Introduction:
5 Habits of Highly Victorious Christians (Hebrews 13:7-17)
- They Imitate the faith of the faithful. (Heb 13:7-8)
- They Fact-check all bible teaching. (Heb 13:9)
- They manage their Expectations . (Heb 13:10-14)
- They view worship as Sacrifice . (Heb 13:15-16)
- They Obey their leaders. (Heb 13:17a)
John 13:20 - Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:49-00:52
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Hebrews chapter 13.
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And while you're turning there, let's just pause for a moment.
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And I would ask again that you pray for me, and I will pray for you.
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God's word is a big deal to God, and it is a big deal to us.
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So we want to approach it as such.
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Let's pray.
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Father, glorify your name as we all come under the authority of your word, we all have opinions.
01:24-01:30
And sometimes our opinions and thoughts on things directly contradict your word.
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And we're the ones that need to change.
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So I pray, Father, that your word would do your work today.
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Open our hearts to receive it, Father, we pray in Jesus' name.
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And all of God's people said, Amen, amen.
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Show of hands, how many people here have been to Disney World?
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Disney World, all right.
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I've been there a couple of times, once when I was very young, and once a few years ago when my kids were younger.
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And you know the most amazing thing you will see at Disney World?
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Do you know what it is?
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The most amazing thing you will see at Disney World?
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And this isn't a matter of opinion, this is a matter of fact, by the way.
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Do you know what the most amazing thing is?
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A crying child.
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You're like, I've seen a lot of that at Disney World, Pastor Jeff.
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How is that so amazing?
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Think about it.
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Did you ever go up to one of them kids, and you kneel down, and you say, "Precious lamb, you know your parents don't want to be here.
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and your dad spent a lot of money and is walking through this horrible heat and these terrible crowds because he wanted to give you a good time.
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So stop crying!
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I mean, you wanna do that, but you can't actually do that, right?
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Unless it's your own kid, I suppose.
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But what's the point?
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The point is this.
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Christians, we have more reason for joy than anybody.
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But honestly, sometimes Christians, the church, we stand around like the kid crying at Disney World.
03:28-03:28
Why?
03:30-03:36
Do you realize, we will never face God's judgment because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf.
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We have no fear of death.
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Someday you are going to die and I'm going to die And there is nothing to worry about because of Jesus Christ.
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And the Bible says that God has given us eternal rewards.
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What are they?
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I don't know, but they're going to be awesome, and we're going to have them for eternity.
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Shouldn't we have more joy than anybody?
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So why are we standing around crying all the time?
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I mean, there are some Christians that generally seem to live in joy and victory.
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But there are many Christians that just kind of walk around feeling defeated all the time.
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I want to ask you, how are you feeling today?
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Are you feeling victorious or are you feeling defeated?
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And look, I'm not going to pretend that I don't struggle.
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A lot of you know the struggles that I have.
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And sometimes it's hard for me.
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And I turn to the Bible and I read things like, faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
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What is that?
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First John five, right?
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And I go to my Bible and I read, Jesus said, I have overcome the world.
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It's at John 16.
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And I'm like, okay.
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And then I turn, what is it?
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Romans eight says that we are more than conquerors.
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And I'll be honest with you.
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There's just too many times in my life that I'm like, yeah, I believe that, but I don't feel very victorious today.
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Anybody else resonate with that?
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I know, I know what it says, but sometimes I'm just not feeling it.
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Well, that can change today.
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So today, if you're feeling defeated, as we get on this home stretch of Hebrews here, We spent all this time in all this really deep, profound theology, and now he's closing with like a shotgun blast of like practical application.
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And today, Christian, if you're feeling defeated, he gives us five things that victorious Christians do.
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So on your outline, "Five Habits of Highly Victorious Christians." Sorry Mr. Covey for that title.
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Two of you got that.
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Five habits of highly victorious Christians.
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Number one, write this down.
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They imitate the faith of the faithful.
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You wanna be a victorious Christian?
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Start here.
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They imitate the faith of the faithful.
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Look at verse seven.
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It says, "Remember your leaders, "those who spoke to you the word of God.
