Latest / #Faith4TodayPodcast / Episode 70 of the #Faith4TodayPodcast – “Mashups”

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Episode 70 of the #Faith4TodayPodcast – “Mashups” · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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Your past doesn't get the final say.
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God does. In this episode we're going to
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break down First Chronicles 16 and what it means to live a mash
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up in our lives where our failures are storing in God's
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truth. All collide to creed something
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really powerful. We're also going to get real
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about what kind of man God is forming.
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It's not passive, not domineering, but faithful and
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present and surrendered to Him. You're going to hear how to push
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back against the drift of culture through faithful,
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present, and spiritual acts of resistance where there are no
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shortcuts to becoming who God has called you to be.
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This is a called the step out of the shadows.
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Live with purpose and build a life centered on God's presence.
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Are you ready? Let's go.
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Hey, well, welcome to episode 17 of the Faith for Today podcast.
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My name is Matthew. I'm your host and I'm really
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delighted that you are with us today.
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It's going to be a great episode.
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We're going to recap a recent message.
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I'm going to share some bonus content and then get in to some
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questions and response. And today we're, we're looking
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at this idea of mashups, how God takes our, our, our messiness
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and our mistakes and mashes them up with his grace, his power,
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his presence, his favor, and transforms us into people who
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live out just this radiant life giving faith.
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And, and that's our goal with this podcast actually, is to
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help you have faith today to not just be inspired on a Sunday,
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but to live with loyalty, integrating the truth of God's
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word into your everyday life. Like we, we, you get a lot of
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content, right? My desire is not just to be
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another voice out there. My hope is that this content
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allows you to think differently and and you can walk away with
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something practical, a challenge, a step, an
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application, something. I'm just going to integrate it
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into a pattern or a practice or or a new way of, of, of living
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in some, some way, shape, shape or form.
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All right, well, let's get into the recap then.
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Our first Chronicle 16 one through 36 was kind of our main
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text. And, and I walk through how
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Israel kind of gathered to, to worship as David brings in the
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ark, which is a symbol of God's presence and his power.
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And he he brings it back to the center of their life.
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And they respond with this powerful kind of mash up songs
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from, from different psalms kind of all into one moment of
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worship. And, and I said that that's
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really what worship is. It is a mashup.
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It's a mashup of our surrendered lives demonstrating something of
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devotion to God combined with the truth of who God is.
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And when those things all come together, it releases something
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powerful in our lives. What's striking is this moment
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comes right after one of David's bigger failures in life.
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He tried to move the ark, but he did it in the wrong way before
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and it cost someone their life, and David had to walk through
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the ramifications of that. But instead of being defined by
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that mess up, David repents, realigns with God, and now that
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failure gets remixed into a moment of just national worship
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and glory unto God. I think that's the big idea from
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the message is that I'm not stuck and we're not stuck in our
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failure. If I can surrender it to God and
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God will take what I've done wrong and turn it into something
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that brings him glory. God always is remixing those
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things. Then we looked at how this mash
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up life kind of plays out for for each of us.
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You see in David himself, he was a shepherd who became a king, a
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worshiper who became this warrior not because he was
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perfect, but because he stayed surrendered to God.
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You see it in Obed Edom, an ordinary guy who hosted God's
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presence and saw his whole life blessed.
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And you see it in David's mighty Men how how the guys who started
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out broke and bitter and struggling and desperate become
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men of courage and faithfulness because they aligned with God's
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presence in their life. So the call for us is really
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simple. It's not easy, but it is simple.
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Stop letting your past define you and start living a life of
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surrendered obedience. That's the song of allegiance
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that our life should be singing. That looks like tangible
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resistance to the way of the world through prayer, fasting,
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generosity, scripture, and celebration.
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Because when God's redemption meets our resistance, it leads
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to a life of renewal. And that's how a radiant,
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faithful life is really formed. I want to share a little bit of
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a bonus content, something that kind of goes beyond the message
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from what we heard in the message.
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And the first thing I want to share is this, that there is
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always a sacrifice of resistance that helps remix the song of our
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life into an anthem of Allegix. In other words, if we want to
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live a life to where the song of our life, the lyrics of our life
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is 1 of allegiance to Jesus as king and becomes this anthem of
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love and loyalty to Jesus, there is always going to be a
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sacrifice of resistance that is in the mix.
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That's a part of that song. You cannot live a life of
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loyalty and allegiance to Jesus without sacrifice.
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It's just just as that way again, worship to God is
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offering all of who we are as a sacrifice to him.
