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The Vine and the Branches

Discover how the Holy Spirit empowers your walk with God, making it possible to remain faithful and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Learn the difference between following Jesus through self-effort versus full surrender, and how the Holy Spirit guides, strengthens, and sustains you daily.

Scriptures Referenced

Ezekiel 36:26-27; Matthew 22:34-40; John 13:35, 14:15-21, 15:12-13, 16:12-14a; Acts 1:8; Galatians 5:22-23, 5:16

Key Insights

  1. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force or feeling.
  2. You need the Holy Spirit to sustain your faith in following Jesus.
  3. Remaining faithful isn’t about trying harder but surrendering to the Holy Spirit.
  4. Love is a fruit of the Spirit and reflects how we point others to Jesus.
  5. The Holy Spirit helps you hear God’s voice and make discerning decisions.
  6. Christianity isn’t self-improvement; it’s full surrender through the Spirit.
  7. The Holy Spirit’s role is to guide, strengthen, and counsel you daily.

https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/the-vine-and-the-branches

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Gathering Times

  • Sundays, 9:00 AM
  • Sundays, 11:00 AM
  • Thursdays, 6:00 PM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

CCLI License 2070006

Transcript
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Good morning, Springhouse. I am glad that you are

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here this morning. If you are new to Springhouse Church, my

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name is Kevin and I serve as the lead pastor here, and it's my joy

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to welcome you. I'd love to shake your hand after the gathering today.

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Thank you, guys. For those who are giving and coming, we do use these

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resources to help those who are in need. A couple of announcements this morning before

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we get rolling along. Well, I say before we get rolling, but, boy,

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y' all came prepared to have church today, and I'm thankful for the

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Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit in his presence. First

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of all, if you have the capacity, I invite you, I encourage

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you to come on Thursday night to our midweek gathering. Pastor

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Barbee has now done two sessions that have been just rich

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and full, and you can catch those online if you

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were not here. But if you have the capacity to come on

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Thursday nights, I invite you to do so. I promise you will not regret

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it. We are doing, Rabbi, the words of the teacher. And,

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man, it's just been incredible. So come and be a part of that on midweek,

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6 o' clock to 7 o'. Clock. We have children's ministry and youth ministry available

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during that time. And then next Sunday, I hear there's a chili cook

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off. And, you know, we want to invite

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you to be a part of this. Angie Beshears was the winner last time, and

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I think she's planning on continuing to hold that title.

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But see, here's the. But here's the deal. If you come, it means you're bringing

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chili. If you come, you're planning to bring

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something as well, right? So you're bringing chili. If you go and be a part

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of this. Okay? So come. You don't have to participate in the contest, but you

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do have to bring some chili. Okay? If you're gonna be a part of this

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next Sunday in the fellowship hall immediately following this gathering,

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we invite you to be a part of that. So we are

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continuing our series Abide you guys keep coming back

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for more. Praise the Lord. He's stepping on my toes, and

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I pray that in a real wonderful way, he's stepping on yours as well.

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Because when we change, we become like Jesus. When we

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change, we become like Jesus. And man, I'll tell you, I don't look a whole

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lot like Jesus. And I want to look more like him today, tomorrow, and the

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next day. And so we're going to continue down this road. And man,

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I just apologize ahead of time if I offend you. I pray that. That you

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would continue to make this your church home. But boy, we just

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wanna come from the truth of God's word and all grow. Amen. So we're

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continuing down the road of abide. And we've been in John 15 and

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we're gonna spend some time in John 15 this year. But we're going to see

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what Jesus does in the setup of us getting to John 15

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today by going back one chapter to John 14. Because Jesus

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does have some things to say that sets us up for the principle of abide.

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So if you'll stand with me and everybody say the word.

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Okay, Holy Spirit, espresso this morning. Let's really read with some

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gusto and some strength this morning, loudly the word of God.

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Here we go. If you love me, keep my

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commands and I will ask the Father and he

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will give you another helper to be with you and

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be with you forever. The Spirit of truth.

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The world cannot accept him because it neither sees

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him nor knows Him. But you know Him. For he

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lives in you and with you and will be in you. I messed that

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up. I will not leave you as orphans. I will

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come to you. Before long, the world will not see

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me anymore, but you will see me because I

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live. You also will live. On that

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day you will realize that I am in my Father

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and you are in Me. And I am in you.

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Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one

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who loves me. The one who loves me will be

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loved by my Father. And I too will love them

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and show myself to them. And one more from the book of Galatians.

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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

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peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

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gentleness and self control. Father, I thank you that your Word is

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alive and active today. I pray for the conviction of your Holy

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Spirit. I pray, Lord, today that you would change our

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hearts and we would look more like you leaving this place than we came. Let

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the words that are mine, that are meaningless, fall to the ground. And let everything

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you have for us stick for eternity. Thank you for the privilege to sit under

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your Word today in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Amen. You may

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be seated in the presence of the Lord. So

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we're continuing down the series

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here of. Of abide. Of abide. Abiding

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in Jesus. Abiding in Jesus.

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We started a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, rather,

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with this understanding that there's some

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foundational work that we need to cover some ground we need to

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cover to really put us in a place to really understand and

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dissect what it is to abide in Christ, to remain in

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Christ. And so we started from the standpoint which I think

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is a very good standpoint point for every Christian is that you

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belong to a kingdom and you have a king. You belong

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to a kingdom and you have a king. And might I suggest this

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morning, he is not a king because you say he's a king. He's a

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king because he's a king. He's a king because he's a king.

