"Radical for Jesus" RESCUE RADIO with Marjorie Cole

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I have an emergency. What is your location?

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'Cause there's a war for your soul. Yes, Lord God, we know this.

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And we thank you, Lord God, that you've given us grace and wisdom and strength

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to wrestle in this war and to win because you have already won. And so

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we declare that thy kingdom come, thy will be done, oh God, on earth.

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Cause us to continue to walk with you and to be loyal and

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to follow what you have laid before us, set before us, spoke before

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us, taught before us to do. Thank you, Jesus, for coming.

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Establishing your kingdom on this earth. Thank you for dying on

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the cross, for defeating our enemy, for paying the price in full with your

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own blood. Thank you that you have not forgotten about us. Thank you that you've

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given us power to do your will, power to bind and to loose,

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to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

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We bind the powers of darkness now that would try to hinder or block the

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receiving of this word, and for the eyes to see, ears to hear,

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and a heart to be encouraged for each one who listens. And Father, encourage those

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today who are very, very lost, very forlorn,

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very forsaken. Gather them together into the fullness of your

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love today. And I thank you, Jesus, for the wisdom and counsel. I thank

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you that we will speak as the oracles of God. We thank you for everything

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that you've given us. Even though you said be thankful in everything, so we are.

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And we thank you now for giving us clear communication and

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that you're— that no weapon formed against us will prosper, that no word

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said, deed done, or action taken will be able to be used by the enemy

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to bring forth shame, trouble, hindrance, delay, or reproach.

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Father, we give you praise. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Amen. Well, I think it's time to start to get radical for Jesus,

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being radical for Jesus. What do you think? Absolutely. It's always

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been that time because Jesus is the most radical person

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ever. What does radical actually even mean? Well, it The word

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radical that we have in the English language comes from the word radix,

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from the Latin word radix, which means root.

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And so basically what radical means,

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there's 2 different aspects of radical.

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One of them would be to be, to go to the foundation or the

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origin of something, go to the roots of something.

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The second part of it is that you favor deep

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and extreme and thorough changes away

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from the traditional ways. Ooh, away from the traditional. I think

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that's a very good definition of what we're trying to say today. So, but let's

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start with the, the, the foundation that most people were living

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on, building on. And back in Jeremiah's day, I think he said

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it very well. And so I'm just going to read a few passages and then

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we're going to move on to some radical behavior by some other people.

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That. We already know. All right. So in Jeremiah chapter

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10, he says, now Jeremiah is talking to the people and he says,

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to whom shall I speak? Verse 6:10,

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to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear?

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Indeed, their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot give heed.

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Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them. They have no

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delight in it. And then so we talk, then we go down to verse 13.

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Because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them,

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everyone is given to covetousness. And from the prophet,

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even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

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And so he's talking about this failure

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of the people to receive correction or receive

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instruction. Their ears are not willing to hear, and they've blocked their

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understanding. So therefore they're setting themselves up

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for some destruction, actually. And, and basically he's talking too

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about leadership in that day. In verse 14 of Jeremiah 6,

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they have also healed the hurt of my people slightly,

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saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. So they're just basically giving

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false comfort, you know, platitudes,

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whatever it was, and they weren't really getting at the root. I think

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that's what was going on in the pain and the difficulty of the people.

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Well, you can look at that even today and you can see the church,

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there's just a lot of clichés and euphemisms and pats on

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the back and trust God and read your Bible. But there's really no depth

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to going back to the foundation of what really has

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produced what we see on the surface. There's no,

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you know, really involvement, love. There's no laying

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down of your life, loving one another, bearing one another's burdens.

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Not a lot. I mean, there is some, obviously, but I think for the most

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part, the traditional way we look at God and serving God in the

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church is just kind of all of a— like, it's just a

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role we play. Yeah, externals. It's externals and surface

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things and certain behaviors. But going

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deeper, going deeper with not just knowledge

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of Christianity and Christian language and so forth. And building

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churches. And building churches. Gaining numbers

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and popularity. Yeah, yeah. But going to the really— to

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the guts. Yeah. If you please, of in the lives

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of the truth of Jesus Christ. Jesus came as

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a radical to go to the root of

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what's going on in people's lives, deep into the

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hearts of people. And notice he did that on

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an individual basis. Yes. You know, it's, it's a radical

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change But it starts with one person and then the next

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person. It doesn't start with a congregation. It starts with you and I getting a

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revelation, a personal individual revelation that

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gives us a way or a reason to stop what

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we're doing, to check and look deeply into the roots of what

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we're doing. Why are we doing these things? And then make some decisions to change.

