How to Talk to God and Hear Him

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy and you are joining us

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for our weekly service online.

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Now, Crossroads is a community that spans

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the entire globe and a church that you can

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fully belong to, no matter who you are

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and where you live.

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This service is aimed at helping us figure out

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how we can follow Jesus wherever we are.

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Now, three things are about to happen.

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First, we're going to start off our time in worship.

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Then we're going to hear from one of

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our teaching pastors, Alli Patterson.

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And third, we're going to take communion together

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as a church, which we'll talk more about later on.

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So first, we're about to worship, which is

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a time of singing songs about God and to Him.

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Worship isn't just something that happens

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in a room with a band and a bunch of lights

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and fog machines. No.

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Truly, you can worship God wherever you are.

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So let's lean in and do that together right now.

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- So maybe this is your first time here.

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Maybe you've been here a few times.

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Maybe you've been here a bajillion times.

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But what you might not know is that

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all the songs that we sing here,

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in the context of worship, are rooted in the Bible.

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Meaning that the crux of the song,

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the way we talk about God,

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the way we talk about ourselves

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is all rooted in Scripture.

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The same way we want our lives to be

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a reflection of the way we see Scripture play out.

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And in the middle of the Old Testament

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there's a big book called Psalms.

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And what I love about it, it's like poems,

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exhortations, journal entries from people

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who are just fumbling their way towards God.

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And if you've read the whole thing,

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you'll find there's tons of scriptures

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that talk about how creation worships,

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things that God made with His words and His breath,

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they worship Him. Psalm 19 says this.

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It says, well, I'll tell you what it says.

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It says -- oh, there it is. It says:

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Have you ever walked up to the Grand Canyon,

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or to a mountain, or seen a sunset

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and just thought, "Oh my God"?

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That's nature proclaiming the goodness of God.

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And how much more you and I,

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made in the image of God,

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His very image in flesh and blood,

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you and I, when we choose to join in with nature,

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the worship that we can bring to Him.

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Now imagine if we didn't have to contend with fear,

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if we didn't have to contend with anger

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or brokenness, or maybe your history,

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maybe your baggage.

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Well guess what? I think that right now,

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when we come together in the presence of God,

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we can do just that; we can worship Him

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the way we were intended to.

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I want to teach you this chorus that says

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we're joined with creation.

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We'll never stop singing because

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we'll never find the end of God's goodness.

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It goes like this.

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- Father, we sing Holy.

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Holy, holy, and we partner with the angels

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who sing nonstop.

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We partner with creation that sings Your praise,

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that operates the way that You created it,

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the skies, the plants, the waters, the mountains.

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God, we echo Your praises throughout the earth.

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We sing Holy.

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That's a great thing to sing because

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it's a great reminder of who You are and who we are.

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God, You're holy, You're matchless,

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You're the Creator, You're the King.

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You understand the beginning

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and you understand the end.

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That makes You worthy of praise,

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so we give it back to You.

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We give it back to You with our mouths,

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with our attention, with our bodies, with our time.

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We say holy because that's who You are.

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Thank You for that reminder today.

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It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen? Amen. Come on.

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I love worshiping the Lord with you in this place.

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Hey, if you're next to somebody you don't know,

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why don't you turn to 'em and tell 'em your name,

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maybe give 'em a handshake, introduce yourself.

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We're one family here.

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Then you can have a seat.

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- So you could be watching

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literally anything right now. Seriously.

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There is an internet full of stuff,

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but you're here and that tells me something about you.

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That tells me that you want to grow,

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maybe in your relationships,

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maybe in your self-confidence, maybe in your faith.

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Helping you grow is the entire reason this church exists,

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and it's what God wants for you, too.

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We grow when we stretch ourselves

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and when we push past our comfort zones.

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And there are going to be a few ways

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for you to do that today.

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But one that I want to call out

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is through the practice of generosity.

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Giving my money, being generous

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and trusting God with my finances

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has almost never been easy for me.

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But on the other side of it, I experience freedom,

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I'm less selfish, and I have more peace

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through the process of surrendering.

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This is a continual practice for me and my family

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through what we call the tithe,

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which is just giving a portion of what we earn

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back to our local church.

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And for me, that's Crossroads.

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You can join me and find more out about

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this ancient practice at Crossroads.net/give.

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Right now we're about to hear from

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one of our teaching pastors, Alli Patterson,

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as we kick off our series How to Hear from God.

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We'll be taking communion together later on,

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so grab some bread or crackers or some wine or juice,

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whatever you have around you.

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Get that now and let's hear from Alli.

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- Get ready for an epic journey to discover

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how we can connect with the living God

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that created the universe, and you and me.

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From the dawn of time to present day,

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each week, we'll look in the library of books

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that make up the Bible to learn

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how we've been able to connect to God

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since the dawn of time,

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through the epic stories of history,

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the soul stirring beauty of poetry,

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the depths of prophecy,

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the revolutionary life and teachings of Jesus,

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and letters of the early church.

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This isn't just a study;

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it's an adventure of discovery

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and where faith comes alive.

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- The first time I heard that song,

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I hit repeat at the end of it.

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And then when it got to the end,

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I hit repeat again.

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There was something about that song

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that really drew me in, and I think it's the reason

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that you're tuning in or that you got in your car

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and drove here today.

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I think that the question we all end up at

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at some point or another is, is there a God

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who's actually making decisions and plans

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and designs for my life and for the world around me?

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My name is Alli Patterson,

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and I'm one of the teaching pastors

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here at Crossroads.

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And it's that question that we have on our mind

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in the creation of the next few weeks

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where we're exploring can we actually have

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an exchange with a living God?

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I can tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

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that any time my life has shifted significantly

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as a result of my faith, it's because

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at the heart of it was an interaction

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where God and I came together,

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where I heard Him.

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So we're talking about how to hear from God

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both today and in the coming few weeks,

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and I hope to give you some space today.

