Sunday Morning Sermon Series - 08/22/2021

Whitten Baptist Church iconWhitten Baptist Church

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Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military size, it wasn't the type of people...
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The guy who craved God... John chapter 4. And in my brain
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I'm trying to think... I'm trying to think of what would be appropriate for us to study today and...
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I don't know, just hope is the thing that kept coming to my mind. And it's not just because Robert's family is struggling.
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It's not just because of all that... It's because of what the world is today, man.
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What we're going through. What some of you have adopted as defense mechanisms and as coping skills in the culture of today's world.
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Is raping your soul and writing checks your heart can't cash. Some of your little codependent relationships.
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Some of that little chemical addiction you got going on. Some of you, that anger and that hatred.
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Some of you holding on to a legalistic style of religion instead of being set free in the grace of God.
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Guys, we need hope. It's not stupid sermons or songs that are going to fire you up.
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It's the Holy Spirit of God waking in you from a repentant soul and stirring you to a newness in life.
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What's really cool is... In hope, it is this...
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It is universal. Now we all know that there are many races in this world, right?
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Huh? How many races are there? There's one race of people. Homo sapiens sapiens.
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Scientific fact. Biblical fact. Common sense fact. But if you want to keep living according to the ideals of this world and continue to be an idiot, you go right ahead.
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But the reality is, hope is for every man, woman, and child. Now you
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Calvinists, hold on. Let me dust off your Reformation for a second. The call of God Almighty is this.
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Look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.
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The call of repentance is to every sinful creature to be restored and brought back to the right holiness of God.
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Now, having said that, we can talk about how that plays out in soteriology. But in reality, the call of God's grace is to every sinful creature.
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Look with me in John chapter 4. This is a great, great illustration of hope.
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Let me kind of set the tone for you. This is in the early days of Jesus' ministry.
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It says in that opening thing of chapter 4, verse 1, when Jesus knew the
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Pharisees he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were,
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Jesus left Judea and went again to Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria.
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So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son
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Joseph. Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well, and it was about six in the evening.
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Now, guys, this is really cool. You have to understand what we're talking about here.
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Palestine at this time was broken up into kind of three states, if you will.
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You kind of had Galilee, you had Samaria, and you had Judea.
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Now, for those of you that are members of Witten, you've gone through this. The twelve tribes of Israel.
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In 722 BC, the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes had rebelled against each other, and the nation of Assyria had come in and obliterated those ten northern tribes.
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The Jews were like, see? See there? You should have joined our church. And they thought they were all that in a bag of chips, and in 586,
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Babylon came in, whooped Assyria, and whipped Judea. Well, Judea kind of looked on those ten northern tribes, those ten
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Yankee tribes, if you will, with a little bit of disdain, because here's why.
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Those people started intermixing with other people groups.
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Y 'all know how mixed marriages are? Word of God says, don't be unequally yoked. You black folks and you white folks getting married, y 'all are an abomination to God.
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Abomination. Now, blacks and whites, just don't marry any Mexicans or Puerto Ricans.
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Them are really bad, you know? They'll steal your hubcaps. Is that what God's talking about?
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No, man. But that's what the Jews were thinking. The Jews were thinking, oh, these
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Jews right here, they married, I mean these Israelites right here, they married other races of people, so now they're unclean and we can't associate.
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Aren't y 'all glad we've moved past that? You know what I'm saying? Aren't y 'all glad we've moved past that? That we don't look down on other people because of the kind of melanin they have in their skin?
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Because of the different denomination they go to? Because of the different teams they cheer for or whatever else?
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Aren't you glad we've matured after 2 ,000 years of the Holy Spirit and grace? Total depravity is total depravity, guys.
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The same stupid they had back then is the same stupid we have now. But praise God, the same hope that they had back then is the same hope we have now.
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So here Jesus comes to this well. It's about 6 in the evening. And it says this.
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It says this. A woman from Samaria, one of them mixed race people, came to draw water.
