Doing What's Right

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Good morning, Springhouse.

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I want to just reiterate about this.

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One of the reasons why I love Operation Christmas

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Child, this particular outreach for Springhouse,

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is because this is something you can do on your schedule,

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on your time, and with your family.

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One of our favorite things is take our girls.

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We'll go to Dollar Tree or Walmart or Target.

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And they get to pick out the things that they put in there.

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They're a part.

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Their fingerprints are on there.

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And we get to teach our kids what it is to be selfless.

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And why we're doing this is to really give the gospel

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of Jesus Christ across the world.

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And we've had people--

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I've had people that came--

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we do this at the school.

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We've had people who have come who share.

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They were one of the kids who received the box

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at another country.

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And now they're living in the States.

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And they're sharing how they know Jesus because

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of this awesome ministry.

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So you have an opportunity here.

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It's real easy to do.

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And you can do it on your own timeline.

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I would love to see every family participate in this

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as our Springhouse outreach.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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OK, another outreach opportunity that's

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coming much sooner than this is October 31st.

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We will be doing our annual fall festival here

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where thousands of people come and are

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part of what the Lord's allowed us to put on here.

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Guys, we need help.

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If you're asking yourself, man, what can I do to serve here

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at Springhouse?

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What can I do?

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How can I plug in?

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We need your help.

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Do we have a spot for you?

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Absolutely.

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Do we have vacancies that need to be filled?

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Absolutely.

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We need your help that night.

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And so here's what I need you to do next Sunday.

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We want to feed you a free lunch.

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And we want to tell you about the event on the 31st.

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It'd be about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes

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after this service.

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We're going to feed you.

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And then we want to get you to sign up to volunteer and be

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a part of it.

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Now, if you have kids, I understand if you have kids,

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you're going to want to walk with your kids

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and participate in the event as well.

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I totally get that.

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Well, here's the thing.

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The more volunteers we have, then we

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can put a schedule together so where you can serve

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and participate as well.

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OK, so we have everybody signed up to help.

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We have the capacity to do all of that.

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But man, I'll tell you, one of my favorite things

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about that night-- I said this last week--

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is Springhouse--

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--a presentation in here and gives the gift

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to everybody who comes.

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And so just similar to that Operation Christmas Child,

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we have the opportunity to give Jesus to people on that night.

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So it's going to be really, really good.

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And there's going to be a lot of candy that night too.

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And if you're bringing candy, there are buckets out there

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that we would ask you to put those in over the next--

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well, I guess it'd be this week or next Sunday

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if you could bring candy.

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After that, just drop it off.

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My office is right over down the hall.

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Anyway, God is good.

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Last thing I wanted to say this morning,

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I just wanted to tell you how not just proud

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I am of Springhouse, but just how grateful I

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am for this body.

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I genuinely, as your pastor, I feel that for a majority of you

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I could come to you and say, hey, I really have a need.

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Would you be willing to serve in this capacity or do X, Y, and Z?

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And so many of you have your yes ready to be put on the table.

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And I can't tell you what it means to me as a pastor

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to be able to know that when I need to call on somebody, man,

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the yes is right there.

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Yesterday we had a celebration of life service

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for Alyssa Lockett's here in this place.

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And everything turned around just last week.

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We were just getting things together.

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And man, at every juncture we were asking,

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would you be willing to serve?

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Would you be willing to help?

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And it was yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

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I love the heart posture of this church.

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And can I tell you, that should be the normal thing.

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That is what normal kingdom living should be.

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And so I just want to tell you I'm so grateful.

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I want to continue to be a place that loves big, lives truth,

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and is a healthy family.

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God is so good and He's on the throne.

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Is He not?

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Amen.

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We are going to continue our series today, His church.

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And I am super excited about the word

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that's being brought today.

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And I'm not bringing it.

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Pastor Allen is going to come and bring the word today.

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And I'm excited for what he's going to bring.

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Would you guys welcome Pastor Allen Smith.

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(congregation cheering)

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- Love you.

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- Love you.

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(congregation clapping)

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- Thank you, Michael.

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Stay here.

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I'm not trying to copy what happened in first service,

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but I'm trying to be obedient to the Lord.

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First of all, if somebody could fulfill Matthew 10

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and offer me a cup of water,

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I still have communion cracker in my teeth.

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And I'm trying, if I'm not preaching, I don't care.

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Thank you, brother.

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(congregation clapping)

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That's called obedience.

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That's called having a yes on the table.

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Thank you, brother.

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I am echoing pastors.

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I won't try not to cry for three minutes

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like I did in first service.

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It took me two or three minutes to get going.

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I want to echo his sentiment about this house,

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be the family, and how grateful,

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how grateful I am that you're my family.

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I know some of you deeply.

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I know some of you well.

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And then there are those of you that I know a little,

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and there's some of you that have not had the pleasure

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to meet and get to know yet,

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and my harsh desire is to do that.

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So here's, there's 400 of us between the two services.

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Find me.

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Hey, let's go get coffee.

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Hey, Pastor Allen, I'm Bill, I'm Joe, I'm Sally, whatever.

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'Cause I want to know you.

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A week ago, I had the joy of taking my adult children,

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and I took our kids to the beach and just got away,

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and somebody said, "You're an idiot.

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There's a hurricane coming."

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And I said, "I rebuke that thing in the name of Jesus."

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'Cause I paid for this back in April.