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But that has to come through an encounter really. Yeah, encounter with Jesus.

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And you think of the, the apostles, the early apostles,

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with the exception of Judas, of course. But anyway,

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they became— they saw the risen Christ. Peter said,

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we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And so when they

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were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they had seen not only

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the Christ during his 3 and a half years as

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a man among us, fully God, fully man,

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but they'd seen him after his resurrection. And then on

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the day of Pentecost, they were empowered with the Holy Spirit, right? So they

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had the energy, the force, they had

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the revelation. Yeah, they were radical to the point where they're willing to give their

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lives. All of the apostles except

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for John died martyrs' deaths. So that

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is radicalism. They went all I saw a t-shirt the other day

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that said, if you're going, go all the way. Yeah. Amen. That's good.

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Because you know, the thing is, it's not easy to go all the way because

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a lot of times we make these resolutions and determinations and we last about 4

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minutes and then we're back to our old stuff. We're just like, we're just pulled

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back into the old. So it really has to be a deep uprooting of

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the lies and of the foundations that you thought were so unshakable

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to step into this adventure really of following Jesus.

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And, Yes, those apostles and disciples, they saw him face to face.

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But what about us? We don't get to see him like

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that. And I think that is in some ways an advantage and in some ways

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a disadvantage because, you know, but going back to those who saw him,

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the one that was the most radical, really,

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I mean, we can't necessarily compare them, but Paul, when he

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saw Jesus, he was born out of

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time or too late to be one of the apostles. But I

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believe he was really like the 12th apostle, if you ask me. But anyway,

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So he had this radical experience on

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the way to Damascus, and I think he is a good

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example of the passion and the radicalism that we're

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looking at right now. Well, his life was transformed there on the

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Damascus Road. That was the beginning of it, but then God took him away.

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He spent years in Arabia getting revelation.

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So he had the revelation, oh, Jesus is Yeah,

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true. He is the risen Christ, right? So he was transformed,

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but then he was instructed by the Holy Spirit.

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And when he had that instruction, that revelation,

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he learned who he was and, and what

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he learned who Jesus is. So when we know who we really are

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in Christ and who Jesus really is,

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that's, that's a radical thing. That's a, that's, that's a

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revelation for us. To go forward and to go all the

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way to the back, to the root of who we are. Exactly. Our identity.

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But back in chapter 3 of Philippians, we're talking, he's talking

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about himself a little bit. And he says, um, in verse 1 of 3,

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finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same

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things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. So we're

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looking for safety all the time. We want things that are safe.

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He says, beware of dogs, Beware of evil workers,

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beware of the mutilation. He says, watch out for the people who are trying to

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deceive you, convince you, get you to follow them.

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For we are the circumcision who worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus

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and have no confidence in the flesh. What he's saying is the old,

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in the Old Testament, their confidence was in their circumcision and

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that was what made them special. That's what made them called. That's what made them

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belonging to God. He says, but our circumcision is not the flesh.

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It is, um, It's made in the Spirit and our rejoicing in

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Christ. He says, though I also have confidence in the flesh. So now

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he's going to give you his reasons for being confident in the flesh.

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He says, if anyone else thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more so

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circumcised the 8th day of

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the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew

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of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, which is blameless.

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Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. He's persecuting

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the church of Jesus Christ. Concerning the righteousness, which is of the law,

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blameless. So he's saying, I kept that law perfectly. I resisted this

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new sect called the Christians, and I was blameless.

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But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

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So something happened in his life, and I think

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this is what had to terminate all this boasting and covetousness

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and self-centered self-righteousness, if you will.

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What things have happened to me were gain to me. These I counted loss

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for Christ. But what things, he says, he considered it to be gain,

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he now counted them as loss. Why?

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He says, indeed, he says, I count all things loss for the excellency

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of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

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Now, why? What has happened to him that so radically

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plucked up this artificial life and

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got to the root of his identity and who God

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is? What happened to him? God totally disturbed him,

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transformed him, and he said all his religious

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credentials, right? You know,

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people were wanting to say, well, I do this and I tithe and I I

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go here and I go there. I'm a good church member. I'm a good person.