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I hope that you feel that in this next half hour,

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just some space to actually hear from Him yourself.

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15, maybe almost 16 years ago, something like that

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took place in a service that I was not in

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here at Crossroads, but my husband was in that service.

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I had stayed home, I was sick or our babies were sick,

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I can't remember, somebody was sick.

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And so Bill came to church without me that day.

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And we had been having a conversation.

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We had two little boys, two baby boys at the time,

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and we'd been having a conversation about

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whether we were going to have any more kids.

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And I would say he was sort of leaning toward

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the "I'm good" side of the spectrum.

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And he came to the service and Chuck Mingo

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was preaching that day, and he gave a moment

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of silence, like, I think it might have been 60s,

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a full minute of silence.

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And my husband came home and he goes,

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"Well, Chuck gave us some time to hear from God today.

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I guess we're going to have another baby.

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Thanks a lot, Chuck." [laughter]

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And we've been laughing about that service

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for 15 years because, if you don't know it,

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we actually have four kids

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and we only had two at the time.

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So something happened in that minute.

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Something happened where my husband and God connected.

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They communicated in a way that

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they both understood, but nothing took place out loud.

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So what is that?

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How do you actually hear from God?

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That's the question on the table

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and what I hope happens for every single one of us

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that's come here today. Let me pray for us.

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Lord, we want to hear You.

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We want to know, are You designing our life?

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Are You here with us? And what are You doing?

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And we have some questions.

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And so I pray that You would be in

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a living exchange through Your Spirit

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with every one of us in here today.

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Thank You that You are plenty big enough

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and plenty kind enough to do that.

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In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Okay, I want you to take a deep breath with me.

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We're going to start our time together.

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Deep breath, in two, out two. Ready?

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I wanted to start that way because I feel like

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that just a big exhale is what I hope that

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this day feels like for you, or at least this hour.

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Maybe your day hasn't felt like that,

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but I hope the next hour does.

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I'm not going to ask you to do anything.

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All I'm going to ask is that you are open to receive.

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We're going to talk about how to hear from God

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through the practice of just receiving.

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Maybe you've never thought about that

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as a spiritual practice.

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I happen to believe it's actually the foundation

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of hearing anything from God.

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And to receive is the antithesis of doing.

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We spend our life doing, right?

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You wake up, some of us have a to do list.

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Some of us just know there are things

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that have to happen today,

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and we spend our lives doing to get things.

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And we accidentally, sometimes, I think,

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apply that mentality to our connection with God,

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but that's not how He operates, thank goodness.

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He actually wants you to just come open and willing

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to receive what He has to give you.

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And kids are a great example of receiving.

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They might be the best receivers.

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I've never seen a kid in front of a present

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that stops to wonder about how it got there,

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how, what might be in there, who gave it?

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Is it mine? They just want to open it, right?

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Kids are amazing receivers.

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I will never forget my youngest daughter

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at her fifth birthday party.

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She was in front of her pile of presents

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and she was just, everything was amazing.

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She opened up every single present

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and it was just as amazing as the last.

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She even got something we later called

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Garage Sale Kitty.

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It was just like this mangy looking cat

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from someone, you know, a stuffed cat.

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She loved Garage Sale Kitty just as much as

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she loved everything else.

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She just received all of it.

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One of my friends was standing next to me

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and she goes, "This is so fun watching her open presents.

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I think I'm going to get her another one

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and bring it to you tomorrow."

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She was just this exuberant, amazing receiver.

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But as we grow up, we get a little worse at it.

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We moved to the side of the receiving spectrum

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where we're like, "Oh no, no, no, no, no.

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No really, no, really no."

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We just can't do it.

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We start receiving a little bit more like my cat.

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I have a cat. Dogs are way better receivers.

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Cats? Not so much.

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The other day I was following her around.

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I just wanted to pet her, I really did.

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She likes it.

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And she was scampering ahead of me,

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sat under the dining room table just out of reach.

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And when I finally thought I might reach her,

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she got up and moved 3 feet away and just looked at me.

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And I was like, "Cat, really?

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I'm trying to rub your belly.

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You like it? Just let me love you."

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This is a little bit closer to where we all

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tend to drift toward receiving from God,

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receiving from others as we age.

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What is it about getting older?

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I don't know. Living life.

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Maybe we just learn that's really

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not how life works, right?

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People don't just show up and give you things.

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Who wants to be an object lesson for me?

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Disclaimer before you put your hand up in the air,

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you're going to have to come up here on stage.

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Anyone want to be an object lesson?

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Okay, I see some hands over here in this section

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and you're close to the steps, so you win.

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You, right there. One, two, three.

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And, yep. Come on up here. Okay.

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Thank you for volunteering to be

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our object lesson in receiving today.

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What's your name? - Myles.

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- Myles. Nice to meet you.

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Okay, Myles, would you say that you tend to receive

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more like a five year old kid at a birthday party

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or more like a cat? Where are you on that?

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More like a cat. Okay.

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So that was really brave of you to come up here.

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Good job. I have something for you.

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Would you like to receive it?

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- Yeah. - Okay.

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What is this? - A $100 bill.

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- I just gave Myles a $100 bill.

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And that is for you, if you will receive it.

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How do you feel right now? - Pretty good.

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- You feel pretty good? You feel like he feels?

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He said he feels like God just blessed him.

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Well, bless you. Receive that.

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I hope it is a blessing to you, that really is yours.

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- Thanks. - You're welcome.

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Okay, back you go.

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Myles just received $100, because

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guess what Myles did?

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He put his hand up in the air and he said,

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"I will take something." That is a good receiver.

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And I know that right here in this space

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where we are gathered as a community today

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and anywhere our community is gathered,

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that God can meet every single one of us

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and give us something far, far, far more valuable

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to our life than $100 bill, as good as that is.

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I believe that God has something for each of us today.

