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As we play this next song, just ask the Lord if you would put something on your heart to share for our livestream and so that everyone else can hear me. I have a couple microphones floating around. And I just encourage you to step out of faith. The Lord loves to come and speak to us corporately together. It's not just the people on the stage who Lord speaks to, but maybe there's something that you have on your heart that the Lord has for you to share to encourage someone else in this room.
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Maybe it's to just edify him and lift his name up. So if you have something on your heart, just raise your hand. Cat and Jay is in the back. We'll just hand you the mic and just share what the Lord's putting on your heart. Sometimes he'll put a picture on my heart during worship, and I ask him, Lord, is that for me?
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Is that just for me, or is that for me to share with someone else? So as we sing this song, just invite the Lord to speak to you. Ask him, Lord, would would you have something for me to share today? Could just be a scripture,
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faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now that's in the New Testament sometimes. I just needed to say that. So I asked the Holy Spirit, okay. Why is this coming to my mind?
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What's why am I feeling squeezed to to speak this? And he said, the question is, are my people going to just merely hear with their ears, or will they hear with their hearts today? And the scripture says that we need to guard our hearts because it affects everything that we do. So holy spirit, I'm asking you today for myself and for all of us here That you would open up that area in our heart where we're able to hear the word of god as Brian teaches this morning that it won't just go into our ears and into our mind, but it will penetrate our heart, and it will, in some way, release to us a renewed mind, a renewed way of thanking, a renewed attitude, a renewed life as we pursue you. So Jesus, thank you.
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Thank you. We bless your word. We bless your name. And we cry out to you and say, we can't do this on our own. We need you.
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We need you. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
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We need you. Anyone else has someone on their heart?
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So, I was just in the Bible app this morning looking at the devotional. I was talking about this place in Malachi that was prophesying how John the Baptist would eventually make the way for Jesus and prepare people's hearts. And it was talking about how important that is for our hearts to be open, like we were saying, to reconciliation with Him as our Father, and then His heart for families and parents and children to be reconciled. And so, exhortation day for any parents or children or family relationships that are just hurting. And Jesus says to forgive and ask for forgiveness.
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70 times seven times. Yes. I don't even know if
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you don't have high for you.
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That's it. It's a lot of times. So, the heart of that is to continue to lay down your ego and ask for forgiveness. Thank
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you, Jesus.
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So Lord, we're here in your presence, and we thank you for creating families and giving us the opportunity of living in the broken relationships that are really hard sometimes and it hurts to continue to feel betrayed, trust broken, sin between family members.
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Father's Day everybody. And that's kind of the message that I want to bring today is that men, not just fathers but men, we need to step up. It is our responsibility to lead our families. It is our responsibilities to lead the church, to lead at work, to lead and play. God has a special plan for us.
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But we gotta step up and accept it. We can't sit back idly and just watch on the back road. We need to start moving up to the front row, standing up, and being balls. We need to accept the challenge that is before us and that is it's up to us to change the world for good with the help of Jesus Christ. Yes.
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I think that Our role is so I don't know. Just we we seem to be wanting to just buy a ticket and watch the game. We need to get in the game. And see a
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lot of men I don't
35:00
know and I don't know what's on your heart but god is you're here for a reason. Yeah. And I just pray that you will accept that challenge. Yeah. That you will step up.
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Get to know him better. And know that the world has nothing to offer you.
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Anyone else? We pray for us. Lord Jesus, we just thank you for today. And just like we pray,
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It might go.
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I'm gonna do an object testing, like, right here, right away. Okay. He's out. You know, it's so interesting. On on Mother's Day, why is it that on Mother's Day, whenever it's Mother's Day, you know, you stand up there and you're like, mom, wow.
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You're killing it. Like, you're doing so good. You're amazing. You're incredible. Father's Day comes around, and we get the same thing year after year.
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Dad, you better step your game up. Dads, come on. But it I mean, it is kind of true, though. Because, like, on on Father's Day, we should also celebrate moms because, like, they're just so amazing. And as dads, we couldn't really we couldn't we we couldn't even do, like, half of, like, what we think we might be paid for because behind the scenes, moms are, like, a fact they're, like so even on Father's Day, we gotta give a shout out to the moms.
41:39
But it's also true. Like, Clay, you're right. Like, our shoulders are broad. We're designed that way to to carry the responsibility and the load that God has for us. Isaiah 62, it says, I placed watchmen I placed you as watchmen on the wall that you would not sleep night and day, but that you would pray and cry out and intercede for Israel.
