Episode 2

Becoming More in '24 - Goodness (North OC)

In our second part of our series, we dive into the area of adding goodness to our faith.

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OC Church of Christ

Transcript
Speaker:

, Marcel: we're going to continue

a sermon series that we

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started last week, Become More.

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There you go.

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I like that for sure.

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All right.

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And so it's called Become More in 24.

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That's the slogan of the year.

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So you can hashtag that

because we want to become more.

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We want to be transformed.

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We want to grow.

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We want to be the spiritual,

mature men and women of Christ

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that God has designed for us.

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And so we're studying now 2 Peter chapter

1 and some would call this the ladder of

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transformation or the ladder of growth.

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We're going to be studying

out the attributes listed in

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2 Peter 1 verses 5 through 7.

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And so there actually is a.

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series, uh, handout and guide.

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I know they gave out some hard copies last

week, but on our church app, if you just

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go to the inbox, uh, you'll see a series,

a guide there that can help you understand

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a little bit more of the context for this

letter written by the apostle Peter, who

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was one of Jesus's top friends, top, uh,

protegees, and was one of the main leaders

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in the church in the first century.

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And so one of the things to

recap, we know we have some

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people here that weren't with us.

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In fact, I heard that we have some

brothers and sisters from Taiwan and

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Canada that are in here in the house.

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Okay, is that y'all over here?

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Can you go ahead and stand on up?

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Let's go.

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And we have Vancouver as well.

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Come on.

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If you didn't know, we are

an international fellowship.

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So we have churches and brothers

and sisters all across the globe.

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Welcome.

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I wish I knew.

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Uh, how to say hello in those particular

languages, but hello, uh, so there you go.

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All right.

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There you go.

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All right.

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So we learned last week here is that,

that God desires for you and me to not

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only be converted in Christ, but to

become more like Christ so that in our

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nature and our character, our desires,

the way we think to be more aligned.

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With God our creator and God has

given us everything we need But

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Peter tells us we need to make

every effort To add to our faith.

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And so although God has provided all

he has given us the tools or resources

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Everything but now we have to actually

utilize those things so that our

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faith Our lives can be transformed

and we can become more like God.

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And so we talked about this and we'll

share this real quickly again, is that at

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the intersection of God's empowerment and

human effort, transformation takes place.

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But if you remove either of

these, it's like lemonade.

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If you remove the lemon or the water,

you're not going to get lemonade.

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And so when we remove one of these, we

won't see the transformation take place.

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But when we have those and they

intersect, we begin and we continue on

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this transformation journey and process.

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And so today, we're going

to be looking at goodness.

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Let's go ahead and let's pray.

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Father, thank you so much for the

chance already to worship you.

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I know, uh, just holding back from,

from singing from my voice, just

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hearing the voices was so encouraging.

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To me, and it made me just think, wow,

God, how pleased you are when you hear

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your children singing out to you and God,

I pray right now for my voice to make it

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through, but I pray God that your word

is communicated by the every soul will

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be, uh, inclined and inspired to, to

make every effort to add to our faith.

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We pray in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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All right.

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So let's go ahead.

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Let's go to second Peter chapter one.

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Uh, again, you can look at the series

handout to get more of an overview

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of the context of the letter, but

he says here in verse three, his

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divine power has given us everything

we need for a godly life through our

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knowledge of him who called us by his

own glory and goodness through these.

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He has given us very great

and precious promises.

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So that through them, check it out again,

this, this helps us understand everything.

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You may participate in the divine nature.

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Again, becoming more like God.

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Having escaped the corruption in

the world caused by evil desires.

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For this very reason, make every

effort to add to your faith, goodness.

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We'll stop right there.

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One thing I want to mention as we

talk about this adding to our faith,

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it's not necessarily like stages.

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Like first I got to get to the

goodness stage and once I complete

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that stage then I can move on

forward to the knowledge stage.

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It's more like ingredients.

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If you're baking something,

or you're making something,

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you put the ingredients in.

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So you need all those ingredients in order

for the transformation to take place.

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So it's not, Oh, let me focus on this

area, and once I get to that area or

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arrive, then I can go on to another.

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No, we're all these, we can actually

make every effort in our lives here.

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But we want to go ahead and

look at this word, goodness.

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And now the Bible, this letter

was written originally in Greek.

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And so this word in Greek is Arate.

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There you go.

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So that's my international

language for the day.

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And this word really means moral

excellence or moral goodness or virtue.

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So it's not goodness as in, uh, being

really good or talented at something.

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It's not saying add talent to your faith.

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It's saying add goodness, moral

excellence, moral goodness, moral

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purity, virtue to our faith.