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This is what Romans 12 teaches us right and view of God's mercy
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offer your entire body. It's a living sacrifice to the
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Lord. It's it's this this act of
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resistance. Listen in our lives.
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We can either reflect culture or we can be formed despite our
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culture. See, see either we are being
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formed and discipled by the things in our life, or we are
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being transformed by God, by his life and and our life is being
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formed in a new, in a new pattern, in a new way of living.
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I've heard it said this way. You can either be a thermometer
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or a thermostat. See, a thermometer just simply
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reflects the temperature of its environment.
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A thermostat sets the temperature of the environment.
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And if you want your life of your spiritual life, your
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physical health, your emotional health, your mental life and
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health, if you want those things to be an environment of life,
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giving just refreshment of what it means to be a person of God,
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right? If you're going to do that, it's
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going to require you setting the temperature, you setting the
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climate of those things. And so you're, you, you could
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not to be too cliche, but like you could be hot or you could be
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cold. Being lukewarm isn't really
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something that God desires. And so like you've got to set
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the temperature, you've got to set the climate.
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And we do that through the practices of our faith, through
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the pattern of living that we establish through the the habits
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that the routines, the the diligence, the discipline that
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helps deliver a result that brings honor and glory to God.
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You can either go with the flow or you can create a new current.
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This is what we want to do as the people of God.
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We want to create a new current that that sweeps others into the
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Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God will
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always be a different current and stream than the culture
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around you because the way of the world is not the way of the
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Kingdom. It's just not.
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There might be some things that kind of overlap, and certainly
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the Kingdom of God is within the Kingdom of the world, but they
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are not like that. That's what what Paul writes.
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He says like you might be in the world, but you're not of the
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world. Like we have a different
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operating system. We have a different standard of
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that we bear and we live out like there.
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There ought to be a distinction. In fact, if everything in your
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life looks exactly like the world around you, you don't have
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a life molded by Christ. You have a life molded by the
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pattern of the world, and we don't want that and we don't
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want to live in that way. We want to live in a different
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way. And so we want to live with
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these spiritual acts that that kind of course correct, David,
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He made a course correction from when he messed it up, bringing
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the ark in. He redid his actions and it was
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costly. So instead of putting it on a
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cart, he had to get the Levites in to carry it on a pole.
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Instead of just singing and dancing, he sung and he danced.
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But but this time he offered like sacrifices, something that
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cost him. He offered bulls and Rams.
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And like, if you kind of pair First Chronicles and Second
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Samuel together, you kind of get an idea that it seems like like
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every six steps they stopped and they sacrificed well, that that
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was a lot of bulls because it wasn't like just six steps away
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to the, to where they were bringing the ark.
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No, like it was a couple miles. And so like they were, they were
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offering a lot of bulls and a lot of sacrifices and the cost
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of an animal. Just take the cost today, right?
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Like how much does 1 bull cost? Well, it's a lot of money,
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right? And you do that every six steps.
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You're offering a new bull and making a new sacrifice.
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That was a costly investment. It cost David something to redo
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his actions in a different way to do it the right way.
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There are no shortcuts to spiritual formation.
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There are no shortcuts to growing in sanctification.
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There are no shortcuts to growing in the image and the
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nature of Christ. Just because you prayed a prayer
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and receive Christ's righteousness doesn't mean you
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live a righteous life automatically, right?
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There's some forming, There's something that the Spirit does.
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It takes time to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
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But in all of those, there's some course corrections.
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This is why we talked this year. We're talking this year about
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like we can live a life of resistance to the way and
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pattern of the world through intentional spiritual acts of
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protest, where we protest the pattern of living that the rest
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of the world does. And instead we create a new
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pattern of priority and living in the direction of God.
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So This is why we talk about fasting and prayer and giving
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and reading scripture and celebrating something, right?
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Each one of these actions are spiritual acts of worship to
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God. That is in and of itself a a
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protest to the pattern of living that the rest of the world says
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to do. So the we, we fast as a church.
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Our, our invitation is that we would fast morning to evening
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every first Wednesday of the month.
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One day a month, we're just saying no to food and we're just
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going to seek the Lord. We want you to do this in a
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healthy way. We want you to take precautions.
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If you're, if you're taking medicine and you need to eat,
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please do that. Like, like there are some, some
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grace in this. Please don't be legalistic in
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this. Start where you can, but
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challenge yourself in some way. And so saying no to, to food
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says no to the flesh. Like living where, where we're
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living based on the cravings of our soul and, and our bodies and
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we're just, we are disciplining our appetites as a way of saying
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God. We are protesting our flesh and
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saying we want to live a different story.