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And you belong to this kingdom, you belong to his kingdom,

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which means that as your king, he has given the

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right to rule and reign over your life, which means that

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this is not a democracy on the throne. We don't

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have a voice in it. He is the king that rules and reigns from his

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throne. And he is sovereign and he is good. He is good.

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Regardless of what you think, regardless of what you say, regardless of what you believe,

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regardless of your circumstances, I'm here to tell you this morning that

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God is God and he is a king. He is a king.

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He's the God of the universe. So we belong to this

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kingdom. And what we did is we looked back at

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the Old Testament and we looked at God's people, Israel, and.

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And we looked in Jeremiah how Israel was exiled into Babylon.

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And in this exile, God did not say, I'm just gonna deliver you, I'm gonna

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free you. I'm gonna set you free, or I'm going to rescue you. He didn't

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say that to them. That's what the false prophet said. But what God's word was

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stay. I want you to stay planted. I want you to build houses, I want

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you to marry. I want you to do your life. And so Israel had to

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come about this understanding that it was about learning how to live as God's people

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inside a culture that did not share their faith. And that is the world that

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we live in today. We live in a world living as God's people

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inside a culture that does not share the same values or faith

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that we share. And so we're learning how to walk this

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journey under this understanding that

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we are belonging to. We are people who belong to the kingdom of God

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in this context or in the shell of living within the world.

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And that on the surface, with our flesh and by ourselves, is

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very hard to do, very difficult to do. But here's the thing. We don't have

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to do it alone. We don't have to do it alone. Jesus

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never said, you belong to my kingdom, now figure it out.

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He never said, do this on your own strength in Fact, I

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would go as far as saying, he knew that we would not have the ability

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to do anything. Part from him, part from him. And

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so we live in the kingdom, we're in this kingdom, and

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we live also in this world. And so

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we have to come to terms with this question. Will we be

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formed by the world we live in, live in? Or will we remain

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rooted in the kingdom to which we belong? And so

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last week, we looked at what it was like to be planted,

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where we were, where we are. And so the first week we looked at capacity,

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we said, whoa, we need to slow down. I believe part of

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Israel's problem was is they weren't paying attention. And in

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2026, how many believe it's very hard to pay

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attention? Well, part of paying attention is not us having our life

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tidy and all together and going before the Lord and saying, hey, Lord, now I'm

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ready to. It is about us emptying our lives, emptying

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our agendas and saying, lord, why don't you fill me up today? Why don't you

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tell me what I'm supposed to do? And so it gives us the capacity to

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hear. But then the next step we looked at is being

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planted. So many of us, the moment something gets hard, the moment we

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see something we don't like, we uproot, we leave, we just jet, we're out of

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here. I'm run. I'm done with this. And so if

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we will carve out time enough to pay attention and

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we will stay put long enough to hear his voice, I

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believe God will do something, and he'll give us the answer to this question. And

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so what we uncovered last week was faithfulness is often

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proven not by where you go, but by where you stay.

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Now, this principle rocked some of your world last week. How do I know? Cause

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some of you called and emailed and talked to us and all of those things.

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Okay? But faithfulness is often proved not by where you go, but by where you

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say, now I'm gonna say something offensive. Are you ready? Get your radar

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up. Okay, Here for just a. Okay. Some of the reasons

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why we get offended by things like this is because we often

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make choices in our lives. And then what we want is the word of God

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to submit to our choices so we feel good about what we did.

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And what happens is in that type of mindset is he is no

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longer God on the throne. We become God on our throne. And so

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what we can't do is try to take the word of God and let it

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wrap around our world, even if we have made, and some of us have, me

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included, made bad choices. We've made left terms. We have left when we

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weren't supposed to leave. Now, here's the key to this, the key to this principle

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is this obedience. If God tells you to go,

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you better go. If God tells you to stay,

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you better stay. But faithfulness is

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often proven not by where you go, but by where

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you stay. Because in 2026, we have a propensity

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to uproot and run the minute things get hard, the minute things get uncomfortable, the

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minute the. The things coming at us that we don't like this. And so

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what we did is we uncovered some questions last week that feed

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into this principle. Deception always promises an easy way out.

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Deception always says, this is an easy way out. Go ahead and just leave. The

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false prophets told Israel, they said, leave. God's going to rescue

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you. Don't unpack. That was not the word of the Lord. He

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said, stay in a hard circumstance in a culture

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that doesn't share your faith. So these were the questions. What does God

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ask us to consider before we actually uproot and move? Number one,

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am I moving out of emotion or discernment?

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Number two, have I slowed down enough to hear from God?

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We're going to talk about this one a little bit more today. Am I

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honoring a commitment I have already made?

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Is this a season or am I just uncomfortable?

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Have I invited wise counsel or those

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just in agreement with me? Am I

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being sent or am I running? And

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lastly, will this produce greater fruit

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or just greater relief?

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And so we've gotten to a place on this journey where we're saying,

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okay, Lord, I understand I must empty

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myself. And now I understand that I'm not

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going anywhere. I've decided I'm going to stay right here.

