One at a Time | Jesus was Present

so here at 242 we believe that a follower of jesus is one that knows god grows with others
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and changes the world hey how much thought have you given to that third one
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did that phrase change the world
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like a lot of us i know if i sit there and you hear the pastor say hey like we believe that god wants you to change the world you're like this guy's crazy like
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how in the world do we do that it's just a big out-of-the-box kind of concept to think that we're going to change the world
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and you're right on the surface level it looks crazy which is why we're beginning to to
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really dig into how did jesus do this like how did jesus change the world
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and give a little secret it's it's one at a time yes he did miracles he had some awesome
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teachings and some amazing things that jesus did but at the end of the day what jesus did is he leaned into
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relationships he leaned into people and as misha launched this series last week he began to talk about the fact that
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that jesus changed the world by making it personal and he talked about the fact that he he
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zoomed in he zoomed in on the one and through relationships and identified look
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miracles and and the teachings were great and amazing and part of changing the world but
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when we really began to dig into it in the midst of all that what jesus did is he he made things personal
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so today if you have your bibles mark chapter five we're gonna dig into a story that begins to paint a
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picture for us of of how he did that so last week misha lays the foundation jesus makes it personal and now we begin
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to dig into the the how like how did jesus really make it
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personal would you pray with me lord god we are
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very thankful that you're not a distant far off unapproachable god
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that you are a real personal [Music]
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intimate present interruptable god
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so we we gather together as a body as a people who are just seeking after you
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and lord we we open up our hearts and our souls and our minds that just god just can we just receive from you today
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can you just receive whatever it is that your your holy word has for us and god i ask today that any word out of
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my mouth that's not from you just strike it down but anywhere that comes out of my mouth
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that is from you lord just will you take that and plant it and root it deeply in our hearts and minds and
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souls so that we are forever changed because today we didn't just hear a sermon or prayers or songs we
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we actually heard from the living god it's in christ's name we pray
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amen so let me uh let me begin setting the scene a little bit for
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uh what's what's taking place so far uh so jesus and his disciples they get in a boat and they're gonna travel
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across the lake to the area of the ten cities or the capitalists and on their way a storm arises
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and it must have been a huge storm because they were scared for their lives the disciples thought they were going to die and just so you know some of the
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disciples were fishermen so they've been in storms before this isn't the first storm they saw on the
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seas but it was big enough for them to think that they were going to lose their lives so they run to jesus who was doing
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the epic power move sleeping through the storm and they wake jesus up and jesus gets up
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after a short conversation says peace be still the wave stopped
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and the storm ceased i don't know how much time and thought you put into this
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that jesus spoke to nature and it obeyed if you were on that boat you would have
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been speechless just like the disciples probably were just standing with their mouths hung wide open like what in the world just
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happened and they probably in silence just continue their journey to the
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to the coast and when they landed they get off the boat and they they meet this guy this guy has been possessed by a
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demon for a lifetime in fact it wasn't just a demon like jesus asked specifically what the demons his name was he says name is legion
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because we are many this is a guy who's been ostracized from community kicked out rejected just
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forgotten because no one wanted anything to do with this crazy guy and jesus
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cast the demons out and then the guy's normal right like well as normal as can be
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the people from the town come out they see that this guy's been changed and transformed the demons have been cast out his life is forever different
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because jesus came into this amazing miracle in his life and their response is fear and they kick jesus out they
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tell jesus get away go away get back in your boat and go back to where you came from
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so he did so jesus gets in his boat with his disciples and they head back across the waters to to get to the the jewish side
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if you will of the and that's where we pick up our story today we pick up our story on the heels of of
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these two kind of amazing crazy out of this world kind of stories of jesus doing miraculous things and oftentimes
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we read the gospels and we we see those stories that that's how jesus changed the world
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jesus did miraculous amazing things but today we're gonna we're gonna begin
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to dig into what his next steps were and begin to realize in the midst of it all as he continues to do miracles
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what he's doing is he's making things personal so again
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mark chapter five we're picking up the story in verse 21. when jesus had again crossed over by
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boat to the other side of the lake a large crowd gathered around him while he was by
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the lake how many of you like large crowds right you guys are all sane right
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we took my son to uh a tigers game a couple weeks ago so horrible game we got whooped so bad it
