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 Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

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 If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

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 Thank you for joining us today.

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 So this is actually very interesting. The theme of the Nazirite has been a theme in my life

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 personally over the last 10 years. I grew up in this area, went to college, Penn State.

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 I encountered the Lord really at Penn State. Many of you know Shaei. We were roommates. He

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 doesn't come here every Sunday, but he's taught here a lot in the past. And for both of us,

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 the theme of the Nazirite was something that gripped us. And it was something that was held

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 out to us when we were young. And we're going to dig into a little bit about what the Nazirite

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 calling is, the spirit of the Nazirite. And really, it's about voluntary consecration.

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 And this vow, this section in number six, is set within the discipleship of the Torah.

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 It's kind of nestled in here and the Torah is just the first five books of the Bible. But

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 I just want to emphasize that everything we do as believers and followers of the Lord is empowered

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 by faith through grace. And we don't earn anything. So I want to make that clear,

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 because I want to talk tonight about voluntarily giving yourself to the Lord. And we do this

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 by His grace. We don't do this on our own merit. We don't do this on something that we earn.

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 But this is a mystery. And we know that the Lord creates the desire within us to come after Him

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 and to accept Him. And I don't want to really dig deep into the philosophy behind everything,

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 but I just want you to know that be okay with this mystery that the Lord creates hunger in us

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 and it's our responsibility to respond to that hunger. And I want to ask you guys tonight,

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 just to think very briefly in the beginning, what is the story that God has written

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 in your life so far, up until tonight? And what is the story that God wants to write

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 in your life and that He wants to do through you and He wants to build with you? Because seeking the

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 Lord and consecrating yourself to the Lord, it's about allowing God to use you to accomplish His

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 purposes in life. And when we focus on what God wants and giving ourselves to Him and emptying

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 ourselves of what we think we need and want, we actually reap joy and love and peace. And when we

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 empty ourselves of all the things we want and fill ourselves with all the things that God has for us,

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 we become our best self, so to speak. But we don't do it by focusing on our best self. We do

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 it by focusing on the Lord and seeking Him and voluntarily consecrating ourselves to Him,

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 putting ourselves on the altar. And so this message of the Nazarete when Shaei and I were in college,

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 it set us on fire to fast and to pray and to accomplish God's purposes in the earth.

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 And we'll get into fasting a little bit, but I'll just share a little bit of my story up front.

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 The Lord, after I encountered Him and I started to hear this message and this call,

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 you know, gave my life to Him, I'm going to serve you.

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 He touched me and as a response to the Nazarete theme in my life, I said, Lord,

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 I'm going to give you my weekends. And so just as a young 22-year-old, I just began to say, Lord,

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 I just want to give you my weekends to pray. And as best as I could, I just blocked out Friday night

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 and Dottie will remember and Roger will remember that we used to go over to the House of Promise

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 on Allentown. You guys, Chris and Jill and some other people were there too,

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 but it was just this little one-room schoolhouse and we just used to have prayer meetings there.

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 And we and a bunch of us were there almost every Friday night for a couple of years.

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 And out of that season of seeking the Lord and just as a young person giving Him my weekends,

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 which I was working at a bank during that time and also serving in our local church,

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 the Lord birthed His desire for me to reach Muslim people. And I remember sitting at my desk at

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 work just really unable to work. I was really probably not the best witness in the workplace

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 because I think my work suffered because I was just prayed a lot at my desk and I could have done

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 better. So I got convicted of that later, working on that now as I'm back in the workforce.

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 Sometimes if you don't pass a test once, the Lord makes you take it again. So right now,

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 I really feel like I'm retaking that test of just serving my employer. But the Lord began to

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 speak to me about Muslim people, 1.7 billion people who don't know who Jesus is, who bow their

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 knee to a God who doesn't care about them, who's not even real. He may even be a demon.

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 And I just was gripped with this and I just began to pray. And I was so dense at the time,

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 I didn't even want to go and be a missionary. I was just like, you know, I'm going to just pray

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 and I'm going to maybe reach Muslims here. And I started coming down to the mosque locally and

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 there's one right over here or here, I forget there, I guess that way. Yeah. And

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 walking in there and Chris and I walked in there one time together, we walked in and there's like,

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 no one there. And we're like, well, I guess we could go get some coffee. But just begin

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 to pray and to obey the Lord. And I remember one time the Lord spoke to me and he said,

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 now it's the time to be the answer to your prayer. And I was like, whoa,

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 I'm not ready for that. Because all I had, all I had seen about Islam was,

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 it's pretty ignorant at the time. It's just like, you know, ISIS, the extreme jihadis,

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 but most Muslim people are really wonderful, wonderful people and very nice and hospitable.

