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Before we

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begin uh getting into the message I just want to say something about the relaunch that’s going on that’s scheduled for the second Sunday in September

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It’s been really exciting to see how many of our members have been involved in preparing and planning and volunteering And I think it’s really exciting

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as we’re talking about the body of Christ Every member doing their part causes the growth of the body and love It has been really exciting to see how many people have been stepping up and participating and helping coming to the meetings on Saturday morning The people who can’t help or can’t attend on Saturday mornings have been volunteering and keeping connected in other ways And I am personally convinced that building something together

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is one of the ways that we grow in Christ One of the ways that we see our lives transformed from um spectator sport to actually being involved And that as we build something together

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we’re going to see God move we’re going to see God respond that our labor is not going to be in vain in the Lord And to me that’s really exciting and it’s exciting to see the church being what Christ called us to be in God’s word It’s just wonderful to be part of that kind of team

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So with that let’s get to the ministry of God’s word Father We just pray

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that the word of God would change our lives because that’s really what we want We want to become more like Jesus We want to know you more love you more and we want to be more fruitful in making disciples and seeing your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven So lord we just pray that you would reveal yourself to us through your word And then you’d send us out into this world to bring Christ to a world that so desperately needs you in Jesus Mighty name

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you ma’am

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The title of today’s Message

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is Restoring Humanity

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The book of Psalms

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is a prayer book

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It’s the worship hymnal found in the Bible

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And that statement contains a radical

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idea

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that we can have an encounter with God

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that we can actually have a conversation with Him

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It’s not just

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ritual

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that is performed to cause appeasement

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but it is an actual encounter with the living God

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expressed in many and various ways And it is an actual relationship and conversation with Him He’s the God who hears He’s the God who is there He is alive and he is real

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And and there’s a lot of names of God in scripture

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In one of the names is Elohim In the another name we could say Adonai or Yahweh or if you are Jewish hashem

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And those two names are very important because they represent two completely different things

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It was expected that the nations would understand Elohim the God of Gods the God

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who is above all the mighty God the

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powerful God the God who is revealed in creation the God who is so self

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evident that only the fool says in his heart there is no God

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that we can see his design and his sovereignty

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and his character and nature even his invisible attributes being declared by

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the things that are made

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that is

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common to

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all people of all time everywhere

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But this other name

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your way

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that is a personal name

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That is a name that comes by revelation

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that he is a God that wants a relationship with us

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He wants us to experience fellowship with him

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And ultimately that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ when we receive the spirit of adoption and we crowd Abba father daddy

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It’s precious isn’t it

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And it’s with these two ideas that are that I’m kind of preparing for the Psalm that I’m going to read

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But to think

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to talk a little more in preparation for the Psalm I’m gonna read in the Psalm We’re going to see curiosity

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and a celebration of awe

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Sometimes when you’re experiencing God like pastor Mike and I had to talk

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about an incredible encounter he had last week where he saw God move powerfully

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and it it often

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creates a multitude of experiences all at once

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right And so in

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the song we’re going to read we’re going to see

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both curiosity and awe all mixed together in one

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And I think that’s pretty cool because when we have an encounter with

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God it actually often is an experience of multiple things all at once that just blows us away

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in the song we’re gonna

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see revelation

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When we receive a

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revelation from

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God it creates excitement It’s exciting to get a glimpse of who he is One of the most exciting

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things in life is when we have an encounter with Him when his presence becomes real when the things of this world kind of the veil is pulled

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back and we encounter Jesus

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it changes everything whether we’re having a personal prayer time or we’re going about just the daily business of life And suddenly we become aware of his presence or we find ourselves in a conversation with him where he begins to speak to us

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It’s one of the most

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life giving and invigorating experiences of life Those moments where we encounter God

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psalms

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it really does

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proclaim a

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message an important

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message that a lot of people need to hear and a lot of

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people need to remember we can encounter God

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that sounds like well of course that’s a ridiculous thing to have to say in church because we all know that and believe that

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But sometimes we need to remember I can encounter God

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I am welcome in his presence because of the blood of Jesus Christ He always is there He is always available and we can know Him I know people talk about the dark night of the soul when God hides his face

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But man even in the darkest

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times a person faces he can be more present than he ever is Even in those darkest times

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when you say though he slay me yet I will trust in Him I will praise him because I have life

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and I have breath And my name is written in that book of life And what I have encountered from

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him is so precious because you know what they can’t take away my

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memory

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I remember

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Him

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I remember his goodness I remember his faithfulness I remember the times of his presence even in the times

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when we’re going through real genuine

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difficulties

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we can go back in our memory and remember the Lord

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And when you remember

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the Lord

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it puts everything in perspective all

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these momentary afflictions

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are working out a far greater weight of glory But when I take time to remember

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how he caused me to know that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God how he visited me and brought me to him and caused my heart to seek Him and and we can realize we can’t claim any credit for ourselves It was just the love of God

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pursued us The love

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of God revealed himself to us and nobody can

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boast in

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the presence of the Lord except in the cross of Jesus Christ

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But he is precious and his presence is precious

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And those memories of a life walk with God are precious and nobody can steal those from you

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and no matter what you’re going through you can

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remember you can enter in and find revival

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You can find revival Revival isn’t

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something that is always just out there It’s not just out in the

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future Sometimes the greatest way to revival is remember the

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goodness of the Lord and the land of the living Remember his faithfulness Remember his presence Remember the multitude of blessings

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with which He has blessed you

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But remember revelation

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times where he opened up his word to you times when you were excited remember your first love remember that He is worth it at all

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and silence every lie of the enemy

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that once that you know when we get put

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out with God we’re really putting ourselves out from God

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You know you know when we put God in the dog house we’re the one who ends up in it

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right And he says it’s safe to come out I love you

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It’s wonderful

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You know what I’m thinking about the psalm I’m about to read I’m doing all this preparation work because so often scripture becomes something that that is

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routine maybe

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ritual

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that it’s like it’s like the bones and the flesh but no breath of life

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Because we have to see that we are looking at an encounter with God a genuine encounter with God that is authentic and real that somebody has entered into And it’s an invitation for us to enter into it as well

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The the whole I mean maybe it should have been called enter in

