Latest / Saint City Chapel / Departing and United | Joshua 22

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Departing and United | Joshua 22 · Saint City Chapel

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Good morning. How are we feeling?
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Thanks, Bryce. Hey, my name is Preston.
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If we haven't met yet, I get to serve on staff with this church
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as our college ministry director called the salt company and guys
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this is kind of we had kind of had last salt this Thursday and
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really kind of putting a bow on it.
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So going to be saying bye to some college students here for
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the summer coming up. It'll be exciting, but it's kind
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of part of it. And so I don't know about you
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guys. Like if you think about the
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season of our church, the type of church that we're a part of
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and the fact that we live in Arizona and this might be the
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worst place to be in June and July, there's probably some
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summer plans starting to brew. Like this is the last week of
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probably below triple digits perhaps.
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Sorry to say it. You know, you guys, it's like
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it's warming up. But it's interesting to think
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so. Today's May 3rd, 9 months ago,
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August 3rd was our first like Sunday service as a church.
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Isn't that crazy? Yes, I think it is.
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Some of you guys felt like three years.
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In some ways it has, but it's just been really, really
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exciting and God's done a lot And you know, something
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interesting whenever we open up God's word, something that I
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always was taught when you get an opportunity to teach it,
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which I actually think this is a great principle for us any day
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is to answer to ask the question like pray to God, ask the
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question like God, what do you have for us this morning?
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Like what is it in We're about to read Joshua 22 and guys, this
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is a text that a lot of times during a sermon series, they
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just like skip over Joshua 22. And so it's like, God, what do
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you have for us this morning? What do you want to teach us
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today? And not that it that we get to
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tell the Bible what it teaches us.
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But no, there's all the principles, there's the story.
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And understanding it in their town helps us apply it to our
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town in Tempe and where we Live Today.
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And we live in a very transient city with, with a transient
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church where we got college students, right?
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We got young adults, we got families.
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And we're about to enter into a transient season, meaning this
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summer, like this is a time where we have travel plans, set
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internships, you're going on all these things.
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And so things will start to, to change because we're going to be
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departing either to home for, for school or, or for
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internships or onto vacation. There might even be a Sunday
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that you miss, which is OK, by the way, you don't have to do
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that. But this.
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So here's here's the big question today.
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So we'll be in Joshua 22. Like I said, the big question
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today is how do we be a departing people fully united to
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him, a departing people. Like I said, we're in a
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transient city. We have this church with a lot
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of people that have travelled in or here for school and things
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are going to change over the summer.
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Not that we're not going to have church over the summer, just
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saying we're going to have church.
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We will be here. OK.
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We're open every Sunday, 10 AM. Right, Pastor?
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OK, yeah, that'd be news for me. Hey, this is this will be
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helpful for us. But there's an over first quick
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overflow of the sermon. There's kind of three flows this
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morning. There's a context we'll talk
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about. There's a conflict and then
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there's a challenge at the end. So these are flows and ours
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aren't necessarily points. But within each of these flows,
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we'll answer, find an answer to our question.
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How do we be a departing people fully united to him?
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And so there'll be plenty of principles in our text this
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morning. And so if you're taking notes,
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here's a tip for you. Write down the stuff that's
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helpful and just don't write down the stuff that's not.
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Is that simple there? You don't have to write down
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everything. Write down what's helpful for
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you. Sound good?
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OK, let me pray for us, Father, we are thankful.
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We're very thankful for the word of God.
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We're thankful for the church God that we can come, we can
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gather together. God has one body with one hope,
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with one spirit, and learn from you, learn from your word.
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And so God, we pray that you would reveal to us what we need
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to hear this morning. God, in this chapter, it's so
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significant that even for our lives as a church in a transient
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town with some transient people where there's change coming,
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that's just natural and part of the rhythm.
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God, as we see that in Joshua 22, would you help us understand
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God that we can be fully united to you and fully united to one
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another in the body of Christ as we pursue in it all?
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So God, would your spirit do what your spirit does?
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Would you convict us? Would you teach us and call us
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to new life in Jesus name? Amen.
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Amen. All right, Joshua 22, verse one,
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we'll read a couple verses. We won't read the whole chapter
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today, but we will bounce around and I will navigate us, which
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makes sense. That's kind of my job this
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morning. Verse one At that time Joshua
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summoned the Reubenites in the How should I practice Jadeites?
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Jadeites in the half tribe of Manasseh, the whole half tribe
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of Manasseh. Verse 2 And he said to them, You
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have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded
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you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.
