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Andy Stanley - Icon Part 4 Kingdom Now · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: So we've all had embarrassing moments, and if our church
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Speaker 1: wasn't quite so large, and if there were so many
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Speaker 1: of you out there that I can't see, I thought
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Speaker 1: maybe we could just start by turning to a complete
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Speaker 1: stranger and sharing one of your most embarrassing moments, because
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Speaker 1: and see you laugh. And it's so interesting because in
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Speaker 1: the moment, you don't laugh, right, but then you think
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Speaker 1: back on that most embarrassing moment or one of those
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Speaker 1: most embarrassing moments, and you laugh. In fact, there's some
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Speaker 1: of our favorite stories. When people start talking about their
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Speaker 1: embarrassing moment, you're like, oh yeah, and then everybody ups
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Speaker 1: to the other person. But at the same time, there
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Speaker 1: are some embarrassing moments that aren't funny and they'll never
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Speaker 1: be funny, and they make your stomach hurt to talk about.
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Speaker 1: And I'm Sandra's not here today. She's watching and I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to share it, sweetheart. But anyway, she has
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Speaker 1: like this great embarrassing moment story that is, she's just
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Speaker 1: like I begged and I pleaded. She's like and when
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Speaker 1: you see her, don't say tell us. She's not going
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Speaker 1: to tell you. But the point is we all have
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Speaker 1: those moments that it's just just the thought of it,
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Speaker 1: you know, you almost want to freeze up. It was
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Speaker 1: just so embarrassing. Now, a really good pastor or speaker
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Speaker 1: at this point in the message would say, so, let
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Speaker 1: me tell you about one of mine. But I'm neither
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Speaker 1: that good nor that secure, so I'm not going to
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Speaker 1: tell you one of mine. But see, you thought that's
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Speaker 1: where it's going, because a really good communicator was sort
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Speaker 1: of set it up most embarrassing moment than tell one
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Speaker 1: of his or her own, but I'm not. Instead, I
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Speaker 1: want to tell you about the most embarrassing moment for
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Speaker 1: two of Jesus' apostles, and when it happened. They weren't
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Speaker 1: embarrassed in the moment, but they were embarrassed in the
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Speaker 1: moments that followed. And I think one of them in particular,
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Speaker 1: was embarrassed for the rest of In fact, both of
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Speaker 1: them were probably embarrassed for the rest of their life.
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Speaker 1: It's just that one lived a lot longer than the other.
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Speaker 1: And I think James and John they were brothers, and
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Speaker 1: they're the ones that had this most embarrassing moment. I
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Speaker 1: think I'm just making this part up that they probably
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Speaker 1: begged Matthew and John probably begged Mark when they wrote
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Speaker 1: their gospels, Hey, don't it You don't have to include that,
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Speaker 1: just you don't have to tell that story. But Matthew
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Speaker 1: and Mark both included this most embarrassing moment in spite
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Speaker 1: of the fact that James and John were embarrassed by
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Speaker 1: what they did and what they said. That we'll get
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Speaker 1: to in just a minute. And I'm glad that Matthew
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Speaker 1: and Mark included this in the account of the life
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Speaker 1: of Jesus because it sets us up for what I think,
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Speaker 1: and I hope you'll stick around for this what I
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Speaker 1: think is probably the most inspiring, catalytic, clarifying statement that
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Speaker 1: ever came from the lips of Jesus, a statement that
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Speaker 1: ended up turning his apostles entire value system upside down,
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Speaker 1: and a statement that if the modern Church would take
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Speaker 1: it to heart, if the modern Church, if we would
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Speaker 1: just take it to heart, just want this one statement
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Speaker 1: by Jesus for just three months or six months, so
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Speaker 1: much would change in our communities, and so much would
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Speaker 1: change in our families. If Christian fathers and husbands and
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Speaker 1: mothers and wives would just take this, business owners and
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Speaker 1: people in the marketplace. If just for a few months
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Speaker 1: we would take this one statement to heart, it literally
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Speaker 1: would change so much. It would change, in some way
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Speaker 1: the temperature of our communities. And before I point my
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Speaker 1: finger too much of you, honestly, if people who do
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Speaker 1: what I do, if pastors would allow this to inform
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Speaker 1: their behavior and inform their responses, and inform their reactions
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Speaker 1: and inform the way that they pastor their churches, so
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Speaker 1: much would be different. In fact, real quick, if you're
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Speaker 1: not a Christian, I really really hope you'll stick with
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Speaker 1: this through this message. If you're not a Christian, Honestly,
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Speaker 1: it's the church's failure to embrace this one statement that
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Speaker 1: may explain why you're not a Christian, or it may
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Speaker 1: explain why you're not a Christian anymore, why you left
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Speaker 1: the faith, because honestly, this statement by Jesus actually reflects
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Speaker 1: a value. It reflects something that if you're not a Christian,
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Speaker 1: you should hold us accountable to. But in some ways
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Speaker 1: us Christians oftentimes don't hold ourselves accountable to this incredible statement.