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Give me a drink, Jesus said to her, for His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
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Now, here's what's amazing. Here is a total stranger coming to a public place.
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Jesus is sitting there and the woman, probably a little bit nervous, probably walks up and there's some strange guy there and she starts drawing water from the well.
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Jesus speaks up to her. And He doesn't do the EE approach. He doesn't do
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GROW or the SBC evangelism now 32, 20, 21, 40 window.
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You know what He does? He says, hey woman, give me something to drink. What does she say?
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Man, she put it in check. You can hear her attitude. You can hear it. She sits there and says, how is it that you, a
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Jew, would ask a drink from me from a Samaritan woman?
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For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. I want you to see what
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Jesus is doing here. He's not Martin Luther King breaking down walls or any of that other garbage.
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He's not any of that stupid cultural civic community. You know what
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Jesus is doing? He's about to give a woman who is so battered and beaten the hope of the gospel of Himself.
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Look what He says. He sits there and He understands this. Her little precepts or her little insecurities, first of all, was that she was a woman.
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You've got to understand that a man talking to a woman back then who was not his wife was considered a big, big no -no.
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Now, let me just sidebar over here. Now, I know we don't have any many old
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Baptists left in here. And I'm not talking about the chronological age from my little old people section right here.
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I'm talking about old school Baptists or old religious Baptists. Let me tell you something.
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Ladies, listen to me for a second. You have the same Spirit of God in you that I've got in me.
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The same spiritual gifts I've got, you might have those, okay? There is no difference.
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I remember, I think Nietzsche said, For there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ.
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Oops, no, that was the book of Galatians. You've got to understand this, that the world's understanding is they want to divide us in every little thing.
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I heard some dope -smoking hippie yesterday on Fox News saying that we need to stop calling women females because it's degrading.
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I don't get it anymore. I really don't get you little spiritual hipster losers anymore.
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I don't get you. I really don't get you. But watch this. It doesn't matter whether you're a male or a female.
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She says, Why are you speaking to me who's a woman? I've heard many people say that God's Word and Old Testament especially subjugate women.
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Have you ever read Proverbs 31? I mean, besides charm is a sepial and beauty is vain.
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Besides the thing cross -stitched on your bathroom wall. Have you actually ever read it?
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Here's a woman whose husband was at the city gates. What did she do? She goes out as a realtor speculator to buy land to start a business,
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Baptist, to make wine, to start a business, and then she goes home and she's making girdles.
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She is Victoria's Secret, right? She's out there making girdles, has employees making wine, and she's taking care of her household and does ministry on the side.
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Where is the subjugation of women? Guys, it's not subjugation. It's called submission.
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Now let me be as candid with you on the other side of this. Some of you chicks in here, the insecurities you think have to do with your past, they don't.
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They have to do with your unwillingness to obey the Word of God. Some of you ladies still in here want to be all this nouveau,
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I am woman, hear me war. You've come a long way, babe. You ain't going nowhere. And you ain't ever going to go nowhere until you learn that the peace of God is going to be found in obedience to His Word.
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And part of that Word is wives submit to your own husbands. Some of your husbands are not very happy.
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You know why? Because, number one, there are too many of the cowards to actually lead you in the right way.
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But the other part of it is there's constant tension because you want to live a life of rebellion rather than one of submission.
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And then you're going to be the same person that comes to my office, sits down, and with all the ignorance and arrogance combined, say,
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I don't know what's wrong with our kids. They're in total rebellion. Who do you think your kids are emulating there?
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Mama? If you're not submitting to your husband, don't expect your kids to submit to you.
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And dads, don't expect your wives and kids to submit if you're not submitted to God Almighty.
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Now, some of you dorks in here just said, amen, amen. But you're the idiot I'm talking to.
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You're the kid that I'm pulling aside going, dude, you ever talk to your mom like that in front of me,
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I will dropkick you through the wall. Now, I shouldn't be the one putting a little stink eye in your son.