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You have not forsaken your brothers these many days down to
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this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord
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your God. And the Lord your God has given
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rest to your brothers as he has promised them.
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Therefore, turn and go. You can underline that I have
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that underlined in my Bible. Therefore, turn and go to your
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tents in the land where your possessions lie, which Moses the
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servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
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That's important context here. The other side of the Jordan,
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verse 5. Only be very careful to observe
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the commandment that the in the law of Moses, the servant of the
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Lord commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in all
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his ways, to keep his commandments and to cling to him
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and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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So Joshua blessed them and sent them away and they went to their
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tents. OK, so here's the context here,
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right? Verse one through 6.
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So what happened? If you've been with us in this
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Joshua series, they've just been on this conquest of land.
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They've crossed the Jordan and they've conquered all this land.
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They've gone to battle together, they've built things together,
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they've captured land together. There's been all these things
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that God has done, all these things that the work of God has
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done. They've been together and all of
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it. And now they're about to depart,
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they're about to scatter, and some of these tribes are about
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to go back to the land that was promised to them.
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And specifically, as we saw, some of that land is on the
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other side of the Jordan, this, this river that got actually
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parted for the people that walk through this other Red Sea
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moment, this Jordan, this significant place, they're about
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to go across it. And so they're about to go do
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that. Sorry, I'm figuring out where
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we're at. Well, this, this matters because
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if you think about it, they've just been in battle together and
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they're about to cross the Jordan.
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They're about to go live on the other side.
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There's probably people, if you think about battles, if you
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think about war, if you think about these things, there's
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probably people that didn't don't like Israel.
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And so these people, they're about to go back across the
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journal, back across this physical landmark, they're about
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to be separated from the rest of Israel.
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You got these two tribes. You even got this whole half
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tribe of Manasseh. And so they're about to go over
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there. And so Joshua, as he thinks
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about these things and you can think about this tribe, there's
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concern arising up. They're like, hey, we're about
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to be separated from the rest of the pack.
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You know, what happens when we get separated from everyone
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else? What happens to us on part of
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our church, you know, as we depart for internships, for
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travels, for, for these things, what happens when we depart?
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And so Joshua has a great leader.
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He gives them some commands. He says, hey, we're about to go
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scatter. We're about to be separated from
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one another. But let me give you a few
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things. And so look with me at verse 5.
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I want to show this to you because Joshua, he's not as
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concerned about the physical attacks as he is the spiritual
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attacks. He's less concerned about enemy
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people trying to come in and get them.
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He's more concerned about, hey, what's spiritually going to
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happen when we separate? And if you remember, this is a
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beautiful list that Joshua gives his people in verse 5.
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It says only be very careful. He says, hey, you're about to
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scatter. You're about to go to the other
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side of the Jordan, but be very careful to observe the
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commandment in the law that Moses, the sermon of the Lord
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commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his
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ways, to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve
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him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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And so why is this so significant that Joshua gives
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him these commandments in verse 5?
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These people are about to scatter, right?
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They've just done all these things.
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And and so Joshua reiterates, because Joshua knows the most
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dangerous attack that could happen to these people as they
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depart apart from one another. It's not physical, but it's
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spiritual that they might go off and and go after unknown gods or
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forget what God has done that in this season of separation,
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they'd forget all the things that God's called them to do.
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And so this is what I wanted to see is that a lot of times
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separation can lead to isolation.
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Separation can lead to isolation.
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So when you separate from the battlefield, when you separate
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from the mission field, it can often lead to an isolation,
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isolating yourself from God, isolating yourself from the God
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who led you through all the things.
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Especially when you start to think about our church, how
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we've done God's been doing these crazy things in the past
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nine months, building this up and people come to faith,
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baptisms, all the celebrations. It can be easy as we separate or
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scatter just because of the natural flows of the summer that
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we can forget about all that God has done.
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And so Joshua, he knows that Israel, part of their part of
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the nation is about to be separated from the rest,
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possibly even isolated. And so when it but when it comes
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to us, when it comes to us being obedient to Jesus, this is
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always harder when we're separated from one another,
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especially if you think about this group, this community that
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we've just gathered together with, done life with, confess
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sin with followed Jesus with. When you separate yourself from
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that community, it can be much harder to be obedient to Jesus.
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And so again, when you think about our church body classes
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are finishing up high school and middle school.
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We're coming to an end. Summer's coming, summer's
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coming. Write that one down.
