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This program is made possible by the partners

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of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Spend

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your life here developing a

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close, tight,

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intimate relationship with

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Jesus. He did not die for us

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so we could have a religion. He

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died for us so we could have a

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relationship with

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Him. I

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do what I do because I've

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seen God's power transform my own

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life and He will do it

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for you. The key

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to everything is found in God's Word.

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I'm Joyce Meyer and I believe

0:44

that God can heal you everywhere

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you hurt. Starting

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here this weekend, the book of Philippians.

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I think you're going to learn some very

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valuable things. First of

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all, let me say that although

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Jesus was a man of

1:06

many sorrows and acquainted with grief,

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He possessed a deep

1:12

joy beyond anything that

1:14

the world could offer. As

1:17

He faced the terrible death on

1:19

Calvary, He spoke to

1:21

His disciples and said, These things I have

1:23

spoken unto you that my joy

1:25

might remain in you and that

1:28

your joy might be full. He

1:32

said, I'm telling you these things because I want

1:35

you to have joy and not just any

1:37

kind of joy, but my joy. John

1:40

10, 10 is one of my

1:42

favorites. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and

1:44

destroy. But I came that

1:46

you might have and enjoy your life. So

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let me just ask and you don't have to give

1:53

me any visible answer, but just to get you

1:55

to think about it, how many of you are

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really enjoying?

2:00

your life. You

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see a lot of people are but

2:05

a lot of people aren't because a lot

2:07

of people think to enjoy life you

2:09

have to have no problems, way

2:13

more than enough money, everything

2:16

that you want and when

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Jesus said he wanted us to have his joy

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it's a joy that we can have

2:24

when not much of anything is

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going right in our lives. In

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the book of Philippians Paul

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mentions joy 19 times. It's

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the epistle of joy. No matter

2:42

what our circumstances are it

2:45

is our privilege as a

2:47

child of God to be

2:49

full of joy. Although

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Paul wrote this book while imprisoned he

2:54

still found joy. What

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was his secret? Well

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he mentions the mind and our functions of

3:01

the mind 16 times

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in the book of Philippians. So

3:07

joy he mentions 19 times.

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The mind and thoughts he mentioned 16 times.

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So how many of you

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already know that your mind,

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the thoughts you allow in your

3:20

mind are the thoughts you choose to

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think on have a lot to do

3:24

with your joy. Do

3:27

you know you can think yourself into being miserable

3:32

and honestly you can think yourself into

3:36

being happy. If you

3:38

sit around and think about what you don't have and what

3:42

people don't do for you that you think they

3:44

should do you can

3:46

have a miserable day anytime you want to have one. Just

3:50

get up and start thinking the wrong stuff in the morning

3:52

and just be

3:54

as miserable as you want to and feel sorry for

3:56

yourself all day and the devil will

3:58

join your party and just I think

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it's marvelous. Or

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you can say, no, I'm not thinking like that. Because

4:07

I know my thoughts are gonna affect my actions,

4:09

my thoughts are gonna affect my moods.

4:13

And I'm not gonna give the devil one more day of my

4:15

life. So

4:17

I'm gonna think about what people do

4:20

for me, and

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I'm gonna think about what I do have, not

4:25

what I don't have. And

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one thing I always

4:30

have is Jesus in my life. And

4:34

if I have Him, then I

4:36

don't really need anything else to

4:39

keep me happy. We

4:41

absolutely must remember and be

4:44

reminded often that

4:46

our time here on earth is so

4:48

short. Let's

4:51

don't make too much out of it. Because

4:55

when your life here is

4:57

over, it's not over. You're

5:00

gonna go somewhere else, and there's only two choices. Either

5:05

heaven or hell. And

5:09

if you've read anything at all about what hell's gonna

5:11

be like, I

5:14

think it's obvious that heaven is the best place

5:16

to choose. And

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the only way to get in there is to

