Power & Authority | Preserving In The Spirit | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Erin Thomas
Power & Authority | Preserving In The Spirit | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Erin Thomas
Transcript
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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It is Pentecost Sunday.
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I wanna open up reading the text that we are going to get to in a roundabout way because I wanna talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit. But open your Bibles if you got them to Romans chapter five.
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Man, let me tell you, I have been so blessed by this book. It's like I feel like I never read it before. There's so much meat in the book of Romans. It's been so long since I've no, it hasn't been that long. I read it last year. But like been able to actually go through it, comb through it, and really tear apart, like study through the the words and the verses. It so has been blessing me so much. But Romans verse three, we're gonna start there, and it says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
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And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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I gotta tell you, I love anytime I see the word endurance.
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When I was this is a little little side story. When I was in high school, so I dropped out of high school in tenth grade because I was like not on the right path in my life.
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But thankfully, and I know like, it's funny because I I know that this is the Holy Spirit. I was in tenth grade. I dropped out of high school.
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I started to analyze my life at this point, and like, I I wasn't getting a whole lot of parenting. My dad was dealing with his own life and whatever. So I I started looking around, and I'm like, this isn't looking so good for me.
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I knew I was on a path that was like going the wrong way, so I ended up getting myself together, and I went to a program, and I went back to high school. And when I got back into high school, the teachers, at the end of the year, they ended up giving everybody special, awards at the end of the year as we often do. My daughter got the problem solver award, which makes my heart so proud.
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So anyway, this high school year, I got the persevere it award because no matter what challenge I faced, and this is like how I live too, and it's kind of annoying because sometimes I think I should just like not do a thing. Right?
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If it's not me, but I always look at a problem like I'm presented with it as an opportunity to grow in this area. So if it's like a thing I've never done before, I'm like, okay, well it's here, so now I'm gonna figure out how to do it. So anytime I read this in scripture, this is it wakes something up in my spirit. Right? So I was like going deep into this scripture.
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Now here's the cool thing, and the thing that I never noticed at the end of this passage in verse five, it says, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Now, on this fast, I actually started sorry, this was my idea. The fast was my idea.
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Who, like, went through and got to April and was like, oh my gosh, it's April and we're in the year of catch the fire and I don't know what I'm doing with my life right now. How am I catching the fire? And so, as we were getting ready to plan for this next season, I'm like, man, need to do a fast. If we're gonna get up there, if we're gonna move in the next in the next season, if we're gonna get to the next plane, we've gotta keep our hearts focused on what the word of the Lord for the year is.
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And it is catch the fire. And if if if fire doesn't just burn like quiet and you know, like just like a candle, like I want my fire to be like bonfire where you can see it lighting up the sky. That's what I want my fire to be.
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And anytime and I I tell you what, I fasts are not easy. I did do better this time. I I know for those of you that did the three weeks or the twenty one days with us earlier this year, I was struggling and it was real hard. It was difficult.
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But here's the cool thing. The Lord was teaching me something in this time about perseverance.
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About perseverance.
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About pushing through and staying focused on what my goal was. Okay? What is perseverance? I'm not gonna go there right now, but I'm gonna explain it later. But it's pushing through, keeping your mind renewed. So that's what the Lord was really working on me with. And he started showing me some things about the Holy Spirit, through this verse. So when we think about the Holy Spirit, everybody look at your neighbor and say, this is nothing new. We already know.
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Okay.
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I'm gonna tell you guys some stuff about the Holy Spirit.
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Because I think it's good that we just get a refresher every once in a while.
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Because the Holy Spirit is our power on this earth. He is our strength. He is our empowerment. He is how we know the mind of Christ. He is everything.
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And so I'm gonna take a little walk through the Bible because what would we be doing up here if we weren't taking a walk through the Bible. Right?
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Genesis one.
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I'm not kidding.
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Genesis one one, it says, in the beginning, God create created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
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And verse two, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. This is the first mention of the holy spirit.
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And this is the kind of thing that he does. He hovers, he broods, he develops, he doesn't touch and go.
