Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / A Pattern For Life Part II

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A Pattern For Life Part II · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

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First Family, I am so proud of our students for a number of
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things, but I just couldn't help but as I was, as we were
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worshiping, remembering even just some of the things this
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week that God's been reminding me of.
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And I haven't had a chance to go to every FCA huddle in our city
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and county schools, but I've been to been to several of them.
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And I'll be honest, I've been here almost seven years this
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July. I have never seen our FCA
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huddles and what God's doing through those in our schools.
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I'm talking about busting at the seams like they are now.
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So I showed up and I happened to show up at Woodland High School
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this past Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm losing track of my days.
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I don't know. It's one of them for their FCA
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huddle. And so I, the last time I'd been
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was a couple years ago probably and there was 15 or 20 students
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there. So I kind of expected the same.
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I'll walk in if there wasn't 100 students in the gym.
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I, I don't know how many there were.
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I thought. Unbelievable, right?
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Praise God. Some of you go to Carter's.
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Well, how many do y'all have at FCA?
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Because I know it's grown a ton, 80 to 100.
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Last time I was there a couple three years ago, there may have
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been 15 to 20. It's been growing.
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God has been. And by the way, a lot of our
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people are huddle leaders in these places, right?
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So you got Chris and Natalie, Teddy.
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Chris does the Woodland Middle School.
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There's like 200 of them middle schoolers running around at FCA.
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It's unbelievable. And then Blake Baxter was at
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Woodland high School. Blake, are you in the room right
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now? She may have been first service,
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I'm not sure. She's leading at Woodland High
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School. You got Donovan and Kenzie Tate
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and others at Cartersville High School.
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I can't name them all. I'm just telling you God's
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moving. And let me let me tell you this,
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and this may not encourage you older folks, but it should.
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But God, when God starts moving, do you know who he starts moving
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in whose lives? I'll tell you it ain't old
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people. I'm sorry.
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God's not done with it yet, I promise.
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But I'm just telling you when he goes to do something special,
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you watch any movement of God and you watch the young people
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saying, God here we are, send us, use us, move in our lives
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first every time. I'm just telling you, God's
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moving in our young people. I've never seen so many from our
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church associated with a with a merge weekend.
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I've never seen so many gathering early mornings around
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God's word. God is using our people.
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God is doing this community wide.
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Scott obviously leads FCA in Bartow County.
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Brandon Barnett leads it in multiple counties.
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It's amazing what God is doing among young people.
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Praise God. Let's pray that God pours fire
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on that, for it's a spread to be contagious.
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All right, I'm getting away from my sermon, so here we go
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answering the call of God out of Genesis.
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All right, we started this last week and our question is, what's
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God going to do to save sinners who keep striking out?
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They keep stepping up to the plate to hit the ball of his
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will and keep whiffing. What is God going to do?
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God tells you what he's going to do beginning in a promise in
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Genesis 315. The one is going to come born
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the seed of the woman, one's going to be born of woman one
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day. That is going to do for us what
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we couldn't do for ourselves. He's going to crush the head of
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the serpent, by the way. He's going to live a sinless
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life. He's going to die as our
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substitute on the cross. He's going to defeat death for
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us. His name's going to be Jesus.
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If you know the rest of the story and the Bible is all about
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pointing to him and his story of how he came for us.
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The Bible starts telling us how that promise of Genesis 315
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starts to unfold in Genesis chapter 12.
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And we saw that last week with the call of God on Abrams life.
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How through one man, God's going to bring 1 nation to who's going
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to bring 1 Savior of the whole world for all who would trust
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him as the Lord and Savior. But what we're also seeing, in
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addition to this call of God on Abraham's life and the
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fulfillment of God's promises, is we're also seeing this
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pattern of living that ought to be true of our lives.
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We're talking about how God's called Abraham and invited him
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into this pattern of responding to him.
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That ought to be true of us as well.
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So what is that pattern? Remember, God calls us and then
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God calls us to bless us. That doesn't mean he prevents
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all pain. It doesn't mean he prevents all
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suffering. But God calls us because he has
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good in store for us. And God calls us.
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God calls us to bless us, and then God calls us to bless
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others. He calls us to be a conduit for
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that goodness to be passed on. This is a pattern for living we
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are to embrace. And So what we're going to see
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here is we pick up in Genesis 12, verses 4 through 9 is really
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this pattern of living unfolding in Abraham's life and also for
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our lives continue to unfold. So listen to the Word of God
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beginning in verse 4 of chapter 12.
