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RABBI: Lessons From THE Teacher 8

Belonging begins by answering Jesus's question, "Who do you say I am?" and letting your honest response influence all aspects of your life. Listen as Pastor Barbie shares personal stories, parenting advice, and practical tips to help deepen faith and move beyond superficial beliefs.

If you struggle with shame, feel disconnected, or seek spiritual guidance, you'll find tools for real change and acceptance, regardless of your past. You are invited to embrace your identity, walk the narrow path, and experience growth surrounded by judgment-free community.

Key Insights

  1. Your actions and choices flow from the truth of who you say Jesus is.
  2. Belonging and community come from the honest pursuit of Christ, not perfection or religious performance.
  3. God’s love is constant, even when you feel unworthy or far away.
  4. The Holy Spirit’s guidance is available and real, helping you stay on the path even after failure.
  5. Honor toward God means living authentically and remembering His goodness.
  6. Every day offers a new opportunity to choose intimacy with Christ and accept grace without shame.

https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/rabbi-lessons-from-the-teacher-8

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Transcript
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Oh, what a timely reminder of his just

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goodness. Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the

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gift of Jesus. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit,

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and we thank you that the Holy Spirit is here tonight.

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And so, Father, as we settle, I pray, Lord, that our hearts would be

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open and tender this evening to receive from

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you. In Jesus' name, amen. Be seated in

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the presence of the Lord. Welcome this evening. Good evening. Happy Thursday.

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Tonight concludes this very

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rich series, Rabbi: Lessons from the Teacher. Has

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it been good for you? Have you been served well? If you

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missed one, I'm so grateful for the gift of technology where we

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can go back and we can look and see and learn and

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draw. And I know that Pastor Barbie has a word for

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us this evening. Next Thursday, everybody say next Thursday.

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Okay, we are not having a midweek gathering because it is

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the kickoff of our conference that happens on

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Friday. Okay, so next Thursday, um, I

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want to encourage you on two fronts. Okay, many of you are sitting

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next to somebody you love. Take them on a date, do something with

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them nice, uh, or get with somebody in the room.

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Scan the room. Don't let it be a wasted moment if

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you've already carved out that time, don't let it be

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a wasted moment. Lean into next Thursday and

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be together, okay? But we will have our conference, Abide

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Conference, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next week. I hope you've registered for that. And

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then we're kicking off a new series, a new series that will start

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the following week, and it's entitled "The Sermon of Sermons." And

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so I'm gonna see, that's gonna be good, I hope, you know? It's gonna be

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really great. We have a series, we have a different speakers that

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are going to be speaking each week. It's going to— I believe it's going to

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be rich. Okay, so make plans to be here in 2 Thursdays as we

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kick that off. But man, will I am so glad that the Holy Spirit saves

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the very best for right now. Would you guys welcome our sister

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pastor, Barbie? All right,

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just so you know, the Sermon of Sermons isn't something that we're all just going

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to come up with. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is actually

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referred to, that Matthew 5, 6, 7, 6

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and 7, and it encompasses so— it's just

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so rich. I can't even begin. And so, since I

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can't even begin, these guys are gonna come in

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and they're gonna take care of it. You know, I can teach

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on some things, but if it's gonna be called Sermon of Sermons, we might

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want somebody else to take that one and run with it. I am

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excited about tonight. It has been an honor and a It has been a

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privilege to walk with you for the last couple of months talking about

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the words in red, the things that our teacher has— some

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of the things our teacher has shared with us. Honestly,

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I've got another notebook that is just about

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Jesus and the kingdom. And

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we'll see what happens in the fall. Not

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the fall, but as in the autumn, you know.

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But, you know, you just— you never run out

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of wonderful text, wonderful scripture,

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when you're talking about the teacher,

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this rabbi, our rabbi, the master teacher.

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And so, as I was going, "Okay, Lord, how do I do

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this?" Because there's so many things I still wanna share with you, and

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there's still so many things that are, in my heart to

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share with you because I love His

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words. They are life to me, and

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I want them to be life to you. And I know that He does too.

