WEBVTT
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Have you ever noticed how hard it is to really change?
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We may say we follow God, but too often we still chase power, control, acceptance, or peace.
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Which can be good things, but we chase them for all the wrong reasons and in all the wrong places.
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Hello.
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This is a special edition of the East A Project, and I am your host, Dr.
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Eric Moyer, author, researcher, and in this case, speaker of all things Christian identity.
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We want to help people discover who God created them to be so that they can fully experience the life that God wanted for them.
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Now, before we start, please take a moment to like this episode and follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you are getting your episodes.
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This simple act really helps us in finding other others and helping them know about this podcast and how to discover who they were created to be.
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In this special episode, we're gonna share a talk that I gave at Grace Community Church in Loveling, Colorado.
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The focus of the passage was Psalm 34, where we looked at what it really means to become a fully committed follower of God.
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Not someone who just tries him out, but someone whose whole life is transformed by seeking him, fearing him, trusting him, and blessing him.
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Now, if you have any questions about this episode or any other episode, put it in the comments or email us at info at redeemingidentity.com.
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We will respond to each and every email and respond to some of the questions live on our podcast, the He's a Live Project.
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So before we take any more time, let's get to the talk.
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I am old enough that I remember the Cola Wars.
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How many of you remember the Cola Wars?
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Okay?
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The first Coke, the first soda that actually came out was Coca-Cola.
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That was a very, very long time ago, way before me, okay?
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But soon after the rival Pepsi came onto the scene.
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And all of a sudden we had the Cola Wars.
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It was the war of who was going to be the dominant cola.
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It still is around today.
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I mean, I go to different parts of the country.
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I actually am, I come from the Northeast, I come from Pennsylvania, and we actually use the term soda.
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I go down to Texas and they say, What Coke would you like?
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And people say Pepsi, and I'm thinking, what?
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That does not fit.
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But Pepsi actually was a genius in marketing in the 70s.
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And what they did is they did the taste test challenge.
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I don't know if you guys remember this.
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But this was one of the first times in marketing history that they actually used the taste test to try and use this as a marketing ploy.
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Because Pepsi believed so much in their product that they said, what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a blind taste test.
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We're gonna have people come and have a little cup of Coca-Cola and a little cup of Pepsi, not labeled, and just say, taste both of them and tell us which one you think is the better cola.
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Okay?
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And one of the things that came out of it was that there was actually quite a number of people who said that they were Coke drinkers, that from the taste test challenge, it was always the surprise on the commercials.
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You guys remember the commercials, right?
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That said, oh my goodness, I selected Pepsi, right?
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And so this was one of the big marketing campaigns.
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Because what they wanted to do is they wanted to get the people who were committed Coke drinkers to switch over to being Pepsi drinkers.
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Now, what they found is after they did this taste test challenge, and it seemed, if you watch the commercials, it's like 90% of the countries would be Pepsi drinkers at this point, right?
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Well, whenever they actually went back and looked at the results of the marketing, they found that there was actually different groups that responded to this.
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Well, first off, you had the people who came up to the taste test challenge and said, So you want me to taste between Pepsi and Coke?
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And they're like, No, I'm a Coke drinker, and they just walked away.
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They were just the committed Coke drinkers.
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They were not going to have anything to do with Pepsi at all, no matter what.
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Then you had the people who tried the, did the taste test, they said, Oh, I like Pepsi, but then what did they do?
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They kept drinking Coke because that's what they were.
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They kind of tasted it, they said, Oh, yeah, I like Pepsi, but you know what?
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I'm just going to ignore that and I'm just gonna go on and I'm gonna keep drinking Pepsi.
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Well, then you had the people who said, Okay, I'll try Pepsi for a little bit.
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And they went out and they tried Pepsi, they bought Pepsi for a few times, but they go home and their family are still coke drinkers, and they succumbed to the pressure and they went back to drinking coke.
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But then you had that few group, and it was probably, if I remember correctly, the statistics was about maybe 10 to 15 percent of people that actually completely converted to Coca-Cola to Pepsi.
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And what they did is they became the Pepsi fanatics that actually went out and they started converting their family to Pepsi, and then they went out and told their friends about Pepsi, and they did all of this other work being marketers now for Pepsi because they were converted to Pepsi, right?
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I was thinking about that as I was reading Psalm 34, and I think that, oh my goodness, I don't know if it's me or if it's the microphone, okay.
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Or I just breathe loud.
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Um I was thinking about that as I was reading Psalm 34 in preparation for this.
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Because what I think David is doing is he is giving to people what I'm gonna call the God challenge.
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See how I did that?
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All right, so what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be looking at Psalm 34 from this aspect of what is the God challenge?
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And my goal for today is to get you to understand what it means to become a fully committed disciple of God.
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What does that look like?
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What does that mean?
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We don't, we're not, God is not looking for the people who are just gonna come and try it out every once in a while.
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But then whenever they get out into the world and they are around their friends, they just kind of put it to the side.
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What he's looking for is God is looking for fully committed followers of him.
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People who are go who have converted to be, people who follow him no matter what.
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And David in this psalm actually lays out a really amazing description of what that looks like.
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And that's what we're gonna be looking through today.
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But before we get started, I'm gonna follow your tradition and we're gonna read Psalm 119.105 because what we want to do is we are wanting to base everything on the word of God.
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So if we can actually do that together, your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.
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Psalm 119.105.
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That's awesome.
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So, Psalm 34.
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Let me just give you a little bit of introduction about Psalm 1910.
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No, Psalm 34.
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Yeah, it isn't.
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Sorry.
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Psalm 34.
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It is a psalm of David, and it is a psalm that is given, that was penned by David after he was in the land of the Philistines.
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Think about this.
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He was running from Saul.
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He was trying to escape Saul from killing him, and instead of just going to the desert, which he eventually did, he actually went to the land of the Philistines, which were the natural enemies of the Israelites.
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And he decided he was going to see if he could get safety from the Philistines.
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Well, after he was there for a while, the Philistines started going, why are we giving this man who killed thousands of our people refuge?
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And he started figuring out that being in the Philistine city was probably not a safe place.
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And so he ended up finding, uh God kind of ended up showing him a way that he could get out of the city safely.
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And out of that, he ended up penning Psalm 34.
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Because what he wanted to do is he wanted to say, This is who God is.
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Are you willing to follow him the way that I'm following him?
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So what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be looking at four steps or four parts of the process of becoming a fully committed follower of God.
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Yes, I know Dave, I know Eric normally does three, I'm doing four.
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I only get to do this every once in a while with you guys, so I'm taking advantage of it.
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The first step in becoming a fully devoted follower of God is to seek the Lord, to seek God.
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This is a picture of my grandson.
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First time that we brought him up to Colorado, and we took him up to Rocky Mountain, and he was first time seeing mountains and first time seeing snow.
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He is in Texas.
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And so this was an image that I that I looked, and I always remembered because he was standing up at on the precipice and just looking out at something he had never seen before.
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And the imagination of possibilities that he had never experienced.
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This is what it means to seek the Lord.
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Because he is bigger than anything that you can ever imagine.
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So, what we're gonna do is I want to read through the path, the passage where you we talk about seeking the Lord, and it's in Psalm 34, verses 4 through 8.
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And I want to read that to you.
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I sought the Lord.
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Okay, just to let you know, I may have different words because I'm reading from the ESV.
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I know that you guys use the NIV.
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I apologize, I didn't make that change.
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So I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
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Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
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This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.
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The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.
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O taste and see that the Lord is good.
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Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
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The first thing that God wants us to do is seek him.
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That's the foundation of it all.
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We can't be a follower of God unless we're seeking him first.
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Let me ask this question.
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We're all seeking for something in this world.
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We're all seeking for things in life.
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I want to, I want, I'm gonna be engaging here for a second, so you guys need to raise your hand, okay?
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Research in psychology, just to give you a little bit of a hint, I'm an educational psychologist.
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Um, so I actually love things around psychology.
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But we're all searching for things in life.
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Now let me ask this question.
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I want you to raise your hand.
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Which of these is probably your primary thing that you are searching for in life?
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We're all searching for something, okay?
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Raise your hand if this is you, okay?
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How many of you are searching for purpose or significance in life?
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You're looking for purpose or significance.
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Okay, that's one of your primary things.
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How many of you are searching for acceptance or community?
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Come on, we're in a community church.
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There's gonna be a lot of you here.
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Okay, just admit it.
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It's okay.
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We're you're among friends, you're accepted here.
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Okay?
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All right.
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How about how many of you are searching for happiness or fulfillment?
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Okay, all right.
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No shame there.
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How many people are searching for peace?
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We just wanna be at peace.
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Oh, there's a lot.
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All right, that's a that's an important one.
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How many people are searching for meaning?
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I'm looking for the meaning within life.
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Okay, there's a few of us.
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Those things are all good.
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Those things are all things that we are wired to be looking for, all of them.
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But here's where the challenge comes.
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Where do you search for those things?
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Where are you looking to find those things?
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And actually, researchers look at this all the time.
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And whenever they looked at it and they asked this exact question around not just the country but the world, they actually said most people are looking at it from either family, just think, I'm not gonna have you raise hand, but they're looking for those things in family, their occupation, their friends, their relationships, their material well-being, or society.
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Those are the top five places that people are looking for: purpose, fulfillment, happiness, meaning.
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That's where they're looking for them.
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What's missing there?
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God.
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We're looking, I'm gonna give you your one song reference, they're looking for love in all the wrong places.