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The Bible says so Abram went and the Lord, as the Lord had told
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him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he
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departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarah his wife,
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and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they
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had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and
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they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
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And when they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through
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the land of Canaan. And Abram passed through the
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land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moray.
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And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
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And then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your
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offspring, I will give this land.
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So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to
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him. And there he moved to the Hill
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Country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel
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on the West and AI on the east. And there he built an altar to
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the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
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And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
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Now if you remember what God said last week, what we just
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read really ought to jump off the page to you, because God
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said go. And Abram did what?
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Abraham hung out for a little bit.
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Abraham said, God, can you repeat yourself?
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God said go. And Abram did what he went.
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God said jump. And Abram said how high?
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I mean Abram doesn't wait, Abram doesn't negotiate, he doesn't
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hesitate. Abram obeys right away, all the
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way. If we don't know this phrase is
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a church yet, I hope we do right?
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I say this a lot because it is life skill one O 1.
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God desires from you and me obedience that is right away and
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all the way. Right away and all the way.
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This is what Abraham does. Parents, by the way, God tasks
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you to teach this life skill to your children so that they can
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put it into practice with him when it's game time.
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I want you to know that if your children don't learn right away
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all the way, obedience to godly authority in their lives, do you
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think they're going to give it to God one day if they don't
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give it to you? The answer's no.
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The answer's no. You can actually study this.
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And teenagers, you're a little late for this, but it's never
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too late to make corrections. All right?
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But parents, young parents, listen to me.
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They say even people that are secular in their field but study
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human growth and development. Talk about a window of time,
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usually between the ages of two and four, two to five, two to
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six, where there is a formative period in a child's life when
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they choose how they're going to respond to authority.
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And if they miss that moment, it's very difficult to
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retroactively apply it to get them back on track.
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Often the discipline that's biblical, that's corrective and
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loving is needed in a window that's earlier than you think it
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is. Which by the way, and I'm
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getting off track right here, but I just got to say this.
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Which in our day and time, the parenting pendulum is swung so
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far. What you're going to hear is,
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oh, they're just a kid, or they're tired, they need a nap
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or they need a screen. I'm going to tell you what they
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need. What did y'all think?
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I was about to say, wow, maybe I shouldn't go there.
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I think you already got my drift.
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I'm going to get back to the sermon.
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All right, praise God for that. All right, so y'all know some
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stories in my own life, life skill, one-on-one parenting
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before God right away all the way obedience and and by the
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way, if God is going to get that in your life, let me just tell
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you what's going to have to be true.
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God is going to have to be your highest allegiance if there's
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something higher or more important are first in your
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life. If God is second, if God is
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subordinate, if God's not number one, if God is VP in your life
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but not P for president and CEO, then guess what, you're never
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going to give him obedience this right away all the way.
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You want to know why? Because you got another boss to
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run things by that maybe you yourself and I right, me myself.
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And I think that's how that should go.
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But you've always got something somewhere else, someone else you
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want to actually run it by instead of actually just simply
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giving God right away all the way obedience.
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Listen to Jesus's words out of the New Testament that
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reemphasize this. Matthew 1037 through 39.
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Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of
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me. Whoever loves son or daughter
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more than me is not worthy of me.
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What is Jesus saying? That you can't love your parents
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or can't love your kids? Of course not.
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But what he's saying is, if you got a greater love in your life
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than me, we've got a problem, because he's not.
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Am I your highest allegiance, highest love, greatest
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authority? If so, right, Jesus goes on to
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say, who would? Whoever does not take up his
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cross and follow me, He's not worthy of me.
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Then he says something kind of strange sounding, but it's so
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clear when you get it right. Whoever finds his life will lose
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it. But however loses his life, for
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my sake, we'll find it. What in the world does that
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mean? That means if you go looking for
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life in all the wrong places to give your first love and 1st
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allegiance and 1st worship to anything else other than Jesus,
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guess what? You might think you found life,
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but it will let you down because you've not found life.
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You will lose it. But Jesus says you let go of all
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those other allegiances, and you place me first.
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Let me be King, let me be Lord of your life.
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Lead and let me lead as God in your life.
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Guess what? That's where you're going to
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find the abundant life that only He can supply.
