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That One Thing Holding You Back

Are fears and doubts holding you back from God's promises? Sometimes the "what" isn't the problem—it's the "who." Dive into overcoming unbelief today!

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We often ask ourselves what is holding us back in our spiritual journey. In this message, Pastor Justin suggests it may not be about a "what," but rather a "who"—specifically, ourselves succumbing to unbelief. He the experiences of biblical figures like Joseph and Moses to illustrate how setbacks can prepare us for a greater purpose.

Our doubts and fears may manifest as unbelief, hindering our growth. You’re invited to reassess not just what you believe, but who you believe holds the truth. By focusing on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith, we find courage to let go of doubts and to run the race set before us. Listen to gain clarity and strengthen your faith.

Prayer Targets

Please join us in prayer for:

  • A hunger for the Word.
  • Tears for the lost.
  • Testimonies to share.

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Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

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Transcript
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Thank you, sir. This is, like it's

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Friday night. Right? I have to keep reminding myself this is not

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Sunday morning. This is Friday night. I am so nervous

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right now. Like

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like, if you know me, you're like, Justin doesn't get nervous. And I'm like,

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I am so nervous. And it's Tammy Sweeney's fault. I promise

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you. Because Tammy Sweeney, the first time I was gonna

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ever speak on this stage, it was not even anything like I say it wasn't

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anything. I mean, it wasn't a message. It was like, I'm gonna, like, invite

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somebody for a cookout or do a tithe message or something. And

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I was like, I'm so nervous. And she said, I pray you never lose that.

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And I swear, look. And it has been like a decade

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and I'll be in the back going, oh, God. Like, oh, God. What is happening

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right now? And I'm so I'm like the most extroverted

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extrovert, and I'm back there in a panic every time. I don't know how

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to explain it other than, like, I care

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about the word of God, and I care about

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you guys, and I care about standing

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before the Lord and having to give an account for words

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that I spoke on his behalf. That's a kind of

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a big deal to me. Right? So it's no wonder why I'm back there

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like, please don't let me die. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me

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die. Be one of those moments like, yeah, well, you

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know what not to listen to if he died tonight.

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It'd be easy. You might you wouldn't have to do much weighing. You would be

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like, nope. Got it. We're good. Moving on.

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I'm just being honest. That's where I'm at right now. It's Friday night. Okay? And

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we're here at church at this conference. This is amazing. You guys have

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committed to this. You've given up your time. You've, you've

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been set apart for this time, and I believe that God does have a word

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for us tonight. And so I'm honored to share. Do we stand

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and read? Is it is it it's Friday? Let's stand, and let's

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read the word. I, got a lot of Bible

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tonight. You know, I feel like it's better than what I bring. So we're just

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gonna start with two verses now, and then you'll get to sit down as we

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read the rest. So if you could oh, I have it. Here we go. It's

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Friday, y'all. Therefore, since

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we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

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let us also lay aside every weight and

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sin which clings so closely, and let us

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run with endurance the race that is set before us,

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looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of

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our faith, who for the joy that was set before

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him endured the cross, despising the

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shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne

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of God. Oh, Jesus,

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help me tonight, and help us

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to hear clearly from you. We've come and gathered

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in this place to hear your word, and I pray that it would

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transform us radically more into the image of your son.

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Father, we love you. May your anointing rest on me tonight. In Christ's

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name, amen and amen. You can be seated, guys.

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Have you ever said to yourself something along the lines of,

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man, I'm just not where I wanna be in my walk?

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Have you ever done some self evaluation and been like, man, I'm

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making progress, but I feel like there's more, or I

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feel like I'm in a season where I'm just spinning my

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wheels, like I'm not making much progress. Right? And

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if you're anything like me, once you have that

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question released into the atmosphere, then

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you begin to self destruct and self reflect

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on all of the ways that you're probably not meeting up or making

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the mark. And I do wanna start by giving, an encouragement or

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hope to you guys that it is okay to be in progress.

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Okay? It is okay to be in progress.