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Summer's coming. I mean, no matter the the age
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group here, like we, we probably have different flows within the
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summer. We have vacations with the
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summer, We have a natural departing in the summer, But
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even with that separation can lead to isolation.
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And so here's as we get to the a point within this part, if
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you're going to intentionally depart, right?
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Because God, he tells, he tells Israel, he's like, Hey, this is
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your land. Like God's not intentional about
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them. Hey, going, it's not like he
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forgot about these tribes. God was intentional about
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allowing them to depart from one another to have certain parts of
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land that there there's a little bit of separation here.
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That was intentional by God. And just like in God
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intentionally sends them. There should be intentionality
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behind us as we depart for the summer or things change or this
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rhythm of life comes into play. But if we're not intentionally
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departing, right, if we're not intentionally going on vacation,
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if we're not intentionally going to our internships, if we're not
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intentionally here, we're going to have a hard time
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intentionally being obedient to Jesus as well.
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So just like Joshua says for us, I think a big miss that we could
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have is that when we look at a season in front of us, when we
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think about our vacations, when we think about our internships,
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that we we think that this is just an opportunity to put a
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pause on our faith. Like we compartmentalize our
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faith to a Sunday. We compartmentalize what God
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wants to do in our life to just our small group.
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But we don't realize the intentionality behind God not
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only to send these tribes throughout the land, but also
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the intentionality from God to send us throughout the land,
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that our vacations could be more like mission trips, that our
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internships could be a way to honor God and bring Jesus to
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that workplace. And so for us, like as we
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scatter on these things, just like God was giving Israel rest
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in the land after their hard work, I think God wants to give
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us rest as well. And so Joshua, he gives them
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this command right in verse 5. You can look back at it.
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He says, hey, be very careful as you depart to observe the
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commandments to observe the law of Moses.
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Be very careful to love the Lord your God.
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Be very careful to walk in all his ways to keep his
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commandments, to cling to him, to serve him with all your heart
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and to serve him with all your your soul.
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Because here's the reality. It's in this isolation when sin
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can easily creep in in our lives.
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And so for not intentional and obedience to Jesus, we're going
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to we're going to be obedient to something else.
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And so I love how Moses, the writer of some of the Old
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Testament, he writes this in Genesis, Genesis 4.
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This is talking about sin. This is actually gone talking.
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This is just the back half of this verse.
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It says sin is crouching at the door.
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This desire is for you and you must rule over it.
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There's a whole scene there between Cain and Abel going on
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God's talking about sin and how it creeps in.
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And then in first Peter, right Peter, another author within the
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New Testament, talking about sin, talking to the people he's
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he's talking to in first Peter in the letter, it says be sober
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minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls
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around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
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When we separate, when we depart, it's it's not that
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separation or, or, or going on vacation.
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Those aren't bad things. Those are really good things.
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There just needs to be intentionality there because
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it's easy for that to turn into isolation.
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And when we get isolated, this is where sin wants to creep in.
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That's where the enemy wants to get us.
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This lion, or if you're like my daughter Monroe, she's a
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cheetah, I'm a lion. She always says that she's
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still, we're starting to role play.
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She's starting to get these things in her head, make relief.
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Lions roar. OK, I'm a lion.
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You're a cheetah. That's like a terrible thing
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because the devil's the lion in this text.
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So Yikes. You see what I'm getting out
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here? Part of Israel was separated
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from the rest by God's design, with intentionality from God.
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Yet in separation, it can lead to isolation.
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We're potentially setting into vacations, stepping into like
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leaving all these things. It's going to feel different.
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In this separation, there can be isolation and we don't want
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that. It's in our isolation where the
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enemy wants to attack us. He wants to separate us and
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isolate us. So we must be intentional that
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as we depart, we're very careful to be obedient to Jesus
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observing the scriptures. Here's here's the thing about
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vacation and and Bible reading. I think there is some of us are
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you're like, dude, I love reading the Bible.
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I got the best Bible reading habit.
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Just you're just always waiting for someone to ask you about
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your Bible reading habit. Nothing wrong with that.
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I, I might actually fall in line with that one, but it's like on
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vacation, the expectation is that you're going to read your
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Bible the same way you've always read your Bible or, or on
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vacation, you're like, I'm just not even going to bring it
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because I know I'm not going to get to it.
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I actually think both of those are bad expectations.
