In our last episode of “The Journey”, we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit in a disciple’s life and how the Spirit enables us to grow in our faith in Jesus Christ. Robert shares some insight into how you can cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s power in your daily life. Whether you’re feeling weak, weary, or hungry for more of God, this episode will inspire you to seek and depend on the Holy Spirit’s power in your life.

We hope you have enjoyed listening to our podcast and learned something valuable from it. We want to thank you for joining us on this journey and supporting our podcast. We’d love to hear from you and how this podcast has helped you on your journey. You can also follow us on social media for more updates and sneak peeks. And don’t forget to share this episode with your friends and family who might be interested in joining us on this journey. Thank you for listening!

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OC Church of Christ

Welcome to the Deeper Dive Podcast brought to you by the OC Church of Christ.

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The Deeper Dive Podcast is about going

deeper into God's word, learning new

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insight and taking a fresh look at the

verses that impact our daily lives.

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Today's episode is the final part

from The Journey by Robert Carrillo.

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So get your scuba gear and

let's dive deep into God's word.

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Here's Robert Carrillo.

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Robert: So this is part five

in the spiritual journey.

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We're going to talk a little bit

about the power of the spirit.

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Uh, you know, we've been studying

about the journey, the spiritual

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journey, the, the, the spiritual

disciplines and healthy Christian

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living and, and tapping into the spirit.

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And this will go right with us.

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And there's some things, basic things

about the spirit that I think are,

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are important to understand and that

are needed for a, I would say a mature

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conversation of the Holy spirit.

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Um, there was a book written that

some of you may be familiar with.

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I know some of you have done the

forming workshops, um, and he

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presents this concept of sales,

not ores and the spiritual, the

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actually, this is the workbook.

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I just realized I have a picture of

the workbook, not the actual book.

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Uh, the, the actual book is

titled forming a work of grace.

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And this is the workbook by David

Tackle, and he did a, he wrote a really

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phenomenal book about connecting with God

and learning to live by the Spirit, and,

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and it's a 12 week, he has a 12 week,

um, program that's kind of similar to

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what we're doing, but it's 12 weeks long.

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It's a little more basic,

but really good, really good.

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I've done it a couple of times now.

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And, um, the concept, the radical

concept that I want to start with

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today is just the idea of sales, not

oars, that, that, um, the difference

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between sales and oars is, is, and with

oars, your progress, your voyage, your

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journey, all depends on you and your

labor and your, you know, being a rower,

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being strong, being motivated, working

hard, it all depends on your physical,

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emotional, and mental capability.

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Um, and, and that's drastically

different than being a sailor, a

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sailor, not a sailor, a sailor,

where, um, you do work, but it, all

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the power does not come from you.

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It comes from the wind.

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It comes from the air that's blowing

in the sails and the wind blows you.

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Forward and it doesn't mean

you have nothing to do.

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It just it's a different kind of

work and frankly It's not nearly as

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labor intensive as being a rower.

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I mean classically throughout history

Slaves were used as rowers, you know,

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and and he talks about how in most

churches We become really good rowers.

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We become doers, right?

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We learn the basics We learn what to

do and we become really good at it And

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we have conferences of how to be a good

rower and we have rowing conferences

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and, and we hold up people who are

great rowers and, and we train for

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rowing and, and, but unfortunately,

you know, rowing really depends on our

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own strength and our own abilities.

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So, if you happen to be a weak

character person or a weak.

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person, you're probably

not going to make it.

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And that oftentimes happens in our

churches that if you're weak character

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or you're weak willed, you will probably

not make it because so much of our

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culture depends on our own discipline,

our own strength of character, our own

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drive or willpower, instead of learning

how to depend on the Holy spirit and

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the power of God, which is, which

is represented by the wind, right?

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The wind and that.

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Has a long rich theology behind it of

of the wind of God, and that's what

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we're going to look at a Hebrew word

that's important is the Ruach It's one

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Hebrew Ruach And, and, and the term is

Ru Kadesh, which is the Holy Spirit.

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Not just a spirit, but the Holy Spirit,

which is the or the Spirit of God.

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And that that really

everything is behind that.