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Speaker 1: If this and I'm going to give it to you
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Speaker 1: a promise, if this statement characterize Jesus people the way
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Speaker 1: it characterize Jesus honestly, our communities, the world would be
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Speaker 1: a different place today. If you've been tracking along with us,
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Speaker 1: we're wrapping up this four part series entitled Icon, The
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Speaker 1: Empowering Invitation of the Cross. And as you know before
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Speaker 1: you tuned in or before you got here, the cross
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Speaker 1: is the icon for Christianity, and for many Christians it
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Speaker 1: simply represents a way of believing. But as we've said
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Speaker 1: throughout this series, in the first century and hopefully for
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Speaker 1: some of us in the twenty first century, it actually
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Speaker 1: reflects or is a way of living, is to reflect
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Speaker 1: or inform a lifestyle. In the first century, the reason
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Speaker 1: it was easy for them to or easier for them
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Speaker 1: to get this, is they'd actually seen a cross used.
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Speaker 1: They knew that it was an invitation to an alternative
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Speaker 1: way of life, alternative but not intuitive. To those on
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Speaker 1: the outside, this way of life looks foolish, it looks crazy,
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Speaker 1: as we said last time, it even looks a little
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Speaker 1: bit lazy. But in the first century they embraced it anyway,
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Speaker 1: and it's why we're here today. But the challenge of
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Speaker 1: the invitation of the Cross, it's so countercultural than that,
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Speaker 1: it's so counternatural. It runs against the grain of my life,
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Speaker 1: of my selfishness, of my self centeredness, of what I
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Speaker 1: want for me, the way I naturally think. But as
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Speaker 1: we said as well in this series, it's not just
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Speaker 1: an invitation to live a different kind of life. It's
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Speaker 1: an empowering invitation. As we said in part two, the
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Speaker 1: invitation of the Cross, if you say yes, if I
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Speaker 1: say yes, sets us up to experience and demonstrate the
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Speaker 1: power of God through our lives. Not supernatural, miracle working
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Speaker 1: power that would be nice, but even better than that,
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Speaker 1: the kind of power that causes people to stop and say, wait, wait, wait,
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Speaker 1: you forgave him. Wait wait, you're gonna do that for
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Speaker 1: her after what she did to you. You're gonna actually
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Speaker 1: get Wait what I mean? What kind of life? Who
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Speaker 1: are you? What kind of life are you living? It's
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Speaker 1: the empowering invitation of the Cross to set ourselves up
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Speaker 1: in such a way that we experienced the power of God.
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Speaker 1: Because and this you should know this. If you grew
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Speaker 1: up in church, When you live in sync with the
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Speaker 1: teaching of Jesus, when you live in the direction of
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Speaker 1: the way of the Cross, the way of Jesus, you
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Speaker 1: are set up then to experience and manifest or demonstrate
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Speaker 1: the power of God in your life. But simply to
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Speaker 1: pray a prayer a kind of a one and done,
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Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily set you up to experience that or to
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Speaker 1: demonstrate that. The invitation of the cross is an invitation
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Speaker 1: to express God's others first love through us. But because
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Speaker 1: it's so unnatural, because it's so you know, against the
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Speaker 1: grant of culture, oftentimes we're all tempted to decline the
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Speaker 1: invitation because God isn't going to force himself on us
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Speaker 1: or force us to live this way. It's an invitation,
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Speaker 1: and we're tempted to decline this invitation every single day,
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Speaker 1: every time there's conflict, every time you don't get your way,
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Speaker 1: every time somebody crosses you, every time somebody pulls out
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Speaker 1: in front of you, every time somebody steals your idea,
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Speaker 1: every time somebody insists on winning the argument, and again,
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Speaker 1: the challenge and the reason I wanted to talk about
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Speaker 1: it for several weeks. I'm convinced a lot of Christians
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Speaker 1: don't even know this invitation exist because for them, as
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Speaker 1: I said a minutego, faith is kind of a one
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Speaker 1: and done. You know, when I was a kid, I
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Speaker 1: pray a prayer, and I was baptized, and now Jesus
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Speaker 1: is my savior. And the cross, well, the cross is
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Speaker 1: I guess it's just like a good luck charm. It's
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Speaker 1: just an icon that represents that I believe something. Now
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Speaker 1: back to the real world, where we grade ourselves by
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Speaker 1: comparing ourselves. But the icon of our faith isn't a
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Speaker 1: checkered flag. It's not a trophy. It's not a sword,
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Speaker 1: you know, it's not a gold medal. It's a cross.
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Speaker 1: It's an invitation to live for the approval of one
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Speaker 1: rather than every one. So as we wrap up this series,
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Speaker 1: I do want to end and land with this what
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Speaker 1: I considered this most startling, clarifying, catalytic statement by Jesus
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Speaker 1: that if this ever went from here to here, I
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Speaker 1: would be more changed, I would be more conformed. For you,
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Speaker 1: if everyone from here to here, for the Church in general,
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Speaker 1: for anybody who claims the name of Jesus, is that
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Speaker 1: this ever went from here to here. And I say
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Speaker 1: here because if you're a Christian, you read this and
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Speaker 1: you believe Jesus said it, and you believe it's true.
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Speaker 1: But if this ever informs our actions and our lifestyle.
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Speaker 1: Consistently things change. So here's what happened. This may be
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Speaker 1: new to you. I don't know, even if you grew
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Speaker 1: up in church. So in this part of the story
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, he has just finished Mission number one. Jesus
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Speaker 1: didn't have one mission. He had two missions. And we
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Speaker 1: celebrate and sing about the second mission, but we overlook
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Speaker 1: the first mission. But we talk about it a lot here.