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In fact, sometimes it is not a what it's holding

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you back, it is who is holding you back, and it's the archer himself. I

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was reminded this week of a teaching that Barbie did by

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arrows in the hands of the master archer.

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And in order for the arrow to fly, it has to first be

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drawn back. Are you hearing me? K?

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It has to be drawn back. And sometimes we feel like we're

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being held back and like we're not making much progress. God, I'm

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doing all the right things. I'm I'm praying all the prayers. I'm

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fasting. I'm I'm making the checklist items. I'm

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doing all the Christian things. I've confessed all known sin and I

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still feel like I'm being held back. But just like pastor Barbie

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said, remember the arrow is closest to the master's

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ear when it is drawn back. And the further it's drawn

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back, she reminded me this week, the farther that

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arrow flies. Isn't that amazing? So sometimes

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the setback is by design. We just walked through the

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greatest story, ever told about the story of Joseph,

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and every position in his life felt like a

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setback. Did it not? He's like,

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man, I'm doing great. God's given me dreams and visions.

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I'm gonna tell all my bros. And they're like, we hate you. We're going to

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kill you. Right? And he come out

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flexing his coat. He was like, look at what dad got for me. And I

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was like, we hate you. Right? And we're going to kill you. And then

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the one brother felt bad. He was like, we can't kill him. Right? Let's

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sell him. Like, that's it. He no. Help him.

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Help him. Right? You know what I'm saying? He was like, we can profit off

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of this, but and then I my conscience is cleared. So and then and then

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he goes and he sold, and he's in Potiphar's house. Right? And

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then and then it gets worse for him even there. Right?

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And then he's in prison, and then he's like, hey, I'll interpret this dream. Remember

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me when you get out. And the guy was like, if you've ever been to

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jail, they don't remember you when you get out. Put

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some money on my books. And like, I got you. I got you. And they

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don't they're not. They're not. Y'all were friends in jail.

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K? That's it. You were friends in jail. You got out. You might see him

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at a gas station, but, hey, man. Thanks for putting $20 on my

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account, bud. Right? No. Because y'all were friends in

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jail. It got worse for him. Right? But then he finally gets

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out, and then and then we find that even in the

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reconciliation with his brothers, Joseph said, hey. What you meant for

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evil, God meant for good. You see what I'm saying? And

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so his season of being held back, the

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things holding him back wasn't necessarily a what, it was a who. So

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sometimes be encouraged to be in progress.

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Okay? That doesn't give you permission to wallow,

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and complain and cry about your

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plight and your situation. Okay? Because

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there are stories of people in here who had it way worse

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and didn't complain about it, and they were in progress. And we're

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gonna look at some of those tonight.

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So the question of what's

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holding me back, God? Or why is this happening in

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my life? Or I I just wish I was further along. Those questions are

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not inherently wrong. I don't feel like it's wrong for us to

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ask those type of questions because we are trying to When

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we ask that question from a genuine place, what we're really trying to say is,

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God, I wanna keep growing. I wanna keep working. I wanna I feel

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like I wanna be holy like you were holy, not

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perfect. I don't wanna be perfect because then I find

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my righteousness in myself within my own

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body or within my own mind. But I wanna

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strive to be like you, Jesus. It's a good question. I feel like it's the

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wrong question. I feel like it's the wrong question or not necessarily the

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wrong question. Maybe it's not the right way to ask it.

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So here's what I wanna propose to you tonight. Do

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you believe? Do you believe?

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Do you believe? So chapter

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12 begins with a powerful directive

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and some very interesting phrases. Look at this twelve one.

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It says this. Therefore, since

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we, you and me,

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are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

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Let us also lay aside every

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weight and sin, which

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clings so closely. I really love the way the King James puts

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it. He says, which so easily entangles us.