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"Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
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Stop there.
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He says, look at your leaders, look at people that are walking with Christ faithfully and look at what their lives have become.
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You look at somebody, we all know people like this.
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We all know somebody that you would be like, you know what, he really seems like he gets it.
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He really seems like he has a strong walk with the Lord.
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Look at this guy, his family is strong.
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He has a strong marriage.
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He has a great relationship with his kids.
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He's confident in what he believes.
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And he's not worried about what other people think.
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You know, I've never seen him worry about the future.
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He doesn't seem to worry about finances.
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You know, he's endured so much in his life, yet somehow he seems so positive.
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Do you know somebody like that?
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We all do, but the question is, do you want a life like that?
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Well, he tells you what to do, right?
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Look at the last three words in verse seven, imitate their faith, right?
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He doesn't say imitate them like, you know, I'm gonna get a shirt like his, and then I'll have a life like his.
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He's imitate their what?
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Say it.
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Imitate their what?
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Imitate their faith.
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In other words, he says, look, believe like they believe.
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Nothing profound here.
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Believe like they believe.
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And you're like, okay, I know that's nothing profound, but how do I know that's gonna work?
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How do I know that's gonna work for me?
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And I'm so glad you asked, because look at verse eight.
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It says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday "and today and forever." How do I know it's gonna work for me?
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Because Jesus doesn't change.
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That's how.
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What Jesus was to them, Jesus is to us today.
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So that person that you know, that has that strong walk with Christ and relationship seems to be in order and seems to be at peace with God.
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And do you know how they got there?
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I can tell you exactly how they got there.
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Here's how.
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They believed that Jesus Christ died for their sin.
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They believed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead to give them eternal life.
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They received him by faith.
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And in so doing, the Holy Spirit came and indwelt them, giving them the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
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And their passion is serving Jesus Christ.
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That's how they got where they are.
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Every single time.
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Every person that you know, we could go around the room and get the names.
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Who's the strongest Christian that you know?
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They all have the same story.
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Because it's not about them.
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It's about the person that they believe in.
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It's about Jesus.
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And because he doesn't change, I know that I have access to that same power, that same life, that same faith, right?
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And as a pastor, I can look at preachers that are heroes, like Charles Spurgeon or John Piper or John McArthur, and I'm like, man, those guys are incredible preachers, and how can I have a life like theirs?
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Same Jesus, that's how, right?
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Understand that Christian that you're looking up to They don't have some secret Jesus.
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They don't have like bonus content in their Bibles.
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(congregation laughing)
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Like, you know, if you had these extra pages like I have, you'd have a life like, it's the same, same God, same Jesus, same word.
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You know, I think of Barnabas.
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You know, he's gonna be here, our missionary friend in Thailand, he's gonna be here speaking October 15th.
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You do not wanna miss that.
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I'm like, man, I want a ministry like his.
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I talked to him one time when he was home.
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Like, what drives you?
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He said, one verse, 1 Corinthians 9, 23.
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I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
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He said, that verse drives everything.
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That has such an impact on me.
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Everything for the sake of the gospel.
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Everything I do for the sake of the gospel.
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And see, I can imitate that.
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Same Jesus.
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So it's nothing complicated here out the gate.
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Look at those who are strong in the Lord and follow Jesus like they do.
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All right, regard the word like they do, pray fervently like they do, acknowledge the Lord in everything like they do, and you're going to find that the same victory that they have in Jesus Christ is the same victory that you will have in Jesus Christ because it's the same Jesus.
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So the first habit of a highly victorious Christian, imitate the faith of the faithful, right?
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Number two, here's a cringy word for you to put on your outline.
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Number two, they fact check all Bible teaching, fact checkers.
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I encourage you to be a fact checker, a biblical fact checker.
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What do you mean?
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Look at verse nine.
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He says, "Do not be led away "by diverse and strange teachings.
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"For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, "not by foods which have not benefited "those devoted to them." Strange teachings, right?
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It's Satan's oldest gimmick.
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He's done the same thing from the beginning.
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He uses unbiblical teaching to entice God's people away from the truth.