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 Anyway, and about a year and a half later, I joined, I quit my job and I joined a Bible school

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 in Colorado. And then about a year and a half later after that, I went full-time in Istanbul,

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 Turkey. And me and my wife, Sarah, just moved back after I served there about six years. We

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 served there about two years together. And over that time, we were able to lead maybe,

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 you know, 17 people to the Lord, give or take. And these are people that would never have

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 met Jesus if we want to have answered the call. And so this is part of my story with God. This

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 is part of my chapters that he's written in my life. And he's the author. He's the author of our

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 salvation and of our life. And it was in response, the reason I'm telling this story is because it

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 was in response to the themes in this section. And I want to encourage you as we go through this

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 to, to ask the Lord to get hungry with God and say, Lord, what story are you writing in my life

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 in the next chapters? And to also look back and celebrate the things that the Lord has done in

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 your life and to celebrate the chapters that he's written. And as I was just going through this and

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 preparing, I was just, I was getting hungry for the Lord to move like this again in my life.

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 And just asking the Lord, Lord, make me hungry. Make me hungry again. Open up. Open up my

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 spiritual senses that I would be hungry. And I just want to just want to invite us that as we go

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 through this, this scripture, just to pray that in your heart, it's like, Lord, make me hungry,

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 whether you are hungry for the Lord right now, whether you feel like you're at 10 out of 10 on

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 fire, just say, Lord, keep the grace for this. Keep the embers of my heart soft and hot and

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 tender and tend that fire. We talked about Leviticus over these past couple months. And the

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 thing about the priests is that the fire on the altar never goes out. And the fire on our hearts

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 needs to never go out as we are priests to God. And I just want to invite the Lord right now,

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 come Holy Spirit, blow on our flame, Lord, blow on our flame, fan our flame, Lord.

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 Lord, let us lay hold of this not in a legalistic way, but in a loving way. In Jesus' name, amen.

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 And that's one of the keys. I want to get that really straight and clear is that this is not

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 legalism. This is love. This is voluntary, just like the gift of salvation is free.

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 And that's why I said this section, it's nestled within the Torah. So when we're saved and we're

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 being discipled, the Torah is like discipleship. Torah means instruction. And in the same way,

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 we're new covenant believers, the same call to pursue God, the voluntary call to say,

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 okay, my children are saved, but which of you want to come deeper? Which of you want to go further?

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 Which of you want to get to know me a little bit more? And just do it out of love,

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 respond out of it from love, not of legalism. The worst thing would be just

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 people to go and feel a heavy burden tonight, but to leave with a heavy burden, but leave with joy

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 in your heart. Because somebody said once, there's two types of people in the kingdom.

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 There's workers and there's lovers. And the lovers always outwork the workers.

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 Right? And so it's the same kind of dynamic in relationships as well.

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 Okay. Verse one. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them,

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 when either a man or a woman makes a special vow, then vow of the Nazarite to separate himself

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 to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. So verse one and two,

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 right there, the Lord speaks to Moses and the Lord doesn't say, everybody needs to do this.

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 There are certain things in the law and in discipleship in our Christian life that

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 we are never to do. Like we are never to lie. That is a command, right? We are never to

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 betray. We are never to commit sin, even though sometimes we do. And there's grace and

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 forgiveness for that blood of Jesus is powerful to cover it. But we are to never do that.

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 And there are some things that are required. Like we are required to live in covenant with

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 God. That's a non-negotiable. That when you come into relationship with the Lord

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 and you have a covenant with him, you can't break that covenant. That's a non-negotiable.

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 But this is an invitation. This is not necessarily a command. It's just

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 whenever somebody wants to go further in life. So the first point is, this is voluntary.

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 You do not need to do this. This is not required of you. This is a free invitation to go deeper.

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 But anybody can do it. It's open to everybody. It's not, there's not a whole lot of hoops you

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 got to jump through. It just says, when? Either a man or a woman makes this special

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 vow of the vow of the Nazirite to separate himself to the Lord.

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 And we don't, the New Testament playing out of this is I'm allegorizing. I hope you can understand

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 that vows, Jesus has a very tough stance on vows. Like he just says, hey, let your yes be yes.