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He stays.
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He's close.
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He's not an in and out entity that comes and goes. He's always there. And wherever he's hovering, he begins to bring order to chaos.
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So let's look a little further.
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Okay? Ezekiel nope. I'm not in Ezekiel yet. Sorry. Exodus, other other e bible book, book of the bible.
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Exodus is the first time that somebody was actually it was mentioned that the holy spirit came on somebody, And this was Bezalel, the artisan.
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He was the one that was in charge of building all that amazing stuff. He built the the tabernacle.
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He prepared all of the things that were that were brought that were brought and made to minister to the Lord. The Holy Spirit came on him. Why? For creativity.
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The Holy Spirit inspired creativity in this guy.
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Now, let's look a little further and that's a really amazing thing. Right? So when we think about when we think about our gifts and our talents and the things that are inside of us oh my goodness. Let me pray real quick. Jesus, we love you.
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Thank you, father, for who you are. You're so worthy.
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God, let this meeting, let this time, let, just glorify and honor you. Let us come to know you more, and let us serve you better so that we can love you more and know you deeper. In Jesus name, amen. Sorry.
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I also won an award that said most likely that was called most likely to stop in the middle of my sentence and pray.
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It's another one I'm proud of. Okay.
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So the gifts and talents that we have inside of us, right, it's not just for creativity, or it's not just for speaking. It's not just for coming up here and and providing a word to people that are hungry. It is about the talents and the gifts that are stirred up inside of us. Think about the things that you're really good at, don't and tell me you're not good at anything. Think about the things that you're really great at. These are things that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, he cultivates in us. He develops them. He stirs them up. He makes us stronger in them when we submit them to him. Amen? Amen. That's that's Exodus. That's the first time that we see the spirit of God coming on a person.
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Judges six thirty four, one of my favorite scriptures and something I pray over myself often. This is the story of Gideon where it says, let me just actually read this verse to you. It says, but the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.
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Then he blew the trumpet and the Abyssarites gathered behind him.
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The spirit of the Lord came upon him. So I looked up that word came upon. So it's a phrase, but it actually means to put on, to wear, to clothe, to be clothed. So it was like the Holy Spirit took Gideon and put him on.
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And he used him. He empowered him. See, Gideon had established that he could be trusted by God when he tore down the altar of Baal at his father's house. And so the Holy Spirit came on him because he knew that the next thing that he was gonna have to do was gonna be one of the hardest things that he he was gonna be faced with to date.
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And so the Holy Spirit came on him and put Gideon on.
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And I say that, I pray that over myself all the time. God, put me on. Just use me. I don't want any I don't want any Aaron. I want only you. Whatever you have, I want only that.
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And I I love that so much. So, that's Judges six. Now, there's 100, there's over a 100 mentions, right, of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
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Ezekiel six Ezekiel 36 is one of the promises of like what the spirit is gonna do in our hearts. And I wanna read this to you. It says, I will give you a new heart.
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Oh, man. It's so beautiful.
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And put a new spirit within you.
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I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them.
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What a beautiful promise.
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And the Lord is speaking to Ezekiel, so Ezekiel can speak to the people and he's telling them this is coming.
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I will put my spirit in you.
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I'm gonna put my spirit in you.
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I'm gonna empower you. I'm gonna change everything about your being. That's what I'm gonna do.
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And so
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if we can take a moment,
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He's giving them a promise then, and they were in a difficult place. They were in captivity. The first set of Israelites had been taken away, and they were in a different land. And this was Ezekiel was ministering basically to a a camp, like a refugee camp in this other place.
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And he was making a promise.
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No matter what was happening before them in their eyesight, what was actually happening in their life, He was saying, don't worry.
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I'm gonna soften your heart toward me and I'm gonna fill you up with my spirit. That's what he says. Okay. So how many of you know that when we're learning to live for the Lord,
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when we're learning to live for the Lord, we have the model of Jesus that we're supposed to look towards.