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That is the wind of our sails.

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That is the wind beneath our wings.

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That is, that is, uh, the, the,

the life force that we receive from

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God that has literally been here.

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Since the beginning, we read in

Genesis one one in the beginning, God

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created the heavens and the earth.

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The earth was unformed and void.

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Darkness was on the face of the deep and

the spirit of God, the ruler, the earth.

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Ruach covered hovered over

the surface of the water.

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So before all else was made before

anything was created Was the Spirit of God

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everything begins with the Spirit of God

Everything ends with the Spirit of God.

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The Ruach is the Spirit of God and Our

own lives, the creation of humankind.

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In Genesis 2 we read, Then the Lord God

formed a man from the dust of the ground,

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and breathed, he ruach, into his nostrils,

the breath of life, the neshama, and the

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man became a living being, the nefesh.

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Right off netfish is oftentimes

translated as the soul.

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It's it's a little bit different than

the soul we think of, for example,

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animals and plants have a netfish.

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They have a being a life force,

and he breathed that life force

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in the shama through his breath.

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That breath is the giver of life.

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That is how we come to have life

and we begin life when we are born.

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That first inhale where You know,

we breed the traditional they spank

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the baby to get the baby to breathe.

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You know, I don't think

they do that anymore.

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But, but that was always kind of the,

that's how you start you by breathing.

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And of course, we all someday every 1 of

us will end our life with a final exhale.

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So we begin with an inhale, and we

will end with an exhale, and every

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day of our life, every hour, every

minute, every second, we are breathing,

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and we are experiencing, in a sense,

we are experiencing the gift of God,

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uh, the gift that He gave us life.

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Uh, Job makes a comment that's

a very powerful comment.

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He says, the Spirit of God, the Ruach.

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Has made me the breath, Neshama,

of the Almighty, gives me life.

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So that, we are, we are intrinsically

tied into that Ruach and that Neshama.

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The breath, life giving breath

of God, that He gives to us.

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And we are dependent on God every second.

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Of our lives.

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So these three words work together

to, to, to form the idea of God is

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the spirit, the ruach, the breath,

the wind, the life, the neshama, the

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mind, the soul, the spark, the nefesh,

which is the life being our soul.

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What?

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Who we truly are, apart from the body,

apart from the physical world, but who

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we actually are as spiritual beings

made in God's likeness and as a gift of

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God and, and, and this is who we are.

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And of course, the Greek version of that.

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is the Penelma, which I have

it up above in the little

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Greek, in the little brown box.

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It's Penelma and it's in the Greeks,

you know, I pronounce the P so

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like they would say psychology.

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We don't say that we, we, and

we also say, we say Nelma as

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for the word, but it's Penelma.

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So the word Ruach is

translated in different ways.

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It's not always the same.

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That's why sometimes it's hard

to know, like, like Nefesh is

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usually translated as soul.

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And even in the, in the Shema prayer, love

the Lord your God with all your heart,

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your mind, your soul, and your nephesh,

love God with all your nephesh, and it's

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usually translated as all your being, but

it is the breath, the spirit, sometimes

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it's translated as the wind, the wind

blows, you know, and also we see the same

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thing with the Greek word, penelma, it

is the wind, it is a life force, it's

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God's energy, it's his personal presence.

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It's him pouring himself

into us and giving us life.

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And this is a theme that runs

throughout the scriptures and incredibly

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important for us to understand

how dependent we actually are.

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On the spirit of God, uh, both

physically, but also spiritually.

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And Paul talks a lot about this.

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Um, he calls it when he, in his

letters to the Corinthian church, he

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talks about the, the pen now and the

Sarxes, those who live by the flesh

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and those who live by the spirit, you

know, that we are spiritual beings.

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Um, Again, in Job, he says if it were

his intention, and Job is talking

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about God, he says if it were his

intention, and he withdrew his spirit,

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his ruach, and breath, neshama, all

humanity would perish together, and

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mankind would return to the dust.

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I mean, wow, what a,

what a, what a statement.

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We literally, Depend on God for our

existence on the breath of God, the

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spirit of God for even to exist to live.