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enter into an encounter with the Lord Enter into his presence with thanksgiving in your hearts enter it into his courts with praise

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and it’s so worth it

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It it’s not

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worth

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not entering in

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and you can enter in we can all enter in and it changes us It transforms us It empowers us to love and to care in ways that we never have before When we’ve been in his presence we become like him It’s not dead religion

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So I’m gonna read almost all of Psalm Ma

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I was like I got to cut some things out for time right But it ends up being almost all of some mate So if you were following along you’re realizing wow you really didn’t cut much out at all

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1st 10 Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth

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You have set your glory above the heaven

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We have to realize that these are not just words or perfunctory words of religious language This is a person that has caught a revelation He’s seeing something he’s experiencing something And what he’s saying is a genuine and authentic and from the depth of his soul Oh Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth

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You’ve set your glory above the heavens All of creation is full of your glory even the stars and all the false gods of this world your glory is above all

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Why are you so excited Oh

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man I’m not excited about life as

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you But we can be

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we can be every day of our lives

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He’s really

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inviting us into an encounter with God

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I’m having such a revelation that I’m so blown away that I can actually go out into this world with the probably the one of the most evangelistic calls you could ever give to this world

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has and c

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that the Lord is good

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taste and see that the Lord is good You’re not conforming to a bunch of forms or rules to appease a group of people for belonging

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Nor are you conforming to a bunch of rules to belong to God

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It’s an invitation into a relationship that is authentic and real and genuine

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That’s why I’m wrestling with these scriptures because we have to see it’s about authenticity

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and that

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Christianity needs a great awakening again

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that we can enter in

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and experience and encounter the Lord

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I love it from the lips of Children and infants

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You have ordained

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praise because of your enemies to

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silence the foe

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and the Avenger

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Jesus

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When he he had healed some people

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he quotes the scripture because

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he’s being railed on by the Pharisees

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out of the mouth of infants You have perfected praise They are getting it they are seeing it They are entering in and experiencing God in a way that you’re missing out

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unless you become like little Children

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What do you mean I don’t mean that we become irresponsible or need diapers again

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But they look at this world and a

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this is my father’s world I see

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curiosity and

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wonder and beauty and excitement

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And I dream and I dream about the future and I celebrate life

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I celebrate life every aspect of life It’s like the light has turned on and everything is beautiful and everything is good And I know one of the things I heard from Pastor Mike after he went through this incredible encounter with God last week Part of it also was a re beautification of life wasn’t it

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Because that’s what breakthrough does That’s what his presence does And it is beautiful out of the mouth of infants You have ordained praise

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00:14:42.559 – 00:14:59.52
This is a man who is coming into this revelation and he’s in awe and he’s realizing it’s so simple it’s so easy but the wise of this world miss it But those who are simple like Children enter in and encounter their father in a way that is

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beyond imagination

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When I consider

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your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place What is man that you are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him

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Oh God have mercy

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This is a question that is at the heart of the psalm I almost title this message What is man

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Because this is a cry that is going out in this generation It is going out in this culture And they’re looking at the same facts the same reality But they’re coming to a different conclusion

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00:15:45.59 – 00:16:05.169
when I gaze at the stars in the heavens and I gaze at the Majesty of this universe And I realize that we are just a speck with no purpose and no significance and no meaning just a product of chance that there is no reason that I’m even here

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What’s the point of life

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Let us eat and drink for tomorrow We die

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This is a dog eat dog world survival of the fittest the fittest survive I will survive at your expense

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What is man when I gaze

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at the stars in the heavens And I ask what is man that you are mindful of him that you care for him That every here on his head is numbered that he was fearfully and wonderfully made with purpose and destiny and significance created for love created for relationship It’s a whole different world of darkness to light

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When we encounter this kind of

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revelation

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then we can say taste and see

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We invite you to enter in to an experience of God

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that will bring you

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from darkness to light from the power of the devil to the power of God

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00:17:16.53 – 00:17:26.02
We’re reading is a deep revelation Here You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor

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You’ve made him ruler over the works of your hands and you have put everything under his feet You have taken these jars of clay

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00:17:37.109 – 00:17:40.39
and made them your royal ambassadors on earth

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The beauty

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the significance the worth

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00:17:50.229 – 00:17:53.4
Oh Lord Oh Lord how majestic is your name

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in all the earth

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What is man

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that you are mindful of him

Speaker#2:
00:18:04.13 – 00:18:05.92
restoring humanity

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The discovery of a humanity

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How important is answering that question What is man

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The battle is over

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identity

Speaker#2:
00:18:18.93 – 00:18:20.099
Who are we

Speaker#2:
00:18:21.619 – 00:18:24.069
And the implications of this for the world

Speaker#2:
00:18:26.03 – 00:18:35.0
even yesterday when I went to go prepare somewhere and I didn’t have all the right stuff to go prepare So I ended up in a conversation for an hour and a half with somebody

Speaker#2:
00:18:36.489 – 00:18:38.819
and the conversations the things

Speaker#1:
00:18:38.829 – 00:18:40.819
that people are wrestling with

Speaker#2:
00:18:41.709 – 00:18:57.439
are very significant Again and again people wrestling with the increase of suicide rates the increasing of school shootings You know a friend of mine is going and finding backpacks that have steel plates in him to send his kid to school

Speaker#2:
00:18:57.64 – 00:19:05.859
Um the drug epidemic the you know methamphetamines the human trafficking and the list goes on and on

Speaker#1:
00:19:05.969 – 00:19:12.77
and people are regularly talking about these things or thinking about these things thinking about the world that

Speaker#2:
00:19:13.339 – 00:19:16.52
we are inheriting or giving our Children to inherit

Speaker#2:
00:19:17.93 – 00:19:25.939
And the problem is so many Christians are without hope They see no way forward They see they we

Speaker#1:
00:19:25.949 – 00:19:34.67
really don’t believe that the gospel is powerful enough to deal with this or that the church is fully equipped by Jesus Christ to deal with

Speaker#2:
00:19:34.68 – 00:19:36.78
this But we are

Speaker#2:
00:19:37.939 – 00:19:46.9
we are and we have to believe that and we have to seek that and explore it because it’s true And as we kept talking about these

Speaker#2:
00:19:47.51 – 00:19:55.209
issues yesterday we just kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper because you know I I called it like a hydra

