We continue with our series "Learning the Art of Motivation from Jesus" from Reese Neyland. Reese explores more from Mark 1 when Jesus called his first disciples to be fishers of men and gave them an inspiring purpose.

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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 part two from our

series "Learning The Art Of Motivation

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from Jesus" by Reese Neeland.

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If you haven't listened to the

last episode, I would encourage

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you to do that before you continue.

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With this episode, this episode is

titled "Made To Make a Difference."

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Friendly reminder, that this message

was a sermon delivered by Reese.

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So get your scuba gear and

let's dive deep into God's word.

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Here's Made To Make a Difference.

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Reese: We're gonna go big today.

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We're gonna go deep today.

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I want you to consider something

that may be frankly uncomfortable for

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you, and I just want you to answer

this question in your own heart.

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Are you really a happy person?

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Are you a happy person today?

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Have you, have you found happiness?

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Are you experiencing happiness?

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And that's a tough question

to even honestly consider.

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And if you will, consider it.

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I'm gonna give you credit for having

some courage because many people don't

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even want to consider the possibility.

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They don't even want to think about

it 'cause it's too painful, frankly,

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because it seems surprisingly

difficult to find happiness.

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Have you found that to be true?

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I've certainly found that to be

true and sometimes success in life.

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We have goals, we have dreams.

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Sometimes success can be

especially disappointing.

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Because we thought that when we achieved

this, we thought when we possess that

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we thought we got to a certain place

and a certain place in life and certain

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things happen that we would be happy.

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But sometimes it's not.

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Sometimes we don't find that, and

it's, it's sometimes it's not even

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necessarily our, our, our lack of

happiness is not necessarily powerfully

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poignant, but we just, if we're

really honest and we'll stop and

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consider in our quiet moments, we.

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We're experiencing some vague discontent.

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There's something missing.

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There's some nameless longing that we have

not yet experienced, and so I believe that

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Jesus is gonna help us with that today.

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This is not the only answer, but Jesus

is gonna give you a part of the answer

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today of what we all need to understand

if we're really gonna be happy.

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Sound good?

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So in John chapter four, some

of you may know the story.

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Uh, let me just give you a

little, a little background.

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There are four different accounts

of the life and ministry of Jesus,

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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And if you get a chance to read

them, they're all great there.

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There are a lot of similarities and

there are a lot of differences, but

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when you put it all together, you

get a picture of who Jesus is, right?

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And so I love that.

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I love.

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Studying of Jesus.

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I love learning about Jesus.

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I love sharing about Jesus.

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I love preaching about Jesus.

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And so John is kind of unusual.

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If you don't know, I'll just,

uh, maybe explain a little bit.

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Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar,

those three, and if you read them,

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there are a lot of similar stories.

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And there's even a lot

of similar verbiage.

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And so they obviously had each

other's accounts in front of them.

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Most scholars believe that Matthew, Mark,

Luke and John were written significantly

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be, uh, for John was written.

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John was one of the apostles, uh,

close to Jesus, close friend of Jesus.

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And perhaps this is even 20 years later

that John comes along and he's got, he's

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seen Matthew, Mark and Luke's account

of the life and ministry of Jesus.

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And he says, it's almost like he says,

you know, there's some stories that still

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need to be told about who Jesus was.

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And so what you find in John is some

very unique accounts of stories about

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Jesus that you don't find in Matthew.

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Mark and Luke in this story

in John four about Jesus.

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This is from early in his ministry

and he's meeting this woman that

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we call the Samaritan woman.

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And uh, he and his, uh.

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Followers.

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His disciples were

traveling from Jerusalem.

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They're going up to, uh,

Galilee in Northern Israel.

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And so they passed through this area

called Samaria, and they meet this woman.

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. So we're gonna pick up in

chapter four, verse four.

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It says, now he had Jesus

to go through Samaria.

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So he came to town in

Samaria called Sychar.

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Near the plot of ground, Jacob

had given to his son Joseph.

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Jacob's, well was there and Jesus

tired as he was from the journey.

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Sat down by the, well, it

was about the sixth hour.

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That means it was about noon.

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They started their clock at, uh, six A.M.

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Not sure what time you start your day,

but that's when they started theirs.

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And so it says then as some, when a

Samaritan woman came to draw water,

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Jesus said, will you give me a drink?

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His disciples had gone

into the town to buy food.

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So we're gonna stop there.