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I think when we go on vacation, man, we ought to honestly put
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together a simple Bible reading plan that we can have the right
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expectation to get in it. You know how restful that would
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be if you just had a handful of verses that every morning you
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just got up 30 minutes before the kids, 30 minutes before
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everybody else, and you just spent a little bit of time with
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God. I mean, you're away from the
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stresses of life. Hopefully you can turn off the
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emails and work and stuff. That can be pretty hard
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sometimes on vacation. But to have that, that simple
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bite of God's word, the bread of life, to get some of that in you
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every morning on vacation, all the stresses of life are put to
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the side and you're just having fun.
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You know how fulfilling that would be.
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That would fill you up well. And so read your Bible on
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vacation for real. Make a simple plan, love the
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Lord like marvel over his creation.
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Oh, man, asking people, what do you do here in the summer?
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Like, oh, we go to the mountains, man.
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When you go to the mountains this summer, dude, look at his
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creation. What a great opportunity to
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marvel, to depart and fall in love with Jesus even more.
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And, and I'm thinking about, I mean, it's so easy for us to
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fall into substances, drinking, smoking, whatever on vacations.
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That's a lot of times in our country, our culture.
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It's like that's what you do. You consume alcohol, you do
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this, you do that, man, Don't let vacation be a time that
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changes the way you follow Jesus.
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Man, fight those sins now, but also fight those sins on
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vacation. And I'm thinking about this too.
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Like for anybody that's going on an internship this summer or
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things like work is going to change this summer.
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Man, what a great opportunity for you to grow in your
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character to serve your workplace.
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Like perhaps your your boss somehow takes a sabbatical.
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Maybe your boss is like Aceo is never present in the summer.
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Man, what a great opportunity for you to step up and to serve
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your workplace and not necessarily make a great name
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for yourself. But ma'am, what if that's
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something that God wants to do to bless you, to bless your
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family? Perhaps there's a promotion
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there and it would actually bless your workplace to bring
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the Christian values in to the place you work.
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Like God's intentionally doing things this summer.
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That's what I want you to see. And so to conclude this thought,
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how do we be a departing people fully united to Him?
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We are intentional about our obedience to Jesus.
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We're intentional about our obedience to Jesus.
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Not very profound sentence, very practical sentence, not the
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easiest sentence. So there's some incredible right
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principles here. Joshua gives us their reply to
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our lives. But that's not it.
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That's not all that's here. There's some, there's some
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conflict arising. OK, buckle up.
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Here it is, verse 10. So here's the scene, right?
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Remember with me these tribes, they got done fighting, they're
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ready to go to their their land. Part of these people are going
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off and some of it it's on the other side of the Jordan.
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So there's some fears like, all right, we got some separation.
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Are they going to forget about us?
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What should we do? What's happening here?
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Here we go. Verse 10.
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And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the
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land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in
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the half tribe, the whole half tribe of Manasseh built there at
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an altar by the Jordan. That's important.
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They're an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
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I can't help but hear Donald Trump's voice in there, an
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imposing size, verse 11. And the people of Israel heard
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it, heard it. So they heard about this
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happening, the imposing size. And behold, the people of Reuben
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and the people of God and the half tribe, the whole the whole
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half drive of NASA have built the altar at the frontier of the
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land of Canaan in the region about the Jordan on the side
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that belongs to the people of Israel.
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And when the people here's the conflict, when the people of
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Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of people of Israel
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gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
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OK, I have I have this word written next to this it says why
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question mark? So these guys are get, you know,
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they get sent off to the place where they're supposed to go and
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they're like, hey, what's hey, let's build this, let's build
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this altar. And so they build this altar and
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the rest of Israel hears about it and they're like, well,
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that's not good. And so they gear up, they get
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ready for war, what they had just been doing.
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And now there's this civil war that's about about to happen.
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Yikes. Like that's not good.
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They were used to have, they had war against the enemy.
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Now they have war against themselves.
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They're departing people. But how can they be united
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together? Well, here's the thing we need
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to understand about altars. I don't think we have them
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really today, which is probably good.
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But altars, they're synonymous with sacrifices.
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You don't build an altar if you're not going to make a
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sacrifice to it. And so Israel, they're like,
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whoa, whoa, whoa. You're about to build this altar
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then of imposing size, and you're building this thing.
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That only means that you're going to be sacrificing things
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on it. You're making sacrifices there.
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And so they're like, dude, this isn't great.
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You're over in this land that used to belong to the
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Canaanites, where they had these gods that they'd make sacrifices
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to. Are our brothers and sisters
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these other tribes? Are they about to separate from
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us and now in their isolation, about to make sacrifices to
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false gods? That's the question, that
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they're actually like whole oh, no, Like, has the enemy come
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within exactly what Josh Joshua feared about the spiritual
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attack? Is it happening?
