consider others.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: We don't consider other people's It's not really natural. You know,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: for a child, you have to teach them. Well, how
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: would you feel if that happened to you? And they
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: don't get it. Well, it didn't happen to me. You know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but as we mature, we start to understand, no, that
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: was probably a hard situation. I need to consider others.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: When people treat me wrong, maybe they're having a hard time.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I wonder what they're dealing with when they don't treat
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: me right. Maybe there's something else going on. But if
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I don't consider others, I'll never understand. But he says,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: consider others more important than yourself. Consider others more important
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: than yourself. This doesn't sound like a popular Bible verse,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: does it? You probably don't have this one memorized. Consider
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: others more important than yourself. I'm not even hearing an amen.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: That's okay. Okay. I'm just telling you what the word says.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I don't want to tell you my opinion. I want
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: you to know what God says about you. The guy
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: sitting next to you, you need to think of him
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: as more important than you. Let's go a little bit deeper.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I'll talk to Liberty so I don't offend anybody here. Okay,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I want you in Liberty. Look at your husband or
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: your wife sitting next to you. They're more important than you. No,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: they're not really more important, but he says consider them. See,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: God sees you equal, but as far as you're concerned,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: consider them more important than you. I think that would
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: fix a lot of marriage problems. Oh, how about your kids?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about your kids for a minute. Now I'll
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: talk in here. Consider your kids more important than yourself. Well,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: we kind of do that because we feed them and
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: we take care of them. But when they get on
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: my nerves, no, I'm talking to me. I'm preaching to me.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Consider them more important than yourself. That's how God wants
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: us to act. In verse 4, he says, everyone should
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: look out not only for his own interest, but rather
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the interest of others. Contrary to the world, isn't it?
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: The world says, look out for number one. Look out
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: for yourself. Take care of your business first. Don't worry
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: about everybody. Step on everybody else. Use everybody else. No,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: God says, look out not only for yourself. You need
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to look out for the people around you and make
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: sure they're okay. How is what I'm doing going to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: affect them? Hey, are they in need? I've got something.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Are they in need? I want to make sure they're
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: taken care of. I want to look out not only
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: for my own interest, but the interest of others. So
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: consider others. You know, if you consider others, you might
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: ask questions like, I wonder if they're struggling. I wonder
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: if they're hurting. I wonder what the person next to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: me has been going through this week. Have they had
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a hard week? I want to consider, maybe I'll even ask,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I think after church, I'm going to ask them, how's
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: your week been? You know, here's, let me just say
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: something that just, just side notes. You know, what do
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: we tend to do when we see people in the hallway? Hey,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: how are you? And what's the response? I'm good. How
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: are you? Have a great week. That's not connection, right?
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Let me challenge you. Ask a deeper question. How has
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: your week been? That's a little bit deeper. Are you
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: struggling with anything? Well, that's really deep now. I don't
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about that. Well, what about
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: how are things going in your family? Everything good? What
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to do is just kind of like, learn
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: about you so I can maybe I can pray for
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you hey here's a good question is there anything I
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: can pray with you about now I know you can't
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: say that to everybody you pass in the hallway because
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: you don't have that kind of time but maybe there's
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: maybe there's one person today before you leave this this
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: building that you could say is there something you need
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: prayer for today I'll tell you what I covet your
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: prayers and I know you covet each other's prayers. I'll
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: tell you this, this got me, I'm coming up on
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: 50 this year and it's got me just thinking back
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: through my life, right? Reflecting. I'm going to reflecting. I
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: think I heard someone say that your fifties are reflective
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and I'm kind of thinking back over some things I
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: shared with you last week about a situation when we
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: moved to Nebraska and we got this cheap little house
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and it was fantastic. It was, it was actually horrible,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: but it was fantastic. The I didn't know it was horrible.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: It was a big step up from where we lived before.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: You should have seen our first house that had snakes
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: coming up in the cupboard, and we had animals coming
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: through the floor, and we had cats that were coming
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: out of the vents in the house, which I didn't
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: realize meant the vent wasn't connected. That's why I wasn't
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: getting any heat in the house, but the cats were
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: coming up through there. So this place was a big
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: step up, and we had a guy that came to
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: our house one time because we had the youth over
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: at our house, and he came to pick up his
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: daughter who was there His name was Haraj. He was
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: from Armenia. And he came over to my house, and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: he looked at me and said, I'm praying God bless
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: you with a better house. And I was kind of like, whoa, hey, no, Haraj,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: we're really happy here. This is a fantastic house. He
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: didn't walk in. He just looked at the outside, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: it was covered with roofing shingles were the siding. And
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: it was pretty rough, a rough neighborhood, everything. We thought
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: it was fantastic. But he said, I'm praying God give
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you a better house. No, no, no, no, no. We
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: don't need a better house. And he did it. He got,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: got him mad. He's like, I'm praying God give you
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: a better house. And I said, okay. And I know
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: that man knew how to pray. And you know what?