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And I gotta be honest with you, as a pastor, That's one of my biggest concerns for the church.
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And this church is just not using discernment.
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That's one of my biggest concerns.
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We have a whole sermon series coming up about discernment.
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It's June of next year.
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Write that down on your calendar.
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But I gotta talk about it for a couple moments here.
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Because, listen, there are so many Bible teachers out there serving up nonsense.
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I've unlocked the code.
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Jesus was actually two people.
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He was the Son of God, and He was the human Jesus of Nazareth.
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He was two separate people.
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And if you have enough faith, you'll be wealthy, and you have the power to heal yourself.
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And the Bible isn't really all true.
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There's lots of ways to heaven, but there really is no hell.
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Love wins.
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And here's one that drives me nuts.
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The people that are like, well, this is what the Bible says, but let me explain to you a meaning behind this passage that isn't readily available if you just read the passage, but it's something that the Lord told me.
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And it actually means something completely different And you're like, "Well, you know, these people, they kind of sound Christian." And that's the problem.
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They sound Christian.
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These people use Bible terms.
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They use Bible words.
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And we're like, "Oh, okay.
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They're speaking the same language we are." But they're not representing the Word of God straightforwardly.
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That's a concern for me.
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That's a concern for me when I go to conferences and see hundreds and thousands of people at times I've seen, you know, hearing this false teaching and just sitting there nodding their heads or writing it down.
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"Oh, this is really profound." I'm like, "This is heresy." Or people hijacking a small group because they have their own agenda.
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You know, come with me.
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I know the real secret teachings of the Bible.
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trying to lead you away by teaching something goofy.
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Church, we gotta have discernment.
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We gotta have discernment.
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Otherwise we end up like toddlers.
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You know what toddlers do?
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They stick everything in their mouth, don't they?
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Toddlers and puppies, everything goes straight to the mouth.
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There's no discernment, whether it's food or dirt or a bug or whatever, just all goes straight to the mouth.
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And church, we end up just like that, right?
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Everything that we can get in our mouth, eat it up.
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You can't let a three-year-old pick their diet, can you?
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If you do, they'll never live to see four, right?
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And it's the same problem in the church.
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if we don't learn how to filter everything through the Word of God. And you're like, "Diabolical. What about you?" Yes, me too. Everything that I say, you should be able to go back to the text and say, "Yes, that appears to be exactly what God is saying in in this text, fact check me on everything.
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You're like, okay, so what does this have to do with victory again?
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Oh yeah, look at verse nine again.
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It says, "For it is good for the heart to be strengthened "by grace, not by foods which have not benefited "those devoted to them." Here we go.
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For these Jews, understand, they had so many laws about food.
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And they held this belief that external things give spiritual value.
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You know what you call that when you think external things give spiritual value?
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You know what you call that?
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That's called superstition, honestly.
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And you're like, "Well, I'm so glad we're enlightened and we're not superstitious like that.
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I think we're worse in a lot of ways, right?
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We do worse things.
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In our day, it's lent, or praying, counting beads, or lighting candles, or baptizing babies.
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Why do we do all of those things?
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Some of you are squirming right now.
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Why do we do all those things?
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Because we believe that those things impart spirituality, but they don't.
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They just don't.
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Food doesn't strengthen the heart, neither do any of these externals.
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And here's the point, you're never gonna feel victorious if you think you're going to grow spiritually from the outside in.
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If you think doing these things is going to somehow help you level up in your Christian walk, they don't.
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They don't do it.
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There's only one thing that strengthens your heart.
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You're like, what is it?
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So it's right here in the text, did you see it?
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He said, "It's good for the heart "to be strengthened by grace." There it is.
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That strengthens the heart knowing that God has done everything for me in Jesus Christ.
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God has provided everything for me in Jesus Christ.
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So if you wanna feel victorious in your Christian walk, I just wanna encourage you, use discernment.
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Don't get suckered.
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Be a biblical fact checker.
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All right, five habits of highly victorious Christians.
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Number three, they manage their expectations.
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They manage their expectations.
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Verses 10 through 14 are very difficult verses, but you slow down for a second and take your time.
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Really not, okay?