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And, and, of course, there's

double meanings here.

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There's breathing, and then

there's the spiritual side, but

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they are absolutely connected.

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In fact, many scholars would say

that God's name, the tetragammon,

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um, that, you know, we're not exactly

sure it's pronounced, but the best

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guess, so to speak, is, is Yahweh.

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And there are many who would say that,

many scholars that would say that

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this is actually the sound of breath.

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Yahweh.

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It's the sound of breathing.

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And that's what it's supposed to be.

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God is the breathing one.

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God is the ising one.

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When he asked, when Moses

asked, who shall I say sent him?

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He said, I am who I am is sending you.

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The breathing, the being one.

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The one, the existing one.

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And his name is holy and his

name is literally breath.

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The breath of God.

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The breath.

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The breathing one, the

living one, the living being.

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Um, Jesus, he talks about the spirit.

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He says, and of course, now we're talking

Penelma because it's in the New Testament.

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He says, Jesus answered, very truly,

I tell you, no one can enter the

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kingdom of God unless they are born

of water and the spirit, the Penelma.

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Flesh gives birth to flesh,

but the spirit, the penelma,

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gives birth to the spirit.

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Penelma.

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You should not be surprised at

my saying you must be born again.

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The wind, penelma, blows

wherever it pleases.

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You hear it sound, but you cannot tell

where it comes from or where it is going.

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So it is with everyone born of the

Penelma, so our becoming Christians is

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literally being born of that Spirit being

born again, of course, and we know this

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is the gift of baptism The gift that we

generally don't know what to do with You

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know, that we generally ignore because we

don't know what to do with the Penelope.

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We don't know what to do

with the Spirit of God.

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As, as, uh, as people have joked in the

past in the church, Christ, we say in

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the name of the Father, the Son, and

the Holy Scriptures, because we don't

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know what to do with the Holy Spirit.

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And, and that's sad.

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That is a very sad way to be

because the Holy Spirit was

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incredibly important to Jesus.

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I mean, he said that he needed to

leave so that the spirit could come.

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And I joked about this before about

how I used to be kind of mad at

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Jesus that he never went to church.

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He never stepped foot in church.

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I'm like, how am I supposed to learn

from Jesus how to lead a church?

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If he never went to church, he left

before the church even started.

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But what, what he said was,

I must leave so that you can

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have the panama, the spirit.

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His spirit, the spirit of consolation, the

spirit of life that will help us along.

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And of course, the whole, you know, the

book of Acts is the story of the church,

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and it is not the acts of the apostles.

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It's the acts of the Holy Spirit.

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And you see who led the church.

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In the first century, it wasn't Peter and

Peter half the time didn't even know what

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was going on and, and it wasn't Paul.

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He was out murdering Christians at

the beginning of Acts, you know,

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and it was clearly the Holy Spirit

who was leading the church along.

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But the problem is if you don't

know the Holy Spirit and you don't

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know what to do with him, how in

the world can we be led by him?

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And, and, and I think, you know, this is,

this scripture has a lot of mystery in it.

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I always wondered what What does he

mean by it's like the wind where it

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blows wherever it pleases and, and,

and, and honestly, I don't know fully.

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I'm not sure fully what he means, but

I do know one thing is this is, is

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he's not something we can control.

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We can't control the Holy Spirit.

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He has his mission.

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He has his thing that he does.

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And, and we, it's for us

to pay attention to him.

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And it's for us to be connected and

to live in step with the spirit.

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And, and, you know, the spirit is a very.

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You know, you can, you can quench the

spirit, you can insult the spirit, you,

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you, you can frustrate the spirit, you

can ignore the spirit, you can insult him

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and, and you can actually sin against him.

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So he is very real and he is who actually

should always be leading the church.

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I wrote a paper on the

church and spirituality.

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And my last line in the

paper was, I believe the Holy

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Spirit wants His church back.

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And I, and I think that's the truth.

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The Holy Spirit started the church, and

the Holy Spirit will finish the church.

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But we have to understand the

importance of the Holy Spirit.