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The second we say is to pray, that the encouragement is to
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pray and walk for 15 minutes one day a week.
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No technology, just to go on a prayer walk 15 minutes one time
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a week. No technology, no distractions,
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nothing. I just go for a walk and talk to
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the Lord for a little bit. That that the resist that's
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going to help your mental health.
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It's going to help your physical health.
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It's going to help your emotional health.
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It really helps set a different tone.
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I'm giving regularly helps say no degree that's naturally
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formed in you. It helps you live a story of
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service instead of 1 of self-sufficiency or selfishness.
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I'm giving regularly puts God first.
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It directs your heart towards God.
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And Jesus said where your treasure is, that's where your
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heart is. So many people I know say they
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love God but yet they don't give financially back to the Lord and
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so they're not putting God first in their finances and their
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heart is given and drifting towards other things and not
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towards God. Why?
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Because your money always leads your heart somewhere giving a
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reading scripture every day. We're reading scripture to
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reorient our minds and to strengthen our spirits to the
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way of God, to understanding the story of God, to understanding
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God's character. And when we read the Bible,
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we're not reading for personal application.
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We're actually reading to discover something about God in
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the text. And then finally we talk about
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celebration. Because if we never stop to
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intentionally just celebrate, throw a party, have a good
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dinner, be with people, have a dance part, do something to
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celebrate, we'll grow cynical in life.
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We'll grow really cynical of, of, of life in the way of all
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around us. There's a couple books at the
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beginning of the year that I recommended that our church read
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And, and there are two that I want to highlight that I think
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are perhaps maybe the most important for you to read this
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year #1 is the book The Body Teaches the Soul.
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And #2 it's the book Beautiful Resistance.
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Beautiful Resistance is written by John Tyson, and The Body
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Teaches the Soul is written by Justin Whitmore yearly or early.
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And I think these two books are really, really helpful.
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They help reinforce this idea of resistance and using our bodies
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in a way to honor God. And I think those things are
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necessary. Again, here's the big idea.
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There is always a sacrifice of resistance that helps to remix
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the song of our life into an anthem of allegiance.
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Right now, so many of us, naturally, our lives are a song
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about us and not a song of devotion to God.
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And if we can live with intentional sacrifice in a way
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that resists the way of the world, that's going to help the
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song of our life be remastered into an anthem of allegiance to
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Jesus our King. And we want to be a people who
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ongoingly are are are people who pursue God's presence like we
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pursue the presence of God. It is our our pursuit.
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Second thing I want to say is kind of talk a little bit about
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God honoring masculinity. I think God honoring masculinity
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is a life made whole and healthy by Jesus.
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We talked a little bit about David's mighty men and I think
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God is looking for men to be stirred up.
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Now, if something was interesting while I was
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preaching on Sunday, somebody got an alert on their phone of a
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from Apple news of a kind of an audio and an article that that
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that had been released that says something along like, why are
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men struggling so much in the world?
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Something to to that effect. That was the headline of the
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article. And I was talking in the message
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about how I think that the enemy has had a concerted effort to
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take out men to either to get them to be toxic in one way or
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another. And I'll talk about what that
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looks like here in a minute. But like this idea that God is
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after the heart of man. And I think God is trying to
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turn the heart of men back to children to, to be men who are
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fathers in the faith, not just men who are overprotecting over
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overbearing or disengaged or absent, but being healthy
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spiritually, being healthy mentally, being healthy
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physically and being healthy emotionally that that God is
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after men's hearts right now. And there's a surge of, I think
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a focus in the body of Christ at large.
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But there's a point of in in First Chronicle 16 that we read
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in one of the in part of the song starting in verse 25.
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It says this for the Lord is great and highly praised.
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He is feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are
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worthless idols. In other words, all of the gods
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that we would worship, all of the things that we give our
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attention and affection to that are not Yahweh, that are not God
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of the Bible, all of those are gods and idols and they are
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worthless. But the Lord made the heavens
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and the Lord made the the, the earth's.
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He goes. Splendor and majesty are always
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before God. Strength and joy are in his
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place. I think it's important to know
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that when you get into the presence of God, you get joy and
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you get strength. Joy lightens our mood, lifts our
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hearts, lights our burdens, and it helps our minds be be
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unburdened if you will. That's the power of joy.
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And then he says, and strength is his.
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What kind of strength is in the presence of God?
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In God's presence we get strength.