Speaker#2:
00:19:55.979 – 00:20:01.51
you know like many heads and you cut off one head and another grows off You got to get to the heart of the matter

Speaker#1:
00:20:02.14 – 00:20:07.959
It’s like the you know John the Baptist the ax is being laid to the root

Speaker#1:
00:20:08.469 – 00:20:12.53
and we’ve got to lay the ax to the root of the problem

Speaker#1:
00:20:13.939 – 00:20:18.739
And one of the greatest roots of this problem is what is man

Speaker#1:
00:20:20.05 – 00:20:25.989
who are we what kind of value what kind of worth do we have as human

Speaker#2:
00:20:26.0 – 00:20:33.64
beings a product of chance or a product of the love of a father in heaven created in his image

Speaker#1:
00:20:34.78 – 00:20:36.729
You know when we were thinking when we kept talking

Speaker#2:
00:20:36.739 – 00:20:39.959
about this homelessness the methamphetamine thing

Speaker#1:
00:20:40.089 – 00:20:59.489
why are people self medicating Why our lives falling apart Why are people suicidal They don’t see their significance and worth they don’t see value and they don’t have hope for a better world or even a vision of what it is because they have never entered into a revelation of it

Speaker#1:
00:21:02.959 – 00:21:08.06
or come into the household of God and seen it in the lives of his people

Speaker#1:
00:21:12.689 – 00:21:13.869
We want to represent

Speaker#2:
00:21:13.88 – 00:21:17.569
this in the world and for people to experience it in the world

Speaker#2:
00:21:19.579 – 00:21:28.5
Otherwise I get it What’s the point of living a lot of the stuff with the LGBT Q plus and the gender identity issues

Speaker#1:
00:21:28.51 – 00:21:32.15
It’s a deep sense of wanting to belong

Speaker#1:
00:21:33.069 – 00:21:44.4
wanting to have significance wanting to have worth wanting to have value wanting to feel important wanting to have something to hold on to in a world that seems so out of control

Speaker#1:
00:21:46.939 – 00:21:47.88
because somehow

Speaker#2:
00:21:47.89 – 00:21:49.329
we haven’t reached them

Speaker#2:
00:21:49.969 – 00:21:57.38
with the genuineness and authenticity of the gospel of Jesus Christ We have made it something disconnected

Speaker#2:
00:22:00.0 – 00:22:08.56
It’s kind of like having a giant nuclear power generator and yet having a whole city with no lights or power

Speaker#2:
00:22:09.089 – 00:22:14.359
you would say well there’s a problem here What’s the problem And you find out somebody hasn’t plugged it in

Speaker#2:
00:22:15.15 – 00:22:15.859
right

Speaker#2:
00:22:16.51 – 00:22:22.569
And that’s what we have with the gospel of Jesus Christ It’s like a giant nuclear power generator

Speaker#1:
00:22:22.609 – 00:22:25.369
and we have a world sitting in darkness and

Speaker#2:
00:22:25.38 – 00:22:32.359
all we have to do is plug it in And these are not just trite words that I’m saying I believe it with my whole heart

Speaker#2:
00:22:33.18 – 00:22:40.5
That what the psalmist was describing is an encounter It’s a revelation It is an experience of God

Speaker#1:
00:22:40.51 – 00:22:44.189
that is so real and so transformative

Speaker#1:
00:22:45.66 – 00:22:47.52
that anybody who tastes it will

Speaker#2:
00:22:47.53 – 00:22:48.76
never be the same

Speaker#1:
00:22:51.089 – 00:22:54.589
And we can help the world have that

Speaker#2:
00:22:54.599 – 00:22:57.9
experience if we make it a priority

Speaker#2:
00:22:58.78 – 00:23:02.39
to every day taste and see for ourselves

Speaker#2:
00:23:03.089 – 00:23:16.969
to enter into an experience of God today to not let a day go by where we do not taste and see that the Lord is good And if we if we find ourselves dry if we find ourselves weary if we find

Speaker#1:
00:23:16.979 – 00:23:24.06
ourselves heavy laden if we find ourselves pressed down by many things then we have a moral

Speaker#2:
00:23:24.069 – 00:23:25.699
responsibility

Speaker#2:
00:23:26.829 – 00:23:27.989
to remember

Speaker#2:
00:23:28.819 – 00:23:37.28
the goodness of the Lord and enter in again to the joy of the Lord to enter in to that joy of salvation

Speaker#1:
00:23:38.729 – 00:23:41.849
We we are not you know words

Speaker#2:
00:23:41.859 – 00:23:47.14
of rebuke right We’re not allowed morally and ethically to live a joyless life

Speaker#1:
00:23:48.979 – 00:23:49.739
Hm

Speaker#1:
00:23:52.13 – 00:23:54.55
We have a moral responsibility

Speaker#2:
00:23:54.56 – 00:24:10.18
to remain in the joy of the Lord to remain in faith hope and love to remain in peace You know let’s beat ourselves over the head with the word of God We have a moral responsibility to walk in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost

Speaker#2:
00:24:10.949 – 00:24:12.089
And we can do it

Speaker#2:
00:24:12.599 – 00:24:18.739
And by doing that we open the way for others to experience Him

Speaker#1:
00:24:20.079 – 00:24:23.51
for these people that are lost to be found

Speaker#1:
00:24:24.8 – 00:24:37.849
We can draw near to God in his heart He can shed his love so abroad in our heart that we find ourselves weeping and groaning and howling that the people of this world would come to know the same Jesus that I know

Speaker#1:
00:24:38.41 – 00:24:53.88
And when God does that you say Lord this burden that you put on my soul is not life draining It’s the most precious experience of the love of God in my own heart And Lord what a privilege it is that I can experience this because I have a revelation of you in the midst of it

Speaker#1:
00:24:56.02 – 00:25:17.17
When the love of God gets down into our heart and we start to experience it and we start to have mercy and grace and forgiveness rather than anger and bitterness and resentment And we know it’s nothing less than the grace and presence of God that has so changed our heart from the inside out And we go away and say Lord you are truly the savior of the world

Speaker#1:
00:25:18.609 – 00:25:25.53
You are the sancti fire And we say blessed be your name or how majestic is your name in all the earth Oh Lord