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Ever since that moment, God has blessed us and praise God.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: We have, we have a home that's very nice, but
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: you know what? I, I don't credit it to anything
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: else other than that man's prayers because that man prayed
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: for me and I knew he was going to pray
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: for me. And I believe God did something when he prayed.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm just telling you that because I believe our
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: prayers are powerful. He goes on to say that in
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: James chapter 5. Your prayers are powerful. So pray one
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: for another. Sometimes there's things that aren't coming in your
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: life because we're being so selfish. We're praying for all
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of our needs when we're supposed to pray for one another.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: And if we pray for one another, you'd get your
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: own needs met. So stop looking out for your own needs.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Look out for the needs of others. Is this connecting
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: with you this morning? Do you understand what I'm talking about?
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: So there's two questions. Who are you praying for today?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Who knows when you're struggling today? And I guess I'll
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: add another question. Who around you might be struggling? Because
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: when someone falls, we don't want to walk past. We
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: want to help them. You can put that slide up.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: We do life together so we can lift each other up.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Let me keep going to verse 11. He says, also,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: if two lie down together, they can keep warm. But
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: how can one person alone keep warm? He's not talking
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: about your sleeping arrangements, okay? Let me explain what he means.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: He's giving an illustration, right? If you've ever been cold
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and and someone comes next to you, you can stay warm.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: And the illustration is you need each other to encourage
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: one another. You need each other to, in these moments
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: in life when maybe it's hard to keep going, sometimes
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you get tired, sometimes you get worn out, and you
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: feel spiritually cold. If you get around somebody who is
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: spiritually hot, you can stay warm. Now I'm not talking
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: about living off of someone else's fire with God, but
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about is those moments when you're struggling.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Those moments when it just feels so hard. Maybe those
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: moments where you feel like you're at the bottom and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: God's a thousand miles away, but you get around somebody
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: else who's warm and they can warm you back up
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and encourage you. And then there's other moments where you've
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: got the fire and you need to go to somebody
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: else and encourage them. But you can't keep yourself warm
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: all by yourself. Because if you're in an environment where
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: you're cold and it's wet and you don't have enough
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: to stay warm, you're going to freeze. But if you
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: get with somebody else, you can stay warm. That's what
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: he's saying. Learn how to encourage one another. See, sometimes
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you need someone else's faith to stir yours. You need
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: someone else's faith. You're at this moment where I just
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: don't feel like I have a lot of faith, but man,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I got around somebody else. And they started stirring my
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: faith up. Now I can believe God again. I can
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: stand on. We're strengthening each other. Are you with me today?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Come on. In 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, encourage one
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: another and build each other up as you're already doing.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: He's talking to him saying, I know you're already doing this.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Keep doing it. Because there's going to be times where
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: it's going to be hard. There's going to be times
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in life where life will get hard. You don't have
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: to like it. But you can, with the strength of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: somebody else, you can make it. Right? If you have
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: someone in your life who will encourage you, you can
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: go a lot farther. You've heard the old proverb. I
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: think it's an African proverb that says, if you want
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: go together, right? Go together, go with somebody. If I'm
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: traveling a distance, I can run a little bit for
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: a little ways and I can go a lot faster
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: than if I've got to go with. But if I'm
