Andy Stanley Is NOT Preaching! | Pastor Reacts

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We had to get Roger out of the house after hearing just the part of the story. I told you. Yeah I mean why why wouldn't you do all that story or maybe part of your story growing up?

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Or maybe it's part of the story of your first marriage. We compensate another relationship We compensate somewhere or with somebody we are just about halfway through this sermon and Stanley has not opened a

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Bible I don't know what passage Stanley intends to teach from I don't know what biblical theme. He's seeking to unpack.

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I Don't even see a Bible anywhere on that stage What is going on with Andy Stanley, what is he really doing with his sermons, you know

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A lot of us maybe have seen Stanley preach, you know or someone like him and walked away thinking, you know Something's not quite right here.

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You know, I mean has that ever happened to you? Well today let's identify what that thing is. Like what's really going on underneath Andy Stanley's sermons

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We're gonna take a look at his most popular sermon on YouTube and I'm gonna identify for you what he's really doing

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Is he really preaching is something else going on here before we go any further? Welcome to wise disciple My name is

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Nate and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be which entails Identifying good solid preaching as well as avoiding its opposite Amen, they make sure to like sub and share this one around but only if it blesses you

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All right That mean people and we don't think in these terms when we're in the relationship But mean people without even meaning to they just keep us off balance.

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We're just always all balanced We don't know what we're walking into We don't know how to respond they kind of lean left and we kind of lean right because when we're off balance what happens?

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We're forced to compensate. This is why in these relationships. You feel like you're not even yourself

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In fact, somebody may have said to you, you know when you're around him when you're around her when you're together I feel like I feel like you're not even

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Yourself why because well when we're around these kinds of people we are forced to compensate So we're at the beginning of the sermon here.

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He's framing it for us Okay, which is what pastors do pastors I've said this in the past pastors usually will tell a story they'll provide an illustration maybe they'll read some headline or they're pulling some statistic or whatever is the case to Lead up to the biblical passage that they should be spending the majority of time on with God's people

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So as Stanley right now is talking about mean people so Let's let's see where this goes problem with a mean person is it is impossible

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It is virtually impossible to maintain and keep your balance. I'll give you a quick illustration That actually is a long illustration

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I'm gonna try to keep short when my mom who died when she was 82 and my mom was in her late 30s She met a young woman in her late 20s that she helped out and they became lifelong friends

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Her name is Alice and Alice actually used to stay with me with my sister and me when my parents would go out of town So I've known

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Alice basically my whole life So then when my mom was in her 70s and basically couldn't drive anymore And she really had needed some some help at home.

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Alice would actually drive 45 minutes from her home Now Alice is in her late 60s She would drive from her home 45 minutes to my mom's home every single week to go through my mom's mail pay my mom's bills

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Balance my mom's checkbook and just answer any questions and just spend time with my mom which I was so grateful for so my mom

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Invested in her now. She's investing in my mom again. It took so much pressure off of me. So extraordinarily grateful So as my mom in near the end of her life and as she was, you know

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Less and less able to take care of herself Alice began to lose her sight So far so good.

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I mean, you know, I've done this before with sermons a lot of pastors do this So so far, I don't see anything untoward or incorrect or whatever

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I am noting that he's coming up on about the five minute mark of what appears to be about a 35 minute sermon so Hopefully this story won't take forever and before long she and she couldn't drive any longer and she was basically a shut -in in her

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Own home and then Sandra my wife began doing for Alice what Alice had done for my mom

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She would go over drive over every single week Go through the mail pay the bills balance the checkbook and just answer any questions that she had

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And so she was kind of giving back based on what you know, Alice had so graciously done for my mom So as time goes by it becomes clear to us that Alice can't stay in her house any longer

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Because technically she was living alone. We'll come back to that in just a minute. So Jesus does this, you know

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Storytelling is in line with the style of Jesus and his teaching If you pay attention to Jesus He tells a lot of stories and they all illustrate something to do with God The kingdom of God the people of God the coming of God, you know, are you noticing a pattern here, you know?

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in other words The Lord and his activity is the underlying component of the stories that Jesus told and like I said as a pastor

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I would tell stories at the pulpit But what I would not do is

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Just get up and tell any story right I wouldn't ramble the stories I told were specifically designed to point back to the

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Lord and to his word Why well and I've said this okay, but the pastor the preacher at the pulpit needs to answer three questions

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What does the Bible say? What does the Bible mean and how can we all live by it?