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And so right away, all the way, obedience is only going to
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happen if Jesus is your highest allegiance in your life.
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Can I just ask you this question, students?
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Why don't you think about this? Can right away all the way
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obedience happen in your life right now?
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Because Jesus is your highest allegiance.
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Moms and dads, parents, senior adults, is this even possible in
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your life? Life skill one-on-one?
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Because Jesus is your highest allegiance or something or
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someone else, maybe yourself on the throne that only God is
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designed to sit on. You see, God is driving
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Abraham's life. God is guiding Abraham's life.
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God is in charge and Abraham is following his direction and
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letting him follow the shot, called the shots.
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This is the pattern of the Christian life.
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Number one. God desires obedience.
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That's all the way and right away, but then the Bible goes on
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to say something really interesting.
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Look back at the text in verse 4.
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It says here, So Abraham went as God had said, go as the Lord had
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told him and then watch this next statement and Lot went with
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him. Now at first glance, that sounds
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really great like oh wow, the more the right it's a party.
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Let's let's all go all right, That sounds like what could be
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wrong with that. All right.
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But as we keep reading it, it's going to become more and more
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clear that this may not. And I'm using the word may
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because I'm just, can I just be honest with you?
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I, I may be wrong on this right here and God may correct me when
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I get to heaven. All right, So I'm holding this
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out humbly, all right. But I think sometimes the text
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tells us things without having to actually tell us things if
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we're paying attention. And what's going to come clear
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is that this decision for a lot to go with Abram may not have
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actually been a great idea. In fact, I honestly, maybe more
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realistically think this could have been a slight breach of
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following God's command all the way.
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He definitely went right away. But I wonder if this was not an
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all the way instance of obedience in Abram's life.
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What did God say to Abram? Leave your house, home country
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and and kindred, he said leave your extended family, not take
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some of your extended family right when you get right down to
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what God said. It seems that this may not have
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actually technically supposed to include Lot, right?
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But this is what Abram does and no pun intended, it's going to
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cause him a lot of that's a dad joke right there, but it works,
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right? It's going to cause him a lot of
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problems and it's going to just start compounding on itself.
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All right, I mean, let me, let me put it like this, whether or
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not I'm right or wrong, this is true of us.
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How many times do we know what God has said, but we put our own
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spin to how we're going to obey. How many times do we know what
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God has said, but we think we can customize it a little bit
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and improve upon it? How many times do we know what
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God is clearly revealed, but we're going to choose to obey
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our way rather than exactly all the way that God has said to
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obey, right? Abram obviously thought this was
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a great decision. He wouldn't be totally starting
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over. He'd have some family with him,
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a friend for the journey. He's old, right?
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He's he. He's beyond and his wife's
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beyond childbearing years. Lot was like a son to him.
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Perhaps. Maybe he thought his offspring
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would come through Lot. We don't know.
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All we know is God's command doesn't mention Lot.
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And then all of a sudden the Bible goes out of the way to
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tell you, guess who's going along?
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Lot is. That's interesting.
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I want to be very honest with you for a moment.
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If this is in fact what I think it is, whether or not it is,
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here's what I know. We're all me included, a little
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bit like Abraham. Here's what I mean.
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Many if not most I'm choosing my language carefully here.
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Follow me. Many if not most students, I
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want you if you don't hear anything else I say, I want you
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to listen real close to the next like 3 to 4 minutes.
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Most if not all of our could have been avoided.
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Problems are a result are a result of us not obeying clearly
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the revealed will of God in our lives.
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I'm not saying that there is not problems and pain that come into
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our lives that we can't control. There certainly is so many
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things we experience and walk through under God's Providence
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and sovereignty happen that we're not responsible for.
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But listen to me close. Many, if not most of our could
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have been avoided. Problems and pain go back to the
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not so wise decisions we make that we're outside the revealed
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will of God. Let me just show you a picture
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of that to try to make myself explicitly clear what that looks
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like. Y'all check this out on the
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screen. I, I mean, y'all know what's
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coming for this guy, right? And it's not going to be pretty,
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but he's doing it anyway, right? God has revealed his will so
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clearly in our lives that oftentimes we do some things,
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sometimes things so foolish, so outside the bounds, outside the
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things that we think are a great idea.
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You know why? Because everybody else is saw in
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the limb, everybody else is doing.