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Now don't get me wrong,

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my parents survived Hurricane Hugo

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in Columbia, South Carolina.

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That's 162 miles inland, and it destroyed their property.

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So my heart grieves.

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I've lived through a tornado in my childhood.

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I understand devastation.

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So don't get me wrong.

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My heart weeps for those people,

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and there are, there are, in fact, let me brief plug.

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If you've seen a white trailer out here,

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there's a brother in the house

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that if we will keep filling it up with supplies,

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he'll keep taking it to East Tennessee

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and Western North Carolina.

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It was supposed to be back today, I'm not sure if it is.

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He's working a 40 and 50 hour week

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and driving on Saturday to drop those supplies off

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and come back so that it's here on Sundays.

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So I challenge you, if you got water, if you got things,

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it takes a while to recover from that.

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So let me get forward.

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We're with my adult kids.

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We had a wonderful time of fellowship.

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Pastor Kevin went with us on the trip.

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[congregation laughing]

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Some of you know him, talk him out.

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Don't worry, I know the guilty party

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that papered my room when I came back.

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I haven't forgot you.

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He'll get yours over the course of a year.

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Anyway, we were so relaxed, so refreshed

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that we were coming home, we watched the service,

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Chelsea and Renee and I were in the car

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and we got to hear what a powerful word

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he brought last week in the worship.

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There were tears, we were singing,

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there was worship in the car.

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We had great, great, great, great.

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I don't mean this in the profane way,

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but anyway, I had all hell break loose in your life before.

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So you know what I mean.

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I don't mean just, I'm talking about where the kingdom

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of darkness comes against you and tries to destroy your faith

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and rob you of your joy and take your rest

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that comes from only God.

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We say, come unto me, all who are heavy laden

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and take my burden for his light and I'll find rest.

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And the enemy wants to just steal, kill and destroy

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and take that from you.

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We get home Sunday, or Saturday, sorry.

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We watched on Sunday, you weren't with us.

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I have to correct Sunday.

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She had to fly out Sunday morning early

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and Renee goes out to the van and is dead.

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I just bought a brand new battery the week before.

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Mike Dennis is trying to figure it out.

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So that's going on this week.

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I get a text at 6.20 on Monday morning

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about Alyssa's tragic, tragic story.

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And I'm just crushed at spirit.

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The Locketts were a precious family in this house

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and I was torn up.

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I only knew him five years.

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Some of the people in this house

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have known him their whole time.

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And it just ripped my heart.

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And then I get a call from one of my biker friends.

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And he says, "Hey, Donna's about to go home.

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She's in hospice, can you come and pray?"

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So Monday evening, I sat there and I talked to the family.

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I said, "Are you ready to let her go?"

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'Cause they were tired of seeing her suffer.

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She's incoherent, she doesn't in the physical

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know what's going on, but I know in the spirit we do.

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And they said, "Yeah, we just wanna see her suffer."

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So we prayed.

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I grabbed her little hand and gnawed her head

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and I said, "Father, she's yours.

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And I just ask you, Jesus, in the name of Christ Almighty,

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that you would make it swift and peaceful."

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She passed away early Tuesday.

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So now I've got another funeral this Saturday.

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And then all kinds of chaos is going on in my life.

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I had to do something as a pastor

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that I don't like to have to do,

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but I had to bring correction and an incident.

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And I prayed for days.

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I asked Pastor Kevin, I even reached out

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to Pastor Bruce for wisdom.

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And I sent an email that I had bathed in prayer

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and asked the Holy Spirit to help me to write.

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And then I get an email back that's pages long.

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And it's just full of stuff.

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And even an accusation of a lawsuit in small claims court.

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And I'm going, "God."

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But rather than go, "Whoa, it's me and one,"

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I began to praise and sing songs of worship

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and cry out to God, "You're my Deliverer.

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You're my rocking shield.

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You're my defense."

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He just said, "Keep silent.

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Stand still and see my salvation."

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And I tell you in the midst of all the grief

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and all the heaviness and the woe,

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I had such a joy yesterday that couldn't be expressed.

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In the midst of this gathering with family,

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my heart was broken, but yet I was full of joy.

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I was full of hope.

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I will tell you this morning,

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I don't know what your chaos is.

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I don't know what your cell is.

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You were gonna talk about being in a prison cell today,

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just like Kevin a few weeks ago.

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I don't care what it is.

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Can I tell you there is a name that is above every name

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and that name is Jesus.

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And at that name, the darkness trembles.

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At that name, he solids his fears.

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And at that name, hope and deliverance can come to you.

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Father, thank you that you have given us a name

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that we can cry out, "I love Father."

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And you hear us and you watch over us

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to perform your word in our lives.

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So be with us, Lord.

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For those in this room, I cannot be the only one

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who's gone through a week of hell, literally, in this room.

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And some in this room may have been going through it

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for weeks, but Lord, we're gonna speak the name of Jesus today.

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And we're gonna see darkness tremble.

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We're gonna see fear silenced.

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And we're gonna see freedom in these situations

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in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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I had a rag.

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There it is.

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Y'all stop, I'm getting old.

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I'm gonna do it one more time

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because the Lord won't let me go.

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Laura, are you in this room right now?

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You met me in my office this morning at 8.25.

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Are you in the room?

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Okay.

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God, she's yours.

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Alrighty, let's try to get this thing done.

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You ever wanted to get the back end of something so quick,

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like at a birthday party?

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You just wanna get to the cake so quick.