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And I want you to understand the scene.

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It's very significant that he, Jesus

stops to talk to this Samaritan woman.

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If you weren't aware, there

was a tremendous cultural

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divide between men and women.

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Women were widely regarded as

second-class citizens in that day.

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And so Jesus actually in

Christianity, were part of the.

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The, the forces that came to

bear that really improved a

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lot of women in the world.

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I have read that.

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It was said that during that time, one of

the Jewish leaders, a, a teacher of the

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law, that it was such, the divide between

men and women was so great that if he was

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walking out in public and that his wife

passed by, he would not acknowledge her.

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This is where all the women groan.

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I'm trying to imagine how

that would work with Mary Kay.

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Right.

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And so anyway, so there's that

divide, but then there's this racial

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divide, which we understand that

it's still part of our world, uh,

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between the Samaritans and the Jews.

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But Jesus breaks through all that.

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And Jesus has this wonderful

conversation with his woman.

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While his disciples, his followers,

his companions, had gone into town

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to buy food 'cause they were hungry.

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Because what do men, what

happens to men around noon?

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They get hungry and angry

if they don't get food.

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And so we're gonna end our service

about noon because I know what happens.

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There might be some women that are

spiritual enough to stay if I keep

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going, but if I go much past noon,

men are just gonna start filing out.

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We're gonna lose them.

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They're gonna go find the nearest

groceries that they can find, okay?

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So he is hungry, so he has this

great conversation with this woman.

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And we're not gonna look at that

conversation today, but I, we're

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gonna skip to the, to the end of the

story, but I wanna say if you wanna

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know better how to reach out and

share your faith and help other people

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who don't know Jesus to find Jesus.

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This is a great conversation.

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And John, it's not in the

other, you can't find it.

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Matthew, Mark and Luke.

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John has a very specific account

of what this happened and what this

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conversation he had with this woman was.

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And of course there's a great result

to it and the woman comes to faith.

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But now for our purposes, we're gonna

go all the way to the end of the story.

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We're gonna go over to verse twenty-seven.

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So we get to the end of the story.

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Jesus has this great conversation

with this woman, and we

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get to the very end of it.

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And then verse twenty-seven, it says

Just then his disciples returned.

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And we're surprised to find

him talking with a woman.

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It was surprising because that just

culturally wasn't done in that day, right?

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Mm-Hmm.

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But no one asked, what do you want?

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Or Why are you talking with her?

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Then leaving her water jar.

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Remember, the woman had come to draw water

from the, well, the woman went back to

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town and said to the people, come see a

man who told me everything I ever did.

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Could this be the Christ?

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They came out of the town and made

their way toward him, toward Jesus.

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Meanwhile, his disciples urged him.

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Rabbi, that means teacher, eat something.

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But Jesus said to them, listen.

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Now, Jesus said to them, I have food

to eat that you know nothing about.

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Then his disciples said to each other,

could someone have brought him food?

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You can understand why they were confused.

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Right?

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Right.

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We were talking about men earlier, right?

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It's science, it's simple math.

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There's hungry men.

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They go to get food.

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They bring food back, and

Jesus is no longer hungry.

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There's only one conclusion

you can come to, right?

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Somebody already brought him food.

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So that's what they're, they seem not so

much concerned about what's going on with

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a woman and all that as they are about,

I mean, we went to a lot of trouble.

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Right.

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You know, the first McDonald's

we went to wasn't open.

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Right.

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And I don't know why it was Sunday.

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Maybe it was a Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A

because if you try to get that

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Christian chicken on Sunday,

you're not getting it on Sunday.

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So whatever the problem, so he said, we

went to all this trouble and we went to

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get this food and we brought it back,

and now he's not interested in eating.

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And Jesus says this thing that they,

this is early in the ministry of

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Jesus and they didn't get it yet,

but they got it later and we need

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to all make sure we get it today.

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He says, look, I have food.

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I have food that you know nothing about.

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You see where we're going?

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Yeah.

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Then the next thing it says, Jesus

says, verse 36, my food said,

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Jesus is to do the will of him who

sent me and to finish his work.

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Do not say four months more than

the harvest, I'll tell you, open

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your eyes and look at the fields.

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They're ripe for the harvest.

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Even now, the reaper draws wages.

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Even now, he harvests the crop for

eternal life so that the sower and

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the reaper may be glad together.

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That's the saying.

