Making it About Jesus

Marcel: 00:00:07

Welcome to the Deeper Dive Podcast brought to you by the OC church of Christ.

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The Deeper Dive Podcast is about going

deeper into God's word, learning new

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insight and taking a fresh look at

the verses the impact our daily lives.

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Today we have the honor of

hearing from Reese Neyland.

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Reese was an Evangelist for over

35 years, serving across the us in

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Florida, Boston and Los Angeles.

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He also worked two more years for the

nonprofit organization, HOPE worldwide.

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Reese is currently the Associate Director

for the Western US for Renew Network.

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You could check out

their website, renew.org.

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Reese now resides in Santa

Clarita with his wife, Mary Kay.

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This episode is the first of a

three part series titled "Learning

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The Art Of Motivation From Jesus.

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Not surprisingly Jesus is the greatest

motivational leader in human history.

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And in this series, Reese will help

us to learn from Jesus' example.

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All the lessons are based in the initial

call of the first disciples as recorded

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in Mark chapter one verses 16 through 20.

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Each episode was recorded

from a sermon by Reese.

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There are two handouts that will

be referenced in this episode that

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you can find in the show notes.

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This first message is titled

"Making It About Jesus."

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So get your scuba gear and

let's dive deep into God's word.

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Here's Reese Neyland.

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Reese: Have you ever noticed, some

of you have been following Jesus

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or been a Christian for a while.

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Have you ever noticed how sometimes

people start out their, their Christian.

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Faith and their walk with in Christ.

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And they have a lot of enthusiasm

and a lot of passion, a lot

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of joy, a lot of excitement.

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And then over a period of

time that that can fade.

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And, uh, perhaps that's

even happened to you.

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And, uh, certainly if you've been around

a while in the, in the church and been

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a part of the church for a while, then

you've seen that happen and it may

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have happened to yourself as well.

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And then there's other people that

no matter how many years have been,

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they just still seem to have the

same, you know, the same fire,

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the same passion, the same faith.

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They have a growing faith and, you know,

then, but, but what's the difference?

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Why is it that some seem to really,

you know, continue and grow and

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others seem to perhaps fade over time?

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And, uh, I don't know all the

answers, but I think I actually

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know the most important answer.

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Maybe this will help you and

maybe this will help you with

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people that you know, that might

find themselves in that position.

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And I wanna share that with you today.

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Look over in Mark chapter one, and,

uh, we're just gonna read, um, a

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couple of scriptures today, but we're

gonna dig in there a little bit.

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So I don't think you'll feel cheated

as far as the Bible concerns.

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But there's only gonna be one thing

that you need to walk out and remember

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today that's gonna help you with, you

know, just continuing to be inspired and

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motivated about your Christian faith.

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One thing.

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And we're gonna go all the way back

to the beginning with Jesus and

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when Jesus started his ministry.

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And it's in March chapter one.

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Mark is a man who's recording

this story and he makes sort of

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a, a summary statement about the

beginning stages of Jesus' ministry.

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And he says this in Mark chapter

one, verse 16, as Jesus walked

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along the sea of Galilee.

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He saw Simon.

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Now you may know that later on, uh, we

know him as Peter Simon Peter, we saw

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Simon and his brother Andrew, casting a

net into the lake for they were fishermen.

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Come follow me.

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Jesus said, and I will make

you fishers of men at once.

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They left their nets and followed him.

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When he had gone a little further,

he saw James son of Zebedee

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and his brother John in a boat

preparing their nets without delay.

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He called them and they let their father

and they left their father Zebedee in the

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boat with the hired men and followed him.

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Now I'm gonna come back and

summarize and let me just say.

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Some of you who may have heard me preach

through the years may have heard me

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say similar things as today, as, uh, as

I've said in the past, but I'm okay with

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that because this is such a big deal.

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And in this summary statement, what Jesus

said three different times here, he says,

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is He's calling people and the same, if

he would call us today to come to the

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faith to be what we call Christians.

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What does he say three different times?

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He says, follow me.