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Speaker 1: Mission number one for Jesus was to live his life
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Speaker 1: and teach in such a way that people understood what
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Speaker 1: his father was like. He came to reveal the Father,
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Speaker 1: and so in this part of the story he's just
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Speaker 1: wrapped that up. Some of you are familiar with what's
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Speaker 1: called sometimes the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It's found
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Speaker 1: in John seventeen. It's this long prayer that John recorded
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Speaker 1: for us. And in this prayer, it's toward the end
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Speaker 1: of jesus ministry, Jesus is praying to his heavenly Father
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Speaker 1: and he makes this statement. I memorized this first many
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Speaker 1: years ago in a translation we don't use a lot anymore.
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Speaker 1: He said this. I love this. He said, I glorified
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Speaker 1: past tense, I have glorified you on the Earth, having
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Speaker 1: accomplished the work that you have given me to do.
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Speaker 1: In other words, mission accomplished, which we would read that
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Speaker 1: or hear that and say, wait a minute, you haven't
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Speaker 1: accomplished your mission yet. You're still on planet Earth and
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Speaker 1: you're praying to your heavenly Father. Your mission was to
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Speaker 1: die for the sins of the world. And Jesus is like,
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Speaker 1: you know, I can do more than one thing at
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Speaker 1: a time. Okay, I'm here to reveal the Father, and
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Speaker 1: I'm done with mission number one. I glorified or I manifested,
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Speaker 1: I revealed, I explained you to people on planet Earth.
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Speaker 1: I glorified you on the Earth, having accomplished the work
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Speaker 1: or having accomplished the mission, put a check in the
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Speaker 1: box that you have given me to do. And now
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Speaker 1: in our storyline, he's about to step into the second
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Speaker 1: part of his mission, which was to pay for the
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Speaker 1: sins of the world. This is the part we sing
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Speaker 1: about and celebrate all the time. So as we talked
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Speaker 1: about a little bit last time, So now he's with
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Speaker 1: his disciples and he's moved to Jerusalem. He's not marching
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Speaker 1: on Jerusalem as we talked about. He's marching to it.
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Speaker 1: And his disciples are so excited because they're thinking, this
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Speaker 1: is it, this is what we've been waiting for. He's
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Speaker 1: finally gonna throw off his rabbinic robe and proclaim himself
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Speaker 1: Messiah and king. And they cannot wait to get to Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: And they can't wait to get to Jerusalem for all
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Speaker 1: the wrong reasons. They're thinking Old Testament Jericho, like, we're
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Speaker 1: gonna get there and we're gonna take the city. We're
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Speaker 1: gonna conquer the city, We're gonna exploit the city. Our
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Speaker 1: rabbi is going to be the king, and we're his followers.
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Speaker 1: So here's where the story picks up. The text says
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Speaker 1: that Mark tells Us, who got his information from Peter,
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Speaker 1: who was there for all of this, they were on
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Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem. I love this statement. It's very
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Speaker 1: unique in the New Testament with Jesus leading the way.
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Speaker 1: So you get this picture there's the twelve of them,
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Speaker 1: and then there's people who just there's like the general
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Speaker 1: Disciples who kind of went everywhere Jesus went, But in
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Speaker 1: this particular case, Jesus is out front, and it sort
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Speaker 1: of implies that he's walking a little faster than normal,
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Speaker 1: and they're having to keep up, like he can't wait
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Speaker 1: to get to Jerusalem. But you got to picture this.
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Speaker 1: This is right before Passover, so they're not the only
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Speaker 1: ones on the road. There are hundreds. Eventually there will
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Speaker 1: be thousands and thousands and thousands of pilgrims making their
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Speaker 1: way all the way down from Galilee and the different
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Speaker 1: regions to the city of Jerusalem, because it was a
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Speaker 1: big deal to celebrate Passover in the city of Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: So the roads are crowded. Jesus is out front, they're
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Speaker 1: trying to keep up, and he knows there's not a
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Speaker 1: mystery to him. He knows when they get to Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: it's not going to go well with him. And he
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Speaker 1: knows that this disciples are a little too excited. So
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Speaker 1: he turns around and he says, okay, guys, let's take
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Speaker 1: a break, and he pulls them all off the road
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Speaker 1: far enough away from the crowd where they won't be disturbed.
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Speaker 1: And here's what the text says. He says he took
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Speaker 1: Mark says he took the twelve a side, and he
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Speaker 1: told them what was going to happen to him. He's like, guys, okay,
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Speaker 1: you think this is going to be like a big party.
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Speaker 1: It's going to be horrible. I want to I want
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Speaker 1: I want to kind of set your expectations. And then
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Speaker 1: he goes into all this detail. You should read it
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Speaker 1: for yourself. He says, I'm gonna be arrested, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: be spit on, I'm gonna be screamed at, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: be mischaracterized, I'm gonna be lied about. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: be flogged, and then they're gonna kill me. But do
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Speaker 1: we y'all still want to go? They cannot hear this.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this isn't the first time he's he's warned them.
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Speaker 1: And then they get up, they get back on the road.
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Speaker 1: Jesus is leading the charge, and this is when James
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Speaker 1: and John have their most embarrassing moment because they kind
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Speaker 1: of hustle up ahead of the other guys and they
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Speaker 1: come up beside Jesus. And the text says, like, right then,
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Speaker 1: right after he's finished explaining all this horrible stuff that's
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Speaker 1: about happened to him, the text says this, then James
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Speaker 1: and John the sons of Zebedee. Why do this? Why
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Speaker 1: does the New Testament always tells whose sons they are?
