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You Can't See Me | Yap Ken-ji · Generations Church

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Hey there, you're listening to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray that the
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word of God today will challenge, change and channel you into your God given
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destiny. Now let's get started. If you have your Bible, stick it
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out. Look. Chapter ten. Today's message is going to be you can't
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see me, right? They say it right, Yes, you can't see
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me. So I'm going to read from the ESV version. I hope it's
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the same. Now. As they went on their way, Jesus entered a
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village, and a woman named Martha calmed him into her house. And she
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had a sister called Mary, who said at Jesus' feet, at the Lord's
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feet, sorry, and said, Lord, do you not care about my
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sister? That my sister has left me to surf alone? Tell her then
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to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you
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are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary
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has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Amen.
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Cool. So, however, you have read this verse before, what
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can you observe from Martha's favor behavior? I hope I'll share some new revelations
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that I found through this verse. What can you observe from Martha's behavior.
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Okay, so when I read this verse as a kid, I think it
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was the same as well. So for me, what I realized is that
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as a kid in Sunday School, they always tell us like, Okay,
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be a Mary, don't be a Martha, and Martha is always the bad
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person in what they always look like. So then while I was prepared for
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this message, then I thought about my mom. Okay, so my mother.
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What happened was that one time she invited people over to a house because
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she's a very good cook. So she cooked pat me and then she cooke
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cock cock cock cook and then people actually came to hang out with her that
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she came to say hello, anti and stuff. So they came, they
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sat around the table there and my mom was just busy cooking panty and then
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she cooked finished idi that she started cleaning. So every time the guests said,
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hey, why do not you come and sit down with us and talk
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to us, then she's like, oh, never mind, lie, I'm
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going back into the kitchen to do stuff. Kind of reminds me of Martha.
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Actually, if you didn't know, Jesus came all the way to her
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house Jesus came all the way from don't know where to her house to actually
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spend time with her, but she was all caught up into doing other things
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instead. So this is the first point which I actually realized that for Martha
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it was the wrong time to be busy. Amen. So it was the
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wrong time for her to be busy. But my revelation that I realized from
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here is that Martha wasn't a bad person. Mattha wasn't a horrible person.
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Mattha wasn't like a person who doesn't believe. You know why, because if
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we actually see Martha's faith journey, especially in John eleven when her brother Lazarus
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died, it was Martha who actually confess to Jesus and say that, hey,
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you are the resurrecting King. Let's see John chapter eleven, verse twenty
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five. Jesus say to her, I am the resere direction and the life.
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The one who believes, and the one who believes in me will live
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even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in Me whenever die.
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Do you believe this Martha's confession, Yes, Lord, she replied, I
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believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God who is to come
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into this world. So Martha had faith in Jesus. Martha was a person
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of faith. Martha was a mature Christian. Martha was a person that already
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confessed Jesus Christ is there. So when she's all busy this doing all these
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things, it wasn't that she didn't have faith in Jesus. It wasn't that
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she doesn't know who Jesus was. She already knew. But it was just
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the wrong place. It was just the wrong time to be busy amen powerful
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stuff. So this is why I realized it is like us Christians, don't
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you think so? For me? I do the same thing as well,
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during the sermon, during place and worship when we're all like singing, oh
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yeah, Christ is our firm foundation. I'm not texting people and say hey,
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are you coming to church? Where are you right now? I'm there
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like thinking about other things like, oh, okay, are the chance actually
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organized properly? Is this person coming? Who's gonna fetch yes sua later to
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the arty station. I got to arrange for that. But I'm thinking of
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all these kind of things. Am I a bad Christian? No? I
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don't think so. But it was the wrong time to be busy. You
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know why, because Jesus came all the way, all the way to to
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meet us here, to meet us in our own lives. But what we
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do we focus on doing or doing being busy. Sorry, we focus on
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being busy that we forgot that we forgot that Jesus came all this way to
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work to meet us. But then again, we're just busy doing our own
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thing. So Martha, she had her experiences with Christ last time she went.
