We continue to add to our faith by learning how to add perseverance. Eric Ennis delivers a message of encouragement and hope to become more like God.
We're on this lesson of
becoming more in twenty-four.
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:This is definitely a Marcel thing.
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:Don't gimme credit for that at all.
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:That is all Marcel.
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:But I appreciate the
sentiment of what's behind it.
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:It's, we should always be striving
to be more than what we are.
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:It's this look at, I think
this clicker works or not.
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:Technology's amazing,
especially when it doesn't work.
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:It's working.
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:This is a green button.
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:This should go, oh, look at that.
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:Okay.
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:There we go.
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:So we're going through two Peter one.
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:In case you haven't been following
along, uh, we've been staying in
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:this scripture and, and I like doing
a deeper dive in the scripture.
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:To go word by word to get a, a
greater perspective of what in this
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:case, Peter was trying to tell us.
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:And we've been under the, the guise of
God's empowerment and our human effort
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:and how it joins together to transform
us to become more in twenty-four.
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:Today we're gonna be
talking about perseverance.
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:Boy, there's a good word, uh, and a
word that we typically don't like.
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:Because perseverance means challenges,
perseverance means difficulties.
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:And I was thinking about
the last time I was up here.
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:I did persecution right before, uh,
Christmas, and now I got perseverance
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:and I thought, man, I'm the fun preacher.
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:Uh, perseverance, persecution.
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:But believe me, this word
is all over the Bible.
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:Uh, and we're gonna see that a bit today.
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:So this is our main text in two
Peter one, three through five.
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:It reads, his divine power has given
us everything we need for a godly life
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:through our knowledge of him who called
us by his own glory and goodness.
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:Through these, he's given us his
very great and precious promises,
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:so that through them you may
participate in the divine nature.
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:Having escaped the corruption of the
world caused by evil desires for this
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:very reason, make every effort to add
to your faith goodness, and to goodness
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:knowledge and to knowledge self-control.
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:And to self-control, perseverance, and the
perseverance, godliness and the godliness.
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:Mutual affection, and a mutual affection.
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:Love.
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:So this has been our main text and
I, and I wanna, before we get into
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:perseverance, I want to break down
a little bit of his divine nature.
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:God's divine power, and this
idea of making every effort.
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:So when you look at those words,
you had goodness, knowledge,
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:self-control, perseverance,
godliness, mutual affection, and love.
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:That it's God's divine nature.
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:That's who God is.
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:God is faithful.
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:When we're not faithful, God is good.
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:When we're not good, God is knowledgeable
and we can trust in his wisdom.
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:God has self-control because there's
been multiple times where God says, I
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:would wipe you out, but I'm not going to.
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:God is perseverant with us.
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:He's obviously godly and he's loving,
and this is in stark contrast.
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:To our nature, which Paul defines as this.
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:As for you, you were dead in
your transgressions and sins in
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:which you used to live when you
followed the ways of this world.
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:All of us who lived among them at
one time gratifying the cravings
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:of our flesh and following his
desires and thoughts like the rest.
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:We were by nature deserving of wrath.
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:What a stark contract.
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:Black and white in the sense of just
God's divine nature and our nature.
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:We are so different from this by who we
are, and I know we live in a time where
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:it's like you're a good person and I'm a
good person, and maybe from the outside
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:eyes, sometimes we can appear that way.
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:But if someone was to dissect my heart and
my mind and see what goes on inside there.
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:They would go, oh yeah, Eric's,
definitely deserving of wrath
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:because that's my nature.
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:The craving of my flesh and the desires
that I want to carry out with that.
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:It's who I am.
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:But the hope that we have
is this divine nature.
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:Because God's divine power works
with our making every effort to help
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:transform us to his divine nature.
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:That's what second Peter's talking
about is that we can have this
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:nature, but we have to make every
effort we have to do our part.
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:And this is probably one of the
hardest things about being a
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:Christian, is recognizing our lane.