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One sows and another reaps is true.

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Yes, I sent you to reap what

you have not worked for.

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Others have done the hard work and you

have reaped the benefits from their labor.

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And as the story goes, the woman leaves

and she goes and tells the story of her

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interaction with Jesus and the fact that

this, that she's become convinced that.

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This very well might be the

Messiah, the promised one.

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And so Jesus is there and the disciples

are coming back with the food.

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But there's something else

that happens on the horizon.

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It says the whole town starts coming

out and you just gotta picture it.

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If you're Jesus and you're there and

you desperately want to, to share your

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faith and you want other people to

know the message, the good news, and

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so here they come and they're just,

they're coming over the, the hill.

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They're coming over the horizon,

just imagine what Jesus is feeling.

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Jesus is feeling like, this is why I came.

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This is what I'm here for.

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This is what matters most.

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This is what I wanna do.

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See, it turns out when it comes

to happiness, God has made us all

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so that you will never be happy.

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You will never experience joy.

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Until you understand the

need to make a difference.

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We were made to make a difference.

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Yeah.

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Amen.

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God made us to make a difference.

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That's what Jesus is

trying to tell these guys.

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He says, you guys don't

understand this yet.

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It's early in the ministry.

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You don't get it yet.

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I have food, I have

some, I have soul food.

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How many of you like soul food?

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I like soul food.

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I'm from the south.

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I even wrote down I, I see some

of my favorite soul food, if you

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know what that chicken fried steak.

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Oh yeah.

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Collard greens.

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Fried okra.

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Hush puppies.

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Yeah, see there's a lot of Southern

people grew up in Southern California.

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They're confused now.

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Sweet potato pie.

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. You know, those are maybe

foods that we crave.

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Jesus understands something.

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He wants us to understand it.

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You are created, whether you're

a Christian or not a Christian.

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You are created with a hole in your soul.

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And one of the things that's

gonna be required if you're ever

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going to be fulfilled is you're

ever going to be happy, is you're

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gonna have to live in such a way.

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That you are making a difference

in the lives of others.

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Even people who are not

Christians have figured this out.

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There are many people who have

professed no faith, and we claim

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no faith, but they're doing great

things and they're serving the poor.

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They're serving the community, or

they're making a difference, and

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you know what they're experiencing?

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Fulfillment from that, right?

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That hole in their soul.

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Is being fulfilled.

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You know, I have friends that are

a part of Alcoholics Anonymous,

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AA, which is a great program or

a great recovery kind of program.

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But one of the things, you may or may

not know this, but one of the things,

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if somebody's going through that program

and they're recovering and they get to a

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certain point, you know what they ask you

to do, to turn around and be a sponsor to

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help somebody else, because that's where

you're gonna continue with your recovery.

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That's where you're

gonna find fulfillment.

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I remember clearly the first

time that I perhaps experienced

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this in my Christianity.

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I grew up going to church and uh, it

was sort of a traditional type church.

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And, uh, unlike this church,

they didn't give us many choices.

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Um, so I was kind of, it was kind

of an empty experience for me.

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And, and I don't wanna blame the

church 'cause I was interested,

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frankly, at that point in my life.

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I was in my twenties, I was probably

more interested in sin than I was.

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Jesus.

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And so anyway, I came to a

certain point, I went to graduate

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school at University of Florida.

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So I, I, I went to University of

Florida and I went to the, the ministry

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there and it was a great ministry and

was very focused on reaching out and

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helping others to become Christian.

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And so, you know, I'm just sort

of trying to figure this out.

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I love the church and I love the

spirit, and I love the relationships,

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and they taught me how to have

a personal connection with God.

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And they taught me how we were helping

each other to be our best spiritually.

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And we were reaching out to help people

that weren't saved to become saved.

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And I was just sort of

trying to figure it out.

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So one of the things that I did was

early on, there was an older gentleman

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who was studying the Bible, thinking

about his decision to become a Christian.

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And there were a group of guys that

were studying the Bible with him and

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helping him and key relationships.

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I only met him at church, it'd be

like if somebody was visiting here.

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And I would talk to him a few minutes,

maybe even before or after church.

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And he was telling me about his

journey and he was telling me about

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his, uh, thinking about his decision

he wanted to make, whether Jesus

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would be Lord of his life or not.

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And.

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I, You know, I was a brand

new Christian myself.

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I just made, I was sort of trying to say

something that would be helpful, right.