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You should. But if you ain't going to do it, trust me, I ain't going to listen to a boy talk to his mama like that.
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I'll slap the taste out of your mouth. Guys, you've got to come to a place where this whole women -men thing, you need to put that aside and focus on what
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Messiah said because that's the only place you're going to find hope. So, she was there and she said,
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I'm a Samaritan, I'm a mixed race, I'm a Mexican. She's there and saying,
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I'm this, I'm this, I'm this, and I'm a woman. You know what Jesus does? Totally dismisses her childish arrogance and her childish ignorance and brings her right back to the focus of truth.
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Watch what this, it says right here. It says, give me a drink.
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Yeah, right, verse 10. Here we go. Jesus answered and said, if you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water.
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Notice her little attitude change in verse 11. He was just a Jew, now what is he?
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Sir? Because he has something she thinks she wants or needs. Sir? Said the woman.
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You don't even have a bucket and the well is deep, so where do you get this living water?
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You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his livestock.
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Jesus said, everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again, ever.
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In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up from within him for eternal life.
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She says, sir, give me this water so I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water.
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She still don't get it and Jesus is fixing to help her. Because, you know, hope is for everyone. But come here for a second, listen to me.
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Especially you folks that are living that double life. Some of you men in that computer.
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Some of you ladies in that gossiping tongue. Some of you kids in that rebellion. Come here.
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Hope is going to be found in this. Truth. Only truth can set you free.
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Not counseling, not an emotional feeling because a certain praise and worship song was right.
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Not because a certain sermon tickled your fancy. It ain't where you're going to find peace.
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That's fleeting. That's going to change. Hope, true hope, is found only in truth.
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Look at verses 16 -18. Jesus said, Go call your husband.
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He told her. And come back here. She said, verse 17, I don't have a husband.
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Verse 17, Jesus said, You have said correctly you don't have a husband. Verse 18, for you have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband.
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What you have said is true. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't smile,
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Jesus loves you. It is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. In repentance you can find grace.
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The idea that simply the message is Jesus loves you would be the shortest gospel in the whole world but it would be an incomplete gospel.
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The first words out of Christ's mouth when He started His ministry were what? Repent. Some of you want to live on the emotions that Jesus loves you and He may love you but understanding this that the peace that you find isn't in His love.
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The peace that you're going to find is in obedience to that love. Oh, pastor, that sounds kind of harsh.
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Verses 16 -18 Jesus sat there and hit her square between the eyes with truth.
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Go call your husband. He already knew. And when she said, well, I don't have a husband instead of beating around the bush and going, well,
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I understand, you know, you've had a traumatic childhood, your husband's a jerk, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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He goes, yeah, you've had five husbands. Five of them. And the dude you're with now is not even your husband.
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Which brings me, this side of the room, shacking it ain't hacking it.
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Okay? Alright? Marriage is not an understanding. Marriage is not an agreement between two people.
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Marriage is not love. Okay? Some of y 'all need to quit watching them stupid
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Hollywood movies and you think you know what love is. Here's what marriage is. Are you ready?
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It is a covenant of a commitment. That's what it is. I'm looking at my wife right now.
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Man, she's finer than frog hair split three ways, right? Oh, baby, I love you so much.
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You're just the heartbeat of my life. You are the mother of my children. You are the backbone of our family.
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I want to be your promise keeper husband and I want to... Please forget all that.
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I'm looking at my wife right... Be silent. I'm looking at my wife right now.
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I am having no emotional feelings at all. I'm not. I don't...
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Now, when I'm getting dressed in the morning and put on my shirt, she swooms a little bit and gets faint, but I don't have those feelings.
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Is that wrong? Is it weird? Is something wrong with me? No. Something's wrong with the world that they understand that emotion, that love is an emotion.
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Love is a state of being. Greater love hath no man that when he lay down his life for a friend, for God so loved the world that he gave his only.
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It's not a receiving or a feeling. It is a self -sacrifice for her.