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And I think it's going to come wrapped

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in a personal package for you.

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But my hunch is that it could be in one of

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three big categories that God tends to talk with us

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and want us to receive from Him a lot.

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And so we're going to practice receiving

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three different kinds of things today.

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And we're going to practice together for real.

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And the first one is to receive His favor.

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Receive favor. As soon as I say the word favor,

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it's not a great word.

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Usually when we say that word,

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we mean that someone else is getting it and we're not.

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Like at work, who's willing to admit

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there's a guy at work who always gets

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the better projects, the better clients,

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the better trips, he gets sent to better places.

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We as a parent, I have sat at basketball games

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or volleyball games and gone, like,

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"The coach's kid always gets more playing time,

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clearly being favored, right?"

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The word favor kind of conjures up situations

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that seem like even a little bit unfair.

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We have this thing about fairness.

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It just comes wired in us.

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We really want things to be fair,

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but God actually wants us to receive favor.

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God doesn't deal in fairness.

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God actually deals in favor.

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I was trying to teach my kids this.

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Well, I don't know, maybe halfway.

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And also I just wanted some ice cream.

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But when we were out at ice cream,

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this has happened more than one time

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as they were growing up.

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I don't eat a whole, like, a whole cup of ice cream

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because it upsets my stomach,

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but I can handle a few bites.

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And so I would take a clean spoon

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and I'd be like, "Who? Who gets to give mom a bite?"

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And they're all like, "Not me," you know,

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"Take his, take hers."

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And so I'd choose somebody

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and I would have a bite of ice cream

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because I would only take 1 or 2 bites.

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Relax, kids.

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And they would inevitably say, "That's not fair.

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Take his. That's not fair. I don't --"

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And I said, "You know what? You don't want fair.

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Let me tell you what fair looks like

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in this little scenario.

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Fair looks like me taking and eating

00:36:26

all of your ice cream because I just paid for it.

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That's fair. You don't want fair."

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We don't want fair with God

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because of that exact same thing.

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We really don't want God to be fair with us

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because fair doesn't turn out very well for us with God.

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We should be celebrating the fact that

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God actually wants us to receive favor.

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It's just really difficult to get that through

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our head because what we want is fairness.

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But God's unfairness to us actually has a name

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that we read a lot in the Bible. It's called grace.

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Grace is God's unfairness to us.

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Grace is undeserved favor from a God

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who didn't have to give it.

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He didn't have to do anything

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that looks like anything toward us.

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And yet, over and over and over in the Bible,

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we learn that He is a God of grace.

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And it throws us off because we have

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a hard time with that concept.

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It's actually a uniquely Christian concept.

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And in our life experience, we kind of understand

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that favor and grace coming toward us

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is often not really how it works.

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But if you want to hear the voice of God,

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you have to hear a voice speaking favor over your life,

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speaking grace to you, wanting to actually give to you.

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And if you want to hear God, you also need Jesus.

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You need Jesus to hear Him because

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He is the ambassador of grace.

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God only speaks by grace through grace

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and for the purpose of grace into your life.

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But to hear that, we need the ambassador of Grace.

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His name is Jesus.

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He came on a mission of grace.

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That's what He was doing from the very beginning.

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In Ephesians 2 it says this outright.

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Jesus came on a mission of grace

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and the favor that He offers us,

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the favor that He offers us

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was a terribly unfair trade,

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but unfair in the best possible way.

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He traded His perfect life to save ours,

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that is racked with sin.

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That verse says that we were dead in our sin,

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and He came and made a terribly unfair,

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a beautifully unfair trade.

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And receiving Him and understanding that,

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it's almost like it opens our ears,

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it tunes our ears to grace.

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And the more we get who He is and what He did,

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and the more we receive Him,

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the more we kind of lean in and we go, like,

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"That was amazing. Is there more amazing for me?

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Is there more grace for me?"

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And the answer is yes.

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Actually, Scripture says that we receive

00:39:20

grace upon grace from Him.

00:39:24

And so as we receive Jesus, we receive a life of favor.

00:39:29

But it's shocking.

00:39:30

It's just not what we expect out of God.

00:39:33

We miss His voice because

00:39:35

we are so suspicious of this idea.

00:39:37

It's like me when I had a meeting with a boss

00:39:41

that I reported to here at Crossroads

00:39:42

a couple of years ago.

00:39:43

Nicest boss I've ever had.

00:39:46

Very, very real about that.

00:39:48

Even working at a church where, you know,

00:39:50

you're kind of like whatever,

00:39:52

you're paid to be nice, right? Just kidding.

00:39:54

There are still nicer bosses than other bosses.

00:39:57

And so here's our first meeting.

00:39:58

We had been friendly. I certainly knew him,

00:40:00

but I'd never, you know, I'd never reported to him before.

00:40:03

So we meet and he goes, "So,"

00:40:07

and he looks at me like really earnestly, really intently.

00:40:09

He's like, "How are you doing?"

00:40:14

And I went, "Why? Who told you to ask?

00:40:20

What did you hear?"

00:40:21

And he was like, "Is there is there anything

00:40:24

that I could do this week that

00:40:26

would actually help you in your work?"

00:40:30

And I was like, "Who says I need help?

00:40:32

Do you think I need help?

00:40:33

What do you think I need help with?"

00:40:35

And he's like, "Wow, you need to just stop.

00:40:38

Deep breath. I'm actually just trying to bless you.

00:40:44

I'm actually just trying to bless you."

00:40:47

What? What if it's as simple as that?

00:40:50

What if that's what God is doing?

00:40:52

What if your ear can't hear it

00:40:56

because you're not expecting that,

00:40:58

you're not expecting Him to favor you?

00:41:02

I think about how I think about

00:41:03

my own kids when I think about this.

00:41:05

I want to give them things.

00:41:07

I want to give them connections that might

00:41:10

help them in some area of their life.

00:41:11

I want to give them gifts

00:41:13

that I know they're going to love.