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: going with somebody, we can carry supplies. We can encourage
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: each other. We can talk to each other. We can
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: go a lot farther. See, that's what encouragement means. It's
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: helping you to go farther than you could on your own.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, courage, giving you the courage. So that verse said,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: when you lie down, you can share warmth. But here's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: what that means. You've got to be close to somebody
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: to do that. And here's again, the thing is sometimes
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: we're close in proximity, but we're not really close sharing
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: what's going on in our lives, sharing our needs, sharing a, hey,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I need encouragement. You know, you can sit in the
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: same room, but be freezing. But see, we're going deeper
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: than just showing up. This message goes deeper than just
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: showing up on Sundays. It's really talking about your life
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: throughout the week. This is a Monday through Saturday message.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Who are you connecting with outside of Sunday morning that's
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: going to encourage you? Who are you talking to? I'm
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: not talking about who are you, you know, what pastor
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: are you listening to? I know there's some great pastors,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: some good messages. That's wonderful. You need that too. But
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: who are you letting speak into your life personally? What
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: word are you hearing personally from one another? Look what
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: it says in Hebrews 10. Again, let us consider one
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: another in order to provoke love and good works. So
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: he says there's a goal here, considering one another personally.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: how I can stir something up in your life. I
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: want love to be coming out of your life. I
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: want good works, good God doing good things through your life.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: How can I say, maybe a word I can say
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: to you today that will stir you up to show love.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's something I can do that will encourage you
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: so that you'll do something that you didn't even realize
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: you could do. But man, I can go a little
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: bit farther. I can do this. I can't, and go
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to the next verse. Don't neglect to gather together. Now, again,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I know I'm preaching. You're not the choir, but it's
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: like the choir, right? I'm preaching to people who were
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: here on Sundays. Maybe there's somebody watching online. This message
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: is for you. But listen, don't let it slip. You're
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: here this morning. Praise God. Next week, the enemy is
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: going to come and say, you don't need to go.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: You went last week. Don't you listen to it. You
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: got to get together. Hey, on Wednesday nights, you've had
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: a long week. Don't worry about Wednesday night. You got
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: to take a nap. No, listen. Don't neglect it. Get together.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: He says some people are in the habit of doing that.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: He's calling them out. Some people aren't gathering. They believe,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: but they're disconnected. You can't live disconnected. Encourage one another. See,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: you're here. If you're connected, you can bring encouragement. And
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: all the more as you see the day approaching. That's today.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: There's a day coming where Jesus is coming back, and
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: it's going to be soon. And as we see that
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: day getting close, you better not stop meeting together, Paul says.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Don't quit meeting because the day is approaching. But here
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: it is again. Consider one another. Watch out for one another.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Encourage one another. Romans chapter 12, I love this. It says,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: outdo one another in showing honor. Honor one another. See,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: God's got something for us, but it's got to happen
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: in this atmosphere of a body. And I think some people,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: when I think about honoring people and encouraging people, there's
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: certain people I think about that are so good at this.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And I already called him out. Well, I'm calling out
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Bobby Kivett again, because this man is the most encouraging
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: man I've ever met. You know, sometimes I preach the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: worst messages that I've ever preached, and I get off
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: stage thinking, oh, God, that was so horrible. And Bobby
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: will tell me how great it was and what a
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: good job I did. And you know what he'll do?