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So the thing is, is that whenever we start looking for those things in all the wrong places, we may experience peace for a little bit.
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But what happens to that peace?
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It goes away.
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We may find purpose for a little bit, but what happens to it?
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It goes away.
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We may find fulfillment in some of these different things, but eventually it is going to go away because it was not where we were designed to search for them.
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We were not designed to search, to find our significance, our meaning or fulfillment in anything but one place.
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God.
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That is why David has as one of his first things in this passage, we need to seek the Lord.
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Because whenever we don't find those experiences, we don't find fulfillment, guess what we do?
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We experience a sense of emptiness.
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Whenever we don't find acceptance, we don't find relationships that fulfill us, guess what we do?
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We experience loneliness.
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Whenever we get into things that, purposes that we were never meant to be part of, what do we experience?
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We experience shame.
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Have you ever felt those?
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Are you in the midst of feeling that now?
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We were not designed for that.
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But it's because we search for those things in the places that they were never meant to fill those parts in our heart.
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Families are good.
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Family is great, but it's not supposed to be your sufficiency.
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In this first section of Psalms, if you read through, you hear that David says, God will fulfill will relieve you of your fear.
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He will relieve you of your loneliness, he will make you happy, he will give you purpose, he will give you fulfillment.
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But here's the key: you need to seek him.
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But this is where the challenge comes.
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And actually, I'm gonna put one verse up here also.
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The challenge to seek the Lord is also throughout the Bible.
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We need to remember that this is not just in the Psalms.
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One of my favorites is in Deuteronomy 4.29.
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But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all of your heart and all of your soul.
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We're supposed to seek the Lord.
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Now, to seek the Lord, what does that mean?
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It doesn't mean that we're like just trying him out.
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This is we are on an intentional search to know who he is.
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This is a we are in a focused, desired search to know the living God.
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The challenge is do we really seek him?
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This is the detour.
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This is the thing that we get messed up with all the time.
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We may be here and we're saying, yes, we need to seek the Lord.
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And whenever we get saved, we may hear that you need to seek the Lord, but do you know what?
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We sometimes very easily get distracted.
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So do we really seek the Lord?
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The Bible actually answers that really quickly.
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In Romans 3, 10 through 12.
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If I ask the question, do we seek the Lord?
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the Bible says a resounding no.
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In Romans 3, 10 through 12, it says, None is righteous, no not one.
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No one understands, no one seeks for God.
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All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.
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No one does good, no not one.
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Do we seek God?
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The Bible says no.
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But you may be sitting here saying, wait a second.
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I'm sitting here listening to this wonderfully uplifting sermon.
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I am seeking God.
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Are we?
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It's actually interesting because um, how many people have ever heard of George Barna?
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Okay, George Barna used to be um part of what's called now Barna Ministries, but he's actually now a professor at Arizona Christian University, and he does something called the Biblical Worldview Survey every single year, and he puts out research studies.
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One of the things that he wrote in a recent survey, um, based off of the survey of Biblical Worldview, here's what he wrote.
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More often, people's chief objective, even among regular churchgoers, I'm looking at you and me, this was challenging for me, or people who say they are deeply committed to their faith, is to experience life on their terms.
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In the quest for control, popularity, comfort, or pleasure.
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There was a writer who in in Christian psychology that wrote a book that said, Who are you?
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It's about identity, yes, I'm going to read that.
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And she actually said that we have four idols in our life that we actually create.
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And it's one of them is usually one of our prime.
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The four idols are either power, control, acceptance, or comfort.
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Barnes saying that those are the four idols, and even whenever we become Christians, guess what we do?
00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:33.279
We don't let go of those idols.
00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:42.000
What we do is we just transfer our idol and say, okay, God, I want you to fulfill my idol.
00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:52.480
I want acceptance, so I want you to accept me, or I want to be part of a community that accepts me for who I am.
00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.119
Do we seek after God?
00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:04.480
You just finished a couple of months ago a study on the seven churches in Revelation, right?
00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:08.240
The last church is always the most challenging to think about.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.480
It was the church of Laodicea.
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:14.720
This was Jesus' evaluation of that church.
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:24.160
The Church of Laodicea, Revelation 3.17, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.
00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:32.640
Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:44.000
As Christians, we can't ignore the question of are we really seeking God or are we trying to use God to fulfill what we want?
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:51.680
Because what we need to do is we need to make God the chief end.
00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:59.759
Because what he says in Psalms, he says, if you seek me, then this is what will occur.
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:10.480
But what many of us do, and I'm I'm in I am just as guilty of this as anyone else, is I'm not searching for God.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.240
I'm searching for what He wants, what He says He's going to give to me.
00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:17.759
I don't want to know who God is.
00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.319
What I want is, is I want peace.
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:27.119
I'm not searching for to know the God of the universe who gave himself for me.
00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:29.440
I want happiness.
00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.279
Just tell me what I need to do to get that.
00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:39.039
And God is saying, get to know me.
00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:41.519
Seek me.
00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:44.160
And what does the Bible say?
00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:45.920
If you seek me, you will.
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:48.319
Way to go.
00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:56.799
If you seek with me with all of your heart, that is the chief end.
00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:09.519
So the first step in becoming a committed, fully committed, 100% follower of God is you first need to make the seeking of God your main objective.
00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:18.400
Have you ever spent a focused time just looking at the Bible from the perspective of who is God?
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.880
Not what does God do for me?
00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.640
Not what does God want me to do?
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:30.720
But who is God?
00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:35.680
Step one.
00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:43.519
Step two is to fear the Lord.
00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:45.039
I'm trying to watch the clock.
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:46.880
I want to be here for an hour and a half.
00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.000
All right, fear the Lord.
00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:49.759
Verses 9 through 16.
00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:51.200
Let me read this to let me read this.
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:56.079
O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.
00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:02.240
The young lion suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:05.519
Come, O children, listen to me.
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:07.519
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:12.559
What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:16.559
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:18.559
Turn from evil and do good.
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.200
Seek peace and pursue it.
00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:25.920
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:32.400
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:44.480
First thing I want you to understand is whenever it says, fear the Lord, all you his saints, this is not a passage written to unbelievers.
00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:48.240
This is a passage written to believers, his saints.
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:49.519
This is for us.
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:55.119
He's reminding us that we need to fear the Lord.
00:24:55.359 --> 00:25:01.279
Now, this is a picture I took last year up in Yellowstone of a mama bear and a baby bear.
00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:04.240
It's a cute little picture, isn't it?
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:07.920
I was way far away because you do not want to get too close to them.
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:08.640
All right?
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:10.000
But here's the thing.
00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:16.240
This reminded me of the past, the verse in here it says, the young lions suffer want and hunger.
00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:21.519
If that baby bear didn't have the mama bear, what would happen to him?
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:23.279
He would die.
00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:29.200
Because the mama, the baby bear is going to hang out with the mama bear for two years.
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.359
And during those two years, what is the baby bear doing?
00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:35.279
Learning.
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:39.279
He's watching the mama bear.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:40.799
How do I get food?
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:41.920
When do I get food?
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:43.279
How do I deal with danger?
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:52.559
What do I how do I learn how to be a bear that can be a bear that can sustain itself?
00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.799
Now, do you think that baby bear has a fear of his mother?
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:01.839
Oh yeah, he does.
00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:06.240
That baby bear can be smacked down at any time by that mama bear.
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:13.039
There is a healthy respect that that mama bear, that that baby bear has of that mama bear.
00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:17.119
Does the baby bear know that the mama bear loves him?
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:18.160
Yes.
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:25.119
But there is still a healthy fear and respect that that baby bear has of the mama bear.
00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:30.400
That's what I want to get to whenever we talk about that we have to fear God.
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.319
We have to fear the Lord.
00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:37.519
If we seek the Lord, we get to know the Lord, we understand who He is, guess what?
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:45.599
The natural response, there is going to be a natural response, and that natural response should be fear.
00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:50.160
Now, I want to make sure that we understand this.
00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:53.359
First off, the Bible says that yes, we should fear the Lord.
00:26:53.519 --> 00:27:01.119
You have all heard the verse, Proverbs 9:10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:06.880
But also in Deuteronomy 10, 12, it says, What does the Lord your God require of you?
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:20.079
But to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:28.559
Now, the Hebrew word here, fear, can be translated a lot of different ways.
00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:29.119
Okay?
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.920
It can be translated as dread.
00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:36.000
Okay?
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:42.319
But can also be translated as just awe or worship.
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:48.000
See, the way that we translate that, the way that we look at that is a matter of perspective.
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:50.720
There's two groups in this world.
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:51.599
Guess what?
00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.240
And the Bible says there's two groups in this world.
00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:56.559
There's unbelievers and there are.
00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:01.680
The unbelievers are going to fear God.
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.759
There is going to come a point in this world, they may be trying to thumb their nose at God, but guess what?
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:20.400
There is going to come a day that they are going to fear God, and they are going to fear him with a sense of dread because they ignored him and rejected him throughout their entire life.
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:36.960
But those of us who are believers, whenever we fear the Lord, we fear the Lord like that baby bear fears the mother with not a sense of dread, but a sense of awe.
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:46.240
I say that what we do, another way of translating this is that we we fear the Lord with a sense of worship.
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:48.000
We worship him.
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.720
We fear him, we respect him, we hold him in such high regard that guess what?
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:55.039
I want to be like him.
00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:04.079
That baby bear knows that his life, his, who he's going to be, is dependent on that mama bear.