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Right, and there's all kinds of stylistic choices to make as unique pastors with you know

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You know, you can you can go in different directions Whatever as long as you're answering those three questions in my opinion, it has to come back to those three questions the reason why

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I'm saying this is we are five and a half minutes again into it's like a 34 and a half minute or 35 minute sermon.

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I Don't know what passage I have my Bible open. I don't know where to go I don't know what passage

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Stanley intends to teach from I don't know what biblical theme He's seeking to unpack. I don't even see a

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Bible anywhere on that stage You know, I mean don't be mean right or the the

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TV the TV says mean people keep us off balance That's not something Jesus ever taught.

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I Mean, sorry, I hate to break it to everybody Jesus didn't teach that The Bible is not concerned with whether or not someone's being mean.

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Hopefully this is this is going somewhere to scripture So about nine months before the process began to get her into assisted

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Look at the goal was get her insisted living In fact Sandra found a place to miles could almost afford it based on with her pension and with her social security

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But there was gonna be a gap So the goal is get her out clean out her house sell her stuff sell the house a little bit of equity Actually even bought some of her stuff put in his storage unit that he said he had which was great

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Now he wasn't paying any rent wasn't paid any bills wasn't buying any groceries Now the house is completely empty

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I mean she sold everything and threw everything else away and just a mammoth, you know task if you've ever done that for someone and So Sandra's, you know riding point on this whole process and then we got to show the house.

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The problem is there's you know we're past eight minutes and This is still the story

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That leaves Do the math 26 minutes to spend time in God's Word unpack it appropriately

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You know, I mean is there any connection to the scripture here let's find out it is so difficult

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It is so difficult to be good to people who just aren't good, right? It's no matter what kind of faith you have in the moment

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It is so difficult to be kind to people who just seems like in their heart They're just unkind or sensitive to people who are insensitive the golden rule.

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It just doesn't seem to apply You know the golden rule do unto others as you would have others. What is it do? Yeah, do unto you and this is great until somebody mistreats.

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So we're at the Sermon on the Mount then, right? Is that is that what the sermons about? We're at the Sermon on the Mount, you know,

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Matthew 7 So let's pull that up so I can hear a great sermon about Jesus, you know

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So if we're camping out right here, I mean praise the Lord. I'm ready to go. I got my scripture ready You and it's great until somebody mistreats me or mistreat somebody that I love and for me in this particular story

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It's a it's a you know Double -edged sword because I love Alice and I wanted us to help

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Alice but I was watching my wife be mistreated at the same time and I'm supposed to do under Roger as I would have Roger do Unto me and suddenly the golden rule is out the window.

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Now. It's the iron rule I just made this up, but you understand the iron rule It's doing others as they have done unto you, right?

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And this doesn't only feel natural It doesn't only just feel natural to treat people the way they've treated us in the moment.

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It just seems right It just seems fair. In fact if I were to go into detail Isn't what he just said

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Isn't isn't that just an eye for an eye? Isn't that the iron rule?

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Isn't that just? Lex talionis Isn't that what he's Never mind, we're never gonna get through this circle about some of these crazy ideas

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We had to get Roger out of the house after hearing just the part of the story I've told you you'd be like, well, yeah, I mean why why wouldn't you do all that?

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It just seems right It seems fair seems just it seems Seems seems even and then there's this and maybe this is a little close to home because maybe this is

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Maybe part of your story or maybe part of your story growing up or maybe it's part of the story of your first marriage Six and a half hours later when when we're mistreated in a relationship and we feel powerless to do anything about it again

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We're off balance. We compensate but sometimes we compensate not in the relationship with the person that threw us off balance

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You've seen this happen. We compensate in another relationship. We compensate somewhere or with somebody else Okay, so this is a good place to start talking about structure, right?

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I mean, that's one of the you know points of the video here Because we are just about halfway through this sermon and Stanley has not opened a

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Bible He's not given any clear passage as an anchor text. I was guessing about you know,

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Matthew 7 here, but I mean, he's not Well, he mentioned the golden rule

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Which maybe we're in Matthew 7, I don't know as a matter of fact, let's read it real quick So whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets

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Okay, so Stanley clearly referenced this And if you look at what Jesus says here I mean this is connected to other things that he said in the past prior to that and If you know where you are in the

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Gospels, this whole sermon is connected, right? And we've talked about this in other videos, but let me talk about what

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Stanley is doing right now this whole thing We're almost 15 minutes in now is

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Is essentially providing a frame for the entire talk a lot of pastors do this by the way actually, it's interesting because You know his comments about you know, compensating for the mistreatment of others.