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This is normal. Pastor Kyle, are you kidding me
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right, but most, if not all of our could have been avoided.
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Parliaments and pain come from doing things outside the wisdom
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and revealed will of God student system.
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I'm going to get real specific with you.
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You may not like me for this, but I'm just going to tell you
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the truth, all right, Because listen, I long for you to
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experience God's goodness in your life, but it's going to
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take some sacrificial decisions to to obey the will of God.
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And let me tell you some things that the world just says and by
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honestly, the world just accepts as normal that it and then
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perhaps you just think, well, maybe this is the way my life is
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going to go too. They're going to put you saw and
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on the limb you're sitting on physical intimacy before
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marriage or outside of marriage. I get it.
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Everybody else is doing it doesn't mean you need to walk
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off the Cliff too. You'll save yourself 1000
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heartaches if you'll wait. I realize that's so unpopular in
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our culture today, but I'm just telling you, you're sawing the
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limb you're sitting on. If you choose not to do that, if
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you choose friends, your primary friends, and if they don't love
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Jesus, you are sawing the limb you're sitting on.
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It's going to fall one day and it's going to hurt if you
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choose. Listen to me, please.
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If you choose to marry somebody who does not love Jesus with all
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their heart, you are sawing the limb out from under your life.
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Do not, do not do it. If you choose persons, places,
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or things. My grammar teacher in fifth
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grade that stuck with me. That's a noun.
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Y'all get that person, place, or thing.
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She did her job. If you choose persons, places,
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or things to be involved in, to hang around or to participate in
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that are clearly not God's best, you're sawing the limb you're
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sitting on. Now let me say this.
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Lots of us have sawed limbs that we've been sitting on.
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Praise God for God's grace and forgiveness.
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Hallelujah. Can we all say Amen?
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All right, praise God, but let's be honest with ourselves and
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not, not not pretend, right, that we could avoid so many
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things, so much of the pain, so many of the consequences if we
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just set ourselves to say God, by your help and the Holy
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Spirit, help me to obey what you've clearly said.
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Praise God. If I mess up and get out of line
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or find myself in the ditch, God, you're there to to RIP us
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back out. Praise God.
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And many of you have Hallelujah. All right, have been there as
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soon as if you're there right now, God can pick you up from
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where you are right now and set your feet right back on the path
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that he wants you to walk. So don't give up.
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Don't walk away if there's breath in your lungs.
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Praise God for his forgiveness and grace.
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But a lot of times I'm trying to give some preventative upstream
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things before you get downstream of some things that could have
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been avoided. Y'all with me?
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All right, now, don't go to sleep.
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But that was my main thing for students.
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All right, y'all, It says here they set out for the land of
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Canaan. When Abraham gets to the land of
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Canaan and knocks on the door, he's expecting maybe nobody to
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live there. But guess what?
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It's full of people. God, you sure?
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If you know your Bible pretty well, you're going to find out
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too. Hey, God, these people pretty
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big. These people are kind of
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intimidating. They set out for the land of
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Canaan. Abraham's got to be wondering,
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God, this is the right direction, is this the right
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place? Is this, is this the promise?
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Abram's got to be having some questions.
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And guess what God does for Abram right when Abram needs it,
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Verse seven, look at it there. God graciously appears to Abram.
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This is what we call. Can I give you some fancy words
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for a moment? This is what we appear call a
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theophany. All right.
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That's an appearance of God in physical, temporary, visible
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form. This is more specifically not
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just a theophany appearance of God.
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This is what I believe is specifically a christophany.
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This is a physical, visible, temporary but very real
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appearance of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God,
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who by the way, one day, years in the future, will take on
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human flesh and His name will be called.
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Oh, come on now, they need to be stronger than that Jesus, right?
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This is Jesus before Jesus was born and named Jesus.
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Now, in case you either didn't know or forgot that Jesus has
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always existed, let me just remind you, John chapter one
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verse one in the beginning was the and the word was with God
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and the word was all right. And then it says in verse 3,
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watch this, all things were made through him and without him,
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that's Jesus was not anything made that was made.
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You know what that means? That means Jesus was the one in
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the six days of creation, speaking light into existence,
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speaking animals into existence, speaking all of creation into
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existence. That was Jesus, the second
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person of the Trinity, the Son of God, who's always been God
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and always been with God from eternity past.
