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To Infinity and Beyond! Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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You can find more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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As you're seated, I want to invite you to turn in your
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Bibles if you have them with you.
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Or you feel free to pull out the one in front of you in the Pew,
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or just turn your attention to the screen.
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Or turn it to Genesis Chapter 9. Nope.
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Genesis Chapter 11. close. Yeah.
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Beginning in verse one on this Pentecost Sunday.
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So did you hear the word of God to us today?
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Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
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As people moved eastward, they found a plane in Shinar and
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settled there. They said to each other, come,
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let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.
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They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar.
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Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city with a
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tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a
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name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered across the
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face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see
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the city and the tower the people were building.
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The Lord said if as one people speaking the same language,
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they've begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be
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impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse
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their language so they will not understand each other.
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So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and
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they stopped building the city. That is why it is called Babel,
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because they're the Lord, confused the language of the
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whole world. From there the Lord scattered
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them over the face of the whole earth.
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This is the word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God. Amen.
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This morning Scripture is about the Tower of Babel, and you may
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be thinking to yourself that it's an odd selection for
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Pentecost Sunday. But there are some beautiful
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parallels to these stories, even just the the mention of when God
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says he's going to confuse them, he says, let us confuse them.
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We already have the Trinity involved in the process, the
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three persons, but then it says the Lord does it, the three in
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one. But in Genesis 11, we see the
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pride of the people leading them to build a legacy for themselves
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so that they would be known throughout the world.
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What does God do? He confuses them so they won't
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understand each other's languages.
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He spreads them throughout the world and stops them from
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building the tower to make a name for themselves.
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Now if we Fast forward thousands of years to Pentecost, Jesus has
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already ascended into heaven and left his disciples behind on
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earth. And this is where we land in
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Acts chapter 2 where it says on the day of Pentecost came.
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They were all together in one place.
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Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came
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from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
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They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
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and came to rest on each of them.
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All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
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in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
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Now there were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from
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every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a
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crowd came together in bewilderment because each one
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heard their own language being spoken.
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Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't all these who are
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speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us
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hears them and our native language?
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And then there's a long list of places that I will not
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mispronounce this morning. And at the end of verse 11, it
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says we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own
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tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked
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one another, what does this mean?
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People from all over the world gathered.
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The languages that divide them are spoken to unite them.
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They are confused, but not about what is said, but what this
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means for them. Once divided by their pride,
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they are united under the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Once again they are scattered to the ends of the earth, but this
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time it isn't a punishment. This time it is to share the
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unifying gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God, born, crucified and
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risen from the dead. Amen.
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Amen. And so before we really dig in
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here, I'd like to open us in a little prayer.
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Would you join me? Come, Holy Spirit, come.
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Would you fill this space? Would you fill my heart and my
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mouth? And would you soften our hearts
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for whatever you want to speak to us this morning?
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That I would be put aside and anything of me would be
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forgotten. But what you speak would rest in
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their hearts and their minds, pushing them closer to you.
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In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
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Generations have been inspired by one man, a space Ranger from
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the Intergalactic Alliance and the Space Ranger corpse
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stationed in the Gamma Quadrant. That man is Buzz Lightyear.
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He's inspired many, even my son Theo, to try and fly.
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Can play the clip. Oh, you can't hear him?
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Do one more time. Oh, my little boy.
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So if you haven't seen Toy Story or you don't think that's cute,
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we have exits available for you throughout the sanctuary.
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The movie Toy Story came out 30 years ago.
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Don't we all feel younger now? And there is a scene where the T
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Rexer asks what a space Ranger can do as a Buzz Lightyear
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replies with pure confidence. Can fight.
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I have a laser that I can shoot and I can fly.
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Woody the cowboy doesn't believe it and asks him to prove it.
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And the famous line as he approaches the edge of the bed
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to Infinity and beyond. And he puts his arms out and he
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dives off the bed. And he as he jumps, he hits a
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ball, he bounces, he lands on the hot wheel track.
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He does the loop de loop, floats up off the ramp, gets
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accidentally stuck to the ceiling fan and spins around a
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whole bunch, launches off of that and lands on the bed.
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And everyone is so impressed by the feat that they just
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witnessed, except for Woody, who knew what really happened that
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he wasn't flying. But as Woody calls it, Buzz fell
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with style, right? And just like Theo shouting to
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Infinity and beyond before sliding, he didn't really fly as
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he was maybe hoping or imagining that he was.
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So Pastor Jeremy, I thought we were going to talk about
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Pentecost, not a fictional character who's convinced that
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he's flying when he's not really flying.