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wasn't even funny i think 10 to nothing and six innings and it was bad so like about the fourth indian or so
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uh i told my son it was our first time at the stadium so when it's your first time in the stadium you walk the
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concourse you check it out like we've never been in that ballpark before so it's like let's go take a walk let's go
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check it out so we get up and we we walk up the aisle and we begin our our tour around the concourse and then it starts
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to rain and what does it do when it starts to rain everybody runs for cover
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so it took us an hour to circle the ballpark to get back to our seats because everyone else went up
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under there too so you're shoulder to shoulder you're just like jammed in like people are sweating on you and breathing
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on you it's all nasty and gross and like you're just telling your kid just like do not let go of me like if i lose you
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in this crowd your mom is going to be so mad at me and you just make your way through and so we can spend this hour
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going around the concourse we get back to our seats and i realized like after the rain stopped we sat back down
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i just walked through this massive crowd of people i don't think i recognize i don't think
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i noticed one face and it's amazing how we can be in the midst of a of a crowd of people
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and never notice the people always sees the crowd like jesus finds himself a lot of times
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in crowds he finds himself just just surrounded by people and the bible says people press in on him so again people
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sweating on and breathing on it's all nasty right this is the environment that jesus finds himself in
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fortunately for us jesus didn't just look at the crowd and see a crowd he looked at the crowd and saw
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people he looked at the crowd and saw individuals verse 22
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then one of the synagogue leaders named jairus came and when he saw jesus he fell at his feet he pleaded earnestly
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with him my little daughter is dying please come and put your hands on her so that she'll be healed and live
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so jesus went with him a large crowd followed and pressed around him
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i know the bible doesn't say that jesus had an assistant but i would imagine if he did have an
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assistant it would be a horrible job all right we just imagine you got up that morning you got in the boat and you
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do the agenda you finalized everything you said right jesus we have one window of 20 minutes at like six o'clock for
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you to have dinner other than that it's meet and greets it's conversations with crowds you got a lot of stuff tight agenda so as soon as we go off the boat
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we gotta we gotta head east and get off the boat and look at the
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agenda and the assistant looks up and jesus is just headed off and north with some guy named jairus and yeah i mean
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yeah he's a religious leader but there's a lot of religious leaders and we got meet and greets with people we got
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meetings with political leaders and some higher up religious leaders and and crowds that talk to a lot of stuff to do
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and jesus is just off with this person and imagine how how frustrating it must
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have been right because there's an agenda there's tasks to do and obviously there's crowds to
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deal with but jesus is just off with this one guy and i think this goes back to what misha
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talked about last week was that even in the midst of the crowd and the the chaos of it all
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jesus made it personal because jesus zoomed in on what we call the one
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a couple weeks ago i stood right here and i talked to all seven of our campuses about our desire to no longer
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just be a church but actually be a the kind of movement we see in the book of acts and that kind of movement happens
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when you take the jesus mission plus mobilize people you have a kingdom movement
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and what we begin to discover is that when we think about this change the world it's not just about the masses and the crowds it's about the ones
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it's about the the people that that make up the crowd in in the mass it's
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it's when we begin to understand that a movement happens when we take the opportunities jesus places in
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front of us to reach one it's when we realize that we have a
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calling and a chance to be the hands and feet of jesus for one at a time
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it's when we realize that a movement happens when we understand like jesus that changing the world
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means we make it personal and here in this story we're beginning to see
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what it means for jesus to make it personal
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here's how the story continues and a woman was there who had been
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subject to bleeding for 12 years she suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and has been all that
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she had yet instead of getting better she grew worse when she heard about jesus
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she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought if i just touched his clothes i'll be healed
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immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was free from her suffering at once jesus
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realized that power had gone out from him he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my clothes
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you see the people crowding against you his disciples answered and yet you can ask who touched me
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i don't think our response is too different than the disciples right i mean jesus do you see the people
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do you see the number of people pressing in around you when we walked the concourse that day a
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lot of people touched me no idea who they were this is our response jesus you're in the
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midst of the crowd there's so many people like how can you differentiate one from the other
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how can you stop and say someone touched my cloak and i think
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i think this is where our our frustration and our our overwhelmed nature comes in when we
