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People of Peace (North OC)
Episode 104th December 2022 • OC Church of Christ Sermons • OC Church of Christ
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To follow Jesus leads to becoming more like Him. Also, because of Jesus, His followers become people of peace.

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OC Church of Christ

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good morning, brothers and sisters.

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All right.

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My name is Marcel Hall and, uh, privilege and honor to be able

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to preach God's word here today.

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Can we go ahead and thank the AV team real quickly here?

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We're so grateful.

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They do a whole lot.

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Appreciate it.

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Uh, so much.

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We appreciate those who work behind the scenes.

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So grateful.

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Uh, we're gonna go ahead and get into God's word here this morning.

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We looked last week at how because of Jesus we can become people of hope.

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And now we're gonna talk about how because of Jesus we can become.

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People of peace.

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Let's go ahead and let's pray.

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Father, thank you so much already for this chance to worship.

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You got it has been encouraging, it's been fulfilling.

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And God, right now I know I have been challenged, I have been, uh, strengthened.

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I've been encouraged.

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I've been hopeful by what you have been teaching me about the

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peace that we have in Christ.

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And Father, I pray that you will communicate that message here today.

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God, I pray that, uh, we will be able to look at you in a different facet.

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We'll be able to appreciate you and your word and your ways in a greater way.

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And so, father, I pray right now that your will shall be accomplished.

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We pray in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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So we're talking about being people of peace, and the first thing that we see

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is that we can become people of peace.

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Through Jesus.

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And so I want us to look here at, uh, a verse here that's gonna

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help us out in John chapter 14.

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And so we're gonna take it up in John chapter 14.

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Let me see, am I working here?

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I think I am.

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Am.

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My nut is, you might have to go to the next slide there for me.

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Ariana.

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Not, not, not working.

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Okay.

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John, chapter 14 in verse 15.

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We're gonna take it up in the middle of what scholars call the farewell

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discourse or the upper room discourse.

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Starting off in the end of John chapter 13, all the way to John chapter 17.

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We're gonna take it up in the middle.

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And so Jesus had the last Supper right before the crucifixion that

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would take place the next day.

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And so he is having this discussion with his followers and they're,

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they don't know what's going on.

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Some fear, some anxiety, some uncertainty.

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And so Jesus during this time is gonna give, uh, some encouragement.

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He's going to give some guidance.

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He's also gonna give some good theology in this discourse.

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But we're gonna take it up right in the middle, in John chapter

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14, starting off in verse 15.

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Church, are you with me?

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It says, if you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father,

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and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

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The spirit of truth.

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The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows

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him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

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I will not leave you as orphans.

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I will come to you before long.

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The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live.

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You also will live on that day.

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You'll realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

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Whoever has my command, it keeps them, is the one who loves me.

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The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love

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them and show myself to them.

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Then Judas, not Judas is scary.

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It said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

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Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

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My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.

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Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

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These words you hear are not my own.

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They belong to the Father who sent me all this.

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I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom

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the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind

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you of everything I have said to you.

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Peace I leave with you.

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My peace I give you.

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I do not get to you as the world gives.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

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We'll stop right there.

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There's a lot in this passage here, but I want us to go ahead and take a moment

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here, and maybe you need to read it over here real quickly for the next 20 seconds.

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You can do that on your phone here, but I want you to go ahead and

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twos and threes and fours, and I want you to answer this question.

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Go back here.

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Go back.

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What do you learn about peace and how it applies to our lives?

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So, so what Jesus just shared.

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What do you learn about peace and how it applies to our lives?

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I'll go ahead and give you several minutes.

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Again, you need to read it over.

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Go ahead.

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But have a discussion in your rows and if you're online, go

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ahead and put it in the chat.

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Uh, your answers to this and we can have some good dialogue online.

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All right.

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Give you about 30 more seconds.

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I d.

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All right.

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Let's go ahead and let's have a couple people be able to share maybe with

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something you shared or insight from, uh, the person you were talking to.

