Fix. Consider. Behold.

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All

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of

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a sudden, I have this image of men leaning over going, honey, I'm gonna have

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to buy a truck.

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He said he needed it. It's for the church.

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Oh, my goodness. That's okay. Maybe you

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could borrow a truck. We're not asking you to dress it up

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or anything. Well, I don't know what he's asking, but I heard that there were

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prizes, so it's gonna be good. That's really good. God is so faithful.

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When he was sharing about tithing earlier, I used to help

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with counting and doing some of the

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funds here in the house, probably 20 years ago.

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And there was one gentleman who consistently— I can say it 'cause he doesn't go

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here anymore, but he would consistently on the memo

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line write, tip. And I'm

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like, if that's what we're tipping, then God did not serve the

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way— anyway. Anyway,

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it is not a tip. It is not a tip. I'm so

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excited about stepping into a new series

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with the teachers here on staff, with the pastors here on staff. We're gonna

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begin talking about— it's Just Behold,

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the Cross. We're gonna get

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refocused on what's most important and what

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God does and who he is. And he's been doing this with

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me, and so this is the way it goes. If he's doing this with me,

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then I get to inflict I mean, share it with you.

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So we're gonna do that. We are going to focus on what the Lord

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has. And in that, I trust that he will take

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you down the same path that he's been taking me, and it's a good

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path. He started it with this. The Lord has

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always kind of spoken to me through written word

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and allowed me to write some and work out my issues and problems as

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I write. I think a lot of people in this room— I'm not supposed to

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stand in front of that. That's okay. Did I say that out loud?

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And so, he took me back to one of the things that I had written

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back a while ago, and I'm gonna share it with you, and then we'll launch

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into this thing. And I did just remember that I hid the

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clicker. Ta-da!

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All right, here we go. At the age of 15, I had my

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first real date. I remember it distinctly. I

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was living with my grandmother at the time and thought my ship had finally come

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in. I was going on an honest-to-goodness guy pick you up in a

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car car kind of date.

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It wasn't that I had actually liked the boy when he asked me out. It

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was that everything happened after the asking.

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I had begun to focus. What would I wear?

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How would I do my hair? How clean could I get my granny's house before

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he walked in to pick me up? What would he wear? Where would we

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go? What would we do? Was he the one? You know he was. It

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was the first date ever. I'm sure he was the one. Would he

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like me? What if I bit into the pizza and it was too hot and

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I pulled burning cheese out of my mouth right in front of him? And what

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does one wear to the emergency room when burned by pizza cheese?

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By the time Saturday morning arrived, I was a wreck. I

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think I was dressed, hair done, and in full makeup by

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7:00 AM. All I had left to do

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for the next 12 hours was lay in front of my grandmother's old stereo

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turntable and listen to Boston's More Than a Feeling. Does

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anybody in here feel that? Boston's more than a

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feeling. Needless to say, by the time he arrived in his black

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T-top Trans Am, I already knew how many children we would have,

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2, Brandy and Chase, C-H-A-Y-S-E.

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It would always have a special spelling. What kind of house we would live in,

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a 2-story red brick with a veranda. What color my Camaro would

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be, candy apple red. And that our Persian cat would be named

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Fifi. Poor guy, he

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thought we were going out for a Coke.

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So what happened? What happened during those 12

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hours that took me from getting a Coke with a boy to spending the rest

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of my days on earth with him? Focus.

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For as a man thinketh in his heart, so he becomes,

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so is he. We truly do fall in

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love with the things that capture our thoughts and hold our focus.

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When we invest our attention, our hearts soon

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follow. So I suppose the question of the week must

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become, what are you thinking about all the time?

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What are you dwelling on? What occupies your mind?

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Where is your treasure? For it is there

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that you will find your heart. I do not think I ever

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went out with that guy again, but thanks to a healthy

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imagination and a whole lot of intense focus for

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12 hours in a 15-year-old's 18-year-old girl's life, I was

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married with children.