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Strength to obey, strength to be faithful, strength to resist
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temptation, strength to be faithful and live self
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controlled by the Spirit. So so we get joy, which lightens
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our hearts, brightens our mood and does something good for our
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physical bodies. And we get strength to be
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faithful and have fidelity to Jesus.
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And both strength and joy are where?
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In God's place or in God's presence.
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And verse 28 says this, ascribe to the Lord.
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And then he says specifically who should ascribe to the Lord?
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He's talking about families of the people.
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Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
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So he addresses family units and he says, hey families, hey
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tribes, hey people, I want you to ascribe to the Lord glory.
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Do his name, in other words. And then he goes on to say,
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ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.
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Bring an offering and come before him.
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Worship the Lord in the splendor of His Holiness, and let the
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whole earth tremble before him. The world is firmly established.
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It cannot be shaken. Here's what I think.
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The psalmist is getting at what David and the people were
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singing. Is that hey, households worship
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God, come and sacrifice and honor God's name.
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Be a family that ascribes glory to God.
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Is your family one that brings glory to God?
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Or is your family one that has neatly fit into the rhythms,
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priorities and patterns of the rest of the world?
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It's not to say that you're not going to struggle.
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It's not to say God is looking for perfection, but it is to say
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that God is looking for our whole bodied, embodied devotion
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unto him. And I think that's important.
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And he's speaking specifically to families.
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And in this environment, the families head has always been
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the the man. And so he's talking to men and
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saying, men, I want you to lead your families in God honoring
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God our own ways. But here's what I know is I
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think the enemy has had a concerted effort to shadow and
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throw shadows on men and get men to lurk in the darkness to hang
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out in the dark, to go to the sidelines to to not.
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I think darkness is trying to keep men lurking in the shadows,
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living a story of self importance rather than living a
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story of spiritual significance, one that is radiant in their
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faith. They just live in the in the
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shadows. And Jesus said in John 8 verse
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12, I am the light of the world, and anyone who follows me will
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not walk in the dark, darkness, but have the light of life.
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I think it's important for us to realize, men, that God is
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inviting us to follow Jesus. And in following Jesus we step
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into the light and in that light is where we find real life.
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We're not going to find life in the darkness.
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We're not going to find life lurking in the shadows.
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I think that there's a shadow of despair that we have to fight.
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I think there's a shadow of loneliness, a shadow of shame,
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shadow of lust, shadow of ungodly ambition.
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A shadow of futility, these just like pointless living and and
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often a shadow of just apathy where we just kind of give up
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and, and have no vision for life and we just feel like life is
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dead end. Life is emotional as we're just
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kind of going through the motions, but we are not actually
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finding movement forward. I think all of these shadows is
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this darkness and it kind of creates, it casts this shadow on
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men's life. And I think that we can find
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hope, community, vulnerability, faithfulness, a Kingdom, vision,
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a calling, and A cause like these are the things that God
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wants to awaken in His people, especially in men.
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Ephesians 5 verse 14 says for what makes everything visible is
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light. Therefore it is said, get up
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sleeper and wake up. Rise from the dead and Christ
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will shine on you. I think so many of us have been
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living a dead end story, a story of self importance, a story of
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self-sufficiency. And instead we need to discover
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a story and live out a life that is spiritually significant and
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healthy. And God says in following Christ
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and living the way of Jesus, men, you're going to see the
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light of Christ shine on you and remove the shadow of incorrect
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unhealthy masculinity. I said that toxic masculinity
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kind of have like 2 ditches. The, the, the first version of
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toxic masculinity that's everywhere in our culture is
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this hyper dominant masculinity where where we're kind of always
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talking about performing and power, performance and power.
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This is kind of a loud, familiar vision.
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It's all over Instagram, it's all over TikTok.
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It's in every ad that people are trying to sell something to men.
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It says this, that your value is in winning.
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Your value is only found in control, in status and in
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personal strength. Emotions are weak, so bury them.
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Relationships are secondary to achievement.
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If you're achieving something, that's really when you're
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winning and and you prove that you're a man by dominating life,
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taking it by the horns and winning at all costs.
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So dominate work, dominate women and dominate in your influence.
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This is this toxic idea of what it means to be a man.
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And so it's, it's full of aggression or intimidation,
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emotional shutdowns, ego driven leadership where you're treating
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life like a constant competition.
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I don't think that's healthy. That's not the biblical vision
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for what it means to to be a man.
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And and here's the problem, it produces men who look strong
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externally but are fragile internally because your identity
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is built on performance and not shaped on something more
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permanent. The second ditch to to
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masculinity that we see in our culture today is this passive or
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absent masculinity. This avoidance and apathy is
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what it looks like. It's a a quieter extreme, but it
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is just as damaging to the soul and to relationships.