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In Acts 2, when the church started,

it says, When the day of Pentecost

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came, and you know, you guys know the

scene very well, they were all together

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in one place, and suddenly, A sound

like the blowing of a violent wind,

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Penelma, came from heaven and filled

the whole house where they were sitting.

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They saw what seemed to be

tongues of fire that separated

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and came to rest on each of them.

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All of them were filled with the

Holy Spirit, the Penelma, the Hagia

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Penelma, and began to speak in other

tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

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So the church literally comes On the

day of Pentecost, the day of receiving,

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and the Pentecost ties into the day that

when Moses took the Jews to Mount Sinai,

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and the same thing happened, the wind,

there was trumpet sounds, there was wind,

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there was fire and lightning from the

sky, and they received the commandments,

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they received the new covenant, Amen.

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Amen.

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a covenant, sorry, the original

covenant, and they became God's nation.

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And that's what Pentecost, you know,

says the 50 days after they were freed.

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And now they are receiving

once again, this wind blowing,

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there's fire coming down.

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And once again, the Holy Spirit

is creating something new.

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And, and then of course, this all ties

back to Original creation of mankind

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where we received the spirit that gave

us life physical life So there's a

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running theme here of the Holy Spirit

Giving us life and starting something

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new in the last days and acts to this

is Peter quoting remember the Prophet

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Joel He's quoting the Prophet Joel.

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He's preaching He says in the

last day God says I will pour

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out my spirit on all people.

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I mean, he's the ultimate inclusion

Everybody's going to be involved in this.

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Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

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Your young men will see visions.

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Your old men will dream dreams.

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Everybody's included here, even on

my servants, both men and women.

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I will pour out my spirit.

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I mean, it's the ultimate.

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Um of inclusion and diversity here.

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He's pulling everybody in and he says

this is what the spirit the penelma of

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god is going to do and of course he's

quoting joel so if you look at the

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hebrew version the old testament it would

say ruach and if you look in the new

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testament it says penelma but it's the

same idea it's the wind or the breath

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or the the the wind of god the spirit of

god And that's how he starts everything.

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That's how he moves everything.

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And just a snapshot scripture.

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There's so many scriptures, you know,

talk about how the spirit was moving and

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directing things, but in Acts 9 31, then

the church throughout Judea, Galilee and

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Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was

strengthened living in the fear of the

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Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

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The Hagia Penelope, it increased.

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in numbers.

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The Holy Spirit was very active in

leading the church, strengthening

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the church, adding people to the

church, moving through the church.

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But of course, that means that

the church were a people who were

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connected to the, to the Holy Spirit.

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They were a people who, who understood

what it meant to be filled with the

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Holy Spirit to have received the gift of

the Holy Spirit to live by the Spirit.

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Nobody was worried about

who's leading the church.

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It was, it was the Holy Spirit.

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It was clearly the Holy Spirit

and, and they were learning how to

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live in step with the Holy Spirit.

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How to be led by the Holy Spirit,

how to live with the Holy Spirit.

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I love this prayer of the psalmist.

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He says, create in me a pure

heart, Oh God, and renew a

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steadfast spirit within me.

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And this should always be our prayer

that we are asking God to help us to

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be renewed in our spirit, in the Ruach.

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In us, God has given us the ruach

of life and the ruach of his Holy

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Spirit to, to, to, and, and the

prayer is God help me with my spirit.

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Help me to be steadfast, to

be strong in the Holy Spirit.

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And I love that.

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So.

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So that's, that's kind of a, uh,

just a quick overview because there's

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so much more in this and there's,

there's so much more to unpack.

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I mean, we could do probably four

lessons on the Holy Spirit and how

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he works and how, how we, we, what

it means to, to walk in step with the

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Spirit, what it means to be lived by

the Spirit, even the definition of what

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does it truly mean to be spiritual?

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You know, I think we taught, we oftentimes

have this traditional view Of, uh,

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of, of what it means to be spiritual.

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You know, you baptize you, but

you invite people to church.

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You're at all the gatherings, but

then understanding these scriptures

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and understanding who the spirit

really is, I think should change our

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interpretation and our understanding

of what does it mean to be spiritual?

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What does that mean?

