Do you want to be like Jesus? If so, as Pastor Kevin explains, it’s important to embrace empathy and find ways to show his grace and love boldly because it’s His kindness that leads us to repentance.

Scriptures Referenced

1 Samuel 18:1-3; Psalm 16:6; Proverbs 16:28, 27:9; Ecclesiastes 4:10; Luke 15:1-7; John 15:13; Romans 2:4, 3:23, 12:10; Ephesians 4:29; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:11

About Springhouse

If you’re looking for a church in Smyrna, TN that is focused on Loving Big, Living Truth, and Healthy Family, we’d love to connect with you. We are home to a vibrant children’s ministry, powerful middle school and youth ministries, and incredible ministries for men and women of all ages. Our local and global outreaches include partnerships with missionaries in the US and abroad, Isaiah 117 House, local retirement communities, and more. 

Additionally, we are home to Springhouse Theatre, an award-winning theatre in the Nashville area. Through the theatre, we serve both the greater Nashville theatre community, and thousands of patrons each year, and we are expanding our vision to impact the culture through the arts into additional mediums and through an expanding network of relationships.

We would love it if you would consider joining us in person for one of our Sunday gatherings.

Additional Resources

• Follow the podcast to listen on the go
• Tithes & Offerings
• Join our livestream
• Church website
• Download the church app

Gathering Times

• Sundays, 9:00 AM
• Sundays, 10:30 AM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

CCLI License 2070006

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Kevin O'Dea: 6 to 8 is what I'm being told to say. 6 to 8 is all access

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Kevin O'Dea: conference, which I'm probably going to say it again in a second because I think

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Kevin O'Dea: it's my first slide. Oh, this is my slide. Hey guys, we have a conference

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Kevin O'Dea: coming up. It's Church 7th through 10th and I hear that the kids are

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Kevin O'Dea: the teens and the youth and the kids are going to have some

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Kevin O'Dea: fun things planned during that time as well so you need to make

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Kevin O'Dea: a plan to be there. I don't think you'll regret it, okay? Are you glad

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Kevin O'Dea: to be in the house of the Lord this morning? It is a

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Kevin O'Dea: good pray. It is a good day. If you're joining us on

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Kevin O'Dea: livestream, thank you for joining us. Hey, in conjunction to

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Kevin O'Dea: our conference, we also have this thing called the Business Collective that we are launching

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Kevin O'Dea: here at Spring House. If you are a leader, a

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Kevin O'Dea: manager, an owner of a business,

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Kevin O'Dea: Spirit leader, would you raise your hand? Leader, owner,

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Kevin O'Dea: manager, Okay, lots of you in the room, okay? This is for you, this is

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Kevin O'Dea: for you. We would like you to sign up for this. Pastor Justin, as well

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Kevin O'Dea: as Josh McLeod are going to team up and they're going to be leading this

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Kevin O'Dea: business collective on this particular day. We're God to free breakfast and

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Kevin O'Dea: giveaways and giveaways. Yes, pray, okay,

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Kevin O'Dea: giveaways and stuff and yeah, it's going to be it's going to be great.

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Kevin O'Dea: Just an opportunity to connect with other business leaders and talk about how you can

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Kevin O'Dea: advance the kingdom within your business and your leadership principles. So,

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Kevin O'Dea: come and be a part of that on that Saturday morning of the conference.

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Kevin O'Dea: Also, I've not actually been up the last, well, that's not

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Kevin O'Dea: true. I just spoke long the 1st week, and the 2nd week, I didn't get

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Kevin O'Dea: a chance to say this because I was out of town last week, but we

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Kevin O'Dea: are in the middle of Lent and how many has anybody taken part in

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Kevin O'Dea: looking at the Lent devotional videos? Okay, good. Okay, so you found

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Kevin O'Dea: those on our app. We are in the middle of Lent and our kids and

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Kevin O'Dea: youth department have taken over those videos and man,

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Kevin O'Dea: I tell you what, never negate the Holy Spirit's

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Kevin O'Dea: power to speak through the kids and through the youth. They're

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Kevin O'Dea: a minute and a half to 5 minutes long. Every day there's a video posted

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Kevin O'Dea: except for on Sunday, so go on the app and you can go back and

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Kevin O'Dea: watch them respectively, but you definitely want to be in that routine. I would encourage

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Kevin O'Dea: you to do that as part of your journey through Lent, okay? And

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Kevin O'Dea: then also Pastor Justin started a series on Thursday from

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Kevin O'Dea: 6 to 7 in here, called Lessons from the Table. And

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Kevin O'Dea: I was actually with the youth this last week, but I watched it online and

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Kevin O'Dea: it's powerful. You want to be a part of that gathering

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Kevin O'Dea: and, you can go back and catch the last one online, but come and be

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Kevin O'Dea: a part of our midweek gathering, 6 to 7, as we, as

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Kevin O'Dea: this also prepares us for Theater, okay? Lots of

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Kevin O'Dea: opportunity theatre. And then of course, no better preparation than a daily active

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Kevin O'Dea: relationship with the word of God. Spring House Church, do we believe in the word

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Kevin O'Dea: of God? Do we believe that it is true? Do we believe it's

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Kevin O'Dea: alive and active? We need to be in it daily, daily,

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Kevin O'Dea: okay? This is our reading plan for this year. If you need this resource, it's

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Kevin O'Dea: available online or on our app as well. So we are in

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Kevin O'Dea: a series through the entire year, we are talking

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Kevin O'Dea: about His word, we've already talked about His word, we're talking about His

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Kevin O'Dea: life right now, and then after Theater, we're going to be talking about His church

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Kevin O'Dea: for the remainder of the year, and I have been just learning

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Kevin O'Dea: and growing so much about Jesus' life and looking at Jesus'

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Kevin O'Dea: character and what He said and what He did, and I hope that you have

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Kevin O'Dea: also been gleaning some of the instruction from the word about watching

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Kevin O'Dea: Jesus and how his life, how he modeled his life. And so

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Kevin O'Dea: the 1st week of the series, we talked about that Jesus was always about

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Kevin O'Dea: His Father's business. So, and what is the Father's business? God is in the

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Kevin O'Dea: business of loving people. God is in the business of

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Kevin O'Dea: loving people, and so the 1st week we talked about that we

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Kevin O'Dea: ought to be also about the Father's business, which is also

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Kevin O'Dea: loving, loving people. In week 2 we talked about selfless living.

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Kevin O'Dea: Selfless living, selfless love requires nothing in

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Kevin O'Dea: return. Selfless love requires nothing in

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Kevin O'Dea: return. Jesus modeled this so perfectly in the way that he even

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Kevin O'Dea: went to the point of laying down his life for each of

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Kevin O'Dea: us. Even though we didn't deserve it, amen? He did that for us.

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Kevin O'Dea: Last week Pastor Allen spoke and he talked about compassion.

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Kevin O'Dea: Compassion requires us to do something. When we see a

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Kevin O'Dea: need, when we see somebody in front of us, Jesus was always

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Kevin O'Dea: entertaining the needs that were presented to him, he was never too

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Kevin O'Dea: busy to entertain what was exactly in front of the people that were

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Kevin O'Dea: right in front of him, and compassion requires us to do something. And as

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Kevin O'Dea: Pastor Allen would say, it's not just for us uns, it's for

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Kevin O'Dea: Ghost uns too out there, okay? So we're going to look

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Kevin O'Dea: at Jesus today and we're going to look at the portions of his life we're

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Kevin O'Dea: going to look at how his, how he embodied this love

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Kevin O'Dea: that he had for sinners who qualifies

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Kevin O'Dea: for as a sinner body in the room. Okay, so would you stand

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Kevin O'Dea: with me? We're going to read with gusto from John theater 15

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Kevin O'Dea: probably a familiar passage, for some of

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Kevin O'Dea: you. Let's read together. Now the tax collectors

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Kevin O'Dea: and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus,

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Kevin O'Dea: but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,

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Kevin O'Dea: this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' Let's stop there for just

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Kevin O'Dea: a second, let me go ahead and preach. If we notice the first part

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Kevin O'Dea: of this, who was the group that

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Kevin O'Dea: I'll use myself as a Pharisee, it'd be as if we had some people walk

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Kevin O'Dea: in who have no idea who Jesus is and they're more interested to hearing from

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Kevin O'Dea: Jesus than I am, okay? Or maybe perhaps you are,

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Kevin O'Dea: okay? It was the tax collectors and sinners that wanted to hear

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Kevin O'Dea: from Jesus. Here's Jesus' response. Jesus told them

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Kevin O'Dea: this parable, suppose one of you has a 100 sheep

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Kevin O'Dea: and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the

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Kevin O'Dea: 99 in the open country and go after the

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Kevin O'Dea: lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds

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Kevin O'Dea: it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes

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Kevin O'Dea: home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together

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Kevin O'Dea: and says, rejoice with me, I have found my lost

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Kevin O'Dea: sheep. I tell you that in the same way,

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Kevin O'Dea: there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over 1 sinner

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Kevin O'Dea: who repents than over 99 righteous persons

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Kevin O'Dea: Father, I'm so grateful for Your word and that it is

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Kevin O'Dea: alive and active today. Lord, I pray that you would use

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Kevin O'Dea: the words that I'm about to speak, Lord, to change people's hearts and lives,

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Kevin O'Dea: God, and that you would give us eyes to see others the way

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Kevin O'Dea: you see them. We love you today in Jesus name,

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Kevin O'Dea: amen. You may be seated.