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Now what? And I believe that when you clear out, make space, and you stay

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put where you are, we are now in a position

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to listen. Would you say listen? Have you ever been

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talking to someone and out of your mouth as you're talking to them, you say,

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are you listening to what I'm trying to tell you?

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Are you listening to what I'm trying to say? If you've

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got kids, are you listening to what I say? Some

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of us listen to, respond instead of listening to

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what's really being said to us. And if we will clear out

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margin in our lives and we will stay long enough,

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we are now in a position to actually listen

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to the word of God. But not just listen to the word of God, we're

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also looking to Obey the word of God.

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Listen and obey. But

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the question begs itself, to whom am I listening?

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Who am I listening? If I stay and I hear, am I able to

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obey? Who am I listening to? Now, here's what we believe. We believe that

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Jesus gives this answer. He says, when it comes to

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obedience, this is what we think. Jesus said. He says this. Try

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harder.

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Try harder. When it comes to obedience, try. You meant try

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harder. Do more. Try more.

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Keep going. Try again. Try again. Try again.

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Jesus invitation is not try

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harder. His answer is, receive the helper.

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Receive the helper. Who is the helper?

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It's not your spouse. It's not your

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friend. It's not even your

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pastor. It's the Holy Spirit. The

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helper is the Holy Spirit of God. Now, I grew

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up as a Baptist boy, before that, a Catholic boy. And we didn't talk

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a whole lot about the Holy Spirit. And so today I wanted to

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just do some fundamentals today because that's, you know, on this journey we gotta

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start back to the beginning and kind of look at some things. But this

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here represents God. We believe here at

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Springhouse, we believe the word of God says that God is three in one.

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How does that work? Three in one? God is God the Father,

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God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

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All three are God. So for me to say, this is

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God, I could say, he is God. He is God.

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We have God the Father, the vase, God the

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Son,

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And the water represents God the

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Holy Spirit.

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This is God. The accurate way for me to

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describe what just happened here is this. He is God.

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He is God. Not, they is God. He is God.

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Okay. God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son,

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God the Father carries the authority in the

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triune. He's God the Father. How do we know that

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Jesus, when he got baptized, God the Father opened the clouds of heaven and said,

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this is my son to whom I am well pleased.

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Why did Jesus go to the cross? We believe Jesus went to the

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cross because Jesus loves me. Yes, I know. And guess what? Boo

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Boo, he does love you. But his

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motivation to go to the cross was not his love for you. What

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drove him to the cross was obedience to his Father. His Father

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has the authority. In fact, Jesus said, all authority has been given to

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me on heaven and earth by my Father. So

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there's Father, God. Okay, then we have Jesus.

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Jesus as God. Jesus lived on

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the planet for 33 years in a human shell. I want

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you to touch someone and say, I feel you.

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Jesus, when he was here embodied. He was

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God with flesh wrapping around him with a

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skeleton. You could touch him, you could feel him, you could

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hear him, you could. You could smell him. You could do it for 33 years,

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three years at the end with his ministry. Jesus Christ was here on

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the planet. Jesus was fully man and he was fully God.

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Well, I tell you, today, Jesus Christ is no longer here.

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The Bible tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven. He's alive

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today, and he's what? He's sitting at the right hand of the

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Father. Okay, so you have Father God, creator of the universe. You have

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Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God, and then he.

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He just leaves us, like, out there to figure it out?

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No, he gives us an incredible

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gift called the Holy Spirit.

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And the Holy Spirit is available to all

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believers. You have access to the

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Holy Spirit, you have access to the Holy

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Spirit. And so we get in a little bit. Not in trouble. Because

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here's the nuance of this. If I were to say,

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rich, this morning, Jesus told me to

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go give a cup of coffee to this person who didn't have money.

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You could go on with that statement because Jesus is God. But it's

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inaccurate because Jesus is not here in

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the flesh talking to me and telling me to do anything. The

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accurate statement would be the Holy Spirit of God told me this

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morning, right, to give the cup of coffee to that person

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who we're in relationship with in our day in, day out, it's

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this precious Holy Spirit. When you've heard the voice of the Lord,

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it is the Holy Spirit. And so we're

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looking at this series called Abide. Now, we're going to dive

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into the word abide later on the series. But I want to give you

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a synonym right now. A cinnamon roll. That's what I was

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thinking. A synonym to work with. And that is

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remain. Jesus says, remain in me. Abide

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in me. Remain in me. Everybody say, remain.

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Now, when Jesus says, remain in me, that is

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not the starting point of your relationship with Jesus.

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That is an invitation. It's a directive. It's a

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command. But that is not our starting place with Jesus.

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Our starting place with Jesus. Our starting place

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with Jesus. When he rolls upon the disciples, what are the

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first words that come out of his mouth to the disciples? What is

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it? The words follow me.

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How many here believe that the invitation to follow

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Jesus is available today? Raise your hand. I

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believe that the invitation to follow Jesus is available today.

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He says, follow me. His first words to his disciples isn't

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remaining me. His first words are an invitation, which is follow me. And in

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that process of following him. This is what this means.

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I lay down my will, I lay

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down my way. I lay down what

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I want. I lay down my perceptions. I

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lay down my opinions. I surrender how I

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want things to go. This is what it means to follow

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Jesus. Invitation isn't for us to believe and incorporate

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some idea into what we are building.

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Jesus invitation is to leave what we are building and

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follow Him. In other words, he says it this way. Pick up your

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cross and follow me. How often?

