Latest / Generations Church / Yes, God Series - Part 2: Saying Yes To God | Andy Yeoh

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Yes, God Series - Part 2: Saying Yes To God | Andy Yeoh · Generations Church

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  Hello there, Welcome to Generations Church podcasts. We're so glad you're listening to
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  this message. We hope you'll be inspired to grow in your faith in God.
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  Enjoy the message Godless. We started a series called Yes God, Somebody
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  Say Yes God, but last week I introduced it by talking about something called
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  being radically reasonable. It's very clear from the Word of God that God wants
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  us to live sacrificial lives. I want to propose you very simple, if
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  I have only one point, we need to live a life that keeps saying
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  yes to God. Because the opposite of saying yes to God is not no.
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  It's this obedience. Let's just put it away. Any other answer is
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  this obedience, and we are called to live a life of obedience. Amen.
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  You are probably good at more things than you thought. Sometimes listing it
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  down helps you see when you don't li sit down, you don't see it
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  as oh, I never knew I was good at that. So probably you
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  are good at more things than you realize. Now, the last two things
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  seems odd to be on the list, like kick football, saying no,
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  saying yes the interview. In your mind, at least you check and say
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  yeah, I'm good at saying no and I'm good saying yes. Those two
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  of all the things we mentioned just now, those were the two most important
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  things on the list. Because see, if you're good at it thinks spaghetti
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  okay, great. If you're good at dancing, yeah sure. But if
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  you're good at saying no to wrong things and saying yes, it sounds simple
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  enough. It sounds simple enough, but we look at our lives and if
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  you really look at it, and you're like, maybe it's not that simple.
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  Maybe there are things we should be saying no to but we haven't found
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  the strength to do it yet. And maybe there are things that we should
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  say yes too, but we also haven't found the strength to do it yet.
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  But I guarantee you, friends, these two skills, saying no to
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  bad and saying yes to good it's the two most important skills you need to
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  have in your life. Amen, Because if you are really good at these
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  two things, you develop something we call good character. We said last week,
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  God is not interested in your comfort. That's what he asks us to
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  live a life of sacrifice. You hear an instruction like this, you know
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  that God's not after your comfort, because sacrifice and comfort don't always go together.
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  Yes. Why Because God is not so much interested in your comfort,
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  then He is your character. And if you want to develop good, strong,
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  healthy character, you have to be very good at these two skills,
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  saying at too bad, saying yes to good. Amen. So God wants
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  to build great character in all of us in this church, we're also interested
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  in strong, healthy characters, not just a facade. Not just how well
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  you're seeing or how well you dress or helps biing your smile is all those
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  is facade. It's good. I'd rather see you smile and see you frown.
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  But God sees the inside great character, because the great character will determine
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  a great future. Amen. All employees with everything, maybe your certificate will
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  get you in the door, but it is your character that keeps you in
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  the job. A great character will shape a great future, and a great
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  future will leave a great legacy for others, for your children, for your
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  children's children, for the company and business you'll live behind all of that great
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  character, great future, great legacy. That's what we're after, Amen,
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  because that's what God is after. Somebody say amen. So it's all about
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  saying no to wrong and bad and saying yes to good and God sounds simple
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  enough a message, but we don't always get it right. It's important our
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  life and our future is shaped by the choices that we make. Life is
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  comprised of a series of choices made over time and affected by time. Over
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  time, we make these choices. See, it's like this, We make
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  choices, and our choices make us. The choices that you make end up
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  making you the kind of person that you become. So therefore, the future
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  is in many ways determined by the choices we make today. So you want
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  a particular kind of future, you make that choice today. You only have
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  today. So the challenge for us if this is a game, this is
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  the game of life, and in this game, the greatest skill to have
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  in this game is to say no and yes. So all of our choices
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  are routed or grounded in some kind of faith, stance or believe how How
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  and what you believe affects the choices that you make, and the choices that
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  you make determines the kind of character you have, the future you have,
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  and the legacy you leave behind. Are you following the logic so far?