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Kevin O'Dea: There are there are many

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Kevin O'Dea: different cultures around the world, many different

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Kevin O'Dea: types of lifestyles, experiences, cultures

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Kevin O'Dea: all across this globe, some that we understand, some we don't

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Kevin O'Dea: understand, and I wanted to kind of examine some of the cultures

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Kevin O'Dea: that you might run into here, especially here in America. We,

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Kevin O'Dea: you know, we champion the melting pot of cultures

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Kevin O'Dea: that we have here. But let's look at maybe some of the traditions around the

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Kevin O'Dea: world of some of the cultures that we have. Now, this is a thing now,

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Kevin O'Dea: pray, so let's just

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Kevin O'Dea: it does match my shirt.

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Kevin O'Dea: Vonda. Alright. Some

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Kevin O'Dea: tribes in China follow a tradition where the

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Kevin O'Dea: husband carries his wife and walks over burning coals.

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Kevin O'Dea: These tribes believe that this practice would help the wife have painless

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Kevin O'Dea: labor, and some believe that walking over burning coals prevents

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Kevin O'Dea: natural disasters. Some choose to do this as the husband and

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Kevin O'Dea: wife take their Ghost step into their new home, and some choose to do it

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Kevin O'Dea: when they know that the wife is pregnant. The husband usually does this barefoot

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Kevin O'Dea: with his wife on his back. In a yearly

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Kevin O'Dea: festival in Spain, men dressed in yellow, yellow run and jump

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Kevin O'Dea: over babies. During this festival, babies born

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Kevin O'Dea: in the previous year are placed in arranged rows of pillows spaced

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Kevin O'Dea: out down on a public street. The men dressed in bright yellow

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Kevin O'Dea: costumes and masks began to run down the street jumping over the rows of

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Kevin O'Dea: children like Olympic hurdles hurdlers. This tradition

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Kevin O'Dea: started in the early 1600s as the villagers obedience that this keeps the

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Kevin O'Dea: devil away from these children.

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Kevin O'Dea: Everyone grieves differently after the loss of a loved one

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Kevin O'Dea: But the women in Indonesia have quite a unique and severe way of dealing with

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Kevin O'Dea: grief when they lose a loved one the top joint of the woman's

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Kevin O'Dea: finger is amputated String will be tightly tied around the

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Kevin O'Dea: finger until it goes numb, and then a family member, often a sibling or a

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Kevin O'Dea: parent, will cut off the top of the finger. The wound is then burnt

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Kevin O'Dea: to stop the bleeding and prevent infection. This process is carried out to symbolize the

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Kevin O'Dea: pain suffered after the loss of a loved one. In the

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Kevin O'Dea: Arab culture, greeting a friend or meeting a new person consists of 3 gentle

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Kevin O'Dea: nudges or rubs of the nose. The importance of the nose in the

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Kevin O'Dea: Arab culture cannot be overstated, it symbolizes pride and honor, and is

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Kevin O'Dea: even used as a metaphor in the Arabic language to describe a

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Kevin O'Dea: person who has high self esteem and is proud.

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Kevin O'Dea: Placed in the center of the face, the nose carries profound symbolism, making it the

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Kevin O'Dea: the place to greet someone with the utmost respect.

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Kevin O'Dea: Lastly, in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, a boy does

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Kevin O'Dea: not become a man unless he can withstand being stung by a swarm of bullet

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Kevin O'Dea: ants. This ant,

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Kevin O'Dea: Ghost say that the

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Kevin O'Dea: sting is just as excruciating as being shot by a bullet. The

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Kevin O'Dea: initiation ritual includes the boy sticking their hands in a glove full

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Kevin O'Dea: of bullet ants while they dance. Moreover, this tradition is not

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Kevin O'Dea: a one time thing. The boy must go through this routine as many times as

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Kevin O'Dea: it takes for him not to cry during the process. The day

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Kevin O'Dea: he can adore this torture without shedding a single tear is the day

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Kevin O'Dea: he becomes a real man.

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Kevin O'Dea: Now we hear those cultural and

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Kevin O'Dea: traditional experiences that people have

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Kevin O'Dea: and many of us in this room would look and say man, that is so

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Kevin O'Dea: weird, that is so odd, that is so

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Kevin O'Dea: strange and to some of us it really is, but

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Kevin O'Dea: it's not to them. We

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Kevin O'Dea: are a people whose stories are woven

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Kevin O'Dea: based on our cultural experiences and where

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Kevin O'Dea: we grew up and who we were assigned to and the places

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Kevin O'Dea: geographically we live. And so our

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Kevin O'Dea: experiences and our culture is vastly

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Kevin O'Dea: different than our brothers and sisters, let me reiterate, our

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Kevin O'Dea: brothers and sisters around the globe. And

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Kevin O'Dea: we have a very different obedience, but just because we have a different

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Kevin O'Dea: experience doesn't necessarily mean that whatever they

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Kevin O'Dea: are doing is wrong. It simply

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Kevin O'Dea: helps us understand and opens our mind to while there

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Kevin O'Dea: are many different cultures and many different ways to do

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Kevin O'Dea: things and many different ways to handle circumstances and situations.

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Kevin O'Dea: Everybody has a story and we cannot

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Kevin O'Dea: be quick to judge that which we do not understand.

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Kevin O'Dea: We ought not be quick to judge that which we do

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Kevin O'Dea: not understand. We had a foreign exchange student, his name

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Kevin O'Dea: was Nai Fu, he was from China, he came, lived with us, this was probably

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Kevin O'Dea: a decade ago, And I remember one of the Ghost mornings that he was with

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Kevin O'Dea: us, or 1st week he was with us, he had grabbed all of

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Kevin O'Dea: his underwear and he took it to our kitchen sink and took a wooden

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Kevin O'Dea: spoon and started washing his underwear in our sink with a

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Kevin O'Dea: wooden spoon and soap because he didn't know how to use

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Kevin O'Dea: a washing machine and so I had to go to

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Kevin O'Dea: knife and pray oh no. No, no, this is not how we wash our underwear

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Kevin O'Dea: here in the United States and so I began to teach

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Kevin O'Dea: him and show him to go into the washing machine. He felt so bad. He

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Kevin O'Dea: felt he felt so ashamed and so and so bad that that he did

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Kevin O'Dea: that simultaneously we had another boy he was from Brazil

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Kevin O'Dea: he was a little more wealthier and

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Kevin O'Dea: his underwear stood in the middle of the floor of the hallway. And I said,

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Kevin O'Dea: Antonio, you need to clean your underwear. And he said, no, that's for your wife.

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Kevin O'Dea: And in our culture in the United States when you

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Kevin O'Dea: say something like that you're on a plane on the way back home.

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Kevin O'Dea: Both boys were excellent and we were so glad to have them in our house.

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Kevin O'Dea: They had to acclimate to our culture. They

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Kevin O'Dea: had to acclimate to that acclimate to to

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Kevin O'Dea: the way that we do things here and we learned about their culture and

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Kevin O'Dea: how they did things from where they were. They have a

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Kevin O'Dea: story you have a story

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Kevin O'Dea: Everyone has a story. In addition,

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Kevin O'Dea: everyone is a sinner. Doesn't matter what your background is,

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Kevin O'Dea: where you come from, what color, nationality, creed, everyone on planet

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Kevin O'Dea: Earth has got the same chronic issue.