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Focus! Man, it changes everything. Where we set

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our eyes, what we choose to ponder, what we choose to weigh, where

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we tend to spend our time and attention, it will

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affect how your day goes. It will affect how your week

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goes. It will affect how your life goes. goes,

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what we focus on. And so that's what we're gonna begin to touch

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on this morning. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a

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great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything,

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everything that hinders and that sin that so

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easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race

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marked out for— who? Us. The race marked

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out for you, the race marked out for you, The race

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marked out for you, and they're different, but they're together.

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The race marked out for us. Let us do what? Fix our

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eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter— also

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use the word maturer— Yeah. Of our faith, who for

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the joy set before him endured the cross,

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despising the shame, and sat down at the right

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hand of the of the throne of God. Consider him who

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endured such hardship from sinful men, so that

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you do not grow weary and lose heart. Father God,

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I thank you, Lord, that today you are speaking to

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those who are in danger of losing heart, in

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speaking to those who have become distracted,

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myself included, Lord. So, Lord, I ask that you

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just saturate this place with your presence.

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May the Holy Spirit just breathe through this

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house. May we have teachable hearts. And Father,

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may we leave this place with laser focus on

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you. You are faithful and you are good and you finish

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what you start. Let my stuff fall and yours stand.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

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Eyes that are not fixed on him are dangerously susceptible to the

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distractions of everything else.

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Of everything else. Would you agree with me that

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we live in a very distracted society? Right. Would you agree with

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me that our attention span lasts about the

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time limit of a scroll? Do you think that

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we are maybe off focus a bit? And do you think that

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there's the possibility that it might

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be a tool of the enemy? To keep us off track,

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to keep us unsteady and unstable without

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our feet really under us spiritually because we're looking at

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everything else. And I feel like the Holy Spirit is just going,

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get your eyes fixed back. Now, see, this is nothing new.

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This— I mean, it's nothing new. The first

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temptation began with a battle for focus. Yeah. God gave

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Adam and Eve the whole garden, but all she could see was the tree.

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All she could see, you know, that temptation was there.

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And instead of seeing everything that God had laid out before them,

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everything, all of the good, all of the wonderful, what she saw was the tree.

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And because that was what she saw, that was where the enemy was able to

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speak to her, was in that tree, in that place of temptation.

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And that is still our issue. We can see the tree,

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or the garden. For where our treasure is, there our heart will be

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also. Focus matters. Focus

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matters. When I was a kid, I guess I was probably about, I

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don't know, 7 or 8, my

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parents were gone and we had a flash flood. And I lived in Walls

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Hollow. Yeah, you spell it with an E-R. And lived in Walls

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Hollow, and it was a dirt road. And when the flash flood

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came, it went over the little dirt bridge that went

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across The creek that had become a river. And our parents

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were gone, and so she picked up this thing called a rotary

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phone and called us at our house. And it rang. It was on the

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wall. Y'all would not believe it. It was hanging there on the wall, and

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there was a cord attached to it, and it had circle things on it. Anyway,

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I digress. But she said, okay, guys. She had

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stopped at a little store up on the hill and had called us. That was

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back when everybody remembered each other's number. And, uh, She

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said— she told my older sisters— I had 3 sisters, 2 older and 1 younger—

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and she said, guys, we gotta get you out of the hole. I want you

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to come and meet me on the other side of the river. I'm gonna get

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on the other side of the water and I'm gonna wait on you.

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And she is. Oh, that's gonna

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make me cry. Anyway, and so she says, come to the edge of the

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water. And she said, the older, watch out for the younger.

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And so, we walked down to the place in the road. And I know, as

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a parent now, looking, there's no way that she or my dad

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would have asked us to cross a raging river, okay? But when you're 7

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years old, a river looks raging, even if it's just like, you know, barely

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coming over. And so, we got to the edge of the water, and I could

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see my mom over here on this side, and my dad. And she

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was going, girls, right here, look at me. Oh, my goodness.

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Look at me. Because all we could see was this.