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  Okay, So it's very important what you actually believe we will be and live
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  what we be live. So you cannot say I believe in being generous,
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  I believe I believe in generosity, I believe in giving, but don't actually
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  give. You don't actually believe in generosity, you got to say, because
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  belief means to be and live what you believe, you can't say I believe
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  in obedience, but never obey anyone, because believe it is to be and
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  live. And you probably heard this in primary school already. Every choice comes
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  with consequences, good or bad. Where there's a good choice or bad choice,
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  there will be consequences. Not making a choice is a choice. Not
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  choosing is a choice, and not choosing is a choice that has consequences too.
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  Can I read you a story? Former President Reagan once had an aunt
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  who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler
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  asked young Reagan, do you want square toes or round toes? Unable to
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  decide, Reagan didn't answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days.
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  Several days later, the copler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again
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  what kind of shoes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn't decide,
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  so the shoemaker replied, well, come by in a couple of days,
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  your shoes will be ready. When the future president did so, he found
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  one square told and one round told shoe. This will teach you. The
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  corplor sad to never let people make decisions for you. To corpor sate to
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  his indecisive customer, I learn right then and there, Reagan, say later,
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  if you don't make your own decisions, someone else will. If you
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  don't decide how your life is gonna look like and how you're gonna live that
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  sacrificially as a reasonable series, as under God, your boss will decide for
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  you. Your neighbor would decide for you, your spouse would decide for you.
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  Your children, your dog, your whatever, will make decisions for you.
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  We have to be intentional and purposeful in making the right choices. Character
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  is the ability to say no to evil and yes to good and God.
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  The success of our lives are in many ways dependent on that ability. Again,
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  sounds simple enough, huh say no, say yes, Canna. Not
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  as easy as it sounds, but it's very important. Amen, romanship.
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  The five U Street to four say is this. We also rejoice in our
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  sufferings because we know that sufferings sacrifice us a life lived for God, not
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  for ourselves. That life produces perseverance and perseverance. Who produce character and character
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  will produce hope. Amen. So the Bible tells us that suffering hard times,
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  sacrifice us difficulties, carrying God's burdens produces perseverance. Resilience is another word,
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  and this resilience produces character. And that's what God, That's what God
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  is. After your character, somebody say, Amen, the next life is
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  who you really are? Know who you pretend to be, who you really
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  are When the pressure is on, when you're stressed out, press for time,
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  press for decision, character comes out. All the other days you can
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  pretend, can put up a smile, can put a makeup, can be
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  a fashionista. It can really last so long because when you're under pressure,
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  what's in you comes out and characters who you really are. You know.
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  God's character is that he is good and faithful. That's his character. When
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  God is under pressure. I don't think he ever is. But when God
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  is under pressure, good comes out, Faithfulness comes out, because that's him
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  he is. There's no shadow, He doesn't pretend to be anyone else.
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  God is God and God is good and God is faithful. That's him.
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  Therefore God cannot be or do anything other than that. He will be good
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  and he will be faithful always all of the time, in regardless of how
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  you behave. But you, you will be and do what is consistent to
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  your character. I'm talking about that deep you inside, not what we pretend
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  to be and think that we should be in front of others. Eventually you'll
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  be You'll be consistent with the who you are inside, Okay, and what
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  you consistently be and do becomes your character. So if your person says no,
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  no, no, no, no to even bad things, that becomes
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  because that will shape who you are. That becomes a character. The roots
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  are evil, therefore the fruits become evil and bad. So if you learn
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  to keep saying no to wrong things even when it's hard, even when it's
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  hard, to not give a bribe to get that deal. It's hard.
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  But if you learn to do that well, you'll that becomes a skill and
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  ability that you've become. You're good at and you develop great character. Amen,
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  you just become easier. You're never going to be easy, but it
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  becomes easier to say no and need you need to say no yes when you
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  need to say yes amen. Nothing in this world, nothing in this world
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  is consistently good. Your job, your wife, your children, your career,
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  your car, whatever, whatever it may be that is good now is
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  never gonna be good forever. Nothing in this world. Everything fails you.
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  You have an ideal, right now, just mess a deal or two.
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  Are depends gonna puck at your day? Nothing? Nothing, nothing. I
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  don't care how good your job is right now, how wonderful your spouse is
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  right now. There will be days. There will be days. Nothing is
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  consistently good in this world. Therefore, there is nothing in this world.