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He's the only one. Okay? He's the model. He's though if Jesus did it, we're supposed to do it. So I wanna talk about the first mentions of the Holy Spirit in our New Testament, and that is in first John. It's not first John, it's regular John. One chapter one thirty two, it says, and John bore witness.
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This is John the Baptist saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.
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I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said unto me, upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the son of God. So this is John after Jesus was after Jesus was baptized in the river by John.
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The Holy Spirit comes.
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Now the Holy Spirit had been there. He had been around. But here's the thing.
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He came and he remained on Jesus.
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Okay? So we see this is the work of the father to empower the son on the earth while the son is a human being. While the son is here on the earth carrying out the ultimate plan that was gonna get all of us covered and saved. Right? John 14, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.
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The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him. For he dwells with you and will be in you.
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But the helper, the holy Spirit, this is verse 26, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. So there's a couple of things. There's some there's so many really cool things here. But I wanna first remind you of what the word helper means. That is parakletos.
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Right? We know what that means. It means beside.
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If you break the word up, it means beside, alongside, near. But the second part of that is the word kaleo, which means called. So called to be near.
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Okay. Called to be near. He's our helper.
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He's our comforter. This is another actually, when you do the work, the first explanation, the first definition of this word is comforter, helper.
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He's called to be an advocate.
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He is to lead us into a deeper knowledge of the gospel. Why? Because he says it's an it's an advocate. He comes alongside us. He brings us into all truth, and he gives us greater knowledge of Jesus.
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He expands our understanding.
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He will teach us all things. And what does that mean? Teaching, it just means He's gonna teach us. It just means He's gonna show us. It means that we have access to all of the things that Jesus has said in all of time.
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He's one called alongside. It's divine strength.
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I'm reminded of times when I've had to do, like, before I was on staff here, my old job was really, really hard. And I had a boss, a supervisor that was not a nice person.
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And just not nice. And every week, had to go in and meet with them, and it was always some kind of just yucky, messy conversation or whatever. And I used to go in and literally pretend like the Holy Spirit was in the chair next to me, and he was mediating for me in this difficult situation.
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It was it was really hard, but here's the thing.
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I was in this situation.
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I had the Holy Spirit with me. I could bear up under those circumstances and continue to do what God had called me to do until it was time for me to go.
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I could continue to bear up under. I didn't try to force anything.
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I didn't try to I didn't just quit because I could've on good grounds. Right? Not right the way that I was treated at that place.
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I could've walked out, but I didn't hear the Lord tell me that.
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I didn't hear the Lord say you need to go.
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I didn't hear the Lord. And sometimes God is quiet on something either because that's not what he's talking about or because he's not prepared to speak to you yet.
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But I decided to bear up under that circumstance.
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And as a result, I have a great testimony, I'll tell it. I I'll tell it to you sometime.
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Anyway, yeah, as a result, I guess I'll not give you a cliffhanger.
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I got a new position, and I was able to work remote. Before everybody went remote in 2020, I went remote in 2016.
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And that allowed me to be here more often because I had more flexibility.
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It allowed me to take on the burden of ministry, and if I would have lost that before it was the time, then first of all, I wouldn't have been able to build the character.
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And second of all, I wouldn't have been able been able to maintain the following the Lord. I would have been out side of his will. So what does that mean? That means that he can't do with me what he's asked me to do.
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He can't do with me where he's taking me because I'm now I'm going on my path now. I'm doing my thing. I'm getting this job. It looks better over here.
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Staying on his path, that's the thing that builds the endurance. Right? Let me get back to that.
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So the Holy Spirit, he may okay. I think sometimes we we like go over this and we brush over this because, I don't know why. It's just a thing we do. We're human beings and we only have a certain capacity to think about so many things at so many at one time and whatever. But it says that he may abide with you forever.
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That he may abide with you forever.
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Okay. What does abide mean?
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We know what this means. It means to remain in because this is what we are called to do in John fifteen and sixteen. Right?
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Remain in him. Remain in Jesus. And when we do that, the Holy Spirit remains in us. Now this is the Holy Spirit's assignment.