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: He'll actually convince me that I... I thought, well, praise God.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: God said something. I don't even know. Maybe it was
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: really good. He'll talk me into it. Man, that was good. Man,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and it's just, I believe him. And listen, and I'm
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: not saying that so you'll come and tell me after
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: service how good I did. I got that. Bobby takes
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: care of that. But maybe there's somebody else who in
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: your life you can encourage. You know, maybe somebody, you
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: observe somebody doing something. We have some wonderful... Life group leaders,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: tell your life group leader what a good job they did.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Even if they didn't, you convince them they did. Because
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: what that'll do is they'll want to do it next week.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: And it'll be even better because you encourage them. And
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: you know, you've got some other people in your life.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe you're in your family, your wife, your husband, your kids,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: and they do encourage them. Man, that was great. You know,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: when I was young, I'm going to tell you a
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: story of why I'm not a worship leader. All right,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: it's a true story. When I was young, I wanted
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to learn how to play the guitar. So I got
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: a guitar, and I was playing, I was practicing, and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I was still learning, and it was pretty terrible. And
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you know how it is when you're learning something. And
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I was at my grandparents' house, and I used to
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: go crabbing a lot when I was out there catching crabs.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: And I came in the house from crabbing, and I
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: was messing around with the guitar. My grandfather said, let
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: me hear you play that guitar. And I played it.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: He said, you better stick to crabbing. And so I said, okay.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I put the guitar away and I went to crabbing.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: And I didn't really play much after that. And so
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: that's why I'm not a worship leader. But if he
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: had said something a little bit different, man, you're learning,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: but you're doing so good. It could have changed something,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the course, the trajectory of my life. And I might
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: have missed my calling for preaching and crabbing. And I
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: would be instead, I'd be a worship leader. And nobody
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: would want that, but that's what I would think. But so,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: you know, anyway. There it is. So, but anyway, I'm
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: thankful for people who speak encouragement. And I want to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: ask you, who can you encourage? Who in your life,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: who in this room can you encourage in their walk
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  Speaker 1: with the Lord? Or in what God's called them to
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: do or some kind of ministry? You know, I think
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: we should make it a goal every week. Encourage one person.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: You know, put that down as a goal. Who am
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I going to encourage this week? and pick a different person.
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  Speaker 1: Might just be a simple text message. Hey, great job.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: You know, some kind of word to encourage one person
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  Speaker 1: this week. But let God use you. Let him speak
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: through you. So here's the slide. We do life together
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  Speaker 1: so we can encourage each other. I want you to
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  Speaker 1: look at verse 12. This is my last part. I'm
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: going to start wrapping up here soon, okay? Verse 12,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: if someone overpowers one person two can resist him. A
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: cord of three strands is not easily broken. I didn't
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: mean the whole worship team lead, but that's okay. You
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: guys go. You play for us. It'll be nice. Listen,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. There
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: are battles you were never meant to fight alone. There
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  Speaker 1: are things you'll go through in life that God did
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  Speaker 1: not design you to face by yourself. When... An army
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  Speaker 1: is sent out. They don't send one person at a time.
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  Speaker 1: That would be disastrous because the strength is in the numbers.
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  Speaker 1: The strength is in the numbers. Listen, there is strength
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  Speaker 1: in this room because you're together. There's strength. Listen, Liberty,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: you're with us. There's strength when we're together. But we
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: got to stand together. Because if you get separated from
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the pack, you're an easy target for the enemy. But
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: you were never meant to fight alone. If you're all alone,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: you're an easy target. You know, it's easier when you're
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: alone and you're isolated. It's easier to get discouraged, isn't it?
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: And you start feeling, I'm all alone. I'm just being
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: attacked and all this different stuff. And when people get isolated,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: they start believing things differently. They would never believe if
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: they had people speaking into their lives. When you're all
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: alone and you start hearing the voices, you're not going
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: to make it. All these different things, the voices start speaking.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: to you. They're going to lie to you. We talked
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: about this moment, about a moment recently when Elijah felt isolated, right?