00:41:16

What if that's what God is trying to do,

00:41:18

and He wants you to receive

00:41:19

something like that from Him today?

00:41:21

He wants you to receive a kindness, a favor.

00:41:23

Maybe it's a connection to Jesus

00:41:26

for the very first time so that He can unlock

00:41:30

a life of favor and blessing over you

00:41:32

like you have never imagined.

00:41:35

Maybe He just has one kind word for you.

00:41:39

Maybe He wants to affirm a plan or a purpose

00:41:42

that you think is beyond your reach

00:41:44

and He's got something else to say about that.

00:41:49

Right now, I want a blessing to be sung over you,

00:41:54

and all I want you to do is receive it.

00:41:56

And if you want to receive it,

00:41:59

you can sing back only one word, and that is Amen.

00:42:02

There's going to be several through the song.

00:42:04

And if you want to join in

00:42:06

and actually receive the blessing of the words

00:42:08

that are being sung over you, you can just sing Amen.

00:42:12

Do you know what Amen means?

00:42:14

It means so may it be.

00:42:17

It's an affirmation of receiving,

00:42:20

I agree, I receive. So receive.

00:44:52

- I don't know what you may have heard,

00:44:53

but I was sitting there, I got tears in my eyes

00:44:55

and I just heard that word, "God is for me."

00:44:58

God is for me. God is for me.

00:45:01

That's crazy.

00:45:02

And I think he said it 4 or 5 times in a row.

00:45:05

It took me that many times for it to sink in.

00:45:07

So I'm definitely up here receiving

00:45:11

with the rest of you right now.

00:45:12

The second thing we're going to practice

00:45:14

receiving together today is forgiveness.

00:45:18

To receive forgiveness is a fundamental way

00:45:23

that God will speak to you, not just once,

00:45:26

but over and over and over again.

00:45:29

God wants you to receive forgiveness.

00:45:32

The entire point of Him sending His Son to earth,

00:45:37

who lived a perfect life and died a death

00:45:40

He didn't deserve on a Cross,

00:45:41

the entire point of that was forgiveness.

00:45:44

Listen to what Acts 10 says. It says:

00:45:49

(referring to Jesus)

00:45:56

Everyone who receives Jesus receives forgiveness.

00:46:02

God had this age old plan.

00:46:04

It says the prophets testified about Jesus

00:46:06

many, many, many generations before.

00:46:09

And the whole point of this age old plan

00:46:12

that God has was so that Jesus could come

00:46:15

so that you and I could receive forgiveness.

00:46:20

Now, I don't know who God is in your mind,

00:46:23

but the God in our minds that it really matters.

00:46:26

For many, many years God in my mind was like a --

00:46:30

He was more of a I told you so God.

00:46:34

Like I would mess up and He'd be like, "I told you,

00:46:37

you should have seen that one coming, right?

00:46:40

I mean, like, you kind of knew, didn't you?"

00:46:43

And I always viewed Him as

00:46:45

this lesson teaching God, you know, the God

00:46:48

that was like, always looking for a little rug pull

00:46:51

to teach me a hard lesson.

00:46:53

And then just to say, like, "Yeah,

00:46:55

you should have seen that coming, I told you.

00:46:57

I told you to stay away from that.

00:47:00

I told you not to go there.

00:47:02

I told you not to be with that person.

00:47:03

I warned you about that."

00:47:05

And now that kind of God,

00:47:08

what do you expect Him to say to you?

00:47:10

What do you expect him to say?

00:47:13

You expect Him to say things like,

00:47:16

"You probably need to really feel this for a while."

00:47:21

Or you expect him to just really want you

00:47:24

to strive for His approval

00:47:26

on the flip side of something, right?

00:47:29

That's the kind of God that lived in my mind

00:47:31

for many, many years.

00:47:33

And I wanted to believe that I was forgiven,

00:47:37

but it was very, very hard to believe that

00:47:40

you're forgiven when that's the concept of God.

00:47:42

What we believe that God thinks about our screw ups

00:47:45

makes a massive difference in whether

00:47:47

we can hear His voice,

00:47:49

because He wants to speak forgiveness.

00:47:52

And I don't know about you, but none of us

00:47:54

are going to stop messing up any time soon.

00:47:56

This is a fundamental thing that we need

00:47:58

to be able to hear His voice saying to us.

00:48:03

What if He's actually speaking kindness to us?

00:48:05

What if His point when we mess up is actually

00:48:09

to say, "Please come to Me, don't run from Me.

00:48:13

That's that's not what I want."

00:48:14

What if His voice is gentle and His Spirit is kind

00:48:18

and and the whole point of your connection

00:48:22

is that restoration would occur,

00:48:24

that reconciliation would occur,

00:48:26

that love would blossom again wherever it's not.

00:48:30

And that kind of God is speaking

00:48:32

very different kinds of things.

00:48:35

I'll tell you what the voice of God never sounds like.

00:48:37

It never sounds like condemnation.

00:48:41

The voice of God never sounds like shame.

00:48:44

The voice of God will never want to cancel you.

00:48:47

The voice of God is not trying

00:48:49

to get you to pay a high price,

00:48:52

stew in all your pain for just

00:48:54

a little while longer till you learn your lesson.

00:48:56

This is not the voice of God.

00:48:59

John 3:17 says:

00:49:12

What we assume about God as we

00:49:15

fumble our way through life makes a huge difference

00:49:19

to the voice of forgiveness,

00:49:20

whether we ever actually hear that.

00:49:22

And when we do all He asks,

00:49:25

not that we pay a high penance,

00:49:27

He asks that we actually just receive

00:49:31

His forgiveness.

00:49:34

The Bible talks about the way that we do this,

00:49:36

and it's really a biblical word called repentance,

00:49:39

but all it means is a changing of direction.