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And they're like, Oh, no, we need to go confront this, our
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friends, you know, these other tribes, they're about to
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separate from us, but also really separate from us.
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And so you're like, why would they wage war against himself?
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Well, to them, man, war was necessary in this situation
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because they're like, man, dude, following God's A-Team sport.
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If you guys go down, we're going down.
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We, if you break the covenant, we break the covenant because
21:57
Israel as a nation, they have a, a covenant with God that he is
22:02
theirs and, and, and they are his.
22:04
And so when one of the team, part of the team goes down, they
22:07
all go down. And so like, dude, we can't let
22:09
that happen. And so they suit up for war and
22:13
they go confront him. And so to summarize a big chunk
22:16
of texts here, verse 13 through 20, Israel, the rest of the
22:20
nation, they're like, dude, we got to go check out what these
22:22
tribes are doing. They're building this big altar,
22:24
imposing sides. And so they go and they're
22:26
suited up and they're their spiritual leader, Phineas, the
22:30
son of Eliezer, the priest. He goes with them to confront
22:33
him about this altar. And so they show up and they're
22:36
like, it probably sound a lot like this.
22:38
It was like, hey, bud, what are we doing here?
22:41
Like, what's up with this, you know, kind of altar thing, You
22:43
know, kind of crazy, huh? Altars are kind of crazy.
22:47
And he's like, you know, altars are for sacrificing.
22:49
This probably what Phineas sound like.
22:51
Altars are for sacrificing. Do you guys remember where we
22:53
make sacrifices? Not at this altar.
22:56
We got another one. And so they kind of come up and
22:59
they're like, dude, you guys are, are, are doing a big no, no
23:02
here. And and not only that, he brings
23:05
up people, he brings up situations.
23:07
Said he'd remember what happened at pure where the sin entered in
23:11
and a plague came. He's like, you guys remember
23:13
that. You remember Aiken?
23:14
Aiken was this guy who helped take down Jericho as earlier in
23:17
Joshua, he took some of the spoil from within.
23:19
He wasn't supposed to. And then not only did Aiken die,
23:22
but the rest of Israel suffered. It's a team sport.
23:25
They're like, dude, if you suffer, if one of us breaks the
23:28
covenant, we all break the covenant.
23:30
So before that happens, either you're with us or you're not
23:32
with us. There's this conflict that's
23:34
arising. Really what they're saying is
23:37
what, you know, Israel, Phineas, these guys are saying to the
23:39
rest, it says do not make misguided or make sacrifices you
23:44
don't need to make. They're saying, hey, you're
23:46
making the wrong. If you're building this altar,
23:48
that means you're probably going to make sacrifices to it.
23:51
So don't make it wrong to sacrifice, Don't make sacrifices
23:54
God never called you to make. That's what these people are
23:58
saying. So this conflict right the
24:01
application for us, especially when you think about sacrifices,
24:05
especially when you think about following Jesus in the same way
24:08
they're saying, hey, don't make sacrifices God never called you
24:11
to make. For us today, we don't want to
24:13
make sacrifices. God's never called us to make.
24:16
We don't want to be people making sacrifices of our sexual
24:20
purity on the altar of lust, or sacrificing our family on the
24:24
altar of work, or sacrificing integrity on the altar of money,
24:30
or sacrificing the character of our spouse on the altar of
24:34
pride. We don't want to be people who
24:37
are making sacrifices God never called us to make.
24:41
We don't want to make the wrong sacrifices and it's often times
24:48
in isolation, this one, we make those, not only are we do we get
24:53
separated, but we get isolated and it's in those isolations we
24:56
make the wrong sacrifices. And so for Israel, the covenant,
25:03
right, the one they hold with God, it's a team thing.
25:05
It's a team sport. To be faithful to God for them
25:09
was a team thing. So if one teammate goes down,
25:12
the whole team goes down be all. It's the same thing for us, like
25:17
following Jesus. It's a team sport, like we're
25:21
together in this Paul, he's a he's a writer in the New
25:24
Testament. He talks about this a lot in in
25:27
the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 4 one through 5.
25:30
I want to read it for us, help you see this.
25:32
This is a beautiful reality of the church that we're all part
25:36
of the same body that he is a vine.
25:38
We are the branches. We're all part of the same body
25:41
of Christ. This is what Ephesians 4 says.