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And in the same way that we that God has placed watchmen on the wall for Israel, God has placed fathers as watchmen on the wall to guard our families, guard our communities, guard our churches, guard our neighborhoods, guard our cities, and contend for God's kingdom to advance. And so thank the Lord for fathers. I never knew my dad, but I got a great heavenly dad. And I'm so I'm so thankful that that my heavenly father is a great dad to me. If you are brand new to trial or you haven't been in a while, we are in week two of two different things.
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We are in week two of a trial run here at the Virginian Saloon, and I really love how our TLT, tribe leadership team, has put their muscle and their money where their mouth is. As a leadership team, they said, hey. You know, like like, we're kinda room bound at the TMC. What if there were a place that we could go that had great parking, great Kidman facility, adequate space for us where we could spread out our boots a little more. What if we tried four weeks at the Virginian?
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And I, reluctantly, not for any bad reason, but but I don't know. I kinda like to I'm a creature of habit. And if it's not broke, don't fix it. But they said, let's try it. Let's try it.
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Come on. We alright. Let's try it. We tried it for one week on Mother's Day, and we said, alright. Let's try it for four consecutive weeks.
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And so here we are, week two, and I love how our tribe leadership team, our elders, our board of trustees, our our staff, key volunteers have really stepped up to make this environment what it is. So with, like, disco ball and moose on the wall, like, I just love how you guys have stepped up by by helping us with setup, helping us with teardown, stepping up your giving in order to pay for this because at the GMC, we pay mortgage, but it's essentially free for us anytime we want. We gotta pay per use for this space. At the end of this trial of four weeks, it will cost tribe $6,800. It's what it is.
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We've got we're we've we've got we've got god's goodness and his grace covering this. At the end of these four weeks, we're going to reassess and perhaps extend that to what's the next holiday? Labor Day, kind of the end of the summer, so maybe we'll just keep this rolling. But we're we're working on hearing God's voice and his leadership in this matter, which brings me to point number two. I said that this is week two of two things.
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Week two of us being here at the saloon, and it's week two of a conversation that we're having about hearing God's voice. And while our leadership team is working on hearing God's voice and his leadership for us as a tribe family, I thought, why don't we have a conversation about hearing God's voice? Because how many of you have either recently needed to hear God's voice and his direction in your life, or you find yourself in a situation right now where you need his leadership and to hear his voice for your life. That's like Yeah. All of us all the time.
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Right? And so we're turning these four weeks of like like, into a laboratory where as a leadership team, we're working on hearing God's voice, and why not just talk about hearing God's voice? So this is week two of learning how to hear God's voice for your life. And I wanna do a quick recap of where we were last week and then get into the conversation that we're gonna have this week. And, again, if you haven't been in a while or if you're brand new to try it, you've heard me say that word a couple of times already, conversation.
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I don't want this to be a monologue. I want this, Molly. Right? I want this to be a dialogue. I want this to be a conversation between you and I.
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So if there is at any point during our conversation, if you have a question, connection, a comment, I wanna hear from you. And so the way that it works, just like we did in worship, is there are some mics around the room. And if you raise your hand, somebody who's running the mic will put the mic in your hand, and then you can share. Your voice will be amplified in the room, but it's also for the benefit of all of our families that watch the livestream that are scattered hither and hither. They'll be able to hear your comments as well.
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And so if you have a question, question, a comment, or a connection, I would love for you to hear it so that we can do this together. With that in mind, quick recap of what we talked about last week. If you remember, we talked about that there are all these voices competing for our attention and to try to get through. And with all of these voices, sometimes it can be really difficult to actually discern the actual voice of the Lord. There's our own voice.
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There's the voice of the world. There's the voice of the enemy, but completely separate from that is the voice of God. But it can be challenging. Like like, what voice is it? So I thought of a little object lesson.
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I debated whether or not I would do it if it would mean as much to y'all as it would to me, but looks like I'm going for it. So I need a couple of volunteers. Connor and Jay, would you come up here and help me out? Okay, Jay. So we have some we have some ropes here.
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Besides the color, what can you tell me about these ropes that are unique or distinguishes distinguishes them for what they might be used for. Do you know?
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From
49:19
your perspective, they all is besides the color, they all essentially look the same and could be used for the same. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Right.
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Yeah. Fair enough. Okay. Hold your arms out. Okay.
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Come. Aside from the color, could you look at these ropes and and tell differences about these ropes and what kind of differences they might be used for? Yeah.
