Episode 2
Made to Make a Difference
We continue with our series "Learning the Art of Motivation from Jesus" from Reese Neyland. Reese explores more from Mark 1 when Jesus called his first disciples to be fishers of men and gave them an inspiring purpose.
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Transcript
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 that impact our daily lives.
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:Today's episode is part two from our
series "Learning The Art Of Motivation
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:from Jesus" by Reese Neeland.
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:If you haven't listened to the
last episode, I would encourage
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:you to do that before you continue.
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:With this episode, this episode is
titled "Made To Make a Difference."
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:Friendly reminder, that this message
was a sermon delivered by Reese.
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:So get your scuba gear and
let's dive deep into God's word.
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:Here's Made To Make a Difference.
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:Reese: We're gonna go big today.
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:We're gonna go deep today.
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:I want you to consider something
that may be frankly uncomfortable for
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:you, and I just want you to answer
this question in your own heart.
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:Are you really a happy person?
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:Are you a happy person today?
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:Have you, have you found happiness?
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:Are you experiencing happiness?
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:And that's a tough question
to even honestly consider.
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:And if you will, consider it.
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:I'm gonna give you credit for having
some courage because many people don't
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:even want to consider the possibility.
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:They don't even want to think about
it 'cause it's too painful, frankly,
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:because it seems surprisingly
difficult to find happiness.
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:Have you found that to be true?
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:I've certainly found that to be
true and sometimes success in life.
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:We have goals, we have dreams.
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:Sometimes success can be
especially disappointing.
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:Because we thought that when we achieved
this, we thought when we possess that
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:we thought we got to a certain place
and a certain place in life and certain
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:things happen that we would be happy.
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:But sometimes it's not.
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:Sometimes we don't find that, and
it's, it's sometimes it's not even
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:necessarily our, our, our lack of
happiness is not necessarily powerfully
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:poignant, but we just, if we're
really honest and we'll stop and
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:consider in our quiet moments, we.
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:We're experiencing some vague discontent.
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:There's something missing.
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:There's some nameless longing that we have
not yet experienced, and so I believe that
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:Jesus is gonna help us with that today.
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:This is not the only answer, but Jesus
is gonna give you a part of the answer
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:today of what we all need to understand
if we're really gonna be happy.
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:Sound good?
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:So in John chapter four, some
of you may know the story.
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:Uh, let me just give you a
little, a little background.
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:There are four different accounts
of the life and ministry of Jesus,
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:Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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:And if you get a chance to read
them, they're all great there.
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:There are a lot of similarities and
there are a lot of differences, but
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:when you put it all together, you
get a picture of who Jesus is, right?
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:And so I love that.
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:I love.
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:Studying of Jesus.
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:I love learning about Jesus.
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:I love sharing about Jesus.
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:I love preaching about Jesus.
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:And so John is kind of unusual.
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:If you don't know, I'll just,
uh, maybe explain a little bit.
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:Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar,
those three, and if you read them,
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:there are a lot of similar stories.
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:And there's even a lot
of similar verbiage.
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:And so they obviously had each
other's accounts in front of them.
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:Most scholars believe that Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John were written significantly
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:be, uh, for John was written.
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:John was one of the apostles, uh,
close to Jesus, close friend of Jesus.
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:And perhaps this is even 20 years later
that John comes along and he's got, he's
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:seen Matthew, Mark and Luke's account
of the life and ministry of Jesus.
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:And he says, it's almost like he says,
you know, there's some stories that still
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:need to be told about who Jesus was.
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:And so what you find in John is some
very unique accounts of stories about
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:Jesus that you don't find in Matthew.
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:Mark and Luke in this story
in John four about Jesus.
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:This is from early in his ministry
and he's meeting this woman that
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:we call the Samaritan woman.
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:And uh, he and his, uh.
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:Followers.
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:His disciples were
traveling from Jerusalem.
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:They're going up to, uh,
Galilee in Northern Israel.
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:And so they passed through this area
called Samaria, and they meet this woman.
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:. So we're gonna pick up in
chapter four, verse four.
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:It says, now he had Jesus
to go through Samaria.
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:So he came to town in
Samaria called Sychar.
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:Near the plot of ground, Jacob
had given to his son Joseph.
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:Jacob's, well was there and Jesus
tired as he was from the journey.
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:Sat down by the, well, it
was about the sixth hour.
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:That means it was about noon.
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:They started their clock at, uh, six A.M.
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:Not sure what time you start your day,
but that's when they started theirs.
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:And so it says then as some, when a
Samaritan woman came to draw water,
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:Jesus said, will you give me a drink?
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:His disciples had gone
into the town to buy food.