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And so I thought, okay, what do I call this

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final one? And so it just made sense to call it Final Things because

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what the Holy Spirit had done in me over the last

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8 weeks is I have this compilation of

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thoughts and ideas and words that He's given

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me that just some things that I thought I want to share them

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with you as He shared them with me. It actually

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was prompted by— I was just

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driving down the road. This was quite a while ago when I was driving

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down the road and I was just thinking about the Lord and I was thinking

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about the passage of scripture that was talking about the narrow

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path. The small gate and the narrow path, and

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how much we like the wide gate and the

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wide road, and how

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I, like probably everybody else in this room, have chosen

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that path for periods of time in our

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life. And I don't know about you, but I would venture a

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guess that it did not end very well. That wide

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path We have a tendency to run with

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our flesh, and our flesh will get us in trouble. And

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I just thought, "Lord, how do I share these things that you're sharing with me?"

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And I just kind of felt like you went, "Talk to 'em like they're your

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kids." Whether they're your age, whether they're older, if you were sitting down with

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Caitlin, and Erin, and Matthew, sharing some of these things from your

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heart as a parent to them, and just stay as maybe

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just a spiritual covering to you. I just wanna talk to you like He

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talked to me and share a few things with you from His Word, if

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I can be given that privilege. And we're going to start here.

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Once when Jesus was praying in private and His disciples were with

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Him, He asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"

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They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others say

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Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets of

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long ago has come back to life." 'But what about

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you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I

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am?' Peter answered, 'The Christ of God,

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God's Messiah.' Then he said to

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them all, 'Whoever wants to be my

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disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and

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follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will

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lose it, But whoever loses their life for me will

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save it. What good is it for someone to gain the

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whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very

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self? Whoever is ashamed of me

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and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of

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them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of

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the Father and of the holy angels.

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The next translation in Matthew, it says, "When Jesus came to the region of

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Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people

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say the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist,

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others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

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'But what about you?' he

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asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answers, 'You are

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the Messiah, the Son of of the living God.'

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Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of

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Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in

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heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock

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I will build my church.'" Father, I thank you so

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much for your Word. I thank you, Lord, for the way it

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is a fragrance that just draws us

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in deep Lord, fresh

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bread on the table that you've put out for

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us. And so, Father, I pray that we partake

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of that tonight. I thank you for your Word and for your

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truth, and I thank you for your questions, Lord,

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that prompt us to look deeper. I pray my

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stuff fall in your stand, in Jesus' name.

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I was literally captivated

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by that question, "What about you?

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What about you?" And

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he was asking me, "What about you? Who do

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you say that I am?" Because who you believe

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he is and whatever that answer is

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that comes forth from you in that moment when that

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question is sent to you, That is one of

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your cellar truths. Eugene Peterson talks about these

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foundational things, these foundational truths that are hidden

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that we don't necessarily say out loud, but the

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course of our life is affected by those

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truths. And who you say he is,

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is one of those truths. And the places in your life

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that God is going to reveal, flow from that place of who

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you believe he is, and how you live your life flows

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from what you really believe in the depths, not what you say you believe.

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But what you truly believe in the depths of who you are is

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what you're gonna live your life based on, okay? Or

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that's what we do. We manifest what we believe based on

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the truth that we are operating and functioning on. Simon Peter

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looks at him and says, "You are the Christ." The Son of the Living God.

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And he says, "Blessed are you because man didn't reveal

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that to you." A man, a woman, a being on this

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planet cannot reveal who Christ is to you. He

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reveals himself to you. The Father in heaven

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reveals his Son, and the Holy Spirit draws you

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toward him, okay? So the revelation that you have

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of who Jesus is, who Christ is, is going to

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affect everything about your life, and it's going to affect how

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you how you walk this journey on the planet. And

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it is going to decide the path that you

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choose, whether you choose the wide path

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or you choose the narrow path that leads to life.

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And here's this, your revelation of Christ often houses a

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revelation of who he created you to be. I just believe

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that. Just like Simon Peter said, "This is who you are."

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And then Jesus looked at him and said, "Oh no, and this is who you

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are." You are Simon Peter. You are Peter. And

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on this rock, on that truth, I'm going to build my

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church. I believe the more that we allow the Holy Spirit to

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reveal Jesus Christ to us, the more Jesus

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Christ reveals who we are, what we're designed to

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be, what we're destined to be. When we begin to walk with him on

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this pathway, when we begin to walk with him and get to know

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him, it's like the layers, When you fall in love with

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somebody, it's like everything comes down to

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being in love with that somebody. Everything else kind of

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becomes foggy, you know. I clearly remember

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running across the airport when Hal had flown. We weren't

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even married yet, and he had flown out to Colorado. And I

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just remember that moment in the airport, back before

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security would have taken you down.