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.079
Who we are is dependent on knowing who God is.
00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:14.079
We need to fear the Lord.
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:16.319
We need to worship him.
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:27.680
Now, whenever we think of worship, how many of you think of worship as you come in here on Sunday morning, we just sing three wonderful songs, and that's worship, yes?
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:28.319
Eh?
00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:34.160
That is about much of what worship is.
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:39.279
I'm gonna give you a definition of worship that I like to I like to use whenever I think about worship.
00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:49.599
Worship is anything that we do that comes from a heart or an identity that authentically reflects the identity of God.
00:29:50.960 --> 00:30:06.000
Think about that as a definition of worship, because at that point, everything that you do, any time that you are doing it, any part of your life that you are in, you can be a, it can be an act of worship.
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:34.079
When you are a parent, you are a mother, and you are holding your child, and you are just loving on them, that can be an act of worship because you are seeing that child not as your child, but as a stewardship that God gave you, and your job is to raise that child to become who God has created him to be, and to release him so you can release him into God's hands so that he can then glorify God.
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:42.240
It's not that I want this child to become what I want him to be, I want this child to become who God created him to be.
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:56.559
If you're a businessman and you are making um you're making contracts and deals with other people, that you can do it with integrity and honesty, even if it is challenging.
00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:04.720
And it may not give you the greatest profit, but you're doing things that are right because that is the way that God would want you to do it.
00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:17.119
Everything that you do in your life can be an act of worship if it is focused on who is God and what would He want me to do in this circumstance.
00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:26.640
David then goes into, he says, I'm gonna teach you what it means to fear the Lord.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:34.000
And if you notice, whenever he says, I'm gonna teach you what fear of the Lord is, he doesn't go into here's how to experience the emotion of fear.
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:37.839
He actually talks about three things.
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:45.680
He talks about good versus evil, he talks about peace, and he talks about righteousness versus evil.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:56.880
I want us to understand that fear of the Lord and worship leads to this idea of becoming who God wants us to be.
00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:02.640
Whenever we talk about good versus evil, this is where I always have fun with this.
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:03.519
God, good.
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:04.640
Ready?
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.319
We define good as a relative term.
00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:13.359
Do you guys recognize that good is actually a relative term?
00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:16.960
Okay, I'm gonna prove it to you if you don't if you don't get that.
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:17.839
Ready?
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:21.440
Guacamole.
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:26.079
How many of you think that guacamole is good?
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:27.279
Raise your hand.
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:31.119
All right, I will be praying for all of you.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:41.279
If you ever want to hear the trauma experiences that I've had with guacamole, I do not, and do not come with me that I would have to just try your guacamole, okay?
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:42.640
It's not gonna work.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:49.039
I think guacamole has it came from the fall somewhere somewhere.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:49.680
Okay?
00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:51.519
All right.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:55.039
Those of you just are experiencing sin in a new way.
00:32:55.279 --> 00:32:55.920
All right.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.079
Let's try another one.
00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:00.720
How many of you like barbecue?
00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:01.759
That's good.
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:02.799
Barbecue is good.
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:03.279
Okay.
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:07.519
Before we get to barbecue, though, I need to make sure we're working on the same definition.
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:09.200
Can we go to the next slide?
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:11.519
All right.
00:33:11.839 --> 00:33:14.799
Let's clarify what I mean by barbecue.
00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:23.359
Because I saw out there, and I know from watching and knowing Eric, barbecue can get a conf can can be a little confused up here.
00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:24.160
All right?
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:37.599
So you see over there on this on the left-hand side that you see that wonderful brisket, and you see that pulled pork, and you wonderful rack of ribs, that's barbecue.
00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:48.960
If it has, if if it if it has to be on the the the smoker, smoker, okay, for at least six hours, that's considered barbecue.
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:56.799
If I go to a barbecue and I'm given a hamburger, that is not barbecue, that's called grilling.
00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:04.240
Okay, so now with that in mind, how many of you think that barbecue is good?
00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:05.599
Yes, okay, thank you.
00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:08.400
Texas barbecue is rocks over all of them, so thank you.
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:14.239
All right, but do you notice that what we define as good is different?
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:29.199
So whenever the Bible says, turn away from evil and do good, the challenge is that what we want to do is we want to take our perspective of what is good and put that in there.
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:32.800
That's the wrong perspective, though.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:39.440
Because whenever it says turn away from evil and do good, it's talking about God's definition of good.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:43.599
And God's definition of good is very, very specific.
00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:44.000
Ready?
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:50.800
Here's a good definition for what good is anything that aligns with who he is and his design.
00:34:51.039 --> 00:35:01.440
Whenever in Genesis, whenever it says God created the heavens and the earth and he said that it was, it was good because it aligned with his design.
00:35:01.760 --> 00:35:03.599
It aligned with his plan.
00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.920
It was working according to the way that he wanted to.
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:20.800
So whenever we introduce sin into the world, all of a sudden we were not working, living, existing in accordance with his design.
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:27.519
We were no longer good, we were now evil.
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.840
There's two categories of things.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.719
There is good and there is evil.
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:37.440
Good is everything anything and everything that is aligned with his design.
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:41.360
If it is even a millimeter off of his design, guess what?
00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:42.400
It is not good.
00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:46.639
It is that's a hard thing to reconcile.
00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:59.360
So for us to understand that we need to avoid evil, reject evil, and to do good, we need to know God.
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:07.119
Because we need to align who we are with who he is.
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:15.920
We need to align our principles, our truth, our understanding of what is right and wrong with his understanding of what is right and wrong.
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:19.599
We need to align our purposes with his purposes.
00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:23.280
We need to see things from his perspective.
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:26.400
That is good.
00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:32.159
Anything that goes against that is evil.
00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:38.320
The second one he David says is he says, seek peace.
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:41.679
Peace is a great thing that we want to seek.
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:47.440
We value, we definite, we define peace as the lack of conflict, right?
00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:51.199
How many of you like peace, no conflict, right?
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:52.000
Okay.
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:56.880
In the Bible, the word for peace is shalom.
00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:01.679
It is so much more than just the lack of conflict.
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:04.960
It is the absolute alignment.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:11.599
Unity.
00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:21.760
It is not that we just come to a compromise, it is that we are in absolute alignment with who God is and what he wants us to be doing.
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:23.920
That is shalom.
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:25.679
It is harmony.
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:39.280
It is just not that we don't have conflict with God anymore, it's that we are in perfect unity and wholeness with him, and that we are whole because of that.
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:47.599
The last one that he says is he says that we need to seek, we need to we need to seek righteousness and avoid evil.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:50.400
And righteousness is the same idea as good.
00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:53.679
Right doing, righteousness.
00:37:53.840 --> 00:38:01.599
But that right doing is not just because we're doing the right things, is that we're doing the right things because we are the people that God wants us to be.
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:12.239
Fear of the Lord is not just that we are doing the things that God wants us to do, but it is because we are being the people that God wants us to be.
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:16.480
One of my favorite verses for this is Romans 12, 1.
00:38:17.679 --> 00:38:29.119
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:32.159
You notice that?
00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:41.039
We are offering who we are, all of us, the whole thing, as a living sacrifice to God.
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:43.119
That is worship.
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:51.280
Our worship is whenever we are saying, it is not my life that I have created that I want to live.
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:54.800
I want to live the life that you have designed me for.
00:38:55.440 --> 00:39:00.960
That means that I need to put away the old things so I can put on the new.
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:07.519
Here comes the third one, though, because this is where the third part comes, the third step comes in.
00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:09.599
So we seek the Lord.
00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:11.679
As we seek him, we get to know him.
00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:21.760
Because of that, we fear him, we want to worship him, we want to live the way that he wants us to live, but that comes after we learn to trust him.
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:28.400
Because if I'm giving to God who I am and I'm saying, make me into the person that you want me to be, guess what?
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.320
I need to trust him.
00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:34.559
Because it's not going to be easy.
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:39.199
When do we need to trust God?
00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:41.519
When do we need to trust?
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:42.880
When do we need to trust someone?
00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:46.559
Whenever things are going good, do we normally need to trust someone?
00:39:47.519 --> 00:39:48.239
Not normally.
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:51.280
We're thinking, hey, things are good, I'm just gonna keep going on.
00:39:51.519 --> 00:40:04.559
But if someone asks you to do something that is difficult, that is challenging, that seems impossible, that's when you need to trust.
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.800
When things get difficult, you need to trust.
00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:11.440
And see, this is where David is going.
00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:16.320
He says, When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles.
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:20.480
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
00:40:20.719 --> 00:40:25.039
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them.
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:28.159
He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:33.280
Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:36.159
The Lord redeems the life of his servants.
00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:39.440
None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:54.480
The ultimate goal for our life, from God's perspective, is for us to become whole-hearted followers of him, which means that we have firmly established that our chief goal in life is to know and reflect who he is.
00:40:54.719 --> 00:41:03.360
But for that to occur, God has to transform us into the person that he wants us to be, and that is going to sometimes be difficult.
00:41:04.719 --> 00:41:15.840
He is going to put us sometimes through suffering, and he's going to put us through trials, he's going to put us through difficult circumstances, and sometimes you're going to be going, why am I going through this?
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:19.119
Because if God loves me, doesn't he want me to be?
00:41:21.199 --> 00:41:21.519
No.
00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:25.360
He wants you to be holy.
00:41:26.880 --> 00:41:34.719
And sometimes he needs to put you through the frying pan so that you can melt off the stuff that doesn't need to be there.