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I'm involved in a committee. You know,

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I feed the poor or whatever. All that he

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saw that he was trusting in, trying to be righteous,

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trying to be godly. And he realizes that

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all these things and all this success

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in the realm of religion was

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garbage. He says it's rubbish. Well, he said it actually was hardening

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his heart and it created a religious self-righteousness or a religious

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stubbornness, you know, and he was zealous, really,

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you know, boasting and zealous and pursuing the wrong things.

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Another thing, so what all that did,

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it blinded him. It blinded him. Spiritual blindness. All this

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religious paraphernalia blinded him

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to the truth. So he says, so having He

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appeared to be perfect in everything, uh,

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well-positioned in his religious, you know,

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discernments and successful and respected in the community.

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The Pharisees loved him. Uh, he was educated.

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He had a good job, technically, um, was well-liked. I mean, you know, it's like,

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this is kind of where we are sometimes. We're well-positioned. We've got what

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we've worked for. We thought that's what we needed to be safe.

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And we've accomplished and we're— and now we're settled. And now

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we don't want to change because we don't want to rock the boat. But Paul

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walked away from all of this. Something happened and it happened

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pretty suddenly. I don't think Paul was planning to be converted.

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I don't think he was planning on changing anything. I think he loved what he

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was doing. And it just happened that God had a different plan

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for him. And God does have a different plan for all of us. And sometimes

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our conversions are not as radical as Paul's. They may

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be more subtle, but they all have to happen. It has to happen as a

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change in your mind, your direction, your thought, your goals,

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and what's important to you. Romans 12:2,

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it says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind

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that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

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So it's a transformation, however it happens. Now,

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he got knocked down on the road to Damascus. He got blinded,

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and then by this bright light, and, and then he,

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you know, went to— and, uh, he was blind for like 3

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days. Ananias came and ministered to him. So the thing

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is, a lot of people think that that's the way it has to happen.

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It doesn't have to happen like that. That's right. You know, like one guy

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I heard about that got saved, he was on a railroad track

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and laying with, with the,

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with the rails and the train ran over him. I mean,

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over the top of him. He didn't get run over. He just got run over.

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You know what I'm saying? Wow. And he— and that's when he got converted because

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he'd fallen on a railroad track when the train was coming. And that— and he

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thought that everybody should have that sort of experience. Well,

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you don't need to. Thank God. You don't need that. All you need is surrendering.

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The surrender. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Right.

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Showing you that you really— And I think a lot of us

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maybe think it's got to be a wow, knockdown, drag-out thing.

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But for most of us, it's just a changing

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of our mind and looking around and realizing

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that what you've believed and what you've pursued and our goals are

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a lie. And that may be, that may come suddenly or it may come gradually.

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Um, but Paul, walked away from it all. He walked

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away from, um, what he was pursuing because he realized

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he was pursuing the wrong things, that he was radical

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for the wrong reasons, for the wrong cause. Um,

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and basically he was kind of counting on his own merit to please

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God. I gotta be good. I gotta do— and this is where we stumble

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because everybody thinks, okay, I gotta be good to get to heaven.

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I gotta make God happy. I gotta please God. I gotta work hard. I gotta,

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Gotta, gotta, gotta, should, should, should. But the problem is that's

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the wrong approach to the whole thing. The approach is I

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cannot of my own self do anything. I surrender. I give up. God, I need

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you. I need you to lead me. I don't know where I'm going, but I

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want to know where I'm going. So I'm going to surrender to follow you.

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I'm going to confess my sins, declare my,

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my own inadequacies, my unrighteousness, that I cannot

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make myself righteous or declare my own destiny myself.

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So he walked away from what he believed that he— and

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when he realized that it was wrong and he began to

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seek God, he realized that he had to let go of

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things too, that he was assuming were of value.

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Things that we count on sometimes. He was counting on

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his— the things he was counting on, he now had to let go of and

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count as loss. So here he says, Going on,

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he says, verse 7, 3:7 of Philippians,

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but what things were gain to me, these I have counted

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loss for Christ. But indeed I also count all things loss

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for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I

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have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that

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I may gain Christ. One of the versions says count them as dung. So he's

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counting all this accumulation of wonderful positions and

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acclaim and reputation and religious notoriety.

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He's counting all these things as rubbish.