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And here's what's really cool is that

this same Greek word that's used in

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verse 5 is the same word in verse 3.

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When he says, by his

own glory and goodness.

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Did you catch that?

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He has this goodness.

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That's who he is.

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So now we're being called to add to

our faith what he is so that what?

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We will eventually become more like him.

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This is just so cool.

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It's like, God, we've already got

a picture and a glimpse of this.

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And so you need to add what

he's liking to your life.

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And so I started asking the

question, okay, well, what

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does goodness look like then?

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What does this arete look like?

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Well, it means to do what's good.

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To do what's right morally.

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Being moral and righteous in our

conduct, in our interactions,

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and in our dealings with others.

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A good or righteous life in response

to God's mercy in our lives and

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therefore also doing good to others.

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You guys get what I'm saying.

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So my conduct is good because

of the grace and mercy of God.

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And because of that grace and mercy

in God, because of the character

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of God, I also want to do good

to those I come in contact with.

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So living a morally excellent life.

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Now think about this for a second.

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Does anyone come into mind in all

of history who lived an exemplary

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exemplary life of moral excellence?

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Jesus, right?

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Of course it's Jesus.

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Again, this is so cool because if

you think about this, again, Jesus

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models and exemplifies what this is.

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He's the epitome of this.

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So when we think, well, what

does goodness look like?

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All we need to think about and look to is.

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Jesus.

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His lifestyle, his

character, his ambition.

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And, you know, Peter saw

the goodness of Jesus.

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Again, he was one of his top followers,

one of his top protégés, one of the

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leaders in the first century church.

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And so he saw this up close and personal.

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And now he challenges us and

encourages and directs us, hey,

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become more like our Lord and Savior.

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And it's really cool in 2 Peter if we go

down in the letter He says this for we

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did not follow cleverly devised stories

when we told you about the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ in power But we were

eyewitnesses of his majesty He says we

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were eyewitnesses and he talks about it

later on the transfiguration that Jesus

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has to talk about the splendor and the

awe and the Miracles, but he also saw his

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majesty in his life and in his character

and in his teachings And so it makes

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me think, okay, all right, we know what

it means to add to goodness, but how

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then can we add goodness to our faith?

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And so here are a couple ways,

and really how we add goodness is

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going to be how we add any of the

things that are listed in 2 Peter.

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So they're really applicable to

everything that we'll study out.

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But how do we add goodness to

our faith and to our lives?

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Well, number one.

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We're going to always accomplish growth

by praying to God, praying for these

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things, but we're not talking about just

a simple, quick, Hey God, can you help

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me be good today, prayer, and that's it.

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Many years ago, my friend and

former mentor, uh, Reese Nealon,

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we were, uh, having, uh, what we

call a discipling time together.

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It's short in our church.

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We call it a D time.

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And praise God for discipleship

partners and, and discipleship times.

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I, I, I just would not be here

if it wasn't for God using people

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and those times in my life.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so we're sitting there, Reese, and,

and, and he gave me this challenge.

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He said, hey, why don't you go

find out, uh, from your friends.

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Uh, like ask him, what are like three

of your strengths and one weakness?

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So I went to all my close friends at the

time and I asked and they gave me some

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feedback and almost to a tee, everybody

said, well, the weakness, uh, is pride.

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I was like, man, these guys are so wrong.

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No, I didn't, but I'm sure

in my heart I did, you know?

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And so I said, okay, you know, so I, so

I came back and said, Reese, here you go.

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He goes, Hey, well, you know what?

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If you really want to grow after this,

if you want to go after this and you

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want to see this change your life,

you're going to have to focus in on this.

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It has to be something you

really, truly focus in on.

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And when you pray about it, it

can't just be a simple prayer.

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Hey, God, just help me with this.

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It's gonna be more.

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And so then I started to pray

more about it and I learned,

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I was like, it's so true.

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This praying about it isn't just,

hey, real quickly, before I eat.

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Hey, God, also, hey, can you

just help me be good today?

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No, it, it, desire, there had

to be a desire, a commitment.

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And an earnest plea to God, God,

help me to become this, not just

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to want this, but to become this,

not to just deny myself, but to be

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this, you guys get what I'm saying.

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And so for a long time, and

I'll share about it in a minute,

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I started to pray about this.

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And you know what I realized, too, as

well, is that when we pray about things,

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God helps our desire for those things.

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What I mean is this.

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Look at this verse that many

of us are familiar with.

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Take delight in the Lord, and He will

give you the desires of your heart.

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Now, I think you can read this,

and it's okay to interpret this and

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go, Okay, hey, I delight in God.

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He's going to give me what I want.