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  There should keep saying yes to whatever is your job. There are days you
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  have to say no because there's not always gonna be good. There will be
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  days where that's not a good choice. Come on, hear my heart,
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  hear my hand, and I hope you hear it right, because sometimes I
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  say some radical things and controversial things, but you must hear the heart.
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  Sometimes you have to say no to your spouse on certain days, in certain
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  situations, because your wife may not be making the right choice, and you
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  have to say no, darling, that's not right. You get you get
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  what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, because because nothing in this
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  world is consistently always good, therefore there's nothing you should keep saying yes to,
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  yes to. Sometimes you have to put your foot down and say no,
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  even to your pastor. Maybe, oh no, my pastor. I
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  know you, Holy Man all day, but you can all this on.
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  I have to say no. And that's fine because there's only one who is
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  consistently good or time. If you're all time Christian, you know this,
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  God is good and all the time the country, so God it is good
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  all the time. Okay, Anyway, I think this this is super important.
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  Okay. I was just in Miri. I was just in Miri,
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  and I was there for the tribal gathering. Okay, No, we were
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  not wearing tribal clothes. And it was the fiftieth Well, this year is
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  gathering, dipping gathering before this, but this is gathering is the fiftieth year
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  anniversary jubiliee of the Barrio Revival. I don't remember how many of you know
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  fifty years ago in Malaysia on the Boneo Islands, got showed up to a
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  group of people. We had revival to not just Americans and the Welsh and
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  the Irish. You know, the water turned to oil miraculously, and young
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  people just repented and gave their lives to God spontaneously. Fifty years ago it
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  happened. And this gathering was four thousand people in the stadium. There should
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  be more, but it was just a Malaysians crying to God and say God,
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  do it again. This country needs revival. We want the wave of
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  God, not the other color way, if you know what I mean.
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  We need a new wave of God. And so we were there in the
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  stadium and say God, do it again. Sand Revival, for the sake
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  of our children. Sand Revival. Amen. So I'm there. I'm there
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  and reflecting. And now it is ten conferences are I'm I don't know.
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  Maybe I'm old already or I've just done way too many conferences. I'm not
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  very easily impressed with the stuff that goes on. I'm impressed, like the
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  sounds is stuff very good for everything was good. But I found myself more
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  deeply reflective and there are a few questions that ran through my mind. I'm
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  standing that I'm thinking, okay, lots and revival. I don't know how
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  much of you have prayed the prayer for a lot of and revival, Like
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  we want to see miracles. We want to see God moved in a powerful
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  way because maybe in our lifetimes we've not seen it. We've read about it
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  in books, we hear about it on sermons, but we've never actually seen
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  it. How do we actually want to see revival happening? Miracles are happening
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  right now as we speak in the villages in SA. God is moving,
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  but we don't see it. And I want to see hope you do.
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  And what I was reflecting on as I'm saying that is can this happen?
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  If I keep saying no to God? No? Can anything happen? If
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  I say plant generation? Just nolah, God, I'm forty four years old.
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  Whilah call someone young girl. I was pretty comfortable where I was.
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  I kind of felt like I've done my duce law enough God, enough sacrifices
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  made. I've been making sacrifices since I was eight years old. I got
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  all these old time Christian stories. One I walked to church cycle to allow
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  things go mission trip, stay with the Evans for one whole month. We're
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  not wearing underwear really after I said, thirty days after the din number five.
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  I don't way underwear because I don't know work on insect where all the
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  stories I got? And so I thought God, enough enough? But I
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  said no God. First of all, this won't happen. I won't get
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  to be able to meet so many wonderful people who found a home here.
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  Let's not talk about revival. Let's not talk about anything great in our lifetime.
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  It cannot happen by us. Say no God, No God, someone
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  else God Gold, say yes Amen. And I saw the band is a
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  pretty good band, life, Giane church, young people on the stage.