25:43
I therefore, a prisoner talking about Paul, urge you to walk in
25:46
a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
25:49
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
25:51
bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the
25:54
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
25:57
This is what I want you to see. Verse 4.
25:59
There is one body. 1 Spirit, just as you recalled to 1 Hope
26:03
that belongs to your call. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one
26:07
God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in
26:10
all. Not to go crazy deep here on
26:13
this theology of being a part of the body of Christ, but it's a
26:18
team sport for us. We're all in this together.
26:22
I think there's a Disney song about that.
26:27
Molly loves Disney. I've heard.
26:31
I've heard a preacher say this once.
26:34
There's no such thing as personal sin.
26:37
There's no such thing as personal sin.
26:38
Think about that. It's like I thought all sins
26:40
personal. This is what that means.
26:44
There's no sin that only effects you every time you make a wrong
26:48
sacrifice. Every time you sin, not only
26:52
does it affect yourself, it's going to affect other people.
26:55
It's a team sport. Because in reality, every time
26:59
we sin, right, it's not just us. I got at the least of it.
27:04
Maybe my sin doesn't directly affect you because I didn't
27:06
directly sin against you, but it doesn't directly affect me.
27:10
And so you get less of me because of that.
27:13
Like our sin always effects each other.
27:16
So in the sense, there's no such thing as personal sin because
27:19
following speak, following Jesus is a team sport.
27:24
And so to conclude this part of this flow of the conflict, how
27:29
do we be a departing people fully united to him?
27:33
Will we keep ourselves from making the wrong sacrifices?
27:38
We don't want to make sacrifices God's never called us to make.
27:44
So there's a lot there. And come back into the text.
27:47
Israel, they're dressed for war, baby, The civil war.
27:50
It is a Bruin. And So what, what happens next?
27:54
Well, in verses 21 to 25, when they confront them about this
27:59
altar, right? We have these few tribes that
28:01
have come off on their own. They've built this huge altar.
28:05
They come to confront them with real evidence.
28:06
They're like, dude, it's a team sport.
28:08
If you go down, we all go down. We got to figure this out.
28:11
Well, turns out perhaps this is a application to most civil
28:16
wars. There was a big entire
28:18
misunderstanding of what this altar was about.
28:21
There's this huge misunderstanding.
28:24
And so these tribes, the Reuben, Gad, Manasa, the whole, the half
28:28
tribe, but the all of it, the whole half, they respond,
28:33
they're like, Hey, actually, guys, if we're actually breaking
28:35
the covenant, if we're breaching the faith with God, if we're
28:39
going after false gods, literally what the Scripture
28:42
says, it says, let the Lord himself take vengeance.
28:44
She's like, no, no, no, If this altar was meant for sacrifices,
28:48
if it was going to go after, if these were going to be wrong,
28:50
sacrifices here, let the Lord come take vengeance on we're,
28:53
we're with you guys. We're still in this coveted.
28:57
And so they tell the rest of Israel that like, Hey, actually,
28:59
this altar, this altar is to be a witness.
29:03
This altar is not for sacrificing.
29:04
It's a witness for all who can see it because it's you know,
29:09
I'm imposing his eyes. He said we're with the Lord
29:11
everybody who sees this altar. It's a witnesses go, hey, we are
29:15
with the Lord our God that this altar would represents the works
29:19
of God, all that he's done. And so when the rest of Israel
29:23
hears this, they're like, hey, this report, it's good in our
29:28
eyes. Let me show you verse verse 33.
29:32
Verse 33 says they tell them all this verse 33 and the report was
29:38
good in the eyes of the people of Israel and the people of
29:41
Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them
29:45
to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people
29:49
of God were settled. Verse 34, the people of Reuben
29:53
and the people of God called the altar witness.
29:57
Witness. That's an important word.
29:58
It actually is in some of this other texts we didn't read
30:01
witness a witness for they, they said it is a witness between us
30:07
that the Lord is God. So this altar, it's not meant
30:13
for sacrifices. This altar is meant to be a
30:16
witness, a witness to all that God has done.
30:22
And so why is this important? Well, like I said earlier, we
30:26
have the context, the OR the, the, the conflict.
30:31
Then we have a challenge. Well, the challenge is this in
30:35
the in the New Testament, God calls us a witness that there's
30:41
no longer this altar of a witness, but us as humans, we
30:46
are witnesses. Actually in Acts 1, Jesus says
30:49
this Acts one verse 8, it says, but you will receive power when
30:53
the Holy Spirit comes comes upon you and you will be my witnesses
30:57
in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth.