5:20

believe in Jesus, to believe that He is the

5:22

Son of God, that He came, He

5:25

paid for your sins, He died for you. And

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the only way that you

5:29

can have real relationship with God is

5:32

through Christ. Spend

5:36

your life here developing a

5:38

close, tight,

5:42

intimate relationship with Jesus. He

5:46

did not die for us so we could have a

5:49

religion. He

5:51

died for us so we could have a

5:53

relationship with Him. I'll

5:58

say this again later in my teaching. but one

6:00

of the statements that I ran across

6:02

studying for this, you know, a lot of

6:04

this is about the

6:07

Apostle Paul and, you

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know, he had everything right. He had all the

6:13

religious things that you should have

6:15

to be the

6:17

right kind of person. And I

6:19

read a statement that said Paul had to

6:21

lose his religion to find salvation. Anybody

6:27

relate? You

6:30

know, sometimes we're so religious and we think we're

6:32

doing all the right things. I

6:34

can't stand it when I ask somebody if they're saved and

6:37

they say, well, I go to church. You

6:40

can go sit in the church all day long and that don't

6:42

make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage will

6:44

make you a car. So

6:52

we need to know him and the

6:55

one thing that

6:57

you have to invest if you

7:00

want to really know somebody is

7:02

time. And

7:06

you need more than 45 minutes to

7:08

an hour or an hour and a half once a week

7:11

or a couple times a month on Sunday morning. The

7:14

devil is working too hard out there and

7:18

we've got to be feeding ourselves the word of God

7:21

on a regular basis. How many

7:23

of you don't want to just do this? You want to

7:25

have victory. Amen. And

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how many of you don't want to just go to heaven? You want

7:30

to take some people with you? All

7:33

right. Well,

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19 times you talked about joy. You

7:40

know, our joy, it's very important for

7:42

people to see happy Christians. We

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should be the happiest people on the face of the

7:49

earth and that doesn't mean we have to go around

7:51

giggling and being giddy all the time, but

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it means that we

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should be able to have the same problems

7:58

that other people have and yet have. Handled

8:00

him in a completely different way Amen

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The joy of the Lord is my

8:12

strength the devil doesn't want your

8:15

stuff he wants your joy So

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Paul wrote this book while he was in prison

8:22

and keep that in mind as we go through

8:24

Philippians and He still

8:26

found joy. What was his secret? He

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thought about the right things He

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chose to have a positive perspective Even

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the worst circumstances cannot steal

8:37

your joy if you won't let them For

8:41

example when you experience a loss in

8:43

your life, do you focus on what

8:46

you've lost or what you have left?

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As you deal with people do you focus

8:53

on their weaknesses or on their strengths? You

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know most people that get divorces get divorces

8:59

because they have focused on what's wrong With

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their spouse for so long that that's all they

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see But

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if you stop them think about Some

9:10

of the things that you like that cause you to want to

9:13

marry them in the first place Come

9:16

on now, I got one woman that agrees.

9:18

I don't know about the rest of you As

9:26

you look at yourself Do you focus on

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all your faults and your weaknesses and what's

9:30

wrong with you? or do you focus on

9:33

the mercy and the forgiveness of God and

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the fact that Every day is

9:37

a brand new day and his mercy is new

9:39

every day Our

9:43

joy or the lack of it speaks a message to

9:45

the world and the Bible says that we are

9:48

the light of the world now Philippians

9:50

chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 Paul

9:55

and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus

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to all All the saints in

10:01

Christ Jesus who are at Philippi

10:04

with the overseers and the

10:06

deacons. Grace to you and peace

10:08

from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

10:10

Christ. Now normally you wouldn't

10:13

think that you'd get anything out of the greeting,

10:15

so we just read over the greeting and never

10:17

even really think about what it says. But

10:20

there's lessons just

10:22

in the greeting here. First of

10:24

all, I want you to notice that

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Paul did not call himself by a

10:28

fancy title. He

10:31

said this letter's from Paul and Timothy and

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our identity is servants of Christ Jesus. So

10:41

servants of

10:44

the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly what

10:47

we're supposed to be. Let's

10:50

see ourselves as servants. Come

10:55

on, don't look so excited. How

11:00

many of you could do more for others if you just would? Okay,

11:04

well, I think it's time

11:06

that we stop just teaching about things and start

11:10

doing things, amen?