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And you know why, I know she had faith because faith comets by
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hearing, and we're hearing the world of God. The reason why she believed
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that Jesus was the Missige because she heard him preach before, he heard him
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declare these things before, So that whole time she was always consistent. That's
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how she got her revelation. But at the one time, that one encounter
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when she just came to the house to meet her, she was being busy.
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So here, so here's my revelation that caught. Can we not be
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busy? Can we not be too busy for God? Even though it's like
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the good things, even though it's things that it's actually permissible. Can we
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not be busy? And that's actually the second point, she's distracted with good
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things. She didn't do anything wrong. If she did anything wrong, like
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you know, she was like no, no, no, slapping a dog,
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yeah, then Jesus would have Then Jesus would have stopped her. Right
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she was saying, heystop, what are you doing right now? But she
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didn't. She was doing anything doing anything wrong. She was preparing the table
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for Jesus, she was serving Jesus. She was doing all these things.
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She was going there preparing the food, and so like my mom, she
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was feeding her guests. She was doing what she feels that we were supposed
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to do. But once again, that wasn't why Jesus came. Jesus didn't
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come to a house to eat. She just didn't come to a house just
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to like want her to do all the things. She just came to talk.
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I believe each of you here Jesus came here to spend time with you
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in your own very day life. She is the reason why Jesus came into
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your life, was justly to actually spend time with you. Amen. And
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here's the third point as well, which I actually really noticed. Martha,
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she was drowning in work because she made herself that busy, right, she
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was drowning work. And then she went to Jesus and she said, hey,
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Mary's not doing anything, why don't ask them to help me as well?
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So for us as leaders or as people in Chish for quite some time,
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do we feel that that? Do we feel that as well? Every
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week? I think, I come here, I set up this place.
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Every week, I coordinate so many things, and then like during place and
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worship, during the world, I'm like putting things in order. And then
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sometimes sometimes honestly, I also say, hey Lord, why don't Justine we
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come and help me go and organize this kind of stuff, you know,
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because he's like so good organizing things. Why don't my wife come and help
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learn the piano so that she can play the piano doing plays the worship.
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I didn't need to think, who's gonna play pano next week? Right?
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Why don't why don't die and play the drums? Because you know, she
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always only played keyboard and that's it. She could play more stuff, you
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know, why not? Why not they come and do all these things?
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You know, why? Because I'm so drowning in work. Right. But
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that's the thing I realized. I realized as Christians, we also have to
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acknowledge that God came to meet other people as well. God came to just
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because we make ourselves busy, like Martha, just because she makes herself busy,
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does it mean that she has the right to pull Mary away from the
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experience from God just because you choose to do the lesser portion. That's what
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you just said, You choose to pull people away from God. So,
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reflecting about myself, I also asked myself this question. Was getting those things
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done more important than letting people be in God's presence? Was it more important
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that I being God's presence? Was it more important that I continue to like
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sort of focus on God at this point of time. So those are my
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three points that I actually saw from Martha. It was the wrong time to
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be busy. That's number one. Number two, she was distracted, And
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third one, she tried to pull people away atus in. Sorry, she
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tried to pull us in. So let's go to question two. So what
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can you observe about Mary? Then when you read about Mary, what can
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you observe? First point about Mary is that Mary chose to participate. A
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big thing about the Christian life is that God wants to spend time with you.
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It's not just about the doing. It's not just about figuring out what
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can we do to make God love us more. It's not just about that,
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but it justus spending time to participate. Why do we do church every
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week? Why the Bible asks us to come together as believers. We participate
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because when we come here we support one another. We come here we engage
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with God. We come here we see from God. We come here we
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pray over one another. And when we come here, we support one another
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man even in your own daily lives as well. Why is it important to
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realize that you're not just a student. You're not just a person a young
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wy a doubt. You're not just a called campus student. You're not just
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a person in this world trying to survive. But you are a Christian.
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What does it mean to be a Christian? Is that you walk with Christ
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as Christ? Did you walk with Christ? Do you spend time every day
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hearing from Christ? You spend time every day hearing from God? Do you
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set a side time for you to even receee from God? I know there's
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people or even myself. Actually we always say that, Oh, doing well
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in my job is being God. Oh getting good results and an exam is
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being God. It is true. It is true. It is true.