31:01
You will be my witnesses. And then so in in the same way
31:05
that this altar was built in Joshua to tell the world of the
31:11
works of God, our lives in our lips are meant to tell the world
31:17
of the works of God. That's what it means to be a
31:21
witness. In this witness, this altar is
31:26
actually the thing. Sure.
31:27
You're like, dude, that that created conflict.
31:29
It's like no, no, actually this witness was the thing that God
31:32
wanted to use to unify the tribes all together under 1
31:36
nation. That the witness, the telling of
31:41
the works of God is actually what unifies the people of God
31:45
on the deepest level. And so the question is, or the
31:49
challenge even, does your life tell the story of Jesus?
31:55
Do your lips tell the story of Jesus for us today?
32:01
Like if you've experienced the works of God, if you submitted
32:04
your life to Christ, if you believed he lived the perfect
32:08
life, died the death, rose from the grave, does your life model
32:13
that? Do your lips proclaim that And
32:18
so there's something that's that's honestly interestingly
32:21
sad. And obviously I'm not I didn't
32:23
like survey this room. It's interesting barn a group
32:28
they do studies and surveys and stuff.
32:31
They found that 55% of born again believers.
32:35
So people who would say, yes, I've truly placed my faith in
32:37
Jesus. 55% of them say that yes, I have talked about my faith.
32:42
I've talked about Jesus with at least one person in the last 12
32:46
months, 55% that's above half, right?
32:50
But if you think about it, that's 45% of people that
32:55
haven't in the past 12 months. Like that's a long time.
33:02
Like 12 months is a is a long time.
33:07
And, and guys, as a church, I think we can normalize talking
33:10
about Jesus. I think we can be a people that
33:13
are winsome with our witness, like we can be a people that
33:15
unified together by the way we witness to other people about
33:18
Jesus, by our lives and our lips, the works of God.
33:22
I think we can be those people. I think that statistic doesn't
33:24
have to be true in this room. I think we can be a church that
33:29
normalizes what it talks about. And actually, I think that's
33:32
going to be something that God uses to unify us.
33:36
And here's the reality too. You don't have to bring to
33:37
someone to faith in one conversation.
33:39
If you know how to do that, let me know.
33:41
I will take notes. I'll tell everybody, it's a lot
33:44
of times, guys, it's simple conversations about who God is,
33:47
what he's done in your life, what he's doing in your midst,
33:49
Those small conversations, the normalizing of communicating
33:52
your faith. That's often what God uses to
33:55
bring people to faith. They get people interested in
33:57
Christ, but that's what the Spirit uses to do it.
34:02
And so here's a common like response I get.
34:03
It's like, bro, wait, people don't actually want to know
34:06
about Jesus. Like I would talk about my faith
34:09
if people actually wanted to hear about my faith.
34:11
It's a reaction that I honestly hear a decent amount.
34:16
Well, don't worry, there's another group called Lifeway.
34:18
They did a survey on Americans like, hey, how interested would
34:22
you be to talk about someone else's personal faith or Jesus?
34:26
And 66% of people of Americans are open or interested in
34:31
hearing about other people's personal faith. 66%.
34:34
So that means if you've got three people you talk to about
34:36
Jesus that you witnessed to, two of them are going to be like,
34:39
oh, dude, I'm kind of interested, at least open to
34:41
that. That's crazy.
34:45
So, and, and here's the thing too, I think a lot of skeptical
34:50
people, it's like they don't want to hear anything I have to
34:53
say. Actually, I think skeptical
34:55
people don't really care what your church institution has to
34:59
say. They might even care what the
35:00
Bible has to say, but they really care about what you have
35:03
to say. People care actually about what
35:06
you believe the works of God that you've seen, that you've
35:09
experienced, that you've been a part of.
35:11
People really care about what you, what you personally
35:13
believe. So hopefully that encourages
35:18
you. So yeah, this is the challenge.
35:22
Be a witness for Jesus this week.
35:25
OK, so here's the conclusion, right?
35:26
We're coming to a close conclusion of this challenge.
35:30
How do we be a departing people fully united to him?
35:32
We witness to others about Jesus.
35:35
It's very simple. We witness to others about Jesus
35:41
and now I could give you tactics, tips, tricks, whatever
35:46
to be a witness, but I'd rather just tell you the story of the
35:51
greatest witness I've ever experienced in my life.
35:55
So if you know my story a bit, we didn't grow up going to
35:59
church, didn't really know God. Jesus didn't really have
36:02
anything against him. Wasn't like angry God.
