The Oaks
2. How to Become Stable in an Unstable World - Seeds and Sowing
We live in turbulent times. It this message, learn the enduring principle of personal power that God has committed to "as long as the earth endures."
Last week I shared with you guys. Basically five things that will help you to stabilize yourself ina time period where things seem unstable. You guys remember i told y'all the story out of sufficient. Obey down and then how the, the title seemed to stir everything up and it's funny their worship this morning there for a minute, I was just worshiping I felt the same exact way that I felt their worship last week when I felt like ocean water was sway in essence, some of us might feel a little bit like that, by the tumultuous things that seem to be going on right now. It's like we didn't even quite get finished with COVID and then we've had quite a bit of civil unrest going on our nation, it seems to have escalated, and I just want to talk a little bit about how we find an anchoring in the midst of times where we're feeling a little unsettled, you know. And one thing I mentioned last week. If, If it weren't if it weren't just that the bigger picture. Things seem a little bit stirred up right now. There's our own lives. There's the changing of life, there's things that don't work out that we thought were going to work out in our own lives. Just have seat like even if things are normal. Your Life goes through transitional stages where things really seem unstable. And so here's the thing that I shared last week just real quick. Number one fall back on the things you know the things that you know are true about God, God is good God is with me God loves me, falling back when things seem complicated fall back on things that are true. Also remember to do the things that you know to do. Sometimes when things are a little crazy, we just start being stupid. Right. All sudden I'm gonna go. I'm
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gonna buy sports cars.
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Right. Oh this I'm just gonna do something that's just erratic just do the things that you know to do. We talked about that. We also talked about simplifying when things are complex fall back on the things like. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul strength Love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the things we talked about that's what we know to do that's the, all the commandments are summed up on that sometimes answers to problems are actually
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complex,
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but you have to go back and simplify to build yourself back to that complexity otherwise you have a complex answer to a problem unsolved. Okay. Number four, remember what God has done. Remember the psalm of ASAP. Psalm 77, where a sap said he was all depressed down. And then he said I will remember the works of the Lord. And in when he got to that place of remembering the things that God had done for him already actually they got it done for his people, because he said our remember the works of old, he started remembering what God had done and that actually stabilized. His whole tone the tone of the whole entire song changes. At that point, where he starts remember what God has done. The fifth thing we learned was ask for God's help, because we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's the rainbow word that's actually us, listening to God said, Lord, what are you saying to me. In the midst of this storm. So, There we go. Now, the day. Ready. I'm gonna share something with you have one point really today. And then I'll elaborate on it in a few different ways, maybe.
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But if I were giving you one more thing.
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When things feel
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unstable.
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Remember
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what is enduring.
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Remember what is enduring In other words, there are things that were true, that are true and that will be true. Does that make sense. There are things that God has set up that are stable, no matter what time in history, we happen to live in. Okay. By the way, tumultuous times on a bigger scale. They're not new. You know I'm saying we've gone through quite a few things in human history. There are things that are true. And so, if I can throw something at you. That is a something that's true. I've got one thing that I want to share with you this is something that's endearing, like if you're taking notes and you wrote, remember things that are in dirt. You can put a bunch of things under that. I'm gonna give you one thing. That makes sense. So it starts here I've been reading Genesis a lot lately. And this is, um, Genesis chapter one.
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And
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let me just say this I'm gonna build a little context for
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preaching scripture together. This is Genesis one.
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Then God said this when God's creating the world. He says let the land sprout with vegetation, every sort of seed bearing plant and trees that grow with seed bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kind of plants and trees from which they came and guess what happened. So let me give you. Stop saying, God's creating the world right, create the cosmos is beginning God created the heavens and earth. And, you know, first of all, he still he does, he does like there's I think six or seven different things. And I think it's six actually after six different things six different scenarios God will stop, and he'll look at what he's done. And I can't remember actually diagram this the other day, but in about. I can't remember how in five or six of those things. God stops after,
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we'll say,
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Okay, I've got.