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Let's go ahead and, uh, have some people be able to answer

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this question out loud for us.

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Okay.

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Alan, why don't you stand on up please?

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Yes, hello.

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My name's Alan Andrews and what I learned is that basically if you

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don't follow Jesus and you don't or anything, basically, you're not at

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peace know before I came to church.

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I was a world miss.

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I had a lot of problems.

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Always an angry person.

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That's a lot of people that I know that are not with the

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church and they are angry.

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But once you start following Jesus, you have peace.

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I know I'm a better father for my kids and I treat my ex better.

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So yeah.

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Okay.

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Right.

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There you go.

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So, uh, no.

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Probably a lot of us couldn't hear what he shared there, but he said basically,

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if when we follow Jesus, that will lead to peace and when we don't follow Jesus.

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And so he shared in his life and how when he wasn't following Jesus, the

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anger that was inside, but now the peace that's coming and also being

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a better father and a better person.

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Okay.

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Cool.

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Awesome.

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Others, what were some of the things that you guys shared in your discussion?

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All right, Jasmine.

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Um, in verse 27, it talks about how, like Jesus said, peace I

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with you by peace I give you.

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And he says, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be so in.

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Thinking.

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Okay, peace is probably the opposite of that.

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It's the opposite of being troubled and being afraid.

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And so it's this calmness, it's this faith, faith, not fear, but

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then also, um, instead of being troubled, it's having this calmness.

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So I, when I think about peace, I calmness and faith.

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So, okay, so she talked about peace in it.

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When he says that also he followed, don't be afraid.

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So it's the opposite of being afraid.

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So it's, it's peace and faith over fear and uncertainty there.

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Okay.

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Awesome.

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Good.

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I saw Brenda.

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Go ahead.

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S

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thinking about peace when we surrender to God, then she says she feels the peace

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coming to life when she's not surrendered.

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Maybe that peace is vacant.

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Yes.

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One more.

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I think it gives us something to hold onto.

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So like, I had a pretty awful week, but there's that light at the end

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of the tunnel that God offers us.

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And so when we're surrounded by unpleasants, this we can look forward to.

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Okay.

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I chase out God, my heart, and the we're so, so peace can be

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helpful during times of troubling anger, frustration, hard times.

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He said he had a hard week, but yet he can hold on to the

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peace that is available in God.

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Yes.

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I wanna share a couple things here, some observations that I had in reading this

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that really just, uh, uh, just floored me and really got me excited about the

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peace that is available to you and I.

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And we see in this passage here that Jesus gives us peace through the holy.

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Cause in this whole passage, again, in the context, it's always

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important to read the Bible and make sure we have the right context.

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The guys are a little bit afraid and that's why he shares about it.

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In fact, in the beginning of chapter 14, he says, don't be trouble.

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Don't be afraid.

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Trust in God, trust also in me.

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Then he ends off this part of the discourse by saying, Hey, don't be afraid.

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And in between all that is this.

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Talk about the advocate and all this talk about peace that we

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have through the Holy Spirit.

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And what are we talking about here?

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Well, many of us in the church know we're talking about the dwelling

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of the Holy Spirit, God's spirit, his presence being within us.

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And if you think about that, just on that simple fact there, God

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being within us, that automatically brings a little bit of peace.

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And so here Jesus saying, And he's offering and he's promising that the

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Holy Spirit is going to come into their lives and it will lead to the peace that

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he has and that he is leaving with them.

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Again, this is a piece that is from the spirit of God being inside of his people,

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enabling you and me to be people of peace.

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Now, this piece isn't a lack of noise or a lack of chaos.

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This piss, this piece isn't a lack or maybe free of problems.

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Cuz many times a fighter say, Hey, think of something peaceful.

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You think maybe quiet, don't you?

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Or maybe if you're a parent, the kids are quiet, maybe they're outta

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house and you're like, hallelujah.

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Or you're thinking, you know what?

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There's no chaos or anything like that.