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Look at verses 10 and 11.
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Let's understand what he's saying here.
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He says, "We have an altar from which those who serve the tent," that's the tabernacle, we've already been talking about that through this whole book, right?
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"From which those who serve the tent, bless you, have no right to eat.
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For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp." Stop there.
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Well, hang on, what is he talking about?
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He's talking about the day of atonement.
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Just jot this down, you can fact check me.
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Leviticus 16, 27.
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What's he talking about?
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Here's what he's talking about.
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You see, under the Old Testament system, the priests were allowed to eat the sacrifices.
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That was kind of part of their pay, right?
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They could eat the sacrifice, but they could not, They absolutely could not eat the sin offering from the day of atonement.
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They could not eat that.
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What they did, again, look at Leviticus 16, they sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, and then they took the carcasses of the animal outside the camp to burn them.
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That's what he's talking about.
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He's just reminding them like, hey, remember how it works on the day of atonement?
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Like, okay, where are you going with this?
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Well, look at verse 12.
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He says, this is so amazing.
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He goes, so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
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In other words, he's saying, you know, there's so many pictures of Jesus in the day of atonement, so many pictures in that whole tabernacle and the priests and the sacrifice.
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He goes, "Here's another picture.
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"Just as on the day of atonement, "the sin offering was taken outside the camp." He's saying our sin offering was taken outside the camp too.
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It's a picture of being rejected.
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It's a picture of being despised.
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Like not even in our company, not allowed in our camp, and Jesus Christ was crucified outside the city.
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That's what he's saying.
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Rejected, despised, thrown out.
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You're like, "Okay, so what's the point?" Here it is, verse 13. He says, "Therefore, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured." He's saying the point is we need to join Jesus and bear his reproach.
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What does that mean?
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We think, we think that if we do the right thing, and if we genuinely try to love people and be kind to people, that they're going to love us and be kind back to us, right?
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How did that work for Jesus?
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There was nobody who did the right thing more perfectly than Jesus, and there was nobody that loved people more than Jesus loved people.
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So how did that work for him?
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Again?
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He was taken outside the camp and executed.
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Just like one of those Old Testament sacrifices, discarded.
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And the Hebrew right here is saying, "We need to go to Him. We need to go with Him, because we too are going to be rejected by the world. And that's okay." Following Jesus is going to get you the same kind of reproach, the same kind of rejection.
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because a servant's not greater than his master.
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So church, we need to manage our expectations.
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If you wanna follow Jesus, you gotta follow him all the way outside the camp.
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Because following Jesus doesn't mean that everybody's going to accept you.
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In fact, it means the world's going to reject you.
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That's what it means.
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You're like, dude, why would anybody sign up for that?
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Why would anybody wanna willingly be rejected?
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In verse 14, it says, "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." What he's saying is we don't have anything to lose here.
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See, if the world doesn't accept me, if the world rejects me, he's saying that's okay, because this isn't my home.
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I'm not staying here forever.
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I have nothing here that I'm going to be holding onto for much longer than a couple of years, if that.
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So victorious Christians don't expect to be accepted here because we're playing the long game.
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You wanna be a follower of Jesus?
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That means you're gonna follow him to the cross.
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But when you follow Jesus, that also means you get to follow him out of the empty tomb two are gonna have a resurrection.
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Oh, oh, and following Jesus also means you're gonna follow him to glory.
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I live in victory today because by faith, I'm seeking the city that is to come, and I find my joy in what's coming.
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Number four, five habits of highly victorious Christians.
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Number four, they view worship as sacrifice.
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Now, if you've been with us through this Hebrew series, we've seen a lot of teaching from God's word that would have been very shocking to these Jews.
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A lot of these Jews would have been shocked by this.
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And it's hard for us to really relate to that because of the time and place where we live.
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But the biggest thing that would have been a shock for the Jews would have been this one.
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"There's no more sacrifice for sin." Can you imagine?
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Your whole life, like, we are God's chosen people as Israel, and God has provided this means to sacrifice, to have our sin atoned for, and that's how we, you know, get right with God.