11:13

So he calls himself a servant, but

11:17

you can't serve God and not serve people. See,

11:21

I think that's the thing that is

11:23

a shocking revelation. We think we're serving

11:25

God because we go and sing

11:28

some songs and put some money

11:30

in an offering plate and listen to a sermon, but

11:34

serving God means serving people.

11:37

Jesus is all about people. He's

11:41

a lover of people, amen?

11:45

See, Paul knew something that we need

11:47

to recognize here tonight, and he knew

11:49

that he did not belong to himself.

11:53

He said, I'm not my own, I've been

11:55

bought with a price. You

11:58

know, when we say we are redeemed. You know

12:00

what that means. Jesus bought us. Back from

12:02

the Devil was his voice. Literally

12:07

we were armor of power. And

12:09

the destruction of the Devil's it

12:11

was running our lives. And Jesus.

12:13

badass. With. His

12:16

dad, tears shed blood and his resurrection.

12:18

And the Bible says you are not

12:20

your own. You were bought with a

12:22

price, but I wonder how many people

12:25

really things like that. I don't belong

12:27

to myself. I.

12:29

Belong to. Now.

12:31

Course you can make your own decisions. You

12:34

can do anything you want to but have

12:36

we really wanna? Get.

12:38

With God and have the kind of relationship

12:40

with him that he wants to have was

12:42

as we have. So stop thinking that we

12:45

get to do. It washes. Do whatever I

12:47

want to do. What? Yeah, you can, but you know

12:49

the likely outcome. It's

12:53

all about surrender. And

12:58

anybody who's. Gonna have a real close walk with

13:00

God. I can just tell you right now you're not

13:02

going to get a rhythm you want. And.

13:07

You're gonna need to say happy

13:09

anyway. Come

13:13

on, wonder how long you'll lose? You

13:16

know, when you're twenty? You.

13:20

Think you've got all the time in the world. You.

13:24

Want this? You want that, you want submerged kind

13:26

of even afraid of the thoughts of dying because

13:28

my gosh, you've got so much live in the

13:30

do and so much you wanna do. And. You

13:33

know, going to time you're fifty? Which.

13:36

When you're two thousand and you don't think you'll ever be fifty.

13:39

But then all of us out. Before you

13:41

know it, you're fifty and you've done most

13:43

of what you wanted to do. You got

13:45

most of what you wanted to have and.

13:48

Then. To the time you're sixty, you realize

13:50

that all those things that you wanted. When.

13:53

You were twenty. And thirty And forty

13:56

rather, weren't all that important after all.

14:00

And then when you get 70 or

14:02

75 plus, my

14:15

thinking has changed so

14:17

much. I

14:19

just can't understand to shop now. And

14:22

I used to live in the shopping mall. I

14:24

mean, I would come home from a conference, and

14:26

right away I'd go shopping, buy

14:29

more stuff, take more stuff home. And

14:32

now I'm like, stuff annoys me. Has

14:38

anybody here gotten old enough that you've experienced

14:40

that yet besides me? It's

14:43

like, I don't want to just bring

14:45

more stuff into

14:47

my house. And I've thought more

14:49

about Heaven in the last year than I have in the

14:52

last 74 years. It's

14:55

kind of a strange feeling when you start

14:57

realizing, I mean, I know, I've

14:59

got less than 20 years. I

15:03

guess I could live to be 150, but I don't really

15:05

think I want to. And,

15:09

you know, there's nothing in the world that's very all

15:11

that interesting anymore. You

15:13

could easily get depressed reading the news. People

15:18

act so bad, they're so

15:20

rude. Everybody's mad at somebody.

15:23

People aren't happy. They

15:25

murmur and grumble and complain all the time. And

15:27

I'm just tired of all the gripey,

15:30

moaning, groaning, complaining people.

15:37

I just rather go sit in a room by myself and

15:39

listen to a bunch of people complain. Amen?