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I just remember I went with my friend,

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and it's like, we went to the store because we wanted to buy the

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perfect outfits because Hal and his brother were flying in, and we

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wanted to look right, and we wanted to act right, and we were just, you

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know, we were gonna be so dignified. We were gonna, you know,

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be so cool standing over there and let them notice us. No!

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No! When they came through the gate, man, you would have thought somebody had

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set us on fire because we were running, you know, and it's like,

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And Doug's faces were like, "Oh, okay."

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But see, love does that. Love compels you.

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I didn't care who was standing in that airport. I didn't care

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what anybody thought. And see, there's a love and there's an

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identity in Christ. There's an identifier

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that Christ has in you to go, "This is who

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you are to me." And it is that place in Him

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that allows you to run full out. Toward

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Him. When I was young, I

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knew Him as Savior because I needed saving pretty much every Sunday.

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I needed to be forgiven. I needed this, and

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I needed, needed, needed, needed this aspect of

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Jesus Christ. But as I have gotten older, that who

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I know Him to be has changed.

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Just like the man I knew how to be when He was 27 years

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old and I was running across that airport. He's a completely I'm a

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completely different man. Richer. I don't mean

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monetarily. But you can, honey, if you

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want to. But just the

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richness, the depth of my knowledge of who he is has

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changed, and my love for him solidified,

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and changed, and grew, and expanded. That's our

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relationship to the Lord. It should mature. It should grow

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as we come to know him, and he begins to reveal who we

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are, and through light of Him, it changes things.

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Jesus' questions, "But what about you?" places

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a demand on your personal revelation of Christ. And in that,

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your answer potentially becomes the cellar truth from which everything

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in your life flows.

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That's where you're operating from. That's your home base.

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That's what your life should show.

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And whether we like it or whether we don't, it is

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what our lives show. Whatever that is,

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that place that we're living from, it does show. It

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does show. If we believe Him to be the

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Messiah, the Anointed One,

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the Son of God, Our choices and our

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behaviors should be a clear reflection of that belief.

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My granny used to tell me, I'd get ready to go somewhere, I don't think

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she trusted me very much, but she'd say, "Now, Barbie,

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it ain't about what you got, it's about who you are. Remember

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who you are." And some of us

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need to remember who we are. And whose

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we are. Because we're leaving the house creating

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some chaos and not necessarily looking like the Father who

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has been raising us. And if we believe

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Him to be the Messiah, the

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Messiah, not a messiah, not a teacher,

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the. And if we believe Him to be the anointed one of

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Christ, the Son of God, everything about

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our lives our lives should say that.

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If we never open our mouths, everything about

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our lives should testify of that.

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Brittany, you nailed it with the song. The last song could have been the

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message, seriously. And she and I didn't talk about this, you know,

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but the Holy Spirit does. Man, my mom used to walk in the

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room and she'd go, "Hey, Barbie, the Holy Spirit told me what you've been doing."

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I'm like, "What? He promised

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me he wouldn't tell." She's like, "That's a

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different spirit." Anyway,

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but the Holy Spirit, Brittany,

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I mean, because this whole thing about who is He?

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If we really believe He is who we say

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we believe He is, then everything about our lives

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ought to be different. It just ought to be different.

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Listen, If we call ourselves a disciple, we

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are a follower of Jesus Christ because that's what

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disciples do. They follow. They don't just read

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about it, they follow. If we become disciples of

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whom and what we submit ourselves to, to follow.

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Oh my goodness.

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Soapbox warning.

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I'm like, guys,

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Who needs 30,000 followers? Who needs

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100,000 followers? I— there is something

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in me, there is something in me, and I will call it

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the Holy Spirit. I can't

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push that button. I cannot push that button to become

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a follower of somebody else. I follow one.

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I follow one. And I recognize that

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it's innocent in the world's sense,

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but I don't need 10,000 likes. I'm lucky to get

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an "atta boy" every once in a while, and I'm fine with that. Because

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listen, I'm not out here to please anybody. I've got an

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audience of one, and I am accountable to

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him for everything that I say and everything that I

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do. And one day, I will give an account account for that. And I don't

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want to give an account for 40,000 followers. I'm sorry, I

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just don't. I just don't. I want

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to know if I'm going to follow— I want to be discipled

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by Him. By Him. And

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unfortunately, guys, sometimes we make things such a

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small thing. It's like, "Oh, well, that's not a big deal." But what if it

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is? What if you are listening to somebody who

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is causing the foundation of your cellular truth to

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deteriorate so that you begin to We begin to question, just like in

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Genesis, "Did God really say that?" We need a

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foundation that says, "This is what my God said, and this is what

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I am going to live my life according to." That is our

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cellar truth. That is where we're functioning from. And if we are

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followers of Christ, then we follow Christ.