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:49.519
On our podcast, I had someone who wrote about the Job, and he was saying that he doesn't know if he would be able to handle what Job went through.
00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:52.800
I don't know if I would be able to handle what Job went through.
00:41:53.119 --> 00:42:00.800
But here's what I do know is that God is not going to put you through anything that you are not going to be able to handle.
00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:07.280
And if he puts you into a difficult circumstance, there is a reason for it.
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:11.280
And he promises that he is going to get you to the other side.
00:42:11.440 --> 00:42:15.760
But most of the time, whenever we get into difficult circumstances, what do we want to do?
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:18.079
We're looking for the escape route.
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:22.079
And God is saying, Trust me.
00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:34.960
The favorite Psalm, Psalm 20 Psalm, where it says, Yea, though I walk through thee, the valley of the shadow of death, does that sound pleasing?
00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:37.519
That sounds difficult.
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:39.920
That sounds challenging.
00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:42.960
But what does it say right after that?
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:46.480
But you are with me.
00:42:47.280 --> 00:43:00.960
See, we need to be willing through the difficult times to trust that God is with us and that God is allowing us to go through these difficult times for his purposes and for his glory.
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:03.199
Are we willing to get to the point?
00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:06.800
And I this is the part I always I always have the challenge with.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:08.559
I have not gotten here yet, okay?
00:43:08.719 --> 00:43:25.360
But in Romans 5, 3 through 5 it says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character or identity.
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:26.800
Same thing.
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:29.519
And character produces hope.
00:43:30.079 --> 00:43:33.039
How many of you rejoice in suffering yet?
00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:35.360
That's a challenge for me.
00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:37.599
But this is the thing is God is saying, guess what?
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:43.519
When you're going through a difficult time that you know God is putting you through, rejoice because there's a purpose for it.
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:54.239
And at the end of it, you're gonna look back and say, I praise God because of what He allowed me to go through so that I could learn what I needed to learn.
00:43:55.440 --> 00:43:59.599
Whenever we greet each other, I uh someone I just talked to.
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:02.800
Greetings are always such an interesting thing in churches.
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:06.239
Whenever we say hello, how is things, how are things going?
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:09.519
And we always want to put on our smile, everything's going great.
00:44:09.920 --> 00:44:14.239
How many times, whenever you're going through a difficult time, do you try to hide the difficult time?
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:18.079
But wouldn't it be amazing to say, guess what?
00:44:18.320 --> 00:44:21.760
I went through this amazing difficulty this week.
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:29.119
Let me tell you about what God taught me about who he is through it.
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:34.559
I praise God because He is faithful.
00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:48.239
Now, if you noticed, I didn't start at verse one.
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:51.199
I started at verse four.
00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:54.159
And it's because I wanted to end with the last piece.
00:44:54.400 --> 00:45:01.760
The last step in becoming a wholly committed follower of God is we want to bless the Lord.
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:06.559
This is the thing that carries us through all of the other stages.
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:11.280
When we recognize who He is, we want to bless Him.
00:45:11.599 --> 00:45:20.400
A geyser in Yellowstone National Park is kind of amazing because the pressure in the geyser eventually just erupts, correct?
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:21.920
Have you ever seen those?
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:23.599
It's amazing.
00:45:23.920 --> 00:45:25.840
That should be our life.
00:45:27.039 --> 00:45:41.199
The presence of God, the knowledge of God, the changing of what God, the work that God is doing in our life should be so amazing, and the pressure should be there that it just erupts out of our life in blessing God.
00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:44.239
Constantly.
00:45:45.039 --> 00:45:50.000
And the verse that actually, in the Bible, it says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
00:45:51.119 --> 00:45:52.079
All the time.
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:54.559
Every day.
00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:58.079
There should be a sense of that we are blessing the Lord.
00:45:58.320 --> 00:45:59.760
We are blessing God.
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:04.000
This ends up coming into two places, and I want to finish up with this.
00:46:04.239 --> 00:46:06.320
Blessing the Lord has a couple of purposes.
00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:11.920
One, it carries us through all of these different stages.
00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:14.960
This is not about living perfectly.
00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:16.800
This is a process.
00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:24.159
This is a process of becoming someone that God wants you to become, and it's not about perfection, it's about progress.
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:35.199
God wants to see you one day after another day, following him, seeking him, learning to be, learning who he is so that you can then reflect him in a better and greater way.
00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:46.320
But the wonderful thing is that as you're doing that, you are leaving an invitation for others who don't know who God is to seek him.
00:46:47.280 --> 00:46:53.679
Because whenever they see you being a different person because of the transformed life that God has given to you, guess what?
00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:56.559
Other people are gonna say, What has happened to that person?
00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:00.719
And you can say, Let me tell you about God.
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:07.440
But the second part of it is that it is an encouragement to the other believers that are around you.
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:29.280
Do you have a person that you are constantly encouraging, that you are life on life with, that knows you well enough that they see you walking through the difficult times and they see how you do it with grace and knowing who God is, that whenever they then have to go through the difficult times, they can come to you and say, How did you do that?
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.280
It's a challenge and an encouragement to other believers to follow and to become fully committed followers of God.
00:47:39.679 --> 00:47:45.199
God wants his people to be fully committed to who he is.
00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:55.440
The way that we do that is we seek God, we fear God, we trust God, and through everything we bless God.
00:47:56.320 --> 00:47:58.239
Those are the four steps.
00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:00.800
It is a process.
00:48:01.119 --> 00:48:04.480
It is a process that God wants you to go through.
00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:06.559
No matter where you're at.
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:14.960
If you've been sitting and you've been plateaued for years and you're kind of going, I don't feel that I've changed in the past number of years.
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:16.000
Guess what?
00:48:16.719 --> 00:48:17.679
Start now.
00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:26.559
I started getting into this idea of identity and Christian identity.
00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:30.800
I was a Christian whenever I was five years old, and I've been going to church ever since.
00:48:31.039 --> 00:48:38.239
I didn't learn about this until I was in my 30s, and I really got serious about it in my 40s.
00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:41.440
And now I'm writing about it in my 50s.
00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:47.920
God can do anything at any point at any time with any of us as long as we are willing to fully follow him.
00:48:48.960 --> 00:48:59.440
And imagine what would happen to the city of Loveland if a church was filled with fully committed followers of God.
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:04.880
It could change this whole community.
00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:11.440
Let's be people who follow him.
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:14.960
Let's pray.
00:49:17.039 --> 00:49:21.440
Father, we thank you for who you are.
00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:31.199
We thank you that you are patient with us, that you never leave us alone, that you are willing to work with us and to grow with us.
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:40.000
You do not want us to be to stay who we were, but you want us to live out of the new identity that you have for us.
00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:54.400
Father, I pray for this church, I pray for these people, I pray that you would fill this place with your spirit, and that this would become a place that is known for being filled with fully committed followers of you.
00:49:57.360 --> 00:50:02.480
We thank you for what your son Jesus did for us so that we could follow you.
00:50:03.039 --> 00:50:03.679
Amen.
00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:08.320
As we wrap up, I just want to encourage you with this.
00:50:08.639 --> 00:50:17.519
God is not asking you to be perfect, He is inviting you to keep taking the next step with Him.
00:50:17.840 --> 00:50:24.239
It is not about perfection, it's about consistent, daily progress.
00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:36.079
The keys to this are to keep seeking Him, keep worshiping Him by letting Him shape you into the person that He created and designed you to be.
00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:46.320
Keep trusting Him, knowing that wherever you are, that He is faithfully walking with you through every part of that journey.
00:50:47.039 --> 00:50:51.760
The question I want you to think about is where are you at in this process?
00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:53.920
And what is your next step?
00:50:54.159 --> 00:50:57.760
Have you made the commitment to be fully devoted to God?
00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:01.119
Do you need to start seeking God?
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:05.199
Are you letting Him transform you?
00:51:06.239 --> 00:51:08.079
You do not need to do this alone.
00:51:08.320 --> 00:51:11.760
We are here to walk this journey with you.
00:51:12.639 --> 00:51:26.239
Wherever you find yourself in this process of becoming, let us know so that we can be there with you by emailing us at e at info redeemingidentity.com.
00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:28.800
Now, thanks for listening.
00:51:28.960 --> 00:51:39.519
If this conversation encouraged you, please subscribe to this podcast so you can keep joining us for each and every single episode that we put out.
00:51:40.079 --> 00:51:47.599
And if someone comes to mind who needs this encouragement too, go ahead and share it with them.
00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:56.320
That is one more way that we can bless God and at the same time you're blessing the podcast.
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:58.960
This is the He So I Project.
00:51:59.039 --> 00:51:59.679
I am Dr.
00:51:59.760 --> 00:52:14.000
Eric Moyer, and until next time, remember to continue to seek to know who God is so you can put off the old corrupted identity that no longer belongs to you.
00:52:14.400 --> 00:52:17.679
And live out of your new redeemed identity.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.439
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to really change?
00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:13.439
We may say we follow God, but too often we still chase power, control, acceptance, or peace.
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:22.160
Which can be good things, but we chase them for all the wrong reasons and in all the wrong places.
00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:23.359
Hello.
00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:28.960
This is a special edition of the East A Project, and I am your host, Dr.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:36.079
Eric Moyer, author, researcher, and in this case, speaker of all things Christian identity.
00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:45.200
We want to help people discover who God created them to be so that they can fully experience the life that God wanted for them.