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Speaker 1: In this case? Because there are so many James's and
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Speaker 1: so many Johns. And why are there so many James's
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Speaker 1: and so many John's, and so many Peters and so
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Speaker 1: many Sigmons and so many Mary's. I'm not gonna tell you,
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Speaker 1: but it's a fascinating thing about the names. Okay, we'll
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Speaker 1: talk about this some other time. So then James and
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Speaker 1: John and sort of the readers in the first second century.
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Speaker 1: You're like, whis James, which John? Oh, the sons of Zebedee?
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Speaker 1: So these are this is James Zebede soon and John
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Speaker 1: zebedeson right, last name. Then James and John, their brother
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Speaker 1: sons of Zebedee, came to him, like as soon as
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Speaker 1: Jeez read it for yourself, as soon as Jesus finishes
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Speaker 1: telling them all this horrible stuff, they come up beside
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Speaker 1: Jesus and here's what they say. This is their most
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Speaker 1: embarrassing moment. Later, when all this kind of came together, teacher,
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Speaker 1: they said, we want you to do for us whatever
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Speaker 1: we ask. Okay, every parent understands this question. You've got
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Speaker 1: it from your kids at some point, Like Daddy, I
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Speaker 1: need you to buy me. You'll just just just give
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Speaker 1: me a blanket, yes, and then I'll fill in the gaps, right,
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Speaker 1: This is how kids ask parents for stuff. Right. In fact,
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Speaker 1: the Greek text here is really kind of funny. It's
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Speaker 1: a little bit Yoda ish. Here's here's the literal Greek.
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Speaker 1: That's kind of kind of interesting. Jesus, they said, we
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Speaker 1: desire whatever we ask you would do for us. We
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Speaker 1: desire whatever you ask. In other words, go ahead and
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Speaker 1: give us a yes, and then we're gonna tell you
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Speaker 1: what we want. And then Jesus responds, like a good
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Speaker 1: parent response, he says, Okay, what do you want me
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Speaker 1: to do for you? Before I say yes, what do
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Speaker 1: you want me to do for you? And they look
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Speaker 1: back to make sure the other guys can't hear, and
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Speaker 1: they say, in conspiratorial you know volume, he let one
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Speaker 1: of us sit at your right and the other at
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Speaker 1: your left in your glory. Yeah, I mean you're ok.
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Speaker 1: We got it. You're number one, but you got to
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Speaker 1: have a number two and number three, and I mean
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Speaker 1: those guys are great, but hey, we were like some
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Speaker 1: of your first guys, Like remember the very beginning, we
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Speaker 1: didn't have anybody and we were there for you. So
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Speaker 1: when you when we get to Jerusalem and you proclaim
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Speaker 1: yourself King. I mean, we'll probably hang back during the
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Speaker 1: spitting and flogging and all that part. But anyway, when
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Speaker 1: that's over with and you're finally the king, you know,
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Speaker 1: we're brothers. We want to be number one and number two?
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Speaker 1: And can you imagine what Jesus is thinking? See, we
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Speaker 1: know the whole story, we know what he's about to encounter.
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Speaker 1: They didn't, but he knows, and they're like, I mean what,
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Speaker 1: And so this is what he says to them. He says, Hey, guys,
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Speaker 1: you don't know. You don't know what you're asking. Jesus said,
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Speaker 1: you don't really know what you're you you want to
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Speaker 1: be you want to be that close to me. Then
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Speaker 1: he sort of asked them in this sort of New
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Speaker 1: Testament language, can can YouTube drink the cup? Can YouTube
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Speaker 1: face or endure the baptism with? You know, the baptism
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Speaker 1: that I'm about to undergo. This is kind of symbolic
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Speaker 1: language for I'm about to drink something and do you
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Speaker 1: think you can handle what I'm drinking? Do you really
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Speaker 1: think that you can undergo what I'm about to undergo?
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Speaker 1: In other words, hey guys, do you really think you
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Speaker 1: have what it takes to follow me into all of this.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you want to be number one and the
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Speaker 1: number two. You really think you have what it takes.
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Speaker 1: Here's what they said, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can't.
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Speaker 1: We got this, I mean, bring it on. A week later,
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Speaker 1: a week later, they're with the rest of the Apostles,
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Speaker 1: Jesus is arrested, and they just run away with everybody else.
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Speaker 1: I mean before any like there was no battle or anything.
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Speaker 1: Their lives weren't being threatened. Just as soon as Jesus
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Speaker 1: is arrested, they're out, and I think I'm just making
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Speaker 1: this part up. I think forever after that, it's like, hey, John,
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Speaker 1: remember that whole thing. Oh yeah, we're with you, we
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Speaker 1: can take it. Then you ran away like the rest
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Speaker 1: of us. I think this was like just the whole
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Speaker 1: just had to be their most embarrassing moment right now.
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Speaker 1: They this little conversation didn't remain a secret, I mean
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Speaker 1: long before it was documented in by Matthew and Mark.
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Speaker 1: Apparently the US the other ten guys found out about it.
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Speaker 1: So here's what happened when the ten the other ten,
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Speaker 1: When the other ten heard about this conversation these two
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Speaker 1: had had privately with Jesus. Somehow they found out about it.