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And then we know it's Jesus in John 1 because verse 14 it says
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and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we've seen
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his glory. And so this is what this is what
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Abram I believe is experiencing. This was I believe actually not
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just Jesus being in the beginning creating all things.
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I believe when God walked with man in the garden in the cool of
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day, I think they were walking with Jesus.
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I believe it was Jesus who was walking with Enoch.
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You can read about him students who walked with God.
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And guess what God did. I love how one preacher put it.
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He said, Enoch, we're closer to my house than we are to yours.
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So why don't we just go on home with me today.
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And God took him, right? This is appearing to Abraham.
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How did it happen? What he looked like, we don't
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know. We just, it's just very clear.
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This is the Son of God. Now you may read this and say,
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well, Kyle, my goodness, if I got a physical visible
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appearance of Jesus to me, I could pick up and go and obey
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right away all the way too. But God hadn't done that for me.
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Let me just remind you of a couple things #1 Abram did not
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have this right here, and Abram did not have the Holy Spirit in
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dwelling him on the inside either.
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All right, guess what? You got two things even better.
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Because if Abram was going to have any chance of obeying the
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specific unique will of God for his life, God was going to have
22:24
to show up and speak up. God has shown up and spoken up
22:28
in His Word. And if you believed in Jesus as
22:31
your Savior, He's given you the Holy Spirit to guide you in
22:34
every single specific, detailed decision of your life without
22:39
exception. Unbelievable, unbelievable.
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What we have is Christ's followers.
22:44
All right. And then I just want to remind
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you students too, that God still shows up when we need him.
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Now, you may not physically see him, and it may not be a
22:53
Christophany, but when God knows you need him, God will show up
22:57
in your life in clear, unmistakable ways.
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Listen to a story of a man by the name of Tyler Frazier most
23:04
recently. I love stories like this when
23:06
God shows up. But this, this gentleman was
23:08
interviewed on a podcast. He was a former gang member of
23:11
the motorcycle gang, the Iron Horseman.
23:13
I'd never even heard of them. Maybe I'm out of the loop, I'm
23:15
not sure. Anyway, they sounded pretty bad
23:17
when you listen to them. All right, so Tyler was raised
23:22
in a home by a father who claimed to be a Christian.
23:28
Tyler's father would raise his hands in worship at church and
23:33
then take his son home and beat him and even put him in a 55
23:37
gallon drum and leave him. The deception of the enemy who
23:43
was out to kill, steal and destroy is so depraved that what
23:48
he's willing to do in the level of deception.
23:50
Can you imagine what Tyler Frazier thought of Christianity
23:53
based on what he experienced at home and as his father did, that
23:57
would often quote Bible verses as he did it?
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Tyler Frazier was sitting in his shower after looking for life in
24:08
all the wrong places, ready to take his life.
24:12
And Tyler said, God, if you're real, if you're real, will you
24:15
show me? And all he said he could hear
24:20
was inaudible. It was internal, but it was all
24:23
he could hear. It was ringing in his ears.
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All he could hear was call Craig.
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Call Craig. That's not really what he was
24:31
looking for, but it's all that was resonating within his body
24:33
and his mind was called Craig and he waited a few days.
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Finally he doesn't take his life and he calls Craig.
24:38
Well, guess who Craig is? A Christian.
24:42
Tyler and Craig taught. Guess what happens to Tyler?
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Tyler gets saved. Why am I telling you that?
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Because it was just two words, but it was God showing up.
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God may not show up in a Christophany.
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He might not show where you can physically, visibly see him.
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But when God knows that you need him to show up, I can guarantee
25:05
you can mark it down. God's going to show up.
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When you seek God with all you've got.
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When you say God, you've all that I've got.
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I've got no hope without you. I need you.
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And here's the deal. What I want to remind you of is
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most days of Abram's life weren't days of seeing the Son
25:18
of God. He had a few that were
25:24
interruptions or punctuations on long stretches of life that were
25:29
ordinary days of simply obeying what he had already heard God
25:33
tell him to do. Listen, just to testify for a
25:36
moment. I can tell you in my own life,
25:38
99.9% of my days have been ordinary days where I've just
25:43
simply by the Holy Spirit's help, tried to implement what I
25:45
know God has already said. Some days I do better than
25:49
others, all right. And yet I can name you four or
25:53
five times when God is interrupted and put punctuation
25:57
Marks and shown up so clearly, unmistakably, that it was in a
26:02
way He started, He showed up, and then that defined the whole
26:05
next set or season of days that were very ordinary.