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How often? He says daily. Daily. Pick up your

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cross. That means you know what it says to Kevin. If I picked up my

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cross on Tuesday is not sufficient for me on Thursday,

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Friday and Saturday. I have to pick up my cross daily because

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I'm told to die to myself daily. Let me tell you something. I

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may get up at 6, 5, 6 in the morning feeling like, hey, I've got

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nothing I'm holding onto. I look like Jesus. I tell you, by the time I

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get to 6pm it's another whole story. I need

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to die to myself every single day. The invitation

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is to pick up your cross and follow him. And that's hard because

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what we do is we approach the throne and we say this, Jesus,

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look what I've built. Jesus, look what

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I've done. Look what I have earned. God, have you seen my bank

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account? I tell you what, Jesus, this is what I wanna do. Let me pick

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up my cross and follow you. But let me bring along the things that I

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have done. Let me bring the castle I built.

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Could I follow you in the corridors of the castle I've built?

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And the invitation is to destroy that sucker

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and follow Jesus. And follow Jesus. So here's

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the thing. You cannot remain before you make

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the choice to follow. You cannot

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remain until you make the choice to follow

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and to follow. Are you ready for this? To follow means to

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obey. Let's say that together. To follow means to

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obey. To follow means to obey. Why slow down

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and empty ourselves? Why stay planted? Because we want to

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be a people who obey. We want to be a people.

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Jesus says, if you love me, you will

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keep my commands. So this tells me

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a very simple truth. Loving Jesus looks

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like obeying his commands. Loving

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Jesus looks like obeying his commands. I

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choose to obey because I love him.

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I choose to obey because I love him. Keith and

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I. Keith Cole and I were having breakfast this week and we were just laughing

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at the simplicity of scripture and how complex we make it.

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Do not take scripture and try to make it say something. It doesn't. It

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is very plain. It is very Straight on. Jesus is not into

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trickery. He's not trying to say things to mess you up.

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Jesus wants you to look like him.

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So loving Jesus looks like obeying. So let's look at very simplistic

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truth here. Okay? Number one, he says.

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Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my

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commands. Well, this should. We should be asking an

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obvious question here. What's the obvious question?

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What are your commands? If you raise your hand, if you love Jesus,

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raise it high. Proud are we, proud to love Jesus. Okay,

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keep your hands up. I didn't tell you. Put them down. Listen,

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if you love Jesus, you will obey his commands.

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Put your hand down. If you love me, you'll keep my commands. What are your

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commands, Jesus? I love this. I love this. We don't have to search.

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It's in the next sentence. I love it. This is. This is

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my command. Say it. Love

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one another as I have loved you. We do

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not like this. Let me tell you

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why we don't like this. We don't like this because we think we have

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this figured out. We don't like

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this. We think this is so shallow.

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And what we fail to realize is we stand before Jesus

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just like those Pharisees who say this is

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so shallow. Let me give you 613 other reasons of things

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that we should do in order to earn our way

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to you, Jesus. Why did I say 613?

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We're talking about the law, the Torah. 613 different

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commands and we probably, we could add a million to them. Now Jesus didn't

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say, here's my command. Kevin, make sure you do the speed limit down

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the interstate. I'm going to hell.

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No, this was not his. This was not is. He says, this is my

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command. Love one another as I have loved you.

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That should beg another question, should it not?

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How, how do I, how do I.

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How do I love? How do we love one another? This is what Jesus says.

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Greater love has no one than this to

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lay down his life for his friends. Now I'm going to tell you,

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I'm pretty sure I would lay down my life for Shari, Hadassah,

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Lucy, Ruby, Nora and Eliana.

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But beyond that. Listen, some of

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us can't even get up off our couch to go help somebody who needs their

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tire changed. Or we can't even get off our

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couch to go to a hospital and visit somebody who's been in an accident

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or is in need. We are so self centered in

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our lives, we can't let alone lay our lives down

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for our friends.

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Matthew, chapter 22 I love this. I'm telling you, you can't make this stuff up.

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Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees and the

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Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day,

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they got together. One of them was an expert in the

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law. This is what they were. They studied the law. They could tell

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you, this is what you're not supposed to do. This is what you're not supposed

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to do. This is what. I can quote it, 613 of them. I can just

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boom, boom, boom, boom. I can tell you what you're not supposed to do. And

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this is what it said. This is funny to me.

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One of them, an expert in the law,

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tested Jesus with a question. I'm going to tell you right now,

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if Jesus is standing in front of me,

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there's not one question I'm about to ask.

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But this tells us a lot about the state of the Pharisee who's

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asking this question. Because Jesus is standing

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right before them, and they have no idea who he is. I'm

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gonna test you, Teacher, which is the

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greatest commandment in the law? I bet you he had some ideas

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because he was an expert. Experts have ideas, right? So he

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did this to test him. So, Allen, I know what the. I know what the

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greatest three, and I'm ready to rattle them off to you. This is what Jesus

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said. Do the speed limit. No, this is what Jesus said.

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Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul

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and all your mind. This is the first and

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greatest commandment. And the second

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is, like it, love your neighbor as

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yourself. Now, we like to put a little period there, and we move right

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along. But Jesus wasn't done saying what he was saying.