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:'cause sometimes we wanna jump
into God's lane and we wanna
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:do what God is supposed to do.
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:We're gonna take over, we're
gonna make this happen.
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:And God's like, no, you get in
your lane, you make every effort,
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:but I'll make this happen.
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:And we can be transformed
into his divine nature.
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:I also wanna look at
this word, perseverance.
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:Huponone is what you say in Greek.
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:It stands for steadfastness,
constancy, and endurance.
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:These are all nice big words.
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:So I thought I would go with an English
translation of this, and it means
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:continued effort to do or achieve
something despite difficulties.
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:Failure or opposition, the action or
condition or instance of persevering.
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:And I was laughing at myself
right now 'cause I realized the
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:first thing I focused on, and even
what I highlighted was despite
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:difficulties, failure, opposition, I
didn't highlight, achieve something.
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:'cause that's not how I
think about perseverance.
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:When I think perseverance, I don't
think about what I'm gonna achieve.
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:I think about difficulties,
opposition, hardship, struggle.
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:That's perseverance.
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:It's like, man, this, that's exciting.
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:On a Sunday morning, I'm here with
my family, all excited to worship God
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:and I gotta go through difficulties.
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:Failure, opposition.
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:Why would I want to be a Christian?
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:Why would I want to go through
this in the same way we love
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:God because he first loved us.
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:We persevere 'cause
God perseveres with us.
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:Romans eight.
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:It says, for I'm convinced that neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
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:neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, neither height nor death,
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:nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of
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:God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
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:Notice it doesn't say, it won't
separate in the sense that our love
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:from God, it's God's love to us.
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:None of these things is
gonna stop God's love for us.
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:God's gonna persevere in his love for us.
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:And when I read this, sometimes
I can feel like, yeah, but what
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:are really God's obstacles?
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:God's all-powerful.
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:Is it really that difficult for him?
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:You know, what's his greatest obstacle?
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:And I realized his
greatest obstacle is us.
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:We are the greatest obstacle.
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:For God's love 'cause God has
to really persevere with us.
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:I was reading a Nehemiah, and
Nehemiah was describing the
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:Israelites, and Nehemiah said this.
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:It says they refused to listen
and failed to remember the
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:miracles you performed among them.
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:They became stiff-necked, and in
their rebellion appointed a leader
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:in order to return to their slavery.
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:But you are forgiving God.
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:Gracious and compassionate, slow
to anger and abounding of love.
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:Therefore, you did not desert them as
a young Christian and reading the old
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:Testament, there's a lot there that
I was like, I, I don't understand a,
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:a lot of stuff as a young Christian,
and one of the things I didn't
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:understand with the Israelites here,
God walked with them, showed his
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:presence to them, performed miracles
for them, brought them outta slavery.
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:Into and leading them to a promised
land and while on the jury to the
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:promised land outta slavery, they're
like, eh, um, it's not that great here.
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:Yeah, I know we're on this journey,
this promised land, but you know what?
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:It was nice back in Egypt.
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:I know we were enslaved, but
how bad is slavery really?
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:Let's go back, let's get a new
leader and let's head back that way.
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:Let's not keep going
towards God's promises.
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:This.
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:And as a young Christian, I'm
like, these Israelites are stupid.
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:And then I became a Christian
for a little bit longer and I
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:realized, oh, I'm stupid too.
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:I'm the same way I think of the
miracles God's performed in my
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:life, the transformation, the
bringing me out of slavery from my
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:evil desires, from what held me.
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:And sometimes I get in
a place where I'm like.
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:Was it really that bad back there?
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:Was it really that tough?
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:Maybe I could go back.
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:You know, at least be on
the way back a little bit.
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:I mean this, this journey to
the promised part is hard.
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:So slavery isn't all bad, right?
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:And I forget, and I become exactly
what Nehemiah is saying here, A
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:stiff-necked people, and we can
become this if we don't persevere.