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And throughout the four accounts

that we have of the life and ministry

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of Jesus, written by Matthew, mark,

Luke, and John over and over again,

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dozens of times, what is the call?

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Jesus says, come.

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Follow me.

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So you ready for your one point.

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You wanna stay inspired, you wanna stay

motivated, you wanna keep on growing, you

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wanna keep on going, make it about Jesus.

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Does that seem too simple to you?

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Make it about Jesus.

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Jesus made it about him.

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I'm glad Jesus made it about him.

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And think about how inspiring

it was for these guys.

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There eventually ended

up being 12 of them.

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We call them apostles.

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They were guys that Jesus specifically

was with for basically three years,

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and he was with him every day and they

got to know him and they were friends

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with him and they saw him and they.

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Spent time with him and they learned

how to preach and teach and how to

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have great relationships and how to

be connect and be close to people.

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And they just learned everything

really about what it meant to, to

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follow God and to be a Christian just

from being personally with Jesus.

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You ever wish that you

had that opportunity?

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How inspiring would that be?

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And it was so inspiring for them that,

you know what they, some later on a man

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named Luke wrote and what we call the,

the Book of Acts, he said they went out

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and they turned the world upside down,

with the exception of that one guy Judas.

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That was a traitor.

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These guys spent three years with

Jesus and they were never the same,

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even after Jesus was gone, even after

he was no longer physically present.

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They could not help themselves.

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They were willing to go to prison.

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They were willing to die.

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They gave up everything.

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They risked everything.

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They never stopped believing

from everything we know in

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the Bible and in history.

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You know why?

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'cause for them, it was all about Jesus.

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It was all about Jesus.

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I'm gonna keep talking about this.

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You know why?

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There's only one point today.

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I mean, what else am I gonna talk about?

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But let me go back to this scripture

just a minute, because I wanna

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make sure you understand something.

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You know this, if you're reading

the Bible for the first time, this

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little summary statement here could

seem a little bit strange because

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Jesus walks up on these guys.

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It almost looks like he walks

up to these total strangers

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and he says, come follow me.

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And he sort of mesmerizes them, you know,

and they just sort of drop everything.

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And one of 'em even left his dad in

the boat, you know, how rude was that?

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And, you know, and follows him.

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Two of 'em did.

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But what we know from good thing,

we have Matthew, mark Luke and John,

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we actually know from John's account

chapter one, that he actually had

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met these guys nine months ago.

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So this wasn't their first meeting.

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They had developing a relationship and

he'd been, Jesus had been preparing

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them for a time when they would

make a decision, not just to follow

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him, but to, to make a more serious

decision, which was to follow him with

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the intention of being like him and

continuing the work after he was gone.

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And so, uh, and then there's a lot more

to this story than just what's here.

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If you go over to Luke chapter

five, there's a parallel account

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where there's a whole thing.

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Some of you that are really love

the Bible may have read it before,

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but it's, it's pretty fascinating.

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It's, you know, there was, the

guys were out fishing that day

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and they couldn't catch any fish.

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And Jesus shows up with a huge crowd

and, you know, the crowds pressing

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him, you know, against the shore.

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And the guys are over there.

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They didn't even come to church that day.

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Uh, they had been out fishing

and he says, Hey, you guys, you

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know, uh, can I borrow your boat?

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'cause crowds about to push

me into the water here.

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And they go, sure, yeah.

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You know, they were friends.

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He says, yeah, you know, and

they rode out from the shore and

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Jesus finished his sermon out.

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'cause none of them could walk on water.

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That's a little bit of a spoiler alert

for something that happens later on.

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But anyway, uh, so later on

after he finished his sermon, he

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said, Hey, you know, guys, how'd

you guys do fishing last night?

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Not so good.

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He goes, well, you know, why don't

we, why don't we go try, why don't

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we, bro, go out and try again?

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And you know, if you know the whole story.

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And then there was this big

catch of fish and Peters, go away

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from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.