Speaker#1:
00:25:26.359 – 00:25:34.67
But to live without an encounter of the Lord any day of our life is like to be without water

Speaker#1:
00:25:35.88 – 00:25:38.579
my soul thirst for you Oh Lord

Speaker#1:
00:25:40.77 – 00:25:44.38
that all who are thirsty come and drink

Speaker#1:
00:25:44.89 – 00:25:46.64
of this water that I freely

Speaker#2:
00:25:46.65 – 00:25:47.26
give

Speaker#1:
00:25:48.52 – 00:25:54.52
God wants his church to be alive He wants us to be

Speaker#2:
00:25:55.04 – 00:25:56.64
a river of living water

Speaker#1:
00:25:56.65 – 00:25:58.25
to heal the nation’s

Speaker#1:
00:25:58.849 – 00:26:08.849
And the greatest thing that we can do to help that along is to be alive in the spirit of God ourselves not beating ourselves up with legalism

Speaker#2:
00:26:08.859 – 00:26:12.41
but tasting and seeing and entering in

Speaker#2:
00:26:13.03 – 00:26:18.099
to the presence and spirit of God It’s the most powerful transformative thing on

Speaker#1:
00:26:18.109 – 00:26:19.089
planet earth

Speaker#1:
00:26:20.969 – 00:26:23.189
to have a testimony

Speaker#1:
00:26:23.979 – 00:26:27.26
like Enoch Enoch walked with God

Speaker#1:
00:26:31.3 – 00:26:37.369
to be like those disciples on the road to amaze did not our hearts burn within us

Speaker#1:
00:26:40.459 – 00:26:42.51
to be like that Apostle Paul

Speaker#1:
00:26:44.17 – 00:26:45.65
chief of centers

Speaker#1:
00:26:46.5 – 00:26:48.439
but God showed his mercy to me

Speaker#1:
00:26:49.189 – 00:26:54.939
And it’s so changed my life that I can’t help but to talk about them everywhere I go

Speaker#1:
00:26:55.969 – 00:26:57.469
because I’m in love

Speaker#1:
00:26:58.219 – 00:27:26.0
I’ve encountered the love of God and and when the word of God comes alive like this it changes everything but we often read it so dry when Paul says that you might know that you might know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth of the love of God In Jesus Christ it’s a burden of a soul that is longing for people to taste and see that the Lord is good because you can enter in and you can know

Speaker#1:
00:27:28.0 – 00:27:35.65
But revival begins when people that have been dry and people have been weighed down and people who have

Speaker#1:
00:27:36.17 – 00:27:40.04
not enter it in for a long time start entering in again

Speaker#1:
00:27:43.069 – 00:27:47.4
And then people start to say what is this that you have I need what you have

Speaker#1:
00:27:48.13 – 00:27:50.839
It’s not dead forms of religion

Speaker#1:
00:27:52.3 – 00:27:56.339
It’s rivers of living water flowing from the throne of grace

Speaker#1:
00:28:01.079 – 00:28:03.349
This world has lost its identity

Speaker#1:
00:28:04.76 – 00:28:05.829
Who are we

Speaker#1:
00:28:08.53 – 00:28:13.81
I want to explore that in a little greater depth depth by reading Well first the passage

Speaker#2:
00:28:13.819 – 00:28:15.51
in Genesis that that alludes

Speaker#1:
00:28:15.52 – 00:28:27.55
to Genesis 1 27 to 28 God created man in his own image In the image of God He created a male and female He created them then God blessed them

Speaker#1:
00:28:27.78 – 00:28:38.819
And he said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it Have Dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the year and over every living thing that moves on the earth

Speaker#1:
00:28:39.709 – 00:28:42.729
God did not just create men

Speaker#1:
00:28:43.39 – 00:29:00.64
like an afterthought This was a celebration of the love and creativity of God He was excited he was passionate he was eager he was alive and so thrilled overjoyed at what he had created or who he had created

Speaker#1:
00:29:01.319 – 00:29:19.66
This is an expression of the very heart of God the creation of man And he says I want you to represent me on this earth and I want you to be fruitful I want you to be blessed I want you to multiply and cover the earth and let the culture of earth be inculturated with the culture of heaven

Speaker#1:
00:29:22.939 – 00:29:23.68
What an

Speaker#2:
00:29:23.689 – 00:29:25.219
incredible dignity

Speaker#2:
00:29:26.02 – 00:29:26.819
humanity

Speaker#1:
00:29:26.829 – 00:29:27.609
has

Speaker#1:
00:29:29.439 – 00:29:37.39
I’m gonna read some passages from Rabbi Sex because I said even without the revelation of the new covenant in Jesus Christ

Speaker#1:
00:29:37.959 – 00:29:42.469
the truth the truth of the image of God and man is so powerful

Speaker#1:
00:29:43.359 – 00:30:06.339
He writes we can speak we can think and therefore imagine a world different from the one that currently exists Creation begins with the creative word the idea the vision the dream language and with it the ability to remember a distant past and conceptualize a distant future lies at the heart of

Speaker#2:
00:30:06.349 – 00:30:07.489
our uniqueness

Speaker#2:
00:30:08.119 – 00:30:08.91
in the image of

Speaker#1:
00:30:08.92 – 00:30:09.56
God

Speaker#1:
00:30:10.26 – 00:30:15.64
isn’t that profound but he goes deeper in talking about this image of God and man

Speaker#1:
00:30:16.689 – 00:30:19.939
If the first stage in creation is imagination

Speaker#1:
00:30:20.969 – 00:30:22.479
The second is will

Speaker#1:
00:30:23.65 – 00:30:50.479
the sanctity of the human will is one of the most distinctive features of the Torah There have been many philosophies The generic name for them is determinism that maintain that the human will is an illusion We are determined by other factors genetically encoded instinct economic or social forces condition reflexes And the idea that in the idea that we are what we choose

Speaker#2:
00:30:50.75 – 00:30:52.439
to be is a myth

Speaker#2:
00:30:54.42 – 00:30:55.75
Determinism

Speaker#1:
00:30:56.53 – 00:30:58.479
Listen to the way he puts this

Speaker#1:
00:30:59.15 – 00:31:03.17
Judaism is a protest in the name of human freedom