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But once again, if you're doing that and you're not spending time with God,
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if you're doing that and you're not coming to gathering our believers, if
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you're doing that, not coming to a place where you can RISKI for not
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coming to a place where you can even pray for one another, then I
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would say that you're actually being distracted by good things. Those are practical duties,
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but that shouldn't take you away from spending time with God. Amen.
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So Mary knew there was time to receive. She knew sometimes. I think
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so one of my experienced that I realized last time when I was younger.
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I think it's one of the conferences, Rebel conference. I remember that I
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was doing sound. Yes, I did sound since I was fifteen years old.
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I think the time was about twenty plus years So I did sound.
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And then that moment, that's where I believe that God came. There was
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a little glimpse of revival. People were going out to the auto, people
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were being prayed for. I remember God told me the time, Canji go
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get prayed for, Kenji, go have you an encounter. But I was
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like, no, I think it's fine. I just stay back doing my
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sound things because you know who else is going to do these sound things other
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than Kenji, Because you know Kenji's the sound guy, right, So I
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just stay by and do those sound things. But I regret it. You
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know why, because I heard many testimonies and many people received their breakthroughths,
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many people received from God, many people encounter God even though just a touch
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from God, just a touch from the Holy Spirit, many people were revived.
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But I chose otherwise to do other things, and it will be one
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of my greatest regrets ever since. So since then, every time there is
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a chance to be prayed for, there is a chance to come in front
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to receive, there's chance to be in the house of God. There is
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a chance in the morning when I wake up that I can actually pray or
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even read my Bible. I will actually do that because I don't want to
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miss another opportunity to hear from God. Amen. So that's why I encourage
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you to do as well. The second thing that I realized for Mary,
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she recognized who was in her house. She recognized who there. Do you
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realize that Jesus is here? Jesus is in your lives. You invited Jesus
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into your life, right for us who are Christians, we invited that.
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But I think for me as well, I realize that sometimes I live as
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if Jesus is not there. Like I every day I go to work,
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I finish work, I start my campaign, so I do on Facebook and
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do stuff. I finish all those things. But I don't live as if
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Jesus is there. Sometimes I feel that Jesus tells me. Sometimes I feel
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that, oh, there is actually a little bit time that I can spend
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in prayer, but no, it's okay. I prefer to sleep instead.
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There's a little time that I can choose to to pray with somebody, listen
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to somebody's testimony, but I choose to sleep instead. I think it's because
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I didn't I didn't realize that who was in my life. I didn't realize
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who was who was the person that came into my life? Who was Who
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is this Jesus that is in my life. If you knew, if you
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knew, if you only knew that Jesus, if you only realize that Jesus
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is in your life, I think we will live a little bit differently.
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Amen, So for Mary, Why do I say that she recognized who was
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in the house. It's not just that she said in Jesus' feet, It's
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not just that she just go and, like you know, sit and just
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be the most participating. For one. In John chapter twelve, verse thirteen,
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I went in a Bible school, so they asked me to everything.
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It's a refer to the scripture, So I better refer to scripture otherwise be
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heresy. So yes, John chapter twelve, first three. Mary went to
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meet Jesus, and she and in this story, she took a pound of
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expensive ointment made of pure and art and anointed Jesus' feet because she knew she
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recognized who Jesus was. She knew this man wasn't just some friend. This
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man was the man, the son of God. She anointed the feet of
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Jesus and white his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
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fragrance of the perfume. She was willing to go to the extent to honor
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God. She was willing to go to the extent to just spend time with
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him. She's willing to go to the extent to just to show God how
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much she means to how much she means to her. To her, it's
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not. So the question is until we recognize who God is in our lives,
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I think I think we need to change the way that we live.
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Even for myself as well. I'm trying my best. I mean, I
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actually appreciate that extra hours sleep, but nowadays a I tried to sleep early,
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I tried to wake up in the morning, honestly, but my wife
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always like, clim me down, and she said, don't wake up solarly.