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:So we're gonna stop there.
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:And I want you to understand the scene.
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:It's very significant that he, Jesus
stops to talk to this Samaritan woman.
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:If you weren't aware, there
was a tremendous cultural
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:divide between men and women.
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:Women were widely regarded as
second-class citizens in that day.
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:And so Jesus actually in
Christianity, were part of the.
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:The, the forces that came to
bear that really improved a
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:lot of women in the world.
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:I have read that.
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:It was said that during that time, one of
the Jewish leaders, a, a teacher of the
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:law, that it was such, the divide between
men and women was so great that if he was
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:walking out in public and that his wife
passed by, he would not acknowledge her.
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:This is where all the women groan.
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:I'm trying to imagine how
that would work with Mary Kay.
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:Right.
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:And so anyway, so there's that
divide, but then there's this racial
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:divide, which we understand that
it's still part of our world, uh,
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:between the Samaritans and the Jews.
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:But Jesus breaks through all that.
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:And Jesus has this wonderful
conversation with his woman.
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:While his disciples, his followers,
his companions, had gone into town
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:to buy food 'cause they were hungry.
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:Because what do men, what
happens to men around noon?
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:They get hungry and angry
if they don't get food.
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:And so we're gonna end our service
about noon because I know what happens.
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:There might be some women that are
spiritual enough to stay if I keep
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:going, but if I go much past noon,
men are just gonna start filing out.
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:We're gonna lose them.
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:They're gonna go find the nearest
groceries that they can find, okay?
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:So he is hungry, so he has this
great conversation with this woman.
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:And we're not gonna look at that
conversation today, but I, we're
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:gonna skip to the, to the end of the
story, but I wanna say if you wanna
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:know better how to reach out and
share your faith and help other people
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:who don't know Jesus to find Jesus.
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:This is a great conversation.
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:And John, it's not in the
other, you can't find it.
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:Matthew, Mark and Luke.
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:John has a very specific account
of what this happened and what this
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:conversation he had with this woman was.
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:And of course there's a great result
to it and the woman comes to faith.
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:But now for our purposes, we're gonna
go all the way to the end of the story.
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:We're gonna go over to verse twenty-seven.
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:So we get to the end of the story.
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:Jesus has this great conversation
with this woman, and we
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:get to the very end of it.
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:And then verse twenty-seven, it says
Just then his disciples returned.
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:And we're surprised to find
him talking with a woman.
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:It was surprising because that just
culturally wasn't done in that day, right?
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:Mm-Hmm.
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:But no one asked, what do you want?
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:Or Why are you talking with her?
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:Then leaving her water jar.
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:Remember, the woman had come to draw water
from the, well, the woman went back to
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:town and said to the people, come see a
man who told me everything I ever did.
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:Could this be the Christ?
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:They came out of the town and made
their way toward him, toward Jesus.
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:Meanwhile, his disciples urged him.
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:Rabbi, that means teacher, eat something.
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:But Jesus said to them, listen.
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:Now, Jesus said to them, I have food
to eat that you know nothing about.
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:Then his disciples said to each other,
could someone have brought him food?
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:You can understand why they were confused.
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:Right?
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:Right.
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:We were talking about men earlier, right?
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:It's science, it's simple math.
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:There's hungry men.
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:They go to get food.
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:They bring food back, and
Jesus is no longer hungry.
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:There's only one conclusion
you can come to, right?
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:Somebody already brought him food.
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:So that's what they're, they seem not so
much concerned about what's going on with
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:a woman and all that as they are about,
I mean, we went to a lot of trouble.
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:Right.
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:You know, the first McDonald's
we went to wasn't open.
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:Right.
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:And I don't know why it was Sunday.
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:Maybe it was a Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A
because if you try to get that
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:Christian chicken on Sunday,
you're not getting it on Sunday.
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:So whatever the problem, so he said, we
went to all this trouble and we went to
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:get this food and we brought it back,
and now he's not interested in eating.
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:And Jesus says this thing that they,
this is early in the ministry of
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:Jesus and they didn't get it yet,
but they got it later and we need
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:to all make sure we get it today.
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:He says, look, I have food.
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:I have food that you know nothing about.
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:You see where we're going?
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:Yeah.
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:Then the next thing it says, Jesus
says, verse 36, my food said,
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:Jesus is to do the will of him who
sent me and to finish his work.
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:Do not say four months more than
the harvest, I'll tell you, open
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:your eyes and look at the fields.
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:They're ripe for the harvest.
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:Even now, the reaper draws wages.
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:Even now, he harvests the crop for
eternal life so that the sower and
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:the reaper may be glad together.
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:That's the saying.