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There's one more sentence in that little thing, and it's a very important word to

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kick it off. And that word is all. Would you say, all

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right, all the law. Okay,

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all the rules that you can come up with. All of the rules that you

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could come up with of the good, or good, good, goodest, bad, whatever.

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All the rules, and he wasn't done. And that

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law. And he says, the prophets. Who are the prophets? The voice

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of God. The voice, people of God, the ones who are bringing voice to

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God's word. The ones that are saying the things of God. So

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the rules and what God is saying, he says

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all. All of the law and the prophets. Hang

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on those two commandments. I'm telling you this

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morning. I have it on good authority to say that if you're going to do

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any two things in this lifetime, love the Lord, God, with all your heart, soul

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and mind, and love each other the way he's loved you. Love each

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other the way he has loved you. There are

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other things. There are other things that we need to be

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doing in our refinement and growing like him, and we're going to talk

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about those. The starting place is to love God with all your heart, soul

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and mind and to love each other.

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Love each other as he has loved us. I want to love Jesus, but I

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don't naturally love like Jesus. And Jesus agrees with you.

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If there's nothing you get from this message

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today, I want you to understand this.

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You need the Holy Spirit. You need the

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Holy Spirit. Jesus said this. If you love me, keep my commands.

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And then he puts this conjunction. There any grammar nerds in here?

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Conjunctions. Love it. Okay. And.

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And I will ask the Father. Okay, here's

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the thing. In other words, Jesus is saying this, James. He's saying,

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if you love me, keep my commands. But you don't know how to do.

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Hannah, if you love me, keep my commands. But you can't do that. Dustin,

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if you love me, do you love me, keep my commands, but you don't have

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the strength. You cannot do that. So. And in addition

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to. I'm gonna ask the Father. I'm gonna ask the

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Father, and he will give you another

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advocate, a helper to be with you

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and to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth.

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Jesus asked the Father to give you a gift, and that is the Holy Spirit.

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You have access to this Holy Spirit. You have access

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to the Holy Spirit of God. So

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what about those other 613 things that we have

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to obey? Ezekiel says this. I

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will give you a new heart. This is the Lord speaking. I will give you

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a new heart. If I get a new heart, it means my old one.

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Okay, I will give you a new spirit. That means my old spirit. Not

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worth a thing. And I will put it within you. I will put my

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spirit within you. And cause you to what? Walk in

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my statutes and be careful to obey my

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rules. This tells me that his spirit, if

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it's dwelling within me, I will be walking

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in righteous ways. This is what

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Paul says. If you walk by the Spirit, you

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will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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Are you with me? Paul doesn't say, I want you to fight harder. Do harder.

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Put more accountability tools in your life. Get all these programs. He says, walk

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by the spirit. Walk by the spirit. Walk

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by the spirit. And I love this

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one. You will receive what power. You

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will receive what power. Excuse Me, you will receive what

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power. When the Holy Spirit

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comes upon you, you are powerless

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against your sin. You are powerless against the

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evil in this world. You are powerless against the temptations of

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your flesh. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you are

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powerless. Without the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a good thing to have.

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Do you agree? Morning. The Holy Spirit of God is

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available to you, and he gives you power to

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overcome all of these things. Here's the thing. Jesus

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saves you. The Holy Spirit sustains you.

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Jesus saves you. The Holy Spirit sustains you.

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Guys, we have to become a people. We

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must become a people who understand the importance of

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the involvement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must

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become. I beseech you. It is so important. Now, with that,

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I have grown up and I have learned a lot about what the Holy Spirit

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is not. Because I have seen people use the

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Holy Spirit in ways that are not lining up with God's word. So let's look

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a little bit at this. What the Holy Spirit is not. Holy Spirit is not

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a force. This is not Star Wars. Okay?

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He's not a feeling. Pain. Now, I've gotten

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goosebumps before. Goosebumps are not an indicator. Only

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indicator that Holy Spirit's moving in your life. Sometimes pain

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is. And it's the Holy Spirit.

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He's not a personality in a

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magazine. He

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is not a dove. We use a dove to symbolize him. He

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is not a bird. He is not a dove.

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He's not a manipulator. He's

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not a controller. And he will never

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contradict his own word. If God

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is. If God is. If the Holy Spirit of God, if the true statement of

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this up here that I have, if I can say he is God,

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then the Holy Spirit is not going to tell you to do something

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that contradicts what he has already said. Are you with me?

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Never. It will never contradict his word. He'll never contradict his word.

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So if that's what the Holy Spirit is not, this is what the Holy Spirit

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is. The Holy Spirit is a counselor.

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Anybody need some counsel? He's a better counselor than

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Oprah. He gives better gifts than

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cars. The

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Holy Spirit is a strengthener. Anybody feel weak? Need

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some strength? Holy Spirit's a strengthener. What about a guide?

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I tell you right now, as I'm walking in my life, I need

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a guide. I need the Holy Spirit to tell me

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where to go. He's a

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faithful friend. Let me tell you, people

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here on Earth, they're not faithful friends. They try. We try.

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He's a Faithful friend. He's a helper.

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He's a helper. Guys, I need help.

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Ask my wife. I need help. Ask the staff at

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the church. I need help. Ask my closest friends. They really know he

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needs help. I need help. I need the help of the Holy

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Spirit. Do you need help? Anybody here

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could use some help.