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This one's kind of a probably a 9.2 as far as, like, diameter goes. It's a dynamic rope. You use this for sport climbing, typically, like, just stuff where your approaches aren't super long. This is probably, like, a one
50:25
half of
50:25
a twin rope setup where you climb two of these to be safe, but way lighter and still dynamic. Of stretch to it. This will be, like, a static rope for, like, ascending lines. You wouldn't wanna necessarily climb on it. Also, probably another static line or maybe a half rope.
50:46
Yeah.
50:47
So pretty amazing that that and and I don't do this object lesson till, like, make you feel like a dummy. There's probably a lot of people out there that I could bring up here, and they're like, I have no idea what your what these different ropes are. They all look like ropes to me. However, there's a couple of distinct differences. Connor has spent a lot of time working with with maybe not this rope specifically, although you and I have found on this rope together, but ropes like this and similar to this and and by feeling it.
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If you notice, he picked it up. He looked at it. He squeezed it. He examined. And if there was one thing that maybe you didn't know about this rope.
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What was one thing that you did to help give you some information about the rope?
51:48
Mainly telling, like, stretchiness. It's a subtle difference, but, like, you can tell that on a static line like this, there's really no give to it because it's not made to catch falls soft. But then a sport line like this, like, has a little bit of give to it because it's made to catch falls safely.
52:06
Absolutely. And you can also look at this. What's that?
52:10
This is the end of the road. It's also got all the info on it right here. Well, she in case he ever needs to
52:16
do something like this. But
52:21
and then the sheathing is different. The way that this is set is different.
52:24
So Amazing. Yeah. You can drop those in a pile right there. Let's give them I think I'm ready. Tina's interested.
52:37
So here's the idea. Here's the idea. Several different ropes to the to the untrained or unfamiliar eye or person, they look all very similar, and and you would just be guessing at their use, and you would and you would probably assume that they all would do the same thing. Well, even though the ropes may look similar, if you have experience working with these ropes, you quickly can decipher, oh, this rope is for this use. This rope is for this use.
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And without stretching it out, Connor was able to even say, like, oh, that's probably half of a regular length of rope. A a red all of these ropes are 60 meters. Just by looking at it, was able to say, oh, that's probably 30 meters or 35 meters. Why? Because he has spent time working with ropes.
53:48
In the same way, As you're trying to hear the voice of God, you have to spend you have to put your time in listening for the voice of God so that when he does speak, you're able to distinguish it. For example and then we're gonna get into today's conversation. Anybody ever been cruising along in life and then just out of the blue, you feel lonely for maybe an hour or a couple of hours or a few days? You just feel lonely. I'm not talking about feeling gray or gloomy or depressed.
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And you could be surrounded by all kinds of people, but you just feel lonely. How many of you have ever felt that? Like, I might feel lonely. So you might feel lonely, but it could also be God trying to get your attention. Loneliness can be from the Lord as an invitation to come spend time with him.
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But if you're unfamiliar with the voice of God and how he works, and you haven't spent time handling, get get your hands on who he is and learning about his ways, that feeling of what and this is just the off the top of my head, for instance. That feeling of loneliness, you might not know what it is or what to do with it. And then to try to make that even go away, maybe you try to distract yourself with sparkly things and stuff, and then and then have completely missed the invitation for some one on one time. I'm not saying that every time you feel lonely, that that is God doing that to you, but I'm just trying to give you one example of as you get more and more familiar, I don't wanna say handling God, but experiencing God, get more experience with him, you you you get more acute and you get better at being able to say, oh, that's that's this voice. That's this voice.
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That's this voice. Oh, and that feeling of loneliness, well, that could be an invitation to the board for Rita Spitzheimer. Does that make sense at all? Yeah. We talked about last thing of review from last week.
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We talked about six things that you can do, six questions that you can ask that will help you to discern, and that's a churchy word for saying figure out if it is the voice of the Lord or not. Are those six questions? There you go. So we're not gonna go through all those. You can take a picture or write it down really quick, but these are six questions that you can ask to help you.
56:59
And then the last thing that, by way of review, that I wanna share with you that we touched on last week, is that quote from brother Lawrence up there? Oh, I love this quote. This quote is not in my notes, but there, I'll read it from here. There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. He's not always speaking as if it is like, a dharma signal on repeat.
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It's a TV show. Like like like at the airport. He's not just, you know, glabbing on it. You know, he's pressed play, and he's gone off to do his other thing. But he is continually interested in having a conversation with you.