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:One sows and another reaps is true.
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:Yes, I sent you to reap what
you have not worked for.
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:Others have done the hard work and you
have reaped the benefits from their labor.
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:And as the story goes, the woman leaves
and she goes and tells the story of her
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:interaction with Jesus and the fact that
this, that she's become convinced that.
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:This very well might be the
Messiah, the promised one.
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:And so Jesus is there and the disciples
are coming back with the food.
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:But there's something else
that happens on the horizon.
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:It says the whole town starts coming
out and you just gotta picture it.
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:If you're Jesus and you're there and
you desperately want to, to share your
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:faith and you want other people to
know the message, the good news, and
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:so here they come and they're just,
they're coming over the, the hill.
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:They're coming over the horizon,
just imagine what Jesus is feeling.
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:Jesus is feeling like, this is why I came.
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:This is what I'm here for.
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:This is what matters most.
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:This is what I wanna do.
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:See, it turns out when it comes
to happiness, God has made us all
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:so that you will never be happy.
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:You will never experience joy.
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:Until you understand the
need to make a difference.
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:We were made to make a difference.
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:Yeah.
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:Amen.
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:God made us to make a difference.
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:That's what Jesus is
trying to tell these guys.
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:He says, you guys don't
understand this yet.
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:It's early in the ministry.
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:You don't get it yet.
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:I have food, I have
some, I have soul food.
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:How many of you like soul food?
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:I like soul food.
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:I'm from the south.
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:I even wrote down I, I see some
of my favorite soul food, if you
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:know what that chicken fried steak.
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:Oh yeah.
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:Collard greens.
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:Fried okra.
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:Hush puppies.
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:Yeah, see there's a lot of Southern
people grew up in Southern California.
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:They're confused now.
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:Sweet potato pie.
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:. You know, those are maybe
foods that we crave.
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:Jesus understands something.
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:He wants us to understand it.
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:You are created, whether you're
a Christian or not a Christian.
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:You are created with a hole in your soul.
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:And one of the things that's
gonna be required if you're ever
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:going to be fulfilled is you're
ever going to be happy, is you're
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:gonna have to live in such a way.
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:That you are making a difference
in the lives of others.
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:Even people who are not
Christians have figured this out.
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:There are many people who have
professed no faith, and we claim
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:no faith, but they're doing great
things and they're serving the poor.
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:They're serving the community, or
they're making a difference, and
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:you know what they're experiencing?
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:Fulfillment from that, right?
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:That hole in their soul.
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:Is being fulfilled.
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:You know, I have friends that are
a part of Alcoholics Anonymous,
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:AA, which is a great program or
a great recovery kind of program.
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:But one of the things, you may or may
not know this, but one of the things,
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:if somebody's going through that program
and they're recovering and they get to a
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:certain point, you know what they ask you
to do, to turn around and be a sponsor to
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:help somebody else, because that's where
you're gonna continue with your recovery.
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:That's where you're
gonna find fulfillment.
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:I remember clearly the first
time that I perhaps experienced
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:this in my Christianity.
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:I grew up going to church and uh, it
was sort of a traditional type church.
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:And, uh, unlike this church,
they didn't give us many choices.
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:Um, so I was kind of, it was kind
of an empty experience for me.
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:And, and I don't wanna blame the
church 'cause I was interested,
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:frankly, at that point in my life.
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:I was in my twenties, I was probably
more interested in sin than I was.
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:Jesus.
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:And so anyway, I came to a
certain point, I went to graduate
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:school at University of Florida.
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:So I, I, I went to University of
Florida and I went to the, the ministry
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:there and it was a great ministry and
was very focused on reaching out and
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:helping others to become Christian.
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:And so, you know, I'm just sort
of trying to figure this out.
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:I love the church and I love the
spirit, and I love the relationships,
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:and they taught me how to have
a personal connection with God.
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:And they taught me how we were helping
each other to be our best spiritually.
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:And we were reaching out to help people
that weren't saved to become saved.
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:And I was just sort of
trying to figure it out.
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:So one of the things that I did was
early on, there was an older gentleman
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:who was studying the Bible, thinking
about his decision to become a Christian.
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:And there were a group of guys that
were studying the Bible with him and
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:helping him and key relationships.
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:I only met him at church, it'd be
like if somebody was visiting here.
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:And I would talk to him a few minutes,
maybe even before or after church.
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:And he was telling me about his
journey and he was telling me about
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:his, uh, thinking about his decision
he wanted to make, whether Jesus
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:would be Lord of his life or not.
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:And.
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:I, You know, I was a brand
new Christian myself.
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:I just made, I was sort of trying to say
something that would be helpful, right.