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Speaker 1: They became indignant with James and John. Hey, whoa, whoa,
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Speaker 1: whoa whoa. You guys think you should be number two
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Speaker 1: and number three. We want to be number two. And
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Speaker 1: an argument breaks out among jesus disciples as they're making
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Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem. And the argument is about who
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Speaker 1: gets the position, who gets the power, who gets proximity
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Speaker 1: to the king, who has more position, who has more power,
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Speaker 1: who gets more proximity to the king. And Jesus. I
17:22
Speaker 1: don't know what Jesus is thinking. I'm guessing this is dangerous.
17:24
Speaker 1: I think Jesus must be thinking. I am going on
17:30
Speaker 1: my own volition. I am intentionally going to Jerusalem to
17:34
Speaker 1: die for you, to give my life for you. I'm
17:38
Speaker 1: going low, I'm embracing, I'm chasing humility. And you guys,
17:44
Speaker 1: after being with me this long, are still scrambling and
17:50
Speaker 1: competing position. You're still trying to get to the top. Pause.
18:00
Speaker 1: And Christians, me included, we've been doing that ever since.
18:05
Speaker 1: I mean, they're with Jesus and they missed the lesson
18:08
Speaker 1: of its entire life. Many of us grew up in church.
18:11
Speaker 1: We know this story, we know the stories. I say,
18:14
Speaker 1: John eleven, you're a healing of the blind. You know John,
18:16
Speaker 1: you know John, excuse me, John nine, healing of the blind,
18:19
Speaker 1: John eleven, you know raising e Lazarus. I mean, I say,
18:21
Speaker 1: turn to Ephesians one and you can think through the book.
18:23
Speaker 1: I mean, we know all this, if a lot of
18:25
Speaker 1: us do. We've been in church forever and we still
18:28
Speaker 1: haven't somehow been able to get our minds and hearts
18:30
Speaker 1: around the message of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the
18:33
Speaker 1: way of the Crossword, just like his disciples, except we
18:37
Speaker 1: know the story, we know what he went through, and
18:40
Speaker 1: there's still something in me, and I think a lot
18:42
Speaker 1: of us still kind of competing and physitioning and somehow
18:47
Speaker 1: it's all about winning and climbing. And now and again
18:50
Speaker 1: we've talked about this isn't about don't do your best.
18:52
Speaker 1: This isn't about don't exploit your talent and your resources.
18:55
Speaker 1: This is about why you do it and how you
18:57
Speaker 1: do it and who you do it for. So once
19:01
Speaker 1: again Jesus is like, oh great, all right, guys, we're
19:06
Speaker 1: gonna have another little meeting. Everybody off the path. Let
19:09
Speaker 1: everybody get ahead of us. They're like, all there's thousands
19:11
Speaker 1: of people are getting ahead of us. Jesus is like,
19:13
Speaker 1: this is part of your problem. So they're gonna have
19:15
Speaker 1: another little sit down. So they get way off the
19:17
Speaker 1: road again to where nobody can hear, and then Jesus
19:21
Speaker 1: sets up for this amazing statement. Here's what happens. Jesus
19:25
Speaker 1: called them all together, sit down, guys, we're gonna go
19:29
Speaker 1: over this one more time. Takes a deep breath. Okay, guys.
19:33
Speaker 1: You know that those who are regarded as rulers of
19:37
Speaker 1: the gentiles, specifically the Romans. You know how those who
19:40
Speaker 1: are regarded as rulers lorded over them and their high
19:45
Speaker 1: officials exercise authority over them. In other words, guys, you
19:49
Speaker 1: know how it works in the real world, right, People
19:52
Speaker 1: with the power retain their power and try to get
19:56
Speaker 1: more power and leverage their power for themselves. People with
19:59
Speaker 1: real hold on to those resources leverage their resources for
20:03
Speaker 1: more resources so they can have more resources for themselves. Guys,
20:07
Speaker 1: you know how this works. Everything moves from the bottom
20:09
Speaker 1: to the top, and there's just a few at the
20:10
Speaker 1: top and they just hang on, hang on, hang on
20:13
Speaker 1: and cling, and they make decisions based on what's best
20:15
Speaker 1: for them, regardless of the people further down in society.
20:18
Speaker 1: Do you know you know how this works? And they're like,
20:23
Speaker 1: of course we do. That's why we want to be
20:25
Speaker 1: number two and number three. We know exactly how this works.
20:29
Speaker 1: That was the point of our question. That's why we're
20:31
Speaker 1: so mad at those two because they're trying to get
20:33
Speaker 1: further up the food chain than we are. We know
20:36
Speaker 1: how it works. And then four words. This isn't the
20:40
Speaker 1: big statement, but this is a big one. Then four
20:43
Speaker 1: words that are aimed at people like me, I think,
20:47
Speaker 1: maybe more at people like me who do what I do,
20:51
Speaker 1: but they're also aimed at people like you. In fact,
20:56
Speaker 1: they're aimed at anyone who decides to follow Jesus. So
21:00
Speaker 1: get ready for this, because if we ever just did
21:04
Speaker 1: this part, if we ever got this in our hearts,
21:06
Speaker 1: this would move the needle culturally, it would stun our community,
21:12
Speaker 1: maybe change your family. So to all you strivers out there,
21:16
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, and to all your marketplace leaders,
21:20
Speaker 1: to those of you who are state and local maybe
21:22
Speaker 1: even national leaders or politicians, you got power, Yes, you do,
21:27
Speaker 1: you got power? How about you? Jesus would say, you
21:29
Speaker 1: know you ready for this? This is amazing. Okay, set
21:33
Speaker 1: it up again, guys, you know how the power thing works,
21:37
Speaker 1: you know how the resource things work. You know, you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: you know how it's you know how the whole pyramid
21:40
Speaker 1: thing works. Look up here and they're like, we know.