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And you know, there's a whole story about

this day, but, you know, Mark, he just

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look at how he summarized that, you know,

it seems to me that, that, that, that,

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that Mark must have been married because

he's like a lot of husbands, he just gives

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the fewest details that are possible.

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Right.

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At least that's what my

wife tells me all the time.

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You know, I, I just, you know, I just

give the, she always wants more details.

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I, I don't know if the other women

are like that, but anyway, uh, but

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he just cuts right to the chase.

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Yeah.

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But the good thing that's helpful about

summary statements is, and maybe that's

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even the reason Mark wrote this way.

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Because then you don't

miss the main point.

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The main point is, and he says it

three times here from the beginning,

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Jesus said, come follow me.

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Make it about me.

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And when you're the son of God,

it's okay to make it about you.

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Now the problem we have, you already

know what I'm gonna say, right?

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Is we like to make it about us.

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Who's the guy?

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Who's that country singer.

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It just popped into my head, who's

the country music singer that

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wrote that song and said, sometimes

I like to make it about me.

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Yeah, that's a Toby Keith song.

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Uh, see, I lost 90% of my audience,

but thank you for whoever said that.

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We like to make it about us,

but it's gotta be about Jesus.

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Now here's the thing.

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Are you ready to get down,

down, down and dirty here.

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Lemme speak to some of you that I know.

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There's people in here have been a part of

our church, our fellowship of churches for

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a long time, decades, maybe even sometimes

we start with Jesus, but along the way

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we get distracted and we get detoured

and it becomes about something else.

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And sometimes it becomes about the church.

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Can we be honest here?

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Oh yeah.

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I, uh, I've been one of the church

leaders, some of you know this here in

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Los Angeles, at least for a long time.

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And, uh, you know, at different

times I'm sort of proud of that.

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And other times I'm filled with shame.

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'cause we made a lot of mistakes.

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One of the mistakes that we made along

the way that we all made together leaders

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in the early days of the Los Angeles

churches, we made it about the church.

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We did, we led the church to make it

about the church instead of making it

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about Jesus the way it needed to be.

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Because see, there's a problem

when you make it about the church.

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You know what the problem is?

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Yes.

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The problem is the church is made

up of people like me and you.

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The church.

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Is destined to disappoint, right?

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I'm not saying the church is not God's

plan, and I'm not saying it's not a

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great plan, and I'm not saying it's

not a perfect plan, but it's not gonna

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be a perfect place and it's not gonna

be filled with perfect people, right?

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You ever been to a bad church service?

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Lemme tell you, I've been

to bad church services.

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You ever heard a bad sermon?

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The sermon was too long, or it was

confusing, or it was boring or even worse?

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It was all three.

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I heard a lot of bad sermons, and that's

just the sermons I've preached, right?

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No.

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Oh, thank you.

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Thank you.

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That's so sweet.

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So sweet.

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No, but I mean, people leave and you

know, I've been around a long time.

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People leave, you know what, almost

everybody who leaves, leaves because

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of the church and they may or may

not have a good reason to leave.

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I'm not saying there's never a reason to

leave a church, but a lot of times it's

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because we haven't made it about Jesus.

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And the reason we're no longer

inspired and motivated is because

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we're too focused on this.

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This, I dunno if you know what my wiggling

fingers or, or, or, or, or pointing you.

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It's, it's encompassing you.

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It's this, okay, we made it about

the church instead of about Jesus.

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You know what else we

made a mistake doing?

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I'm just speaking those of you who, if

you can't relate to this, that's okay.

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Those of us who are part of the

LA church for a long time, I hope

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I'm not being too honest here.

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We made it not just about the church, but

about the church leaders and what happens

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when the church leaders disappoint.

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I've been disappointed a lot.

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I've been disappointed in myself.

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There's definitely things I would do

differently if I could go back and

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change the last 30 something years,

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but it's not just me.

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I'm disappointed in a lot of people.

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I worked with a lot of people who

are my leaders, a lot of people

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who were lit by partnered with, but

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here's the bottom line.

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I hope you'll join me today

if you're not there yet.

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And if you need to recognize where you've

gone off and and made some mistakes,

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then that's what we're here for today.