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Now, we know that's a general truth, not

an absolute truth, because some things I

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want, guys, like that's not good for you.

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But I think it's also, you can still,

and I think it's safe, to interpret

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this as, you know what, he's not just

going to give me the things that I want,

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no, he's going to give me new desires.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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It's that now God's going to give

you the desires of your hearts.

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I used to desire this, but now

that I take delight in God,

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He's given me desires from Him.

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And I have to pray about these things.

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In order for this transformation

process to continue church.

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Are you getting what I'm saying here

second not only prayer We have to develop

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a conviction This is where it becomes the

desire, but the standard for our lives.

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I have a conviction, as you can see.

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Uh, I need to get some water, but I

have a strong conviction about USC.

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Some will say, Marcel, you know

what, on the, uh, the rankings,

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it's like number 25 or 26.

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Somehow, some way, some UCLA paid

people off and they surpassed

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USC in the last couple years.

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But we'll get that fixed.

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I have a strong conviction.

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I say, you know what, it might say 26.

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But in my heart, it's number one,

and then Cal State Fullerton and

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Chapman, you guys get what I'm saying.

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But it's number one, I have a conviction.

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You can't tell me a thing about this.

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I'm convinced of this.

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And so if we want to add to

something, we need to pray about it.

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But it must become our

conviction for our lives.

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Something that's unshakable.

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It's the standard now by which we live.

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And the way we can do

this is through scripture.

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Scripture plays a huge role in

developing a conviction about something.

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If I tell you, do you have a

conviction about sharing your faith?

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You will probably say, yes,

because of this verse right here.

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Do you have a conviction

about how you should live?

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Yes, and I think of this verse right here.

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So if we're going to add to our faith

any of these attributes, especially

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goodness, we need to have a conviction

that is inspired from Scripture.

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Going back to this time with Reese.

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And he said, hey, you know, you're

going to have to really go after it.

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So I made this decision.

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I can't remember if he encouraged

me or not, but I made a decision.

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I'm going to study out humility and

pride throughout the whole Bible.

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I thought, okay, this would be quick.

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I ended up going on a three year

journey studying out from Genesis

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to Revelation every instance I

could find pride or humility.

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And this developed a rock

solid conviction to be humble.

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I wish I could say I'm like Moses,

the most humble man on the earth.

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I'm not.

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But when challenged and confronted,

I can quickly go, you know what?

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I see that now because there's a

conviction about being this, and so

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I'm quicker to respond when pride is.

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Exposed in my life.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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And so we have to develop a

conviction if we're going to add.

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And then thirdly, we have to have

intentional decisions and actions.

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I'm going to be good to this

person at work tomorrow.

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I'm going to be honest

to my mom or my dad.

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I'm going to be respectful

to my classmates.

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I'm going to do.

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I might not want to do it,

but I'm going to do it.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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Because if we just pray, God, help

me and I got a scripture, but then

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I don't have anything intentional,

then the growth isn't going to

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take place the way it could.

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So we have to be very intentional

in our decisions and in our actions.

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Asking ourselves, the famous WWJD,

what would Jesus Another good question

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that God has helped me to see.

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Is to ask, is this holy?

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Not is this a sin, but is this holy?

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Because then God starts to reveal

the heart and the essence of what

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it is that I'm thinking about.

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And what it is that I truly desire.

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Is it to be right, please and

honor God and be like God?

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Or is it to have whatever

it is that I'm thinking of?

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And so we need to then

put it into practice.

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I ask these questions that God

starts to reveal or I get input.

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And then I make sure to follow.

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So let's really, let's quickly talk about

what subtracts goodness from our faith.

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We know how, some ways how, but what

are some things that are challenging?

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Maybe our natural tendency and takes

away from goodness in our faith.

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Well, number one is the flesh or

what some scholars translate as

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the flesh being our sinful nature.

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You know, many times we, we, we are

attracted and desire what's not good.

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Right?

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I know I'm attracted to things that

maybe aren't good for my soul or

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they're not in the right context or

they're outside of my boundaries.

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And so therefore, they're not

good for me at that moment.

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And many times in our flesh

and in our sinful nature, we

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desire really what's evil.

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And the problem is then we give in so

easily or too quickly to our impulses,

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our feelings and emotions and our desires.

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And we make poor choices and

then that stunts our growth.

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And then we don't become good.

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The other thing that I want to

hit on and talk a good amount

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about is some stinking thinking.

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Also from my friend

Reece Nealon right there.

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Some stinking thinking.

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And what, what do I mean by this is

that really, the world's philosophy,

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the world's rules and ideas and, and,

and, and, and worldview influence us

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more than God's Word and God's Spirit.