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It's actually true and I you know, it's an interesting subject to explore and I think you know, this is certainly something that could be done

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But the frame or the lead -up or the story the illustration all the stuff that Stanley is doing in this moment

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It's it's only the hors d 'oeuvre Right And it's the hors d 'oeuvre that precedes the actual feast the actual meal

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Maybe to be more precise with the metaphor What the pastor can do is take the time to describe the meal before we feast on the actual meal

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The meal is God's Word. Amen But that's where I'm going with this right now

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How long is Stanley going to describe the meal before we actually eat? Because the longer that he goes on and on and on the more hungry

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I get for the actual Word of God Like I said, I've had it laid open this whole time, but we're not going to the passage of Scripture yet I'll I'll take it out on you because I can't take it out on him.

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I can't take it out on her I can't get back at them I can't go back into the office and take it out on the people that mistreated me at work

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But I've got all this energy. I'm off balance and then it's doing to others It's doing to others as someone else has done

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And to you so round and round and round it goes and you know what? We've all been there at some level maybe not a big level, but at some level we've all you know

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Been a part of this dynamic. So here's the question. Here's what we're talking about. What do we do? I mean, what do you do about the mean people?

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Maybe it was your ex. Maybe it's a neighbor maybe it's a boss a sister a sister -in -law and You're just there's just no way to extricate yourself from the relationship because the nature of the relationship

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But they're just mean and it's fun. I'll admit it. It's fun to daydream about Getting even but the problem of course is and you know, this is that getting even makes us even

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Make getting even makes us even with someone that we don't even like it makes us like someone that we dislike

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So what do we do? You can't ignore them, right? That's impossible And if you ignore them, you know what they do, right? They just keep chipping away chipping away chipping away and eventually we break and we react and it's like we've given them even more power

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Over us. So ignoring them isn't the way forward and getting even isn't the way forward. Unfortunately, there's a third option

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It's a third option that I'm it's not intuitive It's a third option that actually decreases their power over us.

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And honestly, it's the third option that allows us to guard and protect Our hearts and it positions us when this is said and done to tell a much better story of course

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The way forward is taught and modeled by Jesus but it's also modeled in the Old Testament by a relatively unknown individual whose life intersects with the life of David now many of us if you go up around church or in church

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Why does his church need such a long preamble before opening the

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Bible? Let me back up we are now way past the halfway mark and Stanley still has not read from the scriptures at all

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This is all one long setup But but the setup must be for whatever the anchor text the preacher wants to feast on with his people, right?

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Again you still let me remind you and this is kind of the guiding principle for us here, right? The preacher must answer three questions and the first question entails actually reading the

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Bible guys Actually engaging with the text of God's Word. I'm starting to think he's not gonna do it

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I'm starting to think there's gonna be no spiritual meal here This is all preamble. It's all set up and framing and long stories for what purpose?

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Why spend such a long time here? Like I I mean like has his church wandered in from another planet and They've never heard of the

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Bible before they've never heard the name Jesus or David before Yeah I mean wouldn't that that's the probably the only reason to even consider taking this long to open the

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Bible on a Sunday and Even then that's too long, right? Are familiar with who

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King David was but this event doesn't take place when he's King David or even Shepherd boy David this event takes Place when he is fugitive

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David after David as a young as a teenager killed Goliath You remember that story? He becomes a hero a national hero in Israel in ancient

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Israel And so King Saul the king at the time draws him in close because David's a leader. He's a national hero

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You want to keep your friends close? You want to keep your potential rivals even closer and then King Saul gets word that some rogue

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Prophet has gone to David's home as a little boy and anointed David to be the next king of Israel Now this is a real problem

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If you're already the king because not only do you want to finish out your years as King you want your son in his case Jonathan to become the next king.

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So this is now now this is messing with his dynasty So King Saul tries to kill David David escapes. He becomes a fugitive.