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And now all of a sudden, because of Jesus, it's like, okay, the thing that you've known nationally, we're done with that.
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No more sacrifice for sin.
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Like what?
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It would have been a hard thing to wrap your brain around.
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Like, so there's, are you saying there's no more sacrifices at all?
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Actually, there are some sacrifices left.
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That's what he talks about in verses 15 and 16.
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There are sacrifices left.
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Verse 15 says, "Through him then, "let us continually offer up "a sacrifice of praise to God." Like, well, what's that?
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He explains, he goes, "That is the fruit of lips "that acknowledge his name.
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"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have." Look at this last line.
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"For such sacrifices are pleasing to God." So yes, church, there are sacrifices that we still perform.
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And these sacrifices revolve around our words and our works.
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Did you see that?
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Our words, that's a sacrifice of praise.
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It's the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
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Understand that every time we gather together to worship, we are offering a sacrifice to God.
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When somebody stands up here and preaches, acknowledging his name, we are sacrificing to God.
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When you are discipling your kids, whether you're helping volunteer and harvest kids, you're discipling your kids in your home, you are sacrificing to God because your mouth is acknowledging his name.
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And he says, that's a sacrifice.
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If you teach a Bible study, precepts, lead a small group, whatever, that is a sacrifice.
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It's your words.
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He also says it's your works.
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He says to do good, to share what you have.
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Every act of serving, every ministry you can be involved in, every dollar given for God's kingdom is a sacrifice according to this passage.
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So yes, we still offer sacrifices, but not for sin.
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That one's done.
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Our sacrifices are acts of praise.
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By the way, when you lived in the old covenant times, you can read about this, go read the book of Leviticus, not now, later, but when you lived in old covenant times, when you sacrificed, you always offered God your very best, right?
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Isn't that true?
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it worked? You know, God didn't want you going to your flock and saying, "Well, this sheep looks about two days away from dying, blind, has some kind of disease that's making the wool fall out, only has three legs. I'll offer this one to God as a sacrifice." Was that acceptable? No. You were not allowed to do that. You had to give God your very best.
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So church, let me ask you, do you think that's still true? Do you think that's still true? Like with these sacrifices, the Hebrew writers talking about this sacrifice of our mouth acknowledging His name and our works, do you think, do you Do you think we should still offer God our best?
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Do you think that principle is still true?
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You're either not sure of the answer or you're afraid of what the answer is.
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But here it is, maybe you haven't felt victorious in your Christian walk because you're not giving God your best.
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Is that possible?
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Is that possible?
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None of us feel great about finishing any kind of a job where we didn't give our best effort, right?
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Think like if you're in school, I don't recommend this young people, but sometimes you have that all nighter where you get that term paper done, and you hand it in, and you know that wasn't your best work.
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That's not a great feeling, is it?
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This represents me, and that's not my best.
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That's a frustrating feeling, isn't it?
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Or how about athletes?
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Have you ever played a game where you lose, and then afterwards you realize, hey, the problem's here, I didn't give my best effort.
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I didn't hustle hard enough.
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I didn't try hard enough.
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I wasn't aggressive enough.
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That's my fault.
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You ever been there?
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That's a sick feeling.
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I lost because I didn't put the effort in.
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Or men, men I'm talking to husbands specifically.
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Did you ever get a reminder on your phone too late that it's your anniversary?
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And you stopped by Sheetz to get a gift card for your wife?
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Not a great feeling.
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Like here sweetheart, $25 for Applebee's.
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Was that your best?
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Was that your best?
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She will remind you that it was not your best.
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I mean, I've never done that.
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We're not highfalutin enough to eat at Applebee's.
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But you get the point.
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Deep down, you always feel defeated when you know you're not giving your best.
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So how are we doing there?
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Like worship time, just had an amazing worship set.
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Incredible music by incredible musicians who love the Lord.
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So during that time, you don't have to answer out loud, but I just want you to sort of reckon with yourself through this.
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Were you pouring yourself out in worship or were you just kind of standing there mouthing the words on the screen sort of half-heartedly?
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And I have to ask if you were, if you're just kind of standing there, you know, mouth in the words, is that your best?