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And those are peaceful environments, maybe peaceful situations that

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might lead potentially to some peace, but it's not peace itself.

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You guys with me here.

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And so this peace that Jesus is talking about is peace in the midst

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of problems and fear because again, the guys are like, Hey, we're not sure

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that he's getting some uncertainty.

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Jesus is reading the room and he says, Hey guys, don't be afraid.

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I have some peace available for you through the Holy Spirits.

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So again, it's not problem free, it's not everything is Rick Peaches

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and cream and and it's all simple.

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No, he's saying you could be in the midst of uncertainty and be at peace.

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I don't know about you, but that sounds like some good peace and this, this

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is an internal piece that is available starting from now all the way to eternity.

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Wouldn't you like that peace tomorrow morning once You want that type of

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peace in this coming up week once.

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You want that type of peace in dealing with so and so this week.

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And you know who so and so is.

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See, this piece is available for you and me.

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We need this peace in this coming hour.

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Again, it's the Holy Spirit, God's presence in us.

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And you can say, well, he, he meant that directly for the apostles.

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But here's the great thing.

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It applies to everyone afterwards who will make the decision to follow Jesus.

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Let's go to Acts chapter two.

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Brothers and sisters.

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Are you with me here?

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Okay.

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Alright.

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It says in Acts chapter two here, or maybe it doesn't here.

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Uh, where did I go?

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Did I just jump ahead here?

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All right.

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Sorry about that.

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I'm getting excited.

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All right, here we go.

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We'll, stay right here.

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Okay.

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It's peace through the Holy Spirit here.

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What does he say?

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Check out some of these things that he said in here.

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He says, I'm gonna give you this other advocate who will help you

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and be with you when forever.

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He's not.

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He, he lives with you now.

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So he say, Hey, look, the spirit of God, because Jesus has been present.

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He's always been around.

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But once I leave, once I die and raised again, guess what?

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Now he's gonna be in you.

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Woo.

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And he says, me and my father will make our home with you again.

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This is peace from the spirit of God being inside of us.

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You know, this peace can't be fully articulated.

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I can do, at least I can try to do the best job I can, and I fully will

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be unable to articulate it in the great fashion in which it deserves.

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And in fact, it says here in Philippians chapter four, go back there, Philippians

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chapter four says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

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Did you catch that?

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It says it transcends all.

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Like we can't fully fathom, we can't truly grasp how the peace

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of God really works in our lives.

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He says, we'll guard your hearts and your minds in who in Christ Jesus.

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Again, this connection between this peace and Christ that we have.

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And so we see here because of Jesus again, we become people of peace.

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I want us to go back here and see, look, this is applicable to you and me.

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When the church started on the day of Pentecost a little over

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2000 years ago, people are saying, well, what do we do with this good

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news that you are sharing with us?

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Peter Toner?

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Repent and be baptized.

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Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, you

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will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for

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all whom the Lord our God will call.

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And so what do we see here?

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This applies not only to Jesus's apostles in immediate context, but it

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applies to you and me, and it shows us how we actually receive this Holy

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Spirit, God's presence within us.

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When we repent and get baptized and so cool to see.

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Lawrence now is a man who's full of the Holy Spirits.

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That's what enabled them to win that soccer tournament the other day, maybe,

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maybe not, but now because he repenting and been baptized, now he has this

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promise of God's presence being with him forever, enabling the opportunity

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to walk in peace no matter what the circumstance, the opportunity to face

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it with hope, peace, love, and joy.

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Church, are you with me here?

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Yeah.

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Check this out here.

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Go to the next slide here in John chapter, uh, uh, 14.

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Here.

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We'll look again here it says, but the advocate, it's interesting, this word

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that Jesus uses is the advocate and, and really this word here, go back here.

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Uh, John chapter 14.

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Okay.

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Yeah, there is is on there.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Go again to the next slide there.

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All right, go to the next slide.

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There you go.

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Go to the next slide there.

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All right.

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There you go.

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One more.

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There you go.