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All we could see was that. And I'm sure our eyes were as big as

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saucers. And she says, Terri, Cindy, link arms

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with you— with the Littles. Link arms with Angie and Barbie. And they linked arms.

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And she said, y'all are gonna help them across. You're gonna help them across. Keep

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your eyes on me. And I just remember

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stepping that first step into that water and thinking, oh,

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It's gonna wash me away. Now, I know that that was not true, 'cause I

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know my mom. And— but I just remember when

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I would feel the water, and I would wanna look away, I would remember I

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would look straight at her, and I could see her nodding her head. And

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I knew as she was nodding her head, yeah, we're okay. We're

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okay. Just keep walking. Just keep walking. And

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linked up with my sisters, linked up arm in arm, walking across it,

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drawing from the strength of the ones that were beside me, we

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walked in unity across something that we were to walk across.

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And we kept our focus where it was supposed to be.

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And as the Lord was ministering that to me and reminding me of that this

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week, I just thought, that is exactly where we all have

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to be. We have to understand that we are not independent of one

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another. And in order to cross some of the things that we've been called

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to cross in our lives, whether it's in our home lives, or whether it's in

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our work lives, or whether it's in our church, we are called to

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walk To link arms, for the older to strengthen the younger,

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for the more mature to carry some of the weight of the others

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in order to cross over. But in order to do that, we

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have to keep our eyes fixed on him, knowing

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that he is the author and the finisher of our faith,

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and that he is doing something in this. Our

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hearts have a tendency to follow the direction of our gaze. What we

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continually behold, we eventually become devoted to.

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If you set your eyes on something unhealthy too long, guess what happens?

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That's right. If you set your eyes and decide to

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ponder, and weigh, and dwell in things that are not good

Speaker: 00:12:32

for you, the things that are not good for us, like, you know, like

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worry, or fear, or anxiety,

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or blame, or guilt, or shame, or

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whatever the case might be, if that is where we choose to

Speaker: 00:12:48

allow our minds to dwell, our physical bodies are going to follow

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that. Yes. Our hearts follow it, and we follow our hearts.

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This passage of scripture says to fix our eyes on

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Him. To fix our eyes on Him.

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It says, look away from every other thing.

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to set your gaze upon one thing.

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What does it say to take your gaze off of? Every other

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thing. Every other thing. And sometimes it's every

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other person, or every other task, or every

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other fill in the blank, to go, God, I need to focus

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here. I need to focus here. And there are some signposts.

Speaker: 00:13:31

There are things that you will know. Here can be

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your guard. If you wanna know if you've got your

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eyes in the right place, if you want to know if you

Speaker: 00:13:42

are truly stay focused on Him, or if you have

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become distracted in your faith, in your task,

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and in your heart, there's a signpost that is

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like a— every time, it'll warn you. You will keep

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in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast

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because he trusts in you. I like the King James

Speaker: 00:14:04

Version. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace

Speaker: 00:14:07

whose mind is steadfast. Stayed. Stayed on

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thee. Why? Because he trusteth in you.

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If you want to know if you are distracted, if you want to know

Speaker: 00:14:19

if your heart is preoccupied, there's a level of

Speaker: 00:14:22

peace that comes with trust. And so

Speaker: 00:14:26

if you are struggling in the area of peace, your prayer

Speaker: 00:14:30

should be, Lord, increase my trust. Lord,

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increase this place of trust, Lord, that I would rest in the fact

Speaker: 00:14:38

that you finish what you start, that every good and perfect gift comes

Speaker: 00:14:41

from you, that I would rest in that, that

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peace that he brings. Thou wilt keep in perfect

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peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.

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We are called to trust that he is still God of the

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ashes, God in the ashes. See,

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sometimes when something fails, or falls, or burns down,

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or breaks, or there's destruction, or whatever it is,

Speaker: 00:15:07

and you are left standing amidst the pieces,

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sometimes it's really easy to get focused on the pieces.