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Miles Monroe and R.H. hori put it this way. The Holy Spirit of God is

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a person and he is the most important person

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on the planet today. He's the most

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important person on the planet today. I got to get rolling here. Here

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we go. I ministered to the youth

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group, became the youth pastor. And they were in a season where they

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were investigating and learning about the Holy Spirit. And in that season

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they were learning some things and experiencing some things that didn't necessarily

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line up with God's word. At least it had evolved to that. And so when

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I walked in, I was picking up on all sorts of things because there were

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prophetic words going forth that did not line up with what the word of God

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says. There were things happening, there was emotionalism, there were things going on in

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there that weren't necessarily what. It wasn't all

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packaged with the word. It just really wasn't

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the Holy Spirit, it wasn't within his character. And so I went in there to

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teach and the only thing the Holy Spirit would give me to teach them for

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six months to teach to you for six months was this. The primary job

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of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus. The primary job

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of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine how many object lessons I had to come

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up with in six months time to teach the same lesson week after

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week? Lord, can I move? No. The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to

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point people to Jesus. And I wanna tell you today, the primary

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job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus. Over in John

:

12 it says, I have much more to say to you, says Jesus,

:

more than you can bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes,

:

he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He

:

will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to

:

come. Now this is what he said. He, the Holy Spirit

:

will glorify me. He, the

:

Holy Spirit will glorify me. The primary job

:

of the Holy Spirit is not for us to have a woo hoo experience.

:

The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to

:

Jesus. Jesus is going to be lifted up. You know, when we get there, who

:

are we going to be exalting? Who Are we going? It's going to be Jesus.

:

It's going to be Jesus. And so. So I want to

:

hammer this simplicity of this point home. I need five volunteers quickly

:

to come down here. Five. Just stand up and come. Five volunteers.

:

Okay, hold this sign. Hold this sign.

:

I would like you to take these signs. I want one of you to go

:

on stage and the other four of you, I would just want you to spread

:

out around the room. You can go anywhere you want, but try not to make

:

it perfect. Just go somewhere random in the room. Okay? All

:

right. Now, who in here looks most like Jesus?

:

Raise your hand. Who here looks most like Jesus? I need a

:

Jesus. Is it?

:

Come on, Justin.

:

Next week we're gonna talk about humility. Okay? So

:

no, this is perfect. This is actually great. Okay, so

:

would you agree? Would you agree? Hey, guys, hit that

:

next slide for me. This should be the fruit of the spirit. Let's say this

:

together. Quickly, quickly. The fruit of the spirit is love,

:

joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness,

:

gentleness and self control. Would you agree that when Jesus

:

is here, let's transport back. Jesus is here. Physically, we can touch. Jesus is strong.

:

Okay, Jesus. We can touch Jesus. Okay, we touch Jesus here.

:

Okay. Would you believe that he is the embodiment of the

:

fruit of the spirit? Would you believe that the person of Jesus is the

:

embodiment of this fruit? Yes or no? Yes. Okay, so

:

here's Jesus and Jesus is here in person.

:

Okay. Brad, I need you to go grab that microphone for me real fast. Okay.

:

All right. Now, Jesus. Jesus. What does Jesus do

:

when he rolls up into our life? What is his invitation? We said it earlier.

:

What is his. Follow me. Right. Okay. So here you go, Jesus. This

:

is what I want you to do. Jesus. I want you to find five people

:

in the room, and I want you to extend the invitation for them to follow

:

you. And I want them to do what the invitation says. Head out.

:

Thank you, buddy. So Jesus strolls up

:

on your life and he offers you an invitation. And the

:

invitation is, follow me. Okay? And so

:

with that invitation, we get up

:

and we begin to follow Jesus. Yes.

:

Okay. Now, just as we said, Jesus is

:

in no hurry.

:

He's gonna take his time.

:

Okay? I know.

:

Okay. Okay. What you have

:

just witnessed, when these people took the invitation and they got up

:

and they started walking and following Jesus, what you just witnessed was obedience.

:

Are you with me? You just witnessed obedience, an obedient posture

:

of following Jesus. Okay, Now, Justin.

:

Did I. You cannot go.

:

Okay, Justin, this is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you my phone.

:

My phone is gonna have a Timer. Every time 10 seconds goes

:

by, 10, 20, 30. Every single time, I want you to say in the microphone

:

the words, follow me. Every single time, I don't want you to stop

:

until I literally say, justin, stop. No matter what's going on, no matter what I

:

said, no matter what I've done, you continue to do this until I say, justin,

:

you can stop. You got it? So every 10 seconds, you start. Now,

:

Jesus's invitation is gonna be, follow me. Now, I want you to walk around the

:

auditorium, okay? And I want you to do that. And then you guys are going

:

to do what he says. Follow me, okay? And you're

:

gonna follow him. So Jesus comes into our life and he has a

:

voice. He's embodied. We can feel him touch. Somebody next to you say, I feel

:

you. Follow me. You feel. We can feel Jesus. We can

:

see Jesus. If Jesus was truly here in Smyrna, Tennessee,

:

he would not be in Dallas. He would not be in New York. He's

:

here in Tennessee in person, okay? With

:

his flesh and his blood. And he's saying, follow me,

:

okay? And the people are following him. And I would hope to imagine

:

that if Jesus was here in person, we would all be up following him

:

and doing what he says to do. Follow me. Okay? Now

:

they are following the voice of the Lord. Now here's what I want you all

:

to do. Follow me. Justin, I want you. I want you all to stop

:

on stage here. Justin, I want you to keep going. I want you to go

:

backstage and around there. I want you to stay back there. Keep going on there,

:

okay? Come on down here. That's fine. Follow me. Okay?