21:46
Speaker 1: Not so with you, Not in my kingdom, not in
21:54
Speaker 1: my ecclacia, not in my movement. You're going to be
21:58
Speaker 1: part of my movement. Then you leverage your power and
22:01
Speaker 1: your resources and your family connections and your success and
22:04
Speaker 1: anything you got going for you. You're constantly looking for
22:06
Speaker 1: a way to leverage it for the benefit of other people.
22:09
Speaker 1: You don't hoard it for yourself. Not so with you,
22:13
Speaker 1: not so among you. You want to be great? James
22:16
Speaker 1: and John, Come on, you guys wanted to be great, right,
22:18
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, yeah, you we like to be great.
22:21
Speaker 1: You all of you guys want to be great. Yo,
22:23
Speaker 1: we we want to be great. Jesus says, well, I
22:25
Speaker 1: think wanting to be great is a great thing. Let
22:28
Speaker 1: me tell you how to be great, and my kingdom.
22:30
Speaker 1: You know how to be great in the kingdoms of
22:32
Speaker 1: this world. It's the very kingdoms that I discarded and
22:35
Speaker 1: said no to at the beginning. You remember, just a
22:38
Speaker 1: week or a week and a half ago, the crowd
22:40
Speaker 1: wanted to make me their king. You saw me walk
22:43
Speaker 1: away from that offer, because my kingdom's different and the
22:47
Speaker 1: kingdom people who follow me live a different kind of life.
22:49
Speaker 1: And it's not a matter of you know, false humility.
22:52
Speaker 1: It's not a matter of well, I just need to
22:54
Speaker 1: never own anything or have he says, No, it's all
22:57
Speaker 1: about whatever comes to you. You have to decide what
22:59
Speaker 1: to do with whatever comes to you. And in my
23:01
Speaker 1: kingdom it looks and it acts different. Whoever, he says,
23:06
Speaker 1: whoever wants to become great among you, James and John right,
23:10
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, you want to be great. That is
23:13
Speaker 1: great to want to be great. Whoever wants to be
23:15
Speaker 1: great among you, you got to become the servant back
23:19
Speaker 1: of the line. Wait your turn, you may not even
23:22
Speaker 1: get a turn. Wait till everybody else is served, Wait
23:24
Speaker 1: till everybody else succeeded, Wait until everybody else has what
23:27
Speaker 1: they need first. And whoever wants to be first must
23:36
Speaker 1: be the slave of all. This was again, this is
23:40
Speaker 1: such strong terminology. And imagine they're sitting there listening to
23:45
Speaker 1: their rabbi, who just a few days earlier had raised
23:48
Speaker 1: Lazarus from the dead. You don't say nah, I don't
23:52
Speaker 1: think so you just listen quietly and feel the weight
23:56
Speaker 1: of this and the embarrassment of this, because this is
23:58
Speaker 1: how we live, This is how we treat them. This
24:00
Speaker 1: is the way of the Cross. This is invitation to
24:03
Speaker 1: you and to me and to the world to choose,
24:06
Speaker 1: because it's always a choice, and every single day I'm
24:08
Speaker 1: tempted to say no to the temptation, to say no
24:12
Speaker 1: to this opportunity, to say no to the invitation. It's
24:14
Speaker 1: the way of the servant, and it's a choice. We
24:19
Speaker 1: get to choose. We can choose not to be great
24:22
Speaker 1: in the here and now Kingdom of God, or we
24:25
Speaker 1: can choose to be great in the here and now
24:28
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. We can continue competing for greatness and
24:35
Speaker 1: the fading kingdom of mortals, right, competing for what can't
24:39
Speaker 1: be kept, competing for what fades and ages and eventually
24:43
Speaker 1: passes away. You know, moth and rust says Jesus, feathers
24:50
Speaker 1: and dust says anybody know, Proximo. Nobody can know who
24:54
Speaker 1: that was? Okay, anyway, so we you will later, so
24:57
Speaker 1: we can continue chasing the wind. As we talked about
25:00
Speaker 1: feeling great about ourselves. One day, feeling bad about ourselves
25:03
Speaker 1: the next day, feeling great about ourselves one day, feeling
25:05
Speaker 1: bad about ourselves the next day, feeling great than hating
25:07
Speaker 1: ourselves the next day, comparing and trying to win, comparing, coveting, lusting.
25:15
Speaker 1: This is kind of a dumb question. Is that how
25:16
Speaker 1: you want to live your lives? That I want to
25:17
Speaker 1: live my life? So what I want to look back on? Jesus, No,
25:23
Speaker 1: there's better. You're invited to better, you can live better.
25:26
Speaker 1: It's the way of Jesus. It's the way of the Cross.
25:29
Speaker 1: The Cross says no. And this is what they're stuck on.