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think about the words change the world because we hear the word change the world and we're like have you seen all
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the people there's so many of them like i can't change all that
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there's so many people in the world they're just crowding around us and it's just a mass of people and chaos and it's
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it's crazy and i can't i can't i can't change all that
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as i think about how jesus did this i did not organize this stuff properly at all um
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i remember these how many of you guys remember these magic eyes right or stereograms or
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stereographs i think is the actual word for it but if you're not familiar with these uh when you're a kid at my age
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um they i which i won't reveal anymore they had these things like during your
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scholastic book fairs right you can go buy books and you can buy posters and a lot of times you buy posters of
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these things and they would be hanging on the wall as like demos and all the kids would just be like
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staring at it like idiots right because on the surface it's just a chaotic scene it's just like there's yeah there's a
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little bit of organization to it but at the end of the day it's just it's just craziness
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but when you stare at it and they say stare through it and you focus properly like an image
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begins to appear like a 3d image begins to appear out of it like a beautiful image in the midst
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of chaos in the midst of craziness there's there's a beauty in it
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and i think what jesus was really good about doing was he was really good about seeing the craziness and the chaos of the world in
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the crowds and the people in the masses and out of it he sees this beautiful
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picture of the one the the person in need right in front of him
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the opportunity to change the world not by changing the chaos but by focusing on
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on the one you see what jesus was able to do is in the midst of a crowd he was able to
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focus attention on this woman this woman who was in desperate need of
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jesus in her life and he took time to be to be present with her
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not just say hi how you doing or or allow her to be healed and move on but he was actually able to zoom in
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focus on the one and be present with her because you see not all interruptions
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are bad in fact i would say some interruptions are opportunities
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some interruptions in our lives are opportunities for us to be the hands and feet of jesus that should be the love of
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jesus in someone else's life to help them experience the same grace that that you have
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i remember in the first church i ever served was mount etna united methodist church a wonderful wonderful country
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church amazing people it was the greatest first church to ever pastor
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and i remember uh sitting on a friday evening around the table with uh i only had one
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kid at the time it was my wife and my daughter was probably two or three years old and uh sitting to the table and i
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remember looking at my wife and saying hey i'm home tonight this is be asked us like we'll have dinner together maybe
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we'll go for a walk do something fun play with maggie we'll do it'll be it'll be a blast i kid you not five minutes later the
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phone rings and it was one of the families in the church and um the grandmother the matriarch a saint of
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the church uh was in the hospital and approaching her last moments so as a pastor
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you go like you get up and you go to the hospital to be with that family
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because you have an opportunity an opportunity the hands and feet of jesus for people who in that moment
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desperately needed jesus you see i think one of the things that we see in jesus is that when when
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someone in need stands before him his plans his agenda his schedule his goals his trajectory didn't matter anymore
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what mattered was the person that he was he was present
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you see notice the woman was healed before jesus ever turned and looked for
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her like she was already healed he could have just moved on and she would have been changed and transformed but instead
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he said that's not enough i need to be present for this woman
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like like part of changing the world is just being present with people
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and present present for people but look how the story continues
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while jesus was still speaking some people came from the house of jairus the synagogue remember this guy
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this is where the story started and we deviated like we took a detour into this woman's life but now we're back with
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jairus your daughter is dead they said why bother the teacher anymore
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overhearing what they said jesus told him don't be afraid just believe
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and then we continue to read on and jesus travels with jairus to the house and raises the curl and it's just this
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amazing another miraculous story of jesus but but i wanna i wanna pause for a moment and acknowledge the fact that
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not only was was jesus present with the woman he was interruptable like in the midst of his schedule he was
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interruptable for gyrus the the woman with the bleeding condition came and he was he was interruptable in his plans
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for her and he was he was present with her but he never failed to be present for jairus
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like if you if you have kids maybe you've experienced the same thing that i've experienced and apologies to my parents if they're watching online um
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that when you're in a conversation with your parents right and maybe it could be about whatever and
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uh your beautiful adorable sweet little child comes up to talk to their grandparent what
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happens you stop existing and they focus on the kid rightfully so i get it totally totally get it and they
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focus their attention on the grandchild and they engage with like oh look at this picture it's such a beautiful whatever it may be that conversation