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I've got about five or six here. God stops and he says is good. So here's the thing that's important remember when God systems good. It's kind of inherently good. You know I'm saying like you might say fried chickens good, but if God says fried chicken is good. It has a little more way. Okay, I've said this for years is that Genesis chapter one is not a, it's not a. It's not a biology textbook there's a point that the, there's a point that Genesis chapter one is written, like, I don't know, when I was in college a biology textbook but that fit. Right. And it didn't scratch the surface. And so, when we're talking about the complexity of the creation of earth or whatever. That's a lot but Genesis is kind of sums it up in a couple different ways. Chapter One says tells the story chapter two tells a little bit tells the story, but a little bit differently. But the point of Genesis One was that the writer was trying to create a point, there was a theological point that Moses was trying to make. He was teaching the people of Israel, after they had been in slavery. Moses was teaching the people about God he was teaching them about their own story. And he was teaching them about who God was. But anyway, one of the points in Genesis one is that God affirms what he valued.
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And the thing that he valued he called it.
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Good, right. So it's all good. All right. It's not all good but this is good what I'm about to share with you. So, so God goes, and the first thing he does is he saw, oh we made light. Okay. And if the light, light, light is a good thing, and goodbyes light and darkness, and he calls that good. These are enduring principles that line darker good. And y'all notice that like that whole idea that God made daytime and nighttime. Did you know that's good, you ever thought about that. That God designed that he thought it was good that you have daytime and nighttime reminds me that YouTube video data like that data. Anyway, so God. God whenever got separated the land the earth was covered in water. Whenever God separated land from sea. Guess what he thought about it. He thought it was good, because God loves deep sea fishing right. That's the whole point. God saw something inherently good about the sea, being separated from dry ground, God likes farming. Can I get an amen. Okay. Yeah, um, you're like corn actually planted some yesterday
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I hope it's not too late but it's just a question.
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We'll see what happens.
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So God thought that was good.
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God made lights in the sky separated the night from the day
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to service signs for
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seasons days and years. So God's set up. The, the solar system, if you will. It's crazy to think that he did that so that we could. This is a point that the writer was making was to create seasons and days. Did you know that God thinks seasons and days and times are good. I'm just saying, God's set a framework that he planted us in, and it's good to see the things that are good. Now, back to my verse, I gave you a little context. Now God. He does this.
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We got light. Right.
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Yeah, we got the sun.
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We've got ground separated from land. And God said, here's what we're gonna do next, we're going to start vegetation say vegetation. Now you might not have thought vegetation was good, but you're about to find out that it is God but there's a type of education that God actually made. Here's the type he made God said, Let the land sprout with vegetation every sort lots of kinds of vegetation, two categories. Number one plants. Number two
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trees.
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Okay, so this is what it says let's read right here it says think God said, Let the land sprout with vegetation, every sort of, you say
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that word
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seed bearing, right, a
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seed bearing plant and trees that grow seed bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of
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plants and trees from which they came.
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So God is saying here's what I want to
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do, he's talking to it first talking to his plants
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right says God say it right.
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So God says, I want two types of vegetation
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trees and plants.
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Okay. Oak trees.
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And, you know, tomatoes. All right, which is that fruit anyway. Whatever. Um, but but he's, he says that, I'm gonna do something interesting here. I'm going to put the seed within the
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fruit.
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And this is going to be the way that it perpetuates, its own sale. And so guess what happens God said that Well, guess what, it happened, the land produced vegetation, all sorts. What kind of seed marrying plants and trees with see bearing fruit, their seeds produce plants of the same kind. Now here's something that you need to understand when you're reading the Bible. If I say the same word over and over,
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pay attention. Right.
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Because we know that Moses is
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not. He's not trying to give him a play by play account at least of what we would think of in terms of that thick book, you know the cosmos. This is all summed up in one chapter. So if he's repeating himself in a I mean when you think about it, the Bible is a
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big book but it's really not.
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When you think about all the different disciplines in life.
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So there's a certain framework
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that the Bible is trying to teach us in. It's not answering
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all questions but there's some
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questions that it really wants to answer. And here's one
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of those things
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in that small Genesis chapter one. What are these two verses it says the word
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seed like six times.
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And so God created something that was enduring. We'll find out about that in a minute, but it was a certain system that he set up, just like the system of days and nights. It's like this, the system, if you will, earth, and seeing. He made plants that were Seabury. And here's the deal, after he finished this process of multiplication.
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He saw what
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looked at it when he saw that it was good. In other words, when he made plants entry had seen had fruit with seed in it.
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He thought that was good.
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And here's the thing, when God says sounds good,
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we all pay attention. Now here's something that's interesting.
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There's a whole big crazy thing that happens
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after this.