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So let me just say this.
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If you ever get to a place where you don't feel like you're in walking with the Holy Spirit, who do you think moved?
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Do you think the Holy Spirit forgot what his assignment was?
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Because this was his assignment.
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This is the assignment from the father. And we know that when Jesus got his assignment, he carries it out. We know that when the holy spirit got his assignment, he carries it out.
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I'm just bringing this to your attention because I don't think that the body Right? Christ is ahead. We're the body. I don't think that the body always recognizes how much power and authority they have in their spiritual walk.
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Okay?
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Teach us all things. He brings to remembrance all the things that Jesus has taught us. Alright. John 16.
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A little bit more scripture.
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Nevertheless, I tell you, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
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Of sin because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more. Of judgment because of the ruler because the ruler of this world is judged.
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I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority. Listen to this. He will not speak on his own authority. This is another assignment that he has. Okay? So if you're hearing from the Holy Spirit and it's contrary to the word of God, the Bible, any or or it does not glorify Jesus, then you can know for sure that it is not the holy spirit. Okay.
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He for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak. This means from the father. And he will tell you, the things to come. He will tell you things to what?
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He will tell you things to come.
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He will glorify me for he will not take of what is mine and he will take of what is mine and declare it for for me declare it to you. Okay. So what do we just get from that?
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Let's break this down. Okay? This is really important because there was so much stuff that Jesus just shared with the disciples. And I wanna talk to you guys the context of what is happening in right here.
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Jesus is probably like walking to the Garden Of Gethsemane.
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He's on his way to the cross.
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This is his sorry.
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I love Jesus.
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This is his last moment with the disciples.
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You know, you get your kids ready and you send them to school, and you're like, okay, make sure you listen to your teacher. Okay. And don't forget, it's bus bus six, not bus seven. Bus six. Don't and and don't forget that you're you drink your soup before you eat your sandwich. And make sure that you don't eat your candy bar before you and you give them all the it's like that frantic, like, let me give you as much as I can that you're gonna carry before I have to leave you. It's this moment of like, Jesus is unpacking all of this stuff, and I like can see the disciples' faces because half that time they had no idea what was going on anyway.
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And like, they're like, in just like in chapter 14, they're like, well where are you going Lord? Like, are you guys not paying attention? We can all see it. Anyway, he gives them so much meat here. So number one, we learned that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin.
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He does it initially for us when we realize we are in need of the savior. He says, hey, this way you're living, it ain't right.
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He also does it for us when we continue to sin, when we move in sin. You know how sometimes like you're just you got stuff and it just ain't right. This is the process of sanctification.
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And if we were always trying to figure out everything all the time on our own, it would be a really hard thing. So the Holy Spirit comes along and he convicts us of the sin when it's time to be convicted of the sin.
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Okay?
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So it's important that we keep him close and we listen to him.
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Because when you don't hear him anymore, it's because you're not listening. Or because he's asked you to do something so many times and he's just not respond you're not responding to him so much that he has kinda stopped talking.
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We all I'm not and I'm here's the thing. Like, maybe I don't have like giant, you know, whatever whatever sins, but I still need to be convicted of sin. I still need to be convicted of like complaining.
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I still need to be convicted when I jump to a conclusion about something or someone. I still need that. I need the Holy Spirit close to me.
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I need his conviction.
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So he convicts the world of sin.
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He convicts the world of righteousness.
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Righteousness. This is the thing that we get because he went to the cross and died on the cross, and therefore, he testifies that we are able to obtain righteousness.
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Okay? This is our state with God the father. As long as we choose to live this way, we stand in righteousness.
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We That means right standing with God. I can go, I can boldly go to the throne room because it is available to me because I am covered in the blood. Okay. This is our position as children of God.
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He declares judgment. That means, like, there's that thing inside of each of us. We know at the end of the day, this world is probably gonna end and this my life is definitely gonna end. Right?
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I'm gonna go somewhere.
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I'm gonna go somewhere.
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And it's not like whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. We have a choice.