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You ever in that position where

you just pray, God help me to say

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something that would be helpful.

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So I was sort of that.

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I wasn't sure at all.

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And so we would talk and we would

share, and this went on for several

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weeks and this was back in the day.

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So we may not be able to relate to this.

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Some of you might, right?

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Where at the end of the service

there would be an invitation.

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And so the guy who was the preacher,

somebody who was looking and acting like

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me, would say, Hey, if you want to either

repent publicly of sin or you wanna make

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a decision to make Jesus the Lord of your

life, come forward during this last song.

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And so this, this is what we had going

on, and I remember where I was sitting

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in the auditorium that we're in, and

this guy that I had talked to stepped

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out of the aisle and walked forward.

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I knew that he was coming forward to be

baptized and a little bit more background.

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You know, I had been in sin, living in

sin for many years, and my heart was hard.

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I had not been able to

cry for a long, long time.

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There were even times I wanted

to cry and I couldn't cry, just

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couldn't break through the,

the heart, and all of a sudden.

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When this man stepped forward and

came, the tears just, just flowed.

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First time in years.

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What happened there?

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I wasn't even one of the people.

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No doubt.

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You know, they didn't have any sharing

before his baptism, but if they had, he

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probably would not have mentioned me.

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I mean, I wasn't even one, but

I thought in some way, in some.

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Some small way, maybe I had a

positive influence, right on this

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guy making the most important

decision that he can ever make in

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his life, and that is to be baptized

into Christ and to make Jesus Lord.

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And my soul, there was a hole in my soul.

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Yeah.

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And I figured it out that day.

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Let me just say it.

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I wanna be so clear that

nobody misunderstands me.

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You'll never be happy.

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You'll certainly never be happy the way

God intended you to be happy until you

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deliberately decide in your actions and

in your life to live in such a way as to

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make a difference in the lives of others.

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Now, sharing your faith.

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And helping somebody.

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It's not the only way you

can make a difference.

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And we need to understand that we make

a difference in a lot of different ways.

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You make a difference

when you help the poor.

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You make a difference when you serve

somebody who has a need and you make a

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difference when you visit somebody who's

sick and, and you make a difference when

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there's a somebody else that you know

that's struggling with their faith and.

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You know, they're a Christian,

but they're got issues going on.

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And you, you show up and you sit down and

you love them, and you pray with them,

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and you talk with them and you know, and

you, you say that prayer, God help me.

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I don't know what I'm saying.

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Help me to say something that's helpful.

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That's right.

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Lot of different ways you

can make a difference.

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Right.

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But let me tell you something, you will

never make any more significant difference

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in anybody's life than when you make a

difference in somebody's eternal address.

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That's right.

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When you help somebody to find Jesus,

when you help somebody to find salvation,

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that's the gift that keeps on giving.

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Yes, it's, that's the gift that

keeps on giving all through eternity.

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It's not the only way to make a

difference, but there's no more

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significant way to make a difference.

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Church, I hope we don't forget

that when we moved here in 19

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eighty-nine, some of you, when we

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There were 50 of us but you know

what's happened since 19 eighty-nine.

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Yeah.

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What are we about 6,000 now

all around the Orange County.

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Inland, Empire, Ventura County, Antelope

Valley, wherever you know la, all that.

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How did that happen?

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Well, it happens because God works.

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That's right.

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But it also happens because people

decide that they wanna make a difference.

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That's right.

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And they reach out and they share

their faith with their neighbors.

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Yeah.

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And with their family.

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. And with their friends, and

then with their co-workers.

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Because they wanna make a difference.

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Tell you, the funny thing about it

is, even when you're trying to make a

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difference, just the fa, even if you don't

necessarily feel like you're succeeding

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or it's not really working, the fact

that you're ex extending yourself, the

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fact that you're putting yourself out

there, you're gonna find a fulfillment

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that you will not otherwise have.

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You were made to make a difference.

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That's right.

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You weren't made to live for yourself.

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You weren't made to list.

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You know, I think bucket list is

great, but you know, a lot of times

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bucket list is like all the things

I wanna do for myself before I die.

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It's not wrong to have a bucket list,

but if you're living for your bucket list

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instead of living for Jesus and living for

your neighbor, you're not gonna be happy.

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I don't care if you do

climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

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I don't care if you do jump out of an

airplane, which I don't understand.