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And we start to adopt, whether consciously

or subconsciously, the, Society's views

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about life and that takes away from the

goodness that we desire and that God has

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implanted in our hearts and in our faith.

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And so some of the rationale and thinking

that's become pretty popular of late.

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Things like, you know, it's a

couple of years old now, but

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YOLO, you only live once, right?

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So I better, it's YOLO, right?

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That was a big thing.

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Drake, right?

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YOLO.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Some of you are like,

who is he talking about?

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Just ask your kids.

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All right.

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Another one, do you, or I'm going

to just do me this thinking.

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Just do you do me another one.

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Live your best life.

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Well, I'm just trying

to live my best life.

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There's another phrase.

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That's who I am.

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Well, that's just who I am.

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And last but not least here.

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Well, that's my truth.

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You know, in a very limited, very limited

way, these things can be right, accurate

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and helpful in a very limited way.

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But overall, this is the

antithesis of Jesus and being good.

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Because all of these things are about

me, I, and what I feel, and what I think.

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Not the Bible, not God, not goodness.

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And here's the problem,

if we're gonna be honest.

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I don't want to be a politician,

I want to be a prophet.

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Amen?

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Some of this thinking has influenced

several of us here in the congregation.

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It's infiltrated the church and we don't

go out and consciously say, yeah, I'm

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just all about that YOLO life or I'm

just going to do me, forget Christ.

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We don't say that consciously,

but subconsciously, that's

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the way we're living.

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And we make decisions

based on this thinking.

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And so being good and being holy,

it's not appealing, nor is it honored.

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So we say, you know what,

I'm a talk and cuss.

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The way I want to.

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Speak however I want to.

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I'm going to dress however

I want to and feel.

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I'm going to hold a grudge

and I'm going to get even.

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I'm going to seek to get from this

relationship as opposed to seeking

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to give in this relationship because

that's what I think and feel.

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Again, it might not be consciously.

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We might not say that out loud, but

in our hearts, that's what's going on.

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Brethren and sisters, this is ungodly.

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This subtracts, it removes the

goodness of Christ in our lives.

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It is the opposite of goodness.

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Therefore, it is the opposite of Jesus.

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And what happens again when we have

this mentality, when challenged or

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confronted about this, we get upset.

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We get offended.

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We get defensive.

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How dare you?

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Who are you?

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And we push away and we cancel

these people in our lives with

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humanistic arguments and logic.

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Not with scripture.

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You don't know what you're talking about.

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That's just your opinion.

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What, what, what?

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Oh, this is what I feel.

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This is what I think.

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This is my truth.

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Jesus didn't talk about

truth being subjective.

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He says He is the truth.

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He is the life and He is the way.

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And so brothers and sisters, if we're

going to add to our faith goodness,

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then we need to recognize what's

taking away the goodness from our life.

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And once we acknowledge it, and just

accept, you know what, this has been me,

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or it has been me in some degree, or I

had this subconsciously, this thinking,

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acknowledge it, because if you acknowledge

it, then you can repent from it.

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So we have to acknowledge it.

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And say, you know what, yes.

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But deep down, I want to be godly.

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Because of the mercy and the grace

that God has lavished on my life.

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And so therefore, I'm going to address it.

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And I'm going to get help

from my brothers and sisters.

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Because I have blind spots, or I

don't know how, or I can't see it.

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So that they can help me, so

that I can become godly and

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participate in the divine nature.

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Church, are you with me here?

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And I believe every single one of us,

deep down, all of us want to be good.

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We want to be like Jesus,

but we must recognize what's

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preventing us and address it.

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So made me think, okay, well,

what are some of the benefits of

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adding goodness to our life here?

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And so some of the benefits, these are

just some that, that, that came to mind

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for me is that when we add goodness,

it helps us to actually be truly human.

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You know, in our family group last

week, uh, again, it was mentioned

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where our family groups and so these

are geographic, uh, uh, groups that we

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get together, call them family groups

because we want to be a spiritual family.

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And in our family group, Charles Lennox,

uh, we were talking, he said, you know

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what, uh, Jesus, man, he was truly human.

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I guess he's God in the

flesh, but he was truly human.

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He's a definition of what

it means to be human.

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And when we become like Jesus,

we therefore start to really

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live out our true intention

by God, by truly being human.

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I thought, man, that's really good.

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That's a good Thought and insight right

there because Jesus was truly human.

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So when we become like him we become

more of what God Intended so adding

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goodness will lead us to experience

more and more of God our Creators

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design another benefit real quickly

here is assurance of God's pleasure.

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We know when we do what's right

We know God is pleased with that.