Speaker#1:
00:31:03.739 – 00:31:06.979
and responsibility against determinism

Speaker#1:
00:31:07.93 – 00:31:10.859
We are not pre programmed machines

Speaker#1:
00:31:11.839 – 00:31:30.859
we are persons endowed with will just as God is free So we are free And the entire Torah is a call to humanity to exercise responsible freedom in creating a social world which honors the freedom of others will is the bridge

Speaker#2:
00:31:30.869 – 00:31:32.219
from let there be

Speaker#2:
00:31:33.369 – 00:31:34.689
to end there was

Speaker#2:
00:31:36.849 – 00:31:38.069
amazing

Speaker#2:
00:31:39.099 – 00:31:42.64
The picture of man you get when you explore the idea

Speaker#2:
00:31:43.469 – 00:31:45.359
or that question what is man

Speaker#2:
00:31:46.39 – 00:31:47.3
And you can see

Speaker#1:
00:31:47.31 – 00:31:50.42
two different worlds that he just described based

Speaker#2:
00:31:50.43 – 00:31:57.859
on your answer we’re the product of chance just materialistic forces a cosmic accident

Speaker#2:
00:31:59.229 – 00:32:08.839
or we are in the image of the free God and truly free and creative as he is creative and able to imagine the world is different

Speaker#2:
00:32:09.349 – 00:32:12.55
and to represent God by creating a different world

Speaker#2:
00:32:13.78 – 00:32:15.719
Pretty amazing isn’t it

Speaker#2:
00:32:27.38 – 00:32:31.38
But as Christians it’s not just about Elohim

Speaker#2:
00:32:32.03 – 00:32:33.56
it’s also Yahweh

Speaker#2:
00:32:34.189 – 00:32:37.38
It’s not just the old covenant but the new covenant

Speaker#2:
00:32:37.969 – 00:32:41.17
because where I have to disagree with Sacks

Speaker#2:
00:32:41.88 – 00:32:42.81
is in this

Speaker#2:
00:32:43.709 – 00:32:45.719
the will of man

Speaker#2:
00:32:46.699 – 00:32:48.66
can only create a shadow

Speaker#2:
00:32:49.349 – 00:32:51.14
of the heavenly reality

Speaker#2:
00:32:52.25 – 00:32:58.239
but never can bring forth the substance because of the weakness of the flesh

Speaker#2:
00:33:00.619 – 00:33:03.05
That’s the part that He doesn’t see

Speaker#2:
00:33:04.479 – 00:33:06.109
We can only

Speaker#2:
00:33:06.65 – 00:33:08.76
enter into a shadow

Speaker#2:
00:33:09.4 – 00:33:15.76
of a heavenly reality But Jesus Christ came and said the Kingdom of God is here Now enter in

Speaker#2:
00:33:18.099 – 00:33:22.51
the Kingdom of God is here Now enter in

Speaker#2:
00:33:25.02 – 00:33:33.0
that’s a powerful difference And I know I read it last week but I’m gonna read it again Colossians 1 27 to 29 to them

Speaker#1:
00:33:33.01 – 00:33:37.089
God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery

Speaker#2:
00:33:37.099 – 00:33:45.18
I just wish I could do justice to scripture then rather than just reading it right Because the words can be so wordy and petty sometimes

Speaker#1:
00:33:47.119 – 00:34:06.339
God Paul is so excited God wanted to show them the riches and the glory of this mystery What is it Christ is in you It’s the hope of glory He’s in you It’s the hope of glory because he’s in you But he’s got to grow up and be manifested But it’s so exciting because he’s in you

Speaker#1:
00:34:06.609 – 00:34:23.06
It’s the hope of glory the will of men It wasn’t by the will of men or the will of the flesh but by the spirit of God Christ is in you It’s a new creation is in you and we want you to grow up into Christ and manifested in the world

Speaker#1:
00:34:24.178 – 00:34:36.729
that’s powerful isn’t it That’s so powerful We don’t even know how to describe it Who are you What is man But what is man is capable of becoming a new creation

Speaker#1:
00:34:37.85 – 00:34:42.82
Man is is designed for this transformation

Speaker#1:
00:34:43.83 – 00:34:44.889
Christ in you

Speaker#2:
00:34:44.899 – 00:34:51.04
The hope of glory that comes only through the gospel of Jesus Christ But we’re talking

Speaker#1:
00:34:51.05 – 00:35:05.649
about a power that they could never know in the old covenant in the Old Testament Yes we can imagine a different world and we can create a world and glorify God by imagining electricity or air conditioning or benches and clothes

Speaker#1:
00:35:06.669 – 00:35:07.449
But this

Speaker#2:
00:35:07.459 – 00:35:11.629
moral and spiritual transformation that comes

Speaker#1:
00:35:14.649 – 00:35:17.3
best can be summed up It’s the power

Speaker#2:
00:35:17.54 – 00:35:19.659
to love one another

Speaker#2:
00:35:20.669 – 00:35:24.959
You see all of the imagination and will of humanity

Speaker#2:
00:35:25.75 – 00:35:27.85
It is a potent force in the world

Speaker#2:
00:35:28.58 – 00:35:29.54
It is

Speaker#2:
00:35:30.57 – 00:35:34.37
but it has to be put to work for love

Speaker#2:
00:35:34.989 – 00:35:42.939
Otherwise it can become tyranny and impression and injustice and breed suffering and sorrow and pain

Speaker#2:
00:35:46.58 – 00:35:58.51
Everything in this world is transformed when the ax is put to the root and the fundamental motivation of everything is the love of God shed abroad into our hearts to be a blessing

Speaker#2:
00:35:59.149 – 00:36:06.31
to serve others to build others up It’s the most revolutionary world transforming reality

Speaker#2:
00:36:07.0 – 00:36:12.219
No greater love is there than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends

Speaker#2:
00:36:13.29 – 00:36:23.6
willing The hero is the one who sacrifices and the greatest hero is the one who sacrificed it all that he so loved The world that he gave his only begotten son

Speaker#2:
00:36:25.739 – 00:36:30.84
No greater image of heroism is that man upon the cross my sin

Speaker#1:
00:36:30.85 – 00:36:32.31
upon his shoulders

Speaker#1:
00:36:32.929 – 00:36:35.639
Lord I want to pick up my cross and follow you