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Is that your best?
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If you're signed up to serve in kids in Harvest Academy on Sunday, and you come in late, and and you're like, my heart's just not in it today.
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And it's just like, let me babysit, let's make sure the same number of kids leave that came in and that's gonna be good enough today.
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Is that your best?
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Or maybe you're signed up to serve in hospitality and you're like, you're phoning it in and you just can't wait to blast out of here.
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Is that your best?
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If you're a small group leader or a Bible study leader and you just didn't prepare, I'll wing it, it's okay.
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Is that your best?
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Or when it comes to giving, we don't give like proportionately to what God has given to us.
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We just give God a tip.
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You know what, God had a pretty decent week.
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Here's $5, don't spend it all in one place.
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Really, is that your best?
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You need to see your words and your works, your ministry, your giving, the way you talk about God, the way you sing to God, you need to see all of these things as sacrifices.
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And when you see them as sacrifices, Are you giving God your best?
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Because victorious Christians know that my words and works are sacrifices pleasing to God.
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And then finally, number five, five habits of highly victorious Christians, they obey their leaders.
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They obey their leaders.
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It says in verse 17, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account." Submission to authority in the church is a responsibility before God.
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God mediates His rule through man.
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That's just how he has chosen to work.
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Read your Old Testament.
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He mediated his rule through judges, through kings.
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You get to the New Testament, God mediates his rule through spirit-filled under shepherds, elders and pastors.
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That's God's design.
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You know, the idea of a church being congregational-led, it's just not biblical.
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It's not.
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God has given us as pastors and elders authority to minister His Word, to preach, to teach, to exhort, to rebuke, to give direction to the church.
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Not as dictators, but as shepherds who love and care for the flock.
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And you, biblically, have a responsibility, it says, to obey and submit.
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Because ultimately, your submission to leaders is really submission to God.
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Look at what Jesus said in John 13, 20.
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Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." That's a big responsibility, to know that submission to authority in the church ultimately is submission to our heavenly Father.
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And you're like, "Man, Jefe, that's heavy." You know what else is heavy?
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the responsibility on the other side.
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Look at it again.
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Look at verse 17 again.
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It says, "For they are keeping watch over your souls." Stop there for a second.
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Do you take your job seriously?
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I sure hope so.
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Well, I want you to know that I do too.
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And this is what my job is.
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My job is to oversee your soul.
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That's my job.
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I am not a pep talker, okay?
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I'm not a speech giver.
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I'm not a manager or an organizer.
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My job is to oversee your soul.
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And everything that I do here with our elders, with our ministry team, with our staff, everything that I do, every decision that we pray over and discuss, everything is about your soul.
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You have to know that.
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There's no agenda.
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There's no secret plan that I have.
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It's about your soul.
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It's about discipling you to Jesus Christ.
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That's my job.
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And I take it really seriously.
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And look, you might not ever understand the weight of that.
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Even if you've got a pastor in your family, you might never understand the weight of that responsibility.
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You might not ever understand the stress or how many nights laying awake.
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It's a heavy burden.
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It is a, it's a heavy burden.
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That's why I think it's hilarious when people come and they say, well, you only work for an hour a week.
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And you know what, I get tired of hearing that.
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And I correct people when they say that.
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I say, "No, that's not true.
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"I do not work the entire hour.
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"I only work like 30 to 40 minutes of it." But I charge them for the whole hour.
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You're like, "Man, that's heavy.
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"It is heavy." You're like, "I can't imagine "it gets any heavier than that." Hold on.
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Look at the next line.
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He says, "As those who will have to give an accounts." It just gets heavier.
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Do you realize I have to stand before God someday?
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And I have to give an account for the way that I did my job here.
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So I take this really seriously, right?
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And I hope that you do too.
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We'll give the rest of the verse here and then we'll stop.
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It says, "Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." Underline that in your Bible.
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That's like one of the most important verses in the Bible.
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Like it's all God's Word, I know.
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This one just feels like it hits a little closer to home.
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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
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He says, "Church, if you make us as leaders groan, "that's no good for you." Like, well, what makes you groan, Pastor Jeff?