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:56.640
Now, before we start, please take a moment to like this episode and follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you are getting your episodes.
00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:10.000
This simple act really helps us in finding other others and helping them know about this podcast and how to discover who they were created to be.
00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:20.159
In this special episode, we're gonna share a talk that I gave at Grace Community Church in Loveling, Colorado.
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:31.840
The focus of the passage was Psalm 34, where we looked at what it really means to become a fully committed follower of God.
00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:45.200
Not someone who just tries him out, but someone whose whole life is transformed by seeking him, fearing him, trusting him, and blessing him.
00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:57.200
Now, if you have any questions about this episode or any other episode, put it in the comments or email us at info at redeemingidentity.com.
00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:08.560
We will respond to each and every email and respond to some of the questions live on our podcast, the He's a Live Project.
00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:12.879
So before we take any more time, let's get to the talk.
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:21.520
I am old enough that I remember the Cola Wars.
00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:23.759
How many of you remember the Cola Wars?
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:24.319
Okay?
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:28.879
The first Coke, the first soda that actually came out was Coca-Cola.
00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:33.599
That was a very, very long time ago, way before me, okay?
00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:39.439
But soon after the rival Pepsi came onto the scene.
00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.159
And all of a sudden we had the Cola Wars.
00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:46.319
It was the war of who was going to be the dominant cola.
00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.000
It still is around today.
00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:52.319
I mean, I go to different parts of the country.
00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:57.680
I actually am, I come from the Northeast, I come from Pennsylvania, and we actually use the term soda.
00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.800
I go down to Texas and they say, What Coke would you like?
00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:03.280
And people say Pepsi, and I'm thinking, what?
00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:07.199
That does not fit.
00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:13.360
But Pepsi actually was a genius in marketing in the 70s.
00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:16.560
And what they did is they did the taste test challenge.
00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:18.800
I don't know if you guys remember this.
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:28.400
But this was one of the first times in marketing history that they actually used the taste test to try and use this as a marketing ploy.
00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:35.199
Because Pepsi believed so much in their product that they said, what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a blind taste test.
00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:49.120
We're gonna have people come and have a little cup of Coca-Cola and a little cup of Pepsi, not labeled, and just say, taste both of them and tell us which one you think is the better cola.
00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:49.919
Okay?
00:03:50.800 --> 00:04:01.840
And one of the things that came out of it was that there was actually quite a number of people who said that they were Coke drinkers, that from the taste test challenge, it was always the surprise on the commercials.
00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:03.439
You guys remember the commercials, right?
00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:07.439
That said, oh my goodness, I selected Pepsi, right?
00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:11.360
And so this was one of the big marketing campaigns.
00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:21.759
Because what they wanted to do is they wanted to get the people who were committed Coke drinkers to switch over to being Pepsi drinkers.
00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:32.319
Now, what they found is after they did this taste test challenge, and it seemed, if you watch the commercials, it's like 90% of the countries would be Pepsi drinkers at this point, right?
00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:41.600
Well, whenever they actually went back and looked at the results of the marketing, they found that there was actually different groups that responded to this.
00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:47.920
Well, first off, you had the people who came up to the taste test challenge and said, So you want me to taste between Pepsi and Coke?
00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.800
And they're like, No, I'm a Coke drinker, and they just walked away.
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They were just the committed Coke drinkers.
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They were not going to have anything to do with Pepsi at all, no matter what.
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Then you had the people who tried the, did the taste test, they said, Oh, I like Pepsi, but then what did they do?
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.519
They kept drinking Coke because that's what they were.
00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.199
They kind of tasted it, they said, Oh, yeah, I like Pepsi, but you know what?
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:17.120
I'm just going to ignore that and I'm just gonna go on and I'm gonna keep drinking Pepsi.
00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:21.920
Well, then you had the people who said, Okay, I'll try Pepsi for a little bit.
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:34.879
And they went out and they tried Pepsi, they bought Pepsi for a few times, but they go home and their family are still coke drinkers, and they succumbed to the pressure and they went back to drinking coke.
00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:48.959
But then you had that few group, and it was probably, if I remember correctly, the statistics was about maybe 10 to 15 percent of people that actually completely converted to Coca-Cola to Pepsi.
00:05:49.600 --> 00:06:06.240
And what they did is they became the Pepsi fanatics that actually went out and they started converting their family to Pepsi, and then they went out and told their friends about Pepsi, and they did all of this other work being marketers now for Pepsi because they were converted to Pepsi, right?
00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:15.839
I was thinking about that as I was reading Psalm 34, and I think that, oh my goodness, I don't know if it's me or if it's the microphone, okay.
00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.519
Or I just breathe loud.
00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:25.439
Um I was thinking about that as I was reading Psalm 34 in preparation for this.
00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:32.639
Because what I think David is doing is he is giving to people what I'm gonna call the God challenge.
00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:37.040
See how I did that?
00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:45.759
All right, so what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be looking at Psalm 34 from this aspect of what is the God challenge?
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:56.879
And my goal for today is to get you to understand what it means to become a fully committed disciple of God.
00:06:57.759 --> 00:06:59.279
What does that look like?
00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:00.879
What does that mean?
00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:08.639
We don't, we're not, God is not looking for the people who are just gonna come and try it out every once in a while.
00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:14.240
But then whenever they get out into the world and they are around their friends, they just kind of put it to the side.
00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:22.319
What he's looking for is God is looking for fully committed followers of him.
00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:29.120
People who are go who have converted to be, people who follow him no matter what.
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And David in this psalm actually lays out a really amazing description of what that looks like.
00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.079
And that's what we're gonna be looking through today.
00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:51.519
But before we get started, I'm gonna follow your tradition and we're gonna read Psalm 119.105 because what we want to do is we are wanting to base everything on the word of God.
00:07:51.680 --> 00:08:00.319
So if we can actually do that together, your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.
00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.399
Psalm 119.105.
00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:03.839
That's awesome.
00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.199
So, Psalm 34.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.480
Let me just give you a little bit of introduction about Psalm 1910.
00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:11.680
No, Psalm 34.
00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:12.319
Yeah, it isn't.
00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:12.879
Sorry.
00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:14.319
Psalm 34.
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:26.639
It is a psalm of David, and it is a psalm that is given, that was penned by David after he was in the land of the Philistines.
00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:27.759
Think about this.
00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:29.600
He was running from Saul.
00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:45.360
He was trying to escape Saul from killing him, and instead of just going to the desert, which he eventually did, he actually went to the land of the Philistines, which were the natural enemies of the Israelites.
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.639
And he decided he was going to see if he could get safety from the Philistines.
00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:59.600
Well, after he was there for a while, the Philistines started going, why are we giving this man who killed thousands of our people refuge?
00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:05.279
And he started figuring out that being in the Philistine city was probably not a safe place.
00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:14.080
And so he ended up finding, uh God kind of ended up showing him a way that he could get out of the city safely.
00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:19.360
And out of that, he ended up penning Psalm 34.
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.320
Because what he wanted to do is he wanted to say, This is who God is.
00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.679
Are you willing to follow him the way that I'm following him?
00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:37.679
So what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be looking at four steps or four parts of the process of becoming a fully committed follower of God.
00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:43.440
Yes, I know Dave, I know Eric normally does three, I'm doing four.
00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:47.679
I only get to do this every once in a while with you guys, so I'm taking advantage of it.
00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:57.200
The first step in becoming a fully devoted follower of God is to seek the Lord, to seek God.
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.639
This is a picture of my grandson.
00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:10.879
First time that we brought him up to Colorado, and we took him up to Rocky Mountain, and he was first time seeing mountains and first time seeing snow.
00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:12.480
He is in Texas.
00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:25.279
And so this was an image that I that I looked, and I always remembered because he was standing up at on the precipice and just looking out at something he had never seen before.
00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:32.559
And the imagination of possibilities that he had never experienced.
00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.639
This is what it means to seek the Lord.
00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:41.519
Because he is bigger than anything that you can ever imagine.
00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:51.360
So, what we're gonna do is I want to read through the path, the passage where you we talk about seeking the Lord, and it's in Psalm 34, verses 4 through 8.
00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:52.559
And I want to read that to you.
00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.159
I sought the Lord.
00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:58.799
Okay, just to let you know, I may have different words because I'm reading from the ESV.
00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:00.480
I know that you guys use the NIV.
00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:02.240
I apologize, I didn't make that change.
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So I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
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Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
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This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.
00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:22.000
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.
00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.039
O taste and see that the Lord is good.
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Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
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The first thing that God wants us to do is seek him.
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That's the foundation of it all.
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We can't be a follower of God unless we're seeking him first.
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Let me ask this question.
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We're all seeking for something in this world.
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We're all seeking for things in life.
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I want to, I want, I'm gonna be engaging here for a second, so you guys need to raise your hand, okay?
00:11:55.039 --> 00:12:00.480
Research in psychology, just to give you a little bit of a hint, I'm an educational psychologist.
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Um, so I actually love things around psychology.
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But we're all searching for things in life.
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Now let me ask this question.
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I want you to raise your hand.
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Which of these is probably your primary thing that you are searching for in life?
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We're all searching for something, okay?
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Raise your hand if this is you, okay?
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How many of you are searching for purpose or significance in life?
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You're looking for purpose or significance.
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Okay, that's one of your primary things.
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How many of you are searching for acceptance or community?
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Come on, we're in a community church.
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There's gonna be a lot of you here.