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Saved by Grace.

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I'm sure you're as excited as I

am to be, to be saved by Grace.

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I was praying on the way over here.

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Like I said, I'm telling you, the older

I get, the more I appreciate Grace.

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I'm saying, God, you know,

I'm praying every day.

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God, you know, so happy that I

can be saved by grace because I

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see so much the older I get and

the more I see things clearly.

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And I'm not saying I see things

clearly now the way I need to,

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but you know, you can see more.

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I go, Ugh.

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So glad I could be saved by grace

because it wasn't for grace.

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I got no business standing up here.

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I got no business stand up here sharing

the Bible with you if it wasn't for grace.

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Okay, so let me move on 'cause

we do have one more scripture.

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But here's the thing, I just

wanna make sure that we get this.

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I love the church, but I

don't worship the church.

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I worship Jesus.

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I love the leaders in the church, but I

don't worship the leaders in the church.

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I Worship Jesus.

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And it may sound too simple to

be true and but it's profound.

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The main difference I believe in

the people who continue to thrive

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in their faith is that they are the

people who as the years pass, not

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just maintain, but they keep pursuing.

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Jesus.

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Look over in Philippians three.

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This is written by this,

well-known Christian missionary.

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Well-known in Christian

circles named Paul.

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You may or may not have heard of him,

but he's writing this 30 years later than

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what we just read after the time of Jesus.

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He's written it 30 years later

than Jesus walked on the earth.

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Now here's the interesting thing about

Paul that you may or may not know.

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Paul was this great Christian missionary

and I wrote down some of these things

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that during his time he was actually

baptized into Christ and started following

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Jesus after Jesus had already left the

earth and that during these 30 years we

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know of we, he started over 20 churches

that we know of and he wrote 13 letters.

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One of these is Philippians to the

church in Philippi that we include in

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our New Testament when we're trying

to learn about, we believe they

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were inspired by God and all this.

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And we regard Paul, many of us do

who've studied him and gotten know

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him as one of the most inspiring and

motivated and greatest Christian leaders.

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But here's the thing

that you might not know.

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Maybe you already figured it out.

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Paul never met Jesus

in the physical sense.

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He wasn't one of those guys that

walked with Jesus during those three

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years that he was here that we read

about in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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So Paul is just like us in that

he never had the opportunity to.

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To rub shoulders and do life with Jesus.

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Yet he became who he was.

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And that encourages me because then

I go, well, if it it was possible for

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Paul who never personally in a truly

physical sense knew or met Jesus,

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then it must be possible for me.

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But how was it like that with Paul?

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So here as you get a glimpse, and

I think it just makes the point.

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It makes the point so clear.

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The one point that we've already,

that I've already shared with

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you, 'cause Paul writes this in

Philippians three verse seven.

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Now, just again, you may have read

this many times, but consider the

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context of what I just told you about

who Paul was and it's 30 years later

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and he's already done so much, right?

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Yeah.

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And he's near the end of his life.

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He's probably, from what we know, he's

gonna probably live about three or four

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more years before he goes on to be with

Jesus personally and be with the Lord.

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Verse seven, but whatever

was to my profit.

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I now consider loss

for the sake of Christ.

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What is more?

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I consider everything a loss compared

to the surpassing greatness of

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knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for

whose sake I have lost all things.

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Do you see how graphic

and profound that is?

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He says, whatever good in my life,

before I became a Christian, and just

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same way since I became a Christian,

he says, there's only one thing.

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: 00:23:14

There's only one thing that's driving

me, and you put it in today's context of

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this sermon, I'm making it about Jesus.

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I just wanna know Jesus.

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Isn't that what he's saying?

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He says, I consider them rubbish,

that I may gain Christ and being found

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in him not having a righteousness of

my own that comes from the law, but

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that which is through Christ, through

faith in Christ, the righteousness

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that comes from God and is by faith.

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I wanna know Christ and the power of

his resurrection and the fellowship

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of sharing and his sufferings

becoming like him and his death.