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But when there are all of these other things and voices and and noises competing for your attention. And if you haven't spent the time trying to discern, figure out what rope is for what, what voice is of the Lord, it can just it can just blend into a a a cacophony of noises that results in you tuning out all of them, which which ends up in you missing out on the voice of the Lord. And so that's why we're taking these four weeks to really drill down into and go slowly through and introduce you to or for some of you, reinforce with you some of these basic principles about hearing the voice of the Lord. Thoughts on that?
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If
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you're taking notes this morning, let's write down the title of this morning's conversation. The title of this morning's conversation is marked by his word. Marked by his word. If we talked last week about discerning the voice of the Lord from other voices, this morning and this week, we're gonna talk about one of the most prevalent ways that God speaks to the world and to his people, and that is through his word contained within the Bible. The most recognizable way that God speaks is through his word.
1:00:00
Now it's certainly nobody here within the sound of my voice, but there are so many Christians that reach these crossroads and need to make a decision, and they know enough about their relationship with the Lord that they know that they should that they should hear from God about the decision that they need to make, but they never take the time to dig into his word. And then they end up making a decision on their own strength and their own wisdom, And I don't know about you, but all the times that I've done that, it's only been a matter of time before I stepped up, stepped on a rake, and it snapped up in my face, where I wound up in a ditch. There are people who know enough that they should ask, inquire of the Lord, but there's also this desire or mentality to just get the quick answer. And god is way more concerned about cultivating that give and take and cultivating a relationship than he is being like a vending machine where you can put in a prayer, pull down a handle, and out comes your answer. If I could speak for him, I would venture to say that that would even be insulting to him and hurts his feelings.
1:01:35
Can God have feelings? Absolutely. Can God's feelings be hurt? Absolutely. He is a being.
1:01:41
He's not a human being, but he is a being. And one of the great attributes about God is the fact that he is a being that we can engage with. And one of the ways that he chooses to engage with us is this book. This book is unlike any other book that you've ever picked up. Now there are great books.
1:02:04
Mary Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. Oh, man. That's an incredible book. Animal Farm is an incredible book. Nineteen eighty four, Brave New World.
1:02:14
I know I'm kind of on these, like, dystopian genre play book. They're incredible they're incredible books. But it's nothing like this book because this book is a lie. Well, how do you know that it's alive? I mean, does it have a respiration rate?
1:02:32
Like, no. But it's alive in a different way because unlike any other book that you'll ever read, this is the one book that will read you and that you'll be able to see yourself in these pages. God will speak to you through this book to instruct you and to guide you. And so what I wanna do is I wanna share with you several verses from the Bible that we're gonna look at and examine that are reasons why it's important important and why God gave us and speaks to us through his word. Did you know that Jesus said it's recorded that Jesus said, it is written over 31 times in the gospels?
1:03:20
Jesus was a student of God's word. And it was good enough for Jesus. Mhmm. K. Finish him.
1:03:27
Good enough for me. Good enough for me. Romans chapter 15 verse four. Romans chapter 15 verse four. I'll read it.
1:03:38
Is this one on the screen? Yeah. Romans fifteen four. Such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us. And the scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promise to be fulfilled.
1:03:59
What is that promise? Oh, man. That's a whole that's a whole another message. His promise that he's spoken to you deep in your heart, his promise that he has perhaps whispered to you that's specifically and directly for you. But it also applies to the fulfillment of the return of Jesus in that promise, that we are exhorted to wait patiently, not passively, but actively waiting patiently for his return.
1:04:27
So Romans 14 excuse me. Romans fifteen four says what we just read. But listen to this. What is God's word useful for? It teaches us.
1:04:44
It's to give us hope, and it's to give us encouragement. Has anybody ever need to be instructed about life? You don't need to raise your hand. Has anybody ever needed to have an infusion of hope? Has anybody ever need to be encouraged?
1:05:01
Me, like, all the time. Romans fifteen four tells us that that's what God the word is really good at. Another place, first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11. I'm going to I'm I'm I'm kind of I'm cruising through these, and please don't let me get on a roll without you getting my attention so that you can join into the conversation. It really is the desire of my heart for this not to be a monologue, but to be a god of love.
1:05:35
Also with that said, I'm more old. First Corinthians ten thirteen, these things happen to them as examples to us. Paul is speaking, and he's talking about all that happened in the Old Testament with Israel and the four boggles, Isaac, Abraham, Jacob, all of those things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of this age. How do get that boy, Jesus?
1:06:23
To warn us. Remember as dads, when our kids were little, we're playing in the yard and the ball rolls out into the street? The kid, they're focused on going out after the ball. I had just scored a nutmeg on Selah. Mhmm.