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Kevin O'Dea: We are all sinners. We are all

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Kevin O'Dea: sinners Romans 3 says this for all have all means

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Kevin O'Dea: all for all Ascend and fallen short of the

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Kevin O'Dea: glory of God and because of this truth because we have

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Kevin O'Dea: sinned and fallen short of the glory of God not only does everybody have

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Kevin O'Dea: a story not not only is everybody sinned,

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Kevin O'Dea: everybody needs a Savior. Everybody

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Kevin O'Dea: needs a Savior. And

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Kevin O'Dea: so as we examine cultures and as we think

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Kevin O'Dea: about different people and different body,

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Kevin O'Dea: it's not so far different than the person who's sitting next to you

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Kevin O'Dea: or behind you or in front of you that you're not

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Kevin O'Dea: daily connected to and the fact that they have a story,

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Kevin O'Dea: a pathway, a journey that they have walked that you may

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Kevin O'Dea: not know all the details about, you may not know all

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Kevin O'Dea: the circumstances of, but somehow that brought them their

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Kevin O'Dea: story, their pathway, their journey brought them to Smyrna, Tennessee at a small

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Kevin O'Dea: church on Old Nashville Highway this morning called Spring House Church.

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Kevin O'Dea: All of us have a story. We all have different circumstances. Why is it

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Kevin O'Dea: then Christians, Christian meaning being like Ghost, why is it

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Kevin O'Dea: then Christians that we look at people and we do not give

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Kevin O'Dea: them the empathy that they need to understand they

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Kevin O'Dea: have a story just like we do? Why is it that

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Kevin O'Dea: when certain behaviors are expressed by people who

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Kevin O'Dea: might believe or may not believe, people have gone astray, people have denied

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Kevin O'Dea: Christ, why then is there an automatic expectation,

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Kevin O'Dea: after we've given our life to Christ, that we say they have got to

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Kevin O'Dea: perform with excellence, just like the Pharisees expected the people of that

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Kevin O'Dea: time to perform with excellence and follow every rule to the T.

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Kevin O'Dea: The indicator on whether or not you know the Lord has everything to do with

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Kevin O'Dea: your behavior, and so since I see certain behaviors that don't line up with the

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Kevin O'Dea: word, you must not love the Lord, and I'm going to make sure you know

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Kevin O'Dea: about and everybody else does.

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Kevin O'Dea: I wonder how many of us

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Kevin O'Dea: enjoy the benefit of the grace, the bevy of grace

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Kevin O'Dea: that Jesus gives us, but once we succumb to that grace

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Kevin O'Dea: and once we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior, and once we take what

Speaker: 00:16:02

Kevin O'Dea: we need from him, then we go get the pharise cynical garban

Speaker: 00:16:05

Kevin O'Dea: and we walk around as Pharisees trying to preach to everybody else pointing the

Speaker: 00:16:09

Kevin O'Dea: finger this way. Now, some would

Speaker: 00:16:13

Kevin O'Dea: say, oh, here goes another little soft message that we're going to do at Spring

Speaker: 00:16:16

Kevin O'Dea: House about how we're supposed to love others.

Speaker: 00:16:23

Kevin O'Dea: I would argue that this is the most important message that Christians could

Speaker: 00:16:26

Kevin O'Dea: ever hear The way that we are

Speaker: 00:16:30

Kevin O'Dea: supposed to treat others because Jesus Christ came and spread his blood not only so

Speaker: 00:16:34

Kevin O'Dea: that we can be reconciled to him, so that we can be reconciled to one

Speaker: 00:16:37

Kevin O'Dea: another, so that we can be reconciled to one another, and

Speaker: 00:16:41

Kevin O'Dea: so there was an accusation made of Jesus and it was this, Jesus

Speaker: 00:16:44

Kevin O'Dea: is a friend of sinners. Now we

Speaker: 00:16:48

Kevin O'Dea: look at that pray, especially on this side of salvation, this side of the story,

Speaker: 00:16:52

Kevin O'Dea: and we look at that and say, well that is actually a compliment. Jesus is

Speaker: 00:16:55

Kevin O'Dea: friend of sinners. It was not used as a compliment when it was said to

Speaker: 00:16:59

Kevin O'Dea: him, it was an accusation. Because the Pharisees saw

Speaker: 00:17:02

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus proclaiming God, teaching about God, yet he was hanging out

Speaker: 00:17:06

Kevin O'Dea: with those people. Can I tell you I am one of those people?

Speaker: 00:17:10

Kevin O'Dea: You are one of those people? And it seems to be that those

Speaker: 00:17:14

Kevin O'Dea: people, those people were more interested in hearing what Jesus

Speaker: 00:17:17

Kevin O'Dea: had to say than the people who knew more about Jesus themselves because of

Speaker: 00:17:21

Kevin O'Dea: what they've studied and what they and what they knew.

Speaker: 00:17:25

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus was a friend of sinners.

Speaker: 00:17:29

Kevin O'Dea: But a lot of times when we look at this we look at this phrase

Speaker: 00:17:33

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus friend of sinners if we're honest with ourselves. We read it our mind

Speaker: 00:17:36

Kevin O'Dea: doesn't contemplate Jesus our mind doesn't really even contemplate

Speaker: 00:17:40

Kevin O'Dea: friend our eyes and our mind is drawn right to sinners. And then

Speaker: 00:17:44

Kevin O'Dea: we build a wall right in between us and everybody else who qualifies for

Speaker: 00:17:47

Kevin O'Dea: sinner. I want you to know that we qualify a

Speaker: 00:17:51

Kevin O'Dea: sinner all have sinned, right? So just for a few

Speaker: 00:17:55

Kevin O'Dea: moments just for me and for us today and just lay a framework. I

Speaker: 00:17:59

Kevin O'Dea: want to eliminate the preposition there and I want to just talk about Jesus as

Speaker: 00:18:02

Kevin O'Dea: a friend. I wanna talk just a moment

Speaker: 00:18:06

Kevin O'Dea: about Jesus as a friend. Jesus

Speaker: 00:18:11

Kevin O'Dea: defines friendship in a way that is

Speaker: 00:18:14

Kevin O'Dea: counter church to the way we define friendship here in

Speaker: 00:18:18

Kevin O'Dea: America and probably around the globe. The word

Speaker: 00:18:21

Kevin O'Dea: that is used in scripture for friendship all throughout the New Testament

Speaker: 00:18:25

Kevin O'Dea: is the word phileo phileo And phileo

Speaker: 00:18:29

Kevin O'Dea: has a very Spirit meaning when it

Speaker: 00:18:33

Kevin O'Dea: comes to friendship and I want to read this to you. Phileo

Speaker: 00:18:37

Kevin O'Dea: love is shown within close friendships.

Speaker: 00:18:41

Kevin O'Dea: This is a generous and affectionate love that seeks to

Speaker: 00:18:45

Kevin O'Dea: make the other person happy with no

Speaker: 00:18:48

Kevin O'Dea: expectation for the acts of kindness to be returned.

Speaker: 00:18:52

Kevin O'Dea: Now, we can stop right there. I'm your

Speaker: 00:18:56

Kevin O'Dea: friend and I want you to be happy and I want

Speaker: 00:19:00

Kevin O'Dea: to be generous to you, but I am measuring the reciprocation

Speaker: 00:19:04

Kevin O'Dea: every day That is not phileo love.