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: 00:23:51

And so somehow to attain from

the resurrection from the dead,

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Paul never physically had the

opportunity to know Jesus.

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But you know, we know a little bit

about Paul's history and so we know that

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during the early, he was converted right

after Jesus, shortly after Jesus left.

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Not that long after.

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He got to know the other Peter,

James, John, the other guys,

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they were all contemporaries.

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You know what I, I, you know, we don't

know all the, we know some of their

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: 00:24:37

conversations and all that, but you know,

what I picture him doing is he would

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: 00:24:42

get with them and he'd sit down with

them and he'd say, you, you knew Jesus.

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Tell me about Jesus.

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Tell me the stories about Jesus.

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Tell me who he was.

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Tell me how he lived.

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Tell me everything you know about Jesus.

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: 00:25:05

Don't be like, I don't want to ask Mark.

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'cause he just gives summary statements.

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I wanna know details.

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: 00:25:16

And then when those gospels started coming

out, Matthew, Mark and Luke and, and, uh,

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you may not know this, but these were.

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: 00:25:24

They didn't, these documents were not

actually formed and produced until

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: 00:25:30

they, maybe Mark was the first one

that came out in its official sort of

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: 00:25:36

form about the time this was written.

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: 00:25:38

But there was these, I don't wanna get

too technical with the academics, but

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: 00:25:43

there was these little stories, they're

called Pericopes, but there was these

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: 00:25:48

little stories that were written and

oral traditions that were passed away.

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There were stories that went around

that spread through the Christian faith.

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: 00:25:57

'cause they didn't have a new,

they didn't have the Gospels.

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: 00:25:59

All these people think about that.

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: 00:26:00

All these people that were converted

in the first century, and many of them,

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thousands of them were willing to die.

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: 00:26:08

And you think about the Romans and

the gladiators and you know, all

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these people that were willing to

go to their death, they never met

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: 00:26:14

physically, most of them, Jesus either.

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: 00:26:19

But they heard the stories.

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: 00:26:22

And they knew and they

made it about Jesus.

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: 00:26:26

And that's why when the Romans said,

Hey, you don't say Jesus is Lord,

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: 00:26:32

you say Caesar is Lord or you die.

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: 00:26:35

And they said, no.

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That is one thing we cannot do

'cause Jesus, Jesus is my Lord.

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: 00:26:47

But these stories were floating around

and I just picture Paul everywhere

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: 00:26:52

he went and you know, there were Jews

and there were people who traveled

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: 00:26:57

and there were early Christians.

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: 00:26:58

And I just pictured Paul everywhere

he went going, did you know Jesus?

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: 00:27:04

Have you heard any stories about Jesus?

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: 00:27:09

And that people start telling

story, oh, you know, I've heard

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: 00:27:12

that one, but tell it to me again.

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: 00:27:16

Some people say, well, you

know, I'm so tired of the Bible.

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: 00:27:19

I've read it so many times.

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: 00:27:21

I keep reading the same

stories over and over again.

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: 00:27:25

How sad is that?

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: 00:27:28

Because I gotta tell you this,

like these two scriptures today,

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: 00:27:35

mark one and Philippians three.

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: 00:27:37

How many times have I

read those scripture?

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: 00:27:42

But you know what, even recently, if

you just apply yourself and pray, you

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: 00:27:48

start to see new things you see, things

you didn't see before, your life can

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: 00:27:54

still be changed in your heart, in the

eyes of your heart can be opened to see

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: 00:28:01

things, to see truth, and to see truth

about Jesus that you never saw before.

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: 00:28:07

Even though, so don't you neglect

your Bible study, don't you

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: 00:28:13

neglect Jesus, make it about Jesus.

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: 00:28:17

So I've left you a handout today.

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: 00:28:19

But I sent these for you

because to me, I wanna be like

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: 00:28:23

Paul, I wanna be this person.

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: 00:28:25

So on one page of this is something

I wrote, I wrote this on Easter of

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: 00:28:31

Twenty-fifteen, the title of it.