Speaker#1:
00:36:37.05 – 00:36:39.33
I want to love like you love

Speaker#1:
00:36:40.429 – 00:36:52.52
I want to care like you care I want a taste of that love in my heart so that I can love others like you have loved me Lord I want to know your love so that I can love like you have loved

Speaker#1:
00:36:53.26 – 00:37:00.78
Lord purify me make me like you I want to know you more God so that I can love more

Speaker#1:
00:37:01.679 – 00:37:06.689
Not so I can say I’m spiritual or holy or good or better than the sinner over here

Speaker#1:
00:37:09.5 – 00:37:16.81
But I see a world that is broken and in darkness it is in pain it’s in crying not even knowing who we are

Speaker#1:
00:37:17.639 – 00:37:43.8
And we need a love and we need a manifestation of Christianity that can break the darkness Lord And he promised that the spirit of God is upon me for he has anointed me to preach good news to set at liberty the captives to give sight to the blind to cause the death to hear to cause the sick to be healed You even to raise the spiritually dead

Speaker#1:
00:37:45.219 – 00:37:47.75
and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord

Speaker#1:
00:37:48.469 – 00:37:52.58
This is our inheritance this is who we are

Speaker#1:
00:37:53.159 – 00:37:55.179
who this is our potential

Speaker#1:
00:37:57.0 – 00:38:10.3
And if we awaken to this if we enter into this revelation we will find a power in the gospel of Jesus Christ that is capable of dealing with every problem that this world is facing today

Speaker#1:
00:38:14.35 – 00:38:17.29
The grace of God is more powerful than all the power of the

Speaker#2:
00:38:17.3 – 00:38:19.449
devil than all the power

Speaker#1:
00:38:19.459 – 00:38:29.29
of sin It’s more powerful than the addictive power of methamphetamine It’s more powerful than all the money and wealth of this world

Speaker#1:
00:38:30.479 – 00:38:33.629
The most powerful reality

Speaker#1:
00:38:34.36 – 00:38:38.11
is that blood was shed and it is reconciling all things to the

Speaker#2:
00:38:38.12 – 00:38:38.83
father

Speaker#2:
00:38:40.09 – 00:38:44.199
And we are ministers of reconciliation We are his

Speaker#1:
00:38:44.209 – 00:38:48.11
ambassadors And if we are able to plug into

Speaker#2:
00:38:48.12 – 00:38:50.379
who we are in Jesus Christ

Speaker#1:
00:38:50.79 – 00:38:56.03
we will see that there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ to deal

Speaker#2:
00:38:56.04 – 00:39:03.87
with every issue that’s facing this world today For there is no enemy that the line of tribe of Judah has not overcome

Speaker#2:
00:39:05.03 – 00:39:06.639
And that’s exciting isn’t it

Speaker#2:
00:39:07.219 – 00:39:08.469
It’s powerful

Speaker#2:
00:39:14.55 – 00:39:22.989
I do have to I couldn’t help myself like me I’m on a little rabbit trail But this rabbit trail I actually worked on I couldn’t resist the temptation

Speaker#2:
00:39:24.139 – 00:39:34.959
because it has Him We preach who Jesus Christ warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may may present

Speaker#2:
00:39:35.449 – 00:39:42.479
every man perfect in Christ Jesus I will say this again and again Paul said I labor I strive I have this

Speaker#1:
00:39:42.489 – 00:39:43.57
radical passion

Speaker#2:
00:39:43.58 – 00:39:51.409
that I want to present every person mature in Christ That’s the primary mission of the church and of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the

Speaker#1:
00:39:51.419 – 00:39:56.12
primary way that we liberate the world from darkness one life at a

Speaker#2:
00:39:56.129 – 00:40:05.32
time entering into the relationship with the Father through the son encountering God and being transformed from the inside out

Speaker#2:
00:40:06.31 – 00:40:09.29
But Him we preach warning every man

Speaker#2:
00:40:10.03 – 00:40:11.82
warning And you

Speaker#1:
00:40:11.83 – 00:40:12.449
see

Speaker#1:
00:40:13.6 – 00:40:15.58
what I wrote was this Let me

Speaker#2:
00:40:15.59 – 00:40:16.879
give you a warning

Speaker#1:
00:40:18.36 – 00:40:20.29
quit playing with dead things

Speaker#1:
00:40:21.449 – 00:40:23.939
because it dry It takes the life out of you

Speaker#1:
00:40:25.36 – 00:40:26.159
It’s all about

Speaker#2:
00:40:26.169 – 00:40:27.53
discerning life

Speaker#2:
00:40:28.239 – 00:40:32.76
and we need to break revelation revelation free from dead traditions

Speaker#2:
00:40:35.25 – 00:40:54.08
See the enemy knows how powerful the word of God is And so he has sewed all kinds of weeds into this world so that even the scriptures that are meant to bring life can have these voices attached to them that use them to bring death

Speaker#2:
00:40:54.6 – 00:40:59.32
Does that make sense So that even hearing the word in the middle of this incredibly gl-

Speaker#1:
00:40:59.33 – 00:41:03.02
glorious passage warn every man all right

Speaker#2:
00:41:03.53 – 00:41:16.78
my dead religious tradition kicks in and I know how to suck the very life out of you by making you feel horrible and wretched and terrible and robbing you of all ability to be alive in Christ

Speaker#2:
00:41:18.09 – 00:41:43.55
Is that interesting When I say we need to have a revival and enter in we need to also have really grow in wisdom and understanding God’s word by understanding it brings life I came that you might have life and life in abundance Remember the Kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost I cut them together

Speaker#2:
00:41:44.02 – 00:41:52.959
But do you see what I’m saying It’s it’s not about external forms It’s about the substance of life abounding and freeing And we

Speaker#1:
00:41:52.969 – 00:41:54.919
need to have a greater revelation of

Speaker#2:
00:41:54.929 – 00:41:55.969
God because

Speaker#1:
00:41:55.979 – 00:42:09.07
he was the God that celebrated the very creation of the world and the very creation of man he celebrated and rejoiced over it And it says of Jesus who for the joy set before him

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00:42:09.08 – 00:42:09.649
endured the