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Multiply Thank you.
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Before getting pretty bad, then God has. I'm sorry, then Adam has another son, you know, abled line was kind of like change line they were kind of evil, but then he has another child and says. It says in those days ministered calling out in the name of the Lord. So long story short, that there was a, there are some good bad
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but then it got really bad. And it's
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covered with with wickedness. And specifically, we understand God Hey,
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This is the earth, man became by.
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And so this is an aside, by the way, but violence is actually something that God does not think, Okay, well the violence against one man that does not deserve to be hurt or violence against violence when you understand there's something that God is not okay with. I'm
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not solid man became
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violent. And so that's what happened in the flood right.
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Y'all know the whole story about Noah and all that, yes what God said after that whole story is over the flood comes, um, everything's covered in water again.
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Like it was, you know,
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earlier. And, um,
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and God, kind of reboots things,
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you know, right. And guess what God says,
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as soon as it gets
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off the boat basically. God says this, this back again. He looks. He's not gonna destroy the earth of the water ever again. And then he says, as long as the earth say the earth endures seedtime and harvest, cold and heat summer, winter day and night. You remember the things in Genesis chapter one, he set up days and nights instead of seasons. What do you say about those things they're, they're good right. Actually, it might do us some good to learn to work with ebbs and flows of seasons and days and nights and learn to get in rhythms and things like that. It's another talk. But seedtime and harvest, what's that word that we read six times, and just tender one seed right. God brings it up again. So he reboots with Noah, and he brings it up again and he says, as long as the earth endures has the earth still enduring.
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You guys are on Earth right now you're not in a dream, I promise. Okay,
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you're not an alternate reality that you watch the flash.
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You're on earth.
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And God says, as long as the earth endures
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seedtime and harvest.
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Look at your neighbors I see common harvest it.
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And that's it, maybe in the general sense not in the
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personal sense Are you
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gonna say seedtime and harvest baby.
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I see it seed time and harvest is gonna Ender, God said a principle up.
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You might know what kind of plant that is
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hum later. That's right.
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Oh yeah there it is.
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What's that point you're gonna grow.
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Don't take in the sunlight, don't sprout some flowers. After the flower what comes out of that fruit right. What's that forget in C. This is a process that God said is good. And it's a process that endures, as long as the earth endures. This process is going to endure.
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Now, Josh.
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So you're saying that we should garden right or
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no Josh, I think you're about to be slick and you're about to pull
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metaphor and say that what I'm doing is actually sowing seed.
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Actually, I'm not the one that's gonna make that jump
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for you, Paul. Yes. This is
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what Paul said in Galatians chapter six. Do not be the same. Tell your neighbor this. So don't be to see. Why does Paul say that, why does he begin his verse, don't read ahead. Why does he begin his verse by saying Don't lie to yourself,
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because we
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can lie to ourselves.
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You know, we say we really won't reap what we sow. But Paul says, Don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked in other words for you to deceive yourself and do something and say you're not going to reap from what you're sowing is deceiving yourself and you're mocking God's process what process. What process. Do you think he's talking about St Thomas harvest which will endure as long as what is yours. I'm telling you guys. So, going back to where it let's let's back up
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man Okay,
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going back to what we're talking about, and a time where things seem tumultuous. And we're swaying. And we want to lock on to something that's enduring here's something that you can lock on to what you do, will have fruit. And what fruit you produce will have seed in it.
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The thing that you're
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perpetuating in your in your life
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comes directly from what you're sowing in your life.
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So here's what happened, I want you guys to understand that
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when people start acting crazy
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and thinking oh no I'm talking about the mob thing kind of escalates, I know that there's sociological studies that are done on you know mobs and what causes riots and things like that and you see riots going all the way back into the scriptures.
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You see riots going on for different reasons.
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Paul. Paul created a riot.
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One time,
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but sometimes we think that what happens in the midst of other things, somehow excuses. What we personally decide to serve.
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But I want you to understand something.
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God wants us to know in the midst of the tumultuous times this principle is enduring. And so we want to know okay Lord Jesus, help me make sure that I'm sowing. The thing that I want to read. Say no so that's mighty good preaching out there. We ought to come back next Sunday. You know what sowing and reaping is it really is a
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principle of personal power.
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Did you know that at the end and I actually, I have it. Have it.
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Yeah. Okay.