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All right, so this word advocate is per parato, something like that.

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That's my, that's my Greek for the day here.

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Okay.

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Parato.

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All right.

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There you go.

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All right, Kylie, you're really smart.

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Maybe I said it correct.

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Maybe not.

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You could correct me if I'm wrong.

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All right.

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So this word in Greek, because it was originally written in Greek,

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this word has been translated, maybe transla, literate into perle.

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That's what the English word for us.

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And so as you read it, as the, as we try to translate it from, from Greek

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to English, we really don't have a word that can fully articulate this perle.

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And so in many translations you'll find the word comforter.

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You'll find the word helper, counselor advocate, but no English

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word can truly capture what the perle is, because the Perle, the

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Holy Spirit, is all those things.

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Comforter, counselor, helper, and advocate advocate's probably the best that we

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can get to because it's one who speaks up on our behalf, one who helps us.

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And so he says, the Holy Spirit is the advocate in our lives

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because he comforts, he helps, he counsels, and he advocates for us.

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And I love this.

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He says, I'll give you another advocate, implying what?

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That he is the first advocates.

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So he says, when the spirit comes, guess what?

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He's gonna remind you of all these things because he's just like me.

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Because what?

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He's divine.

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. And so what the spirit does is continue the mission of Christ.

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And so as the apostles were there, they could recall, you know, man,

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remember that time we were in a boat.

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We were all freaking out and we were nervous.

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There were storms there.

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And yet Jesus calmed the storm and it said it brought peace to us.

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That's what the spirit's gonna do in our lives.

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Hey, remember that time when we were all nervous in the world?

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What's gonna happen in Jesus?

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His presence brought us to peace.

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Hey, remember the time when, when he resurrected and we didn't know

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what to do, we were hiding down.

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And he came and he spoke, and he said, peace be to you.

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And he gave us confidence.

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It gave us hope.

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It gave us this calmness that Jasmine was referring to.

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And so the spirit continues the work of Jesus.

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And in the same way we can depend upon God, through the spirit

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to trust him, to rely upon him.

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As he guides us, he counsels us.

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He helps us, and he advocates for us.

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You know, something that can maybe help us in illustration will be like little kids,

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and your little kids a lot of times have a teddy bear or, uh, what do you call it?

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A binky or something like that, right?

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To help them.

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My, my two of my kids, they had, uh, one had a little cow,

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we used to call it holy cow.

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Like, where's, holy cow?

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Go get Holy cow.

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You going to sleep?

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You need, holy cow.

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And then another one has a little, little cat.

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I thought it was like a, like a, a tiger or something.

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They said, oh, it's a cat.

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And they call it kitty.

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And so, oh, go get kitty, right?

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And so, oh, go get kitty, right?

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And so we had holy cow and kitty for two of my kids there, and they needed that

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when there was a sense of unsettlement, when they were feeling like, ah, a

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little agitate, a little frustrated.

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And we say, Hey, go get that, and that will help you in your time of need.

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And so here's what the cool thing is.

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Is that God's presence brings that comfort in our lives.

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God's presence, God being readily available, God being there reassuring

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us no matter what the chaos may be, what the discouragement or despair we

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may have, his presence now lifts us up so that we can be at a point in which

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we are peaceful in the midst of what's going on, we can say, you know, I'm safe.

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God, you're with me.

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It's going to get better.

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It's going to happy you are working.

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You will deliver me.

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There's hope in this situation no matter what.

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I see there's hope in this situation.

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Why Cuz God's presence is there.

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Church, are you with me here?

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But the problem is, if you're like me, we often can forget, relinquish or

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forfeit this piece that's available.

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In many ways, we can do this.

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I know for me, I, I can forget God's presence within me.

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But one of the big ways that we'll focus in on is really our disobedience

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to God has a forfeit, relinquish and forget his presence within us.

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That's what he says here.

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He makes this connection.

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And John 14, he says, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

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My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

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Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

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It's interesting that he, he used this term, Hey, we'll make our home.