00:49:41

So you can think of repentance as like a stop,

00:49:44

a turning back to God and a going back toward Him

00:49:48

to say to him again, "Thank You for Your forgiveness.

00:49:52

I'll take it," again and again

00:49:55

and again and again and again.

00:50:00

And so when we want to hear God,

00:50:03

when we want to tune our ears to His voice,

00:50:06

we have to get our mind right about

00:50:08

what's He going to be saying when we mess up?

00:50:10

Because this is just a reality of our life.

00:50:13

And actually, it's the thing I think

00:50:15

I've heard over, over the years that I've been here

00:50:19

as a pastor in this church.

00:50:21

I think the thing that drives people away from God

00:50:25

quicker than anything else is when they hit a wall,

00:50:29

when they really mess up.

00:50:31

And believe me, I get this.

00:50:33

And what you want to do is run and hide,

00:50:35

and what God wants you to do is

00:50:36

actually turn around from exactly where you are

00:50:38

and come back to Him

00:50:39

and listen to Him speaking forgiveness.

00:50:41

If Jesus is your Lord, you're covered in it 24/7.

00:50:45

Yesterday's mess ups, today's mess up,

00:50:49

and all the ones that you're about to walk into

00:50:52

in the future.

00:50:53

How's that for some good news?

00:50:56

It actually never runs out.

00:50:58

I needed this a couple weeks ago.

00:51:00

A few weeks ago now I was -- I'm not --

00:51:03

I'm going to be honest.

00:51:04

Probably at the end of August was maybe

00:51:06

a real low point for me as far as energy.

00:51:09

I was just on empty in every possible way.

00:51:11

For some good reasons, for some emotional reasons,

00:51:14

for some bad reasons, I was just like below E,

00:51:17

I'm on fumes.

00:51:18

And you know when you're in that space,

00:51:21

you just don't have the margin to absorb a lot.

00:51:24

And so we have four teenagers in the house,

00:51:26

and one of my kids just showed up one day with a --

00:51:30

It wasn't a new, not a new issue,

00:51:33

just an ongoing struggle in the life

00:51:36

of this particular child and shows up one day

00:51:38

with this struggle coming at me with,

00:51:40

you know, pushback and tears and needs

00:51:43

and a little bit of attitude.

00:51:44

And I just did not have it in me.

00:51:46

I couldn't, I didn't have what I needed

00:51:49

and I could tell it was going to go badly.

00:51:51

It was one of those interactions where, like,

00:51:53

I knew in about five seconds,

00:51:55

this is not going to go well because

00:51:58

I'm seeing all my own red flags

00:52:00

and I'm starting to say things

00:52:02

and I'm like, "Stop saying things.

00:52:04

This isn't going to go well." You know?

00:52:05

And it's one of those that just escalates.

00:52:07

I can feel my blood pressure rise.

00:52:09

And I knew I was saying the wrong thing.

00:52:11

And I work really hard as a mom

00:52:13

to be a soft landing place, like a safe space

00:52:16

when my kids struggle with something.

00:52:18

And so I knew that I was hurting that

00:52:20

in this exchange and in all the things.

00:52:22

And I felt like I had a choice.

00:52:24

Like, I can turn around and walk away

00:52:25

and kind of try to minimize the damage here,

00:52:27

or I can just let this further explode.

00:52:31

And no good choice on the table at the end of the day.

00:52:35

I knew that after the exchange

00:52:37

that I had hurt some feelings and that I had really

00:52:40

not been the kind of parent that I wanted to be.

00:52:44

And it kind of killed me a little bit.

00:52:46

And the worst part of it was that I knew

00:52:49

even if I rewound that situation,

00:52:51

that I walked into it not having

00:52:52

what I needed to deal with it.

00:52:54

And I would have probably messed it up,

00:52:55

even if I could have gone back to the beginning.

00:52:57

I just didn't have it in me,

00:52:59

and that killed me even a little bit more.

00:53:02

And so I was really beating myself up

00:53:03

about this particular interaction because

00:53:05

I just -- it just came really close to the heart

00:53:08

of who I want to be in my home and my family.

00:53:11

And I just couldn't let myself off the hook for it.

00:53:15

And I had an interaction with God over this,

00:53:19

and it was probably a day or two after.

00:53:22

And I was, you know, I'm doing the internal spiral

00:53:25

thing where you keep replaying and you're like,

00:53:27

"This is -- this is not good."

00:53:29

And I was sitting there with my eyes closed,

00:53:31

and I actually had, like, I think God gives us

00:53:34

an imagination for a reason.

00:53:36

And I had this little interaction with God,

00:53:38

something I was seeing in my imagination.

00:53:41

That's the best way I could put it.

00:53:42

And what I'd like to do is I'd like to

00:53:44

walk you through what I saw, because I think

00:53:47

it would -- it could potentially help you

00:53:49

to receive forgiveness in a place where

00:53:51

maybe you're stuck and you can't

00:53:52

let yourself off the hook for something.

00:53:54

Are you game for that? Okay.

00:53:56

So I want you to close your eyes

00:53:59

and I want you to think about,

00:54:01

because that's where I was when this happened.

00:54:03

And so I want you to think about the thing.

00:54:05

Maybe it's just like you said

00:54:07

a mean thing in a meeting at work today.

00:54:09

And, you know, man, it's always that same guy

00:54:13

or whatever. But maybe it's a big thing.

00:54:15

Maybe you've, like, really messed up

00:54:17

with a key relationship in your life.

00:54:20

Maybe you're not talking to your kid,

00:54:21

or maybe you've messed up a marriage or two.

00:54:24

Maybe you've stolen something that nobody else knows about.

00:54:27

I don't know, it could be anything

00:54:29

in a community this size.

00:54:32

I don't care what it is.

00:54:34

I just want that thing in your mind, okay?

00:54:36

Just between you and God.

00:54:39

Now, I want you to picture

00:54:41

a pair of eyes looking at you.