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Whoo. What a phrase. The weight and sin that

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easily entangles us. Let us lay it

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aside and run with perseverance the race that is marked out for

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us. Isn't it interesting that the Holy

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Spirit chose to delineate weight

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and sin? Have you ever looked at that? He said,

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here's what I want you to do. I want you to lay aside the weight

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and the sin. They're two different things. I'm not gonna

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talk about sin tonight in your life because sin needs to

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be dealt with. Got

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real quiet on that one. Start talking about

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sin instead of a shortcoming, a habit, a

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struggle. We love that one. Struggling, bro.

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I probably said it this week. I got

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buddies in the back fact checking me on text message. Like, here you go. Screenshot

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this. Screenshot that. Post it on your Facebook, not mine.

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Don't tag me. I'm

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struggling, bro. Both the

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weight and the sin are to be laying aside. Why?

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Because they hinder our walk. There

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are things in our in our life that are holding us back and

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weighing us down that are not sin, and yet they are just

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as detrimental to our walk. The Holy Spirit

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knew this and knows that, and that's why he said, you have to

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lay them both aside because you can be walking

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with the Lord with a load of unforgiveness on your back

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and thinking you're making progress and wonder, what's

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holding me back? God, I'm

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not walking in sin, but you've got unforgiveness strapped to your

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back like a weight. You've

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got fear that rises up in your heart or insecurity,

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complacency, or this deep anger that if anybody

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micro crosses the line. Like, you're just wait, knock this pen

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off my shoulder. You know what I'm saying? Like,

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what? You know

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what I'm saying? That's a wait. Nobody wants to live like that.

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We're just always on edge ready to explode. And if you're

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around that type of person, it's

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misery because you're not free because you don't know

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when the next time they're gonna lose it. Could it be

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in the parking lot of church? Could it be at the grocery store?

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Could it be at home when nobody's around to hear you blowing up

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on them?

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Contentment. Contentment can be a wait.

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Failure can be a wait. And we're told

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to lay these aside. The Lord

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says, lay them aside, and

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he gives us the reason. The answer is

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therefore. When I read this passage, I'm like, you can't start a

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whole chapter with therefore. Because I'm

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like, what for? Right? Imagine

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look. Somebody just sends you by verse twelve one. This is

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the start. And you're like, what does that mean? Therefore.

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Right? Like, what are we talking about? How do I know? Whenever you

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run into that English word therefore, that means you need to go back to what

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there was before that. You hearing me? It in

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order to understand what because this is the conclusion.

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He's saying there are things that you need to understand so that when you

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get here, you can recognize the weight and how to lay it

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aside. Go back eleven

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thirty nine through 40. Do I have it? Boom.

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And all these, another mysterious sentence. Like,

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I'm reading the Bible the wrong direction. I started in twelve and I'm

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like, I don't know where I'm at now. Like, I keep

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going back. And all these,

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who? Though commended through their faith, did not

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receive what was promised since God had

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provided something better for us that apart from us they should not be

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made perfect. All who was committed for

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their faith? I was like, I gotta figure this out. So I flipped back until

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I got a correct grammatical sentence And

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I had to go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 11. I

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went the wrong way. See, I don't even know which way I'm going anymore.

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And this is what it says in eleven one. Now,

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currently, faith is the assurance of things hoped

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for, the evidence or conviction of things

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not seen. Faith is the assurance

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of what we are hoping for and is the tangible

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substance, the evidence, the conviction, that deep I know that

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I know that I know that I know that I know

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of things that are unseen. You walked by faith the

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whole night. When y'all went into there, how did you know that we

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didn't poison the food?

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How did we didn't, by the way, but how did

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you know how did you know? How did you know?

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By faith, you trust it. Right? You're like, this is it's a church

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that I go to. Surely, there's not arsenic in the fajitas.

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Right? That's laugh all you want, that's

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faith. You sat down. You didn't think nothing about that chair

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holding you up, did you? You just sat down.

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Some of you sat down ten minutes early, but you sat down in

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faith. Then we

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read on. Says, by faith,

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Abel offered to God a more acceptable

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sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended

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as righteous, God commending him by accepting his

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gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still

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speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not

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see death, and he was not found because God had taken

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him. Now before he was taken, he was commended

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as having pleased God.