Speaker#1:
00:42:09.659 – 00:42:10.56
cross

Speaker#1:
00:42:10.889 – 00:42:21.03
So that cross which he had no desire to go to There was something that brought his heart more joy In other words the love of God compelled him

Speaker#1:
00:42:22.51 – 00:42:26.179
and that joy was father I’m bringing them home

Speaker#1:
00:42:29.709 – 00:42:31.919
I’m going after that last seat

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00:42:33.31 – 00:42:37.159
I’m going after those that have wandered astray

Speaker#1:
00:42:38.0 – 00:42:40.34
and I’m bringing them back to you Father

Speaker#1:
00:42:42.27 – 00:42:44.669
Let that heart be in us Oh Lord

Speaker#1:
00:42:45.729 – 00:43:15.09
Let that same spirit let that same love let that same joy Let that same character be in us Oh God Because the more we are alive and represent the character and nature of Christ the more the world will see what it means to be truly alive and that will be we will be living epistles to this world This is what it means to walk with God This is what it means to enter into his presence This is what Christianity is really about

Speaker#1:
00:43:15.79 – 00:43:26.929
to know Him to have fellowship with Him to walk with Him to become like him and to love like he is loved Oh God do that in us We pray

Speaker#1:
00:43:31.52 – 00:43:37.5
and the heart of it is all the love of God Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but

Speaker#2:
00:43:37.51 – 00:43:42.33
have not love I become sounding brass or clanging symbol

Speaker#1:
00:43:46.77 – 00:44:04.52
That’s why the Apostle John at the end of his life all he would say is beloved love one another Read the the the pistol of John It’s all about love one another How can you love God whom you haven’t seen if you don’t love your brother whom you do see beloved love one another And so fulfill the love of Christ

Speaker#1:
00:44:07.909 – 00:44:11.889
love one another You can’t love one another with when you’re obsessed

Speaker#2:
00:44:11.899 – 00:44:13.03
with your problems

Speaker#2:
00:44:14.36 – 00:44:15.31
you can’t love one

Speaker#1:
00:44:15.32 – 00:44:18.129
another When you’re obsessed with your difficulties

Speaker#2:
00:44:19.219 – 00:44:20.03
you can’t really

Speaker#1:
00:44:20.04 – 00:44:23.179
love one another When you are weighed down by pain of

Speaker#2:
00:44:23.189 – 00:44:25.32
any waist shape or form

Speaker#1:
00:44:29.159 – 00:44:33.239
And you know I am convinced that no matter what

Speaker#2:
00:44:33.25 – 00:44:36.02
a person is facing I’m not gonna say it’s easy I

Speaker#1:
00:44:36.03 – 00:44:39.959
think that some people have some forms of

Speaker#2:
00:44:39.969 – 00:44:43.86
physiological pain that are so real

Speaker#2:
00:44:44.739 – 00:44:51.729
that it’s tough But I have to believe that there’s a grace of God that is more powerful that no matter what we are facing

Speaker#2:
00:44:52.419 – 00:45:03.3
we can get into the love of God in Jesus Christ I have to dare to believe that there is a grace of God that is greater than every problem and challenge that we face in life

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00:45:03.87 – 00:45:09.639
so that we can say I I’m a more than a conqueror to Christ Jesus who loved me

Speaker#2:
00:45:10.389 – 00:45:11.899
and gave himself for me

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00:45:13.169 – 00:45:21.409
And I really believe that we need to be a people that are committed to growing in this walking in this entering in every day

Speaker#2:
00:45:22.37 – 00:45:24.659
to this kind of kingdom life

Speaker#2:
00:45:25.689 – 00:45:50.59
It’s not a divine ticket to heaven It’s an invitation to the Kingdom Life today to be disciples today to walk with God today to become like Jesus today to be his ambassadors to be his royal representatives on earth that has never changed And we can be his royal ambassadors on earth today

Speaker#2:
00:45:52.35 – 00:45:53.37
What is man

Speaker#2:
00:45:55.07 – 00:45:57.209
What kind of potential do we have

Speaker#2:
00:45:58.37 – 00:46:00.0
It’s exciting isn’t it

Speaker#2:
00:46:00.55 – 00:46:12.27
have a couple more things I want to say about this because it’s just so exciting to me Rest we are talking about restoring humanity It’s not just restoring humanity It really should be

Speaker#2:
00:46:14.12 – 00:46:15.379
What’s the right word

Speaker#2:
00:46:16.25 – 00:46:43.57
reformation reforming humanity Because it’s about a new creation and a new birth But we do need to restore the understanding of the value and worth of every human being I think I do prefer restoring humanity because Christianity can sometimes fall into the trap of bringing death and style of life Well we are the Children of God but you’re not you’re the Children of the devil So you’re a bu but no it’s every human being has dignity and worth

Speaker#2:
00:46:43.719 – 00:46:46.409
Every human being is precious to God

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00:46:46.919 – 00:46:48.439
Every human being

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00:46:49.659 – 00:46:52.639
was worth it to Christ to die for

Speaker#2:
00:46:54.03 – 00:46:58.03
So let our hearts reflect that kind of worth of every human being

Speaker#2:
00:46:59.459 – 00:47:09.729
But how do we bring the dead to life I mean that’s got to be the question that burns in the hearts of Christians Lord how do we bring those who are dead to life

Speaker#2:
00:47:10.399 – 00:47:19.04
And I’m gonna read another thing that rabbi sacks I love this because with even without understanding the new covenant

Speaker#2:
00:47:20.1 – 00:47:23.189
the shadows are so powerful Wait until you hear what he says

Speaker#2:
00:47:24.189 – 00:47:26.649
to see that someone is good

Speaker#2:
00:47:28.76 – 00:47:33.6
feel the weight of this because this is a non-christian nonbeliever

Speaker#2:
00:47:35.31 – 00:47:39.689
They’re discovering something the way God has designed it because it works

Speaker#1:
00:47:40.199 – 00:47:45.689
to say to see that someone is good and to say so is a creative act

Speaker#1:
00:47:49.379 – 00:47:52.139
in one of the great creative acts

Speaker#1:
00:47:53.489 – 00:47:55.58
to see somebody as bad

Speaker#2:
00:47:57.179 – 00:47:58.82
and to say so then

Speaker#1:
00:47:59.6 – 00:48:05.679
would also be a creative act and a very terrible and destructive creative act