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So we know what's gonna happen. We know that there's options, and the the Holy Spirit declares that to us. He makes it clear.
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He's gonna guide us into all truth. What is truth?
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Truth, it comes straight from the heart of Jesus. It is part of God's entire plan. It is the it is the thing that is real. Right? It is the fact that has been established by God the father. This is the thing that we have access to as sons and daughters is the mind of Christ in all truth. In every situation, in all conditions, under all circumstances, There is a truth and we have access to it by the holy spirit because of the blood according to the word of the father.
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Tell you all the things to come. Listen to this.
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It says, tell you all things to come. Does that do you know that that doesn't mean that means that you don't have to not know the right answer to your life and to the future and where you're going and what you're gonna be? Maybe you don't know all the specifics.
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But if you are on the path that God has put you on, do you know that he will whisper to you the truth? Do you know that he will give you direction?
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Do you know that you can have answers and you don't know why you've got the answer? You just know that this thing is gonna work out? That's the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you that whispers to you those things, those truths.
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It's like the GPS.
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Right? Put the address in.
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And then it gives you like suggestions, and if you don't like the way I I'm so guilty of this. Like, I like to go the way that I like to go.
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I'm really good at driving.
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So, I like to go the way that I like to go.
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And sometimes it'll tell me, like, go this way, because it's gonna save you twenty two minutes.
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And I'm like, that can't be right.
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So I'll just keep going. And then, like, the moment it slows down, I'm like,
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I should have just followed the GPS.
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But I wanna see. I wanna see what's happening there. Why can't I go that way? Well, doesn't matter. Just follow the directions.
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Follow the path. Walk the direction that God has had got you on, and he'll explain it to you as you need to know.
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To glorify the son.
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This is why we are all here. This is why we all exist.
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Everything we do is to glorify the name of Jesus on the earth. That every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord because when you do that, when you do that, you are making God's ultimate plan come to fruition. When you do that, people are coming the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and are able to walk in the way that they've been called to walk in. They're out of darkness and into light. This is what we're called to do. This is how we're supposed to live our lives.
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This is every moment. This is every moment of every day and everything that we do. Not just when you come to church, not just when you read the bible with your kids, not just when you don't yell at somebody that really deserves it, not just when whatever, fill in the blank. It is literally every moment.
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I wish that we could and he would God, if you would increase our capacity to see how every decision can bring you glory.
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Lord, increase our capacity.
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The and the last thing is declare the the things of Jesus to us. So, I wanna get into something. I'm gonna shift direction a little bit. Not shift direction. This all goes together. It's Matthew twenty eight eighteen.
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And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, now this is He's ascending.
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Says, all authority has been given to me in the in heaven and earth.
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All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore.
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Go therefore.
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All authority has been given to me Jesus.
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So you go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you.
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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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Amen.
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So, he says, all authority has been given to me, so go.
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Okay.
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So Jesus also in another in another one one of the gospels, he tells the disciples, hey, go to Jerusalem, wait for the promise. The one that we read about in the book of of Ezekiel. I'm gonna give you a new spirit. He's gonna live in you. Right? He says, the helper's gonna come. So this whole time, well Jesus is alive.
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Jesus is walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Right? He's walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. He's teaching people. He's healing. He's being obedient to what he hears the Father say and being empowered by the Holy Spirit on earth. Okay. So he ascends. He's gone. The believers, 120, 120 are left. They go to Jerusalem. They're waiting in the upper room.
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And when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.
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And it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
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And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now you get saved, you acknowledge the Father, you have the holy spirit is the one that brought you there.
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Okay?
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So, you have the holy spirit whether you recognize it or not.
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Maybe that's a controversial teaching. I don't know. But, you have the holy spirit whether you recognize Him speaking to you or not.
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Because when we come to believe in Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit, and He is there to take Jesus' place on the earth like He Jesus was with the disciples, the Holy Spirit is with us, except he's not just with a small group of us, he's with me and you and you and you and you. Okay? He's not he's not he's not limited.