Speaker: 00:19:07

Kevin O'Dea: It's not the love. He's talking about it's not really the supernatural kingdom minded love

Speaker: 00:19:11

Kevin O'Dea: we're supposed to have for one another. Remember selflessness

Speaker: 00:19:15

Kevin O'Dea: requires nothing in return. So to

Speaker: 00:19:18

Kevin O'Dea: continue. David and Jonathan are one

Speaker: 00:19:22

Kevin O'Dea: of the Bible's best examples of phileo love within a friendship in 1

Speaker: 00:19:26

Kevin O'Dea: Samuel 18:1-three it describes their friendship and it says in part

Speaker: 00:19:30

Kevin O'Dea: that the soul of Jonathan was knit

Speaker: 00:19:34

Kevin O'Dea: to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him

Speaker: 00:19:37

Kevin O'Dea: as his own soul. Then Jonathan made a

Speaker: 00:19:41

Kevin O'Dea: covenant or a promise with David because he loved him as

Speaker: 00:19:45

Kevin O'Dea: his own soul. Now, we don't understand this, this is kind of like,

Speaker: 00:19:48

Kevin O'Dea: this is kind of like me, us walking on coals with our spouses on

Speaker: 00:19:52

Kevin O'Dea: our backs, this is counter cultural that you would have a

Speaker: 00:19:56

Kevin O'Dea: friend, a deep friendship with somebody that would be

Speaker: 00:20:00

Kevin O'Dea: intimate enough that you would be connected by

Speaker: 00:20:04

Kevin O'Dea: soul. But Jesus Christ came to obliterate

Speaker: 00:20:07

Kevin O'Dea: the cultural bias and lens, the cultural

Speaker: 00:20:11

Kevin O'Dea: definition of love and friendship and relationship, he came to obliterate

Speaker: 00:20:15

Kevin O'Dea: that and redefine it in the way that he saw it.

Speaker: 00:20:19

Kevin O'Dea: And if we would embrace supernaturally the way that

Speaker: 00:20:23

Kevin O'Dea: God sees friendship and sees, sees relationship,

Speaker: 00:20:26

Kevin O'Dea: we would see some things happen in us that would allow us to heal

Speaker: 00:20:30

Kevin O'Dea: from past wounds, heal from Ghost brokenness, heal

Speaker: 00:20:33

Kevin O'Dea: crevices in our lives in ways that you would never imagine possible.

Speaker: 00:20:38

Kevin O'Dea: Have you ever had a friend Ghost stepped into

Speaker: 00:20:41

Kevin O'Dea: your life and said I'm willing to give everything to

Speaker: 00:20:45

Kevin O'Dea: you. I'm willing to do anything for you. I love you because

Speaker: 00:20:49

Kevin O'Dea: of who you are despite what you

Speaker: 00:20:52

Kevin O'Dea: do for me to me or with me in return.

Speaker: 00:20:56

Kevin O'Dea: And the truth of the matter is those friends are very, very far and

Speaker: 00:21:00

Kevin O'Dea: few between if you even have them but everybody

Speaker: 00:21:04

Kevin O'Dea: in the room longs to have one like that.

Speaker: 00:21:08

Kevin O'Dea: Everyone in the room longs to have a relationship

Speaker: 00:21:11

Kevin O'Dea: like that. And so, let's look at some of the list of the

Speaker: 00:21:15

Kevin O'Dea: qualities of a good friend. Let's just very basic, pray, so I

Speaker: 00:21:19

Kevin O'Dea: want you to think everybody, I'm gonna have you raise your hand,

Speaker: 00:21:22

Kevin O'Dea: but I would say everybody in here has friends and some of you would say,

Speaker: 00:21:26

Kevin O'Dea: man, I've got, you know, I've got let's just pretend right now.

Speaker: 00:21:29

Kevin O'Dea: We're all friends. Pray. We're all friends. Pray, even

Speaker: 00:21:33

Kevin O'Dea: if you don't like the person you're sitting next to right now, we're our friends,

Speaker: 00:21:36

Kevin O'Dea: okay? Everybody's friends in this room, okay? We start on this list and

Speaker: 00:21:40

Kevin O'Dea: we go down this road of friendship and I want you to notice

Speaker: 00:21:44

Kevin O'Dea: as it gets harder the base of friendships gets

Speaker: 00:21:48

Kevin O'Dea: lower and lower. Let's watch. The first qualification friends

Speaker: 00:21:51

Kevin O'Dea: should be refreshing. Friends should be refreshing when you get into your

Speaker: 00:21:55

Kevin O'Dea: friends presence man it should be something where there's laughter. There's joy. There's a refreshing

Speaker: 00:21:59

Kevin O'Dea: element that comes friends should be encouraging.

Speaker: 00:22:04

Kevin O'Dea: Encouraging nothing like a friend that comes in and Ghost spouts out discouragement to you

Speaker: 00:22:07

Kevin O'Dea: all the time. I think that's abuse. That's not friendship.

Speaker: 00:22:13

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be helpful. Oh, we just eliminated.

Speaker: 00:22:17

Kevin O'Dea: Pray, there's 20%. Why is there

Speaker: 00:22:20

Kevin O'Dea: 20% gone because all friends say I'll be there anytime you need me. But when

Speaker: 00:22:24

Kevin O'Dea: the rubber hits the road doesn't always act that way doesn't always look that way.

Speaker: 00:22:28

Kevin O'Dea: Do you got some friends that you can call up in a moment's notice and

Speaker: 00:22:30

Kevin O'Dea: they will be there no matter what's going on.

Speaker: 00:22:35

Kevin O'Dea: You can't be that for body, but you got some

Speaker: 00:22:38

Kevin O'Dea: friends that you call up and it's they're there.

Speaker: 00:22:44

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be affectionate. Tell you what, you saw that Pray picture up there,

Speaker: 00:22:47

Kevin O'Dea: somebody got real queasy because of our culture.

Speaker: 00:22:53

Kevin O'Dea: But friends should be able to be affectionate. Bible even talks

Speaker: 00:22:56

Kevin O'Dea: about greeting each other with a holy kiss. We have so perverted

Speaker: 00:23:01

Kevin O'Dea: affection in our culture that we dismiss the

Speaker: 00:23:04

Kevin O'Dea: healing properties and powers in affectionate love.

Speaker: 00:23:09

Kevin O'Dea: Just dismiss another 40% of that group.

Speaker: 00:23:13

Kevin O'Dea: Trustworthy. Well now we're down to just a few.

Speaker: 00:23:18

Kevin O'Dea: What do you mean? Trustworthy means that if I am in

Speaker: 00:23:22

Kevin O'Dea: relationship with you, if I'm in friendship with you and I have

Speaker: 00:23:26

Kevin O'Dea: beared my all and I have given you all this information

Speaker: 00:23:29

Kevin O'Dea: about what's going on inside my life, then you take that information

Speaker: 00:23:33

Kevin O'Dea: and decide, I'm I'm just gonna go carry this on to this person that has

Speaker: 00:23:36

Kevin O'Dea: no clue, no idea, or no relationship with

Speaker: 00:23:40

Kevin O'Dea: this person, and then the trust is severed and broken because you took

Speaker: 00:23:44

Kevin O'Dea: the information outside of the context of the relationship.

Speaker: 00:23:48

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be trustworthy. I was just trying to help you. I

Speaker: 00:23:52

Kevin O'Dea: didn't give you permission to do that. Go to

Speaker: 00:23:56

Kevin O'Dea: the lord.

Speaker: 00:23:59

Kevin O'Dea: Now, we're really getting low. Friends should be

Speaker: 00:24:03

Kevin O'Dea: forgiving.

Speaker: 00:24:07

Kevin O'Dea: You wronged me and so I'm out of here

Speaker: 00:24:14

Kevin O'Dea: Until you realize how much the blood

Speaker: 00:24:17

Kevin O'Dea: of Jesus Christ covered your own sin.

Speaker: 00:24:22

Kevin O'Dea: How many have had a friend that really just blew it or maybe you were

Speaker: 00:24:26

Kevin O'Dea: a friend that you just blew it? I mean, you just completely

Speaker: 00:24:31

Kevin O'Dea: and you had a friend who offered grace and forgave you

Speaker: 00:24:36

Kevin O'Dea: despite the circumstance and the situation.