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He's living out in the wilderness He's had to leave his family over time because he's a leader He attracts other men like him other angry mistreated outlaws before long

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He has his own little miniature army of about 600 men plus their wives and all their stuff And they're just they're outcasts from society they have no place to call home and they're all angry because each of them have their own story of being

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Mistreated and the injustice that had happened under King Saul So and David's got all this anger and all this frustration and of course like any of us

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He's looking for a place to sort of take it out Somebody to take it out on because King Saul is untouchable and in this story

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He finally finds a victim and that's where the story picks up So I'll read part of the story and then we're gonna stop in the middle pick it up next time

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Here's what happened to certain man. This is a person. Ah Finally after all this time

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What is this 18 almost 19 minutes in? Finally we're getting into God's Word You know what

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Stanley reminds me of actually he What's the thing? He's the human equivalent of Blinkist.

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You ever heard of Blinkist it's it's this thing where Somebody else reads a book and then paraphrases it back to you so that you can catch the gist of it without ever having to Read it yourself

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That's what that's what Stanley is he's the Bible Blinkist He's going to read it for you and then just paraphrase it so you don't have to read it for yourself

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All right. So let's go to First Samuel chapter 25, that's where we're at.

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Let's read the passage for reference So it says David rose and went down to the wilderness of Peron There was a man in my own whose business was in Carmel.

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The man was very rich. He had 3 ,000 sheep and a thousand goats He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

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Now then the name of the man was Nabal And the name of his wife Abigail the woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved

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He was a Caleb I'd David heard in the wilderness that Nabal or probably Nabal was shearing his sheep

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So David sent ten young men David said to the young men go up to Carmel go to Nabal and greet him in my name and thus you shall greet him

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Peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have I hear that you have shearers now your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm and they missed nothing all the

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Time they were in Carmel ask your young men and they will tell you Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we come on a feast day

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Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David so we okay

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We have to remember at this point. David has been appointed the leader over Saul's entire army He has the favor of the people

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And Saul's son Jonathan, but Saul is seeking to kill David So David asked

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Nabal who by the way, his name literally means good -for -nothing unbeliever, you know

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Which I wonder I wonder how he's gonna respond to David right knowing what his name means right David asks

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Nabal for help now watch this verse 9 when David's young men came They said all this to Nabal in the name of David and then they waited and Nabal answered

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David's servant Who is David who is the son of Jesse there are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters

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Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed from my shearers and give it to men who?

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Come from I do not know where So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this and David said to his men

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Every man strap on his sword and every man of them strapped on his sword David also strapped on his sword and about 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage

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Nabal's in trouble Nabal's in trouble But one of the young men told Abigail Nabal's wife behold

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David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master and he railed At them yet. The men were very good to us and we suffered no harm

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We didn't miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went with them They were a wall to us both by night and by day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep

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Now therefore know this and consider what you should do for harm is determined against our master and against all his house

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And he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared five say is a parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys and she said to her young men go on before me behold

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I come after you but she did not tell her husband Nabal All right And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain behold

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David and his men came down toward her and she Met them now David had said surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness

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So that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him and he has returned me evil for good God do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning

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I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him When Abigail saw

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David she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and Bowed to the ground.

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She fell at his feet and said on me alone my lord be the guilt

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Wow What a statement Right knowing who her husband is right?

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Everybody knows who Nabal is, right? She goes and says that to David.

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What does this? This particular statement to in verse 24, what does this tell you about Abigail?

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What does this tell you about the move of God through this woman? Clearly she is exhibiting characteristics that please the

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Lord and because she has these particular characteristics She has given discernment right that I mean that's right.

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We were told this right there. The woman was discerning She knew how to discern things, right?

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Which I mean this is a side study right but the ability to have discernment to understand the activity of God around you is

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Largely contingent upon whether or not you have certain qualities of character Qualities that look exactly like the

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Beatitudes Either that or you know, God Especially moves upon you for a purpose.

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But the point is Abigail is not her husband and She has now put her husband's guilt

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On her own shoulders look at verse 17 again Therefore know this and consider what you should do

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For harm is determined against our master because he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him

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I mean, come on, man. Everybody knows who she married Everybody knows about Nabal, you know,

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I mean golly imagine being stuck with a Nabal, right? Actually, maybe some of you actually understand what it's like, you know boy

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So she says this to David Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant verse 25

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Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal For as his name is so is he

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Wow Nabal is his name and folly is with him But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent

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Now then my lord as the Lord lives and as your soul lives because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and From saving with your own hand now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord

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Please forgive the trespass of your servant for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord is fighting the battles of the

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Lord and Evil shall not be found in you so long as you live if men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the

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Lord your God and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling and When the

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Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or my for my lord working salvation himself and When the

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Lord has dealt well with my lord then remember your servant, so she's saying Look, I know that you are a righteous man of God and that the

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Lord has given you much favor one day you will rule Please do not respond to Nabal in such a manner that puts you under blood guilt in other words

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Don't kill innocent people just because my husband is worthless Be merciful

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Forgive us, please and the Lord will remember this moment now David goes on it.