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  Everything's perfect, the media is perfect. It sounds perfect. I'm like,
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  oh, one day, one day, you'll get there. And I realize,
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  actually, I've been there. This is the same stadium where I did
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  Revel tour in. In fact, the last event that happened in this stadium
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  was a Revel event. I was there. I'm Therety What Why so Sila
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  start all over again? Here? We are starting all over again, building
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  from scratch again, building the band again, finding our identity, building culture,
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  all this all this starting all over again? Why? God? And
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  I felt so tired. I felt like godly worded, and I realized I
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  gotta keep saying yes, because that's how it happened before, and that's how
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  it happened again. Yes God, Yes God, Yes God. So I
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  found myself thinking to myself and what I didn't step out in faith to carry
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  this burden just sold head. I would stop saying yes to God. And
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  I don't know what God was. I don't know what God would throw into
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  our lap next. And before you get me wrong, I'm not trying to
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  build the greatest church, greatest brand. I'm also all in enough to like
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  a you're seriously in heaven. God's going to compare in heaven. You know,
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  haven't got your comparement members. Your church has not not really, not
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  really, not really. But but what we have a vision. God's given
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  a vision to reach the next generation. Maybe means certain things, but I
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  know one thing loud. We cannot be lazy and we cannot keep saying no
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  to God whatever that means. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not
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  asking you to sign up for the fifteenth ministry in church. That's not what
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  it's about. This is literally about saying yes to God whatever he tells you.
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  If he asks you to climb a mountain and sacrifice your son. That's
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  really going to mess up your theology. What if you were Abraham? Easy
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  to hear about someone else, hard aflow. What if it's you? Of
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  course, the sacrifice your son hah, not so easy anymore. But I
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  don't know this. This is a God who will do that. This is
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  a God will do that. Give up your Friday, give up your footsal
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  Monday ah so hard. I love food song. One thing I really wish
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  out whatever do is give up gluepool match. Don't watch that and pray?
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  Are you he hasn't yet? Please God, don't. But it's just a
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  football match. Abraham had to give up a sun man. So we got
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  onto this roller coaster. We say okay, yes God, Sure, sounds
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  like a good idea, sounds fun. And then you're going up. You're
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  like, what do I do? What I say? Yes again. It's
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  scary and exciting and all mixed in, but present your body is a living
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  sacrifice. This is your reasonable sp is when you think about what God has
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  done for you, What God has done for you. If you heard past
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  the Samon a few weeks ago, God's mercies by the mercy of God,
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  mercy of God. When you see mercy next to God. You have to
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  remember. God's mercy for you is to forgive you of a debt you can
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  never repay. Don't think you can come to church enough to pay God back
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  in your lifetime. And if you believe in reincarnation, now you become a
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  coward and you become a sacrificial so you cannot pay that in your lifetime.
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  Don't you think you can give God big enough an offering, big enough a
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  check and say, Okay, God, I've done it enough, Please stop
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  calling me no. No. By the mercy of God, they have given
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  us a mercy that forgives and covers a death that can never be repaired.
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  It's so big when you think about that. Hey, everything else is reasonable
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  God. Say yes to God. God is a good God. He will
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  never ask you to do anything that will not ultimately be good. It's gonna
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  feel scary, it's gonna feel crazy. You're gonna regret some of the time.
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  Ah, I say yes God, but it'll be the right of your
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  life. It's a life worth living for. We talked about this before.
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  I tell you why. Sometimes it's hard to say yes to God because we
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  look at the cost, how much it will cost us. It cause us
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  our sleep, our time, sometimes friendships, sometimes relationships. Sometimes patrol your
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  cost us something. But if you focus on the cost, it's gonna get
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  so much harder to say yes to God. Why don't we focus on the
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  value, the value. Look at the value of the life that you live,
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  the choices that you make, the value value. Amen. God is
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  after the value, not just the cost. Count the costs, but consider
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  the value me waking in the morning. Sometimes I wake up in the morning
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  to aim the watch Liverpool loose, you know, loose. That's the cost,
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  feel pain the whole day? Why share? No? You pool loss?
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  Huh? Football? Football will hate you saying that football is more important
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  than life. No, but the value is. But when we do win,
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  you see the team rise from the ashes and do better and make chan
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  wow. The value the joy? Amen. So Church, let's not just
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  count the costs, consider the value. Consider what I'm saying to us,
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  God is asking every single person here to live a life where it's not your
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  own. Holly acceptable to God. Thank you for joining us. We trust
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  that you have been blessed by the world of God. We love hearing from
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  you, so please do share your feedback, thoughts or even questions and message
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  ideas. Search and follow us on social media at Generation's Mind and drop us
• 23:30
  a message. For more information, check out bits Thoughtley Slash Generation's Mind.
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  Until next time, God bless