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But you gotta do the games and the balloons

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and all the other stuff to get to the cake.

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That's today.

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I wanna get to page four so bad,

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but I gotta give you the first couple of pages.

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So I'm gonna read and set us up and get us there.

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And then I'm gonna try to be obedient to God.

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So we've been walking through the book of Acts this year.

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And in that, the beginning, we talked about setting it up.

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We had a few weeks talking about his word.

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And then we were talking about his life, talking about Christ.

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And now we're talking about his church,

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as it was in the book of Acts.

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So in that process, we realized that

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the things that were individuals who encountered

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struggles and trials and difficulties,

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no different than what we just go through in our lives,

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but they had the empowerment

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of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

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And we see how God moved in the early church

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in the first century.

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Can I tell you today, he still moves today

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just like he did then.

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They said when the apostles died,

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that the Spirit and all that was, that's not true.

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That's a lie.

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God still is looking to perform his word in our lives today.

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He's still active.

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He still speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.

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It might be a gentle nudge.

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It might be a whisper.

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Sometimes, like me, he has to hit me with something

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to get my attention, but he is still speaking,

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are we listening?

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I said listening.

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We hear, but are we listening?

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And there's a difference.

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One of the misconceptions we have in the Western culture

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is this, especially in the Western church.

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We think that being a follower of Christ,

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it's all rainbows and roses.

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It's all just blessing and favor.

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We are exempt from all the hard things that come in life.

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Can I tell you that is not true?

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That is a misconception.

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That is false teaching.

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Now there are blessings.

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There is favor to be had in the name of the Lord,

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but we are not exempt just because I call Christ my Savior.

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Scripture says the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

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We are all in this world together.

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If I walk outside and there's a blackened sinner

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walking with me and there's a storm coming out,

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if we don't carry an umbrella,

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we're both gonna get soaking wet.

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It's the same for you.

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We think that we can just pray

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and God will just make it all go away

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and it's all gonna get better.

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It can.

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Most of the time it does,

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but sometimes we still have to walk through.

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He didn't say go around the valley of the shadow of death.

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He said we gotta walk through sometimes.

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I'm gonna use some examples and I know they won't mind.

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I can tell you this couple right here

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almost four years ago would have liked to have walked around

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a valley of the shadow of death,

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but they had to walk through it literally

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and their testimony shone through that

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to those around them and God was with them.

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He never left them forsaken.

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He walked through the valley.

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Sometimes we have to walk through it.

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I'm gonna save y'all the 18 verses of Scripture

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to make you stand and read.

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I love when Pastor Ronnie and sometimes Pastor Kevin go

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and we're gonna read the whole thing

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and it's like oh Lord my legs.

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Y'all been standing.

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Acts 16, 20.

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16 through 30 says this.

Speaker: 00:17:22

Once as we were on our way to prayer,

Speaker: 00:17:28

a slave girl met us who had a spirit of prediction

Speaker: 00:17:31

and made a large profit for her owners by fortune telling.

Speaker: 00:17:36

As she followed Paul and us, she cried out,

Speaker: 00:17:40

"These men are the slaves of the most high God

Speaker: 00:17:43

"who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

Speaker: 00:17:45

And she did this for many days.

Speaker: 00:17:48

And Paul was greatly aggravated.

Speaker: 00:17:50

Do you know that you can be aggravated as a believer?

Speaker: 00:17:52

That's not a sin.

Speaker: 00:17:53

Show of hands.

Speaker: 00:17:55

You might have been aggravated.

Speaker: 00:17:57

Spiritually aggravated and I know you flesh.

Speaker: 00:18:00

There's a difference.

Speaker: 00:18:01

Left hand if you've been in your flesh.

Speaker: 00:18:03

Right hand if you've been.

Speaker: 00:18:04

Both hands.

Speaker: 00:18:06

Everybody should be like this in the name of Jesus.

Speaker: 00:18:08

I see those hands.

Speaker: 00:18:10

He was greatly aggravated.

Speaker: 00:18:15

In other words, he wasn't just a little tit.

Speaker: 00:18:17

He was upset.

Speaker: 00:18:19

He'd had enough.

Speaker: 00:18:20

It's different.

Speaker: 00:18:23

I'm reading from Harlem and y'all got NIV.

Speaker: 00:18:24

So excuse the words.

Speaker: 00:18:26

And turning to the Spirit, notice he did not call her out.

Speaker: 00:18:33

He did not demean and provoke and chastise her.

Speaker: 00:18:38

He recognized there was a Spirit.

Speaker: 00:18:40

You do realize, Pastor Justin's been teaching it

Speaker: 00:18:42

on Thursdays, we are in a spiritual battle.

Speaker: 00:18:45

It ain't us against us.

Speaker: 00:18:47

It's the kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness.

Speaker: 00:18:51

A third of the angels fell with Satan,

Speaker: 00:18:53

Lucifer when he fell.

Speaker: 00:18:54

That means that two thirds are still on Jehovah's side.

Speaker: 00:18:58

I think that means he's outnumbered, right?

Speaker: 00:19:01

Just saying.

Speaker: 00:19:02

He turned to the Spirit and said,

Speaker: 00:19:05

"I command you in the name of Jesus Christ

Speaker: 00:19:07

"to come out of her."

Speaker: 00:19:08

And it came out five days later.

Speaker: 00:19:10

What's yours, what does it say?

Speaker: 00:19:14

Thank you.