1:06:44
She's really mad. She kicks the ball. I'd like to think that I had time of the fucker because, you know, first yard soccer. When the ball goes out into the street, you're focused on the ball as you go there. My job as the dad is to look both ways.
1:07:00
And sometimes if a car was coming down the street, I had to warn you. I don't wanna yell at you, I'm not trying to shame you or punish you or beat you up or belittle you. But sometimes, you need a warning, and the same is true with all of us. If you keep on this present course, you're gonna get you're gonna run out into traffic, and it's not gonna end well for you because you'll end up as a greasy spot on the road. Stop.
1:07:29
God's word warns us. But how can a warning enter into our lives if we if we don't get into God's word? That warning in the same way that there was no anger even though there could be volume in my voice as I warned Selah about going out into the road chasing a soccer ball. But it's alarming. And sometimes, God's word plays a role in our life to warn us.
1:07:58
It's for our protection. Second Timothy chapter three verse fifteen and sixteen. You have been taught the holy scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive salvation that comes by trusting in Jesus. We're all familiar with this part. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is wrong in our lives.
1:08:25
It corrects us when we are wrong, and it teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare us and equip his people to do every good work. In that short passage, there's so much that God's word has for us. God's word gives us wisdom to receive salvation. God's word teaches us the difference between right and wrong.
1:08:51
God's word corrects us. God's word teaches us to do what he's doing. God uses scripture to prepare us and to equip us for every good work. I sorry. I
1:09:25
was riding my bike this week with a buddy of mine, and he hadn't ridden a bike in quite a while. So he was getting readjusted and acclimated to shifting gears. I don't know who all here is familiar with shifting gears, but he was in a very low gear. And we're just riding to the park. So I'm just riding my constant speed.
1:09:46
And he's going way out from me pedaling really fast and then, like, drifting way behind me because he couldn't just get dialed to, like, the speed that I was riding, which is really constant and consistent. So just thinking about hearing the voice of the Lord, was thinking about, like, the radio frequency, how people are, like, dialing and knob.
1:10:03
And they're like, oh, oh, oh. And they go past, and
1:10:06
they get a lot of noise, and they go back, and oh, Like, kind of hear it. And so just getting synced up with the voice of the Lord in. It feels so good once you're dialed in to, like, all those different things, like, the warnings, teaching, the correction, because you'll know when you're dialed in. I love it. One of the
1:10:25
things we said last week is that hearing the voice of God is a skill to develop, not a gift that you're given. Mhmm. And that's really good news because if it's a skill, that means that all of us have the capacity to get better at hearing the voice of the Lord. That's good. That's good.
1:10:53
This one's not in the keynote, but I gotta keep you on your toes. Second Peter chapter one verses three and four. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for life and godly living. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.
1:11:22
Now some of those promises may be unique specifically for Cornelia. But many of those promises are not just unique and specific to you, although they are great and special because they're in God's word. But how do you know what promises God has for us in his word if we don't ever get this? These are the promises that enable us to share in his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. Man, this is so great.
1:11:59
We come to know Jesus by reading about him. And when we read about him and connect with him, that's what equips us to live a life at our fullest capacity. And I love this, that in his word, there are great that Greek word is where we get the English word mega. Everybody say mega. Mega.
1:12:21
And there are precious promises. That Greek word is the same as extremely valuable. Promises are given to us, but they're contained right here within his word. Second. I'm ready.
1:13:08
Do we have songs? I'm ready. Oh, you're ready. Yes. No.
1:13:11
No. No.
1:13:13
Go.
1:13:13
But on the scripture that you just read about the promises Yes. For the past few months, I've been like, okay. Trust in the Lord. His word teaches us how to trust him. Being in his presence helps us learn more to trust him.
1:13:28
And growing up in the church, it was always, his promises were yes and amen, Lanisha. Just keep going. And I'm like, that's amazing. What are these promises? Like, the only promise I know is, like, salvation.
1:13:41
Okay. And it wasn't until recently truly diving more into the word. And you read a truth about God, and it usually follows what the promise that he gives once you trust in him. And the scripture that came back to mind is Psalm 37, which I've been in for a while. Because at the start of each one, the verse is, like, six.
1:14:02
It's trust in the lord, and then he'll do this. Delight yourself in the lord. He'll give you the desires. Commit your way. Trust in him.