26:08
But when he showed up, He changed things.
26:10
When God saved me as a nine year old boy, God showed up.
26:14
I remember the distinct feeling of the conviction of sin in my
26:17
heart, the the draw that I felt to trust Jesus, right?
26:20
This was God showing up. I didn't see him, but I could
26:23
sense it on the inside. I remember when God was calling
26:25
me to preach and it was like I could, all I could see on the
26:28
Bible was preach the word and it was as if it was resonating in
26:31
my mind and heart so loud. I could not, I couldn't, I
26:34
couldn't, I couldn't deny it. I remember when God called me to
26:39
serve at the seminary I served and y'all, I can remember where
26:42
I was and the passages I was reading when God called me to
26:45
serve CFBC, a senior pastor I can name on just just about one
26:50
hand at times. Now God has spoken to me in all
26:52
sorts of other ways and sometimes daily ways.
26:54
But I'm talking about when it's like this, unmistakable, I'm
26:57
talking about radical, like, Oh my goodness, this is undeniable.
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God showed up. This is what Abraham's
27:02
experiencing. God will do the same for you
27:04
when he knows that's what you need, but the majority of your
27:08
days are going to be ordinary days of seeking to implement the
27:12
obedience to the word of God that you've already heard.
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What does pre Incarnate Jesus say to Abraham?
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He says to your offspring, I will give this land.
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This is huge because remember when God said go, he didn't say
27:25
go where? Now God's fulfilling his promise
27:28
that he said, I will show you. Now He's showing him, this is
27:31
the land, Abraham. God is making good on his
27:34
promise. This is what God does.
27:35
So God desires obedience. That's right away all the way #2
27:39
if you're taking notes. God is faithful.
27:41
Despite our lack of faithfulness.
27:43
God remains faithful. Hallelujah.
27:45
Praise God despite our lack of faithfulness.
27:50
Abraham then does what you would expect him to do in response to
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God's faithfulness. Notice Abraham worships.
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He worships by building an altar.
27:58
In fact, he builds 2 here. If you remember, if you don't
28:01
know what an altar is, it would be like a square raised platform
28:06
on which to place animals for sacrifice to God.
28:10
All right, so this is what Abraham does.
28:12
He's building an altar in which to worship and call on the name
28:16
of the Lord. Remember, there's no sanctuary,
28:19
there's no temple, there's no Tabernacle.
28:21
There's no church building or designated place where God has
28:24
instructed people to worship at this point.
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This is kind of helpful to remember that before sin entered
28:30
the world, God and man walk together in perfect fellowship,
28:33
and sin was not a barrier to man and God.
28:35
What a day that must have been. What a day that will be one day,
28:38
by the way, when that's fully taken away.
28:42
So sin was not a problem, but then Adam and Eve sin, and guess
28:46
who makes the first sacrifice? Because the Bible says without
28:49
the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.
28:52
Guess who makes the first sacrifice back in the garden?
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God does provides animal skins as a sacrifice and a covering
28:59
for them. So now a man's having to live
29:01
with this sin issue and the sacrificial system comes in
29:04
right where Abraham starts making sacrifices to worship
29:07
God. This will lead to the Tabernacle
29:10
and the temple and the Old Testament sacrificial system
29:13
which Fast forward will lead to the final altar that is raised
29:18
on earth for the final ultimate full complete sacrifice for sin.
29:22
It was called starts with the CA.
29:23
What a cross where Jesus, the final Lamb of God, the perfect
29:33
Son of God, was placed on that altar of that cross for you and
29:39
for me, for my sin and for yours.
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Why? Because an animal never could
29:43
quite cut it. One just like us, but without
29:47
sin, had to pay my sin debt and yours.
29:50
And this is what Jesus did on the cross for you and for me.
29:53
And this is where Jesus died for what you've done and what I've
29:56
done. And Jesus went to the grave
29:59
tasting death. And Jesus walked out alive so he
30:01
could offer you and me life forever, forgiveness forever.
30:06
I pray. And I just want to say right
30:08
now, if you've never trusted Jesus as your Lord and as your
30:12
Savior for life and forgiveness and hope and eternal life, you
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can call on Jesus right now to do that.