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And that doesn't take emotions or feelings. When she cooks dinner or when she took care of those kids or when she does the things that she does, she's not going,
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Oh, I just love Jeff so much. I want to wash his dirty underwear. Although that is a pleasure,
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I'm sure, for her. It's called sacrifice. It's called honor. It's called character.
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It's called commitment. Some of you girls keep getting burned and you're blaming everybody and everything else in your life.
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What it is, is you need to deal with the insecurity of putting Jesus Christ first and then all that other crud will be added unto you.
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Some of y 'all look in the mirror and you say, I'm too ugly. I'm too tall. I'm too short.
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My boobs aren't big enough. My butt's too big. Or any of that other garbage that you're focusing on.
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That's going to lead you to find a predator rather than a husband. And he'll rob you.
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I'm telling you. And what's really cool is this. You ready for it? You'll start spitting out kids like a pest dispenser and the same insecurities you'll have, you'll entrust to them and it'll be another generation of stupid.
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Come to know some truth. Some relevant truth. Do not rely on your feelings.
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Because I'm here, Vicki. I'm here to tell you, baby. No one understands me like you.
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I've never been able to talk to anybody like this before. And this is what we're doing.
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And you're going, He's setting you up.
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Chomp. Truth. Look what Jesus says to her. The guy you're living with now is not even your husband.
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Here's this woman's problem. In her little brain, she's probably doing what some of y 'all do or what some of the world does.
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She looks back at her past and she looks at everybody that's done anything wrong to her and she blames her current state on the failures of other people in her past.
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Her real problem is she's living out the lies that she herself believes about herself.
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That is the real problem. She's not willing to repent and let go of that.
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She's going to continue to live out the lie that is master of her life. There's hope though.
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Look at this. You're going to have to find it in truth. Look at this. Religion is not going to be a rescue.
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Read verse 19 and 20. Watch this. Are you ready? So here's this woman. She desperately needs
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Jesus. She is so confused, she has no idea what this man
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Jesus is talking about. Enter the church. Verse 19. Here we go.
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It says this, Sir, the woman replied, I see that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you
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Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem. You have to understand that when the
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Jews and the Samaritans split, they started their own church. You ever seen a church called
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New Hope? Or New Fellowship? Do you know what that really is? That's a jab in the eye to the church they split off from.
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Okay? Guys, religion, come here. Because some of you idiots are playing with your phone and you're the dummy
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I'm talking to. Some of you peoples in this room keep thinking that sitting your butt in this building is somehow going to change you.
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You're looking to a religion. Pastor Jeff is the same idiot you are. Same spirit of God that I have is the same spirit of God that's available to you.
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I'm nothing more and nothing special. Quit looking to this place or this man or a song to give you a feeling of peace.
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That's not peace, that's emotion. Okay? When it stops, when you walk out the door, it wasn't
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God, it was man. Listen to me. She sits there and when
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Jesus brings her face to face with her sin, listen, the first thing she defaults to is this.
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Well, don't judge me. Judge not lest ye be judged. How many times have you ever talked to a person and brought up the fact of repentance and the first thing they say is, judge not lest ye be judged.
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You know what I always say? Find that for me in Scripture. They're like, it's
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Matthew chapter 7. Go ahead and look on over there. Now read what it actually says. Well, judge not lest ye be judged, for as you judge, so you also will be judged.
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Oh, so it's not saying don't judge and it's hilarious that Christians will actually believe that garbage when a hundred times throughout the
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New Testament it's telling us judge their fruits, judge their motives, judge their works.
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How do you judge if you don't judge? Right? Stop believing religion.
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This woman defaults to a religious controversy to take the focus off of her need of repentance to put it back on something that's a little bit more comfortable.
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How many of you folks in here are looking towards a church to find peace or direction or purpose?
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Listen, the problem isn't with religion or schisms.
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The problem is you're focusing on the wrong thing. You need to submit to God Almighty.
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If you want to find purpose or peace in your life, don't go buy another stupid book by some scam artist preacher.