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So if you continue reading the story David goes on to give Thanks to Abigail for her discretion for her wisdom

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He doesn't kill anybody and he receives the gift that she gives him and then he tells Abigail, you know to go back home in Peace essentially.

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Okay. So now that's the story and I don't know perhaps we can infer

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Some theological threads that run through the scripture and perhaps even the Gospels, right?

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But anyway, let's see how Andy Stanley handles this passage who had property there in Carmel was very wealthy

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He had a thousand goats, you know, you read this in ancient times. It's like for us. It's like What would you do with a thousand goats?

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Anyway, so he had a thousand goats he had the car, you know garages full of cars. Think of it that way He had three thousand sheep which he was shearing in Carmel and his name his name was

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Nabal now sheep shearing season in ancient times This is when wealthy people found out how much wealthier they had just become

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This was like it's like a financial report an annual financial report He's about to find out how much wealthier he just became based on how much

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How many sheep were actually alive to be sheared and the product they had as a result that they could then sell So he's again, he's about this is a good day.

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This is a great day for him He's about again the rich just get richer. He's about to find out how much profit he turned So the story continues his name was

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Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail She was an intelligent and beautiful woman and her but her husband was harsh and mean in his dealings

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In fact his his name his name actually means heavy and this Hebrew word here actually means heavy

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He was basically a pain to deal with he was a burden to deal with he was in fact the text tells us he was just a mean person text continues while So if you have logos, it will tell you you click on Nabal's name

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And you'll see it means fool. It means senseless Godless good for nothing

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It doesn't mean heavy. I don't know where Stanley got that from. So we're gonna pause the story there Here's what we have so far get two characters.

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We have two responses and we have no hero, right? I mean we have Nabal we had

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David evil for good David did good. He responded with evil David Who's about to do evil for evil?

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Nabal is somewhat maniacal and David is about to be predictable

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But I mean who could blame him for what he's about to do and sometimes again It just seems like evil for evil is the only option

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Turns out as I said earlier, it's not there's a third option. We're gonna talk about that in part two But here's what I want you to do between now in part two.

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I want to part two Part two like hey

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Why don't you trim all the fat off part one and just do the whole thing in one sermon? Why do you have to split this apart?

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Because here's the problem now, you know, what are what are your people getting out of today? So if you stop and then you say come back for part two, but What are your people like If you have not answered any of the questions of the three that are the guide for us

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What are your people going to be meditating on this week? What are they going to be prayerfully considering this week?

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What are you doing to equip the Saints for the work of ministry by giving an incomplete sermon? They give you four questions to think about and again

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I would prefer you not to think about these through the filter of other people But just through what's going on right now in your life with the people that are difficult to deal with you may not consider them

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Mean people it may not be an extreme or it may be very extreme But I want you to process these questions through the filter of what's going on right now in your life and parents

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I can't overstate the importance of this parents I think you need to teach these four questions to your

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Children because your children are have or will face some very mean people in their natural reaction

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Like our natural reaction will be evil for evil or to allow that person to continue to control them and as a parent

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This is so difficult to watch and sometimes as a parent It's tempting to coach our kids to power up to return evil for evil because we will feel better, right?

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See, these are four questions for us. These are four questions for our kids question. Number one is this Do you want to be even with someone you don't even like no,

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I already know the answer to this question No We don't but our natural response to mean people oftentimes is an attempt to get even with people

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We don't even like to be like someone that we would readily admit that we that we dislike And again, we think somehow once we get even that ends it but that doesn't end it right that doesn't end the cycle

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It actually perpetuates it recently. I heard Jamie Dickin say it's not evil for evil It just becomes evil for evil for evil for evil for evil for evil.

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Yeah. Yeah. Okay So he's ending with four questions. Okay, I got it. I actually I've seen enough. I've seen enough look

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That mean he there's only what there's only a couple minutes left here Here's what

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Stanley did on that stage in a nutshell He told stories for more than half the sermon

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The majority of that time on stage was stories The stories were meant to set up the passage that he wanted to preach from which is for Samuel 25

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We only learned that like way later. But once the passage was identified instead of reading it

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He started telling another story about it Then he finally started getting to the actual verses and read a few of them and then stopped and said come back next week guys

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Did I miss anything like is that was that it So he spent the whole time partially answering the first question of the preacher, right?

