God With Us In the Waiting...

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- Good morning.

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You guys get all that?

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All that?

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Is one of my favorite quotes of all time

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by coach Jim Valvano.

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He says, "If you laugh, you think and you cry,

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that's a good day."

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That's a heck of a day.

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You put that together over seven days

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and you got something special.

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So this morning we're gonna laugh

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and we're gonna think and we're gonna cry.

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I got my Bible just in case.

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I got a lid on my water just in case.

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And I put fresh batteries in here this morning,

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just in case.

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So whatever happens today, we're gonna get this word, okay?

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If you're able to stand, if you would please stand with me,

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we're gonna go ahead and get right into this.

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We're gonna be reading out of Romans chapter eight.

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This is verses 18 through 23.

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There is one word in there I struggle with.

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I'm Southern.

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If you pick it up, just forgive me, okay?

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So we're gonna be reading this morning.

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Are we ready?

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We got it.

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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

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are not worth comparing with the glory

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that is to be revealed to us.

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For the creation waits with eager longing

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for the revealing of the sons of God.

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For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,

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but because of him who subjected it in hope.

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That the creation itself will be set free

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from its bondage to corruption

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and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

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For we know that the whole creation

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has been groaning together

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in the pains of childbirth until now.

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And not only the creation, but we ourselves

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who have the first fruits of the spirit

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groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons,

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the redemption of our bodies.

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Father, I thank you so much for your word.

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I thank you for the life that it brings.

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God, I ask that your anointing would be upon me today,

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that the hearts of your people

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would be open to an encounter with you,

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that we would leave your chains

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and transformed more into the image of your son, Jesus,

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through the power of the Holy Ghost.

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It's in Christ's precious and matchless name that I pray.

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Amen and amen.

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You guys can be seated.

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This is the third week of Advent.

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And in case you have forgotten

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or you haven't been with us for this series,

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I'm gonna move this a little bit closer.

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Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

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Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

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And it simply means coming.

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The word Advent means coming.

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And the tradition of Advent has been waiting

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for the Messiah to arrive.

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And for us, we await his return, the second coming.

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In Advent one, we explored some of the prophecies

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concerning Jesus and his coming

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and the importance of prophecy itself.

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And we also discussed what we can learn from prophecy.

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So when we examine the scriptures

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and we see how Jesus fulfilled every single prophecy

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concerning the Messiah, we can learn two things.

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And one is this, there is no link that God will not go to

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to have his family restored into him.

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He who spared not his own son, his only begotten son.

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Okay?

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There is no link God will not go to

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to have his family restored back to him.

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And two, the second thing is the prophecies

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that were fulfilled are proof

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that we can trust him and his word.

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We can trust him and his word.

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These things are the bane of my existence

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for glasses wear just FYI.

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Okay?

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The word tells us that if a prophet gives a prophecy

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that doesn't come true, that person's not a prophet.

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And Jesus fulfilled every prophecy concerning him.

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That means we can trust the word of God.

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We can trust him.

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The Bible foretold of one who would be called Emmanuel,

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God with us.

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And today we're gonna explore God with us in the waiting

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and how we are to wait.

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So let's look back at this verse,

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this passage that we began with.

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Paul says in Romans eight, chapter eight, verse 18,

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"For I considered that the sufferings of this present time

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are not worth comparing with the glory

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that is to be revealed to us."

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Paul is not ignorant or blind to the sufferings

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of human existence, but he does realize

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that the future glory far outweighs the present sufferings.

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Are you hearing me?

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The future glory far outweighs the present sufferings.

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This is fully confirmed in the person of Jesus Christ,

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who for the joy set before him,

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endured the cross, despising its shame

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and is sat down at the right hand of the father.

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So what that passage says is there was a fixed point

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for Jesus that allowed him to endure the cross.

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The joy that was set before him.

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You know what that joy was?

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Having his family restored, the bondage and the yoke

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and the destruction of sin no longer had its power over us.

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Death, where is your victory?

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Death, where is your sting?

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It is no more because Jesus Christ beat death

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when he died and rose.

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It wasn't just that he died, it was that he rose

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and everything hinges on that resurrection.

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But it was for the joy that was set before him.

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There was something ahead of him

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that allowed him to endure that.

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And then he says, he goes on to say this,

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"For the creation waits with eager longing

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for the revealing of the sons of God."

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Whenever you run across the phrase sons of God

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in scripture, (speaking in foreign language)

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it means one of two things, either the angelic host,

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the sons of God, the elder race, our elder siblings

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or it means us, the sons of God, man and woman.