00:54:43

Really kind, straight at you.

00:54:45

Eye contact, full eye contact.

00:54:49

Kind, warm, smiling eyes. The kindest.

00:54:53

And they know you and you know these eyes.

00:54:56

Almost makes you smile just looking at them

00:54:58

because you feel invited and warm.

00:55:02

And those are the eyes that I saw.

00:55:05

So see those eyes and locked on yours.

00:55:09

And you know that it's Jesus.

00:55:11

You know it's Jesus because no one else is this warm.

00:55:15

No one else's love feels quite like this.

00:55:18

This is Jesus. These are His eyes.

00:55:23

And now take a wider look at the scene that He's in.

00:55:27

These eyes are actually in His body.

00:55:29

And He's somewhere. He's in a scene

00:55:33

and it's an angry scene.

00:55:34

There's soldiers pushing Him around.

00:55:37

There's a crowd yelling, and they push Him

00:55:41

forward into the middle of the ring.

00:55:43

But His eyes actually never leave yours.

00:55:47

They're locked in.

00:55:51

And they start to hit Him.

00:55:52

The soldiers that are with Him,

00:55:54

they actually start to hit Him.

00:55:55

And you think He's going to look away,

00:55:57

but He does not look away.

00:55:59

And you're horrified.

00:56:01

You watch this scene unfold

00:56:04

and you never lose eye contact

00:56:06

and He takes hit after hit after hit after hit.

00:56:11

And He never stops looking at you.

00:56:15

And you finally get it.

00:56:19

He's there for you.

00:56:25

He has stepped into your place.

00:56:27

You've been accused of something,

00:56:29

and He's stepped into your place

00:56:32

and He's asking you to get it.

00:56:37

And He's intent on your eyes.

00:56:40

And as you get it, you exchange a look,

00:56:43

you understand. He understands that, you know.

00:56:47

And you watch as they nail Him to a Cross

00:56:53

and stand Him up. And you never leave.

00:56:55

You hang back and you keep watching His eyes

00:56:59

and He keeps looking at you.

00:57:06

And you start to think that the worst thing

00:57:09

you could possibly do would be

00:57:11

to reject this act of love.

00:57:19

And He keeps looking at you

00:57:21

until the very last second

00:57:23

when He says three little words:

00:57:29

It is finished.

00:57:36

And then He closes his eyes

00:57:38

and He gives up His spirit.

00:57:44

It's finished. It's finished.

00:57:50

Receive the forgiveness.

00:57:55

It's finished.

00:58:01

Amen.

00:58:06

As you open your eyes,

00:58:10

it's tough to come out of that. Yes?

00:58:17

As you open your eyes, and some of us in here

00:58:19

have received forgiveness for something

00:58:24

we've been running from or running from God in.

00:58:29

And I'll tell you, I thought a lot about

00:58:31

the last thing I want us to receive today.

00:58:34

And I was really struggling over it because

00:58:36

there's this laundry list of things

00:58:38

that we would like to receive from God.

00:58:40

Maybe some of us would ask for wisdom or power

00:58:44

or courage or patience, or any number of things

00:58:48

that the Bible says are available to us.

00:58:51

We can ask God for these things.

00:58:53

And I kept thinking like, how in the world

00:58:55

do I just pick a few?

00:58:56

There's lots of things we could talk about

00:58:58

receiving from God.

00:59:00

And I started reading and reading,

00:59:01

and it was so fascinating to me

00:59:03

that almost everything that I came across

00:59:06

in the way of specific things that

00:59:08

you might ask God for, they're actually

00:59:11

byproducts of one core thing.

00:59:14

So that's the thing that

00:59:16

we're going to receive together,

00:59:18

because it translates into so many other things.

00:59:22

We are going to receive faith.

00:59:26

Receiving faith is something that

00:59:30

the voice of God is going to be speaking to you.

00:59:33

He's going to be offering you chance after chance

00:59:36

after chance to receive a deeper faith,

00:59:39

because faith is the doorway

00:59:40

to all those other things that you want

00:59:43

and that you need, and that you might ask God for

00:59:46

in the living of your life.

00:59:48

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians:

00:59:53

We live by faith and not by sight.

00:59:57

He contrasts two different ways of living.

00:59:59

There's living by faith

01:00:01

and there's living by sight.

01:00:02

I would just say what he meant by sight

01:00:05

is what he meant by sight,

01:00:06

what you can see of and in the world.

01:00:09

And then there's another realm

01:00:11

that you could live in called by faith.

01:00:13

In the New Testament, we learn that lots of things

01:00:16

that we actually want in our spiritual life

01:00:19

come only by faith.

01:00:21

The New Testament has tons of examples.

01:00:23

I just wrote down a few.

01:00:24

Hearts change by faith.

01:00:25

We discover and use the gifts that God gives us by faith.

01:00:29

We stand firm in temptation by faith.

01:00:32

We give generously by faith.

01:00:36

We grow in holiness by faith.

01:00:39

Faith, faith, faith, faith over and over and over again.

01:00:42

It's the key to unlocking the life

01:00:44

that you were made for in following Christ.

01:00:47

When God speaks, He's going to invite you

01:00:49

into opportunities to have more faith.

01:00:52

And in my personal experience, this almost always

01:00:54

sounds like His voice asking you to take a risk.

01:01:01

That's what I've discovered in this realm

01:01:04

of His voice, and what it looks like

01:01:06

to actually receive a deeper, bigger, bolder faith.

01:01:09

He almost always will put a risk in front of you.

01:01:13

And his voice is saying, "Will you do it?

01:01:18

Will you come this way? Will you give that thing?

01:01:20

Will you go to that place?

01:01:22

Will you trust me in this? Will you take a risk?"

01:01:26

This is almost always

01:01:28

what His voice sounds like in this realm.

01:01:30

Because receiving more faith is actually

01:01:32

fundamentally about trusting His Word over other words.