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Yeah. The ashes. And some of us love to

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run and jump in those ashes from time to time and go,

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look how I'm suffering for Jesus. But anyway, but

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those ashes, Those belong to him, too. Those belong

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to God, too. And we have to be able to trust that even

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though this hurts, even though this is not what I

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expected, this was a suddenly, like the flood, I'm

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in a situation right now where I feel like I am

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surrounded by ashes. And God, I have to trust you.

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Yeah. Keep my peace and know that you, by your word,

Speaker: 00:15:51

say that you will bring something beautiful. He

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creates beauty from ashes. Does anybody have any

Speaker: 00:15:59

ashes that you need him to create beauty

Speaker: 00:16:03

out of? He does that. He's

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amazing at that. And you don't even know

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what that's going to look like. See, the word— next thing it says,

Speaker: 00:16:13

consider him. Consider him who

Speaker: 00:16:17

suffered at the hands of others. Consider him.

Speaker: 00:16:21

Think about him. It says that to consider is to

Speaker: 00:16:24

analyze. To weigh, to ponder, and to evaluate.

Speaker: 00:16:28

Another definition says, to take the whole thing

Speaker: 00:16:32

and dissect it. Break it into pieces,

Speaker: 00:16:37

lay it out before you, and look at it. Consider

Speaker: 00:16:40

Him, the facets, the pieces, all of who

Speaker: 00:16:44

He is, all of who He— what He suffered, all of the price

Speaker: 00:16:48

that He paid in order that we can step Into

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more beautiful ashes.

Speaker: 00:16:58

See, it says right here, why? Why did it say, consider him?

Speaker: 00:17:02

Do you remember the passage of scripture that we just read? It says, consider

Speaker: 00:17:06

him that you do not

Speaker: 00:17:10

lose heart. So that you do not

Speaker: 00:17:13

lose heart. Has anybody felt like they could lose

Speaker: 00:17:17

heart recently? You're like, God, I don't understand why this

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is happening, and I don't wanna do it anymore.

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Lord, I don't know why this happened.

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Lord, I don't understand why you didn't stop this. I don't

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understand why all of this is going on.

Speaker: 00:17:38

Consider him. Consider who he is,

Speaker: 00:17:42

the heart that he has, the purpose behind everything that

Speaker: 00:17:46

he does. He does not do one thing that has no purpose.

Speaker: 00:17:50

Yes. Everything that has come into your life, through your life,

Speaker: 00:17:54

has been allowed.

Speaker: 00:17:59

So can we trust Him to bring beauty from it?

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Can we trust Him to bring beauty from those

Speaker: 00:18:07

ashes? And I was thinking about this, and I was thinking

Speaker: 00:18:12

about many that I've talked to recently who just seem to— that's

Speaker: 00:18:15

just such a perfect who seemed to have lost heart,

Speaker: 00:18:20

to have lost focus on what's really important.

Speaker: 00:18:24

And he took me— I've been— I was sharing with the pastoral staff this

Speaker: 00:18:28

morning, he's had me in the book of Nehemiah, and I try to avoid that,

Speaker: 00:18:31

but anyway. But the book of Nehemiah is talking about

Speaker: 00:18:35

the walls that came down. It's talking about that actually they got burned and the

Speaker: 00:18:38

city had been sacked. And when it came time for the

Speaker: 00:18:42

children to go back in, for the exiles to go back in, it was time

Speaker: 00:18:46

to rebuild the wall, and they still had enemies. and they still had people that

Speaker: 00:18:49

were coming at them, and they couldn't get it together, and they couldn't get it

Speaker: 00:18:53

organized. And so Nehemiah begins to step in and move.

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And look at this. I can't tell you how many times I've read this, but

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I thought, it's just like those arrows when the Lord just begins to pierce

Speaker: 00:19:04

your heart. It says this in Nehemiah, The strength of

Speaker: 00:19:08

those who carry the burden is failing, and

Speaker: 00:19:12

there is too much rubble. By

Speaker: 00:19:15

ourselves, we cannot rebuild the wall.