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13 and 14, this is what got this ball

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rolling. "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad

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is the road that leads to leads to destruction. It doesn't say it's not fun.

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Sin is fun for a season, for a season,

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and those seasons get shorter and shorter the more disobedient

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you are to the Holy Spirit who's actually telling you to stop it anyway.

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"Many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the

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road that leads to life, and only a few find

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it." What do you mean only a few find it?

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In my car, I was like, "Lord, what does that even look like?

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What is this narrow path? I understand, Lord, that

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Jesus is that gate that we go through. I understand that.

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I understand this, but what this narrow path that you're

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asking us to walk on, this narrow path that few can

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enter into, that few partake in, what is that, Lord?"

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And I just felt like He took me into Man, a plethora

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of scriptures! But bottom line, the word that He

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kept using with me is such one

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of those words that I really don't like because of my history with that

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word. But the word He kept using with me was,

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"It is a life of holiness. It is a

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life of

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perfecting holiness." And I out of

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reverence for God. That's what the scripture says.

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What does that mean? That means we begin to grow up in

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our faith. The things that we profess begin to mature, and

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we grow up into those things, perfecting holiness out of

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a reverence for God. Now, what does that even look like?

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To me, that looked like confession,

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repentance, and restoration in my life.

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What? What? You mean I'm not— I am

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accountable. As a disciple and

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follower of Jesus Christ, I am

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accountable to Him for my actions.

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I am accountable to Him for what I say, what I do,

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how I act, and not just that, how I think.

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It isn't, you know, the scripture tells us it's not just the murderer

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that is guilty, it's the one who's thinking about murdering.

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I'm accountable to Him. And if

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I want the Holy Spirit's activity in my

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life to be so powerful, and this is such a bad

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analogy, guys, but you know when—

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people are going to cringe, sorry, it's not funny.

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You know how when you get your fingernail torn into the quick?

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Yeah, that's the response I thought I'd get. Yeah, and it's really bad.

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Even the wind hurts it. Even the wind.

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Anything you touch, anything you feel, that one

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little tiny thing. I want the Holy Spirit to be that strong in my

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life. That just the blowing of the wind, just the

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stirring of the wind lets me know if He's pleased, or

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lets me know if He's like, "No, no, no, no, no, we don't do this."

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We don't do this. And see, we become so dull in our

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senses, we negate the move and the word of the

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Holy Spirit, the leading of the Holy Spirit, so often that

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then we begin to be desensitized to what He's trying

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to do in our lives. And we default into the

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grace of God rather than the repentance, the confession,

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repentance, and restoration that will lead us into a life of

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holiness. That is, pleasing to the Lord. Now, our

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salvation is not based on it, but your journey on that path sure is

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changed by it. Okay,

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help me, Lord. Therefore, since we

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have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves

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from everything that contaminates body

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and spirit, perfecting holiness.

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Why? Out of reverence. Out of

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reverence for God. Out of

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reverence for God. Okay, here's the

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kicker. It is really, really virtually

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impossible to perfect holiness or have a desire

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to move toward a life that is holy if you don't

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reverence Him. There's got to be a level of

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reverencing God that makes you go, "Okay, you know,

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when my dad said, 'No, don't do that,'" We didn't come back and go, "Well,

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why not?" Well, if we did, it's like,

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then we'd pick ourselves up off the floor, and then we would go, "Yes,

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sir!" You know, there was a— we had a healthy respect/fear

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for my father's voice. Guys, we need a healthy

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respect/fear. The fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I'm not talking about the fear of

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the Lord that causes you to be just frightened to death of him. I'm talking

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about a reverential fear a fear that recognizes that he is the

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God of the universe, that he created everything that you are,

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everything that you see, and all that is here is held together by his

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hand. There should be a recognition in that. And when we

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recognize that, when we begin to

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truly, in the depths of who we are, believe that that's who

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he is, our lives should begin

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to line up accordingly. It just should. Our

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lives, because we reverence Him.