30:19
He is the Lamb of God. The Bible says who takes away
30:22
the sin of the world. That includes your sin and mine.
30:24
And the Bible just says you have to ask for it in faith.
30:27
You have to ask. Call on Him to ask.
30:29
Say God, I'm yours, take my sin. He gives you his righteousness.
30:35
What in exchange, by the way, that means we no longer have a
30:40
need for animal sacrifices. You know, the kind of sacrifice
30:42
God ask of you every single day is not a dead animal, but it is
30:49
a living you. It is a living you, a living
30:54
sacrifice. Romans 12/1 Therefore, in view
30:56
of the mercies of God, in light of all God's done for you and
30:58
for me, He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, I'm getting
31:01
King James only because that's why I memorized it so.
31:04
All for your bodies as living sacrifices which are holy and
31:08
acceptable unto me, which is your spiritual act of worship.
31:11
So the students listen to me every day.
31:13
God wants you to wake up and the Bible puts it like this.
31:16
Take up your cross, that is put yourself on the altar, saying no
31:21
to you as the boss and no to you as your highest allegiance and
31:24
yes to God as your highest allegiance and offering your
31:26
right away all the way obedience as a pattern of life because of
31:30
God's faithfulness to his promises to you, especially his
31:33
Son Jesus, and saying, God, my life is to be lived for you
31:36
today by your help. Help me.
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Let it be. Lord, I just want you to think
31:42
about for a moment when we gather for worship too, what
31:43
this looks like in the life of the church, because oftentimes
31:47
we might think of this as first and foremost a stage, but I
31:50
don't want you to think of it that way because there's no
31:53
human performance. This happening here when we
31:56
gather for worship. Oh, there's human activity, but
31:59
it's not a performance. So when our people stand here to
32:02
worship and lift their voices in song, they're standing here at a
32:06
place that we often refer to as an altar, if you will, to lead
32:10
us in offering what in worship to God, our songs and our
32:14
voices, we're lifting from this place as living sacrifices.
32:17
And then, yes, a man stands here most of the time.
32:20
Me to proclaim the word of God, which points us to who the
32:24
living word of God because he's the one that has been on the
32:28
altar for us and we are now seeking to live our lives on the
32:31
altar every day for for him. This is why in the invitation
32:36
and response time, I'll often say use these steps as an altar
32:39
to put yourself as a living sacrifice to say God, I'm here
32:43
to make a decision and worship and an obedience to you.
32:48
This is often the way we refer to it as God calls us to live as
32:52
a living sacrifice. So here's the deal.
32:53
God desires right away all the way obedience.
32:56
God is faithful despite our lack of faithfulness. 3rd and
32:58
finally, God made us watch this pattern to worship Him, depend
33:03
on Him, and follow him. God made us to worship him,
33:07
depend on him, and follow Him. You can't help but see here, as
33:10
you read this chapter of the Bible, that Abraham's on a
33:13
journey. He doesn't have all the details,
33:15
He doesn't have all the answers. He doesn't have every step,
33:18
right? He's got to be dealing.
33:20
I just want you to think about the level of uncertainty that
33:23
Abraham's got to be dealing with.
33:24
God, you've told me to move here.
33:26
You said this is the land. God, there's a lot of people
33:29
here. God, you said you're going to
33:30
give me biological offspring. God, I don't know if you
33:32
remember my age or the age of my wife specifically, but God, this
33:35
is not looking good, right? I mean, Abra's got to be
33:40
wondering. God, this isn't quite making
33:43
sense. Abram is daily facing all the
33:49
uncertainties of life. Every single day does that.
33:51
Does that not sound like life and living for us too?
33:55
Every single day you wake up and face uncertainties, unanswered
33:59
questions. You don't know all the steps.
34:01
But guess what? God gives you the next one that
34:03
you need. And maybe the next one seems
34:05
impossible. And maybe it totally is without
34:08
God's intervention. But that's exactly where Abraham
34:10
is. So what does God expect of us to
34:13
live out this pattern? We don't have all the answers.
34:15
We don't know the next step. When maybe life looks
34:17
impossible, what does God ask of us?
34:19
Well, look at Abram. What does he do #1 He worships
34:23
God. God calls you and me, in the
34:26
face of all the uncertainties and unanswered questions of
34:29
life, to worship Him. You know how the Bible puts in
34:31
the New Testament? Seek first the Kingdom of God.