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Find this one right here that's the living word of God. Read it and then obey. And I promise the peace you're looking for will come quick, fast, in a hurry.
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Guys, it's not religion. It's not church that's going to save you. I can't do nothing for you.
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I counsel 30 people a week. Some of them pastors. One of them has a Ph .D. from Southern Seminary.
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And he's just as big an idiot as anybody else in this room. And so am I. Religion can't help you.
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Initials after someone's name can't help you. Jesus Christ can change you.
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Okay? Last thing and I'm done. Hope is for everyone.
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Hope is absolutely truth. And then here's the best one. Hope is only going to be found in Messiah.
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Read a little bit further. Jesus is sitting there and she's asking Him. And one of my favorite verses in there is
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John 4 .24. Jesus said, take your denomination and your theology and all the little stuff you try to make yourself feel smart and cool about.
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Now, go over there. For anyone who wants to worship God, let's worship Him in spirit and...
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So this is what she says. I'm so confused. Well, obviously, there wasn't a loaf of bread and sandwich meat there.
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She didn't know what to do. So anyways, she's sitting there and she's like,
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I have no idea. I have no idea what's right or wrong. But I do know this.
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One time, Messiah is coming. Now, I want you to know what's cool about Jesus.
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It's this. Was this woman going to church to find peace? No. Was she urgently seeking
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God? No. You know what's cool about grace? It's this. Grace is going to come to you and you don't have to work to get it.
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Notice that the initiator and the proclamator of grace is
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Jesus Christ, not her. And even in her ignorance, she doesn't even know what she's saying.
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She's saying, well, Messiah one day is going to show up and He's going to fix all of our religious squabbles.
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Jesus looks at her and says this, Hey baby, the one guy that's speaking to you,
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I am Messiah. Now, why did she take
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Jesus' word for it? Do you think it was because He knew that she had five husbands?
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I don't think so. Do you think it was because He was a dynamic speaker? No. Do you think it was because He had smoke machines and glitter bombs and lights in His work?
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No. Do you think it was because He wore some stupid suit and tie? By the way,
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I'm stressed right now. I need flip -flops to preach. This is not me.
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But anyways, do you think it was all that? No. You know what it was?
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Here's the only way you're going to understand the Word of God. You see, the
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Holy Spirit was regenerating her right now. The Holy Spirit was speaking to her.
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Not just the words of a human being, but down deep in her soul. Listen. She goes,
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I don't understand it. Jesus says, I am He. Now watch what this chick does. You ready?
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I love this part. Jesus said, I am He. Just then, disciples arrived.
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We'll get to the comic relief in a second. But watch this. It says, going down to verse, let's see, 20.
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My eyeballs are failing me. Right. Verse 28. Verse 28.
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Then the woman left her water jar, went down to the town, went to the First Baptist Church, asked to be immersed in water for the baptism, for the repentance of her sin, then went to a local
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Bible college, joined a Christian fraternity group, and then went and got seminary training.
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Now, man, check out what this chick did. Look what she did. The woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men,
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Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be Messiah? They left the town and made their way to Him.
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Golly. You want to know if you're a Christian or not? I've heard so many people come up with all these little pithy sayings, and once saved, always saved, which is not in Scripture, or ask
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Jesus Christ your heart, Lord, Savior. It's not in there. You know what's really cool, how you can tell?
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1 John 5 .13 says this. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life.
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By the way, when Jesus said, I'll give you that living water, it was a one -time thing, and it resulted in eternal life.
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Listen to me for a second. Listen. Look at this woman's reaction when she came face to face with Messiah.
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She left everything and all the baggage she had been carrying before. Do you know some of you folks in here, especially some of you younger peoples, you do stupid stuff for one purpose.
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You are so self... You glorify self so much, and you've been spoiled rotten and not had any boundaries by your parents, you actually will cut yourself to get attention.
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Okay. Cool. I've got brands, cut marks, tattoos all over me.
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I get it. I remember actually feeling better when I did that.