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from a biblical sense,

from God's perspective.

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So we see how the Holy Spirit strengthened

them, the Holy Spirit guided them.

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That, but now when we look at the reality

of life, oftentimes, we tend to be a

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people who are very tired, who are very

stressed, who are very worried, who are

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very anxious, and Frankly, the world

has gotten way more intense and way

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more exhausting and way more stressful,

many more things to worry about.

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I mean, today in today's world,

if a crisis happens halfway

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around the globe, we know about

it within a couple of minutes.

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I mean, used to be that you

would find out things in the

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news that happened months ago.

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Now you find out within minutes

that there was an invasion, or there

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was a kidnapping, or there was a

shooter, or there was this or that.

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We're just, we're inundated

with things to worry us.

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To stress us out to be anxious about

and of course, our world has really

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been under attack our world, especially,

you know, you know, we've have all

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these major issues from political

tensions, racial tensions, a lot of

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racial wounds coming to the surface,

uh, and and having to process all that.

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And we're realizing really how wrong

things have been in the world, even

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that in the church, so that people

are realizing things that this

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should not have been happening.

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Why did we do this?

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Why is that happening?

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And then we got lawsuits.

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And then we've got, and then, you

know, we've got war breaking out.

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We've got political tension.

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We're going to have elections next year

and we got countries invading each other.

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And, oh yeah, let's not forget.

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We had a pandemic that shut

down the globe for several

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years and people were isolated.

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I mean, this is our world.

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So it's a huge issue and it's

certainly not how the life

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that God is trying to give us.

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He's, he offers us a way through

this, a way out of this, a new life.

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Our world is suffering a lot.

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I mean, there is literally what

is being recognized as an epidemic

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of anxiety, of stress, of fear,

an epidemic of depression.

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I spoke to a psychologist a while back.

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He's a pretty prominent psychologist, and

he was saying that, that Teen depression

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and suicide is out of control, so we have

no answer for what's happening out there.

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It is so bad.

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I saw this stat in a, in a report in

the American Psychological Association,

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the average high school teen in

America is experiencing the same.

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Same levels of stress as a

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I mean, that's how stressful

our world is right now.

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And it is particularly

affecting younger people.

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It's affecting everybody.

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I'm not saying it's not, it's

affecting everybody of all ages, but.

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It especially affects young people.

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The results of the survey draw

attention to the serious physical

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and emotional implications of

stress and the inextricable link

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between the mind and the body.

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And so this is, this

is the world right now.

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This is the world we live in.

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There's a, uh, this is a little

anecdotal story, but it kind of, I think,

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highlights the, the, the struggle we're

in and the importance of spirituality.

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In New York, you know, we lived in

New York for a while in, in New Jersey

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specifically, but, but, uh, right near

Washington square, there's, there's a

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statue, a very famous statue of Atlas

and, you know, Atlas is always the guy

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holding up the globe, you know, from

the Greek mythology and he's always

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really muscular and his muscles are

bulging and he's, and you can see

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he's just struggling the burden of the

world, you know, and, and, and he's

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doing all that he can to hold it up.

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But just a couple of blocks from there,

there's a little church, an old church and

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in the garden, there's a statue of Jesus.

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He's also holding the world, but he

looks completely at ease about it.

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You know, it's just like, got

it in one hand and he's making

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a peace sign in the other hand.

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And, and he just doesn't

look stressed at all.

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He doesn't look worried at all.

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He doesn't look bothered

about it, you know?

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And of course we think of the words

where he says, in this world, you will

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have many troubles, but take heart.

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Right.

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I have overcome them.

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And that's a lot of what spirituality

leads us to being able to deal with

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this stress and be able to find our

shalom in the midst of the stress that

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we are surrounded by and that we are

challenged by without a doubt there.

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There was a few years back a study done.

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Um, they were studying the life

at the bottom of the ocean.

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They went to the deepest known

parts of the ocean on our planet.

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And of course, at that level,

there are literally thousands of

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pounds of pressure pushing down.

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So if you put anything down there,

it's just going to get squished like a

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pancake because literally every inch has

like 10, 000 pounds of pressure on it.