1:14:10
He'll make it come to pass. And I just wanna say that as an encouragement to really truly dive into your word. Because if you've been wondering, oh, is the god really gonna give the promise of this? Or is he really gonna help me with peace or faith? He wants to give so much of that.
1:14:28
And when you start weeping more into it, you're able to see, and there's so many promises.
1:14:33
Mhmm. That's an amazing. That's so good. So listen. I've I've said this before, but I think it's important to reiterate and reemphasize.
1:14:44
The promises of God are always guaranteed, but they are not automatic. The promises of God are always guaranteed. If he said he is good at delivering it. But just because he said it and just because you might have read it, hopefully, in God's word and not on coffee mug, does not mean that it's automatically yours. Sometimes you gotta do like they do in Texas and grab ahold of it.
1:15:26
It's gonna be. Mhmm.
1:15:28
Well, how do we grab a hold of it? This is a good little rabbit trick. Good question, Brian. How do you grab a hold of God's promises? Well, what does Paul say?
1:15:42
That we have to fight the good fight of Fate. Faith. It is by faith. Well, what does that mean? Do I just, like, cross my fingers really hard and and and wait for it?
1:15:59
No. There's there's more. Faith is is an active word, not a passive word. And I gotta get back on track. God's promises are always guaranteed, but they are not automatic.
1:16:21
I love this verse. Psalms one nineteen one zero five. Do we have that one on the screen? Psalms one nineteen? Okay.
1:16:29
Psalms one nineteen. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my paths. What a great verse. I love how they say that in a passion translation. A second.
1:16:44
Truth shining light guides me in my choices and decisions. So revelation of your word makes my halfway clear. When I was a youth pastor, there was this Christian I love what you cooked up to make me look up. You said I could pick your brain if I would just pick your book up. And ever since the day that you and I hooked up, life has been super flat like Jimmy Snookup.
1:17:22
When I got saved as a sophomore in high school, One of the one of the byproducts of me getting saved, and I don't know if anybody else I'll I'll say it, and then I'd love to hear if anybody else had the same experience. But grew up going to church every Sunday with my mom, First Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. And it was, you know, it was like churchy for me. And then as a sophomore in high school, I got saved. I invited Jesus into my heart, and the next morning, the camp was over.
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And I went home, and my mom sent me to camp with the bible. And I left camp with the bible. I probably forgot, like, my socks and, like, half of my clothes in the dorm room cabin, but I did bring my bible with me. And I can remember riding the van home that next morning after I'd gotten saved. I had had a bible, like, you know, for, like, years and years, and I would read out of it in Sunday school, but something happened.
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I opened up my bible the morning after I got saved when I was riding the van right home, and I was just like, oh my gosh. I could hardly read a sentence or two. It felt so rich. It felt so nourishing. I can't remember what I read.
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I don't know if it was, like, from the book of Leviticus or if it was first Corinthians, but it was just blowing my hair. It was so amazing, and it it resonated so like, I knew that that book was alive. Did any has anybody else ever had that experience? Like, when you got saved, God's word came alive for you? Hold hold your hand up.
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Wiggle it around. Wow. That's pretty cool. His word is alive and living and active and powerful. And having read his word, I was like, yeah.
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But then I got saved. I was like, woah.
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You didn't know the holy spirit interpret you. Yeah.
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The holy spirit took up residence in my heart. And Jesus said, it's better for you that I go because when I go, I'll be able to send the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit who wrote this book will take up residence on the inside of you. And he, Jesus said, he will guide you into all truth. That's so good.
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This verse is not on the screen either, but Jeremiah fifteen sixteen really captured what God did in my heart about reading his word. Jeremiah fifteen sixteen, when I discover your words, I devour They are a joy. They are my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, Lord God of heavenly. When I discover Father's Day, another Father's Day reminiscing, when Salem and Kai were little, we had we had these big windows in our house with curtains that came down over the windows and touched the ground. And I would I would stomp and, like, I would clap and and chase them off into another room.
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And then I would turn right around and go
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Behind the curtain.
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High. And I'd run into the other room, and I would hide behind the curtain. But only, like, three fourths of me would hide behind the curtain. And then they would come into the room, and they're looking around and looking around and screaming and giggling and bolting onto each other. What were they?
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They were trying to find me. Right? Now why did I only hide three fourths of me behind the curtain? Why? Because I to found.
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I could've I could've, like, I could've hid in a place where they didn't find me until they were 16. But that's not the point. I hid so that I ran away and hid so that they would seek after me. And I hid in such a way so that they could find Cory, please. God longs for you to connect with And wouldn't it be great wouldn't it be great if every time we needed to hear from the Lord that it wasn't actual burning bush?