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Throw it away, throw it out. It's not good for anything. He says he counted

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them. So he's exchanging all that to be found in him, in Christ,

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not having my own righteousness, which is from the law. And this is a big

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statement. He found himself not having it. You know, we think if I

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keep the 10 Commandments, if I keep the law, that I am somehow

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going to get in because I'm righteous. But the law cannot save you.

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The law cannot make you righteous. And the law cannot— you cannot

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keep the whole law. That's right. You try to keep the whole thing, James says,

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and you're guilty of missing one point. You're guilty of the whole thing.

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Paul was killing people, you know, and how is that keeping the

18:18.277 --> 18:21.984
law? Anyway, not having my own righteousness, he said, which is from

18:22.016 --> 18:25.709
the law, but that which is through faith the faith in Christ or

18:26.209 --> 18:29.799
of Christ, the righteousness, which is from God by faith. So God

18:30.299 --> 18:34.098
is the one who gives you the courage, the faith, the direction, the call,

18:34.788 --> 18:38.268
the invitation to follow him. Now, what do you do with the call?

18:38.397 --> 18:42.391
That's your choice. And that's where things get scary because

18:42.891 --> 18:46.962
a lot of times the devil can pull us back. Uh, we've been already manipulated

18:47.462 --> 18:50.251
and magnetized by the things of the world. And Satan wants to pull you back

18:50.751 --> 18:54.500
into the junk heap. You know, but God wants to set

18:55.000 --> 18:58.588
you free. However, many of us don't see what that future looks like

18:59.088 --> 19:02.691
and we just want to stick with the familiar. Yeah, that's it. And it's important,

19:02.836 --> 19:06.971
you know, Paul walked away from all this religious,

19:07.965 --> 19:11.668
all these religious trials. Yeah. But all of us, some of us have to walk

19:12.168 --> 19:16.365
away from a lot of other things. We have to walk away sometimes from lust,

19:16.397 --> 19:20.212
bad perversion, bad relationships, addictions.

19:20.485 --> 19:23.979
Yeah. And self-hatred. So Paul goes

19:24.011 --> 19:27.859
on to say. He says, all of this I have of

19:28.359 --> 19:31.946
my own righteousness. I have no righteousness of my own, but through Christ.

19:32.171 --> 19:35.345
He says, that I may, here's what his goal is, that I may know him

19:35.633 --> 19:39.160
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to

19:39.660 --> 19:43.408
his death. What? He's giving up all that good stuff for what?

19:43.584 --> 19:47.784
So that he can know the power of Christ's resurrection.

19:48.698 --> 19:52.048
It says the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead

19:52.548 --> 19:56.602
dwells in us. So that power of life, that power of resurrection, And secondly,

19:56.698 --> 20:00.102
the fellowship of his sufferings. So he wants to suffer like Jesus,

20:00.166 --> 20:03.057
walk like Jesus, maybe be reproached like Jesus,

20:03.362 --> 20:07.633
cast out like Jesus. Take that resistance,

20:08.114 --> 20:11.406
take it on and not shun it. He wants the

20:11.872 --> 20:15.693
fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. He wants to get to understand that,

20:15.741 --> 20:18.744
know that, do that, be there with him, go through the same thing.

20:19.209 --> 20:23.048
So he can even be conformed to his death. So if by any means I

20:23.548 --> 20:26.664
might attain to the resurrection from the dead. So he's saying, I'm giving up my

20:26.824 --> 20:30.215
dead life so I can have new life and be raised from the

20:30.279 --> 20:34.827
dead. And then he goes on to say, he's kind of introspecting

20:34.843 --> 20:39.004
here, not that I have already obtained or

20:39.101 --> 20:42.475
am already made perfect, but here's what he's doing. Here's what we

20:42.975 --> 20:45.802
do. We're not perfect yet. God knows where we are. You don't have to be

20:45.866 --> 20:49.445
perfect to get to heaven. He says, but I press on

20:49.958 --> 20:53.375
that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has

20:53.471 --> 20:56.326
laid hold of me. So he's pressing on,

20:57.160 --> 21:01.058
following Jesus, laying hold, doing what's set before

21:01.170 --> 21:05.517
him and doing it with joy that he might be,

21:06.624 --> 21:10.136
that Christ might lay hold of him. Then verse 13,

21:10.714 --> 21:14.499
he says, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended

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or gained or yet achieved. But one thing

21:18.654 --> 21:20.965
I do, here's where I think we need to start.