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:Now you think, well man,
perseverance is hard.
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:You're right.
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:But read the Bible.
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:You'll be inspired by so
many people that persevere.
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:What do I mean by so many people?
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:A bunch.
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:Job persevered through extreme suffering
a loss, but remained faithful to God.
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:Joseph sold into slavery by his
own family and imprisoned falsely.
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:Remained steadfast to God and
eventually saved his family.
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:Moses endured decades of hardship as he
led the Israelites outta slavery through
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:the wilderness, but remained faithful.
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:David faced trials even of his own
king who tried to persecute him and his
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:own failures yet remained steadfast.
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:Esther risked her life to save the
people displaying enormous courage
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:and perseverance in the face of.
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:Certain death you think?
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:Well, that's just a few.
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:Okay, let's do some more.
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:Ruth demonstrated perseverance in her
loyalty to Naomi, going to a place
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:that she didn't even know where she
was going, but stayed true to God.
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:Your people will be my people.
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:Your God will be my God.
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:Daniel endured persecution most of his
life and lived as a, as a bond servant to
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:a kingdom that overthrew the Israelites.
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:And yet he never compromised his beliefs.
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:Paul suffered persecution, imprisonment,
various hardships all the way up
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:to death, yet remained committed.
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:Abraham displayed perseverance
in his journeys and faith not
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:knowing what God's gonna lead him.
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:And Hannah endured years of barrenness
and social stigma, but remained
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:persistent with God in prayer.
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:I could do this for the rest of the time.
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:You pick a person in the Bible and follow
their journey, you will see persevering.
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:It's one of the traits.
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:We like to pick up the Bible and
think, oh, if I read it, I'm just
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:gonna read about some guy who all was
good and God just brought him through.
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:And that is not the story
of the Bible at all.
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:The story of the Bible is perseverance.
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:And if you're feeling like,
man, it's hard to persevere.
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:Spend time with some of these people
and walk with them and learn from them.
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:Because sometimes we think, oh man,
I'm persevering this week, but if
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:it doesn't change next week, whoo.
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:I don't know if I can keep going.
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:In some of these cases, you're
talking 40 years of perseverance
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:of hardship, but they remain close
to God, so we must persevere.
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:I wanna read from the book of James
now before I do, I, I'm teaching
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:a, a helping out facilitate a young
Christian class for our college ministry.
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:And uh, last week we, or
a couple weeks ago we went
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:through how to study the Bible.
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:And one of the things, when you said the
Bible, you ought talk about who's talking.
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:You know what's, what's the source.
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:And so this is coming from James because
I know when looking at you, some of you're
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:like, if he tells me I have to persevere,
he doesn't know what I'm going through.
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:He doesn't know the challenges I'm facing.
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:He doesn't know the hardship
that I'm in right now.
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:And you're right, I don't.
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:So please hear that this
is coming from James now.
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:Who's James?
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:Let me just introduce
James to you for a moment.
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:He was the brother of Jesus.
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:What would it take for you to grow
up growing up with your siblings?
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:To be convinced that your sibling, your
younger brother or sister, or older
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:brother or sister was the Lord and Christ?
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:It would've taken a lot to try
to convince me that my brother
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:Victor was the Lord in Christ.
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:I'm like, Mm-Hmm.
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:You don't know him like I do.
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:What did he see that convinced him?
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:Part of it was the resurrection.
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:Part of it was seeing his brother come
back from the dead who appeared to him.
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:'cause he wasn't faithful as a follower
early on, but he becomes so to the point
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:of his own death, he will leave the
church in Jerusalem for over 30 years.
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:The church in Jerusalem was basically
mainly Jews and they were ostracized.
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:By the Jewish community because
they were following this way,
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:this Christ, this Messiah that
they thought that wasn't is Jesus.
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:And so during hardships and famine,
Paul would actually go and travel around
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:to the Gentile churches raising money
to give to the Jerusalem Jews because
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:some of them were starving to death.