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Wouldn't that just be? But even most had to what? Turn us up. What is this? I'm gonna turn us up.
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There are burning bushes for our lives all throughout this book, but it requires us to turn us up. So I wanna get really practical and and share just a couple of pointers just really quickly with and then we'll transition to the next part of our service. But I wanna get really practical. How do how does old PB they call me PB, pastor Brian. How does old PB study God's word?
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Number one, I have to discipline myself to make time to study his word. I never find myself like, I just happen to have an extra forty five minutes or an hour and a half in the morning.
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How about that? What should I
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do with it? Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll just study God's word. For me, God's word in the morning starts with the night before. Setting my alarm, making sure that, like, I don't stumble around in the dark looking for my glasses.
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I mean, like, I will this might be too honest from old PB up here on the stage, but I have bailed on a quiet time just because I couldn't find my glasses. And I'm like, just ketchup. But you have to make the discipline. It is a discipline to set aside the time to study God's word. So sometimes I use something to prime the pump for getting into God's word.
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So prime the pump. If I have a book, I'm usually reading three or four or five different books at once. It works for me. For you, it might work to read one and finish one at a time. But for me, I bounce around with, like, five different books.
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I might listen to a podcast or something will happen in life. I'll have a conversation in life with somebody that that then drives me back to a quiet time. I wanna look that up for my for myself. I'll dig and read looking for nuggets. I like to read from different translations of the bible.
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I love to get into this app that's on my computer or on my phone called Blue Letter Bible. I love to to after I read something, I pray on it and and chew on it, and I invite the Holy Spirit. Okay, Lord. So this is the logos of God, but Holy Spirit, breathe on this. Illuminate it.
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Make it come alive in my heart for the rhema of God. Last thing, a couple of common barriers to getting into God. You don't understand it, or maybe it's boring to or you feel like it doesn't relate to you. Those are all, like, yeah, we've all been there and all felt that. So just acknowledging that, I think goes a long way.
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You ain't special. If you've never if you've ever read something in God's word and hadn't understood it, you ain't special. That's all it is. If you've ever written God's word and you're like, that's just a part of being human, but you press through them. Well, I I just can't connect.
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The deaf like, I I can't tune it out. I just don't think it's applicable to me. Yes. That's exactly what you say about the that little plaque card that's in your seat pocket in front of you with the airplane instructions on it. It's boring, and it's irrelevant to you until you hear the captain come over to the intercom and say, hey.
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We've just lost an engine. A 128 people immediately grabbed for that safety card right there in front of them. But the truth is that God's word equips us. We shouldn't have to wait for the pilot to come over the intercom. We shouldn't have to wait for our life to get into a place that we're, like, scrambling.
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But when we when we take the time to build in that context of of of cultivating a relationship with him, hearing his voice by giving to his word, oh, it makes such a difference. Last verse, Deuteronomy chapter six verses seven and eight. And this whole verse is up there. I've shared this with you in the past, but it's worth repeating one more time. Deuteronomy chapter six verse seven and eight.
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And you must commit yourself wholeheartedly to these commands that I'm giving you today. God is speaking to Moses who in turn spoke to the nation of Israel. Moses is exhorting the nation of Israel. You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I'm giving you today. Repeat them.
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Everybody say repeat. Repeat. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road, when you're going to bed, when you're getting up. That word repeat is really cool in the Hebrew.
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I wanna I wanna show you a a screen grab from the blue letter bible. That's that word written in Hebrew. And when you look at the pronunciation of it, you can see I don't know. There's, like, 70 of us who probably would have 70 different ways that we would say that shame man. But here's what's really interesting about the word.
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For us in English, the way that words look has zero significance. It's all about the letters, the combination of letters, and how they are pronounced in the definition. But Hebrew goes a step further because the way that the letters are organized, also visually organized, can have significance. Look at the tops right there. Like little peaks.
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They look like they might it might look like saw t. And here's what's really cool about that Hebrew word. The root of that word means incisor or molar or tooth. Everybody go, Where you going with this, PB? How do you connect the word repeat with t?
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Well, I'm a show you. Everybody,
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tell me your right hand.
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If you've been with me for a while, you know where I'm going. Okay. Now take your right hand and the little meaty part right here, put it between your teeth and bite down. Don't draw blood. That's weird.
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Fish, bite down on it for a second. Okay. Now look at it. That's the idea behind that Hebrew word to repeat. The intention is for God's word to leave a mark on your life in the same way that your teeth would leave a mark on anything that you might need.