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It tells men don't lead, just blend in or just withdraw, avoid
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responsibility if it feels hard, stay comfortable, stay
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entertained and just detach from everything, numb out instead of
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stepping up. It often shows up in like
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passivity in relationships where you just kind of like let the
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wife take the lead or you let other people make the decisions
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and you just kind of passively participate or, or be present
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and absent mindedly present it it, it allows fear of commitment
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to grow and it shirks responsibility.
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There's a lot of escapism, right?
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Endless gaming, constantly scrolling, living with shallow
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distractions of alcohol and, and and the weekend injure.
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It lacks any sense of direction or initiative, has no vision.
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In fact, scripture says that where there is no vision, people
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just throw off all restraint like they have no drive.
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There is no so we have a a group of of, of men who just have no
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drive and feel aimless and other people have a lot of drive.
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They just have no character, no substance, no, no, no real
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strength. It's all shadows of it.
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And the problem with this more silent version is that it it, it
24:57
tries to avoid harm, but it it also in the process avoids
25:02
purpose, it avoids courage and it avoids responsibility all the
25:07
way through. And neither of those are what we
25:10
want to see. Both are an overcorrection to
25:14
the enemy lying to us. And the tension is is found in
25:17
these two extremes. They seem opposite.
25:19
One says take over everything and the other says just check
25:24
out and it'll all be OK. Just don't disrupt it.
25:28
Just live quiet. Let it all go.
25:30
It'll be fine. And, and it just kind of lives
25:32
in these two, two extremes, but I think God offers a different
25:36
vision for us. God offers a different vision
25:38
for men. God offers a different vision
25:40
for every person's life. God is looking for us to become
25:45
mighty men and women of faithfulness, of presence, of
25:49
health and service, and especially for men.
25:51
And when I say health, I mean wholeness and prosperous.
25:55
I'm not talking about a bench press.
25:57
I'm not talking about a clothing size.
25:59
I'm talking about that there is a wholeness and a sense of, of
26:03
completeness and, and there is a flourishing element, a
26:06
prosperous element to all of who you are mentally, emotionally,
26:11
physically, spiritually. The Bible says that we are to
26:14
love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, these
26:18
four things. And to love him with all your
26:20
heart is spiritual health. To love him with all your soul
26:23
is emotional health. To love him with all your mind
26:27
is mental health. And to love Him with all your
26:29
strength is your spiritual or your physical health.
26:34
So I think we need to be physically healthy, mentally
26:39
healthy, emotionally healthy, and spiritually healthy.
26:45
And that is moving towards God's wholeness in each and every area
26:50
that we go. There are no life hacks.
26:54
There are no shortcuts to becoming a man or a woman that
26:58
God has destined you to be, to being a man or woman after God's
27:01
own heart, to being a man full of courage and boldness, to be a
27:05
woman who is not anxious or fearful to live this way.
27:09
There are no easy routes. There are no pills you take.
27:12
There is no Ozempic to kind of quicken the process.
27:17
No, no, there is none of that right.
27:19
There are no easy routes of being formed as a person after
27:23
God's own heart, character formation, spiritual formation,
27:27
a mental health strength. It all requires effort,
27:31
spiritual acts of resistance, intentional acts of protest
27:36
against the way in which the world wants to tell you how to
27:39
deal with your emotions, how to deal with your mindset, how to
27:44
deal with your physical strength, and how to deal with
27:48
your spiritual life. The world has a plan for all of
27:52
these, but so does God. And it's time for God's people
27:56
to step into God's design for these four areas so that we can
28:01
love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength.
28:06
We can love Him with all of our spirit, all of our emotions, all
28:09
of our mindsets, and all of our physical realities.
28:13
That's an embodied life of sacrifice and worship, and we
28:17
can offer our bodies, heart, soul, mind, strength, our bodies
28:22
as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God.
28:28
And that's a song of a life of allegiance to Jesus our King.
28:34
All right, let me take a few minutes here and respond to some
28:37
questions from the message content.
28:41
Here's the first question. God rejected King Saul because
28:45
he was not obedient. Truly, worship is essential, but
28:49
what about a Christian going through the motions of worship
28:53
with a disobedient life and unclean hands?
28:57
In a perfect world, this would happen, but the odds are it kind
29:01
of does. So how does an individual handle
29:03
this if they're in this pressure cooker awkward position?
29:09
Yeah, so solid question. I think that it's important to
29:12
know that honesty really does matter.