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  Speaker 1: He had gone and faced... the false prophets of Baal
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: on top of Mount Carmel. He called down fire from heaven.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: He killed the false prophets. And the Queen Jezebel said,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going to kill you, Elijah. And he took off
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: and he ran. Remember this story? He's hiding in the cave.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: And we talked about how God spoke to him in
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: the still small voice. But I want you to hear
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: what Elijah said to God in that conversation. We didn't
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: really talk about that last time. Look what he says
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: in verse 14. He says, I've been very zealous... for
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the Lord, God of armies. He replied, but the Israelites
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: have abandoned your covenant. They tore down your altars. They
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: killed your prophets with the sword. And he says, I am,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: I alone am left and they're looking for me to
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: take my life. He says, I'm all alone. God, I've
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: been doing what you called me to do, but now
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I'm all alone. God, I'm, but see, here's the thing.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: He was in isolation and he didn't know because he's
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: all alone and he's isolated. He believed a lie. And
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: God told him, it's not the truth, Elijah. I've got 7,000
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: people in reserve. I've got 7,000 more who have not
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: bowed their knee to this false God and they're serving me.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: But in the isolation moment, he believes something that wasn't true.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And again, isolation will lie to you. It will tell
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: you you're all alone. It will tell you no one cares.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: It will tell you life is hopeless. You can't do
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: anything about it. But when you have people around you,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: they'll tell you the truth. People will tell you the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: truth and they'll help lift you out of that. But listen,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: he says two can resist him. When you're facing a battle,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: you need somebody who will stand with you. You can
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: pray for each other. He says, carry one another's burdens.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: You need someone who can stand with you and help
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: you carry some things when life gets tough. And then
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: he says, a cord of three strands is not easily broken.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: You know, if you've got one strand, you could pull
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: that apart and break it. But if you wrap it
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: and you've got three of them, you're not going to
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: be able to break that very easily. Right? Right? And
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: this is what we want the church to be. We're
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a place where if you are in a fight, if
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you are in a battle, we want you to know
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: you don't have to fight alone. You are not alone.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: We're people who do. We are a people. Let me
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: say it this way. We do life together. We are
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: people who do life together. Our goal is that nobody
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: walks alone. Nobody fights alone. Maybe you say, well, I'm
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: strong today. I've got strong faith. Let the weak say
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I'm strong. Come on, I've got faith for everybody. Listen,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: you might have faith in here, but there's some people
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: who are struggling in their faith. Who are you standing with?
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Who are you encouraging in the faith? Here's what I
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: encourage you to do. Pray for somebody whose faith is
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: weaker than yours today. Right? You say, I'm winning the battle. Great.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Pray for someone who's struggling because there's some other people
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: who are struggling today. Don't keep what you have for yourself.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: God gave it to you to share it, right? Maybe
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: today you're here and you say, well, I'm the one
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: who's struggling. I'm the one who's fighting a battle. Listen,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: here's the message for you today is you're not facing
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: it alone. Don't struggle alone. We do life together because
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: you weren't meant to fight battles alone. I want you
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: to do this. Would you just bow your heads for
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: a moment? I'm going to pray for you. And we
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: need each other. I want to talk to you first
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: about the first thing that I think is the most
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: important because maybe you came in here, you're carrying something
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: on your own. You're carrying guilt or shame. You're carrying
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: the weight of your past. And here's the thing. Jesus
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: never meant for you to carry the weight alone. The
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: weight of your sin, the weight of your shame, the
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: weight of all the things the enemy tries to speak
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to you. So Jesus went to the cross. The Bible
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of God. But Jesus stepped into our place. He carried
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: our sin. He carried our shame, our punishment, and he
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: rose again on the third day. Today, the first relationship
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you need is a relationship restored with God. Sometimes we think,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I've got to clean myself up first. I've got to
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: get myself right. No, you come to him and he'll
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: make you right. You come to him and he does
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the work. You don't have to clean yourself up. You
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: just need to say, Jesus, I need you in my life.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Forgive me for my sins. Save me. I give you
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: my life. Listen, if that's you today, you say, I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: need to get my life right with the Lord. Maybe
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: you've never given your life to Jesus today, or maybe
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: you say, I'm away from God, and I need to
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: make my life right with him. Right where you are,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I just want you to raise your hand so I
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: can pray for you. I'll just wait for a moment. Yes, sir,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I see your hand. Anybody else this morning? Yes, up
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: to the balcony, I see your hand. Yes, I see
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: your hands. I want those with their hands raised to
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: pray with me. I want you to repeat this prayer.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: And can we just, as a body, just pray this
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: together to encourage these that are coming to the Lord
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: this morning. Say these words. Say, Jesus, forgive me for
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: my sins. Come into my life. Make me a new person.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: I give you my life today, Jesus. Thanks so much
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: for listening to today's message from Reach Church. If this
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: encouraged you, we'd love for you to share this podcast
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and leave a review. It helps more people hear the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: good news. For more information about Reach Church, our ministries,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: or how to get involved, visit us at reachchurch.world. We
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: love you, we're praying for you, and we'll see you
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: next time right here on the Reach Church podcast.