36:03
None of that bless you. So for me, in high school, I had
36:10
a friend named Hank Evans. And So what I didn't realize is
36:16
that Hank had been following Jesus.
36:19
And so Hank and I were kind of reuniting our friendship
36:23
messaging over Snapchat. That's what you would do to do
36:27
that. And and so I'm like asking him
36:29
like, Hey, do you, you know, you party do this, do you that?
36:31
And he's like, Nah, bro, I don't, but I'm pumped to hang
36:33
out. And so Hank and I were actually
36:36
never able to hang out because a few days after that, Hank ended
36:38
up passing away. So he passed away.
36:43
His heart stopped while he was longboarding.
36:47
But it was his parents that I think had the greatest witness.
36:52
So that happened almost a year. Would it be 2014, May of 2014?
36:58
And so his parents, what they started to do, I mean, you think
37:03
about the situation, how easy it would be to isolate yourself,
37:06
separate yourselves from everybody else.
37:09
What they did was is like, you know what?
37:10
There's a lot of hurting people, not just us.
37:13
And so as they're trying to lead their family through the
37:15
siblings, Hank siblings, they have started inviting all of
37:18
Hank's friends over to their house.
37:20
They can't. Once you come over, I'll share
37:22
with you where my hope comes from.
37:25
And so they start inviting his friends over and it's kind of
37:27
like you go there to like for you, pay your respects or
37:30
whatever. And eventually it turns into a
37:33
Bible study. They start telling me, hey, this
37:36
is where our hope comes from, that there's a God who does
37:39
miracles, that even though God didn't bring our son back to
37:44
life, he brought his son back to life so that we could live
37:47
forever. And I don't even know that this
37:50
was a Bible study. I ended up just going just
37:52
because nothing against God, nothing against Jesus.
37:59
They start reading the Gospel of John.
38:00
They get to this story about this man who was born blind, one
38:04
of the greatest witnesses, and this man is like, man, I don't,
38:06
I don't know anything about Jesus.
38:08
They put this man on trial. He's like, I don't know much
38:10
about Jesus. I just know that once I was
38:12
blind, but now I see. And through the witness of my
38:16
friends, parents and the witness of that scripture, man, God used
38:21
that to open up my eyes. These are just faithful people,
38:26
broken people, man. I could tell you stories and
38:29
stories and stories that they told me in that basement that
38:33
God used to open up my eyes. I mean, that's a prayer for our
38:38
church. We might be like, man, why does
38:41
God have this for me? Why is he separating me out?
38:44
Why am I the only Christian at my work?
38:47
Man, God's intentional about sending you there.
38:50
He wants to do something there. He wants you to be a witness
38:52
there. God's intentional with
38:55
everything He does. I've heard it said if God puts
38:59
you where you are with intentionality, you should live
39:01
where you are with intentionality.
39:03
Maybe you've heard mission is movement.
39:06
This is how God works. He moves us around from place to
39:09
place. And the altar of your life is to
39:11
be a witness of what God has done through your life and
39:16
through your lips. So let me pray for us.
39:23
Yes, Jesus is our prayer. Not even now would you help us
39:28
see, Lord Jesus, that you were the one who came down.
39:34
God, you came down to put yourself back up on an altar, an
39:38
altar of a cross. Got to be the sacrifice, to be
39:42
the one true sacrifice, the once and for all sacrifice.
39:46
God that we don't need to make sacrifices to anything else.
39:48
There's no other God that we need to submit to, but you're
39:51
the only God that we ought to submit to.
39:57
And so God help us now see that that there's no other sacrifice
40:01
worthy of having God which help us not sacrifice their family
40:04
forever. These false gods, whether it's
40:05
lust, money, work, whatever. Lord God, help us see that
40:11
you've been so good to us, that you've been faithful to us, that
40:14
this is a A-Team sport. God, there's no such thing as
40:17
personal sin all over. Every time we sin, it affects us
40:21
and somebody else. So God help us fight that.
40:25
Help us not be isolated. But intentionally departs, God
40:29
to be with you tomorrow at your creation.
40:32
God, ultimately, I pray that you would raise up witnesses within
40:35
this room, God, that you would open up the eyes of the blind to
40:38
see once again. Do we see that, God?
40:42
Jesus, you, you're the one who can change us.
40:47
God that you rose again so that we could live with you forever
40:50
and ever and not just have heaven, but have you.
40:54
So help us see it. Jesus, his name, me bro, Amen.