21:21.943 --> 21:25.858
He says, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to

21:25.874 --> 21:29.387
those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize

21:29.981 --> 21:32.965
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now here's where it gets a

21:33.465 --> 21:37.409
little messy. Can you and I let go of our past successes,

21:37.987 --> 21:40.858
reputations, the expectations of other people,

21:41.372 --> 21:44.857
what we've invested in in our life with this education

21:44.986 --> 21:48.069
or whatever. Can we let go of that or let

21:48.118 --> 21:52.165
that be part of what God wants to use to bring us

21:52.213 --> 21:55.233
into his goals? And can we let go of our failures?

21:55.827 --> 21:58.846
Yeah. Or our perceived failures or our self-hatred.

21:59.103 --> 22:02.251
Yeah. That sort of thing. And well, that's really a big

22:02.315 --> 22:05.993
thing because if you're going to hold onto all that stuff, you can't, you can't

22:06.026 --> 22:09.059
open your hand to receive the new stuff. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

22:09.477 --> 22:11.643
So what do we do with that? How do we get rid of, or how

22:12.143 --> 22:15.076
do we forget? How do we, how do I forget? He says, forgetting those things

22:15.576 --> 22:18.301
which are behind. What did he have to forget? Well, he had to forget the

22:18.801 --> 22:21.157
people he put in jail, the people that died because he turned them in.

22:21.654 --> 22:24.927
He had to forget, um, you know, that anger, that rage,

22:25.200 --> 22:28.617
that religious self-righteousness, that pride, that arrogance,

22:29.291 --> 22:33.077
that self-centered, self-satisfied, covetous, you know,

22:33.690 --> 22:36.840
behavior. He had to forgive himself. I guess the key is,

22:37.357 --> 22:41.024
can you forgive yourself for believing

22:41.299 --> 22:44.124
those lies? Yeah, and he knew,

22:44.414 --> 22:48.347
he knew he was forgiven. You know, he says, I obtained

22:48.379 --> 22:51.409
mercy because I did it ignorantly

22:51.668 --> 22:56.215
and in unbelief. So he

22:56.715 --> 23:00.115
says, yeah, I think it's 1 Corinthians 15, he was talking about

23:00.615 --> 23:03.862
that. So he did it ignorantly in unbelief,

23:04.006 --> 23:07.634
and he forgave himself. He knew that the Lord had forgiven

23:08.134 --> 23:12.273
him, and he was able to move forward with what Christ

23:12.773 --> 23:16.624
had for him. Well, forgiving also means like letting go of the things you were

23:17.025 --> 23:20.669
resting in, counting on to get you through a good

23:20.781 --> 23:24.056
life, many achievements, merits, or on the other side,

23:24.088 --> 23:27.267
many failures, many drug addictions, many treatment programs,

23:27.379 --> 23:31.264
many this, that. Either side, either side of that coin is the same coin.

23:31.875 --> 23:35.327
It's like, okay, I have all this good stuff that I should be able to

23:35.827 --> 23:38.281
get in, or I've got all this bad stuff that should have to keep me

23:38.362 --> 23:42.344
out. Neither one is gonna mean anything

23:42.392 --> 23:46.342
at the end. Yeah, because Christ Jesus is our solution and

23:46.842 --> 23:50.227
our salvation. Absolutely. So in 1 Corinthians 15,

23:51.367 --> 23:55.054
uh, verses 9 and 10.

23:55.232 --> 23:57.885
He says, for I am the least of the apostles,

23:58.402 --> 24:01.944
who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I

24:02.122 --> 24:05.271
persecuted the church of God. He says, but by the

24:05.335 --> 24:09.547
grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not

24:10.047 --> 24:12.926
in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all,

24:14.231 --> 24:18.166
yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me. So he

24:19.816 --> 24:23.346
he let go of all this stuff. He says, I'm not

24:23.846 --> 24:27.534
worthy because of my past, but yet he just poured it

24:27.598 --> 24:30.806
on. But he said, it was not

24:31.306 --> 24:33.438
my effort. So he went from the effort,

24:34.497 --> 24:38.443
religious effort, which you got to be really uptight to live

24:38.943 --> 24:42.374
in that religious bondage, uptight, trying to do it

24:42.874 --> 24:46.001
all right, blah, blah, blah, on and on it goes. But then what happens,

24:46.065 --> 24:50.319
he says, when he came to the Lord, he just became

24:50.819 --> 24:53.659
radical. He just came moving forward.