01:01:38

Or we could go back to Paul and say

01:01:40

His way of life by faith

01:01:42

over the world's way of life by sight.

01:01:45

And faith grows when these two collide

01:01:47

and we have to make a decision, which one?

01:01:50

Romans 10:17 says that:

01:01:58

Faith comes through words about Jesus.

01:02:01

We're going to have to actively pursue those.

01:02:03

If you want to hear the Word of God,

01:02:05

if you want to grow in your faith,

01:02:07

deepening your faith, you're going to have to

01:02:09

hear words about Jesus.

01:02:12

You're going to have to read scripture.

01:02:13

You're going to have to hear teaching.

01:02:15

You're going to have to actively pursue that

01:02:17

because you will be receiving something.

01:02:19

And what you'll be receiving is just

01:02:21

whatever the world is serving up.

01:02:23

You'll be receiving the things that tell you

01:02:25

to live by sight, because of course.

01:02:30

So if you want to live a different way,

01:02:32

if you want to have a life of faith,

01:02:33

if you want to have a bigger, bolder, deeper faith,

01:02:36

which is what God wants for you. Why?

01:02:39

Because there's more life there.

01:02:42

He wants to give you more life, more gifts,

01:02:45

more things in the Kingdom of God.

01:02:48

And so to do that, you need to receive

01:02:52

the opportunities that He sets in front of you for more faith.

01:02:55

So let me ask you a question.

01:02:56

Do these ever collide in your life?

01:02:59

Maybe you don't see them,

01:03:00

but they probably do all the time.

01:03:02

Will you believe which set of words?

01:03:04

Will you believe that no one really ever will know you?

01:03:08

Or will you believe Psalm 139 that says

01:03:11

He formed you in your mother's womb,

01:03:13

that He perceives your thoughts from afar,

01:03:15

that He knows the words you're going to speak

01:03:17

before you speak them?

01:03:19

Do you believe your life has a purpose

01:03:23

and that there are plans for you?

01:03:24

Or do you believe that you'll never

01:03:28

really do much that matters?

01:03:31

Will you agree that you're disqualified

01:03:33

because of your shady past?

01:03:34

Or will you agree with Acts that says

01:03:36

you're going to receive power

01:03:38

when the Holy Spirit comes upon you?

01:03:40

Will you agree with the influencers that

01:03:43

try to divide us on theological basis,

01:03:46

on racial, on the basis of race,

01:03:48

or on the basis of political agendas?

01:03:50

Or do you receive that as members of one body,

01:03:54

we're called to peace with one another?

01:03:58

Do you walk in an addiction to performance

01:04:02

and workaholism, or do you receive

01:04:05

the words of Jesus that give you an invitation

01:04:08

to abide in Him and tell you that

01:04:11

there's much more fruit that way?

01:04:13

These two things collide in our life all the time,

01:04:17

and He asks us to take a risk

01:04:19

to actually believe one set over the other.

01:04:22

And the problem is we don't actually do it.

01:04:28

We listen, but we don't fully receive.

01:04:31

The word that Jesus would use for here,

01:04:33

sometimes it means to fully receive

01:04:36

to the point that it moves you.

01:04:38

So we come right up to the edge,

01:04:41

and then we back off again

01:04:43

and we don't fully receive.

01:04:45

You know how you know what words you're believing,

01:04:47

what words you're receiving as the truth in your life?

01:04:50

It's the one that your actions are lined up with.

01:04:53

Those are the ones that you actually believe,

01:04:55

that you've actually fully received.

01:04:57

Because to fully receive faith is to behave out of it.

01:05:02

And so God is looking for, "Are you going

01:05:05

to receive Me and behave out of it?"

01:05:06

And that's why I said, for me,

01:05:08

it almost always sounds like a risk.

01:05:11

Now I know, I know, it can be tough to know

01:05:14

whether what you're thinking or hearing is God,

01:05:17

that can be hard sometimes.

01:05:20

That can be hard to figure out.

01:05:21

So I'm going to give you my three quick hits

01:05:23

that I'm always asking myself.

01:05:25

It's not always obvious.

01:05:27

And my three things that I'm always asking myself,

01:05:31

I love it when they all start with the same letter.

01:05:33

Actually, I just made them start with the same letter.

01:05:37

Is it -- sure? These are my three.

01:05:43

Sorry, I completely blanked on them.

01:05:46

Is it intrusive? Did it come from the outside

01:05:50

or did I just conjure this up?

01:05:53

Is this just me stewing on something,

01:05:55

or is this just me actually saying

01:05:57

that God is saying this?

01:05:58

But, you know, it's probably actually just what I wanted.

01:06:02

Is it intrusive?

01:06:03

Is this a thought that genuinely came from the outside?

01:06:06

Because God's ways are not my ways.

01:06:08

God's words are not my words.

01:06:10

God's thoughts are not my thoughts.

01:06:11

And so we have to be careful.

01:06:13

Is this truly intrusive?

01:06:14

Did it come from somewhere else,

01:06:16

or did we just kind of think it up?

01:06:18

The next one is is it insistent?

01:06:21

Does it keep coming after you?

01:06:24

Does it keep popping up?

01:06:27

This is one of the biggest ways that I know

01:06:29

God is saying something to me is when

01:06:31

I keep running into it over and over

01:06:34

and over again in different ways.

01:06:35

Is it insistent?

01:06:37

And the third one, and the most important one is

01:06:39

is it inspired? Is it inspired?

01:06:43

Does it line up with the truth of God in Scripture?

01:06:48

I have actually looked at people and said,

01:06:49

"No, God didn't say that to you.

01:06:51

And do you know how I know?

01:06:52

Because it's the opposite of what the Bible says."

01:06:54

The Holy Spirit is never going to speak

01:06:56

something to you that is against the Word of God.

01:06:59

And so therefore I'm always asking myself,

01:07:02

"Is it inspired? Is this consistent

01:07:04

with the Word of God, the character of Jesus?