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And so the camera had to have

a special iron case to keep

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it from being crushed flat.

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And the, and the, even the case had

to be built a certain way to be able

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to withstand the thousands of pounds.

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So they use alloys that could

withstand tens of thousands of pounds

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of pressure and sent it down there.

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And they turned on the

lights down in the camera.

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What do they see?

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They see fish, they see fish.

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And you might think,

well, what's the big deal?

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Of course they see

fish, but wait a second.

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There are tens of thousands

of pounds of pressure.

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How in the world are these fish

not being crushed by that pressure?

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Why aren't they flattened?

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They're not even wearing a steel

uniform or, or, or a case, or

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they're not protected at all.

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I mean, they're little.

404

Soft bodies.

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Why didn't that?

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Why don't they just get squished by

the tens of thousands of pressure?

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Well, because they have an

equal amount of pressure coming

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from within pushing outward.

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In other words, the pressure that

pushes in is balanced by the strength

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or the power of what is pushing out.

411

It balances them.

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And I think that there's a lot to

learn there about our need for God, our

413

need for connection with God, for the

strength of the Holy Spirit, to be able

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to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

415

First Thessalonians 1.

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5, he says, because our gospel

came to you, not simply with

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words, but also with power.

418

With the Holy Spirit, the Holy Pneuma,

the Hagia Pneuma, and deep conviction, you

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know how we lived among you for your sake.

420

He says, and he's reminding them that,

that the gospel is not just a philosophy.

421

It's not just an acceptance of truth.

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It's not just a recognition

of who's the Messiah.

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It also, the gospel brings with it power.

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through the Holy Spirit and the

power we need to live this life.

425

The power we need to be able to

handle the, the, the, what Peter

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would call the corruption of the

world, to be able to find that balance

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so that we're not crushed by it.

428

And, and, and that's incredibly

important because what can happen

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is, and we've all seen this where

there's disciples that They've been

430

in the church a long time, but they're

getting crushed their, their marriages

431

aren't great, or their family dynamics

are terrible, or they're, they're,

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they're falling into sin regularly,

or they're not, they're not living

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that life that was promised by Jesus.

434

They're not living life to the full.

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They're they're barely making it or

they're constantly getting crushed and

436

getting and and falling You know and

and they're not living out the kingdom

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life the promises of God and even us I

mean, there's there's so many times where

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we where the question would be are we?

439

sufficiently Connected to God in

Ephesians 3 says I pray that out of his

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glorious riches He may strengthen you

with power through his spirit in your

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inner being in other words You know

that that this is Paul's prayers that

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we're being strengthened in our inner

being that's that balance that's that

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power that we need that comes from the

spirits not going to come from you or

444

me and and The problem with a lot of

us, especially those of us who are in

445

leadership roles, is we got to that

leadership role because we're talented,

446

because we have strong characters, because

we're driven, because we're over, uh,

447

overcomers or overachievers, and, and

we, we've got the umph, we've got the go,

448

we've got the hootspot, we make things

happen, and that's how we become leaders,

449

but the problem is you cannot lead in

God's kingdom depending on yourself.

450

You have to learn to depend on God and

on his strength and his power because

451

your own power Your own strengths will

only take you so far and it will not

452

take you all the way and God Designed

us in such a way that we can't do this

453

without him and yet many churches can

operate and function Do everything

454

they do really without God, because

they have highly motivated leaders.

455

They have driven leaders.

456

They have people who are driven and the

poor soul that is a weaker character or

457

not very motivated or not very strong.

458

Typically, eventually just falls away

and thinking that this just doesn't work.

459

And it's not that it doesn't work.

460

It's that you cannot depend on yourself.

461

You have to learn how

to draw your strength.

462

From God.

463

You have to learn how to rely on the

spirit and the spirit has the power.

464

He told Timothy, the spirit God gave

us does not make us timid, but gives

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us power, love and self discipline.

466

So that power to live this life, that

power to overcome that power to, to, to

467

push through the wall, to, to make it all

the way to transform, to be become love,

468

to become kindness and grace and mercy.

469

It's not going to come from us.

470

It's not going to come from our,

our discipline or our character.