Speaker: 00:24:40

Kevin O'Dea: Forgiveness. A few more attached with the

Speaker: 00:24:43

Kevin O'Dea: actual verses because we're getting real slim on our on our

Speaker: 00:24:47

Kevin O'Dea: on our pool looks like. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your

Speaker: 00:24:51

Kevin O'Dea: mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. You

Speaker: 00:24:54

Kevin O'Dea: know, I'm going to say something that's probably God to hit hard for some of

Speaker: 00:24:57

Kevin O'Dea: you And it's probably just because I'm how I'm wired but

Speaker: 00:25:02

Kevin O'Dea: the jabs that we make at one another the sarcastic remarks that we make

Speaker: 00:25:06

Kevin O'Dea: at one another the things where that are actually hurtful were

Speaker: 00:25:09

Kevin O'Dea: words are powerful God used words to create the world words

Speaker: 00:25:14

Kevin O'Dea: are powerful. And I would solicit to

Speaker: 00:25:17

Kevin O'Dea: you just allow the Lord to maybe minister to your mind that

Speaker: 00:25:21

Kevin O'Dea: when you're jabbing and when the other person's laughing, you may

Speaker: 00:25:25

Kevin O'Dea: actually be hurting them on a deep level that you don't understand because they don't

Speaker: 00:25:28

Kevin O'Dea: know how to respond. The Bible

Speaker: 00:25:32

Kevin O'Dea: says don't let any don't let some unwholesome talk come out of

Speaker: 00:25:35

Kevin O'Dea: your mouth as long as you're with these people. No. Don't let any unwholesome talk.

Speaker: 00:25:39

Kevin O'Dea: Guys, there is enough in this culture that beats people down. Why would we need

Speaker: 00:25:42

Kevin O'Dea: to do that in the church? Why do we need to do that to each

Speaker: 00:25:45

Kevin O'Dea: other? Let's put each other

Speaker: 00:25:49

Kevin O'Dea: up. Again, Do

Speaker: 00:25:52

Kevin O'Dea: nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit rather in humility

Speaker: 00:25:56

Kevin O'Dea: value others above yourself. I'm

Speaker: 00:25:59

Kevin O'Dea: putting your needs above mine. And here's

Speaker: 00:26:03

Kevin O'Dea: the real kicker. Jesus said this greater love has no one than

Speaker: 00:26:07

Kevin O'Dea: this that he laid down one's life for his

Speaker: 00:26:10

Kevin O'Dea: friend. Went and played in an escape room recently

Speaker: 00:26:15

Kevin O'Dea: with James actually and, we were in this this

Speaker: 00:26:18

Kevin O'Dea: spaceship or whatever and at the end we got to the end and it was

Speaker: 00:26:21

Kevin O'Dea: like countdown and I realized when we were in there I just

Speaker: 00:26:25

Kevin O'Dea: as I was putting all of it together somebody's gonna have to sacrifice their

Speaker: 00:26:29

Kevin O'Dea: life in order to win this somebody has to go into where the bomb

Speaker: 00:26:33

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost off and the door has to shut and as soon as I realized

Speaker: 00:26:36

Kevin O'Dea: that I took the thing I opened the door and I threw myself in the

Speaker: 00:26:40

Kevin O'Dea: room and closed it so that he could live now sounds kind of like a

Speaker: 00:26:43

Kevin O'Dea: like pat me on the back story. But it

Speaker: 00:26:47

Kevin O'Dea: is a picture. It is a picture

Speaker: 00:26:50

Kevin O'Dea: of when the rubber hits the road. And there's

Speaker: 00:26:54

Kevin O'Dea: got to be a sacrifice made for friendship. Do you have somebody in your

Speaker: 00:26:58

Kevin O'Dea: life? That's willing to no matter what take the key and jump in

Speaker: 00:27:03

Kevin O'Dea: and close the door. It's no conversation. There's no There's

Speaker: 00:27:06

Kevin O'Dea: just I'm going to do this.

Speaker: 00:27:12

Kevin O'Dea: Fileo love, phileo love

Speaker: 00:27:16

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus was a friend a phileo friend to

Speaker: 00:27:20

Kevin O'Dea: sinners. To the people with

Speaker: 00:27:24

Kevin O'Dea: stories, to the people with the mess, to the people

Speaker: 00:27:27

Kevin O'Dea: who did not measure up according to the Pharisees, Jesus

Speaker: 00:27:31

Kevin O'Dea: was a friend to sinners and if Jesus was a friend to

Speaker: 00:27:35

Kevin O'Dea: sinners, how ought we be treating one another?

Speaker: 00:27:40

Kevin O'Dea: Now Jesus did not condone sin. He did not

Speaker: 00:27:44

Kevin O'Dea: endorse sin. Jesus never participated in sin, but

Speaker: 00:27:47

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus covered sin. Jesus covered

Speaker: 00:27:51

Kevin O'Dea: sin so that we would have a pathway to him in

Speaker: 00:27:55

Kevin O'Dea: relationship. Jesus covered our sin so that

Speaker: 00:27:59

Kevin O'Dea: a dialogue and a conversation could happen. The word

Speaker: 00:28:02

Kevin O'Dea: says come, let us reason together,

Speaker: 00:28:06

Kevin O'Dea: let us discuss the matter at hand. God has

Speaker: 00:28:10

Kevin O'Dea: not, He has not relented chasing after those who are

Speaker: 00:28:14

Kevin O'Dea: running from him, who are confused by him, who have questions that are

Speaker: 00:28:18

Kevin O'Dea: unanswered, who don't really know what they're doing, who are headed

Speaker: 00:28:22

Kevin O'Dea: to destruction, he has not split the sky because there is a dying world out

Speaker: 00:28:25

Kevin O'Dea: there that needs to know the truth of Jesus

Speaker: 00:28:28

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost. And as we discovered a few weeks

Speaker: 00:28:32

Kevin O'Dea: ago, God's chosen instrument is people.

Speaker: 00:28:36

Kevin O'Dea: He wants to use you to convey His love to

Speaker: 00:28:40

Kevin O'Dea: a dying world. And so I think

Speaker: 00:28:44

Kevin O'Dea: of people in scripture Jesus going up and seeing

Speaker: 00:28:48

Kevin O'Dea: Zacchaeus in the tree, Zacchaeus who stole

Speaker: 00:28:51

Kevin O'Dea: money who probably had lots of insecurities

Speaker: 00:28:55

Kevin O'Dea: inside him and Jesus says I've got to come to your house today.

Speaker: 00:28:59

Kevin O'Dea: I think of Mary Magdalene who appeared at dinner when

Speaker: 00:29:03

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus is reclining at the table and pours out expensive perfume

Speaker: 00:29:07

Kevin O'Dea: all over Jesus's feet because Jesus was compassionate

Speaker: 00:29:11

Kevin O'Dea: and allowed her to have a story that was

Speaker: 00:29:14

Kevin O'Dea: of brokenness and he was offering the opportunity for

Speaker: 00:29:18

Kevin O'Dea: healing. Nobody at the table understood that, you know what they saw? You're spending

Speaker: 00:29:22

Kevin O'Dea: and

Speaker: 00:29:26

Kevin O'Dea: I think of the woman who was caught in the middle of adultery.

Speaker: 00:29:31

Kevin O'Dea: Everybody with a stone, not one person taking a moment to

Speaker: 00:29:34

Kevin O'Dea: find out what the circumstances or what the story behind it, all we

Speaker: 00:29:38

Kevin O'Dea: see is the sin and we're ready to cast the stone. Is that

Speaker: 00:29:42

Kevin O'Dea: how we're living our lives, church, today?

Speaker: 00:29:46

Kevin O'Dea: Because it's not how Jesus rolled. It's not how

Speaker: 00:29:49

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus operated when he found other people going through

Speaker: 00:29:53

Kevin O'Dea: things. Jesus always made time and made room

Speaker: 00:29:57

Kevin O'Dea: and made space to just be.

Speaker: 00:30:01

Kevin O'Dea: So what I want you to understand today is when we cross

Speaker: 00:30:04

Kevin O'Dea: people who are mixed up in all sorts of mess, I want you

Speaker: 00:30:08

Kevin O'Dea: to understand that you have a story, a journey too.

Speaker: 00:30:13

Kevin O'Dea: You have a journey as well. And everybody is

Speaker: 00:30:17

Kevin O'Dea: walking this journey out empathy is the

Speaker: 00:30:20

Kevin O'Dea: ability to understand and be sensitive to the

Speaker: 00:30:24

Kevin O'Dea: experiences of somebody

Speaker: 00:30:27

Kevin O'Dea: else. Now you might not know the details

Speaker: 00:30:31

Kevin O'Dea: of somebody else's story, but you know that they've got a

Speaker: 00:30:35

Kevin O'Dea: story and you can empathize that everyone has a

Speaker: 00:30:38

Kevin O'Dea: story. Everyone is a sinner and everyone needs a

Speaker: 00:30:42

Kevin O'Dea: savior Just like you needed a savior.