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And you're like, "Oh, you know, that narrow path, you know, that, you know, God

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wants life without, you know, restraint." No!

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Life without restraint, there's death in it!

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I want you to live! There's a way that seems

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right to man. There's a way that seems right to

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man. And I'm sorry, guys, God has something better for

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you. A disciple's path can feel restrictive to our

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flesh, but it is life. It is

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life to our spirits. That

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obedience to the Holy Spirit to go step this way, move this

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way. No, don't take that job. That's going to take you so far away from

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your family. It's going to be destruction. If we will begin

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to listen to Him and obey Him, He will keep us on that

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path, and that is a good path. It's not a boring

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path. There are amazing people on that pass. And I

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really love that somebody— you know, the sound that we have like

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a plethora of out here, you know, where you start to get too close to

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the orange and white barrels now, and you hear the

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grating on the little ridges and everything. I need those

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spiritually. I just need those

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spiritually so that something in your spirit makes a

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noise when you are getting too close to the edge. Oh wait,

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It does. It's called the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's called the

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still small voice. And if we'll start listening, stop listening

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to the big loud voice of culture and begin

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to listen to the still small voice that is going ahead of us

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on that path going, "Turn left, turn left, turn right, do this, move this

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way." If we'll just tune our ears to that, guys,

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your lives will be so much better. It doesn't mean that your lives

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will have no fender benders.

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It doesn't mean that you won't that everything's gonna be okay. We do not know

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any given moment of any given day who's gonna be

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on the other end of that phone. We don't know any moment of any

:

given day what it's gonna look like by the end of the day. But what

:

we can know is that we have a God who

:

will walk through us no matter what is said. We have a God who will

:

meet us in the hallways of the hospital. We have a God

:

who can cause us to walk in peace no matter what

:

comes our way. But see what— here's what the enemy does.

:

The enemy— you go play on that

:

wide path for a little bit of time, and you start to feel a

:

little bit cold and calloused, and you start to shut down those walls and that

:

communication with the Holy Spirit because you're afraid he's really mad at

:

you. So you're like, "Well, I can't really talk to him because I've really messed

:

up." And then something bad comes along, and you feel like you have no

:

access to God, so you blame God for that.

:

Listen, if my kids are in a mess,

:

if let's just say, let's just say Matthew and Caitlin are doing great, or Aaron

:

and Caitlin are doing great, and Matthew's struggling, the enemy would love to

:

come and tell Matthew, "Oh, your family is so disappointed in you. You

:

are this and you are that." But let me tell you something, whoever's struggling,

:

That's the door I'm sitting outside of. That's the door I'm banging on.

:

That's the one I'm praying for. That's the one I'm moving

:

to aid. And that's the

:

work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the enemy would love to tell you,

:

"Oh, He's not listening to you because you did

:

dot, dot, dot." Well, He didn't receive you because you did dot, dot, dot.

:

He didn't welcome you in because you were good enough to be welcomed,

:

and He isn't going to cast you out because you did dot, dot, dot.

:

Run to Him regardless. Run to Him

:

regardless.

:

Reverence for God motivates us toward a life dedicated to

:

serving Him, maturing in levels of consecration, being set

:

apart for His purposes.

:

Reverence for God. Now see, when I was little,

:

reverence for God and holiness kind of got into

:

this mosh pit together and decided that I

:

couldn't wear makeup, I couldn't I couldn't

:

wear pants. I couldn't listen to radio. I couldn't

:

dance. I couldn't go skating. I couldn't go—

:

none of it.

:

Nobody told me that

:

a reverence for God looked like

:

living a life that pleased Him. Nobody told

:

me. I'm serious, guys. Everything I thought I knew

:

about pleasing God was external. And now I know that

:

pretty much none of it is because our testimony

:

is internal and it comes out and shows externally.

:

But reverence for God motivates us toward a

:

purified life. And guys, if you are really

:

struggling, if you are really struggling

:

in your motivation to lay this down, or stop doing

:

that, or break a habit, or or, you know, develop

:

a habit, begin to pray this, "Father,

:

teach me to reverence you. I want

:

to revere you. I want to

:

stand in awe of you, God."

:

And watch that level begin to change with the

:

recognition of who he truly is.

:

Reverence for God will motivate you toward a life dedicated to

:

serving him, See, here's this.

:

You hear people say, "Well, I can do, you know, I can do anything.