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Well, starting next week, we're having a 17-part sermon series entitled "Things That Make Me Grown." An introduction.
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There are a lot.
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Oh, I wish I had more time.
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I'm just going to give you three, okay?
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Here's three things that make me grown.
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I'm sure if we had our elders ministry team staff up here, I'm sure they'd be amending this.
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Here's what makes me grown, complaining.
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Especially about unimportant things.
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Church, that's, please check yourself on that.
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That makes the leadership grown.
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Complaining especially about unimportant things or things that really have no impact on eternity or souls or any of this other stuff.
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Do you know how many times I hear things like, "Wait, wait, the church picnic is at noon?
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"This is an outrage!" I'm like, "Whoa." Step away from the ledge.
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It's okay.
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Why wasn't I told that the chairs were gonna be gray?
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It's okay.
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Breathe in, breathe out.
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That kind of stuff just makes us groan, though.
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Come on, man.
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Is it really something worth bringing up?
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Is it really something to be upset about?
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Complaining.
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The second thing that makes me grow in criticism.
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That I mean constructive criticism.
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Some people try to help and I love that, right?
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I have blind spots.
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I need help.
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I love, you know, constructive criticism.
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But what's the opposite of that?
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I should have studied it.
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Unconstructive, destructive criticism.
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Is that it?
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That's it.
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That's what we're going with.
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of criticism, things like, "Well, you know, Jeff, "I thought adding another service was a really dumb idea." So yeah, like that wasn't helpful at all.
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It makes you groan.
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And number one, this is the biggest here, it makes me groan the worst is disregarding God's word.
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When you disregard God's word, you know, like this afternoon, for those of you who are going to be complaining and criticizing.
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And I'm like, "Oh, I just talked about that." Disregarding God's word.
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For the people that come to me for counseling, "Pastor Jeff, I'm having this problem, what should I do?" I'm like, "Well, here's what the Bible says." And they're like, "Yeah, I'm not doing that." Oh, groan!
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Then why did you come?
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That makes you groan, right?
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I could go on, but I think you get the point.
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Victorious Christians let leaders lead with joy.
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I'd encourage you to embrace this attitude because this is true.
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To maybe say, you know what?
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Maybe I don't personally like that decision that was made, but maybe, maybe I don't have all the information.
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And maybe I just have to trust the leaders that they're seeking God and they're doing their best.
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And if you can't trust the leaders with that, I say this with all due respect, you shouldn't be at this church.
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You can't trust leaders.
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Go find a church where you will respect and follow the leaders.
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If you don't believe that we're doing that here, I'm telling you we are.
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I'm telling you that we are doing our best to honor the Lord.
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We are.
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So encourage your leaders, invest yourself, pray for your leaders, but let this be a place where we all serve with joy.
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because you're going to find, according to the Hebrew writer and backed up by my experience, you're going to find that leaders lead better when they're joyful than when they're groaning.
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All right?
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Our worship team would come back up.
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We're going to close.
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You know, your walk with Christ, it can be defeating, it can be deflating, or it can feel victorious and exciting.
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And really, that's up to you.
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But I want to encourage you to look at victorious Christians.
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Here's five things they do.
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Imitate the faithful, they discern, they have the right expectations, they view their words and their works as sacrifice, and they obey their leaders.
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Alright?
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Bow your heads and pray with me please.
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Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.
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Sometimes it's hard to preach and it's hard to hear.
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But Father, I pray that this conviction, this uncomfortable stuff that we have to wrestle through, I pray that it's just something that You're using to grow us.
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The truth is, Father, more than anybody on the planet, we should feel victorious.
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So Father, I pray that we would truly embrace everything that You've taught us in Your Gospel, and that we would live it, and show the world what it's like to truly know Jesus Christ.
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We pray in His glorious name. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 13:7-17
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Name someone that you see as living a victorious Christian life. What about their faith should you imitate (Heb 13:7-8)?
Why do you think discernment is such a weakness in the church today? How can you grow in discernment (Heb 13:9)?
If you disagree with a decision made by church leadership, what’s the best way to address that (Heb 13:17)?
Breakout
Pray for one another!