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We also know that we feel good

about ourselves What happened

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when you do something, you know

was good You feel good, right?

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You're like, yeah, you know, let

me get myself a pat on the back.

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Now, if you go and broadcast it,

then, then you lose your reward.

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But, you know, we feel good about that.

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And I don't think that's bad.

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I think that's a good thing because

we're acknowledging, wow, something.

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I think this is what God designs.

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We know it feels good.

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And therefore we rejoice because

that's what God wanted us to live.

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And that's how he wanted us to be.

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And we also see our relationships improve.

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Well, we're good to others.

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The relationships.

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And one more thing here is that we're

treated, therefore, with goodness.

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People treat you with goodness

when you treat them with goodness.

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Even people with no faith in

Christ, they can respond to this.

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Now again, this is a general truth, not

an absolute truth that everybody you

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come in contact with will be good to you.

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But we know that in general, when

we live a Christ life, it will

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reciprocate in how we are treated.

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And so I look at this and I go, why

would I not want to add goodness?

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Which one of these things

doesn't sound appealing?

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I want every single one

of these in my life.

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And I want others to have this as well.

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And so what's our response to what

we're seeing here in the scriptures?

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I believe our response is this week as

it was last week, as it probably really

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will be every week as we study this out.

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And that's to make every effort.

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You know, Ramon Diaz was

on here, on stage there.

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That's so cool, right?

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The whole family up here, right?

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Or at least part of the family,

uh, uh, uh, being recognized.

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But we're in our family group

on Wednesday, and Ramon, uh,

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he used to be a wrestler.

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And, uh, we're talking

like legit wrestling.

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We're not like Hulk Hogan

wrestling, you know what I'm saying?

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We're talking, all the wrestlers

are like, Yeah, that's that

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:

real wrestler right there.

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:

And so he was big time.

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He was like going all across the

world and he actually even got invited

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recently to do something international.

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And so he was a real big time wrestler.

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And he says, you know, this

idea of making every effort.

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I realized, man, when I was

wrestling, I made every effort.

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I would watch what I, what I

was eating, my sleep schedule,

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my, my workout schedule.

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He goes, man, I was dedicated.

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I was committed.

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I made every effort.

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And so what would that

look like spiritually then?

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And so we have to make every

effort, not little efforts.

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Not half stepping, but we need to make

a full effort in adding to our phase.

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And so let's get real practical here

for the week here action steps this

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week number one similar last week Let's

pray for the church Let's pray for all

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of us to grow in the things listed in

second Peter 1 every day this week God

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help us as a church to grow in goodness

and knowledge self control all these

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different things God Lead us to this help

us not to just choose this help it to

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us to become Let's pray for one another.

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And then number two, real simply, do

something good each day this week.

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I'm just going to do something good today.

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Picking maybe something real simple.

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You know what?

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Maybe it's, I'm going

to take out the trash.

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I know my wife's been

hitting me over the head.

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I need to take out your, I'm

going to take out the trash today.

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If that's what it is, then please do good.

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Cause that'll help your marriage out.

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You get what I'm saying?

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But just pick something,

something simple, whatever it is.

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Is this the fix all?

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No, but this will start to take root.

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In your habit and in your character

and we can see the benefit of it.

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And as we pray more about it and we

make intentional decisions, we'll see

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us become more and more like Jesus.

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Right now we're going to take

communion and Jesus is the example

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of goodness and his goodness is seen.

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Through the cross in

Luke 23 as Luke a doctor.

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He's documenting what what happened

to Jesus life and he's recounting

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the Jesus dying upon a cross.

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He says something interesting.

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He says Jesus called out with the

loud voice father into your hands I

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commit my spirit when he has said this

he breathed his last the centurion

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seeing what had happened praised God

and said Surely this was a righteous.

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Let's pray Father, we thank

you so much for Jesus.

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We thank you for his example.

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God, every time we think of any

attribute in the scriptures, Father,

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we know that Jesus modeled it.

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And we're so grateful that

Jesus, even on the cross, his

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righteousness was displayed.

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:

His goodness was seen.

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:

And we thank you that he was good

because therefore he could be the

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sacrificial lamb for our salvation.

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Thank you that we have an example

of what it means to be human.

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What it means to be good.

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I ought to take.

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And God, we pray that as we reflect upon

Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

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As we take the emblems that represent his

body and his blood that was sacrificed.

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Father, may we be inspired to give you

our very, Father, may we make every

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:

effort to add to our faith so that we

can participate in your divine nature.

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We thank you for Jesus perseverance on

the cross and for our salvation that comes

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:

through the cross and his resurrection.

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In Jesus name, Amen.

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