34:35
Wait, you don't. You're not going to have all the
34:37
answers. You're not going to always know
34:38
the next step. But you know what?
34:40
God calls you to do that cause you to worship.
34:44
God calls you to honor him that cause you to put your eyes on
34:48
Him and trust #2 Abram calls on God's name.
34:52
God calls us to call on his name to walk and talk in a personal
34:57
relationship with Him. Like second, Peter says to grow
34:59
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ in that
35:02
relationship with him as our Lord and Savior, growing and
35:06
walking with him as we worship him and call on him.
35:09
And 3rd and finally, Abram followed God's lead and God
35:13
caused us to follow his lead. I love the way the New Testament
35:17
says it says walk by the Spirit. You know, the Bible couldn't say
35:20
walk by the Spirit to Abram because he didn't have the Holy
35:23
Spirit indwelling him. If you're a Christ follower, you
35:25
do. And so we walk in sensitivity to
35:29
the Holy Spirit. But guess what?
35:30
If you're not worshipping God, if you're not calling on the
35:32
name of God, you won't know how to recognize the voice of the
35:35
Holy Spirit of God. These three go together.
35:38
They're a pattern of life to embrace, a pattern of living
35:42
despite all of life's uncertainties, right?
35:45
God desires your worship, your dependence, and your obedience.
35:49
Finally, in your notes you see some blanks.
35:51
Here I'm going to give them to you.
35:52
When you do life God's way, When you do life God's way, life is
35:56
good because God is good. When you do life God's way, God,
36:00
life is good because God is good.
36:02
I didn't say life will be pain free.
36:04
I didn't say it'll be perfect, but I said it'll be good because
36:08
God is good. John and praise team are about
36:12
to come out. And I was thinking about this
36:16
this week as I was processing this text and studying for
36:20
today, I remembered something my mother used to say often when I
36:23
was a kid. She would often when we'd run
36:26
errands, when we'd go to Walmart, we'd find our way back
36:29
to the sewing section, you know, where they had like all the
36:32
fabric wrapped around those things.
36:33
And my mom used to sew and she still does to some degree.
36:37
But I just hear my mother say I need to pick a pattern.
36:41
Any of y'all done that before? That took me a while to really
36:45
figure out what that meant because that was usually my
36:47
excuse to try to, you know, scoot over to the hunting
36:50
section or something in Walmart and then find her after she got
36:53
done with the cloth and the pattern picking.
36:57
You are picking a pattern that you're living right now.
37:01
You've picked a pattern. I don't know that pattern, but
37:06
but but God does. And you may know that pattern
37:09
real well. You may not really know that
37:11
pattern real well. You may be thinking, man, I need
37:13
to think about my pattern. But you've picked 1.
37:17
The question is, is it God's revealed one or have you
37:23
customized it, retweaked it to your liking, You know, put your
37:29
spin on it, justified it. So oh God, this God certainly
37:32
wouldn't mind me doing it like this.
37:37
You saw it on the limb you're sitting on at all.
37:41
Maybe you're like Kyle. I'm not sure.
37:42
Maybe maybe I need to ask God. And that's what I'd encourage
37:45
you to do. God, what pattern am I living?
37:47
Where am I sawing on the limb that I'm sitting on?
37:51
Students, what is it that maybe you're flirting with right now
37:53
that God's calling you back from to save you 1000 heartaches?
37:58
If you'll embrace this pattern, maybe you need to give your life
38:02
to Christ. Maybe you need to lay something
38:05
on the altar as a living sacrifice.
38:08
I don't know what it is, but I'm going to invite you to, I'm
38:10
going to invite you to say yes to Jesus by faith.
38:12
I'm going to pray that I'm going to invite you to stand and we're
38:14
going to respond. Heavenly Father, I want to pray
38:17
and I pray especially for these students and I pray for all of
38:19
us gathered with them today that you would have your way in their
38:23
lives. You would have your way in our
38:24
lives. God, I thank you for what you're
38:25
doing among them. I think they're boldly taking
38:28
steps of faith to live for Jesus, unlike I have seen in
38:30
generations. Lord, God, you're working.
38:33
God, I pray that you'd have your way in our lives in this next
38:36
few moments, that we give our lives and hearts to you as
38:39
living sacrifices for you to be honored, you to be worshipped,
38:42
and us to walk in your goodness And Jesus, I pray, Amen.