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:You ever in that position where
you just pray, God help me to say
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:something that would be helpful.
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:So I was sort of that.
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:I wasn't sure at all.
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:And so we would talk and we would
share, and this went on for several
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:weeks and this was back in the day.
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:So we may not be able to relate to this.
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:Some of you might, right?
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:Where at the end of the service
there would be an invitation.
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:And so the guy who was the preacher,
somebody who was looking and acting like
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:me, would say, Hey, if you want to either
repent publicly of sin or you wanna make
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:a decision to make Jesus the Lord of your
life, come forward during this last song.
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:And so this, this is what we had going
on, and I remember where I was sitting
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:in the auditorium that we're in, and
this guy that I had talked to stepped
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:out of the aisle and walked forward.
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:I knew that he was coming forward to be
baptized and a little bit more background.
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:You know, I had been in sin, living in
sin for many years, and my heart was hard.
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:I had not been able to
cry for a long, long time.
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:There were even times I wanted
to cry and I couldn't cry, just
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:couldn't break through the,
the heart, and all of a sudden.
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:When this man stepped forward and
came, the tears just, just flowed.
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:First time in years.
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:What happened there?
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:I wasn't even one of the people.
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:No doubt.
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:You know, they didn't have any sharing
before his baptism, but if they had, he
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:probably would not have mentioned me.
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:I mean, I wasn't even one, but
I thought in some way, in some.
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:Some small way, maybe I had a
positive influence, right on this
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:guy making the most important
decision that he can ever make in
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:his life, and that is to be baptized
into Christ and to make Jesus Lord.
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:And my soul, there was a hole in my soul.
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:Yeah.
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:And I figured it out that day.
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:Let me just say it.
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:I wanna be so clear that
nobody misunderstands me.
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:You'll never be happy.
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:You'll certainly never be happy the way
God intended you to be happy until you
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:deliberately decide in your actions and
in your life to live in such a way as to
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:make a difference in the lives of others.
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:Now, sharing your faith.
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:And helping somebody.
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:It's not the only way you
can make a difference.
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:And we need to understand that we make
a difference in a lot of different ways.
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:You make a difference
when you help the poor.
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:You make a difference when you serve
somebody who has a need and you make a
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:difference when you visit somebody who's
sick and, and you make a difference when
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:there's a somebody else that you know
that's struggling with their faith and.
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:You know, they're a Christian,
but they're got issues going on.
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:And you, you show up and you sit down and
you love them, and you pray with them,
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:and you talk with them and you know, and
you, you say that prayer, God help me.
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:I don't know what I'm saying.
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:Help me to say something that's helpful.
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:That's right.
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:Lot of different ways you
can make a difference.
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:Right.
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:But let me tell you something, you will
never make any more significant difference
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:in anybody's life than when you make a
difference in somebody's eternal address.
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:That's right.
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:When you help somebody to find Jesus,
when you help somebody to find salvation,
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:that's the gift that keeps on giving.
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:Yes, it's, that's the gift that
keeps on giving all through eternity.
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:It's not the only way to make a
difference, but there's no more
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:significant way to make a difference.
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:Church, I hope we don't forget
that when we moved here in 19
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:eighty-nine, some of you, when we
moved here in:
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:There were 50 of us but you know
what's happened since 19 eighty-nine.
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:Yeah.
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:What are we about 6,000 now
all around the Orange County.
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:Inland, Empire, Ventura County, Antelope
Valley, wherever you know la, all that.
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:How did that happen?
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:Well, it happens because God works.
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:That's right.
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:But it also happens because people
decide that they wanna make a difference.
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:That's right.
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:And they reach out and they share
their faith with their neighbors.
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:Yeah.
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:And with their family.
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:. And with their friends, and
then with their co-workers.
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:Because they wanna make a difference.
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:Tell you, the funny thing about it
is, even when you're trying to make a
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:difference, just the fa, even if you don't
necessarily feel like you're succeeding
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:or it's not really working, the fact
that you're ex extending yourself, the
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:fact that you're putting yourself out
there, you're gonna find a fulfillment
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:that you will not otherwise have.
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:You were made to make a difference.
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:That's right.
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:You weren't made to live for yourself.
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:You weren't made to list.
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:You know, I think bucket list is
great, but you know, a lot of times
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:bucket list is like all the things
I wanna do for myself before I die.
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:It's not wrong to have a bucket list,
but if you're living for your bucket list
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:instead of living for Jesus and living for
your neighbor, you're not gonna be happy.
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:I don't care if you do
climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
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:I don't care if you do jump out of an
airplane, which I don't understand.