Speaker: 00:30:46

Kevin O'Dea: In my life guys. My life was not radically

Speaker: 00:30:50

Kevin O'Dea: changed because I was messing up on the side of the road. I was

Speaker: 00:30:54

Kevin O'Dea: doing XY and Z and somebody just put a big flashlight on my life and

Speaker: 00:30:57

Kevin O'Dea: had a stone ready to say you're messing up. You need to get your life

Speaker: 00:31:00

Kevin O'Dea: together. Look what's going on.

Speaker: 00:31:05

Kevin O'Dea: Pay attention Kevin wake up. You need to get it together.

Speaker: 00:31:10

Kevin O'Dea: Love changed my life. Love

Speaker: 00:31:15

Kevin O'Dea: changed my life and

Speaker: 00:31:18

Kevin O'Dea: for some reason guys we tend to get in this

Speaker: 00:31:22

Kevin O'Dea: thing that we we see God's amazing

Speaker: 00:31:26

Kevin O'Dea: grace in His love The word talks about His banner

Speaker: 00:31:29

Kevin O'Dea: over me His love right? And so, we see this amazing

Speaker: 00:31:33

Kevin O'Dea: love that He has placed in our life.

Speaker: 00:31:38

Kevin O'Dea: Upon salvation. And we get under here

Speaker: 00:31:42

Kevin O'Dea: and we realize how really good it is. And we

Speaker: 00:31:46

Kevin O'Dea: initially really realize it because when you're out in the

Speaker: 00:31:49

Kevin O'Dea: world, and some of you have these types of testimonies and stories, when you're

Speaker: 00:31:53

Kevin O'Dea: out in the world and you recognize what

Speaker: 00:31:57

Kevin O'Dea: God has saved you from and you recognize all

Speaker: 00:32:01

Kevin O'Dea: of the pain and depression and defeat and all of the the destruction you're added

Speaker: 00:32:04

Kevin O'Dea: toward and you realize now that you have life, when we get

Speaker: 00:32:08

Kevin O'Dea: over here it is eye opening, it is Marshall up there

Speaker: 00:32:12

Kevin O'Dea: saying my life is made new. My life is made

Speaker: 00:32:15

Kevin O'Dea: new. And you revel and you are

Speaker: 00:32:18

Kevin O'Dea: so excited to be under the banner of his

Speaker: 00:32:22

Kevin O'Dea: love because he has changed your life from the

Speaker: 00:32:26

Kevin O'Dea: inside out. Justin come on up here, James

Speaker: 00:32:29

Kevin O'Dea: come up here, John come up here, please.

Speaker: 00:32:40

Kevin O'Dea: Like one of you just sit on the bench and the other 2 just kind

Speaker: 00:32:41

Kevin O'Dea: of hang out.

Speaker: 00:32:53

Kevin O'Dea: So what happens here is we get

Speaker: 00:32:57

Kevin O'Dea: these guys are mixed up in sin. Doesn't it look like it?

Speaker: 00:33:04

Kevin O'Dea: These guys are mixed up in sin and they're rolling together and

Speaker: 00:33:08

Kevin O'Dea: they're and they're every type of every type

Speaker: 00:33:11

Kevin O'Dea: of you fill in the blank because you can think of a million whatever

Speaker: 00:33:15

Kevin O'Dea: this whatever your sin of church is Baskin Robbins here 31

Speaker: 00:33:19

Kevin O'Dea: flavors choose 1. They're mixed up in this, okay?

Speaker: 00:33:23

Kevin O'Dea: But the pray, but the thing I want you to understand is while they're mixed

Speaker: 00:33:26

Kevin O'Dea: up in this sin, John has his own story. He pray

Speaker: 00:33:29

Kevin O'Dea: end up ended up in the same place, but he has his own story. Justin

Speaker: 00:33:33

Kevin O'Dea: may have ended up in the same place, but he has his own story.

Speaker: 00:33:37

Kevin O'Dea: James may end up in the same place, but they all have their own

Speaker: 00:33:41

Kevin O'Dea: story that the Lord wants to redeem.

Speaker: 00:33:45

Kevin O'Dea: It's interesting how sin will bring us to the similar place, the

Speaker: 00:33:49

Kevin O'Dea: similar hole of destruction, won't it?

Speaker: 00:33:53

Kevin O'Dea: And so all of a sudden all of a sudden let's say

Speaker: 00:33:57

Kevin O'Dea: John, he goes to some revival, right? And John all

Speaker: 00:34:00

Kevin O'Dea: of a sudden is introduced to Jesus and everything has changed in his

Speaker: 00:34:04

Kevin O'Dea: life. He is now living under the banner of God's

Speaker: 00:34:08

Kevin O'Dea: love. The word tells us in the book of Psalms that the boundary lines of

Speaker: 00:34:11

Kevin O'Dea: my life have fallen in pleasant pray, and now for John, it has

Speaker: 00:34:15

Kevin O'Dea: fallen for him in pleasant places. He is so

Speaker: 00:34:19

Kevin O'Dea: excited about this new life, this abundant life that he has that

Speaker: 00:34:23

Kevin O'Dea: is so far in contrast to the life he was living over

Speaker: 00:34:26

Kevin O'Dea: here. So John gets, John gets saved,

Speaker: 00:34:31

Kevin O'Dea: John is over here under the banner of God's love,

Speaker: 00:34:35

Kevin O'Dea: and he is now confronted with the people that are

Speaker: 00:34:38

Kevin O'Dea: living Ghost lifestyle that that he used to live.

Speaker: 00:34:42

Kevin O'Dea: Now what so many of us do is we grab such a

Speaker: 00:34:46

Kevin O'Dea: hold of God's love here and we stay right here and we look

Speaker: 00:34:49

Kevin O'Dea: and we shout and we say, get your life

Speaker: 00:34:53

Kevin O'Dea: together, fix your problems.

Speaker: 00:34:57

Kevin O'Dea: Good job, buddy. Yeah, you don't have to yell. It's fine.

Speaker: 00:35:01

Kevin O'Dea: Yeah. And we

Speaker: 00:35:05

Kevin O'Dea: and we put we put everything at arm's length

Speaker: 00:35:08

Kevin O'Dea: because we're not going to abandon this. It's like no. This is this is banner

Speaker: 00:35:12

Kevin O'Dea: of God's love. I'm here. I am stable, I'm secure, I don't

Speaker: 00:35:15

Kevin O'Dea: want anything to do, I don't want anything It's good that you don't want anything

Speaker: 00:35:18

Kevin O'Dea: to do with that. But the problem is, John, is not only are you

Speaker: 00:35:22

Kevin O'Dea: responsible for the Lord moving in your life and changing your life, but He

Speaker: 00:35:25

Kevin O'Dea: has commissioned you to go out into the world

Speaker: 00:35:29

Kevin O'Dea: and spread His love and His gospel. You see, it continues to give, it's not

Speaker: 00:35:33

Kevin O'Dea: a selfish love, it is a selfless love that you have to give because now

Speaker: 00:35:36

Kevin O'Dea: you have, you've been over overcome by the blood of the lamb and the

Speaker: 00:35:40

Kevin O'Dea: word of your testimony. And so if you're staying here,

Speaker: 00:35:44

Kevin O'Dea: they're over there dying. And you know they're dying because you

Speaker: 00:35:48

Kevin O'Dea: used to be dying with them. I have no idea, I've got

Speaker: 00:35:52

Kevin O'Dea: my sin stuff is over here. I've got my own stuff. So I've got a

Speaker: 00:35:56

Kevin O'Dea: group of people I'm ministering to over here because I can relay. I

Speaker: 00:35:59

Kevin O'Dea: can empathize with the story that's happening over here, but

Speaker: 00:36:03

Kevin O'Dea: you can empathize with their story because you walk those paths. It

Speaker: 00:36:07

Kevin O'Dea: will be so interesting because when you open your eyes, the Lord will, all of

Speaker: 00:36:10

Kevin O'Dea: a sudden, all the people that you're walking with inside, they're just right there.