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Then in seven and eight. Now by faith,

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Noah, being warned by God concerning events

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as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed

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an art for the saving of his household? Build a boat. What's a

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boat? Can

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you can you trust God

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when what he's asking you to do doesn't make sense?

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Does it make sense when you can't logically put all the pieces

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together and figure out how you're gonna do it?

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By faith, Sarah herself received power to

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conceive even when she was past the age since she

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considered him faithful who had promised. You're gonna have a baby,

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and you are way past baby having age.

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I didn't mean for my eyes to fall on you.

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I feel so bad now. I should probably close.

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You're not way past baby making stage. Okay?

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Jesus help me, God. She's pregnant. Yeah. I know. I just blew it up. I'm

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sorry. It was on Facebook. It was on Facebook. If you put it on Facebook,

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it's out there.

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By faith. By faith. Abraham,

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when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the

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promises was in the act of offering up his only

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son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your

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offspring be named. He considered the

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Jacob and Esau. Abraham was willing to go through with what God had asked him,

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because Abraham was willing to go through with what God had asked

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him because he said, even if I do kill him, God, you can bring him

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back. What? What?

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What kind of faith is that?

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By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of

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the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his

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staff. By faith, Joseph at the end of his life made

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mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions

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concerning his bones. He said, when y'all leave this

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place, take me with you and bury

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me in the same cave you buried my fathers in.

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And he believed that they would do it. By

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faith, Moses listen to this. I'm

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just reading the Bible. I'm not even preaching. Like, this is the Bible. I was

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sharing I shared this with my wife, two days ago. I was like, babe,

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listen to this. And she didn't know I was reading Bible verse.

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And, she said, yeah. But how do they know that that's

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what really he was thinking? I said, it's in the Bible.

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And she was folding laundry. She was like, well, okay. Then then alright.

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I swear. I swear. I was like, babe, look. I'm reading right out of the

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Bible. And she was like, well, then keep reading.

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Look at this. By faith, Moses, when he was

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grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's

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daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of

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God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of

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sin. Period. Have you made a

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decision to be mistreated with the people of God or have

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you made a decision to embrace the passing

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fleeting pleasures of sin? This verse tells us sin is

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pleasurable, but it's fleeting. It's not sustainable.

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It doesn't give you life. He can

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he considered the reproach of Christ greater

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wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was

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looking to the reward.

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Come on, Moses.

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By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for

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he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the

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Passover, sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer

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of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the

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people cross the Red Sea is on dry land, but the Egyptians when

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they attempted to do so were drowned. By faith, the

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walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for

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seven days. By faith, Rahab the prostitute

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did not perish with those who were being disobedient because

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she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And

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what more shall I say? For time would fail me to

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tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of

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David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith

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conquered kingdoms, enforced justice,

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obtained promises, stopped the mouths of

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lions, quenched the power of fire,

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escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness,

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became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

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Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were

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tortured, refusing to accept release so that they

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might rise again to a better life.

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Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and

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imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. And

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when I tell you they were sawn in two, not this way.

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This way. They were killed with the

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sword. They went about in skins of sheep and

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goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of

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whom the world was not worthy.

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These are unnamed people who suffer for the kingdom,

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and the writer of Hebrews says the world was not worthy of them.

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Wandering about in deserts, mountains, in dens, and caves of the

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earth, And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what

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was promised. Since God had provided something better for us, that

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apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Basically,

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he's saying, they won't receive the full recompense for the reward

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until we're all there together.

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The what that we're supposed to do is lay aside the weight and the sin.

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The why is because we're surrounded by such a great cloud of

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witnesses. The how is by looking unto Jesus.

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The way that you lay aside the weight and sin is by

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looking unto Jesus, the author and

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perfecter of our faith for the joy that was set before

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him endured the cross, despising its shame,

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and he sat down at the right hand of the father. So I'm gonna ask

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you again, what's holding you back? What's holding me back?