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:Why would anybody jump out
of a perfectly good airplane?
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:How many of you have done that?
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:See, there's A, You're strange.
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:Strange.
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:We love you though.
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:We love you though.
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:It's not normal.
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:I'm just saying.
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:But we love you though.
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:I don't get it.
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:Why would anybody run a marathon?
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:I mean, I can understand running
and I try to exercise and, you
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:know, run a little bit and you
know, get in shape and all that.
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:But a marathon, do you know that's
26.2 miles and you're supposed
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:to run it consecutively, right?
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:I mean, you're not supposed to
spread it out over a week or a month.
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:Why would anybody do that?
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:Not on my bucket list, but
we gotta, we gotta live.
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:You were made to make a difference.
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:Did I say that already?
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:Is anybody confused?
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:You were made to make a difference.
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:You know, I mean, one of the
things that we're doing, uh,
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:we've been in my ministry back in.
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:Our part of Los Angeles, we've
been serving at a, a Union
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:Station Homeless Services in
Pasadena for quite a few years.
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:We feed the homeless,
we help the homeless.
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:And you know, they started a new
program just recently and because
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:people in our church were so active
and so involved in serving with
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:them, they, they really like us.
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:We we're good volunteers.
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:Yes, we're, and so we showed up and so
they said we're starting a new program.
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:A mentoring program for people who
are transitioning out of homelessness.
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:That's good.
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:And so that's, they're gonna,
you know, no longer be dependent
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:on others for food and services.
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:But the idea is they're gonna
go back into the community,
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:resume a more normal lifestyle.
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:And they wanted, they asked
specifically if our church would
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:supply mentors to mentor people.
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:And so.
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:I, I, uh, I signed up for that, but I
gotta tell you, I'm back praying again.
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:Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing here.
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:Just help me to say something
that make a difference, right?
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:I've never mentored a
homeless person before.
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:Right?
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:And the truth is, I'll say this, I, I
don't wanna, you don't have to raise your
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:hand, but some of us have experiences
with homelessness and some of, some,
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:maybe you have yourself or maybe somebody,
you know, it's a, it's a serious.
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:And most of the people that are homeless,
I mean, there's a lot of different reason
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:that people are homeless, but one of them
is they've got drug addiction problems
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:and they got mental illness problems.
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:And just the fact that they're getting
off the street doesn't mean that all
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:their drug problems have gone away and
all their mental illness has gone away.
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:And I'm sitting here and I, I
mean, I am, can I be honest?
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:Pray for me.
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:I am nervous.
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:I go.
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:I am a.
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:Normal God-fearing pastor, you
know who lives in Pasadena.
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:I got no idea.
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:I said, what do you do?
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:How do you mentor somebody who's homeless?
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:Well, you know, people are homeless
that are making this transition.
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:They can feel lonely because all
their friends are still on the street
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:and they need somebody to help them.
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:It may be as simple as balancing their
checkbook, and it may be as simple as.
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:Uh, you know, being a friend and
being there for them and helping
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:them to feel like they can do it
because their tendency is gonna be
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:to go right back where they were.
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:And not just me.
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:There's a bunch of people that might
say, okay, this is a new experience.
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:We have never done this before, but
we are gonna sign up and we're gonna,
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:we're gonna try and I'm gonna pray.
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:God, help me to make a difference.
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:But, you know, I'm excited about it.
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:I'm more excited about this than I am
going down and doing, you know, we, we
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:make breakfast on Saturdays a lot of times
on Saturdays and we'll feed the homeless.
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:I'm more excited about this.
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:Right.
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:But you know why I'm more excited, right?
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:Because this is a chance to
make a bigger difference.
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:To make a life difference, not just
feed somebody who's hungry one meal.
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:And so I don't know how
it's gonna turn out.
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:Enough said, God made
you to make a difference.
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:There's a hole in your soul that
will never, you'll never find
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:fulfillment until you live your
life as God intended you to be.
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:To live, to be somebody makes a
difference in the lives around you.
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:And you know what?
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:That's gonna help them.
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:You know who else is gonna help?
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:It's gonna help you.
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:You're gonna find something that
you're not gonna otherwise find
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:when you decide to live as God
made you and to make a difference.
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:Marcel: Thank you again for listening.
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:Listening to this episode of Deeper
Dive by the OC Church of Christ.
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:Our next episode will be the finale
of our series, Learning The Art
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:Of Motivation From Jesus, that
is titled As I Have Loved You.
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:If you want to get connected to us or
want to donate to the program, go to
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:our website, ocChurchofChrist.com.
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:or on social media @theOCchurch.
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:Join
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:us next time for our next Deeper Dive.