Speaker: 00:19:20

The strength of those who carry the burden is failing, and there is too much

Speaker: 00:19:25

rubble. By ourselves, we cannot

Speaker: 00:19:28

rebuild the wall.

Speaker: 00:19:33

And what Nehemiah does is he steps in and he

Speaker: 00:19:37

strengthens the leaders to lead, and he begins

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to protect those who are laboring in the field. And he

Speaker: 00:19:44

begins to build a healthy community, for lack of a

Speaker: 00:19:47

better word. But he begins to pour into the people to protect the

Speaker: 00:19:51

work and begins to encourage them, gets the supplies, everything

Speaker: 00:19:55

they need in order to rebuild the wall. But I love that he

Speaker: 00:19:59

says, we cannot— by ourselves, we can't do this.

Speaker: 00:20:03

And guys, so often when we are trying to do things by

Speaker: 00:20:06

ourselves, we cannot do this. I could not

Speaker: 00:20:10

have walked across the water to my mother by

Speaker: 00:20:14

myself. And the important— seems like 2

Speaker: 00:20:17

important things when she said, older, more mature,

Speaker: 00:20:22

carry the weight of the others, strengthen the others, keep your eyes on

Speaker: 00:20:26

him. Guys, we can apply that every single day of our

Speaker: 00:20:30

life. In fact, we are called to. That's why the book of Titus

Speaker: 00:20:34

exists, to tell us that the older strengthen the younger, that we speak

Speaker: 00:20:37

wisdom, that we begin to move forward Arms linked,

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not separately. By myself, I can't build anything except a

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papier-mâché castle, and it will not stand, trust me.

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I expected my family to go, she's so right. Anyway.

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But together, together,

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strengthened by one another, leaders stepping in, and

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leaders leading, and community being built, and protecting one

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another. And they did. They set guards by the people who were laboring.

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in order to keep the work going forward. If we can do

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that, regardless whether it's at our work, in our

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home, wherever— the enemy comes at you wherever you are. You do realize that,

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right? And see, the beautiful thing about them, they could have gotten

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so focused on the enemy, but they didn't. They began to

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be focused on the wall that God had called them to build, and the

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work that he had called them to labor and to do, to join together and

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do. They didn't get focused on the enemy. They guarded. against them, but they

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didn't get focused. And so often, in wherever you

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are, at work or whatever, we tend to get focused on

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the enemy when we really just need to keep our eyes on the Lord.

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We really need to just keep our eyes on the Lord. And the unfortunate thing,

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and one of the enemy's tools, and one of his ploys that he has had

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forever, he doesn't need to change it because it still works, it is

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to attach a face to the word enemy. And

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that, from its very beginning, is not true. Because the scriptures tell

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me that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against

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principalities and powers. If your enemy has a

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recognizable face, you are fighting the wrong enemy.

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If your enemy has a recognizable face,

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you're fighting the wrong enemy.

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See, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we

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are linked in spirit, linked in arms.

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I want you to know that you're not— you do not have to, you may

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choose to, but you do not have to walk through

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anything alone. You don't have to

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go through the trials you're going through alone. You don't have to

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face the battles you are facing alone. That's right. Alone. Alone.

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Not if we do our job right. Not if we are truly the

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family of God. If we are truly the sons and daughters of

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God, if we are truly the body of Christ,

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we need to get this right. We need to get this

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right, that we walk with one another until we

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get across the water, until we get

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through the hard places, So we

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fix our eyes not on what is seen, not on the

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situation, not on the people, not on the stuff. We

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fix our eyes on— not on the seen, but on

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what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is

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unseen is eternal. We get so focused on the

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temporary, and it will exhaust us,

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and it'd be— it just like will suck the life right out of you.

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If all you are focused on is what is happening now. When I

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was a kid, at least once a week, we got a

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teaching, or at least a good, I'll fly away, or, Over in the glory land.