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Creation waits with eager longing.

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You know another word for that?

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Expectation.

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Creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

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For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,

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but because of him who subjected it in hope.

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Then he goes on to say this,

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"That creation itself will be set free

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from its bondage to corruption

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and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

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For we know that the whole creation

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has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth

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until now."

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Notice he didn't say death pains.

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He said birth pains.

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That's a different type of pain.

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They're both very painful,

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but one has to be endured for life to come forward.

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Are you hearing me?

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And creation is groaning in a birth pain way

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that, ah, this travail, we're waiting.

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God, it's a terrible place, terrible atrocities are happening.

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People are doing evil.

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We're sinning, we're committing,

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we're turning away from you.

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We're creating idols.

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We're following false gods.

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God, we're waiting on you,

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but we're not waiting without expectation

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because we have a hope in Jesus.

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So we're waiting that that joy will be produced in the child.

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Who else do we think of having birth pains during this time?

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Look, dude, it is Christmas,

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and that is like, Jesus, help us, God.

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You know what?

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First gathering is a little bit smaller,

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and I would have thought y'all would have had it together.

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Who do we think of having childbirth during this time?

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Mary, come on.

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Can you imagine what Mary's waiting must have looked like?

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Can you imagine what Mary's waiting must have looked like?

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Mary, the mother of Jesus,

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would experience nine months of complete change.

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Everything in her world would change.

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Her reputation would change.

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You guys realize this is a young girl who's a virgin,

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and she now has to explain how she is pregnant.

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Mary, I was born in the morning, but it wasn't this one, okay?

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So pregnant with the Holy Ghost?

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Sure.

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Think about, think about logically, think about this.

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You're in that community, and this girl says,

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hey, I'm pregnant, and I'm gonna have the Messiah,

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and I'm still a virgin.

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All right, come on, dude.

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Think logically.

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The gossip and the murmur that would have went on

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in her community, even her, the man she was betrothed to

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said, I can't do this, God.

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What am I gonna tell people?

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I don't, I believe her, but I don't believe her.

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He had to send a messenger to say, listen,

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I know what it looks like on the outside,

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but can you trust me?

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Have you ever been in a situation where the optics are bad?

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It looks terrible.

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And God's saying, hey, man, I know what it looks like,

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but you just gotta trust me in this situation.

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Are you hearing me?

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Are you hearing me?

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That's what he told Joseph.

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Look, I know it looks bad, but can you not go off

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what you're hearing other people say?

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Can you move and operate based on what I'm telling you

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and what I know to be true?

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How many of us are being moved and swayed

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by somebody else's opinion of our life

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instead of what God is telling us to do?

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As much as we try to affect it by it,

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to not be affected by it, deep down,

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most of us care what other people think.

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I have shared for years, Fred does no longer,

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he informed me at the first gathering,

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I told him the truth.

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He no longer cares what people think,

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but there was a time where he did.

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We all care what people think at some point in our lives.

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You know how I know?

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You all got dressed up this morning for church.

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I don't know.

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I told my wife this other day, I saw this somewhere.

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I don't know if people wearing pajamas in public

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have given up on life or are living their best life.

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Don't know.

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I don't know.

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That's almost both, right?

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Have you given up completely or do you just, you don't care?

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I don't care.

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I don't care.

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Nobody wants a poor reputation.

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Does anybody in here want a poor reputation?

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Reputation rehabilitation is one of the hardest things

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I've ever done in my life.

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You can ruin in a moment

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what will take you decades to repair.

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And the people will say, man, you gave us evidence.

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Now I want to see fruit of the change.

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We saw what you did.

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Now we want to see fruit in your life.

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Sometimes you got to get to a place where you're like,

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it doesn't matter.

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Or if you have been guilty of destroying a reputation

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like I have, you have to adopt a mindset,

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whatever it takes for however long it takes.

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'Cause you can't put a timeframe

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on somebody else's healing.

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It's been six months.

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You should be over that by now.

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What?

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Okay.

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See how far that gets you, big boy.

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Mary's physical condition would change.

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Most of the time, I say most,

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you know when somebody's pregnant.

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And if you, and if not, do not assume.

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I'm just giving you some sage advice here, guys.

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Don't assume somebody's pregnant.

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If you think it, don't.

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Unless they give you just drop some real good context clues.

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Don't ask.

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I've been in some real awkward side conversations

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where, but how far along are you?

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I'm not pregnant.

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You just got to get out of this room right now.