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What's holding us back? And I'm gonna tell you guys, it's

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the same thing that's holding every one of us back.

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It's unbelief. We

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just read story after story of people who live

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lives of incredible faith. The

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one thing that's holding us all back is unbelief.

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Now it manifests itself in different ways. It's

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not fear. It's unbelief. Fear says, I'm

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afraid I'll fail or that you won't catch me.

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You don't really believe that he is who he said he is.

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You don't believe that he's gonna catch you if you fall, and you don't believe

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that it's okay if you do fall. Some of them

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didn't see the and time would

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I wish I had the writer got so fired up telling

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stories, and he was like, I wish I had time. He must have been on

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a Sunday. Look. He was like, it's 07:44. I wish I had

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time. I'm just gonna tell you about

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the type of people they were. It's not anger.

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It's unbelief. Anger says my way is better.

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My way is better. It's not complacency. Complacency

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says if I step out I might fail, so why not stay where I'm at?

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You don't believe. It's unbelief.

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It's not insecurity. Insecurity says, I believe what the world

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says, not what you say, lord. It's not contentment. Contentment

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says, I'm good with god. We have an understanding. I don't need to

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grow.

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Me and God are good. We gotta He knows that I like this tree stand

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on Sundays.

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So he did it now or whatever. Fill in the blank. That's not a shot

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at my dad or any of the other guy. I

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swear I've never Listen, I I promise dad, listen. He just bought a

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brand new convertible. Dad, it's not about you. It's not

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failure, it's unbelief. Failure says I've screwed up so many times, why should I

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try again? And here's the thing, guys.

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What if he doesn't come through in the way you expected him to? Is he

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still good? What about them three Hebrew boys?

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Right? Y'all like to call him Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

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but I refuse to call them by their slave names. If Daniel

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don't go by Belshazzar, then

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then we are gonna I'm bringing back justice for Hananiah, Azariah,

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and Mishael. K? Bring it back.

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No. That It's either Belshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and

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Abednego, or it's Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and

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Mishael. You can't have both. I'm bucking. I'm

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bucking. It's in there. K? And let let me just say a

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disclaimer. I may have mixed up who is who, but those

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so so Shadrach may not be Hannah. I gotta look at that. Just

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disclaimer. Don't be like, man, that's not who they is. That's their names.

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Go look it up. But look what they said. They said,

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listen, they're gonna throw you in the fire. They're gonna throw you in this furnace.

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And they said, throw us in it. We're still not gonna

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bow because we believe we believe that god

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can rescue us. And even if he does not, He's still

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good. What about when He doesn't answer that prayer in the way you've been

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expected? Can you see?

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Unbelief is what's holding us back. We either don't believe He

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can do it, or He will do it, or if He doesn't do it, then

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He's still good. And some of us have gotten a hard

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heart towards God because your mom died.

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The baby died. The cancer didn't get healed. Now

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we're hard against God. And then

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we blame him because we feel like we're being held back and say, God, I'm

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not holding you back. You're holding yourself back because you don't believe I am

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who I said I am. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Abraham, son of promise. Isaac, son of promise. Jacob's a trickster.

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He didn't say to God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. When

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you were still pulling tricks, I was still that same God. When you were

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still playing games around here, I was still good and I'm

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still God. I

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sat up here on Christmas and cried about a pardon. It wasn't gonna

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happen. Right? Sat up here and cried, God, it's not

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gonna happen, guys. I got thirty thirty minutes before the governor goes home

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for the year. I did.

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I was crying. I was like and y'all watched me come to to

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Jesus in real time. Y'all literally could see it happen. He was like, he's

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okay with it. I had to get to a place where I was okay with

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it. Because I knew, because I talked to the governor personally, and he

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said, I only do it in December. I'm like, it's the twenty first,

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and Christmas is the twenty fifth. He is not sticking around.

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But I had committed in my heart that even if it don't happen, He's still

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good. If I gotta wait another year, another ten years if it don't happen. I've

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been set free. I've been set free. I don't need I don't

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need man's approval because I've been approved by God.