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 Right. But the spirit of the Nazirite is to pursue God. Whenever you want to separate and

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 consecrate yourself to the Lord, either for a season or just in general,

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 you can do it. It's an open invitation. Okay. So number one, it's voluntary. This is not a command

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 necessarily. Number two, verse three says, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.

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 He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice

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 of grapes or eat grapes fresh or dried. All the days of his separation, he shall eat nothing

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 that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. Okay. So what does this mean?

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 It's very clear in the Bible that wine and grapes, these are, these are blessings.

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 And yes, we're, we're not to, if you are the persuasion to have a glass of wine or a drink,

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 it's not necessarily forbidden. Although we are to live our lives in accordance with

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 keeping our body at the temple of the Holy Spirit and to abstain from drunkenness.

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 But we are allowed to have grapes. There's nothing wrong with grapes. There's nothing

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 wrong with grape juice. There's nothing wrong with wine per se in and of itself. God created it.

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 But you are not to consume these things if you make the vow of the Nazirite. So what's

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 the deal with that? This speaks to denying yourself legitimate pleasure for the seek,

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 for the sake and seeking of the highest pleasure, seeking God and experiencing God.

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 So this speaks really to fasting that, you know, will continue to allegorize. But in the

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 New Testament, this speaks, speaks to fasting and to prayer. And the call deeper of seeking

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 the Lord deeper is almost always accompanied with some type of fasting. And in my opinion,

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 my humble but strong opinion, it always has to deal with food. You can media fast, you can do

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 things, but it doesn't make you hungry, not looking at social media, not watching TV. It

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 doesn't make you hungry. And it's very important, I believe, that fasting has something to do with

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 your physical body. Now, not everybody can go without food for days or weeks,

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 but, you know, there's Daniel fasting and there's all different kinds of juice fasting and,

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 you know, consult with your doctor before you do anything. You know what I mean? Like,

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 oh, the commercial with the disclaimer, right? But it's something has to do with food,

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 giving up food. And there's just a mystery around fasting. And

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 this is the call that the Lord gives to us to abstain from legitimate pleasure

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 in order to put a stake in the ground and say, God, I want to follow after you. The Lord says

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 that if you seek me, I will seek you. That if you draw near to me, I will draw near to you.

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 And Jesus said, when you fast, not if you fast, right? That's the famous cliche

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 we like to say. But so in the early church, they fasted twice a week. I'll just give you

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 to give, you know, to lay any burdens on anybody. But I want to encourage us that the voluntary

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 pursuit of the Lord, going deep with the Lord, it involves fasting and prayer together.

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 John the Baptist, many scholars say that he was a Nazarite, that he consecrated himself

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 to seek the Lord in the wilderness and to not drink wine and eat grapes. And that there was

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 no razor that touched his head. I don't know if that's exactly in Luke chapter one or not,

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 I forget. But we can see this when his disciples say, hey, how come Jesus, your disciples drink wine?

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 Right? They're like, what's the deal? Like we, they had a little bit of a religious spirit,

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 right? Like, where are the Nazarite people? You know, we don't drink wine, right? That's not

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 how we want to take this, but they were the, they were definitely seeking after, seeking after the

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 Lord. And, and look at what John did. Jesus said that John was the greatest man up until now.

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 There was none greater than John the Baptist. And it's because he lived a life that was

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 sold out to the Lord. And he sought the Lord with prayer and with fasting and with,

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 giving himself to the preaching of the word. And all of our lives, I want to emphasize this,

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 all of our lives are different. Our callings are different. Don't ever look at somebody

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 and say, I want to be just like that person because the Lord wants you to walk out your own

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 life. Now, if you see someone doing something and it, it causes a desire in you, maybe that's

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 a sign that you have a calling as well. You know, somebody said that if you have

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 birth pangs, that doesn't create the baby. The baby creates the birth pang. So if God is

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 birthing something in your life and there's pain there and there's, there's desire to want to do

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 that, that means you have a baby, right? It doesn't mean the pangs don't create the baby.

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 The baby creates the pangs. And the Bible talks a lot about birthing things. And that

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 happened, that can happen spiritually where you, the Lord puts an idea in you or a vision in you

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 and it, it just ruminates in your so-called spiritual womb and it grows and it grows and

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 it grows. And then all of a sudden it comes out in a moment, in an instant and the pangs are there.