15:43

And I don't want to be like that myself. I

15:47

want to be happy and I want to be a servant

15:49

of Christ and I want to

15:51

be a blessing to other people every

15:54

single day of my life. Time

15:57

is short. In

16:01

1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, he said, are

16:04

do you not know

16:06

that your body is a temple

16:10

of the Holy Spirit within you whom

16:12

you have from God, you are not

16:14

your own. Going

16:26

back to this thing about servanthood for a minute, John chapter

16:28

13, the first 17 verses are a

16:33

favorite part

16:35

in the Bible for me, it's where Jesus washed

16:37

his disciples feet. And

16:41

I love in the beginning, it says, knowing where he came from

16:43

and knowing where he was going, he put on a

16:45

servant's towel. So you

16:47

can't truly serve if you don't know who you are.

16:52

Because if you're trying to find out who

16:54

you are, you're gonna think it's based

16:56

on what you do or who you

16:58

know or how you dress or how much money you have or

17:01

what side of town you live on. But

17:03

when you really know who you are,

17:06

then even a leader can

17:09

lay aside his leadership long enough to wash

17:12

some feet and

17:15

then pick it back up and do what

17:18

he's supposed to do. And that

17:20

washing feet just basically signifies

17:23

helping. What does it

17:25

mean to wash feet in practicality? Just

17:28

to help, just

17:30

to help. Get up every day and just

17:33

wanna help somebody. God show me who

17:35

I can help today. And

17:37

help can be financially, it can be through

17:39

encouragement, it can be through giving

17:41

somebody a ride somewhere, through babysitting,

17:44

through just whatever, just

17:46

helping people, help.

17:50

And you know there's actually people who

17:52

have the gift of help. And

17:56

I don't have that gift. I

18:00

have a gift of giving. I love to give

18:02

and make things happen to people, but

18:05

I don't have a gift of helps, so I

18:07

have to do it on purpose. Just because it's

18:09

not a natural gift for you doesn't mean you

18:11

get out of doing it. Hello.

18:16

Now, actually, I am really

18:18

into helps, but I like people to help

18:21

me. I'm

18:24

really good on that. But I

18:26

help other people on

18:29

purpose, and sometimes I

18:31

will purposely do little, seemingly

18:33

insignificant things that I wouldn't have

18:35

to do, because I think

18:37

it's good for us. Come

18:40

on, I said, I think it's good for us. Don't

18:44

ever say, well, I'm just a janitor,

18:46

or I'm just a clerk, or you're

18:49

not just an anything. Your

18:51

worth and value is not in what you

18:53

do. It's who you are in Christ. Amen.

18:58

So, he took off this

19:00

towel and he washed their feet, and when

19:02

he got to Peter, Peter said, oh no, Lord,

19:04

you're not gonna wash my feet. And I love

19:06

this, Jesus said, if I don't wash you, then

19:09

we have no part in one another. See,

19:13

you can't have real relationship if

19:16

you don't do things for one another, even

19:18

in a marriage. You have to

19:20

do things for one another, and if you

19:22

do that, it's gonna help keep the relationship strong.

19:25

And it can't be a one-sided relationship where one

19:27

person does all the giving and the other one

19:30

does all the taking. I've

19:33

had those one-sided relationships, and I

19:35

made my mind up about 10 years ago, I'm not

19:37

having any more of those, because

19:39

that's not real relationship. Real

19:42

relationship is not where one person does all

19:44

the giving and another person does all the

19:46

taking. And we have to even be careful,

19:48

like approaching our

19:51

Bible teachers, our churches,

19:53

our pastors, that we don't always go

19:56

to just get a blessing Or

19:59

to get a word. We.

20:01

Need to go with Assad and

20:03

mind of not only receiving but

20:05

given. Food: Can I

20:08

help through? Can I watch for that? What's lonely

20:10

are who are is no. We

20:13

don't always have to search for what's going to be

20:15

the most comfortable thing for us. But.

20:17

What's gonna be a blessing to

20:19

somebody else? Does anybody? Lasers denies?

20:25

You were been a prize or

20:27

glorify God in your body. You

20:29

are the house of God. I

20:32

am the house. Of God. God

20:34

lives in here. And

20:37

he lives in you through the holy spirit. And

20:41

The Holy Spirit. Main two

20:44

titles are.com. Further and is

20:46

I held for. Self.