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Fairpoint. We celebrate Pentecost because
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God sent the Holy Spirit for all people just as Jesus promised in
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John 1415 through 17 When He says, if you love me, keep my
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commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you
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another advocate to help you and be with you forever.
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The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him
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because it neither sees Him nor knows him.
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But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.
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God makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to be with us and in
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US. Well, what should that look
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like? What can someone that's been
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filled with the Holy Spirit, one of the three persons of God, do?
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Well, we should be able to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit,
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which are anybody want to sing it?
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I don't know that rendition, but it does include Lovejoy, peace,
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patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
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self-control. And that's what we advertise,
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that we believe. But do our actions match our
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claims? Sometimes we like to talk about
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the parts of the fruit of the Spirit.
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You know, I love. I love my family and friends,
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and I'm working on loving those in traffic.
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Joy. When things are going my way.
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I got it. And when I'm singing, there's
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joy down in my heart. It sounds like it.
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Patience. I don't have time for that.
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And then we go 1 by 1 and we start working back and thinking
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of all the parts that we need to work on.
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But the Greek word used here for fruit is in the singular tense,
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not the plural. It's not individual fruits of
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the Spirit, but when you bear the fruit of the Spirit, you are
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bearing it all. And so when we try to live this
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way by our own power, we might even be praised inside the
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church or outside of the church because they see us falling with
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style. I mean, he's going up and down
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and it's kind of like flying at certain parts, but we're not
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actually doing what's advertised right.
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I was thinking really dumb thing that came to me in Sunday school
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was if we were to put signs on the outside of the church that
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we had bananas, just infinite bananas.
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If you want bananas, come to the church and we have bananas for
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you. And people start pouring in for
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bananas and they're like, I'll take one, please.
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And and you say you have it and we give them a sliver of a
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banana peel and it's not even fresh.
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It's a blackened sliver of a banana peel.
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And it's like, well, I, I have part of it and I'm working on
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the rest, right? Well then why would they believe
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that we really have it? And why would we advertise that
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we have it? If we are empowered by God, then
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we should have greater love than the hippies, more peace than the
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Buddhist monks, better patience than Rihanna fans or millennials
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and Disney World lines, more self-control than Mark Wahlberg
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who wakes up at 3:00 AM to work out every day.
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Right, because if we don't, we'll end up like Buzz, who
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eventually realizes he can't do all the things he believed and
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even convinced others that he could do.
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Once he realizes this, he starts to question his entire back
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story of all that he knew of being a space Ranger saving the
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Galaxy from the evil Emperor's Zorg.
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And if that's not true and he's just a toy, then what can he
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really do? Why would the world believe the
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gospel if those that live out the promises don't look like
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what was promised? What a tall order.
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And I can try my best to do better in all of these areas
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because the Lord convicted me in this service and I don't want to
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misrepresent God out in the world.
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I need to do this. And we go down a checklist of
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OK, what parts of the fruit am I missing and I need to do better
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in and it becomes me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
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And instead of putting our arms out and saying to Infinity and
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beyond, we put our arms out and we start flapping really hard
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while we say to Infinity and beyond, which will lead to the
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same exact results. And ironically, the last part of
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the fruit of the Spirit that is described is self-control.
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And yet we try and do that part on our own as well instead of
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leaning on the Holy Spirit for a holy level of self-control.
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And so we may try to fly with more style and may even have
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some people convinced inside the church and outside of the
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church. But that doesn't mean that we
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can fly. Just the other week I was in
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Ireland and we had the privilege of going to the cliffs of Moore,
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some famous beautiful cliffs on the Oceanside.
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And what I wasn't expecting is how windy it was Oh my Lanta
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people were getting according to the lore, if you listen to the
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conversations happening as you go up and down the path that
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people were picked up and thrown by the wind.
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And we didn't see anyone picked up, but we did see people
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knocked over. And I helped 1 old lady get back
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up and her get her glasses off the ground.
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And it was so windy when she put her glasses back on, as soon as
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she let go, they flew right back off of her face.
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You can see the intensity in the grass and all around you.
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And I thought what an incredible opportunity I have to fly.
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And so I opened up my jacket and I climbed on this little dirt
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hill, got my hands in my pockets.