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Okay, just admit it.
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It's okay.
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We're you're among friends, you're accepted here.
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Okay?
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All right.
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How about how many of you are searching for happiness or fulfillment?
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Okay, all right.
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No shame there.
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How many people are searching for peace?
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We just wanna be at peace.
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Oh, there's a lot.
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All right, that's a that's an important one.
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How many people are searching for meaning?
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I'm looking for the meaning within life.
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Okay, there's a few of us.
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Those things are all good.
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Those things are all things that we are wired to be looking for, all of them.
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But here's where the challenge comes.
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Where do you search for those things?
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Where are you looking to find those things?
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And actually, researchers look at this all the time.
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And whenever they looked at it and they asked this exact question around not just the country but the world, they actually said most people are looking at it from either family, just think, I'm not gonna have you raise hand, but they're looking for those things in family, their occupation, their friends, their relationships, their material well-being, or society.
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Those are the top five places that people are looking for: purpose, fulfillment, happiness, meaning.
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That's where they're looking for them.
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What's missing there?
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God.
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We're looking, I'm gonna give you your one song reference, they're looking for love in all the wrong places.
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So the thing is, is that whenever we start looking for those things in all the wrong places, we may experience peace for a little bit.
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But what happens to that peace?
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It goes away.
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We may find purpose for a little bit, but what happens to it?
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It goes away.
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We may find fulfillment in some of these different things, but eventually it is going to go away because it was not where we were designed to search for them.
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We were not designed to search, to find our significance, our meaning or fulfillment in anything but one place.
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God.
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That is why David has as one of his first things in this passage, we need to seek the Lord.
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Because whenever we don't find those experiences, we don't find fulfillment, guess what we do?
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We experience a sense of emptiness.
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Whenever we don't find acceptance, we don't find relationships that fulfill us, guess what we do?
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We experience loneliness.
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Whenever we get into things that, purposes that we were never meant to be part of, what do we experience?
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We experience shame.
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Have you ever felt those?
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Are you in the midst of feeling that now?
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We were not designed for that.
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But it's because we search for those things in the places that they were never meant to fill those parts in our heart.
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Families are good.
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Family is great, but it's not supposed to be your sufficiency.
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In this first section of Psalms, if you read through, you hear that David says, God will fulfill will relieve you of your fear.
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He will relieve you of your loneliness, he will make you happy, he will give you purpose, he will give you fulfillment.
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But here's the key: you need to seek him.
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But this is where the challenge comes.
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And actually, I'm gonna put one verse up here also.
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The challenge to seek the Lord is also throughout the Bible.
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We need to remember that this is not just in the Psalms.
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One of my favorites is in Deuteronomy 4.29.
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But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all of your heart and all of your soul.
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We're supposed to seek the Lord.
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Now, to seek the Lord, what does that mean?
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It doesn't mean that we're like just trying him out.
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This is we are on an intentional search to know who he is.
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This is a we are in a focused, desired search to know the living God.
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The challenge is do we really seek him?
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This is the detour.
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This is the thing that we get messed up with all the time.
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We may be here and we're saying, yes, we need to seek the Lord.
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And whenever we get saved, we may hear that you need to seek the Lord, but do you know what?
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We sometimes very easily get distracted.
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So do we really seek the Lord?
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The Bible actually answers that really quickly.
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In Romans 3, 10 through 12.
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If I ask the question, do we seek the Lord?
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the Bible says a resounding no.
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In Romans 3, 10 through 12, it says, None is righteous, no not one.
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No one understands, no one seeks for God.
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All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.
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No one does good, no not one.
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Do we seek God?
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The Bible says no.
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But you may be sitting here saying, wait a second.
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I'm sitting here listening to this wonderfully uplifting sermon.
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I am seeking God.
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Are we?
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It's actually interesting because um, how many people have ever heard of George Barna?
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Okay, George Barna used to be um part of what's called now Barna Ministries, but he's actually now a professor at Arizona Christian University, and he does something called the Biblical Worldview Survey every single year, and he puts out research studies.
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One of the things that he wrote in a recent survey, um, based off of the survey of Biblical Worldview, here's what he wrote.
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More often, people's chief objective, even among regular churchgoers, I'm looking at you and me, this was challenging for me, or people who say they are deeply committed to their faith, is to experience life on their terms.
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In the quest for control, popularity, comfort, or pleasure.
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There was a writer who in in Christian psychology that wrote a book that said, Who are you?
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It's about identity, yes, I'm going to read that.
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And she actually said that we have four idols in our life that we actually create.
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And it's one of them is usually one of our prime.
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The four idols are either power, control, acceptance, or comfort.
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Barnes saying that those are the four idols, and even whenever we become Christians, guess what we do?
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We don't let go of those idols.
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What we do is we just transfer our idol and say, okay, God, I want you to fulfill my idol.
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I want acceptance, so I want you to accept me, or I want to be part of a community that accepts me for who I am.
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Do we seek after God?
00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:04.480
You just finished a couple of months ago a study on the seven churches in Revelation, right?
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The last church is always the most challenging to think about.
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It was the church of Laodicea.
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This was Jesus' evaluation of that church.
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The Church of Laodicea, Revelation 3.17, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.
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Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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As Christians, we can't ignore the question of are we really seeking God or are we trying to use God to fulfill what we want?
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Because what we need to do is we need to make God the chief end.
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Because what he says in Psalms, he says, if you seek me, then this is what will occur.
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But what many of us do, and I'm I'm in I am just as guilty of this as anyone else, is I'm not searching for God.
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I'm searching for what He wants, what He says He's going to give to me.
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I don't want to know who God is.
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What I want is, is I want peace.
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I'm not searching for to know the God of the universe who gave himself for me.
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I want happiness.
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Just tell me what I need to do to get that.
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And God is saying, get to know me.
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Seek me.
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And what does the Bible say?
00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:45.920
If you seek me, you will.
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Way to go.
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If you seek with me with all of your heart, that is the chief end.
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So the first step in becoming a committed, fully committed, 100% follower of God is you first need to make the seeking of God your main objective.
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Have you ever spent a focused time just looking at the Bible from the perspective of who is God?
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Not what does God do for me?
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Not what does God want me to do?
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But who is God?
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Step one.
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Step two is to fear the Lord.
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I'm trying to watch the clock.
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I want to be here for an hour and a half.
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All right, fear the Lord.
00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:49.759
Verses 9 through 16.
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Let me read this to let me read this.
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O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.
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The young lion suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
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Come, O children, listen to me.
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:07.519
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
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What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
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Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:18.559
Turn from evil and do good.
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Seek peace and pursue it.
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The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
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The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:44.480
First thing I want you to understand is whenever it says, fear the Lord, all you his saints, this is not a passage written to unbelievers.
00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:48.240
This is a passage written to believers, his saints.
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This is for us.
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He's reminding us that we need to fear the Lord.
00:24:55.359 --> 00:25:01.279
Now, this is a picture I took last year up in Yellowstone of a mama bear and a baby bear.
00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:04.240
It's a cute little picture, isn't it?
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I was way far away because you do not want to get too close to them.
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All right?
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:10.000
But here's the thing.
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This reminded me of the past, the verse in here it says, the young lions suffer want and hunger.
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If that baby bear didn't have the mama bear, what would happen to him?
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:23.279
He would die.
00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:29.200
Because the mama, the baby bear is going to hang out with the mama bear for two years.
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.359
And during those two years, what is the baby bear doing?
00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:35.279
Learning.
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:39.279
He's watching the mama bear.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:40.799
How do I get food?
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:41.920
When do I get food?
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:43.279
How do I deal with danger?
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:52.559
What do I how do I learn how to be a bear that can be a bear that can sustain itself?
00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.799
Now, do you think that baby bear has a fear of his mother?
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:01.839
Oh yeah, he does.
00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:06.240
That baby bear can be smacked down at any time by that mama bear.
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:13.039
There is a healthy respect that that mama bear, that that baby bear has of that mama bear.
00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:17.119
Does the baby bear know that the mama bear loves him?
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:18.160
Yes.
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:25.119
But there is still a healthy fear and respect that that baby bear has of the mama bear.
00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:30.400
That's what I want to get to whenever we talk about that we have to fear God.
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.319
We have to fear the Lord.
00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:37.519
If we seek the Lord, we get to know the Lord, we understand who He is, guess what?
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:45.599
The natural response, there is going to be a natural response, and that natural response should be fear.
00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:50.160
Now, I want to make sure that we understand this.
00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:53.359
First off, the Bible says that yes, we should fear the Lord.
00:26:53.519 --> 00:27:01.119
You have all heard the verse, Proverbs 9:10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:06.880
But also in Deuteronomy 10, 12, it says, What does the Lord your God require of you?
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:20.079
But to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:28.559
Now, the Hebrew word here, fear, can be translated a lot of different ways.
00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:29.119
Okay?
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.920
It can be translated as dread.
00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:36.000
Okay?
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:42.319
But can also be translated as just awe or worship.
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:48.000
See, the way that we translate that, the way that we look at that is a matter of perspective.
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:50.720
There's two groups in this world.
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:51.599
Guess what?
00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.240
And the Bible says there's two groups in this world.
00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:56.559
There's unbelievers and there are.
00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:01.680
The unbelievers are going to fear God.
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.759
There is going to come a point in this world, they may be trying to thumb their nose at God, but guess what?
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:20.400
There is going to come a day that they are going to fear God, and they are going to fear him with a sense of dread because they ignored him and rejected him throughout their entire life.