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And that's the way they translate English.

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It means to stay or to remain, to be there.

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So it's a, it's a accurate translation.

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But if we think of that, uh, that imagery, right?

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If Jesus lives inside of our heart, the Holy Spirit lives inside of our heart.

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When we disobey, guess what we do?

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We start inviting other people, other tenants, into our hearts.

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Those tenets are good.

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And if you're like California, it's hard to get those tenets out, , if you

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know what I'm talking about, just, you know what I'm talking about later, okay?

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And so we can have this disruption in our souls.

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And what does it do?

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It fractures what our peace see, there's this connection between

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our obedience and the Holy Spirit's presence and peace in our lives.

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I want us to go ahead and, and get another, uh, visual

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aid here that'll help us out.

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Kyle, can, can you come up on stage here for me, brother?

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All right.

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All right, Kyle.

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Kyle's our man here, right?

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And, uh, here we go.

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Here.

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All right.

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All right.

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So here you go.

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Right.

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So Kyle is gonna go ahead here and, uh, he's going to represent the Holy Spirit.

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It's not blast for me, okay?

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This is an object lesson here.

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Okay?

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All those people, like, don't you ever do that?

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Jesus did it all the time.

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Okay?

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All right.

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So he's representing the Holy Spirit, okay?

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And this umbrella is the umbrella of peace.

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And so when we, all right, here we go.

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Uh, you know, for the people online, I'll be besides you.

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Okay?

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Here we go.

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All right.

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So here we go.

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All right.

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Scoot on over, man.

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The peace gotta cover me.

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Okay?

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All right, here we go.

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All right.

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There you go.

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All right.

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So when I'm walking, this is how God wants us to be.

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He wants us to walk with him.

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Now.

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We're not walking ahead of him.

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That's where you get messed up.

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Oh, yeah.

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Ah, I like that.

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Oh, yeah.

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Don't walk ahead of him.

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Some of us think, oh, let's walk aside.

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Can I tell you to go this way?

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No, don't do that.

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Follow the spirit's lead.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Walk back with me here.

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Okay, here we go.

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All right.

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So when the spirit, so we have peace in our lives when we're

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following and obeying him.

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That's all good.

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Come on, let's walk in.

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Roll.

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All right, so he's leading this.

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Okay, go ahead.

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Stop.

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But let's say, if you're like me, sometimes what we can do

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is we get a little distracted.

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Go ahead and take a step.

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Oh, this is interesting.

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What, what is this?

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Oh, oh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

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Oh, we're off a little bit, aren't we?

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And we say, oh, okay.

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But then we get a little distracted.

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Wow, that's kinda shiny right there.

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Okay, stop right there.

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Now I'm still have a little bit of that piece, right?

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Little bit of that peace is covering me, but there's some that's not covering me.

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What's that doing to that peace?

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Really?

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It's causing what?

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Disturbance.

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Man.

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Why didn't this relationship with God thing work out?

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But I made some choices to look at other things.

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Huh?

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My career.

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Oh, my school.

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As I said earlier, Hey, maybe this relationship, oh,

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oh, oh, let me come back.

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All right, let's go this way.

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All right, so then we go ahead.

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So then there's other times where we're disobeying the spirit here.

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He's leading us, and then we decide, you know what?

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Uh, I don't know if I trust here.

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Okay, maybe the storms of life are coming and so we have rain coming

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down, rice with umbrella's supposed to do, but then we get nervous.

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Oh my goodness, I don't know if I can trust you.

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I don't know if this thing will really cover me.

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And so maybe I'll, I'll, I'll try to find some other way to cover myself.

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Maybe this relationship will gimme peace.

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What do you do?

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Like, what do you do?

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Maybe my career, maybe money will give me peace.

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Kinda seem to have the same type of covering effect.

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Does it?

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Or sometimes we can go, go ahead and we just say, you know,

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I'm just gonna flat out this.

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I'm gonna go ahead and do my thing.