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This is the Revelation chapter Hodo. Revelation chapter 20. Verse 11
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john is having this
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revelation. And he sees the throne of God. And he says, I saw a great white
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throne and him who was seated on
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earth and scaffolded from his presence God is scary when he's, you know, he's big he's God right and but there was nowhere for anybody to hide. And he says, I saw the dead, great and small so great and small, the little guys in the big guys okay great in small standing before the throne of God, the books were open the another book was, did you know books are being written about your life.
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They are
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the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
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The reason this is a
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judgment, okay so you guys all know that we're going to stand before God will be judged for what we do.
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suggested.
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There will be justice.
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But let me help
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you understand the positive side of this is that, if there is a judgment.
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If there is a judgment,
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it must mean because God is not a, what's the word.
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He's not a sadist he's not
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cruel he's not like trying to kill everybody. What's the word. He's not a tyrant. God could
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have set up a system where he just acts everybody then,
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if God says there's going to be a judgment
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for what's right and wrong.
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And then you get
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judged, it must mean that God thinks you're powerful
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because he's not trying to set you up to fail.
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It's a principle of personal power.
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The whole reason there's a judgement is because God is going to hold you accountable for the power that he's given you actually have power to sew things, and produce things through the choices that you may.
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That is out that has so much power.
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It's so much power that you can actually sew something that produces something else. It's so much power that God is going to hold us accountable for it. So we have to understand something. It is so easy, just kind of random comments and judgments and about everything that's going on, but if you so dishonor, I promise you, you're going to read this honor. If you sow violence you'll rebounds. Right, so we want to separate things. It's really a, it's the principle of personal power and personal responsibility these things go together right.
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You could just say so and repin, same thing, right.
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The exciting thing is that we can so good things and produce good thing. Awesome. Guys, this is exactly the opposite of the paradigm of being a victim. A victim says it doesn't matter what I do. Nothing's gonna go okay for me. But that flies in the face of the God that set up the whole system.
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And he was completely completely humiliated. But he isolated this idea that even though somebody told him when to sleep, and when the poop and when to eat and when to do when to work, when to wake up.
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Even his life was being controlled from the outside, that's the opposite of freedom. He realized that within himself that he had the power of choice and freedom that he could choose, and it like it was a revelation that set him free, while he was in the prison camp. And it was this idea of personal power and personal freedom that he could choose to so right faults in the midst of that, that crazy, see some of us were in the most free nation in the world.
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And we think that everything is bad in our lives is somebody else's fault.
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But God thinks that you individually are powerful enough to hold you accountable. So, what do we want so let's look at this let's kind of end with this. Okay.
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Um, right before, Paul said, Don't or don't mean to say, God's not Ma, whatever you so your read right right before he said that he says this right here.
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He's saying don't start in the flesh do so to the spirit. So the kind of seeds you want to sow.
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Are the seeds that come from the spirit, not the flesh.
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What are the things you don't want to sow. Okay, let's look out the axe in the flesh are obvious sexual immorality, a sex with somebody outside of your marriage.
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Whether you're married or not.
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sex outside of marriage impurity debauchery, this is like party and drunkenness all this the idolatry of witchcraft. I want you guys to watch something right here.
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As you can like, you know, if we had a thermometer and you could stick it in Facebook.
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One of the things that it would read on a real high level is this right here, hatred, discord jealousy fits of rage, selfish ambition dissensions, factions and envy.
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So Paul is saying here. Look guys, don't say no to these things. Have you ever considered this, that, look, I want y'all to understand something.
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The devil wants to force you into a false dichotomy. You know what that means.
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It's like going to the car dealership. And this car salesman. I'm not picking on anybody to sell cars from this person, but a car dealer says, Do you want the blue one, or do you want the red one. Which one do you want you know the blue one or the red one.
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Right. He's trying to help you.
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You know he wins either way right.
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Whether you pick, so the devil, what he wants to do is say.
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Which side are you are you on the black side are you on the white side.
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It's a false dichotomy.
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I love it I listen this one guy that uh.
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His name is wil Caesar. I don't even know how I became friends with him on Facebook. But um, he's a mixed guy, he's got like a dad and a white mom. And he says, I'm in the middle.
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And he says we don't have a skin problem we have a sin problem.
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And here's actually the sides if you will. It's not like a wise darkness and light.
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These are different.