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Do you believe? If you can really believe that, you're not holding you back.

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Nothing's holding you back. We have a tendency to go, well,

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is it this? Is it that? Is that? It's all some level of unbelief,

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whether it's 2% or 20%, or

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200%. There is some level of unbelief in your

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heart that is holding you back in a situation or an area for

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believing that God is who He says He is and He can do what He

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said He's gonna do, and that even if He doesn't, He's still good.

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What about when you when you're hiding in a cave or you're

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sawn in two? Though he slay me.

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Many of us have no problem believing for somebody else.

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I ain't got no problem agreeing with Barbie,

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but I don't believe that God will do it for me. You look at the

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powerful testimonies, the exotic testimonies. I coined that phrase,

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by the way, just just so y'all know.

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Had to turn it around, make it by me at some point. Right?

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Ain't that what we do anytime we get out? You

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can be walking right there. It don't take but one slip step, and you're right

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back in your flesh. Right?

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Do I believe that He's enough? Do I believe the Word's enough? Do I believe

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I can just get up here and read Scriptures to you, and that's enough to

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feed you? I gotta add a whole bunch of things to entertain

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you, and tickle your ears, and make you be like, Justin's so smart. That's such

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a great word. I laugh so much. I feel so good. Or can I give

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you the word of God? It'd be enough. Can it be enough

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for you?

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In Mark chapter nine, we read a

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story about a little boy

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with unclean spirit or a demon in him, and they're

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explaining the situation to Jesus. They're explaining

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what's happening to Jesus, and and this is

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his response. He calls them a faithless generation.

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It sounds like a rebuke, but it it is a

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rebuke. A faithless

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generation. They're like, Jesus, this this boy, he's been this way his whole

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life. He said how long am I to be with you? How am I

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long Bring him bring him to me. You don't

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believe? Bring him to me because I believe because I know what my father can

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do. And then Jesus asked the father

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how long this condition has afflicted the boy. And if he believes

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that Jesus can help and the guy I love, it's such a human response to

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God's like, I guess, like, come back and read it. It's mark chapter nine. The

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guy was like, Jesus, like, do you think I can do this?

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Do you do you believe that I can do this? And the guy says,

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I mean, I guess you can. Is

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that is that our our interaction when we come to the Lord? When

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God says, do you, do you believe I can do this, Kevin? Do you believe

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that I can do this miracle in your life? Do you believe that I see

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this small prayer request you're asking for? Do you believe that I hear this

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prayer for your daughters? Do you believe that I see the tears

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that you saw in this altar when it's a Saturday night and nobody's in

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here, but you praying over the word trying to say, is this what

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you have for your people, God? Because I care so much. I wanna honor you

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and I wanna give the people that you've entrusted me to. He says, Kevin, do

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you believe that I hear you? Do you believe that I see?

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And the guy says, I guess. And then what we do sometimes,

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God's like, do you do you think I see you, Cole? Do you

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believe me? Do you believe? I'm just

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asking, I'm not asking you anything else, but do you believe

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that I can do this? And the

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guy says, I guess.

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And Jesus tells him in '23, if you

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can, if I can, all

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things are possible for the one who believes. And I love this

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response from this dad whose boy has been afflicted

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his whole life. He says,

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immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I

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believe help my unbelief. I do

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believe God, God, but there's a part of me that's got unbelief.

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At the end of the day, I know there's a part of me that says,

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yeah, but but will you really come through for me?

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Will you really see my situation? Do you

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really hear my prayers? Do you really see my

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fears and my insecurity and the complacency that's going on in

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life? And and he's saying, yes. All things are possible

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to anyone who believes. It's not

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fear. It's not insecurity. It's not complacency. Those are

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the ways that unbelief manifests itself in our lives.

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So as we enter in this time of worship, I want you to

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reflect, and I want you to ask this question.

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Do you believe?

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And then I want this response. If it's true and genuine, then say to

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the Lord, I believe. Help

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my unbelief.

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Let's worship, church.

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