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I've been a fly on the wall to those like, golly.

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When my wife was pregnant, I have eight kids.

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I've only seen her pregnant one time.

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That's a, for all you new guys, that's a long story.

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We ain't got time.

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I wish I had time.

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I ain't got no time.

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I don't have the time, I swear.

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When my wife was pregnant, man,

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I don't know if pheromones are real.

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I don't know what it was, but I was like, my God,

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you look amazing.

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She's like, I'm a idiot.

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Leave me alone.

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And I would follow her around the house

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and she'd be like, stop, what are you doing?

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And I was like, you are just so beautiful.

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You're so cute.

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I don't know what it was, but the pregnant-er she got,

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the more attractive she was to me,

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there was a beauty in it.

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You know why though?

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You know why it was beautiful?

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Because I could see,

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I could see her making room for something to grow.

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And although she didn't feel good,

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it didn't feel good.

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She didn't like her body moving and changing like that.

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She was making room.

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She was accommodating new life inside of her.

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Mary's body had to make room for the Christ.

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And there are some of us that have not made room

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for Jesus in our life.

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You're okay with this much prayer.

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You're okay with getting scriptures on Sunday

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when I put them up there.

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You're okay with the meager amount

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you're sharing with others,

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although God has blessed you tremendously.

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We've not made room for Christ to grow in our lives.

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There are some creatures on this planet that have shells

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and they know when it's time to grow,

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when they bump up against that shell.

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And if they never get out of that shell,

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shed it, move on and get a new one, they'll never grow.

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They'll stay where they're at.

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And I don't wanna stay where I'm at.

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I'm bumping up against this shell

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and I gotta make room for God to do something in my life.

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Her mindset had to change.

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She went from a young girl who's gonna be betrothed.

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Are you hearing me?

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Look, follow the story.

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Young girl betrothed.

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Now here's this unexplainable situation.

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I'm pregnant.

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People are talking.

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He wants to leave.

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Oh, and by the way, it's the Messiah.

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No pressure there, mother of Jesus, right?

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And she had to go from young girl about to be married

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to young mom about to be married.

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And then nesting is a real thing.

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I call it a syndrome.

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No, I call Mama Bear syndrome in the first gathering.

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Mama Bear is not a syndrome,

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but there's an innate thing in mothers that they will go,

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go ahead and get between a bear and its cubs.

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Ruin your day.

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I saw a bear and its cubs a couple of weeks ago,

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about a week ago.

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And I was so nervous to unload my truck

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to get into the cabin because that mama had cubs with it.

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I wasn't worried about the big guy.

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I kind of, one of my toxic traits is

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I think I could probably take a small black bear.

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I've been working out.

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I feel like, you know, maybe.

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(congregation laughing)

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Ask my wife, we had this conversation I talked about.

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So I'd probably take him.

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He's not that big.

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And then I saw the cubs and I was like, absolutely not.

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They gonna rip my head off.

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Right?

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But that doesn't happen if you're not,

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people say you won't know until you have a kid.

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Has anybody ever said that to you?

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Like, that doesn't mean I don't love you.

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Won't know until you have a kid, man.

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And then you have one and something happens inside of you

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and you say, I don't even know you.

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And I would die for you.

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I'll give my life for you.

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But more so than dying for somebody,

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are you willing to live for somebody?

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Are you willing to put down your desires?

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Are you willing to push back all the things and dreams

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and hopes that you have in order to walk into calling

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that God's asking you to do,

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in order to step up for somebody else?

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Her mindset had to change and unconditional love.

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But here's the thing.

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Mary could not be a bystander to the process.

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She had to be submitted to it.

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And when Mary was informed of what was about to transpire,

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what was her response?

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Look at this, this is Luke 1 38.

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Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

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Let it be to me according to your word."

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She said yes before she knew what it would cost her.

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She didn't have the blueprint and say,

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well, let me think about this if it makes sense,

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if my investment of time and energy and love

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and affection is gonna be worth it.

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You don't go into it,

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you shouldn't go into a relationship or a friendship

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and be like, man, two years from now,

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me and James, we're not gonna be that tight,

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so I'm not even gonna invest in you, right?

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I say, yes, I'm gonna love you with everything I got upfront

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before I know what's gonna transpire.

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Mary's yes was out there upfront

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before she knew what it would cost her.

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Mary was expecting.

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Did you catch that?

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She was expecting and was being transformed

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by the expectation.

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Expectation is defined as a strong belief

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that something will happen.

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Are we transformed in the waiting?