29:16
Hypocrisy is deceptive. So hypocrisy isn't saying one
29:20
thing and doing another. Hypocrisy is saying one thing,
29:24
doing another, and then claiming that you did the right thing or
29:27
you did the other thing right. So it would be like, hey, I'm
29:31
worshipping God, but I sinned this weekend and I haven't
29:35
repented for it. I'm going to pretend like I
29:38
never sinned and and just ignore it and I'm going to move on.
29:41
That's hypocrisy. But honesty is to say I sinned.
29:45
I want to worship God, so I'm going to acknowledge that I
29:48
sinned, come before God, get his forgiveness, and then continue
29:51
to worship. That's that's the honest of
29:53
life. This is what Jesus I think is
29:55
getting at when he says we must worship in spirit and in truth.
29:58
Part of that truth is the truth about us.
30:01
In view of the truth about who God is.
30:04
I think we will always keep fighting sin, the pull of sin
30:07
and the power of sin because of the presence of sin.
30:11
The the thing that Jesus's act on the cross and our trust in
30:17
his atoning work does for us is it helps us be alleviated and
30:24
justified from the penalty of sin.
30:26
But it doesn't did not automatically remove the, the,
30:30
the pull, the power or even the presence of sin in our life.
30:34
It just set us free from the ultimate penalty.
30:37
We're we're cosmically, we are not going to face each eternal
30:41
condemnation because we've been made righteous in Christ.
30:44
His righteousness has been given us, but that doesn't mean that
30:47
we don't still sin. And So what does that mean?
30:48
That means that while we're wrestling with the reality of
30:51
our world here today, that when we sin and when sin occurs and
30:56
sin impacts our lives and we get pulled to do the wrong thing, we
30:59
don't stop pursuing God or give up.
31:02
No, no, we come to God, allow us forgiveness to cleanse us, allow
31:06
us righteousness to be ours afresh and we move forward in
31:09
our life of worship to God. So we keep fighting sin.
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I think there's a difference between struggling and being a
31:15
slave to sin. Struggling in sin says like I
31:18
I'm going to win some and I don't might lose some, but I'm
31:21
going to keep fighting not to give in to sin.
31:23
Being a slave to sin means I've just given up entirely and just
31:27
let sin rule how I live in my life.
31:31
We don't want to be slave to sin.
31:32
We we need to we get Jesus set us free from that, but there is
31:36
a struggle that we will still have.
31:38
So let's not pretend like we're going to be perfect.
31:41
Our hands are holy and they can be lifted up as holy hands
31:44
because Christ's righteousness has been given to us.
31:47
So we can lift holy hands. We can lift honest hands,
31:51
meaning we can call sin what it is without justifying the sin or
31:56
diminishing the the the the impact of the sin.
32:00
Honesty is required and worship to be done correctly.
32:05
And I think one of the biggest lessons in, in my view of
32:09
David's mess ups with the ark was not approaching God
32:13
correctly. That was one of the bigger
32:14
things, like he didn't handle the presence of God correctly.
32:19
It was it's hidden sin or ignored sin that God can't
32:24
handle, he can handle and he does deal with.
32:28
And he's already been merciful to the sin that we confess.
32:34
He handles that like it's not a big deal.
32:37
Like like God has already predetermined what he will do
32:42
with sin. Either we confess it and he
32:46
forgives it and accounts it as righteousness to us because of
32:49
Christ work on the cross, or it's unconfessed and it
32:53
contaminates who we are and and that judgement will be heaped on
32:58
us in the end. So so guys already decide how
33:01
he's going to handle sin. It's not like a kid like he's
33:03
already decided. And so we don't have to hide the
33:06
sin. We can confess the sin and come
33:09
back to a place of worship. Worship doesn't mean you're
33:12
perfect. Worship means you're honest and
33:14
you're offering it honestly before God.
33:17
And that includes confession of our sins.
33:20
So we need to be better at confessing our sins rather than
33:24
to pretend our sins never happened.
33:27
Here's the next question. How do I actually move past a
33:31
failure that still feels like it defines me?
33:36
Great question. I think, I think we've all been
33:39
there. I know, I know.
33:40
I I've certainly been in this situation.
33:44
I think number one, I would say don't hide and don't justify.
33:50
If you're pretending like the sin isn't there or the failure
33:53
wasn't there, then it's still going to try to define you, but
33:57
ultimately getting beyond kind of a feeling or a thought
34:02
process of shame that's trying to define you.