Speaker: 00:19:16

In that moment.

Speaker: 00:19:17

God is an on time, in that time moment kind of guy.

Speaker: 00:19:20

When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone,

Speaker: 00:19:26

they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them

Speaker: 00:19:28

into the marketplace to the authorities

Speaker: 00:19:30

and bringing them before the chief magistrates,

Speaker: 00:19:33

they said, "These men are seriously disturbing our city,

Speaker: 00:19:37

"for they are Jews and are promoting customs

Speaker: 00:19:40

"that are not legal for us Romans to adopt our practice."

Speaker: 00:19:43

When you stand up to do the right, wait a minute.

Speaker: 00:19:49

What's the title again?

Speaker: 00:19:50

Do What's Right.

Speaker: 00:19:53

When I first read the sermon schedule,

Speaker: 00:19:55

I thought it said do the right thing

Speaker: 00:19:56

and I went, why are we talking about Spike Lee in 1989?

Speaker: 00:19:59

Do What's Right.

Speaker: 00:20:00

When you stand up to do what's right in the name of God,

Speaker: 00:20:04

guess what?

Speaker: 00:20:06

You gonna get some stuff.

Speaker: 00:20:09

You gonna create a situation

Speaker: 00:20:13

because the enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy

Speaker: 00:20:16

and he ain't gonna sit there and go,

Speaker: 00:20:17

"Okay, Curt, do what you gotta do."

Speaker: 00:20:20

No, he's gonna buffer and do everything he can

Speaker: 00:20:24

to make that guy give up on his faith in God

Speaker: 00:20:27

and put obstacles in your way so that you'll give up

Speaker: 00:20:30

and not do what's right.

Speaker: 00:20:32

But Paul was not operating in the spirit of Paul.

Speaker: 00:20:39

He was operating through the spirit of God,

Speaker: 00:20:41

through the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:20:43

And when you walk with the power of the Holy Spirit

Speaker: 00:20:47

in your life, according to Acts 1 and 8,

Speaker: 00:20:49

you will be a witness and you will have a boldness about you

Speaker: 00:20:54

to do what's right.

Speaker: 00:20:56

The mob joined in against them with attack

Speaker: 00:21:01

and the chief magister stripped off the clothes,

Speaker: 00:21:06

ordered them to be beaten with rods

Speaker: 00:21:07

and after they inflicted many blows on them,

Speaker: 00:21:10

threw them in jail, ordering the jailer

Speaker: 00:21:12

to keep them securely guarded.

Speaker: 00:21:14

After receiving such an order,

Speaker: 00:21:15

he put them into the inner prison

Speaker: 00:21:17

and secured the feet and stocks.

Speaker: 00:21:23

Now today, to get stripped ain't a big thing.

Speaker: 00:21:27

There's such a, we live in such a society,

Speaker: 00:21:30

a world where people just run around half-naked

Speaker: 00:21:32

and stupid anyway.

Speaker: 00:21:33

But in that time, if you were pulled out in public

Speaker: 00:21:40

and stripped, that was a humiliation.

Speaker: 00:21:44

It was demeaning, you were degraded,

Speaker: 00:21:46

you were less than, you were looked down on

Speaker: 00:21:48

and you were shamed.

Speaker: 00:21:51

All because they were doing what God had told them to do

Speaker: 00:21:55

and that created the chaos in the community

Speaker: 00:21:58

and they pulled them together and stripped them.

Speaker: 00:22:02

Then it says it beat them with rods.

Speaker: 00:22:05

Everybody over 50, y'all remember in mama's house?

Speaker: 00:22:07

I ain't even gotta finish, y'all know where I'm going.

Speaker: 00:22:11

It was my mother who was mom, mommy,

Speaker: 00:22:16

I'm 60 years old and I call her mommy, shut your mouth.

Speaker: 00:22:20

Her mom was mother because she always called her mom mother.

Speaker: 00:22:25

So my grandmother was mother

Speaker: 00:22:28

and my great-grandmother was mama.

Speaker: 00:22:30

If mama Barfield wanted to tan me,

Speaker: 00:22:35

give me a switch.

Speaker: 00:22:38

And I knew that if I go to that bush

Speaker: 00:22:41

and pull off that switch, I better do two things.

Speaker: 00:22:45

It better be thick and I better pull the leaves off of it

Speaker: 00:22:49

before I give it to her.

Speaker: 00:22:51

And then I'd get tanned.

Speaker: 00:22:53

These guys didn't get switched.

Speaker: 00:22:56

They got beaten.

Speaker: 00:22:58

The custom in the time were rods

Speaker: 00:23:02

that were about a meter long.

Speaker: 00:23:04

As you know, they're all meters, they're not feet.

Speaker: 00:23:06

So anyway, 39 inches, whatever.

Speaker: 00:23:08

And they were as thick as your finger

Speaker: 00:23:11

and they bundled them together, about nine to 10 of them

Speaker: 00:23:13

and put a rope around them and all this up

Speaker: 00:23:16

and the leaders, they walked around with it

Speaker: 00:23:20

like a bow and arrow thing over the shoulder.

Speaker: 00:23:22

They walked around on it, just looking.

Speaker: 00:23:24

Boy, I'll whip you.

Speaker: 00:23:26

The Jews had a custom that was against the law for 40 lashes.

Speaker: 00:23:34

So everywhere in Scripture you see where the Jews did it,

Speaker: 00:23:38

it was 40 minus one or 39 lashes

Speaker: 00:23:41

'cause they didn't wanna break the law, the Mosaic law.