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:And this is the church he's leading.
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:And he will die in
Jerusalem for his beliefs.
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:So just know what he says to you.
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:This is where he's coming from.
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:Let's hear what he has to say.
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:James, A servant of God
and a Lord Jesus Christ.
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:To the 12 tribes scattered among the
nations greetings, consider it pure joy.
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:My brothers and sisters, whenever
you face trials of many kind.
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:Us because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance.
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:Let perseverance finish its work
so that you may be mature and
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:complete, not lacking anything.
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:If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask
God who gives generously to all without
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:finding fault and it'll be given to you.
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:I wanna highlight this first point.
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:Whenever you face trial,
not if ever not, you might.
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:No.
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:Whenever you will.
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:It.
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:It's a part of the Christian walk.
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:You will face trials and what
are we supposed to do with this?
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:Consider it pure joy.
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:I just told you.
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:You don't know what I'm going through.
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:I don't, but it doesn't
make this any less true.
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:Consider it pure joy.
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:How do I do that?
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:How do I consider it?
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:Pure joy.
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:What I'm going through.
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:A loss of a family member.
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:A friend that has hurt you, A
brother and sister in Christ that
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:has turned their back on you.
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:Financial hardships.
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:Hardships in school.
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:How do I consider it?
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:Pure joy.
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:'cause it's a testing of your faith.
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:Faith isn't living this life to go, if
I'm faithful, God's gonna do this for me.
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:It's not a secret switch that
you get to turn on and just make
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:God do what you want him do.
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:Faith is being certain that God is
working even when you don't know what's
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:happening and you get to test this
faith, you get to see the authenticity
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:of this faith and live this out.
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:And it'll help you to be mature
and complete, not lacking anything.
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:Well, what does mature
and complete look like?
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:God's divine nature.
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:Being faithful, having goodness,
having knowledge, having self-control,
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:being godly, living a life of love.
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:We all want these traits.
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:But we have to be able to
go through it to get there.
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:And this can be the hard part,
and it is hard and it's hard,
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:especially if it's a long journey.
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:Something, uh, some of, you know, in
this room, not many, but some of, you
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:know, uh, it's been a hard journey.
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:From the time I was baptized, 1920,
I heard a lesson and the lesson was
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:this, pray for your future children.
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:So by the time I was 20 years old.
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:I've been praying about
what my child might be like,
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:and I got married in my
twenties and, uh, God said no.
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:And, uh, with my wife's passing, I
found recently, uh, an unanswered prayer
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:from her saying, you know, pregnancy
by:
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:And, uh, you know, I think
I got surrendered to that.
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:And then recently getting
remarried, it was a, a hope again.
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:Um, and so we started praying again,
you know, and just going, okay,
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:God, maybe this might be an option.
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:And we found out in early December
that we had basically a one in
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:a thousand chance to have child.
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:Crushing years of prayer.
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:And I was like, okay, God, you know, I,
I, I can't stop praying and I'm gonna
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:continue to pray, and I'm grateful
for your prayers because it has been
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:enormously challenging because we found
that out on a Friday and on Sunday in
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:December, we found out we were pregnant.
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:And so we are 14 weeks and we're
expecting a little baby boy.
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:Now here's what I'm looking at.
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:Just so you know, a bunch of you friends
of mine who have older children going.
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:You've not stopped persevering.
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:Your perseverance has only just begun.
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:And they are right and you are right.
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:I'm grateful that God has heard
my prayers, but I also know that
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:those prayers need to continue, that
I'll still be praying for my little
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:boy as he grows up as he develops.
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:'cause I'll have to persevere.
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:That's what it means to persevere,
and many of you are still in
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:it with your kids persevering.
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:Yeah, I know.
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:That's right.
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:Because I know some of you and I
hang out with some of your kids,
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:we persevere not just for a
season, but for a lifetime.