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happens the devastating part is when they forget to come back to you
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you ever experienced that before maybe when a parent maybe is a friend you're in a conversation an interruption comes up
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and then they never come back to the conversation so what you feel and what you interpret is oh i didn't matter after all
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like this this apparently my conversation wasn't good enough and and there's not present for me anymore
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see that's not what jesus did jesus didn't get distracted
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by this interruption with this woman he he focused on the opportunity was present for her and then came back
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and was present for jairus in order to change
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lives but it wasn't just present verse 37
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he jesus did not let anyone follow him except peter james and john the brother
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of james now this is significant because jesus is eliminating distractions
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because not all interruptions are opportunities some interruptions
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are distractions in differentiating i think between a distraction and an opportunity is where
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jesus excelled because the opportunities are the ones we want to respond to those are the ones
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we want to lean into we want to be present for interruptable for the distractions not so much it's father's
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day and i'm sitting out on my uh one of those you know those zero gravity reclining chairs and i go and i sit out
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in the shade and i have a book cause i'm gonna sit and re okay i'm gonna take a nap i'm definitely gonna take a nap
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and i get all comfortable and not a minute after i get comfortable i hear the words hey dad can you help
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dad you've been there right like in your mind even for a split second you think
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maybe i should act like i'm sleeping but
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you know it's an opportunity you notice an opportunity to spend time with your son even if that means you're
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cleaning the disgusting nasty turtle tank right but you do it because you want to spend
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time with your son that is an opportunity it's an opportunity that we want to take advantage of earlier
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that day i sat in that same chair um with a book and this time i was going to read
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and uh as i sat down and got comfortable about a couple minutes in my phone dings
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so i lay the book down on the ground i grab the phone i start checking it next thing i know 30 minutes later the phone
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is still in my hands and the book is still on the ground that is a distraction maybe for you you go to
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lunch you got a lunch break and you go and you walk into the restaurant you're just all by yourself and an old friend
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you haven't seen in a long time happens to be sitting there and emotionally says hey i haven't seen you in forever come have lunch with me
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you have other things to do and you were just popping in for a quick lunch
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but it really is an opportunity to connect maybe you're you're trying to be super
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healthy uh you're exercising you're eating right you're doing a lot of stuff you go to the gym you you're
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well on your way to achieve your goals you come home after the gym you're like i'm going to have a
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carrots and some celery it's a good snack after i worked out i don't know and you open up you go to grab the
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fridge but you actually open up the freezer instead there's ice cream right you look the ice cream you're like
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sweet opportunity i mean distraction total distraction
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you see interruptions that are distractions will steer you away from the call that god has on your life
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interruptions that are opportunities will steer you into the call that god has on your life
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see that friday when i sat at that table with my wife and my daughter and i looked at my wife and i
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said hey i'm home tonight like we're going to spend time together have dinner and go for a walk or do something fun with
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maggie the reason i said that was because that entire week leading up
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to it i had failed miserably at managing distractions
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i spent every single night out of the house i've been in meetings and conversations
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and doing things at the end of the day weren't near as important as spending time and investing with my wife and my
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child and because of that all throughout the week when i got that call on friday of
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an opportunity to be jesus for people it did not feel like an opportunity at
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all it's more of an obligation and it felt like a distraction away from
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my family one more time all because i didn't manage distractions the opportunities began to feel like
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distractions and as i got up from the table that day uh to go to the hospital
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my wife and daughter are still finishing their meal i was putting my jacket on to go and
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my daughter as i stood beside the table looked at her mother and says mommy
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i miss daddy i was right there
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and because i failed to manage the interruptions there were distractions
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the interruption there was an opportunity was not an opportunity it was yet another distraction away from
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my family that god had called me to
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i think one of the great models that jesus shows us is this this amazing ability that he has
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to identify distraction opportunity and when we manage the distractions
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when opportunities come up leaning into an opportunity is so much easier
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you see jesus was interruptable and jesus was present and the reason he was able to be both of
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those things is because he knew the difference between an interruption that was an opportunity and an interruption
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that was a distraction the truth of the matter is i think for many of us we have not been great at
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eliminating distractions and for that reason it all feels that way right the opportunity to have a jesus