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:36.960
But those of us who are believers, whenever we fear the Lord, we fear the Lord like that baby bear fears the mother with not a sense of dread, but a sense of awe.
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:46.240
I say that what we do, another way of translating this is that we we fear the Lord with a sense of worship.
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:48.000
We worship him.
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.720
We fear him, we respect him, we hold him in such high regard that guess what?
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:55.039
I want to be like him.
00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:04.079
That baby bear knows that his life, his, who he's going to be, is dependent on that mama bear.
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.079
Who we are is dependent on knowing who God is.
00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:14.079
We need to fear the Lord.
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:16.319
We need to worship him.
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:27.680
Now, whenever we think of worship, how many of you think of worship as you come in here on Sunday morning, we just sing three wonderful songs, and that's worship, yes?
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:28.319
Eh?
00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:34.160
That is about much of what worship is.
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:39.279
I'm gonna give you a definition of worship that I like to I like to use whenever I think about worship.
00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:49.599
Worship is anything that we do that comes from a heart or an identity that authentically reflects the identity of God.
00:29:50.960 --> 00:30:06.000
Think about that as a definition of worship, because at that point, everything that you do, any time that you are doing it, any part of your life that you are in, you can be a, it can be an act of worship.
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:34.079
When you are a parent, you are a mother, and you are holding your child, and you are just loving on them, that can be an act of worship because you are seeing that child not as your child, but as a stewardship that God gave you, and your job is to raise that child to become who God has created him to be, and to release him so you can release him into God's hands so that he can then glorify God.
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:42.240
It's not that I want this child to become what I want him to be, I want this child to become who God created him to be.
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:56.559
If you're a businessman and you are making um you're making contracts and deals with other people, that you can do it with integrity and honesty, even if it is challenging.
00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:04.720
And it may not give you the greatest profit, but you're doing things that are right because that is the way that God would want you to do it.
00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:17.119
Everything that you do in your life can be an act of worship if it is focused on who is God and what would He want me to do in this circumstance.
00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:26.640
David then goes into, he says, I'm gonna teach you what it means to fear the Lord.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:34.000
And if you notice, whenever he says, I'm gonna teach you what fear of the Lord is, he doesn't go into here's how to experience the emotion of fear.
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:37.839
He actually talks about three things.
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:45.680
He talks about good versus evil, he talks about peace, and he talks about righteousness versus evil.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:56.880
I want us to understand that fear of the Lord and worship leads to this idea of becoming who God wants us to be.
00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:02.640
Whenever we talk about good versus evil, this is where I always have fun with this.
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:03.519
God, good.
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:04.640
Ready?
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.319
We define good as a relative term.
00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:13.359
Do you guys recognize that good is actually a relative term?
00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:16.960
Okay, I'm gonna prove it to you if you don't if you don't get that.
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:17.839
Ready?
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:21.440
Guacamole.
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:26.079
How many of you think that guacamole is good?
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:27.279
Raise your hand.
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:31.119
All right, I will be praying for all of you.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:41.279
If you ever want to hear the trauma experiences that I've had with guacamole, I do not, and do not come with me that I would have to just try your guacamole, okay?
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:42.640
It's not gonna work.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:49.039
I think guacamole has it came from the fall somewhere somewhere.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:49.680
Okay?
00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:51.519
All right.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:55.039
Those of you just are experiencing sin in a new way.
00:32:55.279 --> 00:32:55.920
All right.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.079
Let's try another one.
00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:00.720
How many of you like barbecue?
00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:01.759
That's good.
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:02.799
Barbecue is good.
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:03.279
Okay.
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:07.519
Before we get to barbecue, though, I need to make sure we're working on the same definition.
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:09.200
Can we go to the next slide?
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:11.519
All right.
00:33:11.839 --> 00:33:14.799
Let's clarify what I mean by barbecue.
00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:23.359
Because I saw out there, and I know from watching and knowing Eric, barbecue can get a conf can can be a little confused up here.
00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:24.160
All right?
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:37.599
So you see over there on this on the left-hand side that you see that wonderful brisket, and you see that pulled pork, and you wonderful rack of ribs, that's barbecue.
00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:48.960
If it has, if if it if it has to be on the the the smoker, smoker, okay, for at least six hours, that's considered barbecue.
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:56.799
If I go to a barbecue and I'm given a hamburger, that is not barbecue, that's called grilling.
00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:04.240
Okay, so now with that in mind, how many of you think that barbecue is good?
00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:05.599
Yes, okay, thank you.
00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:08.400
Texas barbecue is rocks over all of them, so thank you.
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:14.239
All right, but do you notice that what we define as good is different?
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:29.199
So whenever the Bible says, turn away from evil and do good, the challenge is that what we want to do is we want to take our perspective of what is good and put that in there.
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:32.800
That's the wrong perspective, though.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:39.440
Because whenever it says turn away from evil and do good, it's talking about God's definition of good.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:43.599
And God's definition of good is very, very specific.
00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:44.000
Ready?
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:50.800
Here's a good definition for what good is anything that aligns with who he is and his design.
00:34:51.039 --> 00:35:01.440
Whenever in Genesis, whenever it says God created the heavens and the earth and he said that it was, it was good because it aligned with his design.
00:35:01.760 --> 00:35:03.599
It aligned with his plan.
00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.920
It was working according to the way that he wanted to.
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:20.800
So whenever we introduce sin into the world, all of a sudden we were not working, living, existing in accordance with his design.
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:27.519
We were no longer good, we were now evil.
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.840
There's two categories of things.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.719
There is good and there is evil.
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:37.440
Good is everything anything and everything that is aligned with his design.
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:41.360
If it is even a millimeter off of his design, guess what?
00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:42.400
It is not good.
00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:46.639
It is that's a hard thing to reconcile.
00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:59.360
So for us to understand that we need to avoid evil, reject evil, and to do good, we need to know God.
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:07.119
Because we need to align who we are with who he is.
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:15.920
We need to align our principles, our truth, our understanding of what is right and wrong with his understanding of what is right and wrong.
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:19.599
We need to align our purposes with his purposes.
00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:23.280
We need to see things from his perspective.
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:26.400
That is good.
00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:32.159
Anything that goes against that is evil.
00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:38.320
The second one he David says is he says, seek peace.
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:41.679
Peace is a great thing that we want to seek.
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:47.440
We value, we definite, we define peace as the lack of conflict, right?
00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:51.199
How many of you like peace, no conflict, right?
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:52.000
Okay.
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:56.880
In the Bible, the word for peace is shalom.
00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:01.679
It is so much more than just the lack of conflict.
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:04.960
It is the absolute alignment.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:11.599
Unity.
00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:21.760
It is not that we just come to a compromise, it is that we are in absolute alignment with who God is and what he wants us to be doing.
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:23.920
That is shalom.
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:25.679
It is harmony.
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:39.280
It is just not that we don't have conflict with God anymore, it's that we are in perfect unity and wholeness with him, and that we are whole because of that.
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:47.599
The last one that he says is he says that we need to seek, we need to we need to seek righteousness and avoid evil.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:50.400
And righteousness is the same idea as good.
00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:53.679
Right doing, righteousness.
00:37:53.840 --> 00:38:01.599
But that right doing is not just because we're doing the right things, is that we're doing the right things because we are the people that God wants us to be.
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:12.239
Fear of the Lord is not just that we are doing the things that God wants us to do, but it is because we are being the people that God wants us to be.
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:16.480
One of my favorite verses for this is Romans 12, 1.
00:38:17.679 --> 00:38:29.119
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:32.159
You notice that?
00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:41.039
We are offering who we are, all of us, the whole thing, as a living sacrifice to God.
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:43.119
That is worship.
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:51.280
Our worship is whenever we are saying, it is not my life that I have created that I want to live.
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:54.800
I want to live the life that you have designed me for.
00:38:55.440 --> 00:39:00.960
That means that I need to put away the old things so I can put on the new.
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:07.519
Here comes the third one, though, because this is where the third part comes, the third step comes in.
00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:09.599
So we seek the Lord.
00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:11.679
As we seek him, we get to know him.
00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:21.760
Because of that, we fear him, we want to worship him, we want to live the way that he wants us to live, but that comes after we learn to trust him.
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:28.400
Because if I'm giving to God who I am and I'm saying, make me into the person that you want me to be, guess what?
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.320
I need to trust him.
00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:34.559
Because it's not going to be easy.
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:39.199
When do we need to trust God?
00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:41.519
When do we need to trust?
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:42.880
When do we need to trust someone?
00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:46.559
Whenever things are going good, do we normally need to trust someone?
00:39:47.519 --> 00:39:48.239
Not normally.
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:51.280
We're thinking, hey, things are good, I'm just gonna keep going on.
00:39:51.519 --> 00:40:04.559
But if someone asks you to do something that is difficult, that is challenging, that seems impossible, that's when you need to trust.
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.800
When things get difficult, you need to trust.
00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:11.440
And see, this is where David is going.
00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:16.320
He says, When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles.
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:20.480
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
00:40:20.719 --> 00:40:25.039
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them.
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:28.159
He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:33.280
Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:36.159
The Lord redeems the life of his servants.
00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:39.440
None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:54.480
The ultimate goal for our life, from God's perspective, is for us to become whole-hearted followers of him, which means that we have firmly established that our chief goal in life is to know and reflect who he is.
00:40:54.719 --> 00:41:03.360
But for that to occur, God has to transform us into the person that he wants us to be, and that is going to sometimes be difficult.