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I'm gonna go ahead and make my choices.

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It's all about me, what I want and my will.

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What happened to the peace that was available, that peace was readily

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available, but I chose to disobey.

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And now look at me.

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He's going that way.

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I'm heading the opposite direction for, from the peace that he

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wants to provide in my life.

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And you know, the sad thing is that this is where some of us are at right now.

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This is where some of us are at.

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The Holy Spirit's leading.

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He's got, and he's calling, he's got this umbrella of peace.

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He's waiting for us, but we've either gotten distracted, we've

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gotten nervous, we're scared.

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I don't know if I can trust him, or we're just flat out making decisions

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that are contrary to his will.

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And so we forfeited, we relinquished, and we just totally

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forgot about the peace of God.

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And then when we're in this state, what do we do?

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We tend to think I can get peace from other things.

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I can get peace from my accomplishments, people serving me, me, uh, uh, uh, gaining

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things, materialism, some form of a relationship, whatever the case may be.

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We start to think that these things will give us peace, but

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spiritually we're looking foolish and we're not experiencing God.

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And so therefore we get frustrated.

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We get angry.

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We even start to think, you know what?

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Maybe it's God's fault.

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Or we start to look at the church and go, you know, what is their faults?

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They didn't do this for me.

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God didn't do this for me.

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And we start to blame and we, I don't think this Christianity thing works.

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I don't think I can really follow the spirits, and we make choices.

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And we end up distant from God and the hope that he provides.

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But there's hope in Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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That's what we talked about.

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There's hope in Jesus.

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Kyle, you can go ahead and, and sit down there.

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He's, he's hopeful that he can sit down.

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All right.

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There you go.

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I appreciate that.

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Yeah.

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Come on.

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But there's always hope for Jesus.

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There's always hope in Jesus.

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And so we have to go ahead and say, okay, well man, there's hope for me today.

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Maybe that's where I am.

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Maybe I'm in one of these situations where the peace of God is not

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ruling, it's not leading, it's not covering my soul and my life today.

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But there's hope in Jesus cuz hope is alive.

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That's what we talked about last week, didn't we?

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Right.

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So there's hope for us.

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There's hope for us to get back to this piece at which he offers.

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And so we have to do something though.

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And I think it's simple.

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It's going back to what we just talked about.

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Let's go to the next slide here.

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We have to make sure that we obey Jesus' teachings.

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Now, there's many ways to get back.

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We need to pray.

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We need to go ahead and connect with brothers and sisters.

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All those things help contribute.

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But in the context of what we saw in John 14, we have to get back

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to obey the teachings of Jesus.

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Because when we obey, then there's a connection between his presence

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and our connection with him, and the peace that can cover over us.

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And so if you want the power and the presence of God and your soul, then

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you need to be aligned with the will of God, and that's through obedience.

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Obedience keeps you close to God while disobedience disconnects you from God.

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So the question for you and the question for me, are you

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obeying the teachings of Jesus?

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Some might be saying, well, which teaching should we obey?

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Which one do you think you should obey?

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We gotta be all of them.

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If my kids came up and said, Papa, which one of the rules

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of the house should we follow?

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Are you out your mind child?

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You know which ones you should follow because we gave them for a reason.

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They're to guide you and to create peace in our family.

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And so we need to obey God.

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And we obey because of a relationship, not for a transaction

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or for what we can gain, right?

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Because you can misinterpret and go, well, if I obey and I get

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covered, then cool, I'm good.

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And you look at God as this is a transaction.

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I wanna follow him because of what he can potentially give me.

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My life's hard right now, want it to get better.

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So if I obey, I'll get it better.

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But you miss the connection that's about a relationship.

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Just like with my kids.

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How you obey?

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No, no, no.

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Because just we, we just want you to obey because there's a relationship.

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This is your part of our relationship.

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And so we obey because of relationship.

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We obey because of the love that Jesus exhibited by his sacrifice and his

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continual call back into his grace.