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conversation with someone feels like a distraction because well our entire lives have become distractions
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opportunity to spend time with an old friend becomes a distraction because well everything is a distraction today
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you see jesus was never overwhelmed with the crowd he was never overwhelmed with the chaos
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because he focused on the opportunities in the midst of the crowd so how do we become like jesus how do we how do we
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just lean into that well i think it starts by eliminating distractions right
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you know one of the the most common uh phrases that we hear about why people don't engage whether it's in in worship
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or in bible study or prayer or being on a team or a small group is is time like i we
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just don't have time i was reading a study uh this week that says that the average american
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will spend two hours and 54 minutes on their phone every single day that is a month and a half out of the year of 2022
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that you will be on your device i am guilty in fact i'm probably
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also guilty of setting a bad standard for my kids uh in the way that the media
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is used and devices are used in fact i was talking to my daughter um earlier this week about like just phone
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usage time if you have kids you know that's a constant conversation that you have uh and she made a comment
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that she's seen um the time usage on other people's phones and i don't know why people share that's a weird
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conversation topic but um she says like many of them are like eight hours a day
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it's a lot of distraction and because it's a lot of distraction it
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becomes a lot of missed opportunities missed opportunities to do the types of
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things that jesus did and that is to change the world one at a time by being
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present and by being interruptable so we we like to try to be a little bit
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practical so i'm going to give you some tips there's just some simple tips to to help you be that how can you be present
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interruptable for people number one put down the phone this is a hard one right because it's
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easy to go home you're sitting in a chair it's like i'll just scroll through whatever social media app is your
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favorite and next thing you know an hour later you have not engaged with your family at all or maybe you bring your
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phone to the table but just put put down the phone next meeting you're in at work
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turn the phone upside down silence it just just push it away like this this motion
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just like that just push it away from you and just don't engage with it be present for the people you're with one
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of the greatest gifts that we can give people is actually being with the people we're with like let's try being with people
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secondly listen more than you talk
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people want to know that you care and if you want them to know you care
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you'll listen you'll listen to their story you'll ask follow-up questions you'll engage with them about who they are and
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not just how you are we've all had that friend right we've all had that person in your life
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that that never asks you anything about you never asks about your family never asked
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about your kid or your job or anything it's always about them and them and them and and you know that that's not a real
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solid relationship for you because you know that they don't seem to care don't be that person listen more
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than you talk be the last to leave the table this is i don't want to put this one up there because i am horrible at
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this one i eat fairly quickly my youngest does not
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like super long whether it's a restaurant or at home it's like are you seriously not done yet like you're seriously still
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starting your sandwich and so sitting there waiting is it's really hard for me but
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some of the greatest conversations you're going to have can happen around the dinner table don't forget that whether it's your family or your friends some of the
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greatest interactions you can have is sitting at that table over food we'll actually talk about that more later on in the series
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when meeting someone new ask another question like just ask if i don't care what it is guys just ask another question engage in
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conversation be interested in their lives pray with someone instead of promising to
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i'll be the first one to admit that i have failed more times than i care to admit on saying hey i will pray
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for you and i never actually do it because i forget how about instead of just saying hey i will pray for you say hey can i pray for
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you right now some of the most powerful moments of prayer that i've ever been part of whether it was me praying or someone
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else or whatever was in those moments where instead of saying i'll pray for
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you we actually allow the interruption into our lives of the opportunity to pray for them in the moment
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finally take a sticker we're going to give you stickers just
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like that one it says interrupt me you can put it wherever you want um after last service someone came up and
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said the best place to put it is on your phone if you're on it for three hours a day anyway like put the sticker on your phone
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so i did i put a sticker on my phone and this is really two things number one it tells people interrupt me
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like i want to be interruptable for you i want to be present for you why because you matter more than this
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and it's also a reminder to me that when i pick it up and get ready to scroll aimlessly
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through whatever i'm going to scroll through that there are people in my life oftentimes in the room that are far more
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important than what i'm about to do so maybe i should set it down and allow myself not only be interruptable
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but to be present for them you don't have to do any of those maybe