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We got focused on something that would happen beyond this

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life. We were reminded constantly that

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we were just sojourners on a journey toward him, that the

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world was not our home, and to keep our eyes fixed on him. And there

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was a different kind of hope in me as a child because I believed

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that, and I grabbed hold of that. especially after my mom said there were roller

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coasters in heaven. She wasn't right about— I don't know. She said—

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I said, what is in heaven? What's it gonna be like? And she said,

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everything you love will be in heaven. And at that point in time, I

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was really big on roller coasters. So, there's probably roller coasters there, but we don't

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know that for sure. That's a side note. Anyway, consider him

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so that you do not lose heart and become weary. And

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then, the next one, and this is where we're going with this series

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as we move forward, we're gonna fix our eyes on him.

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Move toward a lack of distraction. Focus on what's

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important. Consider him so that we do not

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grow weary. And we are going to behold.

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We are going to pay attention. We are going to really see.

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We're going to know. And we are going to take note.

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This word behold in the Word, you know, usually when you hear it, you think

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of, you know, the kids' nativity angel that's going,

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Behold! Or Charlie Brown, you know, Linus.

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But it actually signals a moment of divine importance. It says,

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Do not rush past this moment. Do

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not rush past what is coming after this word,

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Behold. It's divinely significant to us.

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And so when you come across things like this, Behold, a virgin

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Behold! Behold! This is about Jesus. We stop, and we pause,

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and we ponder, and we think about that.

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Behold, I am doing a new thing, it says. Do you not

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perceive it? That tells me that the risk is that He can be doing

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something amazing and new in your life, and you run right past it

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because you've not stopped to behold the new thing

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that He's doing. And it says, Behold, I bring you

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good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For

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unto you is born this day in the city of David

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a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And it goes on to tell

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them how he will find— how the shepherds will find the baby.

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Behold! Stop! Look!

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Pay attention! Behold, I stand at the door and

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In this season, in this time, I really believe that what's

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in my spirit for these next few weeks is that we would look again.

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That we would look again at all of these things that the Lord is

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going, stop and take a minute. And in that, that it would allow

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us to refocus, and that it would allow us to go, okay, I see

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you. I see you. I'm setting my eyes where they should be. Amen.

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truly behold. What we fail to truly behold, we eventually

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take for granted. Right. When we stop

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beholding, we do not diminish His glory, we

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simply diminish our awareness of it. We used

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to stand in awe! We used to go, God did what? I

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had more awe and wonder at a felt board Jesus

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than I do at some of the amazing graphics and

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things we have, but the awe of a child to go,

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he's sitting on a rock, and he's letting the

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kids come to him, and he loves the lambs, and

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he's got— this felt board Jesus,, that awe

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that we have, that we carry as a child. We can't

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lose that. And we lose that when we begin to

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focus on everything else. We need to allow God

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to birth the awe and the wonder for who he is

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again. Amen. Behold the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

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Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of

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the world! Do you wanna know what's amazing

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about this? And that we will just go right past

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any time? This was John the Baptist. This was

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what John the Baptist said. John was his cousin.

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Familiarity sometimes— if we get too familiar

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sometimes, we can be so casual with the Holy.

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with the Sovereign. John the Baptist, it would

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have been a whole different ballgame if he

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looked across and he went, hey, cuz, this is my

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aunt's son coming to be baptized. But he didn't.

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He said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the

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sins of the world. And he spoke straight to the destiny,

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probably the first time anybody on the planet had spoke straight to the

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man who straight to the destiny on the inside of Him, though He knew

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it. But John the Baptist recognized it.

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Behold the Lamb of God who takes

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away the sins of the world! Your sins, your

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sins, your sins, my sins, all of

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our sins! That's the Lamb

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that we are called to behold, and He begins to work in our lives, and

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He begins to change us, and move us, and into

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maturity in him because he is the author and

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the finisher of our faith. This isn't about starting something,

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it's about allowing him to finish something in our

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lives. Familiarity without wonder can make

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the extraordinary seem ordinary. And

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sometimes we can become addicted to going to church and forget why we're here.