00:41:04.719 --> 00:41:15.840
He is going to put us sometimes through suffering, and he's going to put us through trials, he's going to put us through difficult circumstances, and sometimes you're going to be going, why am I going through this?
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:19.119
Because if God loves me, doesn't he want me to be?
00:41:21.199 --> 00:41:21.519
No.
00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:25.360
He wants you to be holy.
00:41:26.880 --> 00:41:34.719
And sometimes he needs to put you through the frying pan so that you can melt off the stuff that doesn't need to be there.
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:49.519
On our podcast, I had someone who wrote about the Job, and he was saying that he doesn't know if he would be able to handle what Job went through.
00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:52.800
I don't know if I would be able to handle what Job went through.
00:41:53.119 --> 00:42:00.800
But here's what I do know is that God is not going to put you through anything that you are not going to be able to handle.
00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:07.280
And if he puts you into a difficult circumstance, there is a reason for it.
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:11.280
And he promises that he is going to get you to the other side.
00:42:11.440 --> 00:42:15.760
But most of the time, whenever we get into difficult circumstances, what do we want to do?
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:18.079
We're looking for the escape route.
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:22.079
And God is saying, Trust me.
00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:34.960
The favorite Psalm, Psalm 20 Psalm, where it says, Yea, though I walk through thee, the valley of the shadow of death, does that sound pleasing?
00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:37.519
That sounds difficult.
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:39.920
That sounds challenging.
00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:42.960
But what does it say right after that?
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:46.480
But you are with me.
00:42:47.280 --> 00:43:00.960
See, we need to be willing through the difficult times to trust that God is with us and that God is allowing us to go through these difficult times for his purposes and for his glory.
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:03.199
Are we willing to get to the point?
00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:06.800
And I this is the part I always I always have the challenge with.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:08.559
I have not gotten here yet, okay?
00:43:08.719 --> 00:43:25.360
But in Romans 5, 3 through 5 it says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character or identity.
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:26.800
Same thing.
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:29.519
And character produces hope.
00:43:30.079 --> 00:43:33.039
How many of you rejoice in suffering yet?
00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:35.360
That's a challenge for me.
00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:37.599
But this is the thing is God is saying, guess what?
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:43.519
When you're going through a difficult time that you know God is putting you through, rejoice because there's a purpose for it.
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:54.239
And at the end of it, you're gonna look back and say, I praise God because of what He allowed me to go through so that I could learn what I needed to learn.
00:43:55.440 --> 00:43:59.599
Whenever we greet each other, I uh someone I just talked to.
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:02.800
Greetings are always such an interesting thing in churches.
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:06.239
Whenever we say hello, how is things, how are things going?
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:09.519
And we always want to put on our smile, everything's going great.
00:44:09.920 --> 00:44:14.239
How many times, whenever you're going through a difficult time, do you try to hide the difficult time?
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:18.079
But wouldn't it be amazing to say, guess what?
00:44:18.320 --> 00:44:21.760
I went through this amazing difficulty this week.
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:29.119
Let me tell you about what God taught me about who he is through it.
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:34.559
I praise God because He is faithful.
00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:48.239
Now, if you noticed, I didn't start at verse one.
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:51.199
I started at verse four.
00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:54.159
And it's because I wanted to end with the last piece.
00:44:54.400 --> 00:45:01.760
The last step in becoming a wholly committed follower of God is we want to bless the Lord.
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:06.559
This is the thing that carries us through all of the other stages.
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:11.280
When we recognize who He is, we want to bless Him.
00:45:11.599 --> 00:45:20.400
A geyser in Yellowstone National Park is kind of amazing because the pressure in the geyser eventually just erupts, correct?
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:21.920
Have you ever seen those?
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:23.599
It's amazing.
00:45:23.920 --> 00:45:25.840
That should be our life.
00:45:27.039 --> 00:45:41.199
The presence of God, the knowledge of God, the changing of what God, the work that God is doing in our life should be so amazing, and the pressure should be there that it just erupts out of our life in blessing God.
00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:44.239
Constantly.
00:45:45.039 --> 00:45:50.000
And the verse that actually, in the Bible, it says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
00:45:51.119 --> 00:45:52.079
All the time.
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:54.559
Every day.
00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:58.079
There should be a sense of that we are blessing the Lord.
00:45:58.320 --> 00:45:59.760
We are blessing God.
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:04.000
This ends up coming into two places, and I want to finish up with this.
00:46:04.239 --> 00:46:06.320
Blessing the Lord has a couple of purposes.
00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:11.920
One, it carries us through all of these different stages.
00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:14.960
This is not about living perfectly.
00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:16.800
This is a process.
00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:24.159
This is a process of becoming someone that God wants you to become, and it's not about perfection, it's about progress.
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:35.199
God wants to see you one day after another day, following him, seeking him, learning to be, learning who he is so that you can then reflect him in a better and greater way.
00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:46.320
But the wonderful thing is that as you're doing that, you are leaving an invitation for others who don't know who God is to seek him.
00:46:47.280 --> 00:46:53.679
Because whenever they see you being a different person because of the transformed life that God has given to you, guess what?
00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:56.559
Other people are gonna say, What has happened to that person?
00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:00.719
And you can say, Let me tell you about God.
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:07.440
But the second part of it is that it is an encouragement to the other believers that are around you.
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:29.280
Do you have a person that you are constantly encouraging, that you are life on life with, that knows you well enough that they see you walking through the difficult times and they see how you do it with grace and knowing who God is, that whenever they then have to go through the difficult times, they can come to you and say, How did you do that?
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.280
It's a challenge and an encouragement to other believers to follow and to become fully committed followers of God.
00:47:39.679 --> 00:47:45.199
God wants his people to be fully committed to who he is.
00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:55.440
The way that we do that is we seek God, we fear God, we trust God, and through everything we bless God.
00:47:56.320 --> 00:47:58.239
Those are the four steps.
00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:00.800
It is a process.
00:48:01.119 --> 00:48:04.480
It is a process that God wants you to go through.
00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:06.559
No matter where you're at.
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:14.960
If you've been sitting and you've been plateaued for years and you're kind of going, I don't feel that I've changed in the past number of years.
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:16.000
Guess what?
00:48:16.719 --> 00:48:17.679
Start now.
00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:26.559
I started getting into this idea of identity and Christian identity.
00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:30.800
I was a Christian whenever I was five years old, and I've been going to church ever since.
00:48:31.039 --> 00:48:38.239
I didn't learn about this until I was in my 30s, and I really got serious about it in my 40s.
00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:41.440
And now I'm writing about it in my 50s.
00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:47.920
God can do anything at any point at any time with any of us as long as we are willing to fully follow him.
00:48:48.960 --> 00:48:59.440
And imagine what would happen to the city of Loveland if a church was filled with fully committed followers of God.
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:04.880
It could change this whole community.
00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:11.440
Let's be people who follow him.
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:14.960
Let's pray.
00:49:17.039 --> 00:49:21.440
Father, we thank you for who you are.
00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:31.199
We thank you that you are patient with us, that you never leave us alone, that you are willing to work with us and to grow with us.
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:40.000
You do not want us to be to stay who we were, but you want us to live out of the new identity that you have for us.
00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:54.400
Father, I pray for this church, I pray for these people, I pray that you would fill this place with your spirit, and that this would become a place that is known for being filled with fully committed followers of you.
00:49:57.360 --> 00:50:02.480
We thank you for what your son Jesus did for us so that we could follow you.
00:50:03.039 --> 00:50:03.679
Amen.
00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:08.320
As we wrap up, I just want to encourage you with this.
00:50:08.639 --> 00:50:17.519
God is not asking you to be perfect, He is inviting you to keep taking the next step with Him.
00:50:17.840 --> 00:50:24.239
It is not about perfection, it's about consistent, daily progress.
00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:36.079
The keys to this are to keep seeking Him, keep worshiping Him by letting Him shape you into the person that He created and designed you to be.
00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:46.320
Keep trusting Him, knowing that wherever you are, that He is faithfully walking with you through every part of that journey.
00:50:47.039 --> 00:50:51.760
The question I want you to think about is where are you at in this process?
00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:53.920
And what is your next step?
00:50:54.159 --> 00:50:57.760
Have you made the commitment to be fully devoted to God?
00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:01.119
Do you need to start seeking God?
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:05.199
Are you letting Him transform you?
00:51:06.239 --> 00:51:08.079
You do not need to do this alone.
00:51:08.320 --> 00:51:11.760
We are here to walk this journey with you.
00:51:12.639 --> 00:51:26.239
Wherever you find yourself in this process of becoming, let us know so that we can be there with you by emailing us at e at info redeemingidentity.com.
00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:28.800
Now, thanks for listening.
00:51:28.960 --> 00:51:39.519
If this conversation encouraged you, please subscribe to this podcast so you can keep joining us for each and every single episode that we put out.
00:51:40.079 --> 00:51:47.599
And if someone comes to mind who needs this encouragement too, go ahead and share it with them.
00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:56.320
That is one more way that we can bless God and at the same time you're blessing the podcast.
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:58.960
This is the He So I Project.
00:51:59.039 --> 00:51:59.679
I am Dr.
00:51:59.760 --> 00:52:14.000
Eric Moyer, and until next time, remember to continue to seek to know who God is so you can put off the old corrupted identity that no longer belongs to you.
00:52:14.400 --> 00:52:17.679
And live out of your new redeemed identity.