24:54.156 --> 24:58.266
And it wasn't in his effort anymore. He says, I labored more

24:58.766 --> 25:02.601
abundantly than they all. In other words, I gave it my best shot. I just

25:03.101 --> 25:06.904
kept going, going, going. But he said, it was not in my own

25:07.000 --> 25:10.580
human self-effort. It was what? The grace

25:10.933 --> 25:14.318
of God. Which was with me. And notice

25:14.818 --> 25:17.076
how that Paul was pulled out of a religious,

25:17.686 --> 25:21.214
good, righteous, sort of self-righteous life.

25:21.695 --> 25:25.400
Think about the demoniac. He was pulled out of a total other

25:25.900 --> 25:30.002
side of the pit, you know? And so it doesn't matter

25:30.035 --> 25:33.242
which side, where you start, where you

25:33.742 --> 25:37.059
get pulled from, you know, religious self-righteousness or demonic possession.

25:37.877 --> 25:40.638
Um, but what, you know, Paul thought he knew,

25:41.345 --> 25:44.571
what you and I think we know, most of it is really a

25:44.635 --> 25:47.942
contrived, programmed propaganda.

25:48.022 --> 25:51.281
It's a demonic narrative of the world. And we don't know really what

25:51.781 --> 25:54.909
God's plan is for the most part, or what the, what is the outcome.

25:55.551 --> 25:59.147
But if you think you know

25:59.163 --> 26:03.208
what's right in your direction, your destiny, good or bad, the pit

26:03.240 --> 26:07.381
you're in, the destruction that surrounds you, The key for deliverance

26:08.136 --> 26:11.604
is to surrender to the

26:12.104 --> 26:15.440
Lord Jesus Christ and forgive yourself. Forgive those who've

26:15.940 --> 26:19.357
hurt you. That means you release them from your judgment. Turn that

26:19.550 --> 26:22.825
crime committed against you over to God. And how do

26:23.325 --> 26:27.031
you forgive yourself? You say, Lord, I ask you to forgive me. Release me.

26:27.416 --> 26:31.237
Forgive me for believing the lies I believed about myself, about others,

26:31.269 --> 26:34.331
about you. Forgive me for believing lies.

26:35.101 --> 26:38.562
I release the judgments of my life, myself, the others to you.

26:39.187 --> 26:42.472
I turn the crimes committed against me by others through the counsel

26:42.972 --> 26:45.854
of the enemy. I turn those over to you, Lord God. I want you to

26:46.354 --> 26:50.149
be the judge. All I want to do now is follow you and

26:50.485 --> 26:54.027
commit everything the rest of my life, all my strength and energy and gifts and

26:54.091 --> 26:57.601
aptitudes and whatever destiny you've called me to commit

26:57.633 --> 27:00.245
that to you, Lord Jesus, and your kingdom.

27:00.838 --> 27:03.820
And some of us are more, how can I say,

27:03.949 --> 27:06.965
low-key. We would say, well, I just, I don't know if I want to be

27:07.078 --> 27:10.062
radical. I don't know, what will people think?

27:10.223 --> 27:13.689
And, and, and I'm not really that kind of person.

27:13.753 --> 27:17.780
I'm more mellow and all that stuff. But it's not

27:18.280 --> 27:22.049
a matter— you can be radical for Jesus. We have

27:22.097 --> 27:25.515
this bad rap on being radical for Jesus. It's just something

27:25.611 --> 27:29.045
crazy. Yeah. And so here's something— being

27:29.157 --> 27:32.654
radical for Jesus is is where the power is.

27:33.343 --> 27:36.037
That's where the power is. Because it's where the purity is. Yeah.

27:36.759 --> 27:40.671
But it's not radical for Jesus. It's not just living on

27:40.783 --> 27:42.595
high emotions.

27:43.814 --> 27:46.844
It's not being stupid and insensitive.

27:47.598 --> 27:51.495
Being radical for Jesus is not being loud and obnoxious,

27:52.248 --> 27:55.904
even though you might be loud sometimes, but you're not— sometimes people

27:55.936 --> 27:59.481
that think they're so radical for Jesus are just obnoxious,

27:59.770 --> 28:03.300
just nasty. But what being radical for

28:03.800 --> 28:05.771
Jesus is— being solid,

28:06.605 --> 28:08.659
loving, uncompromising,

28:08.836 --> 28:11.708
consistent, Holy Spirit-led.