:

Now, here we are. And we do not have

:

physical Jesus here, right?

:

But follow me. We still hear his voice, right?

:

Now tell me if I told you to follow the voice, right now. You go.

:

We'll run into each other. Like, what are we going to do? Like, where's the

:

voice? Because you can't see, right? You cannot see physical

:

Jesus anymore. But is the Lord still speaking today?

:

Is the commission still to follow Him? It absolutely is. So we

:

still have the directive, but we don't have the person. He's given us the

:

gift of the Holy Spirit now. Now the gift of the spirit,

:

the gift of the Holy Spirit. Anytime the Spirit's talking to us and leading

:

us, he's always gonna lead us to places that yield fruit.

:

Follow me. He's always gonna lead us to places that yield

:

fruit. So wherever I'm going, the trajectory I'm on wherever I'm. It should lead

:

me to places of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness.

:

Okay? So I would like you to look at your invitation. Look at it. Literally

:

look at your invitation. Your invitation. I want you to study it and I want

:

you to see if you can end up where you're supposed to go around the

:

room here. Based on what you see on your invitation, based on what we

:

just said. So go ahead and move if you know what to do.

:

Follow me. The voice is still happening.

:

The people are moving in

:

our lives. The Holy Spirit is saying,

:

echoing the words of Jesus, follow me. Follow me. And

:

whenever we follow the voice, we will end up

:

in places, hopefully places that

:

yield the fruit of the spirit.

:

Follow me. And if somebody doesn't

:

know we're going to help them out, because that's what

:

the spirit does. He puts people in our life. Follow me.

:

Mel has a handle on this. Mel, do you want to help someone else? Okay,

:

very good.

:

Follow me.

:

I want you to understand. Okay, listen. The voice is happening. Go ahead and

:

bring Justin back in. Go ahead and bring Justin back in. Mario. You mean

:

Jesus? Jesus. Oh, okay. Jesus. Ok.

:

Follow me. Justin, you may stop. Okay, listen, listen,

:

listen, listen, listen. It

:

wasn't about how long it took anybody to get there.

:

It was about the fact that they got where they were supposed to go.

:

Listen, listen, listen. There were people in here like Mel that

:

knew exactly. There are some people that it takes because

:

of their experience, their lack of knowledge, their lack of insight,

:

the lack of help around them. It takes them. Some people had to walk around

:

the auditorium to get to a place. Some people had to walk on the.

:

Some people made a mistake and had to humble themselves and

:

go the next direction. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is grace

:

space for us to move, but where we end up should be places

:

where the fruit of the spirit is manifesting itself. The Holy

:

Spirit of God is available to you today to end

:

up in places where the fruit of the spirit resides. Would you guys give the

:

them a round of applause? Thank you guys so much. You can just put those

:

signs down there.

:

Thank you, guys.

:

The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus.

:

If they're to point people to Jesus. How do I point

:

people to Jesus? How does Kevin o' Day point people to Jesus? With the Holy

:

Spirit. This is what John says. He said that's not what I

:

was looking for. Oh, they're taking that off. Okay, John

:

3:35 says this. They will know me. Listen, stay

:

focused. They will know me. By the way

:

you. Come on, finish it, guys. You know this.

:

By the way you love. By the way you love.

:

By the way you love. That's how they're going to know Jesus. By the way

:

that you love. Jesus says, I'm. He says,

:

listen, I'm going away, but I'm not going to leave you

:

as orphans. Says, I will come to you.

:

How? Through the Holy Spirit.

:

He didn't say, try to live like me. Work harder, try harder, do more. He

:

said, I, the Holy Spirit, I will live in you.

:

I will live in you.

:

Valentine's Day, 1993.

:

I asked Jesus Christ into my heart. Why

:

did I ask Jesus Christ in my heart? I didn't ask Jesus Christ because I

:

had a relationship with God. In fact, I can't have a relationship with God

:

without having Jesus. But what I was taught

:

was, father God, he's

:

about to send you to hell. You are so jacked up, Kevin. You better believe

:

in Jesus. You better tell everybody there's a hell waiting for them.

:

This was all I knew about God.

:

I didn't know that there was a Holy Spirit. I didn't understand that

:

there was a God who wanted to have a real radical

:

relationship with me, with little old me. And so

:

when I turned 15, I got a job at a place called

:

Chick Fil a. That's Christian chicken. The Holy

:

Spirit's residing there.

:

And I met a guy by the name of Isaac. And let me tell you

:

what Isaac had. He had the indwelling of the

:

Holy Spirit. And you know what was attractive about him?

:

That that made me want to be friends with them. He exuded

:

love, joy, patience, peace,

:

kindness. And you know what? He also wanted to be my

:

friend. And I saw the way that he

:

loved the Lord. And I wanted some of

:

that. And so I became friends with him. And

:

guess what? He introduced me on a night here.

:

We were a bunch of guys laying on the floor of the foyer on a

:

pink car, playing a guitar. And guess what?

:

I received the Holy Spirit that night.

:

My eyes were illuminated. My mind was that there is this God who wants

:

a relationship with me. Now let me tell you what happened.