25:31
Speaker 1: I promise you they're stuck on servant because they actually
25:35
Speaker 1: everybody kind of had servants. I mean, the class system
25:38
Speaker 1: was so stratified slave. Okay, Jesus, that's not what we
25:44
Speaker 1: signed up for. We signed up for glory, We signed
25:49
Speaker 1: up for fame. We signed up for King David, and
25:52
Speaker 1: we signed up for King Solomon, the glory years of
25:55
Speaker 1: our nation, fortune and fame. Then Jesus, pa, I think,
26:02
Speaker 1: and he moves close, and he delivers the line that
26:06
Speaker 1: took their excuses away, and he delivers the line that
26:10
Speaker 1: takes my excuses away. He delivers the line if you
26:14
Speaker 1: claim to be a Christian or a Jesus follower, that
26:16
Speaker 1: takes all of your excuses away. That should take our
26:22
Speaker 1: breath away, That certainly should take our entitlement and our
26:26
Speaker 1: arrogance away. It's the statement that should move me out
26:30
Speaker 1: of the way, because this is the way of Jesus.
26:37
Speaker 1: This defined the way of Jesus, and here it is ready.
26:41
Speaker 1: This is the line that is so clarifying that if
26:45
Speaker 1: this went from here to here, to hear to hear
26:49
Speaker 1: changes everything. He's like, guys, you know how it works
26:53
Speaker 1: in the real world. Yeah, you know how the power
26:55
Speaker 1: all goes up that cling to the Yeah, we know
26:57
Speaker 1: all that. Not so in my kingdom. So in your kingdom. Four.
27:04
Speaker 1: Even the Son of Man talking about himself, and he
27:09
Speaker 1: lifts the title from the Old Testament Book of Daniel,
27:11
Speaker 1: the prophet. Daniel talked about the Son of Man. This
27:14
Speaker 1: was Daniel's description of the one that God would send
27:16
Speaker 1: to deliver the world, God's final king, God's Messiah. And
27:20
Speaker 1: Jesus now takes this on as his title. He's used
27:23
Speaker 1: it multiple times throughout the Gospels. He's like, for even
27:26
Speaker 1: the Son of Man did not come to be served.
27:32
Speaker 1: You guys want to be served. Look at me, he say,
27:35
Speaker 1: I am your king. Not even I required people to
27:38
Speaker 1: serve me. What kind of king is that? Who would
27:44
Speaker 1: even want to be that kind of king? But imagine
27:49
Speaker 1: a kingdom or a community or a family, or imagine
27:52
Speaker 1: a nation that took their cue from that kind of king.
27:58
Speaker 1: For even the son of man he's pointing at himself,
28:00
Speaker 1: didn't come to be served but to serve. To think,
28:04
Speaker 1: whoa wait, wait wait wait, wait, okay, wait wait. It's
28:07
Speaker 1: one thing to be a king that doesn't require people
28:10
Speaker 1: to serve the king. It's another thing altogether when the
28:13
Speaker 1: king decides to flip the script and serve those who
28:19
Speaker 1: are his subjects. But he wasn't thru Maybe at this
28:26
Speaker 1: point he turns and he faces Jerusalem. For even the
28:31
Speaker 1: son a man did not come to be served, but
28:33
Speaker 1: to serve. He faces Jerusalem and says, and to give
28:39
Speaker 1: his life because it was his choice. Nobody took his
28:45
Speaker 1: life from him. He marched to Jerusalem to give it away.
28:51
Speaker 1: Now I just want to say something about this real cool.
28:53
Speaker 1: We'll come back and again. I don't know what this
28:57
Speaker 1: looks like in your life. So if you're like Andy
28:58
Speaker 1: beebe's more specific. I don't know how to be more specific.
29:02
Speaker 1: Do you know why you should look for opportunities to
29:05
Speaker 1: give your life away? Because your opportunity to give your
29:10
Speaker 1: life away is slipping away. Because one day your life
29:16
Speaker 1: will be taken from you, and on that day, your opportunity,
29:19
Speaker 1: my opportunity to freely give our lives away, comes to
29:24
Speaker 1: an end. Our time is running out. If you're twenty,
29:29
Speaker 1: or if you're sixty, or if you're eighty, our time
29:33
Speaker 1: or opportunity is running out. To mimic and to follow
29:38
Speaker 1: Jesus by giving our lives away. The reason we should
29:40
Speaker 1: look for opportunities to give it away is because the
29:43
Speaker 1: opportunity to give it away is slipping away, and one
29:46
Speaker 1: day it ends. This is the way of the Cross.
29:54
Speaker 1: For even the Son of Man did not come to
29:56
Speaker 1: be served, but to serve. He looks to Jerusalem and
29:59
Speaker 1: to give his life away as a ransom for many.
30:09
Speaker 1: And they're like quiet. Then he says, okay, let's go,
30:13
Speaker 1: get back up, get back on the road. Join the crowd.