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 And so if you, if you see some, if there's, if you have pangs, take note,

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 take note of where, of what gives you the birth pangs.

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 I can tell you that I had major birth pangs around the, the issue of Islam and going to see,

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 seeing just Muslim people get saved. That was something that gripped me.

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 What, what grips you?

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 Does anything grip you? You sit here today and you go, I don't know.

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 But I want to encourage you to get with God and to just put aside some time to fast and to pray.

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 Maybe, maybe it's just a couple of hours where you decide, I'm going to skip breakfast and lunch

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 on a Saturday and I'm just going to, I'm just going to open my Bible up and I'm just going to say, God,

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 make me hungry. Do something in my life because I want to be set apart. I want to be consecrated

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 for your work. Because it's always a paradox. Whatever you think is going to make you happy

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 in the natural normally disappoints you, right? I remember I put my whole track career in high

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 school on getting an offer to run at a, at a college. And I remember I was a Friday night.

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 I ran the time. I was a senior in high school. I had correspondent with a couple of coaches and they

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 said, if you run this time, you can come on our team. It wasn't like a scholarship deal or

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 anything. And I ran the time, emailed the coach. He said, cool. Got all the paperwork done. I went

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 to school on the next Monday. I told my friends and they were like, cool, you know? And I was like,

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 no, you don't get it. You don't get it. Like I staked everything on this and I thought

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 that running at that school is going to make me, is going to satisfy me. But it didn't.

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 But you know, you know, what has satisfied me is, is pursuing the Lord in a roundabout way.

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 The Lord, when you go after him, he takes care of you. Anyway.

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 Verse five, all the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head

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 until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord.

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 He shall be holy. He shall let the locks of his hair, of his head grow long.

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 Interesting. There in our communities, there are people who would take that literally. They would

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 just, they would just want to cut their hair for a few years. We had some guys in our mission

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 group that they would call themselves, you know, new covenant Nazarites or whatever,

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 and they would just let their hair grow long. But like I said, if we're setting this in the

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 context of the new covenant and with grace, it's like, you don't need to do these ritualistic

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 things. But there was something to signify to the community that these people were under a

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 Nazarite vow, right? It's very apparent that if your hair is growing out long,

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 that something's going on. Maybe he's taking a Nazarite vow. So it was a public thing as well.

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 And then verse six, all the days he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead

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 body, not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister. If they die,

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 shall he make himself unclean because his separation to God is on his head. All the days

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 of his separation, he is holy. Or you could also say he is consecrated to the Lord. And if any man dies

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 very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head

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 on the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day, he shall shave it. On the eighth day,

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 he shall bring two turtle doves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of

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 meeting. And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering

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 and make atonement for him because he's sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall

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 consecrate his head that same day and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his

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 separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period

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 shall be void because his separation was defiled. And this is the law of the Nazarite. When the

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 time of his separation has been completed, he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent

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 of meeting and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish

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 for a burnt offering and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering and one

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 ram with blemish as a peace offering. And then it goes on. A basket of unleavened bread, loaves

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 of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers smeared with oil and the grain offering

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 and their drink offering. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin

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 offering and his burnt offering and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the

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 Lord with a basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink

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 offering. And the Nazarite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent

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 of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire

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 that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall take the shoulder of the

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 ram when it's boiled, one unleavened loaf and one unleavened wafer and shall put on the hands

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 of the Nazarite after he shaved the hair of his consecration. And there's a wave offering

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 and then says this is the law of the Nazarite, but if he vows an offering to the Lord above

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 his Nazarite vow as he can afford in exact accordance with the vow that he takes,

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 then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazarite. So, how's a mouthful. But

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 this speaks to the sobriety of the call, of answering the call of consecration to the Lord.

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 Now, under the new covenant, we don't do these things, especially as Gentiles.

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 But there is a seriousness and there is this divine romance that happens where God says,

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 God says, come with me and I will show you riches and treasures.

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 And you got to give some things up along the way.

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 Because these things weigh us down.