Speaker: 00:23:45

Romans didn't care.

Speaker: 00:23:48

I'll beat you 'til my arm gets tired.

Speaker: 00:23:50

So it says after they had induced many lashes.

Speaker: 00:23:55

How many is many?

Speaker: 00:23:56

Wasn't just one guy beating him either.

Speaker: 00:23:59

So imagine the picture.

Speaker: 00:24:01

See, we make the Bible so septic and so clean.

Speaker: 00:24:05

Come on, Kurt.

Speaker: 00:24:08

Come here.

Speaker: 00:24:09

Me and Kurt, Paul and Silas,

Speaker: 00:24:14

we're walking around declaring the gospel.

Speaker: 00:24:15

We call that spirit out.

Speaker: 00:24:17

They bind us, they strip us,

Speaker: 00:24:19

and then they beat us to within inches of our life.

Speaker: 00:24:22

We're stripped, we're welted, we're bloodied, we're bruised.

Speaker: 00:24:27

Probably in the dirt, face down.

Speaker: 00:24:31

No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker: 00:24:33

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:24:36

See the picture.

Speaker: 00:24:37

We read the page and we just flip the page.

Speaker: 00:24:41

See the picture.

Speaker: 00:24:42

Then they grab 'em up and drag 'em to jail.

Speaker: 00:24:47

Roman prisons weren't a nice place.

Speaker: 00:24:50

It ain't like going down the metro, is it, Justin?

Speaker: 00:24:53

>> It ain't nice here.

Speaker: 00:24:54

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:24:56

>> See?

Speaker: 00:24:57

At least he had air condition.

Speaker: 00:25:00

This says if it ain't going to jail bad enough,

Speaker: 00:25:05

General Popp, they put 'em in the inner cell,

Speaker: 00:25:09

similar to an isolation situation

Speaker: 00:25:11

where there is darkness, there's poor ventilation.

Speaker: 00:25:14

What food you did get,

Speaker: 00:25:15

you probably wasn't wanting to eat anyway.

Speaker: 00:25:18

Rats, vermin, not a good place.

Speaker: 00:25:22

That's bad enough, but now sit down

Speaker: 00:25:25

and we'll lock your feet in the wooden stalks.

Speaker: 00:25:28

And there's not a wall to lean on

Speaker: 00:25:29

'cause we won't make this as uncomfortable for you

Speaker: 00:25:31

as you can be in.

Speaker: 00:25:32

'Cause at least you got a wall I can lean back.

Speaker: 00:25:37

No, we want your back to hurt.

Speaker: 00:25:38

We want your thighs to cramp.

Speaker: 00:25:39

We want you to suffer.

Speaker: 00:25:41

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:25:44

They didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker: 00:25:48

They hadn't broken a wall.

Speaker: 00:25:52

What they did was obey the Holy Spirit

Speaker: 00:25:55

and speak deliverance to somebody that was bound.

Speaker: 00:25:58

But the world was against it.

Speaker: 00:26:03

And it created a stir because let me tell you,

Speaker: 00:26:05

when you do what's right,

Speaker: 00:26:07

it's gonna draw conflict in your life.

Speaker: 00:26:11

There is gonna be a spirit of antagonism against you

Speaker: 00:26:15

because you're trying to be righteous,

Speaker: 00:26:18

sanctified and justified in Christ

Speaker: 00:26:20

and bring freedom to other people.

Speaker: 00:26:23

Guess what?

Speaker: 00:26:24

Lucifer, Satan, the enemy does not want that for them.

Speaker: 00:26:28

And he will do all that he can to shut you up.

Speaker: 00:26:32

Here we are, we find ourselves.

Speaker: 00:26:37

I am so far.

Speaker: 00:26:40

Often those who figure it out.

Speaker: 00:26:42

Did I skip all of them?

Speaker: 00:26:46

There we go.

Speaker: 00:26:49

Crowd joined in the attack against Pylosallos.

Speaker: 00:26:52

Magisterous Orleans, stripped, beaten rods,

Speaker: 00:26:54

severely flogged, thrown in prison.

Speaker: 00:26:57

Received the orders, put them in the inner cell,

Speaker: 00:27:00

fastened their feet.

Speaker: 00:27:01

Anybody been in a prison?

Speaker: 00:27:05

Pastor Kevin just preached about it a few weeks ago.

Speaker: 00:27:09

Most of the time, not all the time,

Speaker: 00:27:13

most of the time, we build our own prisons.

Speaker: 00:27:18

When it starts caving in and life starts happening,

Speaker: 00:27:26

we implode, we go to dark places in our mind

Speaker: 00:27:33

like that inner cell.

Speaker: 00:27:34

We captivate ourself in our own cells.

Speaker: 00:27:38

We put our own cells in shackles and stocks

Speaker: 00:27:43

because we get so full of fear and anxiety

Speaker: 00:27:49

that we imprison ourselves.

Speaker: 00:27:53

We have a choice.

Speaker: 00:27:57

We can whine and complain,

Speaker: 00:28:03

which is in our DNA if you read Exodus.

Speaker: 00:28:07

Some of you read your Bible.

Speaker: 00:28:08

Or we can do what Pylosallos did.

Speaker: 00:28:12

The scripture says at about midnight,

Speaker: 00:28:18

I'm a night owl.