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Look at the grace that that Anna shared about earlier, how she

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was, what she was making decisions to be apart from his grace.

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But once she decided to repent and follow, she got connected again to God.

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And God gave her what she needed.

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You know, Jesus's teachings aren't burdensome.

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They're life giving.

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That's right.

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They're challenging, but it's the best life to live.

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Come on.

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It transforms us and gives us the good that we ultimately want and desire.

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So let's get real practical here.

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Alright, action steps.

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This week.

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I, I, I must say this, you know, you can only, only those who have peace

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with God can have the peace of God.

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Did you catch that?

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Say that again.

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Only those who have peace with God can have the peace of God.

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So I need to first have a relationship, a saving right relationship with God

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in order to enjoy the peace of God.

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And so the first actually step if you're visiting here with us or

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online, is to pursue peace with God.

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Maybe you grew up in the church or you've been, you know around this.

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I wanna encourage you to pursue the peace of God through getting peace with God.

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Make a decision today.

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Study the Bible so that you can experience peace with God, and then experience

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the peace of God for many others here.

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The next slide here is to call it, to assess your obedience.

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Make an assessment.

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How am I?

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Am I obedience?

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Do I obey?

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Am I wholehearted?

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Am I obedience?

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Do I have the obedience?

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That idea when I was a young Christian the way Lawrence is or has it started to

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fade and I obey when it feels comfortable.

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You know, if we can have a real brief second here.

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You know, many of us, it's concerning.

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We obey when it's convenient.

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When we feel it, we make excuses, eh, not really my personality type.

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When did Jesus say obey?

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If it's your personality, type one time.

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When did Jesus say obey?

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When it feels right.

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No, that's the call to deny yourself, right?

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And so this call to obey isn't, Hmm, well I do it.

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One more sales, a better preacher.

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Well, that day might never come.

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I obey when the church is doing what it's supposed to.

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Well, you're part of the problem that the church isn't

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doing what it's supposed to do.

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That's right.

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Yep.

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We obey Jesus' teachings.

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This isn't, Hey, a bunch of suggestions and it's good for

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our souls brother than sisters.

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There are too many of us in here that are making reasons.

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They're not excuses, but we're making up reasons to disobey.

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And then you see the fruit of it in your life, and so it hurts to undercut you

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and your faith and those around you.

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It impacts the church and it limits your ability to be used by God.

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I know every single one of us wants to be used by God.

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They want to influence people in the right way.

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They want a life that's to the full that Jesus promised John 10 10.

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They want a right relationship with God.

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I know every single one of you do.

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So I wanna encourage you today to assess where is your obedience?

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The spirit's been convicted me, and I've been inspired.

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I'm like, thank you.

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And so allow the spirit to encourage you.

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If you're walking in full step, then amen.

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Be encouraged.

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If you're not, don't get discouraging down and oh, whoa is me.

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Be grateful for the grace of God.

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Say, wow, you're giving me a chance to see this, to turn and to be

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faithful the way you want me to be.

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Hallelujah.

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Thank you for your grace.

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And so again, some of us, we can let some stink and think and come in.

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No, no, no.

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When we assess and we're not where we are, it's not a point to feel bad.

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Instead, it's a point to be convicted so that you can be righteous again

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and embrace the grace and repent.

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You know, we're in the season of Christmas here and, and so there's the, uh,

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everybody's talking about the birth of Jesus, which we should, and the Luke two,

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when, when Jesus born, and the angels come to this crowd here, one of the things

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that says that glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on

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whom his favor rest brothers and sisters, that means us, his favorite rest on us.

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We are people of hope.

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We are people of peace by the grace of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

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. And so the most high God is a God of peace, and the Son of God gives us peace

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through the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, God's presence being in us.

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So as loved, dearly loved disciples of Jesus, may we obey the commands of Jesus

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fully to experience the peace of Christ.

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Let's close out in John 1427.

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Peace.

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I leave with you.

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By peace I give you, praise God, that because of Jesus,

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we become people of peace.

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