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 Right, Hebrews says, let us lay aside every weight that so easily entangles and ensnares and let us

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 run after God. And this is a process. This takes time, it takes sanctification. And within this

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 divine romance of God offering us to come and we responding, we can't get halfway there and say,

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 Lord, I want to go back. Right? Look at the Nazarite. There were so many things

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 he had to do that would prevent him from just voluntarily breaking off this bow. I mean,

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 for most people in Israel, this would have been a tremendously expensive

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 error, so to speak. Right? You would probably keep clear of the dead bodies. Right? Because this

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 would be expensive. I don't know how much it would be, but it's serious to take a lamb,

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 to take a dove, to take all these things and sacrifice them and put them on the altar. And

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 then there's the shame of shaving your head. Like that was kind of like a shameful thing back

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 in the day to have a bald head and everyone would know that you didn't complete your Nazarite vow.

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 Now the Lord, the Lord doesn't lay anything out like this when, you know, in the new covenant.

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 But I think it's just when we're looking at this and asking, hey, how does this apply to

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 our life? It's just that there is a seriousness. Take it seriously when the Lord is doing something

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 in your life, when there's hunger bubbling up in your life and when you feel like you're making

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 contact with God in that way where he's breathing life into you and you're getting excited. Be

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 careful. Be careful what you say. Be careful what you vow. Let your yes be yes and your no be no,

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 as Jesus would say. And if you answer that invitation to go and run after him in that way,

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 then you better be serious about it. Take it with some sobriety. Doesn't mean if you fall,

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 you just get back up. You keep running. You confess, repent, press delete, and keep running

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 after the Lord. And I'm not even talking like I shared a bit of an extreme example in the

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 beginning about, you know, going to the Middle East and sharing the gospel with Muslims.

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 That's just my story. But to bring it home,

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 what is it in our life, in your life that you need God to do?

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 Maybe you're just looking for a clear direction with your job. You want to know that you're in

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 the right place where you can serve people and you can provide for a family.

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 Maybe you have a wayward child that you're just praying for, and you just want the Lord to touch

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 them so that they come back. And crying out to the Lord, consecrating yourself to the Lord,

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 and asking him in prayer and fasting to make ourselves hungry to see him move in our life.

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 It's really what I believe the spirit of the Nazareth is all about. We consecrate ourselves

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 to God in order to see him move in our life, that we're closer with him, and we begin to not just

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 know his works, but we begin to know his ways. Like it says, Moses knew the ways of God,

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 but the Israelites knew the works. If you read the Bible, you know the works.

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 But do you walk with him when he does these things? And do we have a hunger to see him move in our life?

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 And do we have a hunger to see him write a story to answer our prayers? Or have we just

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 coasted in this way of, yeah, Lord did some cool things in my life, and I enjoy him?

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 And I'm speaking to myself too, because I want God to do things in my life. I want him to birth

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 things in my life, in my family's life, just discipling my children and leading my family.

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 That is a huge accomplishment. And that is in the scope of what I'm talking about,

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 of just, do you want righteous children? Do you want righteous grandchildren? Do you want to contend

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 for the family member who has said, I'll never accept the Lord? Or are you going to say, no,

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 Lord, I know you're good, and I can't control anything, but I just want to get close to you

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 and pursue you and just watch as you do things in my life.

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 So this section of scripture, although it's kind of benign, you would pass right over it.

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 I think a lot of times in scripture, I'm so thankful that I really feel that the

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 prophetic moment tonight of me falling on this night to share, just because

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 it really is beginning to birthed something even in myself of remembering.

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 And remember when you first tasted the Lord, what was that like?

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 Remember when you were just starting out with the Lord, and you just did some

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 things that you probably wouldn't do anymore because you were wise. I remember just giving

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 a lot of my money away. Now I'm like, a couple kids are like, I'm going to use that.

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 But the Lord rewards those things. And one of the keys to unlocking this is Jesus says to the

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 church, forget exactly if you know which church in Revelation it is, you can call it out.

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 But he says, do the works you did at first. Ephesus, do the things you did at first. What

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 did you do at first? You read your Bible, you spend time with him, maybe you served,

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 got your eyes off of yourselves. So anyway,

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 I think it's just such an important thing because it's so easy in life just to get in the routine

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 of the regular and to not have that push to seek the Lord. And there's different seasons in life

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 and there's a lot of faithfulness of seeking the Lord and he pulls the curtain on your personal life

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 and all of a sudden you're doing something. I see that in my own life as well. I sought the

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 Lord basically in secret almost for years and then I was sent as a missionary. And so we have

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 to also respect seasons. There are seasons where the Lord is calling us to press in

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 and do these things and the Lord always wants our relationship. But I want to speak to the