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This is why it was good for him to go away because now we have access All of us have access to the Holy Spirit. Now I believe that you can get hands laid on you and get filled with the Holy Spirit. Absolutely, you can receive your prayer language in that way, but I believe also that when we come and we receive the Holy Spirit that we have been anointed and empowered to serve.
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To serve because we don't get the Holy Spirit so that we can plan our lives and make decisions about our four zero one k's.
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Although that's a perk.
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It's a benefit.
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That's not why we receive the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit. Why?
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Go therefore, make disciples of all nations.
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K.
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Alright.
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Okay.
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Bear with me. Couple more minutes.
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That the God of our Lord oh, this is Ephesians. Sorry. Different book.
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That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling.
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What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the work of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalities and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
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According okay.
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That you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance, and what are the exceeding riches that you may know this. Okay? This is he's not he's he's talk he's writing to the church, but this applies to the the big c church.
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According to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
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Think about that.
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That's power.
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Here?
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Yeah.
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There?
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Yeah.
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In you.
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It's according to the Bible.
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And God is not a man that he should lie, because when God says it, it just happens because he's God.
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Okay.
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Ephesians two.
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But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace, you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
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What does that mean?
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We're seated with Him.
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So Christ, when He ascended, He went and sat at the right hand of the Father, and what does the Bible say? It says, He makes intercession for us to the Father, and we are the extension of Him. He is the head, we are the body. We carry out His work on the earth.
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We are seated with him in heavenly places, but right now on in this role when we are alive here in this place, in this body, this is what we're supposed to do.
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It's a lot to take in y'all.
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Do you understand the authority that we carry?
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The things that we are called to do?
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The things that we are called to do.
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And we don't even have vision for it because we're so busy looking at our calendar.
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Wondering how I'm gonna get this kid to that place and that kid to that place and then still make dinner.
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I'm not saying that life is not important,
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But I'm saying
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that we are called to greater.
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And if our spiritual life is not number one, then we are going to continue to operate subpar.
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Then our life is going to be less than we desire it to be, and we're going to be easily angered, and we're disappointed.
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We're going to be sad about this thing or mad about that thing. We live in a world where like fifteen percent of people are being treated with medication for bipolar, for depression, for anxiety.
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And I'm not saying those are not legitimate illnesses, but the the the living your life under that label and saying that we don't have authority to change that, that is a lie from the enemy, and he's got you by the neck.
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But
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this is the same thing. It's not I'm just using that as an example. It's the same thing if you choose to be addicted to a substance, and you say you don't have any power.
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If you are if you are stuck in a pattern of sin, and you say you can't stop.
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If you do you know that if you have ADHD and you constantly scroll your phone, you are making it worse?
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Do you know that the whole social world that we we are living in right now is designed to make you dependent on greater entities that just want to make money?
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I'm so sorry, I don't wanna be a weirdo, but it's the truth.
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When we get our minds off the things of the world and put them on the things of Christ, then we are able to walk out our calling. It already says that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. We have His authority here. We have the same power that He walked on earth with.
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We have the Holy Spirit.
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It was in us. It is it was in Him. It rested on Him. It remained on Him. It empowered Him to heal. It empowered Him to cast out demons. It empowered Him to heal the sick. I ain't no different.
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You're not any different.
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But do you believe it? Do you believe it? Here's the thing.
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That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man.
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That's your soul.
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Right? That's the thing that feels all the feelings.
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That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints.
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What is the width and the length and the depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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And that brings us back to Romans five.
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But we also glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope.
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Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
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Do you believe that you were created with purpose?
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Do you believe that God loves you? Do you believe that He sees where you are and He wants you? He wants you close.
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He wants to love you, but He also wants you to walk in the power and the authority that He has given you. No more excuses.
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Do not live the way the world has called you to live as trying to get coerce you into living with lies, with promises of being full, but it never satisfies the life that we are to live in Jesus.
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It is truly full.
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It is truly joy.
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It is truly peace. The world cannot give you peace. Substance cannot give you peace. A physical physical feeling cannot give you peace.