01:07:06

Can I find this in the Bible?

01:07:08

Is it consistent with that?"

01:07:09

And so I'm always asking myself

01:07:11

these three questions because sometimes we don't know.

01:07:14

But I do know when the voice of God

01:07:16

asks you to receive faith, it's going to sound like

01:07:19

moving, taking a risk, actually receiving His Word

01:07:24

to the extent that you will move.

01:07:27

I'm going to read you a poem

01:07:31

that I think captures this perfectly.

01:07:33

Now, full, full disclosure, I kind of hate poetry.

01:07:39

The reason is, just as a side note,

01:07:41

for all you poets out there,

01:07:43

I feel like an idiot when I read poetry.

01:07:46

Anyone else? Like, I read it and I'm like,

01:07:49

if you're a poet, I admire you.

01:07:51

I just read the words and I'm like, "I don't get it.

01:07:54

Read it four times, still don't understand it."

01:07:58

So I don't love poetry, but I love this poem.

01:08:03

Something about this poem captured me

01:08:05

because it's the invitation of faith.

01:08:07

It's the thing that would make you walk up

01:08:10

to the edge and maybe you'll actually go this time.

01:08:12

It just captures something for me about

01:08:15

the invitation that God is going to be speaking

01:08:18

over and over and over in your life to actually

01:08:20

take the risk that He's putting in front of you.

01:08:22

As far as I know, this is not a Christian poem.

01:08:25

This is not a faith poem, it's just a poem

01:08:28

that I think captures the essence of that for me.

01:08:30

It says: There is freedom waiting for you

01:08:34

on the breezes of the sky.

01:08:37

And you ask, "What if I fall?"

01:08:41

Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?

01:08:47

I can't help but smile when I read that

01:08:50

because what if it's good?

01:08:53

What if on the other side of the thing

01:08:55

that you're scared to give up

01:08:56

or that you're scared to trust God about

01:08:58

or the words that you don't really want

01:08:59

to believe enough to actually move on them,

01:09:02

what if it's good?

01:09:04

What if the life He has for you

01:09:06

is actually better than you could imagine?

01:09:09

It's just on the other side of that risk.

01:09:13

Receive faith. Receive faith.

01:09:20

I'm going to give you what Chuck gave

01:09:22

my husband 16 years ago.

01:09:25

I'm going to give you one whole minute.

01:09:28

One whole minute to just sit with God.

01:09:30

What is it that He wants you to walk away with today?

01:09:33

What does He want you to receive?

01:09:35

I believe He has something for all of us.

01:09:39

Maybe you already have it.

01:09:40

You're going home with, you have $100 bill in your pocket,

01:09:45

and maybe you're about to get it.

01:09:46

But I just want to give you a little gift

01:09:48

and let you sit with God and receive.

01:10:53

We're going to seal together

01:10:56

whatever it is that you've received today.

01:10:58

We're going to take communion.

01:11:00

You probably got one of these

01:11:03

small cups on your way in.

01:11:07

And communion is an act of receiving.

01:11:10

It's receiving Jesus.

01:11:12

It's receiving a life of grace.

01:11:14

It's receiving His forgiveness.

01:11:16

It's receiving faith in what that life opens up for you.

01:11:21

And so whatever it is that you receive today,

01:11:24

I just want to encourage you to take communion.

01:11:27

As an act of sealing that before you go home.

01:11:31

I'm going to read you the words out of Matthew

01:11:33

from the very last, the Last Supper,

01:11:36

the very first communion.

01:11:37

And this is coming from Matthew 26.

01:11:41

It says, while they were eating, Jesus took bread,

01:11:44

and when He had given thanks, He broke it

01:11:46

and gave it to His disciples, saying,

01:11:48

"Take and eat, this is my body."

01:11:50

So I want you to find the bread and take and eat,

01:11:55

because the body of Christ was broken for you to receive.

01:12:11

Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks,

01:12:13

he gave it to them, saying,

01:12:15

"Drink from it, all of you.

01:12:17

This is my blood of the covenant,

01:12:19

which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

01:12:23

Do you notice what He did with the cup?

01:12:25

He said, "All of you drink from it.

01:12:27

All of you receive."

01:12:30

This is the blood of Christ that was shed

01:12:33

so you could receive forgiveness.

01:12:35

Blood of Christ shed for you.

01:12:46

Lord, thank You for the way that You give to us.

01:12:50

Thank You for the blessings and the favor

01:12:51

and the life of grace that You open up for us.

01:12:54

Jesus, thank you doesn't seem like enough,

01:12:58

but we receive You tonight and all that You want to give us.

01:13:02

It's in your name that we pray. Amen.

01:13:08

- Hey, I'm so glad you joined us today.

01:13:09

Before you go, there's something really special coming up.

01:13:12

Now, God has always used moments

01:13:14

when people get outside of their routines

01:13:15

and oftentimes outside four walls

01:13:17

to move in powerful ways.

01:13:19

On October 11th and 12th, we're doing

01:13:21

something we've never done before

01:13:22

and simply calling it The Revival.

01:13:24

It'll be 24 hours of worship, teaching, prayer,

01:13:27

camping, experiences for the entire family,

01:13:29

even waterslides and fireworks.

01:13:31

You can basically imagine a music festival,

01:13:33

but instead of a DJ and bad EDM,

01:13:35

it's thousands of people who want

01:13:37

more of God in their lives.

01:13:38

Now, while our Crossroads community

01:13:40

is spread out all over the globe,

01:13:42

if you're within traveling distance

01:13:43

of the camp land in Neville, Ohio,

01:13:45

you won't regret coming.

01:13:46

We hope you'll join us to come seek

01:13:48

a spiritual awakening for you, for your friends,

01:13:50

family, and nation.

01:13:52

Hey, that's all we've got.

01:13:53

As always, we'll see you back next week.

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