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Here's the question that I'm gonna leave you with today. Has God's word left a mark on your life? Jesus, speak to us in this world. Forgive us for taking your word casually. Forgive us for having the words of life literally on our coffee table or beside our bed.
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Forgive us for being lazy, for having a deep question and a deep need, but we just don't have by your word? Would we be known as people who has spent deep abiding time in your word that has marked our life? Now you take just a moment and you talk to her from the stillness of your heart. Apply it. Oh, thank you.
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Thank you. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you for your precious word. You for So many times throughout history and places around the world and even places today where there are Christians who love you, given their life to you, who have laid down their life for you, and have a scrap or a fragment of your word. Help us to never take it for granted.
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Speak to us through your word, Jesus.
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Another form of worship, and it's an act of surrender because we say, God, it's all yours anyway. He lets
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us practice stewardship in this way. And giving
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a portion of our heart or finances doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes in our natural mind. Church has a lot of crazy things, reputations anyway. This is part of it. And I'm sorry on behalf of anybody in the church who's ever taught you incorrectly about the tithe
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church.
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Sorry if you've been taught that way, but we just believe it's a form of worship. So we're gonna pray together as we bring our tithe to him today. And just practically speaking, we have a few ways you can give. You can always do it on our website, thrivejh.com. There's a little giving tab at the top right.
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Today, we have a little physical drop box. You can wrap it past anything, but in the very back before you leave the swinging saloon doors, there's a little dropbox with a drumstick from it. You can put cash or check-in there. And then the easiest way, if you have a smartphone, just like you're texting a new friend, you can see the instructions on the screen. You type in 84321 as the number, and you just type in the amount one again.
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It gives you some instructions if it's your first time. So close your eyes, and let's pray together. Heavenly father, what an honor it is to be able
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all your ways. We love you. In Jesus' name,
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we all say, amen. We're for about to get out of here. I just have a few more announcements and one special little father Father's Day thing. If you are not connected to drive, if you've never filled one of these out, these are our connect cards. That same place where I said to drop the offering, there's a little bucket, and you can grab one of these and fill it out and just give it to me or anybody you've seen up here today.
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And it's just to keep you connected. It's just your name and your phone number and such. Just so you get texts like, oh, we're not at the TMC Breakfast Saloon or come meet us for us by fall in Bill and Mark this Saturday. Just little things like that. You get little text blasts, so fill that out if you have it.
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Also, we have started our summer small groups. They have already kicked off, but it is not too late to join. So right back here where you grabbed your coffee on that little bar across from it, there's several sign up sheets. We have we have a men's group that meets every Wednesday at seven. I'm sorry.
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I'm distracted by some luck after the weekend. We have an outdoor group. We have a fasting group. If if you wanna practice discipline, join the fasting group. It's a fantastic way to start talking about.
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Oh, we have to do it too. You learn and you practice. And then we have a women's group that meets every other Monday at six I'm sorry for my microphone inefficiencies. What would you like to highlight about your dad? I would like to highlight how he's very protective and cool.
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Hey. Why don't you stand up? Let me pray for you. Thank you so much for being a part of our Sunday here at the saloon. And thank you to our friend, the Knowles family.
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They're sitting right here. We got to meet them a lot of years ago when we went down to The Bahamas. This is the first time that we're enjoying the mountains with them Here's they're on vacation. I wanna pray specifically for you guys. They pastor a church in The Bahamas, and yeah.
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I know it's tough. I know guys. They say the same thing about me when I go down there. Oh, you pastor a church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's tough.
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Right? So I wanna I wanna pray for you, and then I'll pray for all of us. So, Lord Jesus, I specifically lift up the Knowles family to you. Your word says that those who refresh others, will they themselves be refreshed. And so I ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would refresh them, refresh their mind, refresh their bodies, refresh their souls, refresh their spirits, Lord.
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That during this time that they're here in Jackson and as they travel around the Intermountain West, that you would speak to them, you would fill them up with fresh vision and provision for all that you've called them to. And, yes, we will accept an invitation from them to come down there and visit them. Father, I pray for all of our tribe family that you would bless them, Lord. Thank you so much for all that you're doing in our hearts. I ask that you would speak to us clearly through your word this week.
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I command a blessing over all of our tribe family. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen. Amen. I love you guys so very much.
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Fill up your coffee. Grab another donut. Hang out or get out and enjoy these mountains on Father's Day. Have a great week. You got this.
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How can I answer?