Speaker: 00:36:13

Kevin O'Dea: All the access to all the stuff that you used to be apart, right there,

Speaker: 00:36:16

Kevin O'Dea: so easy for you to grab. Why do you think that is? It's because the

Speaker: 00:36:19

Kevin O'Dea: Holy Spirit wants to use you as an agent of his grace. And

Speaker: 00:36:23

Kevin O'Dea: so what we do, well, now we have 2 choices. You can step out of

Speaker: 00:36:26

Kevin O'Dea: the banner of love and pray, well, that was good for a minute and you

Speaker: 00:36:30

Kevin O'Dea: can sit right back down and Welcome home.

Speaker: 00:36:35

Kevin O'Dea: Dive right back into that lifestyle and guys a lot of people do that.

Speaker: 00:36:39

Kevin O'Dea: A lot of people do that they get sidetracked and they get right back into

Speaker: 00:36:43

Kevin O'Dea: their lifestyle or come back over here. You can

Speaker: 00:36:47

Kevin O'Dea: understand that God has given you the ability

Speaker: 00:36:51

Kevin O'Dea: to be covered under his love

Speaker: 00:36:55

Kevin O'Dea: and you go and you sit.

Speaker: 00:36:59

Kevin O'Dea: Now, there's a difference here body. There's a difference here.

Speaker: 00:37:05

Kevin O'Dea: You're covered and you're hanging out here

Speaker: 00:37:09

Kevin O'Dea: and Justin has a story and your job

Speaker: 00:37:13

Kevin O'Dea: isn't to beat him to death with all of

Speaker: 00:37:16

Kevin O'Dea: your new life and all your new living and all this stuff. Our job is

Speaker: 00:37:20

Kevin O'Dea: to sit down and empathize with Justin. Now here's the

Speaker: 00:37:24

Kevin O'Dea: here's the thing, Justin was your best friend.

Speaker: 00:37:28

Kevin O'Dea: And so Justin's not very happy that you're coming back around with this.

Speaker: 00:37:32

Kevin O'Dea: And so he pushes you off the bench

Speaker: 00:37:36

Kevin O'Dea: and he hurts you. Ghost what your response is?

Speaker: 00:37:40

Kevin O'Dea: Go right back to the bench and sit down. Justin

Speaker: 00:37:44

Kevin O'Dea: talks bad about you, says all types of hurtful things about you,

Speaker: 00:37:47

Kevin O'Dea: spends your business that you told him that he wasn't supposed to know, pushes you

Speaker: 00:37:51

Kevin O'Dea: off the bench and scars you again. Guess why that

Speaker: 00:37:55

Kevin O'Dea: doesn't bother you? Because the Lord is taking care of all of your wounds and

Speaker: 00:37:58

Kevin O'Dea: all of the things and all of that pride that was in there is all

Speaker: 00:38:01

Kevin O'Dea: going down and he's redeeming all of that. So Ghost what you're limping and you're

Speaker: 00:38:05

Kevin O'Dea: scarred up and guess what you come right back here and you sit down.

Speaker: 00:38:09

Kevin O'Dea: Once more Justin isn't taking it so he just knocks you out just completely

Speaker: 00:38:13

Kevin O'Dea: knocks you out right?

Speaker: 00:38:17

Kevin O'Dea: And John, you continue to get up, but it's not in your own strength,

Speaker: 00:38:21

Kevin O'Dea: because greater is He who is in you than He is in the world, and

Speaker: 00:38:25

Kevin O'Dea: God has given you a supernatural a supernatural strength by the Holy Spirit

Speaker: 00:38:28

Kevin O'Dea: to get up and keep coming back. And eventually,

Speaker: 00:38:33

Kevin O'Dea: Justin doesn't coming back? And eventually, Justin doesn't have any more

Speaker: 00:38:36

Kevin O'Dea: in him to dish out to you where he eventually begins to break and concede

Speaker: 00:38:40

Kevin O'Dea: and the concession, the reason he's conceding is why would

Speaker: 00:38:43

Kevin O'Dea: you be so kind to keep coming back

Speaker: 00:38:47

Kevin O'Dea: and enduring the abuse I'm giving you after

Speaker: 00:38:51

Kevin O'Dea: years Listen to me, people, sometimes

Speaker: 00:38:55

Kevin O'Dea: you have to walk with people for years while they're

Speaker: 00:38:58

Kevin O'Dea: walking through their sin and their mess and their muck and their

Speaker: 00:39:02

Kevin O'Dea: mire, you keep showing up, you keep

Speaker: 00:39:05

Kevin O'Dea: sitting down because it's a part of their story.

Speaker: 00:39:10

Kevin O'Dea: And so, the Holy Spirit starts to get involved here and

Speaker: 00:39:13

Kevin O'Dea: Justin starts to pray because you did not give up on him,

Speaker: 00:39:17

Kevin O'Dea: and all of a sudden, you are the agent that he uses to hand a

Speaker: 00:39:21

Kevin O'Dea: gift of salvation over to Justin. All of a sudden, Justin now has the gift

Speaker: 00:39:24

Kevin O'Dea: of salvation and he too is now covered.

Speaker: 00:39:28

Kevin O'Dea: And now you can walk to the banner of His love

Speaker: 00:39:32

Kevin O'Dea: together and you can be healed.

Speaker: 00:39:38

Kevin O'Dea: Now James is going to hell.

Speaker: 00:39:42

Kevin O'Dea: I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Speaker: 00:39:47

Kevin O'Dea: But look at this power. Now you got 2 brothers in the

Speaker: 00:39:50

Kevin O'Dea: same situation, been set free, and this guy's over

Speaker: 00:39:54

Kevin O'Dea: here, and he's been the big thug of them all, he's actually started the whole

Speaker: 00:39:57

Kevin O'Dea: mess over here. He's got the big guns. And guys, you come over and sit

Speaker: 00:40:01

Kevin O'Dea: down, James, you come over and you start to get around him. And guys, it

Speaker: 00:40:04

Kevin O'Dea: might take years, it might take but my experience

Speaker: 00:40:08

Kevin O'Dea: has been that the Holy Spirit's contagious, Jesus is contagious,

Speaker: 00:40:12

Kevin O'Dea: and so you start getting enough of the people, the Lord starts moving in our

Speaker: 00:40:15

Kevin O'Dea: life, all of a sudden exponentially things start to change around that group

Speaker: 00:40:18

Kevin O'Dea: because nobody, whether they're in sin or not, wants to be isolated

Speaker: 00:40:23

Kevin O'Dea: and alone. It will drive you to the pit of sin, but

Speaker: 00:40:27

Kevin O'Dea: when you see that there is a gift of salvation out there that there is

Speaker: 00:40:30

Kevin O'Dea: something better that is attractive. You'll jump on board and then they begin to

Speaker: 00:40:34

Kevin O'Dea: offer Him and they bring Him over here also into the

Speaker: 00:40:38

Kevin O'Dea: banner of of His love and so, and then there's freedom,

Speaker: 00:40:42

Kevin O'Dea: There's freedom, right? Thank you guys so

Speaker: 00:40:46

Kevin O'Dea: much.

Speaker: 00:40:52

Kevin O'Dea: They're not leaving without their covering.

Speaker: 00:41:01

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus said that when the owner of the

Speaker: 00:41:04

Kevin O'Dea: sheep found the lost one. He

Speaker: 00:41:08

Kevin O'Dea: didn't yell at the sheep. He didn't kick the sheep. He didn't

Speaker: 00:41:11

Kevin O'Dea: slaughter the sheep because you messed up. He joyfully

Speaker: 00:41:15

Kevin O'Dea: picked it up on its shoulders. Let me let me let me He

Speaker: 00:41:19

Kevin O'Dea: picked it up and put it on his shoulders because he says, you don't have

Speaker: 00:41:23

Kevin O'Dea: the strength to come home alone. You need my strength

Speaker: 00:41:27

Kevin O'Dea: in order to make it home. And after carrying the

Speaker: 00:41:31

Kevin O'Dea: burden for the sheep, the first thing out of the

Speaker: 00:41:34

Kevin O'Dea: mouth when the sheep comes back into the fold isn't,

Speaker: 00:41:38

Kevin O'Dea: let me tell you what this sheep did. Let me tell you what

Speaker: 00:41:42

Kevin O'Dea: this sheep got into. Let me just expose everything that's

Speaker: 00:41:46

Kevin O'Dea: been going on. No. He says, rejoice with me I have

Speaker: 00:41:49

Kevin O'Dea: found my lost sheep. Rejoice with

Speaker: 00:41:53

Kevin O'Dea: me because that which was lost has

Speaker: 00:41:57

Kevin O'Dea: now been found, Has now

Speaker: 00:42:01

Kevin O'Dea: been found. Guys, we learn, Kol, come on, we learn over in

Speaker: 00:42:05

Kevin O'Dea: Romans 2 this, God's kindness is

Speaker: 00:42:08

Kevin O'Dea: intended to lead us to repentance.