Speaker: 00:28:21

I usually see 1230, 1245, one o'clock before I fall asleep.

Speaker: 00:28:25

This last week, my poor wife,

Speaker: 00:28:33

me flip flopping and moaning and crying out to the Lord,

Speaker: 00:28:37

about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying.

Speaker: 00:28:43

What is your first response when you're in prison,

Speaker: 00:28:49

when you're in a dark place, when you start imploding,

Speaker: 00:28:53

when you're captivated, when you have done the right thing?

Speaker: 00:28:59

Hear me, if you're walking in sin

Speaker: 00:29:03

and following after the desires of the flesh

Speaker: 00:29:07

and you become imprisoned, guess what?

Speaker: 00:29:10

Guilty.

Speaker: 00:29:11

You put yourself there because you're walking out

Speaker: 00:29:15

to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Speaker: 00:29:17

But if you are genuinely trying to walk

Speaker: 00:29:19

to fulfill the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit

Speaker: 00:29:24

in your life and you're doing the right thing,

Speaker: 00:29:28

but yet you still find yourself in prison, pray.

Speaker: 00:29:31

Don't complain.

Speaker: 00:29:37

This is a saying, hymns to God.

Speaker: 00:29:42

Some translations it says hymns of praise.

Speaker: 00:29:47

They weren't in the prison singing songs of lament

Speaker: 00:29:51

and woe is me, they were giving praise to God.

Speaker: 00:29:57

Songs of David.

Speaker: 00:29:58

How great and marvelous are you my God,

Speaker: 00:30:03

the creator of heavens and earth.

Speaker: 00:30:05

You have given me favor.

Speaker: 00:30:06

They sang songs of praise and worship to God.

Speaker: 00:30:11

Big line there.

Speaker: 00:30:15

And the other prisoners were listening to them.

Speaker: 00:30:19

Oh, I'm in here by myself.

Speaker: 00:30:26

I'm in this struggle all alone.

Speaker: 00:30:28

Nobody cares.

Speaker: 00:30:30

There are people in your life listening

Speaker: 00:30:35

to how you respond to what's going on in your life.

Speaker: 00:30:41

They are watching what you're gonna do.

Speaker: 00:30:47

I'm a believer in Christ.

Speaker: 00:30:51

I go to church.

Speaker: 00:30:51

I this, I that, all those good little,

Speaker: 00:30:53

I got the bumper sticker, the fish, the t-shirt.

Speaker: 00:30:55

I got the whole package.

Speaker: 00:30:56

Does your actions line up with your appearance?

Speaker: 00:31:02

Do your words reflect how you walk or vice versa?

Speaker: 00:31:08

They were listening to them.

Speaker: 00:31:11

Here's a good word.

Speaker: 00:31:13

I love the book of Mark.

Speaker: 00:31:15

If you go read the book of Mark,

Speaker: 00:31:17

I used to be able to tell you the number.

Speaker: 00:31:19

So many words immediately, suddenly, at once,

Speaker: 00:31:22

at that very moment.

Speaker: 00:31:24

Do you know we serve a God that is a suddenly,

Speaker: 00:31:27

at once, in that very moment kind of God?

Speaker: 00:31:30

You can sometimes have to go through it.

Speaker: 00:31:34

Look at Joseph, three years.

Speaker: 00:31:38

Felt like God forgot him.

Speaker: 00:31:39

He literally was in prison too.

Speaker: 00:31:41

But God is also a God of in that very moment.

Speaker: 00:31:44

But how do you respond to him?

Speaker: 00:31:48

Can influence the way he will respond to you.

Speaker: 00:31:54

Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake

Speaker: 00:31:59

that the foundations of prison were shaken.

Speaker: 00:32:01

It didn't start from the top down.

Speaker: 00:32:03

God shook the earth and that prison fell apart

Speaker: 00:32:07

from the bottom up, from the roots up.

Speaker: 00:32:10

Whatever is holding you, whatever is binding you,

Speaker: 00:32:13

whatever place you put yourself in,

Speaker: 00:32:15

if you will cry out to God and pray,

Speaker: 00:32:17

sing songs of deliverance and praise,

Speaker: 00:32:20

and trust in him that others will see you,

Speaker: 00:32:22

he will shake it from the foundation,

Speaker: 00:32:24

and he'll bring freedom.

Speaker: 00:32:27

Gets better.

Speaker: 00:32:31

There's that word again.

Speaker: 00:32:34

At once, a few of the doors, Paul and Silas' door.

Speaker: 00:32:39

All the doors flew open, and every once,

Speaker: 00:32:46

changed, came loose.

Speaker: 00:32:51

You had the capacity, you have the ability,

Speaker: 00:32:55

in your worshiping, in your reaction to life,

Speaker: 00:32:58

to bring freedom that will open other people's doors

Speaker: 00:33:02

and release them from the chains they're in.

Speaker: 00:33:04

I got people I love.

Speaker: 00:33:09

And I want my reaction to bring freedom to them,

Speaker: 00:33:14

but guess what?

Speaker: 00:33:15

There's people that hate me too.

Speaker: 00:33:17

And I can't be a man of God if I go,

Speaker: 00:33:20

I only want it for the ones I love.

Speaker: 00:33:22

God said, whosoever will,

Speaker: 00:33:25

call me, shall be saved.

Speaker: 00:33:30

So I gotta walk it out in front of everybody.

Speaker: 00:33:33

I can't walk it out just in front of you, that's easy.