471

It's going to come from God.

472

And at some point we have to learn

this and we, and, and, and if we don't,

473

we end up burning out, we end up.

474

Rowing till we drop, you know, and then

they throw in the ocean find somebody

475

else younger that can take your spot You

know, and that's not what the plan is.

476

That's not how it is supposed to go

That's not what it's it's supposed to be.

477

We should grow in our connection

with the Spirit I think you know,

478

I think a lot of Christians suffer

from just a bad connection just not

479

connected Well to God on Tuesday.

480

I taught a class And, and it kept

dropping me like every five minutes

481

that we had my, my, my in laws, they

changed their, their wifi system.

482

And there was a problem with it

and it just kept dropping me.

483

So even though I had a classroom

full of eager people to learn, to

484

grow, I was eager to teach and share.

485

We all wanted to be together.

486

We all wanted it to go great, but.

487

It didn't work because the connection

was so bad and that can happen to us

488

that no matter how good our intentions

are, if we do not have a good connection

489

with God, what are we going to do?

490

Are we going to teach people

to depend on themselves?

491

Like we're depending on ourselves.

492

Are we going to teach people to be

more disciplined to be better at

493

setting goals and to set healthy

habits and all that stuff is good.

494

There's nothing wrong with that

stuff, but you cannot live.

495

Life to the full, depending on those

things, you know, as, as Augustine

496

said, my heart, our hearts are

restless until they rest in the Lord.

497

You know, that, that we need that

connection to be sufficient to

498

live the life that we want to live.

499

And so the question always is, are we

running on empty and, and, you know,

500

what happens when we're running on empty?

501

Well, we, we tend to be discouraged

or we tend to be emotionally down.

502

We tend to lack zeal.

503

We, we tend to be overcome

by emotional challenges.

504

It's hard to rise up to the occasion.

505

And sometimes when we can't

rise up, we even get angry.

506

We get bitter.

507

We get mad that this, I can't do

all this and this is too much.

508

And Oftentimes, this is when we fall

into sin, whether it's a bad attitude

509

or a temptation, you know, where a

leader, some big leader falls into

510

sin, the pornography or something,

everybody's like, Oh no, what happened?

511

Well, they were running

on empty for months.

512

And that's not what anybody talks about.

513

Everybody's just, Oh, that person fell

into sin, but they don't realize that that

514

person was running for months on empty.

515

So it was just a matter of time

until they were going to fall.

516

And we cannot run on empty.

517

We, usually when we're

tired is when we mess up.

518

We mess up in relationships,

we mess up in spirituality.

519

It's usually when we blow it,

when we're rushed and we're tired.

520

So we cannot live like that.

521

We've got to be sufficiently connected.

522

And bottom line is, Jesus

said, I have come that they may

523

have life to the full, right?

524

This picture here.

525

Is not how our Christianity

is supposed to look.

526

We're not just rowers.

527

We're not just supposed to

keep trying, keep working.

528

Don't complain.

529

Just keep doing your part.

530

That's not how it's supposed to be.

531

I'll tell you how it's supposed to be.

532

That's what it's supposed to be like this.

533

I love this picture.

534

That's me and Michelle

live in our Christian life.

535

No, that's what we're trying to achieve.

536

That's what we're trying to live.

537

But this, the Christian life

is, is to be life to the full.

538

It's a special word meaning the

quality of life is great, but we

539

have to be sufficiently connected

to God and the power of this

540

life cannot come from our rowing.

541

It can't come from our character, our self

discipline, our drive, our motivation.

542

It must.

543

come from God, from the

Spirit of God, the Ruach.

544

It needs to fill our sails and

empower us to move forward.

545

And then we can use all our gifts to

serve God, but it's not dependent on us.

546

And therefore we don't burn out

trying to live this Christian life.

547

Marcel: Thank you Robert

for this great series.

548

And thanks for listening to Deeper

Dive by the OC Church of Christ.

549

If you want to get connected

to us or want to donate to the

550

program, go to our website.

551

OCchurchofchrist.com or on

social media @TheOCchurch.

552

Join us next time for

our next deeper dive.