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Remember, what does the Bible say didn't even get through the full passage certainly didn't get to the second question or the third

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And like I said, I mean now the congregation. What are they gonna do? They're gonna get up and go back to their lives throughout the rest of the week

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How are they going to be equipped for the work of ministry? Based on what

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Stanley has done. How are they going to live up to the description that Paul gives in Ephesians 4?

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Look at this. This is verse 11 He gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers the shepherds and teachers

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To equip the Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. That's the whole ballgame ladies and gentlemen

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I mean what? Getting a little getting a little upset. What else are you gonna do up there on that stage?

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What was the point? If not to equip the Saints for the work of ministry see here's what

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Andy Stanley could have done All right. So instead of splitting this into two parts. He could have just opened the word and immediately zoomed in on Abigail actually, right?

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I mean wasn't that the whole point? Abigail the woman who was discerning and beautiful Abigail the one who steps in and does the right thing as opposed to her husband

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Nabal right immediately go into that And sure, you know you can paraphrase a bit of the lead -up to that moment right just to help the congregation get up to speed

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He could have maybe tackled the historical context and painted a helpful picture as to the events surrounding this moment

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Actually Stanley did that to a degree right? That's all good But then what he could have done was just highlight

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Abigail's actions towards David and Essentially pull out a theme Where did it go?

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It's like down here On me alone my lord be the guilt, right

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Forgive your servant, right? You can pull out a theme that sounds like what?

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Grace over grudges right or something like that. You know the the grace of Abigail reminds us of The grace of God and places us in a position to trust his providence and embrace humility, you know or something like this

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So I'm spitballing right you would essentially just take this chunk verse 23 to what 31

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Or no you want David's response so like 38 maybe You would take that chunk

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You could start at the very beginning of the sermon and tell your interesting story at the outset there's nothing wrong with doing that like I said just don't take half the sermon to complete it and Then it just spend the majority of time in the

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Word of God Focusing on the passage. I mean highlighting Abigail here, you know and how she exemplifies the qualities.

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We almost emulate They come from God as we rely on him and trust in him.

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Well now I'm getting ready to preach this thing so look Well, and then you can tie in New Testament, right you can talk about how

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Abigail reminds us of Christ and his Intercessory role as a peacemaker you can hit how

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Jesus says these qualities are impossible to display without abiding in him Anyway, you know and then you can talk about how to Have you know like how to display these particular qualities today in your own lives?

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With our own sort of unique circumstances, right? You can go to James 2 you can go to Matthew 5 you can go to Proverbs 3

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We all must learn how to walk these things out as a disciplinary practice and Along the way you can still hit illustrations.

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There's nothing wrong with that You can still give analogies you can do other things to highlight the lesson or the theme but they must

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Complement the Word of God. They must point back to God's Word. They cannot be the thing that takes center stage

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That's ridiculous and then just close

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You know, you can do that in 35 minutes Unbelievable it is possible to do this guys pastors do it every single week you know and What the congregation?

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What the Saints of God are going to receive from this time of worship and devotion is in equipping to do the work of ministry

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Right Ephesians 4 12 That's what a pastor is supposed to be doing for his people instead

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We got a lot of foam and no root beer guys And now you know why so Calm down Nate calm me down Okay Hopefully you understand how this works, you know, that was really the whole goal.

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I it wasn't for me to Get upset or whatever Hopefully now you see how this works a bit, right?

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All I all I ask you to do is if you just remember anything is take away the three questions, right? Think of the three questions wherever you are in a

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Sunday ask yourself is my pastor answering those three questions In his own way within his own unique style.

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Is he answering those three questions? If he is golly praise the

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Lord, right anyway, all right, I Pray that this blesses you

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Okay I pray that this actually in some sense gives you the discernment that you need because it's not just about Andy Stanley there's a lot of pastors that do this kind of thing they use a bunch of words and People go and sit in those congregations and they know that something's wrong, but they can't quite put their finger on it

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Hopefully now, you know a little bit more you can put your finger on it. You can identify what's going on here All right.

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Well now it's your turn. What did you think of Stanley's most popular sermon? Was it right on the money or just a huge waste?

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Let me know in the comments below Hey If you made it this far and you're not a part of my patreon community like what is going on here?

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