28:12.238 --> 28:14.436
It's being wise, durable,

28:14.869 --> 28:18.704
faithful through all the seasons of

28:19.204 --> 28:24.096
life and ministry. So there's seasons of, of great fruitfulness,

28:24.256 --> 28:28.126
then there's seasons of winter, where nothing seems to

28:28.626 --> 28:31.805
be happening, but you're still radical for the Lord. Well, I really

28:31.837 --> 28:35.418
like those words. It's not based on all

28:35.547 --> 28:38.816
these durable perceived results.

28:39.235 --> 28:43.261
Durable, consistent, faithful through all the seasons, not obnoxious.

28:43.761 --> 28:47.585
It's really based— this radicalism comes

28:47.601 --> 28:51.152
from a radical love, the radical love that God has for us,

28:51.216 --> 28:54.860
and we're responding to that in kind. So we're Knowing not only that we

28:55.360 --> 28:58.160
are loved, but we can love others and not be afraid. So,

28:58.386 --> 29:01.702
it's an uprooting of fear, going back to

29:02.202 --> 29:05.433
the original foundation. The original foundation was God walking with Adam and Eve in the

29:05.933 --> 29:09.242
garden in the cool of the day. They weren't afraid. They were conversing.

29:09.306 --> 29:13.052
They were learning. They were fellowshipping. And go ahead.

29:13.390 --> 29:17.280
Yeah, in the book of Acts here, where they were being threatened to

29:17.344 --> 29:21.024
just say, you know, don't preach in the name of Jesus anymore.

29:22.115 --> 29:26.835
They prayed. Here's how they prayed. Acts 4:29.

29:27.670 --> 29:30.784
Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to

29:31.284 --> 29:35.569
your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by

29:35.617 --> 29:39.229
stretching out your hand to heal, that signs and wonders may

29:39.729 --> 29:43.002
be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed,

29:43.018 --> 29:46.887
the place where they were assembled together was shaken, And they were

29:47.079 --> 29:50.402
all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word

29:50.902 --> 29:54.062
of God with boldness. These are not laid-back people.

29:54.559 --> 29:57.930
If they were fearful, they said, okay, we're being threatened

29:58.430 --> 30:02.473
here to shut down this message that we're bringing. But they said,

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God, pour it on, pour it on. Give us

30:06.456 --> 30:09.744
boldness. Boldness there means freedom of speech. We're going to

30:09.808 --> 30:12.954
speak. We're going to do this. We're going to keep going. Be afraid,

30:13.163 --> 30:16.983
Lord. Keep going in the midst of all this. Stretch forth your hand to heal.

30:17.673 --> 30:20.463
Wow. May your power come to heal today. What is going to happen when the

30:20.963 --> 30:24.858
people who know God get this same radical boldness to stand in

30:24.906 --> 30:28.482
the courtyards and in the streets and in the medias and in the

30:28.562 --> 30:32.010
Instagram and wherever they all are to stand up and speak

30:32.026 --> 30:35.538
and declare the hope of eternal life that comes through

30:36.038 --> 30:40.173
Jesus Christ and through the radical changes and letting go of

30:40.269 --> 30:43.701
all the trappings of this world, uh, whatever that might've been,

30:43.878 --> 30:47.711
however it might've bound you and find out who

30:47.727 --> 30:51.402
you are in Christ and stand up. I mean, this is exciting because

30:52.060 --> 30:55.559
this is the only way to go, really. I mean,

30:55.687 --> 30:58.126
you can drift. You think you're going to drift into heaven,

30:58.656 --> 31:01.657
but you're not going to drift into heaven. We're going to stand and having done

31:01.769 --> 31:05.460
all to stand, we're going to be bold in God and declare because he

31:05.540 --> 31:08.943
is returning. He says, repent, which means submit, change your mind,

31:09.633 --> 31:12.666
go, because the kingdom of

31:12.698 --> 31:16.292
God is at hand. And so I believe this radical

31:16.792 --> 31:20.431
fervor is not meant to be coming out of fear and insanity.

31:20.495 --> 31:23.687
It's meant to be coming out of love and boldness like Paul. I'm going to

31:24.187 --> 31:27.618
give up everything so I can fellowship with you, Lord. I can know what you're

31:28.118 --> 31:29.992
going through. I can, you know, be like Jesus.