Speaker: 00:42:12

Kevin O'Dea: It is his kindness that's intended to lead

Speaker: 00:42:16

Kevin O'Dea: us to repentance, notice there, it's God's

Speaker: 00:42:19

Kevin O'Dea: kindness. If Jesus was being kind to all of

Speaker: 00:42:23

Kevin O'Dea: these people in order to get them to a place of repentance,

Speaker: 00:42:27

Kevin O'Dea: what type of tools do we think we're using on the people that we see

Speaker: 00:42:31

Kevin O'Dea: who have gone astray?

Speaker: 00:42:36

Kevin O'Dea: We have to exercise the power of empathy,

Speaker: 00:42:40

Kevin O'Dea: understanding that we are not the one doing the

Speaker: 00:42:44

Kevin O'Dea: transformation or the work, it is Christ Jesus himself. He

Speaker: 00:42:47

Kevin O'Dea: is the one who changes lives. He uses us as

Speaker: 00:42:51

Kevin O'Dea: willing vessels to go out into the world and, guess what, be

Speaker: 00:42:55

Kevin O'Dea: under the blood of the lamb and the word of our

Speaker: 00:42:59

Kevin O'Dea: testimony, our story. Marshall, you had a story.

Speaker: 00:43:03

Kevin O'Dea: God is going to use that story to advance the kingdom. There are people who

Speaker: 00:43:06

Kevin O'Dea: have been down the dark roads that you've gone in, people you've hung out with,

Speaker: 00:43:10

Kevin O'Dea: people you've rubbed the elbows with, people you've probably drank with, buddy, people that you

Speaker: 00:43:13

Kevin O'Dea: just sat with in a pit and guess what? They're looking at you like, let

Speaker: 00:43:16

Kevin O'Dea: me see if this is really real. But guess what? Love

Speaker: 00:43:20

Kevin O'Dea: is exuding out of your life right now, joy is exuding out of your life,

Speaker: 00:43:23

Kevin O'Dea: the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the spirit is exuding out of your

Speaker: 00:43:26

Kevin O'Dea: life and it is attractive, and it is attractive, and so you

Speaker: 00:43:30

Kevin O'Dea: keep getting back there. You go to that bench every single time. You just sit

Speaker: 00:43:33

Kevin O'Dea: there. Let them push you off. Let them talk bad about you guys. That's called

Speaker: 00:43:36

Kevin O'Dea: suffering for Christ, just so you know. When people push

Speaker: 00:43:40

Kevin O'Dea: back, when people say, our lives are not supposed to necessarily just be cushy lives

Speaker: 00:43:44

Kevin O'Dea: where we're just all about how we can build wealth for ourselves. We are supposed

Speaker: 00:43:48

Kevin O'Dea: to be used as vessels to to minister and show

Speaker: 00:43:51

Kevin O'Dea: Christ to a dying world. That's why we're here. That's why this message is

Speaker: 00:43:55

Kevin O'Dea: so stinking important. Jesus,

Speaker: 00:43:59

Kevin O'Dea: he came to see the unseen. He came

Speaker: 00:44:03

Kevin O'Dea: to see the broken and I don't know where you are today because I believe

Speaker: 00:44:06

Kevin O'Dea: there's probably some people in here on their journey and you are

Speaker: 00:44:10

Kevin O'Dea: confused. You have questions that have gone unanswered.

Speaker: 00:44:14

Kevin O'Dea: You have prayed and prayed and prayed and it seems like God is distant.

Speaker: 00:44:19

Kevin O'Dea: And in all of those pray, in all of those things you keep coming back

Speaker: 00:44:23

Kevin O'Dea: and you don't necessarily know why you're coming back, but the reason you're coming back

Speaker: 00:44:26

Kevin O'Dea: is because he has always rendered kindness. He has always

Speaker: 00:44:30

Kevin O'Dea: been kind in all of those situations.

Speaker: 00:44:34

Kevin O'Dea: So I ask Cole to do this song.

Speaker: 00:44:40

Kevin O'Dea: So that we can recollect and remember

Speaker: 00:44:44

Kevin O'Dea: that we too have a story

Speaker: 00:44:47

Kevin O'Dea: and God is a significant part of our story in

Speaker: 00:44:51

Kevin O'Dea: how he responded to us. Go God ahead.

Speaker: 00:44:59

Kevin O'Dea: All he's ever been is kind.

Speaker: 00:45:07

Kevin O'Dea: Cross culturally, across all experiences,

Speaker: 00:45:11

Kevin O'Dea: circumstances, and stories, God renders kindness.

Speaker: 00:45:17

Kevin O'Dea: What's the goal? So that we would turn away from

Speaker: 00:45:20

Kevin O'Dea: the destruction of this world and

Speaker: 00:45:24

Kevin O'Dea: receive an abundant love that we can't even comprehend.

Speaker: 00:45:30

Kevin O'Dea: You have a story. And that story doesn't

Speaker: 00:45:34

Kevin O'Dea: just belong to you. God comes in, redeems

Speaker: 00:45:38

Kevin O'Dea: your story, and He uses it for a dying world.

Speaker: 00:45:42

Kevin O'Dea: So I don't know if you've gone astray or that you know somebody who's gone

Speaker: 00:45:45

Kevin O'Dea: astray or maybe you're working with people that have no

Speaker: 00:45:49

Kevin O'Dea: clue. But I encourage you,

Speaker: 00:45:53

Kevin O'Dea: keep sitting back down at the bench.

Speaker: 00:45:57

Kevin O'Dea: Keep going back to the mat. You're not supposed to do that with

Speaker: 00:46:00

Kevin O'Dea: everyone. Who's the Lord put in your

Speaker: 00:46:04

Kevin O'Dea: path? I don't know who He's put in my path. Ask Him.

Speaker: 00:46:09

Kevin O'Dea: Ask the Lord, Lord, who have you put in my path? And

Speaker: 00:46:12

Kevin O'Dea: to begin to exercise that phileo love we

Speaker: 00:46:16

Kevin O'Dea: talked about. This joy, unexplainable.

Speaker: 00:46:21

Kevin O'Dea: And lastly, I would pray, if you have a friend, you know,

Speaker: 00:46:25

Kevin O'Dea: we tend to be we tend to be

Speaker: 00:46:28

Kevin O'Dea: harsh to the people we're closest with because

Speaker: 00:46:32

Kevin O'Dea: we expect them to give us a margin of grace.

Speaker: 00:46:37

Kevin O'Dea: But if you have a friend in your life who is Thileo,

Speaker: 00:46:40

Kevin O'Dea: some of you do,

Speaker: 00:46:45

Kevin O'Dea: Thank the Lord. Express to them what it means to

Speaker: 00:46:48

Kevin O'Dea: you. Allow that to continue to be. And if you don't have that

Speaker: 00:46:52

Kevin O'Dea: type of friend, if you don't have that type of friend, start being that

Speaker: 00:46:56

Kevin O'Dea: type of friend to someone and watch the Lord

Speaker: 00:47:00

Kevin O'Dea: do exponential things with it. Would you stand

Speaker: 00:47:03

Kevin O'Dea: with me? I am going to give you a blessing this morning.

Speaker: 00:47:13

Kevin O'Dea: May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Speaker: 00:47:17

Kevin O'Dea: the one who breathes stars and spins the planets.

Speaker: 00:47:21

Kevin O'Dea: May this very big, huge, sovereign,

Speaker: 00:47:25

Kevin O'Dea: almighty God remind us of the

Speaker: 00:47:28

Kevin O'Dea: moment when he sat right next to us in our mess and pulled

Speaker: 00:47:32

Kevin O'Dea: us out of the muck and mire and set people in

Speaker: 00:47:36

Kevin O'Dea: our path that we can share his good loving grace

Speaker: 00:47:40

Kevin O'Dea: with. Thank you for your kindness, Lord. Jesus name,

Speaker: 00:47:43

Kevin O'Dea: amen. Be blessed Spirit House.