Speaker: 00:33:36

Can I do it in the marketplace?

Speaker: 00:33:38

Can I do it at the ball field?

Speaker: 00:33:39

Can I do it in emails where people are persecuting

Speaker: 00:33:42

and threatening lawsuits?

Speaker: 00:33:43

Can I be that guy then, to bring freedom for them?

Speaker: 00:33:48

The jailer wakes up.

Speaker: 00:33:51

I guess so.

Speaker: 00:33:54

'Cause if you're one, I think,

Speaker: 00:33:58

well, Renee, say earthquake, can't wake me up.

Speaker: 00:34:00

The earthquake shaking and rattling the timbers

Speaker: 00:34:05

and everything of a prison,

Speaker: 00:34:07

probably enough to wake that guy up.

Speaker: 00:34:08

Let's say there's 20 or 30 prisoners and they're bound up.

Speaker: 00:34:13

You think their chains fall off,

Speaker: 00:34:15

they just gonna sit there going, wow, that's pretty cool.

Speaker: 00:34:19

I got a feeling that even unbelievers were freaking out

Speaker: 00:34:22

and going, what is happening?

Speaker: 00:34:23

What are y'all doing?

Speaker: 00:34:24

How did this happen?

Speaker: 00:34:26

So there might have been a little Pentecostal prayer meeting

Speaker: 00:34:28

happening in the prison cell.

Speaker: 00:34:29

And it wakes the jailer up.

Speaker: 00:34:32

And he's in a panic.

Speaker: 00:34:35

'Cause he was told, you guard them,

Speaker: 00:34:38

you put them in the inner prison.

Speaker: 00:34:39

And now this happens and he's freaking out 'cause,

Speaker: 00:34:44

duh, if I'm locked up and it breaks free,

Speaker: 00:34:47

I'm leaving.

Speaker: 00:34:48

But they had to do what was right.

Speaker: 00:34:53

Paul and Silas all of a sudden become

Speaker: 00:34:58

the wardens of this jail.

Speaker: 00:34:59

Those that were bound for doing what was right,

Speaker: 00:35:04

stripped and humiliated, beaten,

Speaker: 00:35:07

and put in the darkest part of this prison,

Speaker: 00:35:09

now they're running the asylum.

Speaker: 00:35:14

And the jailer is in fear of what's about to happen to him.

Speaker: 00:35:17

Says he's about to kill himself.

Speaker: 00:35:21

'Cause he thought the prisoner escaped.

Speaker: 00:35:26

But Paul shouted, y'all do see the word says shouted.

Speaker: 00:35:31

Paul didn't go like, whoa, wait a minute, it's all right.

Speaker: 00:35:35

Paul realizes there's a need.

Speaker: 00:35:39

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait.

Speaker: 00:35:43

We're here, it's okay.

Speaker: 00:35:45

Nobody's left, we're all here.

Speaker: 00:35:48

There are people watching.

Speaker: 00:35:53

There are people in your life that operate in fear,

Speaker: 00:35:57

that are living in fear,

Speaker: 00:35:59

and you have to bring a word of the Lord

Speaker: 00:36:01

that will bring life.

Speaker: 00:36:04

The jailer called for lights,

Speaker: 00:36:07

rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

Speaker: 00:36:11

Why was he trembling?

Speaker: 00:36:12

Because he had experienced the power of God

Speaker: 00:36:15

through an earthquake, through the praise and worship,

Speaker: 00:36:19

through the bonds being broken.

Speaker: 00:36:20

He recognized and experienced the power of God

Speaker: 00:36:23

in that dark setting.

Speaker: 00:36:24

And it says, he then brought them out

Speaker: 00:36:29

and says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Speaker: 00:36:33

"How can I have what you have?

Speaker: 00:36:38

"How can I have what gave you freedom in this bondage?"

Speaker: 00:36:42

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus,

Speaker: 00:36:48

"and you will be saved."

Speaker: 00:36:50

But not just you.

Speaker: 00:36:52

You and your household.

Speaker: 00:36:55

His household ain't there, he's in the prison.

Speaker: 00:37:00

But Paul, one, brought the word of the Lord,

Speaker: 00:37:02

which was life and liberty and deliverance,

Speaker: 00:37:04

and then he prophesied over the jailer

Speaker: 00:37:08

and said, "Not just you, but you and your household

Speaker: 00:37:11

"will be saved."

Speaker: 00:37:12

Can you bring the word of the Lord?

Speaker: 00:37:16

Can you have the boldness?

Speaker: 00:37:18

You can if you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:37:21

At that hour,

Speaker: 00:37:26

Paul's Roman citizen,

Speaker: 00:37:32

they didn't realize that.

Speaker: 00:37:35

They accused him of being Jews, which he was.

Speaker: 00:37:38

Throw him in prison, all this happens.

Speaker: 00:37:41

This Roman jailer takes them out,

Speaker: 00:37:47

washed their wounds, and immediately,

Speaker: 00:37:54

he and all his household were baptized.

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The jailer brought them into his house

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and sent a meal before them.

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Psalm 23, come to mind.

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A table in the presence of mine, enemies.

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He was filled, who was?

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The jailer was filled with joy

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because he had come to believe in God.

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There are people that are bound and lost in darkness,

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and when you bring the word of God to them,

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and they experience freedom,

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they will be filled with joy

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because they have what you have.

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Because you've given it to them freely.

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He and his whole household.