:

It's not a big— everything is permissible for me, but

:

not everything is beneficial." Another version says, "But

:

not all is profitable. But I will not be

:

mastered by anything."

:

Have you been mastered by anything?

:

By anything. I have one master. I have one master.

:

Have I bowed to other ones in the last 60 years? Yeah,

:

I have, but I have a good master.

:

This is a checkpoint for me in my life, and it has been since I

:

was a teenager, to go, "Is there anything? Lord, I

:

know, you know, that I can— I know that all things are

:

permissible, but But not all, it says, not

:

all are profitable. But I will not be mastered by anything.

:

If you are being mastered by anything, whether it is

:

a thought process, where it's a bondage, whether it is a

:

relationship, if you are being mastered by anything

:

other than Him, you need to check it. You need

:

to check it. Will not be mastered by anything. And

:

just a little bit further down it says this, do you not know that your

:

body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you received

:

from God, you are not your own.

:

Boy, that does not teach in this society, does it?

:

Be your own person, do your own thing, you know, you thrive, you do it,

:

you make the decisions. You are not your own. You were

:

bought at a price. Therefore, what?

:

Honor God. Honor God with your

:

body. Now, I would strongly urge you to go into this

:

passage of scripture when you get home, 1 Corinthians 6, Read that chapter

:

and it'll tell you what that looks like. Read that chapter and it'll tell

:

you some dos and don'ts that you might want to pay attention to. I know

:

I wanted to pay attention to them because these are the

:

boundary lines that fall for us in pleasant places

:

according to the Word. His words are the boundary

:

lines that we want to walk within.

:

Honor God with your body. Listen to this, guys.

:

Honor is both a noun and a verb. It

:

is something you have and something you

:

do. Honor is and does.

:

Honor acts and honor remembers.

:

When we say, when the Word says, "Honor God

:

with your body," you walk

:

honorably before Him. I don't know where we get the

:

idea that we can be a temple of the Holy Spirit, yet when we want

:

to go and do the things that we want to go and do, for some

:

reason the Holy Spirit must be turning His face away or something. Obviously,

:

He goes somewhere else during that time period. No, He doesn't. You're taking Him with

:

you. The Holy Spirit, we are a temple

:

of the Holy Spirit of God. The things that come

:

out of our mouth, He's privy to the things we think.

:

He is privy to everything we do. And so,

:

to honor God is to be,

:

is to walk honorably before Him, and

:

also to bestow honor to Him.

:

It's two different directions. You walk as He designed you

:

in full reverence of the Lord, perfecting holiness out of this

:

reverence for Him, and you honor Him.

:

Honor acts. It doesn't just speak. And

:

honor remembers. You know, you ever watch somebody get an award and they

:

honor someone and they talk about all the accolades that that person

:

got? And so they honor him in

:

that. As professed disciples and followers of

:

Jesus Christ, the things we give our bodies to

:

physically, mentally, and spiritually become manifestations of

:

the the level of honor and reverence we actually have for

:

Him. In other words, our actions

:

testify louder than our words.

:

Our actions! And guys, listen, I wasn't

:

saved because of actions. I, and I

:

seriously doubt that— I'm not going to

:

do that. God is bigger than my

:

actions. His love for me is bigger than my actions,

:

but His desire for me to live a life on this planet

:

that is rich and full and blessed,

:

that desire in Him is great. And so He draws these boundary

:

lines for us. Guys, it isn't just— there's

:

something that happens. You remember when I was talking about love a couple of weeks

:

ago? And I was talking about the two original

:

identifiers of love, were patience and kindness.

:

And then we got to talking about honor and that love is

:

honorable. And so, that love will not lead

:

you into situations that remove your dignity, that cause you

:

to compromise on what God has actually designed you to be and do.

:

Love does not cause you to lie and to hide and

:

to lose your reputation in Him.

:

And I look at this and the Word says that, "Those who

:

honor me, I will honor."

:

Why, it's not just about us honoring Him.

:

I want to be somebody, not that

:

gets an accolade, but I want to be

:

in His book of remembrance

:

because she loved me. And she

:

followed me. And she did her best to

:

perfect holiness out of reverence for me. To

:

me, there is no higher honor.

:

There's no higher honor. Those who honor me. And, and I'm

:

like, okay, so Lord, show me, show me where you did this.