20:48

If the spirit of God was living in

20:50

us, how can we not want to help?

20:55

I mean I would say if you don't want to help pretty bodies.

20:57

That was wrong. You might want to go back and

20:59

check about your salvation. Because

21:03

if prices in eyes his

21:05

nature is in us. We're.

21:08

Going to be greeted with the street people.

21:12

Were. Gonna want to go back

21:14

and apologize. Where.

21:16

I want to treat people good because

21:18

we know that God doesn't like. At

21:20

was Miss Freezes people are say the

21:23

truth good number. Years ago I got

21:25

an understanding on us and I have

21:27

a reverential fear on me of mistreating

21:29

people. It's.

21:31

Just not something that dog likes.

21:34

A man. Just.

21:38

A Romans Twelve. There's twelve different lessons

21:40

in that one chapter. Reduce.

21:44

Demand states you can find on. Nepal.

21:49

Also had Timothy with him who was a

21:51

much younger. Man.

21:55

In the Lord. And

21:57

he was mentoring him and ministry. And

22:01

so I just want to say to you, if you're a

22:04

more mature Christian, you

22:06

need to watch for younger Christians that

22:09

need a more mature

22:11

influence in their life. And

22:14

not only will you be helping them, but

22:16

you will be helping yourself. And

22:28

mentoring doesn't mean that you find somebody that's

22:30

going to ask you about every move they

22:32

make and now you've got somebody to boss

22:34

around all the time. It means

22:36

that you teach them not only by

22:39

word, but by example how

22:42

they should live. Paul

22:47

almost always started his greetings with

22:50

this term, grace and peace be unto you. And

22:53

boy that's another, I mean I could get a four part series

22:55

out of that. Because

22:59

you can have peace if you don't understand grace. And

23:04

grace is God's undeserved favor, but it's

23:06

also the power of the Holy Spirit

23:08

in our lives to accomplish through us

23:11

what we could never do on our own with

23:13

any amount of struggle and effort. In

23:16

other words, it's basically apart from me,

23:18

you can do nothing. So

23:22

if we learn how to talk to God

23:24

about everything and ask Him to

23:26

be involved in everything and to strengthen us

23:28

in everything, as I said earlier in the

23:30

exhort, pray your way through the day. God

23:34

help me get my contacts in. I

23:38

thought one morning, oh that's silly, I

23:40

don't need to pray about my contact lenses. And

23:43

I didn't. And I like to never

23:45

got them in my eyes. I

23:48

said okay God I'll keep praying. God

23:51

help me get these in. Help

23:54

me fix my hair. Ask

23:57

God to help you in everything. Just

24:00

be a non-negotiable thing. You

24:02

need help in everything you do.

24:04

Apart from me, you can do

24:07

nothing. And so Paul said,

24:09

grace and peace be unto you. If you live

24:11

by the grace of God, then you're gonna have

24:14

peace in your life. He

24:17

said in Acts 17, 28, for in

24:20

him we live and move and have

24:22

our being. Wow. In

24:25

him. This

24:28

is about so much more than just going to church.

24:33

In him we have our life. Apart

24:36

from him, we can do nothing.

24:40

Come on, maybe we're just a little bit too used

24:42

to Jesus. Maybe

24:47

we need to be

24:49

refreshed in what we really

24:51

have. My

24:55

gosh. Your

24:57

sins are completely forgiven

24:59

and washed away. You've

25:02

been justified, made just as

25:04

if you've never sinned. Your

25:07

name is written in a book called The Book

25:09

of Life. Jesus

25:12

is in heaven, preparing a place for you.

25:15

So where he is, you may also be

25:17

there. We don't need to just be excited about

25:22

what God can do for us, but

25:30

just excited about him. My

25:35

gosh, you're not going to hell. You're

25:38

not going to hell. We

25:49

all want this, but we think

25:52

it comes from these. So what

25:54

if we could find this in

25:56

the midst of these? It's

25:58

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