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Worship team, y'all can kinda come this way.

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God has got a restoration.

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They took them in the broad of day,

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stripped them and humiliated them

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before the crowds of people.

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In the middle of the day, beat them severely.

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In the middle of the day, put them in prison.

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God does his thing, the jailer and his family gets saved,

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word comes about what's happened to the chief magistrates.

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They find out that they're Roman citizens and went, uh-oh.

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Uh-oh, 'cause that means trouble for them.

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'Cause I've done this to a Roman citizen.

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And he goes, hey, just kinda take them out the back

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and give them some bread,

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just get 'em on, move 'em on away.

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Here's where the boldness of God comes in your life

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with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

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Paul said, no, no, uh-uh, woo, uh-uh.

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You embarrassed us and humiliated us in public.

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You're gonna release us and apologize to us in public.

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Don't believe me, read the scripture.

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When you sweat and cry, you get blurry eyes.

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When daylight came, the chief magistrates

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sent the police to say, release those men.

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The jailer reported these words to Paul.

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The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released

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so come out now and go in peace.

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In other words, shh, go that way.

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And Paul said, they beat us in public without a trial?

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Although we are Roman citizens and they threw us in jail,

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and now, now they gonna smuggle us out secretly, uh-uh?

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Certainly not.

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On the contrary, let them come themselves

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and escort us out.

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(soft piano music)

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Can I tell you that God will have you escorted out

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with honor from what the enemy did in shame

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so that his name will be glorified?

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Wasn't about Paul and Silas,

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it wasn't about, oh, we're Roman citizens.

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It was about they were believers in God

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and they weren't gonna take it from the devil anymore.

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And them being made a spectacle,

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when they were escorted out, they were given honor

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because they did what was right

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and they suffered for it.

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Sometimes we will suffer for doing what's right.

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But trust me, God will always,

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God will always be glorified.

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For these light and momentary afflictions,

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there are scripture after scripture

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which says they counted themselves worthy to suffer

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for the name of Christ.

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I'm not saying go out and look for every opportunity

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to be beaten down, whatever.

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We do have a place of blessing and honor and favor

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in the name of Christ.

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But sometimes we have to suffer

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because there are people looking

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and they're gonna see how you respond.

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And the way you respond, the way I respond

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will bring life or death to them.

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Four years ago, I should have died in November from COVID.

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And I'm gonna tell you, I wasn't much of a Christian

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that first three hours.

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They're trying to shove air bows and air flows

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and all this on me and it was causing pain

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because the mixture was wrong.

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And I was fighting my nurse, male nurse.

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Let me clarify, it was a male nurse.

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His name was Ryan.

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But I was fighting.

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I kept telling him, you're hurting me,

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you're not helping me.

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And once I got out of my flesh

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and started praying in the Holy Ghost under my breath,

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a precious lady named Kay came in.

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And she, little gal, in the middle of all that chaos

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came into room four, the whatever that is, the bad place.

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I see you.

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And she said, "Hey!"

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And that room went quiet.

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And she said, "What is going on?"

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And I said, "He keeps trying to put this on

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"and I'm telling you, it hurts, it burns.

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"It's chemical, it's not heat."

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She checked the gauges of the valves, adjusted it,

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and said, "If you'll try it now, just try it."

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Put it on and it brought relief.

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But for the next 13 days,

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I encountered 23 people in that hospital,

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seven of them from that night,

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and I had to repent to them.

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I verbally told Ryan, "Brother, I am sorry

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"for cussing and yelling at you and fighting you."

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And he's like, "That's okay, brother, you hurt."

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I said, "No, it's not okay!

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"I'm a believer in Jesus and my response was wrong.

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"And I repent, I am sorry, and I need you to forgive me.

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"Can I tell you for the next 13 days,

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"that man did anything I asked for.

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"I got to pray with him.

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"He's a veteran from Afghanistan War.

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"He's a male nurse at the hospital at Stonecrest."

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We became so close that by the time I was released

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on the 29th of November, he cried when we hugged to leave.

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I could have left it on my first three hours of response,

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but I chose to repent and do what was right.

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So here we are.

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I don't know where you are.

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I don't know what hell has unleashed in your life

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in the last week, month.

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I don't know what's ahead of you.

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I know this, we are called to do what is right.

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And if we will do what is right,

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God will bring release for you,

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salvation for those that are around you,

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and he will be glorified.

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Different altar call.

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Stand, sit, kneel, come.

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It's open.

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Allow the Lord to work in your life this morning,

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whatever it is.

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Actually, yes, Lord.

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There are some people in here this morning

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that you need to profess it to somebody.

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So I am gonna ask elders and those that will pray

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to come forward.

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(gentle music)

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There's a few of you that do need to come and verbally

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tell somebody what it is in your life

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that you're believing for,

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and I challenge you to come down.

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This song, we're doing "Tremble Again."

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Let the darkness be gone in your life this morning.

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Would the elders and those that are gonna minister,

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please come forward.

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If you're feeling unction of the whole,

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that's not your breakfast,

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that's not some uneasy feeling,

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that's the Holy Spirit that's working in your life.

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I need to go forward, I need to tell somebody.

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If that's you, come forward.

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If you don't feel that, just speak to somebody,

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but you need this altar space.

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Come get before the Lord so there's no distractions.

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If you can't get down here and you need it there,

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just stand up and allow the Holy Spirit

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to minister to you there.

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Would you stand?

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(gentle music)