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: 00:28:34

I'm not gonna read it to you.

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: 00:28:35

It's why I am still following Jesus.

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: 00:28:38

And I wrote it on April 12th, 2015.

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: 00:28:42

It's just something I wrote down

to try to make it personal about

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: 00:28:49

why I am still following Jesus.

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: 00:28:54

So all I'm reasoning is,

is an example for you.

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: 00:28:57

Perhaps you wanna spend some time

and write out some things for

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: 00:29:04

yourself or for your prayer times.

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: 00:29:08

For your times of communion with Jesus

about why you're still following Jesus.

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: 00:29:15

Okay?

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: 00:29:16

Just an example for you on the

back, is a very practical thing.

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: 00:29:23

It says, suggestions for

knowing Jesus better.

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: 00:29:27

This is stuff that I've put

together through the years.

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: 00:29:31

It first starts out with some suggestions

about how I study the Gospels in order

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: 00:29:35

to get some deeper understanding of

who Jesus was and not just, you know

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: 00:29:40

how sometimes you just read a story

and just read it and you go, I don't,

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: 00:29:43

I didn't get anything out of that.

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: 00:29:45

But if there's some specific questions

that you ask yourself, sometimes you

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: 00:29:49

can go deeper and get things, see things

that you didn't see before, you know?

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: 00:29:55

So then I, uh, also have a

list of my favorite authors

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: 00:29:59

and preachers about Jesus.

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: 00:30:04

They may not be your favorite authors

and preachers, but I just like,

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: 00:30:09

I search for people that inspire

me when they talk about Jesus.

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: 00:30:14

But here's the lesson.

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: 00:30:15

See, and this is just me, you,

you can write your own list,

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: 00:30:19

but I wanna be like Paul.

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: 00:30:21

I wanna be this person who is searching,

combing the universe, looking for ways

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: 00:30:33

that I can make it about Jesus.

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: 00:30:36

'cause you know what?

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: 00:30:40

I'm not supposed to tell you this, but

I'm sixty-eight years old, my wife.

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: 00:30:45

Tells me, don't ever tell people that.

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: 00:30:48

'cause when you tell 'em that they,

they, they don't listen to you anymore.

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: 00:30:54

But I am, you know, I'm, I'm mostly

retired, you know, I'm still active

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: 00:31:00

in some ways, but you know, I'm

not a paid church leader anymore.

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: 00:31:06

But you know what?

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: 00:31:07

I'm not interested in fading out.

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: 00:31:13

I may not be a paid church anymore.

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: 00:31:14

I'm not interested in fading out.

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: 00:31:16

I'm interested in flaming out.

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: 00:31:17

Come on.

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: 00:31:19

Right.

448

: 00:31:19

Yeah.

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: 00:31:22

I'm interested in doing what

Paul did and so many others.

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: 00:31:24

I'm interested in the fire and

there may be many things, but the

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: 00:31:30

one thing I know for sure is that

we need to make it about Jesus.

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: 00:31:38

In John 12, verse 33, Jesus

said, when I'm lifted up again,

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: 00:31:45

Jesus is talking about himself.

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: 00:31:47

Not when the church is lifted up,

not when the leaders are lifted

455

: 00:31:50

up, not when you lift yourself up.

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: 00:31:52

Jesus said, when I'm lifted

up, I'll draw men to myself.

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: 00:31:57

' cause Jesus is the one who inspires

and motivates, and Jesus is the

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: 00:32:03

one who saves our soul, and Jesus

is the one who changes our lives.

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: 00:32:08

Marcel: Thank you, Reese.

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: 00:32:09

Reminder the handouts that were

referenced are in the show notes.

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: 00:32:14

Again, this episode is part

one of a three part series.

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: 00:32:17

Our next episode will be

"Made To Make A Difference."

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: 00:32:22

If you want to get connected to us

or want to donate to the program, go

464

: 00:32:25

to our website OCchurchOfChrist.com

or through social media @theOCchurch.

465

: 00:32:33

Join us next time for part two of

Learning The Art Of Motivation From Jesus.