30:15
Speaker 1: They've fallen away behind. We are so in the back
30:18
Speaker 1: of the line now, thank you very much. They're on
30:20
Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem. And they still didn't understand, but
30:24
Speaker 1: they were about to witness. Imagine this, They're about to
30:27
Speaker 1: witness what John the Baptists predicted when John the Baptists
30:29
Speaker 1: came on the scene. And Jesus walks down to the
30:31
Speaker 1: valley where John the Baptist is baptizing in the Jordan River,
30:34
Speaker 1: and he stops what he's doing, and he looks up
30:37
Speaker 1: and he says, behold, look the Lamb of God who
30:40
Speaker 1: comes to take away the sins of the world. They
30:43
Speaker 1: are about to witness that. They're about to become witnesses
30:47
Speaker 1: of the greatest event that ever happened, the salvation of
30:52
Speaker 1: the world, the ultimate sir, the moment that would define Christianity,
31:01
Speaker 1: the moment that would define our faith, the moment that
31:05
Speaker 1: would define what it means and what it looks like
31:08
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus. And so the cross became the icon
31:14
Speaker 1: of our faith because the folks who were there understood
31:18
Speaker 1: that it represented the template, the paradigm, or the pattern
31:24
Speaker 1: of our faith, because it's the ultimate loss, it's the
31:28
Speaker 1: ultimate shame, it's the ultimate back of the line. And
31:32
Speaker 1: after the resurrection, they're like, we get it, we got it.
31:37
Speaker 1: And they lived their lives that way, and it multiplied
31:40
Speaker 1: and multiplied and multiplied. It's why we're here. We're not
31:45
Speaker 1: here because Christians got their way. We're here because first
31:50
Speaker 1: and second century Christians gave their lives away. That's why
31:56
Speaker 1: the Gospel endured the might of Rome. It's a standing invitation.
32:04
Speaker 1: It's an empowering invitation. It's an invitation to participate in
32:07
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God right now, in your family, in
32:11
Speaker 1: the marketplace. As soon as we leave every single day
32:14
Speaker 1: and every day, we're going to be tempted not to
32:15
Speaker 1: accept the invitation because it's so countercultural and so counter natural.
32:20
Speaker 1: But imagine if we said yes. Imagine if we led
32:25
Speaker 1: our families that way. Imagine if we work that way,
32:28
Speaker 1: served our employers that way. Imagine if we led in
32:31
Speaker 1: the marketplace that way. Imagine if we reacted that way.
32:36
Speaker 1: It's risky and it's foolish, at least we think so now,
32:38
Speaker 1: But in the end we won't think that way because
32:41
Speaker 1: the power of God, the love of God, the Kingdom
32:46
Speaker 1: of God is released and recognized in us and through
32:50
Speaker 1: us in the real world when we say yes to
32:53
Speaker 1: the invitation of the cross. So what if we said yes,
33:00
Speaker 1: or what if we tried to say yes what if we,
33:02
Speaker 1: like we said last week, what if we chased humility?
33:06
Speaker 1: What if we said yes at home and at work
33:08
Speaker 1: and at school with our friends. What if we decided
33:11
Speaker 1: to chase humility with our enemies. What if we refuse
33:14
Speaker 1: to reduce the cross to simply a way of believing
33:18
Speaker 1: and really embraced it based on the pattern and the
33:21
Speaker 1: teaching of Jesus as a way of living our lives.
33:25
Speaker 1: This is what Jesus invites us to defer, to give,
33:29
Speaker 1: to forgive, to serve, to choose, to lose again, to
33:32
Speaker 1: chase humility, and then I'm done. When we think it's
33:39
Speaker 1: too much, you're asking too much, it's too high. You know,
33:42
Speaker 1: you're asking me to go too low. This is when
33:45
Speaker 1: it should reverberate in our minds. Is why you should
33:47
Speaker 1: memorize this statement. It's why I think it's just the
33:50
Speaker 1: most amazing thing that came from the lips of Jesus.
33:52
Speaker 1: In those moments where you're asking too much. I've already given,
33:55
Speaker 1: I've already served, i've already apologized, I've already let them
33:58
Speaker 1: take the credit. I've gone about as low as I
34:00
Speaker 1: know how to go. I don't know that I can
34:01
Speaker 1: go any further. Jesus smiles, he looks at you, and
34:05
Speaker 1: he says, yeah, I know, thank you, But just remember
34:08
Speaker 1: thus for even your savior, the one who, after the
34:15
Speaker 1: resurrection again we just doesn't get enough airplay, The one
34:19
Speaker 1: who stands on a mountain after his resurrection and says, hey,
34:22
Speaker 1: all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.
34:26
Speaker 1: The same one who stood in that upper room while
34:28
Speaker 1: they're serving passover and realize, oh, my goodness, all authority
34:32
Speaker 1: belongs to me. I'm the most important person in the room.
34:35
Speaker 1: I'm the most powerful person in the room. Even that man,
34:40
Speaker 1: even the son of man, did not come to be served,
34:44
Speaker 1: but to serve and to give his life as a
34:47
Speaker 1: ransom for many. And you are part of the many.
34:56
Speaker 1: So why not accept his invitation to live? Is part
35:02
Speaker 1: of his kingdom. And if we do, if we figure
35:07
Speaker 1: it out, if we decide, it's not too hard, it's
35:10
Speaker 1: not too low. If we decide, even if we get
35:12
Speaker 1: it wrong, we're going to keep trying. If we decide
35:13
Speaker 1: to keep it front and center, things will change. But
35:19
Speaker 1: the change starts here. But when it's real change, it
35:25
Speaker 1: will be evident out there. You are part of the many,
35:33
Speaker 1: So why not accept his invitation to participate in his
35:39
Speaker 1: kingdom