:

That relationship with the Lord started happening. And you know what? This is what

:

happened. Did I feel goosebumps that night? I did. But soon

:

after, the Holy Spirit would begin to bring up

:

things in me that didn't need to be there.

:

Insecurities I was carrying, healing that I

:

needed, and I didn't like it. And what I did, what Kevin chose to do

:

when those things came to the surface is I Said I want to cover them

:

up. I want to do more to make this person like me. I want to

:

buy bigger gifts. I want to do whatever I can. I don't want anybody to

:

see this. And guess what? I got to a point where I was

:

overwhelmed. And so what I

:

decided is my life is not worth living.

:

Rather than concede that I can't be in control of my life, I

:

decided I'm going to take control and take my life. And

:

I don't know if you've ever been in a place in your life where you

:

thought, this is enough.

:

And so my little red Chevy Cavalier on this street out

:

here, they were building a CVS right out here. And this friend Isaac,

:

this particular day. Cause this is how the Holy Spirit works. You

:

ever have a friend that if you and that friend are going somewhere, you kind

:

of have. You kind of have roles that you play that just are.

:

You don't talk about. They're unspoken. Like, one of the things was when Isaac and

:

I went somewhere, he always drove. Or whenever Isaac went there, he always was the

:

driver. Well, this particular day, he had a little white Civic. And this particular

:

day, he was going to the CD store. Do y' all know what a CD

:

store? You know what a CD is? Okay. Y' all know what a CD is?

:

Okay. So they're going to the CD store. He and

:

Justin. Not this Justin, a different Justin, they was going to the CD store.

:

And he left his car in the parking lot. So here I am, coming down

:

this road, tears streaming down my face, and I'm going to ram my car into

:

the CVS wall. That's my plan. And I'm driving,

:

I'm speeding. And I come over and I turn. It's big mess over here. And

:

I turn in. And all this happened in 10 seconds. But I

:

looked over and I saw Isaac's car. And in

:

seeing Isaac's car, something happened to me that has never

:

happened again, but happened this one time. Kevin o' Day heard

:

the audible voice of God. And God

:

said to Kevin o', Day, I am not finished with

:

you yet. And

:

I slammed on my brakes and I sat there

:

and I just wept. And for

:

the first time in my life, I'd asked Jesus in my heart, I believed what

:

he did. For the first time in my life, I

:

surrendered. I surrendered.

:

And can I tell you, he didn't fix me. On the next minute,

:

he set me on a journey that here in my

:

mid-40s, I'm still working on,

:

because the God of the universe revealed himself to me.

:

And Gave me the power. See, in that moment, that moment,

:

I didn't have peace. But guess who had peace.

:

I didn't have self control. I was trying to take things. I was trying to

:

control the situation. But he had an awesome gift for me. He

:

had the power that I needed and he gave it to me.

:

I cannot imagine my life without Shari,

:

Hadassah, Lucy, Ruby, Nora, now Eliana. I can't imagine

:

not being here with all you wonderful people. I can't imagine what would have been

:

had I selfishly made that choice. Not

:

understanding that there is a God who breathes stars that knows and loves

:

Kevin o'. Day. And that same God loves and knows

:

you too, guys. You cannot attempt to do this life without the

:

power of the Holy Spirit. You cannot attempt

:

to do this without his presence in your life.

:

And so would you stand with me this morning? I know it's time for us

:

to close, but I'm just asking if you would just grace me just for a

:

few moments. In the first gathering, we did not have enough prayer warriors

:

down front. So I'm going to ask this because I believe that there's some people

:

that need to come down. If you are a prayer warrior, would you please come

:

down? Can we fill the front part of the stage here? And here's the deal.

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There's two things I want to invite you for. Number one, some of you

:

here are carrying a legitimate need. You need. You have

:

a problem in your finances this morning. And can I tell you, there is a

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source, there is a Holy Spirit that has an answer for your finances.

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Some of you are killing, carrying broken pieces. You need healing. Some of you are

:

contending, some of you are just in places, in relationships that

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you're trying to mend. There's a lot of things going on in people's lives today.

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But listen, there is a great glorious God who

:

sees you and knows you and has the answer and doesn't want you to try

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to fight that battle on your own. He wants to be involved and if

:

you will come. These people are spirit filled believers.

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They're spirit filled believers. Brian has his life together, okay?

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But anything

:

he has together is because the Holy Spirit of God's involved.

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Second, maybe you're like me at age when I was on that carpet.

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Maybe today was a revelation. You're like, there's this Holy Spirit. I didn't

:

realize today you can leave here with the great

:

offered any of us the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit of

:

God. Dawn, do you have the Holy Spirit of God inside your life? How

:

has it been for you? Been a ride, huh? It's been a wonderful ride. Can

:

you imagine your life without the power of the Holy Spirit in it, Patty?

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The Holy Spirit of God. Come. If you've never received

:

the power, if you've never asked the Lord, can you fill me up with the

:

Holy Spirit? Can you give me the power I need to actually make sense of

:

this thing? Are you sick of running into the same walls over and over and

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over and over again? Guess what? You might need to do something different,

:

like surrender your plan and let him do the work.

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Today's a great, glorious day because people are going to get set free because

:

of this great God. And I believe it. So if that is you,

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come this morning. Come and receive from this great God. Let's worship

:

together.

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