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She wants me to stay in bed. So if I wake up late
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because of my wife. Yeah, but but but I realized that if Jesus
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is real in my life, I got to live like it in men at
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that point, very seasonal opportunity. So this is my revelation Mary that I
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when I did some reading, did you guys know did you guys know that
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in in like those Jewish customs, right, these Jewish customs, those rabbis,
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they don't allow some people to sit their feet. I know we didn't
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know by Ba all the time, but they don't allow female to sit in
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their feet because in the Jewish customs, females are not allowed to teach the
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word. When you see that the feet for rabbi. You are the rabbi's
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disciple. So they normally see that the feed of rabbi to receive them rare
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rabbi so that they can actually teach other people. But they don't allow women
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to do that in the Jewish customs. So when Jesus came to the home
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Mary's home, she saw that opportunity, like, hey, nobody's here to
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stop me from sitting at Jesus' feet. She sees the opportunity to sit there
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and receive from God. She realized that she saw that there was an up
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perfect opportunity to sit there, weceived from God directly be close proximity with Jesus.
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It is actually not a common thing for them, but Mary sees the
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opportunity. So you know, you know everyday lives as well. Do we
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see this is the opportunities that we can actually spend time with God. Do
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we seize every encounter with Jesus? Do we seize every encounter with with the
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Holy Spirit? Do we see every opportunity we have to at it, have
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the encounter even Jesus sit in the Bible. So we will always like worry
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about many things in our own lives. Right for me, well, my
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dad just to share a little bit bout myself. My dad's a stroke patient,
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so he got he like sort of got a stroke, I think a
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few years back. So he's like on the bed every day. So every
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day what's on my mind is that I kind of need to pick him up,
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kind of need to put him down on the bed, need to feed
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him. I think I need to pay for bills at home as well.
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I need to think about in the future, what's gonna happen with my wife
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and me. Are they stally gonna stay with us? If they stay with
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us? Do I have space? Do I have to the capability? Am
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I going to have kids in the future. If I have kids in the
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future, it would be double the costs and I don't have to survive anymore.
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I have all these things in my head at the same time, past
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the d asked me, he said, you know, can g can you
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help out with sound stuff? And then I really want to help out the
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church because I love the church. I love I love serving, I love
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being part of all this doing what my passion. And then on my job
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as well, I work like two different jobs every day doing all these things,
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and every day it is just a cycle of just going through the motions
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of life at the same time as well as people need to fall up on.
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You know, the day I was just talking to Yeshaw about stuff.
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I texted some people just to find out how they were doing. I got
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a best friend who's going through a tough time in his marriage. He prays
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he coming. He calls me every day at six o'clock just to just to
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talk, crack jokes and just talk about talk about Pokemon and stuff. So
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all these things are going on in my life, everything constantly. Every day
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when I wake come in the morning, all these things are in my head,
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and I realize there's one thing that through all this true, all this,
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Can I see it is an opportunity for myself. Can I see the
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opportunity for me to actually be in the presence of God? Can I see
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is an opportunity for me to receive from God? And that's why I challenge
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myself to do every day. And you know, you know the Bible actually
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says in Matthew six but thirty one to thirty four, he says, therefore,
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do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat, what shall we
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drink? What shall we wear? For the gentile sick. After all these
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things and you're having your father knows that you need them all. But sie
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key, first, the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
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things shall be added on to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about
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tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient, for the day is
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its own trouble. When I read this, God reminded me and say that,
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hey, you know, can she? I know you're trying to honor
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me every day. I know you're trying to do all these things. I
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know you're trying to be a good husband. I know you're trying to be
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all these great things. But can she wait? Wait, wait, remember
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you are my child. You are the person that I really love. So
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wait, let me strengthen you, Let me talk to you, let me
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spend time with you, let me input in you. Because the Bible says
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as well that she's look is lighter. And that's what I received from God.
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And this is the greatest reminder for me, especially you know you know
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I'm Chinese, right, yeah, Asian culture. Great, God, I
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know that we're a performance culture because when I was young or so, everything
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is about your a's everything is about your you get a be your like date,
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you know kind of thing. Everything is about achieving the best. Everything
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is about your A plus right. Even if your parents don't pressure you,
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your friends will pressure you. So that that's in my mind. So for
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me loving God last time is how much can you do? How much can
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you sacrifice for God? How much can you, like you know, do
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all these great things? How much can you like are you? Are you
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a senior pastor of the church already by the age of thirty five? If
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not, your walk with God isn't great. How many portfolios are you holding
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in church? How many things are you doing in church? Are you just
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doing sound? Are you just doing sound? Oh, you're just a sound
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guy. After ten years your failure, you should be doing more things already.