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I know that sounds weird to some of you normal folks, but I actually felt better.
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I did. I can still remember that 16 -penny nail and that blowtorch, and hearing that...
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as that thing went in my skin. And it hurt at first, but then there was this euphoric sense of relief.
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And here's why. Because I had nobody telling me right and wrong, and I had, at the age of 13, zero boundaries in my life, and zero accountability, but there was a guilt from sin in my heart that was convicting the fire out of me that I didn't even know.
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It felt good to be punished when no one else was punishing me. Have you ever asked your parents to ground you?
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I did. I remember at 14 years old telling my mom, can you please ground me?
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She goes, you wouldn't obey it. Well, I'll try. I needed accountability in my life.
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I needed some boundaries and absolutes. Where's that little fat baby?
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There's a fat baby. One of them. How happy, Andrew, would he be if you grabbed him by his leg and hung him upside down and held him out like this?
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Not very. Why do you think that is? Why doesn't he want to be held upside down?
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Does he understand the laws of physics or something? No, of course not. Why? Huh?
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Why is his will against that? Self -deprecating.
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You get these college kids. Master's degree. I'll go Master's degree. Well, then you're not a real music minister.
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Guys, listen to me for a second. It's fear. It's a lack of boundaries.
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It's a lack of feeling secure. That's why some of you are looking at so many different things to try to bring you a sense of security.
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Some of you, it is drugs or an unhealthy bonding of a relationship. Some of you, it's rebellion.
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Rebellion feels good because it's an acceptance of culture by rebelling against truth.
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Oh man, hear me roar all that other garbage. Some of you don't have any idea what it is to know the security of boundaries in your life.
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And you're afraid. And you feel insecure. Just like this chick did. Notice, though, when she came to Messiah, the water jug and the purpose she had that evening were left behind.
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And she went immediately with a new mission in her heart. A new excitement.
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A new understanding of absolute truth. You see, Christ had given her some boundaries. He had chastised her and brought her to a place where she saw her sin for the first time.
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Some of you are not Christians even though you've prayed Jesus Christ in your heart because no one in your life has ever been bold enough to tell you you are a stinking sinner and the filth that you're wallowing in is raping your soul.
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You're never going to experience the grace and peace of God until you come face to face with the holiness of God and the reflection that holiness has on your sin nature.
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You keep trying to reflect it. You keep trying to redefine it. You keep trying to put lipstick on that pig.
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At the end of the day, it's still a pig. Guys, you want to know where that true peace comes from, that truth, but you also want to know where you're going to find it in Messiah.
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The first thing you need to find it in Messiah is you're going to have to leave behind all that other garbage. Well, pastor,
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God will accept me just the way I am. Okay, spanky. Keep thinking that.
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Keep thinking you can live the life you want to live. Keep being rebellious towards God and yet with the same arrogant breath saying, well,
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I'm a child of God. If you're a child of God and you're living in rebellion, your rear end, your back porch is going to be painted red.
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Trust me, I've been there. As a pastor, I've been curled up in the fetal position crying because God took my rear end to the woodshed.
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Guys, leave behind all that silliness. Look at the second thing she does. That metamorphosis that's taken place in her life, she leaves where she has, but she has something else.
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There's a vacuum in which in the absence of sin in your life has to be filled. It'll have to be filled.
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Some of us fill it with more Bible studies and more religious stuff, which is good, but there's still a lack of obedience in our lives.
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Guys, sending your kids to a private Christian school ain't going to fix them. Letting them see obedience in your life that they can then emulate it.
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You keep saying you want good examples from your kids. Obey God. You're the best example they need.
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Obey. Obey. How many times your kids see you actually break open the
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Word of God? Do you ever sit down and talk with them about God's Word? Well, I would, but my husband's such a jerk.
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What's that got to do with you? Well, I would, but I don't have time. Well, then you need to make time.