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yours don't look that way but the question we're really asking ourselves is how do we just kind of take this model of jesus on
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being present and interruptable for people and i think for many of us in today's
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day and age it really starts with eliminating distractions how do we eliminate distractions out of our lives so we can take advantage of the
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interruptions that are opportunities jesus was both present and interruptable
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at the same time and the reason he was able to do that was because when he looked at what we
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look at as just a crowd of people just chaos and a mass and confusion when
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jesus looked at this that's not what he saw what jesus saw was a
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beautiful picture of the one what jesus saw was you
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that he looked at the crowd he looked at the world he looked at the chaos and he saw your face
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because he focused not on the crowd he focused on the one he focused on you
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and what he asks of us is to do the same then we look at the crowd and the chaos
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and the mess and the craziness can we just focus with the eyes of jesus
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and see the one we've been asking you to pray this prayer through this entire series lord
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give me your eyes for the one and what we're asking is lord can you
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help me will you give me the eyes to see past the chaos and see the beautiful picture of the one
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that you have for me because i can assure you if you're a follower of jesus
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there is a one in your life and he wants you to be present for them
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and he wants you to be interruptable for them and if you don't see that person
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it's just because you haven't seen them yet because you haven't seen through his
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eyes past the crowd past the chaos
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to the one person who stands in front of you who needs him
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we're going to enter into our time of we call it encounter it's an opportunity
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to engage with and experience god in whatever way the holy spirit needs to speak and work in your life today
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and we have some some normal things that we do opportunities that we offer you in the back corners we have these tables
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with candles on them and amazing prayer workers would love to pray with you whatever it is
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whatever you need prayer for today they're not going to tell you we will pray for you they will pray for you right now in this moment all you have to
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do is get up and walk back there or or maybe for you
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you've never really embraced the truth that jesus
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is present and interruptable for you
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but you've seen jesus as this guy 2000 years ago that died on a cross for us
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but you haven't really leaned in and engaged in a way that says
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he's real and personal and present and interruptable because i think many times we have this
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idea in our minds that that god is busy with everything else there's so many other more important things going on like he can't possibly
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be concerned about me but he is he's interruptable for you
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and he's present right now for you
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so maybe for you is to take that step into a relationship with a jesus who wants to be interrupted by you
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a jesus wants a relationship wants to be personal and real with you and if if you don't have that
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and you want that the next step we're asking you to take is there's wonderful leaders right over
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here who'd love to have a conversation with you about baptism we have everything you need to be ready
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for that but that's where the holy spirit is nudging you i want to encourage you here in a moment to go talk to them just
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because you talk to them doesn't mean you have to do that right now but if the spirit's nudging you there like
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have that conversation when you came in you receive communion elements this is it's more than just a
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symbol of what jesus did a long time ago it's it's what jesus did for you
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now i want you to remember that jesus didn't just die for the crowds he didn't die for the masses he
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he died for you he died for the individual
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you specifically i think that when jesus died this is
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just me thinking this isn't scripture i think that god had every single one of our names on his mind
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when jesus died on that cross individually
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because he was focused wholly and completely on you so this is that
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and that way of experiencing that grace over and over again that jesus died not just for the masses
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but for you ultimately what i'm asking of you during
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this time in our service is
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just respond whatever the holy spirit is leading you to today just respond we have built in
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ways that you can do that but whatever the holy spirit is laying upon your heart where the holy spirit is
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calling you to kind of our motto around here is you should probably do that thing
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would you pray with me father god we uh
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so very thankful for you thankful that you are present
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and even though i don't think you would term it this way but you are interruptable for us [Music]
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god we uh we just open ourselves up to you
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or if there's anyone here that has struggled feeling like you're
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present will you make it abundantly clear that you are
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may they feel your embrace may they feel your presence
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may they feel your love [Music]
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and god would you show all of us how we can be present and
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interruptable for the ones in our life
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lord today we all pray together lord give me your eyes
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for the one amen [Music]