:

On that day, the Lord honored Joshua in the

:

presence of all the Israelites. And as long as Joshua lived, the Israelites

:

respected him in the same way they had respected affected Moses. Why?

:

Why? Because Joshua, who had stepped into the role

:

that Moses had left— Joshua steps into the

:

role and they are moving the presence of God across the river. And

:

he's dealing with the priests, and the stones, and the remembrance, and the

:

altars. And he does it well. He follows the

:

instruction of the Lord. And because of following the

:

instruction of the Lord, The presence is carried

:

forward. Guys, when we

:

follow the instruction of the Lord, when we do

:

the things that He has destined us to do,

:

that He has designed and equipped us to do, and we carry

:

the presence forward to the next—

:

on that day the Lord honored

:

Joshua. The

:

goodness of God compels us toward a life where our decisions are

:

governed by the Holy Spirit and our

:

choices weighed by the gift of

:

discernment. The

:

Holy Spirit leads us if we're listening.

:

The Holy Spirit will give us directions on this narrow

:

path. And when we're on that path and we are faced with a

:

decision, or we are faced with a dilemma, or we're faced with something,

:

this gift of discernment that comes through

:

the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, you get to that

:

moment and you go, "Is it right? Is it wrong?

:

Is it left? Is it right? God, give me discernment

:

in this moment. Do I step or do I stand still?

:

Lord, do I say it or do I, do I pull back?" Do I pray

:

about it? Lord, do I ponder it or do I release it?

:

Lord, I need discernment. And the Holy

:

Spirit will answer that. The Holy Spirit that

:

directs us in all truth will answer that.

:

And it's weighed by this gift of discernment.

:

Listen, honor has a history, and sometimes our hearts just need to

:

be reminded, "God, I remember when you

:

God, I remember when you did this.

:

God, I remember. Sometimes you need to just

:

recount the goodness of God when your heart is beginning to

:

run off in different directions. Sometimes we just need to be brought back

:

to center by remembering the goodness of God.

:

Joshua, who God has honored, says,

:

You know what, guys, listen, there's this show, and

:

I ran across it the other day, and it's called Famous Last Words.

:

And it is an interview with people who, whether they're terminally ill or

:

whatever, and it is released after they pass, and they

:

share wisdom, whatever their wisdom might be.

:

And it got me going, God,

:

there's so many Last

:

words in the Bible that we pay

:

no attention to. Like, do you know what John the Baptist's last recorded

:

words were? "I must

:

decrease, He must increase." And

:

everybody thinks that Jesus' last words, and they were on the

:

cross, "It is finished." But in Revelation 22,

:

3 times He says, "Behold, I'm coming soon."

:

Behold, I'm coming soon. Behold, I'm

:

coming soon. These words matter.

:

And so, when you look at Joshua, the one that

:

Jesus actually, that God actually honored, it says, "I gave

:

you..." End of Joshua's life,

:

he calls all the tribes together. He brings them all together

:

for the final words, and he begins with this, the

:

words from the Lord, "I gave you a land for which you did not labor,

:

and cities which you did not build, and you live in them.

:

You eat from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

:

Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and

:

in truth. Remove the gods which your fathers

:

served on the other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and

:

serve the Lord." '"If it is

:

unacceptable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves

:

this day whom you will serve.'"

:

It is a choice, and it is a choice every single

:

day of our life. And it was important enough to Joshua to go all

:

of these tribes. You know, Joshua and Caleb were the only ones of the

:

original set that actually made it into the Promised Land because they saw

:

something different than everybody else. Than everybody else did. When the 10 said, "We can't

:

take the land," Joshua and Caleb said, "Oh yeah, we can." And so

:

they entered in with the next generation. And so Joshua

:

is now speaking to these generations, these tribes

:

that he's brought through, and his final words to them, "As for me

:

and my house, we will serve the Lord."

:

As for me and my house, we will serve

:

the Lord. The Lord. Joshua chose.

:

His final words became the exclamation point on a life of

:

intentional faith and obedience.

:

Intentional faith and obedience.

:

"Choose you this day who you

:

will serve." Not just in words,

:

but in everything that flows from the truth of

:

who you know Him to be, the reverence you have for this

:

God of the universe.

:

In the words of Jesus, "What

:

about you?" What

:

about you?

:

Who do you say that He is?

:

What are you living your life based on? Have you

:

chosen a path? Is it wide?

:

Is it narrow? Have you found the life

:

that awaits you?

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