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Are you leading a small group? Yeah? So that's my mind.
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In the Asian culture is about performance. How many portfolios are you're handing right
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now? Are you moving up the corporate letter? But this is the revelation
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that I caught puriously, especially on Tuesday, with doing praise and worship,
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and God asked me to go out and pray, but I didn't go out
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and pray. So I'm preaching these masses right now. Yeah, you know,
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God save me. Hallelujah. This is what God said, He said,
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Inefficients chapter two, verse eight to nine. Or by grace you have
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been safe, true faith. And this is not by your own doing.
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This is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that
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no one may boast. Your faith is not because of what you do.
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Your salvation is not because of what you do. Because because at the end
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of the day, there's nothing you can do. There's nothing more we can
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do to make God love us more. Can I get amen to that?
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So? I know as Christians we always forget this. There's nothing more we
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can do to make God love us more. He already loves us so much.
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He loves us so much until He sent his son to die for us
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on the cross. Amen. He sent his son to die for us on
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the cross so that our sins can be taken away ultimately, Why so that
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he can unite with us. So in Ephisius chapter two, verse thirteen to
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sixteen. So this is what I received that day, he says. But
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now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off from being brought near
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by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has
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made us both one and has broken, has broken down in his flesh,
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the dividing wall of hostility by a bla loss of love, of commandments expressed
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in ordinance, that he might create himself one new man in place of two.
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So they're making peace. Americ consult us. So this is the key
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one my work, consult us both to God in one body through the cross,
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thereby killing the hostility. God died for you to take your sins away
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because He wants to be with you. When I actually say that God wants
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to spend time with you, it wasn't just like, oh, did you
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know by the way, God wants to spend time with you. No,
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I'm not saying that. I'm saying God wants to spend time with you so
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much that he sends his son all the way from Heaven to Earth to die
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for us since so that he can spend time with you. The reason why
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we go to heaven is because God wants to be with us. Amen.
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So it's no longer what we can do. But on earth in our Christian
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life, do we make time for him? Do we walk with him?
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Amen? So there is time for practical duties there's time. There is a
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time for us to do all those things we need to continue to live our
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everyday lives. Right, there's time for us to get our good grades,
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you know, be a life in where you stand. You know, there's
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a time for those things. But there is also a time for devotion.
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There is also a time when you come here doing praise and worship. Do
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we not want to participate? Do we not want to lift out our hands?
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Do we not want to receive from God? If lifting up your hands
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will will He's a sign of surrender and God says, hey, I will
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respond to that. Will we not do that? If singing the songs is
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just a decoration and just showing God how much you want him in your life,
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and God responds to that, do we not want to do that?
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Coming to church? Although the time is tough, because when you come here,
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you can actually pray over somebody. When you come here, somebody can
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pray over you and receive a revelation from God. Do we not want that
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in your own lives? So well, when you wake up in the morning,
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well, I'm a gift you of this because I always open social media
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in the morning, trying to change that. But in the morning when we
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wake up. Do we want to receive a verse from God? Do we
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want that? Do you want to spend time with Got in that manner?
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Have you ever been instructed? Have you ever missed out in your life because
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good things? When was the last time you have an encounter with God?
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When was the last time you came out for prayer? When was the last
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time you properly could focus and hear what Jesus had to say? Maybe God
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has something important to say to you, but sometimes we just miss it.
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Do we recognize who Jesus is in our lives? Do we see several opportunity
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to spend time with him? Or do we spend more time thinking about what
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we can do instead. Thank you for listening to the Generation's Church podcast.
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We hope you have been blessed by the Word of God today. Remember to
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stay tuned by subscribing to this podcast For more inspiring content, do share it
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with your family and friends. Follow and tag us on social media at Generation's
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Mind. For more information, check us out on bit dot lea slash Generation's Mind