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And as Christians, we want to be more about love, the love of God right we want to so. So sometimes we think we think we're done something good, but let's let it be judged by this rubrics that Paul gives us if we're just creating factions and envy, or we're creating like dissensions, factions fits of rage fits of rage, it comes out of the flesh.
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It says, and I've quoted this so many times because I get mad sometimes, guys, stupid kids can tell you this.
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Um, but James said the anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God requires. In other words, my man just being angry. It does not do anything. It doesn't produce any fruit with seeds in it. That's going to help anything.
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So let's judge ourselves because we're gonna stand before God and be judged. When I make sure the things we say are right or post or talk about, or do.
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And let me tell you something. I feel like I'm like a lot of mistakes. Okay.
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But when you say when you say something you should say to your kids or your wife or to somebody. Like, say Lord I'm sorry, forgive me for that. Repentance is saying I agree with God. Instead of trying to say. Somebody else made me do it by the way you know some of the victim mentality when whenever Adam got called for sinning, you know, the first thing he said he made me do it right. He started blaming somebody else. And then, God said What about you, even when she said the devil made me do it right. We often lane, we take, we blame other people for our actions we say okay, things are going crazy right now it just gives me the right to be no we're each going to be held accountable. And so we need to know that. So let's look at the good side here, the fruit of the Spirit What is this is what we want to be so in
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love, right, joy, peace, forbearance, that means, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.
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What if we could start a gentle revolution.
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I personally want to thank so much.
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Martin Luther King Jr.
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embodies some effect.
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When you look at the stuff that's going on in our world right now seems like what's taking center stage right now is not COVID but it's, it's the civil unrest. Look in the midst of all of it. No, you don't have to be on either side okay you're looking to the kingdom.
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You know whenever Joshua was about he was fighting a battle with somebody, there's another group of people. And the angel of the Lord Tang. And Joshua said, Are you on their side or our side.
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The Lord said, I heard somebody say before when God shows up and kind of take sides, come to take over. Right. That's what we want to see is the kingdom come up.
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And the only way for the kingdom to come out of what we're experiencing right now is for us to to do things that we know are true.
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The things that we know are enduring. Oh, if I so
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forbearance if I so patience with people that actually has seeds in it that are going to reproduce the fruit of the spirit of the kingdom. If I sow faithfulness towards people. Oh, that means faithfulness means that I'm not gonna cut you off just because we have a spat. I'm faithful spirit towards you, is the opposite of factions and discord and those other things right. I have a faithful spirit My heart is with you that's what faithfulness means
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gentleness self control against there is no law. So this is what it says all those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions as ours. Since we live by the spiritless keeping that with a spirit, and not become conceited provoking and envying one another. And so, long story short, is that we want to just say, Okay, what am I selling. Right.
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And what do we want to sell.
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We want to sell things that are going to produce the things that we want.
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So
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let's do that real quick.
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I'm just gonna pray Annabel you come on up.
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Let's close our eyes. And let's just think how we can cooperate with this enduring principle, especially in times where, like, sometimes I feel like I don't know what to do. Like I don't know what to do next.
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That's where we fall back on what we already know.
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And looking at this principle sowing and reaping oh this is something that God has said this from the very beginning that he said what Ender, and you know he was talking about real plants. Real see with him Paul makes this jump for us. And he makes the application in our lives that we're sewing things in our lives.
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So we need to see the things that we want to keep, and we need to weed, the things that we don't want to keep right. We need to see it and we've been we've been seeing we've seen what we want. See what we want.
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And we need what we don't want.
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So real quick. I want you to take 30 seconds right here and don't say a word. And I want you to just think, is there anything that you think I really want to see this in the world. So I want to sew this in my life.
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What if we could affect change from right here in our little bubble in our little life.
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Because the fruit that comes off of our life has seed in it.
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And we've got the fruit of the Spirit.
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My latest, a very very simple prayer.
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And it's this is going to be Lord help me.
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Cooperate with this enduring principle so and when I say cooperate with me, we don't necessarily write things.
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There's so much power in this principle. Because if you're not in a place that you're happy with. You can sew your way out of.
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If you're not a place that you want to be.
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God says, I've given you personal power to choose this.
39:35
Pray this woman said Lord Jesus.
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Forgive me for sowing out of the play.
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I recognize what the verse says that my old man has been crucified.
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The old man is dead.