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Well, in between karate lessons, ballet lessons. By the way, if that's your kind of parenting style, you're just whoring out your kids to a bunch of other people to be the parents and replace what
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God's called you to be. Don't come sit down in my office and be stupid and say,
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I don't know what happened. You're an idiot. That's what happened. You chose, you chose to not obey
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God but to obey culture and man. She left all of that but then went to Christ.
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Last thing. This is the part that stings. And I'll close with this, but this is the part that stings.
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Man, you know the number one danger when you're in ministry? And I don't mean just as our
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Lord preaching. I'm not talking about that garbage. I'm talking about living out your Christian life. That's real ministry, okay?
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It's martyr -messiah complex. Oh my gosh. Well, maybe not for you.
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I'll just speak for me then, okay? Man, I hate it. I feel so underappreciated.
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I work all the time. What did I preach on last Sunday? Or what did
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I preach on two weeks ago? Amy, what did
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I preach on last month? Sermon series. I worked so hard and I come up with all this stuff and no one appreciates it.
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You know? Have you ever felt that way? Y 'all are a bunch of liars.
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Yeah, you felt that way. Oh, I do all this for God. You're like Jeremiah.
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God, I alone am the only one left. Actually, Jeremiah, I got 7 ,000 guys separated over here.
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Oh no, Lord, it's just me. Guys, man, I tell you. She went and said,
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Hey, guys, come here. Come here. Look, I think I found Messiah. They were like, get out of the way.
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And they all run over there. And then they actually come back and they say this to her.
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Yes, we now believe that He is Messiah. Not because of what you said, but because we have seen with our own eyes.
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So, you're dismissed. Golly. About a generation later, there was a man named
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Paul who went to this area. And when he got there on one of his mission trips, there were
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Christians already all there. A generation later, taking root.
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Do you know I believe this woman was the first apostle of Decapolis and Galilee? And now you have
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Samaria region? And please, y 'all don't get your little lexicons out and start looking up apostle. And I just did some heresy.
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She is the first messenger of God. What's her name? Chick. Sandwich maker.
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I don't know what her name was. Doesn't matter. Guys, do you want your name on a building?
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Or do you want people to come up and just say, I will always love you.
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I mean, do you need a memorial in your life? Do you really need that for you to feel good?
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Can you grow up past the infantile felt board theology, little Baptist that you are, and just sacrifice and gut it out?
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Just bleed. And if you're rolled up, kicked off in the road, because you've served the
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Lord, and you're forgotten in this world, cool. Don't worry about it. This is my favorite part of this story.
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There were two missionaries, two missionaries that were serving in Africa. And it was time for them to come home after 30 years.
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They never had kids. And this was back in Roosevelt's time. And so they got a third class passenger on a steamboat.
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And they were traveling back to New York. And the home mission board said, yeah, y 'all come on home.
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So they go back, and they're a third class down here. Served the Lord as pastors and missionaries for 30 years.
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They get into New York Harbor, and they're hearing, bah, bah, bah, or whatever. I don't know what they play. But you know, little bands and ticker tape coming down.
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They're like, wow. What's going on? All of a sudden, they find out Roosevelt, President Roosevelt had been on a hunting expedition.
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And he was on the ship. And they were like, wow. So they're trying to peer up. And sure enough, the president and his entourage come down.
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And being third class, you know, they have to wait for the first passengers to get out. You know, Collierville, Germantown people, and then
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Bartlett, and then Whitehaven and Frasier is finally at the last. Whitehaven and Frasier start getting out there.
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What's up, Tracy? Whitehaven started getting out. And they're walking down the aisle. And there ain't nothing but the janitors sweeping up the confetti.
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No one from the home mission board. All their family was dead. No one but the home mission board.
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Nothing. There was no one there to greet them. Music stopped. A dude actually writes in his journal, as I was coming down the gangplank,
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I was like, Lord, I served and witnessed and served you for 30 years.
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And there's not even a person here to greet us when we get home. And he got to the end of the gangplank.
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And he felt the Lord tell him, Son, you're not home yet. Keep things in perspective.