34:05
Even though you've made repentance, you've given it to
34:07
the Lord. I think then it's a matter of
34:09
renewing our mind and allowing the identity of Christ to be
34:12
shaped in US. So one of the best things you
34:15
can do when you have failed is to repent.
34:18
Acknowledge it to God, God give it to him, and then give, give
34:22
it to the Lord asking for his forgiveness.
34:23
And then then what you do is you begin to act in accordance with
34:29
a redeemed version of your story.
34:32
So what would a person who's been fully forgiven by God do
34:38
with their life, with your life? If your life was fully forgiven
34:41
and you were forgot, how would you act in that way?
34:45
Start acting that way, and the more you act that way, the more
34:50
it forms and it and it rewires your brain to think about the
34:54
identity of who you are. So much of our identity is
34:58
shaped by pattern of behavior based on thinking that we
35:02
haven't changed. So if you want to get to the
35:05
moment where your failure doesn't feel like it defines
35:09
you, then start doing actions that help reiterate a definition
35:14
of you that is more redeemed. This is what Paul is saying in
35:18
Romans 12. And he says in view of God's
35:21
mercies, present your bodies. So in other words, in view of
35:25
the fact that God has fully forgiven you and his mercy is
35:28
new every morning, how should that person act?
35:31
If I've been somebody who's been fully forgiven and received the
35:35
complete mercy of God, how would that person act and then start
35:40
acting in that way? That's, I think, how we get past
35:44
our failures and feeling like a failure and not letting it
35:47
define us anymore. Here's the next question.
35:50
What does it look like practically to live a
35:52
surrendered life without becoming passive?
35:56
Yeah, I think we do feel like often times that like surrender
36:00
is a passive act. It's not.
36:02
Surrender is more about replacing rather than avoiding.
36:07
I'm surrender is saying God, I've been living my way, but now
36:11
I want to live your way. That surrendering and submitting
36:15
your ways to become his ways. It is this idea of actively
36:23
resisting a way of the world. So we surrender our ways and we
36:27
replace it with God's ways. We're not trying to control.
36:30
We are simply submitting and surrendering our ways to him.
36:34
We live with open hands before God, Everything in our life.
36:39
Imagine it in your hands saying God, it's yours.
36:42
How do you want me to live with my work life?
36:45
How do you want me to parent? How do you want me to do my
36:48
marriage? How do you want me to view
36:50
finances? What do you want me to do with
36:52
my sexual desires? God, what do you want me to do
36:56
with my hobbies and my interests?
36:59
God, what do you want me to do with my desire to experience
37:02
entertainment and relax and my leisure and my vacation?
37:05
Like, how do you want me to do on social media?
37:09
How do you want me to handle my daily routine and habits?
37:12
Like it's surrendering all of my life and offering it to God to
37:16
do it His way. It is not passive.
37:19
It is active in its replacement of something.
37:22
So surrender isn't really about avoiding.
37:26
Surrender is about replacing what we do with a different
37:30
priority system. Next question, how can I tell if
37:35
I'm truly centered on God's presence or just going through
37:38
the spiritual motions? Let me ask you a question.
37:42
Do you desire God's presence? If the answer is yes, you know
37:47
you're not perfect, but you're not really just going through
37:50
the motions. I think we get into trouble when
37:54
we feel like we have to feel something in order for it to be
37:59
meaningful and that's just not true.
38:03
I I can tell my wife I love her and mean it without feeling the
38:09
euphoric feelings of like the first time I said I love you.
38:14
Does that make sense? So so this is like the bilious
38:17
time I tell my wife I love her. It's still meaningful.
38:21
I mean it. I go through the motions of
38:23
saying it, but I might not have all of the euphoric feelings
38:28
every time I say it. But I still mean it.
38:32
And I still mean it because I still live in a way that
38:37
demonstrates that I mean it. So my actions determine my
38:43
meaning, not my feelings. My my motives do matter, right?
38:48
My motives aren't just to like do it to appease her, but I, I
38:50
really don't care. Like I don't say I love you, but
38:53
I don't really mean it and I don't really care.
38:55
I'm just trying to like save face and make her think that I
38:58
love her because I really don't love her.
38:59
I love something else now more or someone else.
39:02
Like that's totally that's wrong.
39:04
That's that's a bad thing. But, but sometimes we, we, we go
39:08
through the, the actions of worship and honoring God, but we
39:12
don't like feel it. I don't go to the gym or I don't
39:16
work out because I feel like working out.
39:19
I know it matters, so I do it. You're not going to be perfect.
39:23
It's not going to always be euphoric.