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No, we're transformed by the expectation.

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We're altered by hope and hope of a promise fulfilled.

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This is what Proverbs says,

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hope deferred makes a heart sick,

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but a desire fulfilled, a longing fulfilled

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is a tree of life.

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Every time I read about the tree of life in scriptures,

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I read about it in one place, in Eden, in paradise,

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in the Father's house.

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And so what this tells me is that when your hopes

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and your expectations are dashed, it can crush you.

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But when your hope is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

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It puts you in a right position, a great heart posture

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with you and the Father like it was supposed to have been.

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It's akin to being in right relationship with the Lord.

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Pastor Barbie Laughlin says this about expectation.

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Everyone is capable of waiting though most do not enjoy it,

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but not all purpose in their hearts to shift

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into a mindset of expectation.

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Everyone is capable of standing here with their hands

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in their pockets, waiting on Jesus to come back.

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But that's not what we're called to do.

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Expectation is different than waiting.

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Are you hearing me?

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Expectation offers us a few things.

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The first thing it offers us is the relief of hope

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that a promise will be fulfilled.

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These prophecies that were given were something

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that the people could hold onto.

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It was something tangible that they could look for.

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It was something set out in front of them

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that they could say, all right, I'm looking for something.

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I'm looking for something.

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I'm looking for something.

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Gives me hope.

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The peace of vision, the joy that is set before us, right?

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If I really believe that Christ died and then he rose

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and he ascended to the right hand of the Father

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and that what he said is true, he said,

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hey, I'm going to make a place

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and I'm coming back to get you.

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That's a joy that is set before me

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so that I know whether I get to see him come back

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or I cross over Jordan and help finish

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what he's doing right now for you or for my grandchildren,

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that joy is set before me and it allows me

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to endure everything I'm walking through now,

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everything that we're walking through.

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If we have no hope, if we have no expectation

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that he will make it right someday, then what is the point?

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You lose heart.

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You don't have the strength to carry on.

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Why?

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Because hope deferred makes the heart sick.

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It also gives us the glory of glimpses,

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ways that we see his goodness.

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Most of this I see right here happens in my life

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in hindsight.

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I get glimpses of what God is doing after the fact.

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Do you know most of the time you get what you need

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after you realize you needed it?

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And you look back and you see ways

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that God sustained you through it

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and I can look back at my life and go,

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oh man, this is where you carried me here.

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This is where you helped me there.

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This is where you protected me here.

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This is where you protected them from me.

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This is where when my life was going off the rails,

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you didn't cause trauma in this person.

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Do you realize that God can grace us in so many ways?

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And it's not just all about me, me, me.

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I have to realize that God has protected some of you from me

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'cause sometimes I don't know what it's like

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to be on the other side of myself.

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I don't know what it's like to be wounded by me.

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I have to ask my leadership team sometimes,

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hey, what's it like to be on the other side of me?

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Am I hard?

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Absolutely, you talk terrible to us.

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I'm like, no, I do not.

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And they're like, read the text thread.

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I'm like, man.

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Yeah.

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But he gives us hindsight, man.

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Athletes watch film, right?

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So they can go back and you're like,

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oh, I see what I did there, man.

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I should have, I digged when I should have zagged, right?

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God gives us those same glimpses

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and it's usually in hindsight

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and allows us to change and correct course

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as we move forward.

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The excitement of reminders,

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staying grounded in the little things, man.

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You ever having a bad day

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and you just get a text out of nowhere,

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a phone call out of nowhere?

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My buddy Jared called me the other day.

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I was like, what are you doing?

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He's like, I'm driving down the road.

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And I like to think about people that I can call

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while I'm driving down the road.

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And you came to mind, I'm like, I needed an encouragement.

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'Cause I'm putting up a cabinet right now

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and it is frustrating me and I needed that.

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Whatever you're putting up a cabinet is,

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God sends people into your life, right?

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Or he'll send, I don't know how he does it,

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but he finds a way to do it.

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He's always on time and we get those little reminders

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and it helps us to stay grounded

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because it's easy to get distracted.

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That's why they put those little things on horses

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when they're racing, right?

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So they stay dialed in.

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And these glimpses of God's goodness help keep us dialed in.

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Why?

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Because there is a joy that is set before us.

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There's something out in front of us.

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And then the small revelations and manifestations

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of what has come, what is to come,

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you find those in the Word.

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So if you ain't in the Word,

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you're not gonna know what to look for.

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And that's all I'll say about that.

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Hebrews 11, one.