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I was ready to go. Now, as you may be thinking to
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yourself, the wind had a lot of work to do to keep me up in the
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air. OK, I did not think that me
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jumping by myself was going to have any circumstances beside a
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twisted ankle at the end of this story, but I had faith that
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there might be a chance that the wind could carry me better than
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I could ever do on my own. And so if you're unaware, in the
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Hebrew and in the Greek, the word Spirit is also translated
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as wind. And we see through the Old
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Testament and on Pentecost, God moving as wind, also God showing
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himself and displaying himself as fire.
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But this concept of the wind moving as we just sang about,
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it's having the faith that where we fall, he'll be able to lift
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us up, right? And so we need to surrender
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ourselves. Hands in pockets, full
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surrender. Can't even catch yourself from
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falling on the ground because of the hands in the pockets, right?
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Full surrender to where the wind, where the Spirit wants to
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take us individually and as the church.
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And it's no longer falling with style, but actually flying.
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Now people may think we're crazy, like many onlookers.
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As I was jumping off steps and my sunglasses flew off and hit
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someone in the head and then my water bottle fell out.
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And it was a work in progress trying to figure out how to
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navigate with the wind. But that's not new news.
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Even as we navigate with the Holy Spirit that we may stumble
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as we try to surrender ourselves, trying to figure out
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how to detect where He's moving, when He's moving, and how to get
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on board with what God is doing today in and through his people.
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But at the end of the Pentecost story in Acts 2, verse 13, it
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says that people were so confused as to what was
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happening that some thought the apostles might be drunk.
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That reminds me, I forgot, I did leave questionnaires in the
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bulletins, right? Do we have them?
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Incredible. And so you can be filling those
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out. One of those questions is, are
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you currently drunk? And if you don't want to be
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honest, it's OK. Surely there must be something
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else going on here because we don't have a framework to see
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what this new experience is like in Pentecost.
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Right? All these onlookers, and that
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may happen as you surrender yourself to bear the fruit of
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the Spirit. Your holy joy and peace may be
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viewed as denial by people in the world of the circumstances
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around you. And sometimes it can be.
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Sometimes Christians in the church feel like we need to deny
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the gravity of the bad situations around us so that it
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looks like we're falling with style, so that it looks like we
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have that joy coming from the Lord.
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Looks like we have that peace, but when we are fully
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surrendered and we fully embrace what the Lord has for us, it's
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no longer denial. It's stemming from Him and His
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Spirit inside of us. And so are we OK with the world
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not understanding what God is doing in our lives, even as we
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discover ourselves what that looks like?
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Are we bold enough to share the reason why we aren't drunk?
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Right. And when we talk about
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drunkenness and the Spirit, you may think of Ephesians 518 and
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be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with
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the Spirit. What changes when you're drunk?
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Fine. What changes when other people
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are drunk? Their reactions, vision, speech,
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right, how they think, how they act, how they speak.
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Everything is affected by being drunk.
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And so instead of that, we are then called to be filled by the
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Spirit, which, when we are filled and we surrender
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ourselves to Him, changes everything.
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How we think, how we speak, how we act.
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It is no longer of ourselves, but us being empowered by the
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Holy Spirit. Would you pray with me, Lord?
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We want to put aside all of the times that we tried to fly with
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style, flapping our wings as hard as we could instead of
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surrendering ourselves. To you and entrusting you and
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what you're capable of doing. Not the weight we bring that
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makes it really difficult for you to lift us up.
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Not where we fall short, but where your power is far
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mightier. That Your Son tells us that it
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is better that He is no longer with us in the flesh so that we
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would receive the Holy Spirit. Would we believe the words of
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our Lord and Savior? Would we live into the truth
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that You are with us today? That you can fill us, Lord?
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That You can bear a holy fruit that is unattainable on our own
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efforts as we surrender ourselves to You?
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Lord, would those see the holy difference?
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Not that we would be glorified. Not that they would applaud our
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holy love and peace and joy and goodness and kindness, Lord, but
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that we would be able to point them towards You.
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That they would be able to receive those same things in a
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world that desperately needs all of it.
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We ask that You would build our faith that You would stir in us
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a yearning for You, not for what we can gain or achieve or the
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beautiful views from being stuck to a ceiling fan, but we could
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truly accomplish things far greater than we could ever ask
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or imagine for your name and your renown.
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We thank you so much for this opportunity to join you in the
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work that You're doing and ask that You would give us the
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tools, that you would give us Your spirit, that You would give
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us confidence, that You would give us testimonies that
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embolden our faith Lord. That we would see Your spirit
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move amongst your people as You have promised so that it's no
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longer false advertising. But we can boldly and
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confidently declare that You are all that You have said that You
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are from the beginning when You created, all the way to now and
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forevermore in Jesus name, Amen.