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We can become addicted or enamored of the people that we sit next to

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and forget that we are here because he is the Lamb of God. Amen.

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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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We are in a culture that we look but we do not see,

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we scroll but we do not weigh, we enter but do not

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stay, we start but do not finish, we visit but we do not

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dwell.

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As we conform to a culture that chooses to stand immobile in the midst of

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the rubble rather than purposing to do the work of rebuilding the wall.

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We get so accustomed to the junk that we don't notice it

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anymore. Yes. We get so accustomed to

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this, and this, and this, that we don't even notice it

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anymore. But what's happening is, as we are stuck in the rubble

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of our broken places, stuck in the rubble of those ruined

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places, or those burned gates, or the shattered walls, we get

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stuck there. And what happens is nobody's rebuilding the wall.

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Yes. Nobody is moving forward with the things that God has actually called

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them to do. And so, we can purpose to stay in the

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middle of that, or we can purpose to link

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arms and move forward and finish

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what God has called us to do. I ran across

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this and I thought this was just so good because how do you do that?

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How do you do that? How do you do that? Well, guys, you

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gotta come under the Word. You've gotta allow your minds

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to be transformed by and renewed by the Word of God. There's

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a washing of the water of the Word. And sometimes, when you have allowed the

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garbage in there for so long, it takes a lot of water to wash it

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out. Yeah. One of the best illustrations I ever saw was

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somebody standing in a box and all of the lies were written on the box.

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You know, you're ugly, you're stupid, you'll never be able to do that, you're a

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failure, you're this, and you're defeated, your father was this, this, and this, and

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this. And this woman was trying to erase them,

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when what he said was, replace them. You can't

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just go, well, I'm not that. You have to be able to go, well, the

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Word of God says, I'm the head and not the tail. I'm

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above and not beneath. You need to be able to replace that

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old mindset with the new. And so, this,

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it says, let your minds be exercised

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Exercised, breathed,

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braced, lifted, filled

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by bringing them into contact with truth,

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especially the highest of all truths,

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the truth affecting God and your relationship

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to Him. Yeah. You got to get up against it, guys. You got

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to get up against the truth and allow the truth to

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refute the lies that the enemy has given us. Worship

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team, if you would come out. And so, this is what we're

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going to do over the next few weeks. We are going to

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begin to fix our eyes, we're gonna begin to consider,

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and we are gonna begin to behold the King of Kings. The

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King of Kings! We are gonna begin to behold the Good

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Shepherd. We are gonna begin to set our eyes on the

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Wonderful, Counselor. We are gonna begin to fix

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and lock into The light of the

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world. And the Prince of Peace.

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Over the next few weeks, we are going to begin to

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behold the Lamb of God

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who takes away the sins of the world. Guys, we

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are going for laser focus. We are going

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to start to clean up the rubble, trust the Lord

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with the ashes, and we're going to begin to press forward

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toward him to complete the assigned task

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that he has given us. You want to go there? You want to go there?

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Anybody just need some peace? Anybody just need to go,

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Lord, Lord, you are my peace?

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Says he himself is our peace. Yeah.

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The more you press into him. So,

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One thing has not changed— him.

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Another thing that hasn't

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changed is I want to worship

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with you. I want to worship anyway.

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I saw all you guys got the t-shirts now, but can you dance

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the dance? That's what I want to know. Will you worship

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anyway? Will you walk with us as we Link

Speaker: 00:34:41

arms as we begin to press forward into what God

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has called us to. We're going to take a minute here. Young people,

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young adults, everybody, would you come lead us in worship? We're going to worship

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for just a minute. Grown-ups, adults, you're not going to let them outdo you, are

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you? Throw down the gauntlet.

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Let's worship for a minute. Father, I thank you, Lord. We have a

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million reasons. We have a Amen. We have a million reasons

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to worship you. You are faithful, you are just, you are good,

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and you are not finished. So Father, we worship you

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and we bless you today in Jesus' name. Let's go, guys.