39:25
It's not always going to be some angels singing every time you
39:28
open the Bible. But like, I don't always feel
39:30
like reading scripture, but I do it anyways because devotion is
39:34
formed in our discipline. Delight always follows diligence
39:42
of pursuit. You choose to be diligent, then
39:47
you eventually discover delight. Discipline is what forms
39:53
devotion. In other words, I don't feel
39:56
devoted, therefore I'm disciplined.
39:59
I choose to be disciplined because I want to become
40:02
devoted. Your actions always lead your
40:06
heart and your heart is always formed in your actions.
40:10
And what's in your heart is is revealed in your actions and
40:13
what your actions do, it reinforces what's in your heart.
40:16
And so it's this loop of ongoing faithfulness to God.
40:20
Let me say it another way. The more you eat something, the
40:24
more you have an appetite for that thing.
40:28
Avoiding something and not doing it doesn't create cravings for
40:32
it. It doesn't create an appetite.
40:36
So the way starvation works is like the the the more you don't
40:40
eat, the less hungry you get and therefore you starve yourself
40:45
subtly. But when you don't feel like
40:48
eating, but you eat, then you start to get hungry and it
40:50
builds more hunger and it builds more hunger and it builds more
40:52
hunger, builds more hunger. So the more you live with
40:55
discipline just to do the thing, the more the devotion grows, the
40:59
more the delight becomes because you're diligent and the pursuit
41:02
of your in your diligence, the pursuit of the thing becomes the
41:06
delight of your life. It becomes what you hunger and
41:08
thirst for. So do it more, even if you don't
41:13
feel it. The the the actions is what
41:18
creates the allegiance. Finally, why does God's way of
41:24
growth seem to avoid shortcuts and take longer than I want?
41:30
Great question. The reality is, it is it just
41:33
takes time. Formation is slow,
41:35
Transformation is slow. Everything in the Kingdom of God
41:39
starts starts slow. In fact, Jesus said it like
41:42
this. As long as the earth remains,
41:43
it's sea time and harvest. This is what God said.
41:46
So in other words, everything in the Kingdom of God happens at
41:50
the speed of a seed. Everything in God, everything in
41:55
Jesus moves at the speed of love.
41:58
And love moves slow because love is patient.
42:03
It's long-suffering. It requires long obedience in
42:07
the same direction. Think about it.
42:10
There's something that happens immediately when, when the in
42:17
the moment of, of conception, right?
42:19
All of the DNA, all of the, the, the life, the very soul of that
42:23
that baby, I think bloom at the moment of conception.
42:25
It like in a moving at the speed of light, it begins.
42:30
But it takes nine months for a baby to be fully formed, a human
42:34
body to be fully formed. All of its systems takes nine
42:37
months, but it takes years for that baby to mature into an
42:45
adult body. Years.
42:48
Everything in life moves at the speed of a seed, so everything
42:54
in the Kingdom of God moves at the speed of seeds, time and
43:00
harvest. So it's how God set it up.
43:04
Slow growth is better than fast progress.
43:08
And it happens over time. I I've heard it said that the
43:12
way things work in the Kingdom of God, it's suddenly over time.
43:16
It's like suddenly it happens over time.
43:19
Like after a period of waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting,
43:21
diligence, diligence, diligence, faithfulness, facial messages,
43:24
boom, something breaks through and it happens.
43:27
It's kind of how it works. Why so God set it up so I don't
43:30
know why. I just know that it is.
43:33
And so I actually think there's something healthy about being
43:36
formed that way, something long term that happens in that way,
43:39
something of a fidelity that happens long term.
43:42
Because God is long-suffering as part of His character, and we
43:45
are growing in His character, in His image and His likeness.
43:49
Everything in the Kingdom of God moves at the speed of love,
43:52
which is patient and slow, and it moves at the speed of seed
43:56
time and then a harvest. Everything moves at the speed of
44:00
a seed. And so we wouldn't allow love
44:02
and devotion for God to grow in our hearts and our allegiance to
44:06
him in that way. And God is writing a new song in
44:09
your life and in my life. And our, our, our intentional
44:13
actions of spiritual resistance and protest man, they help shape
44:18
and form a life of God's love in US.
44:22
And so God's love and glory shines through us.
44:26
That's the song of our heart. That's the song that we want our
44:29
life to be singing. All right, hey, I hope this has
44:32
been helpful for you. Thanks for watching, thanks for
44:35
sharing, thanks for commenting, thanks for subscribing.
44:39
And thank you for pursuing Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind
44:42
and strength. I hope to.