31:30.826 --> 31:34.436
Radical Christianity is what

31:34.936 --> 31:39.088
is to be mainstream Christianity. That's right. So Lord, we pray

31:39.588 --> 31:42.921
for this new revelation to your people, encouragement,

31:42.937 --> 31:46.866
boldness, strength, endurance, forgiveness, that they may let go of what they

31:47.366 --> 31:50.763
think they are and what they thought they were and go forward into the power

31:50.795 --> 31:54.307
of your anointing, your return, your resurrection power to

31:54.807 --> 31:58.541
lay hands on the sick, heal the lepers, cleanse the lepers,

31:58.573 --> 32:01.861
and raise the dead and cast out demons, Father God, that we

32:02.005 --> 32:05.517
will preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ boldly

32:05.630 --> 32:09.462
and without embarrassment, without shame, Father God, and we will not

32:09.962 --> 32:12.817
be ashamed of you. Because you said if we are ashamed of you, you'd have

32:12.849 --> 32:16.110
to be ashamed of us when you return in your glory with your angels.

32:16.158 --> 32:19.467
So Lord God, stir up the people who are listening today, encourage their

32:19.515 --> 32:23.371
hearts, give them the next revelation that they need to have to walk in the

32:23.871 --> 32:28.157
power of your Holy Spirit, of your truth, of being truly

32:28.189 --> 32:31.771
sold out, committed, and standing and having done all to

32:32.271 --> 32:34.904
stand for you, Lord God. In Jesus' name, we ask these things.

32:35.899 --> 32:39.078
Amen. Amen. And what about, you know, righteousness?

32:39.591 --> 32:43.572
You know, Paul was trying to just achieve all this righteousness

32:43.684 --> 32:47.728
by what he did and thinking righteousness was from doing

32:47.857 --> 32:51.307
everything you can to keep as much of the law as you possibly

32:51.807 --> 32:55.914
can. Then he realized that the righteousness

32:55.946 --> 33:00.263
that only— that really counts, the only righteousness that counts is

33:01.001 --> 33:04.529
the righteousness of Christ. Which is imputed to us,

33:04.609 --> 33:08.230
imparted to us when we put our faith in Christ Jesus.

33:08.615 --> 33:11.915
Now you've got a book called A Case for Righteousness. Tell us about that.

33:12.300 --> 33:15.889
Oh yeah. A Case for Righteousness is a step-by-step starting

33:15.985 --> 33:19.030
at the, in the pit, basically in the place of the strongholds where

33:19.530 --> 33:23.260
you've been locked up and blocked out from your own life and goes one

33:23.356 --> 33:27.554
page at a time all the way to the place of freedom, uh, where you

33:27.859 --> 33:31.737
can walk in fullness of forgiveness and get

33:32.330 --> 33:35.857
delivered from the lies. And so this is A Case for Righteousness, is a

33:36.357 --> 33:40.393
manual that is actually a Bible study. And each page is

33:40.441 --> 33:43.647
a study for the day or for the group. And so

33:43.871 --> 33:45.971
A Case for Righteousness, I would recommend it.

33:46.452 --> 33:49.994
It's great. It covers a lot of areas, a lot

33:50.494 --> 33:53.857
of subjects, all kinds of things that are questions that are stumbling

33:53.906 --> 33:57.513
blocks. So A Case for Righteousness, you can get that on Uh,

33:57.834 --> 34:01.046
our website at liferecovery.com and also check

34:01.546 --> 34:04.676
out our newest podcasts. Uh, you can get them on Spotify.

34:04.805 --> 34:09.526
You can also get it now on YouTube. Um, and it's called Truth

34:09.703 --> 34:13.943
Over Feelings Podcast. And it's a conversation between

34:14.120 --> 34:17.798
myself and our granddaughter who is very

34:18.071 --> 34:21.412
inquisitive and very, um, sold out for

34:21.444 --> 34:25.103
Jesus. So it's an interesting, tool.

34:26.080 --> 34:29.639
So if you want to check out what might be helpful for

34:29.703 --> 34:33.919
the younger generation, especially Truth Over Feelings podcast

34:34.015 --> 34:37.654
on YouTube or on Spotify. God bless you.

34:37.895 --> 34:38.648
Talk to you soon.

35:03.771 --> 35:07.047
Rescue Radio, 'cause there's a war for your