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Why would anybody jump out

of a perfectly good airplane?

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How many of you have done that?

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See, there's A, You're strange.

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Strange.

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We love you though.

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We love you though.

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It's not normal.

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I'm just saying.

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But we love you though.

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I don't get it.

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Why would anybody run a marathon?

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I mean, I can understand running

and I try to exercise and, you

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know, run a little bit and you

know, get in shape and all that.

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But a marathon, do you know that's

26.2 miles and you're supposed

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to run it consecutively, right?

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I mean, you're not supposed to

spread it out over a week or a month.

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Why would anybody do that?

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Not on my bucket list, but

we gotta, we gotta live.

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You were made to make a difference.

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Did I say that already?

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Is anybody confused?

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You were made to make a difference.

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You know, I mean, one of the

things that we're doing, uh,

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we've been in my ministry back in.

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Our part of Los Angeles, we've

been serving at a, a Union

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Station Homeless Services in

Pasadena for quite a few years.

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We feed the homeless,

we help the homeless.

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And you know, they started a new

program just recently and because

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people in our church were so active

and so involved in serving with

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them, they, they really like us.

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We we're good volunteers.

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Yes, we're, and so we showed up and so

they said we're starting a new program.

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A mentoring program for people who

are transitioning out of homelessness.

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That's good.

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And so that's, they're gonna,

you know, no longer be dependent

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on others for food and services.

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But the idea is they're gonna

go back into the community,

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resume a more normal lifestyle.

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And they wanted, they asked

specifically if our church would

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supply mentors to mentor people.

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And so.

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I, I, uh, I signed up for that, but I

gotta tell you, I'm back praying again.

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Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing here.

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Just help me to say something

that make a difference, right?

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I've never mentored a

homeless person before.

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Right?

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And the truth is, I'll say this, I, I

don't wanna, you don't have to raise your

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hand, but some of us have experiences

with homelessness and some of, some,

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maybe you have yourself or maybe somebody,

you know, it's a, it's a serious.

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And most of the people that are homeless,

I mean, there's a lot of different reason

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that people are homeless, but one of them

is they've got drug addiction problems

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and they got mental illness problems.

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And just the fact that they're getting

off the street doesn't mean that all

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their drug problems have gone away and

all their mental illness has gone away.

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And I'm sitting here and I, I

mean, I am, can I be honest?

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Pray for me.

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I am nervous.

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I go.

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I am a.

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Normal God-fearing pastor, you

know who lives in Pasadena.

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I got no idea.

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I said, what do you do?

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How do you mentor somebody who's homeless?

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Well, you know, people are homeless

that are making this transition.

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They can feel lonely because all

their friends are still on the street

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and they need somebody to help them.

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It may be as simple as balancing their

checkbook, and it may be as simple as.

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Uh, you know, being a friend and

being there for them and helping

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them to feel like they can do it

because their tendency is gonna be

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to go right back where they were.

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And not just me.

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There's a bunch of people that might

say, okay, this is a new experience.

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We have never done this before, but

we are gonna sign up and we're gonna,

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we're gonna try and I'm gonna pray.

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God, help me to make a difference.

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But, you know, I'm excited about it.

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I'm more excited about this than I am

going down and doing, you know, we, we

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make breakfast on Saturdays a lot of times

on Saturdays and we'll feed the homeless.

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I'm more excited about this.

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Right.

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But you know why I'm more excited, right?

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Because this is a chance to

make a bigger difference.

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To make a life difference, not just

feed somebody who's hungry one meal.

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And so I don't know how

it's gonna turn out.

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Enough said, God made

you to make a difference.

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There's a hole in your soul that

will never, you'll never find

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fulfillment until you live your

life as God intended you to be.

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To live, to be somebody makes a

difference in the lives around you.

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And you know what?

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That's gonna help them.

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You know who else is gonna help?

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It's gonna help you.

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You're gonna find something that

you're not gonna otherwise find

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when you decide to live as God

made you and to make a difference.

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Marcel: Thank you again for listening.

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Listening to this episode of Deeper

Dive by the OC Church of Christ.

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Our next episode will be the finale

of our series, Learning The Art

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Of Motivation From Jesus, that

is titled As I Have Loved You.

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If you want to get connected to us or

want to donate to the program, go to

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our website, ocChurchofChrist.com.

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or on social media @theOCchurch.

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Join

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us next time for our next Deeper Dive.