Speaker#1:
00:48:08.36 – 00:48:12.699
There may be some there may be some few individuals who are inescapably

Speaker#2:
00:48:12.709 – 00:48:19.949
evil saying that because well theoretically I have to say so right But I have to dare to believe we’re all created in the image of God

Speaker#2:
00:48:22.1 – 00:48:22.909
But there are very

Speaker#1:
00:48:22.919 – 00:48:25.219
few within almost all

Speaker#2:
00:48:25.229 – 00:48:31.989
of us See I still disagree a little bit because of His making provisions for correctness within

Speaker#1:
00:48:32.0 – 00:48:41.34
almost all of us is something positive and unique I would say within everyone there’s something positive and unique but which is all

Speaker#2:
00:48:41.35 – 00:48:43.33
too easily injured

Speaker#1:
00:48:47.57 – 00:48:48.59
What is positive

Speaker#2:
00:48:48.6 – 00:48:49.639
and unique

Speaker#2:
00:48:50.189 – 00:48:52.28
may have been injured

Speaker#2:
00:48:53.469 – 00:48:58.0
a smoldering wick He will not put out in a bruised reed he will not break

Speaker#2:
00:49:02.439 – 00:49:24.5
I read it again within I’m gonna just change his words So I’m not quoting him indirectly because I just can’t take his little caveats within all of us is something positive and unique which is all too easily injured and which only grows when exposed to the sunlight of someone else’s recognition and praise

Speaker#2:
00:49:29.03 – 00:49:29.879
it’s power

Speaker#1:
00:49:29.889 – 00:49:30.629
isn’t it

Speaker#1:
00:49:31.57 – 00:49:41.209
To see the good in others And let them see themselves in the mirror of our regard is to help someone grow to become the best They can be

Speaker#1:
00:49:46.459 – 00:49:48.199
powerful stuff

Speaker#1:
00:49:49.129 – 00:49:50.229
because it’s the way God

Speaker#2:
00:49:50.239 – 00:49:51.54
designed it to be

Speaker#2:
00:49:52.469 – 00:49:55.979
And see Christians need to get past proof texting

Speaker#2:
00:49:57.419 – 00:49:58.429
and start to really

Speaker#1:
00:49:58.439 – 00:50:00.729
care about How do we break people free

Speaker#1:
00:50:01.429 – 00:50:08.85
When you start to really ask the question how do you break people free Then you even look to the things in your life that breaks you free

Speaker#1:
00:50:09.61 – 00:50:11.469
and you realize that feeling like crap

Speaker#2:
00:50:11.479 – 00:50:17.5
about anything has never helped you do anything good It’s only made you feel worse so that you do worse

Speaker#1:
00:50:20.82 – 00:50:29.729
But when you’ve done wrong and God in His mercy shows you His grace and his love and his mercy then something changes inside of you

Speaker#1:
00:50:30.439 – 00:50:31.169
right

Speaker#1:
00:50:31.949 – 00:50:51.669
And then we realize that when we can see what is good in a broken and fallen world and and celebrate it in these human beings it awakens something in them People rise to the level of their expectation But if they can bring them into an encounter with God he will see He he’s every

Speaker#2:
00:50:51.679 – 00:50:54.149
person their uniqueness

Speaker#1:
00:50:54.159 – 00:50:57.689
and and what’s beautiful and wonderful about them in ways that we are

Speaker#2:
00:50:57.699 – 00:51:01.239
only even at our best seeing in a mirror dimly

Speaker#1:
00:51:02.09 – 00:51:06.11
But we can say oh Lord God let me see them how you see them shed

Speaker#2:
00:51:06.12 – 00:51:13.449
your love abroad into my heart and let me be your mouth Let me be your voice Let my heart reflect that to them

Speaker#2:
00:51:14.399 – 00:51:20.59
But ultimately Lord I know that none of us can truly be what any of them really needs

Speaker#2:
00:51:21.229 – 00:51:25.419
So let me be a catalyst to bring them into the relationship with the one

Speaker#2:
00:51:26.28 – 00:51:28.199
that will truly bring them to life

Speaker#2:
00:51:29.28 – 00:51:35.25
Lord God it is such an honor and such a privilege to be ministers of reconciliation

Speaker#2:
00:51:35.85 – 00:51:44.81
to be your ambassadors to be your kingdom representatives to have such a vision of total worldwide transformation

Speaker#2:
00:51:46.169 – 00:51:48.229
by transforming lives

Speaker#2:
00:51:49.729 – 00:51:52.02
to the gospel of Jesus Christ

Speaker#2:
00:51:53.08 – 00:52:02.08
What is man who are we What is our identity God has given us even in the old creation

Speaker#2:
00:52:03.229 – 00:52:15.439
such a powerful tool to bring a shadow we are created in his image There’s something unique and precious about each and every one of us Something beautiful that needs to be called to life and not injured

Speaker#2:
00:52:16.179 – 00:52:22.379
that each one of us was created with a purpose and a calling and with significance and destiny

Speaker#2:
00:52:23.169 – 00:52:25.189
But all of us are being called

Speaker#2:
00:52:25.949 – 00:52:29.01
through the gospel of Jesus Christ to enter in

Speaker#2:
00:52:29.959 – 00:52:31.629
to a new creation

Speaker#2:
00:52:32.169 – 00:52:35.81
to enter into the very substance that those shadows

Speaker#2:
00:52:36.34 – 00:52:37.979
are a shadow of

Speaker#2:
00:52:39.77 – 00:52:43.399
that is some incredible identity

Speaker#2:
00:52:44.219 – 00:52:49.729
and significance and source for hope in human flourishing

Speaker#2:
00:52:50.8 – 00:53:04.59
Let us really be a church that seeks to be true to our name Life springs Church let us learn to walk daily entering into his presence entering into his love letting it so transform our lives

Speaker#2:
00:53:05.209 – 00:53:09.929
that we would have the privilege of being used by God

Speaker#2:
00:53:11.159 – 00:53:14.57
to minister reconciliation to a world that is lost

Speaker#2:
00:53:15.09 – 00:53:16.179
in Jesus name