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:So how do we add perseverance to our life?
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:We recognize instead of run.
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:We recognize that we're in
a season of perseverance.
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:We reframe our mindset that, yes, this
is a tough time and we're going through
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:it and it's okay, but I'm not gonna run.
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:I'm not gonna be someone who
skips out on this moment.
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:This is a testing of my faith.
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:We're gonna pray instead of pout.
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:We can get to a place in our
life sometimes when we're
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:praying and be like, ah.
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:I don't wanna pray anymore.
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:I just wanna pow Oh, I don't like this.
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:No.
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:If you are in a moment, pray instead
of pout, and we are gonna be those
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:who step out instead of shrink back.
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:Hebrews 10 39 says, but we do not
belong to those who shrink back and
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:are destroyed, but to those who have
faith and are saved, this is how we
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:add perseverance and the benefits of
this, it'll strengthen your faith.
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:When my baby is born.
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:I will get to remember
those years of perseverance.
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:Every time I see his
face, you'll develop grit.
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:We don't like this in our day and age.
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:There's a phrase that says
Hard times produce hard men.
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:Hard men produce soft times.
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:Soft times produce soft men.
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:And soft men produce hard times, and we
got some soft times that produce some
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:soft men, and we need to get some grit.
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:Yes, yes.
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:We need to stand up for what's
right through the hardships,
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:through the difficulties, 'cause
it'll cultivate our character.
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:We'll develop integrity
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:and we'll become a testimony
of God's faithfulness.
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:And ultimately, as James told us, we'll be
mature and complete, not lacking anything.
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:So as we head into communion.
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:Remember, we make every effort, we
strive, and God will do his part in
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:transforming us into his divine nature.
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:So action steps for this week.
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:Pray for God's wisdom as
you face these trials.
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:Remember James says, ask for
wisdom and he'll be given to
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:you without fighting fault.
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:And if you're going through
it, ask someone to walk with
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:you through your challenges.
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:I thank you for those who prayed with me.
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:Who've been on this journey with me,
and not just this past year, not just
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:this past two years, but who've walked
with me through my Christianity.
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:'cause you've kept,
helped me keep faithful.
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:Thank you for spending that time
with me, and if you're going through
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:it, ask someone to walk with you.
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:Christianity is not
meant to be done alone.
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:We're a family.
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:So as we head into
communion, Jesus perseveres.
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:This Hebrews 12, one through three.
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:Therefore, since we are surrounded by
such a great cloud of witnesses, let us
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:throw off everything that hinders and
the sin that so easily entangles and let
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:us run with perseverance the race marked
out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
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:the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
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:For the joy set before him, he endured
the cross scorning a shame, and sat down
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:at the right hand of the throne of God.
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:Consider him who endured such
opposition from sinners so that
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:you will not grow weary and lose
heart as we head in this time.
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:Jesus lived out what he's calling
us to do for the joy set before him.
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:He endured.
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:He persevered through the cross, and
where did he end the right hand of
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:God, which is where we, we will be
someday, but we cannot grow weary.
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:And we cannot lose heart
'cause we have to persevere.
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:Let's pray.
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:Fathers, we come before you in this
time and we recognize who you are and
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:how much God you persevere with us.
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:Let us make every effort to
give back and persevere with you
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:because we know God that you will
go to any extreme to love us.
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:Neither height nor depth.
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:Nor anything else and all of creation
will separate us from your love.
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:Let us run the race marked out for us
and achieve the crown of glory at the end
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:because we know God, that we will sit at
the throne of God if we remain faithful.
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:Father, we are grateful to you
for the love that you show us.
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:And as we take this communion,
the, the bread that represents
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:your body, that was crushed.
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:In pierced and the blood that was spilled,
the grape juice that we drink, we take.
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:So remembering that it was this
death that ultimately led to the
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:resurrection that saves us today,
and we pray this UN son's name.
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:Amen.