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He said peace I leave with you.
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Peace I give you though not like the world gives.
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This is the peace of Jesus, but here's what I want you to understand.
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We're gonna suffer. But suffer doesn't mean like, oh, it's my life is so hard. I hate it every it's it's Lord, this is so hard.
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Help me.
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Help me focus on the thing that's before me so I can do I can I can do this situation well?
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Help me see the outcome or at least help me see tomorrow.
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And if you're not even there, help me see the next ten minutes.
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We are pressed. That tribulation, that's just being pressed. It's being under pressure. That's all that is and it is part of life. The bible says, Jesus says when you, like about prayer, about fasting.
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The bible also says when you suffer tribulation, when you when you face persecution, this is part of life.
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And so what happens is we are to go through this. But what we do is because we're flesh, we looked to what is available.
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What can I eat right now?
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Food is obviously what I'm gonna go to.
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Can I drink right now that is gonna make me just let me just let me just let me just let me I was going through a really hard time in my life and my doctor prescribed me Ativan?
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And for those of you that don't know, it's like a hardcore sedative. This was when I was in college.
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And I remember taking it. And it's funny because I remember taking it. I would take it when I would get really upset because I was like borderline suicidal. The enemy tried hard to take me out.
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And so I would take it, and I would go to sleep.
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Those of you that know, know.
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And it's like when you wake up from that, it's like, well, at least I didn't die.
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You know, at least I didn't kill myself.
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But that's the way of the world.
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See, when we succumb to the pressure, then we come outside of what the plan of God actually is.
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And so he wants us to persevere.
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So when we persevere, when we stay focused on him, when we stay focused on his promises, when we empower the holy spirit in us to work through us, to encourage us. When we take on and put on the mind of Christ.
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When we make take, we take every thought captive and we make it obedient to the to however the rest of that scripture goes. You know what saying.
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I'm sorry. I can't remember. You know what I'm saying. You take every thought captive. Right? You make it obey what Jesus says. You take it captive.
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You don't let it go. Because what happens when you let it go?
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That's your easy way out.
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Be in your sadness.
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Let your inner man just feel all your feelings. Let me just feel this and I'm gonna be okay. No. You're gonna renew your mind. You're gonna wash your face. You're gonna get up and you're gonna go out and you're gonna change the freaking world. Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. But I mean it.
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But I mean it with my whole heart.
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Stop letting the enemy get a hold of you because he takes ground in your life. And before you know it, you're standing in the exact same place that you were last year.
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And the year before that. Are you gonna take round this year?
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Are you gonna let him take you over, put you on like Gideon?
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Is that what you want?
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Because, man, he will.
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He will put you on. He will put you on.
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He will take you, and he will make you into a new creation if you let him.
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This is not just a message for the new believer. This is a message for the believers that have been believing for years and years and years. Is your life new in Christ every day? Do you let it be?
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Oh God,
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I just I pray everyday like don't ever let my my spiritual walk with you be mundane.
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Don't ever let me take for granted the times that I get to hold a microphone or hold a baby.
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Don't ever let me take for granted the things that you've called me to do because I'm in my feelings.
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Because I've chosen to let my feelings or my my weakness, my flesh overtake my spirit and drown out the sound of the Holy Spirit that says, I've called you to this.
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I've called you to this moment.
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Character there. It's character that has survived the fire.
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And what does that do?
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It creates and develops hope in us.
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And hope does not disappoint
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Because the love of the father has been poured out into our hearts today.
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And every day, the love of the father has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So,
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if you're struggling with hope, folks, hear me when I say, you don't have a faith problem. You don't have a hope problem. You have a character problem, and you need to push a little further.
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You need to be a little more perseverant.
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You need to push a little harder before you give in. You need to be determined to not give in. You need to be determined to leave that thing in the past. You need to be determined to walk away from that relationship.
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You need to be determined that you are not gonna live your life like that any longer, and you are gonna look forward to the things that are before you, the joy that is set before you, the things that God has for you.
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry, you can go to our website abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.