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 people here who resonate with this now, if the Lord is calling them. And I just want to encourage

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 us to, let's just take a minute and let's just ask the Lord. We could just, you know, take a

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 minute and be silent and just see what the Lord would. If the Lord brings anything to mind,

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 if this little message and study brought anything to mind, I just want us to note it

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 and just to take a minute or two and pray into it. And if nothing comes to mind,

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 just pray, Lord, make me hungry. You can never go wrong with that. Make me hungry and thirsty,

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 just like Jesse taught on Sunday. Thirst, hunger and thirst. These are the things that God uses

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 to relate the spiritual life of you hunger and thirst for God and He satisfies. You hunger

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 and thirst to satisfy. So let's just take a second.

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 Just come Holy Spirit, come, speak to us. Make us hungry for you, Lord.

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 Lord, right now, I just pray, I just rebuke any thoughts of condemnation or failure. Lord,

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 I thank you that you are the restorer. Lord, you restore. He can make it new. I don't know,

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 I just felt that maybe there are some people who just feel like a sense of their little let down

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 or, man, I missed, you know, you dropped the ball a couple of times with the Lord.

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 I would just say that that is not His heart. His heart is to bring you into just the next chapter.

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 And so, Lord, we pray, God, that you would just, yeah, strike that lie down. And if that's you,

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 do not meditate on that, but cast it out. Take that thought captive and let the Holy Spirit

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 plant the seeds of hunger and hope in your life. And tend those seeds. Meditate on those thoughts.

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 If, I guess if somebody wants to share, you can. It wasn't really a thought that I had, but

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 would you like to share? Yeah, sure. Do you want the mic?

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 So, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but the Lord's been working just since this past,

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 or the week before last, and He called me to counseling several years ago, but I haven't

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 really been doing it. And then when I offhandedly announced that the Lord had called me to that

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 in an announcement, somebody picked up on that instead of the announcement.

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 Anyway, so I'm doing that. But last night I had this really bizarre dream,

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 and it was like a cult dream about people and gathering crystals and how these crystals had

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 power and you want to have these crystals. And I woke up from this dream and I'm like,

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 what was that about? And I was like, Lord, I know that it just gave me this longing inside of me

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 to have these crystals, because it was a dream and it was so real. But then when I woke up,

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 I'm like, no, I know this is not of You, Lord. So I just immediately woke up praying

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 and rebuking whatever that was. But the Lord spoke to me later about it. He said, Gail,

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 your heart should desire me the way you woke up wanting those crystals. You should be desiring

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 me like that. And you should be putting me first like the people in your dream did for those

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 crystals. And I was like, wow, what does that really look like? He said, well, for instance,

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 instead of playing games on your iPad, you could be talking to me. And I'm like,

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 yeah. And he said, instead of acting like you're retired from life,

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 just put yourself back into life and do it, you know? And then when you talk tonight,

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 it was just like, that was, yeah, the icing on the cake, like, okay, this is what I'm supposed

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 to be doing. I'm supposed to be really putting myself, whatever life I have left,

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 who knows what that is? I'm supposed to be using it for the Lord, whatever that is. Yeah.

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 Yeah. Amen. Thanks, scale.

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 Anyone else want to share anything? You don't have to.

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 If you do, I'm just, I have one or two things. I want to just share it to close. If you do,

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 just pop your hand up and I'll, I'll bring it to them, bring it over to you.

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 Um, just as we close, let me say this, consider adding a rhythm of fasting into your life. If

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 you don't have it already, once a week is good. Skipping a meal here and there. If you've never

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 fasted it, but, but get something concrete to where it's a rhythm, whether it's once a month

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 or once a week, uh, or it's like a Daniel fast twice a year or something, a couple of days or

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 a couple of weeks. Uh, yeah, consider that as a takeaway. And to just say that

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 one of the snares going down this path is to fall into legalism. This is one of the reasons why I

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 right in the beginning, I shared that everything we do is on the foundation of Christ and his work,

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 what he's done for us. So that's grace. And we access that through faith and through our

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 allegiance to him. Uh, and that's the whole covenantal aspect of it, but we do everything

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 on him and out of love, not out of legalism or out of the law. And so there's a tendency to

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 fall into pride and to fall into legalism and to have the air of the disciples of John the Baptist

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 as well as if, as you go down this path and it gets more insidious, the deeper you go. And

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 yeah, just, it's always important. Just remember, we need the full package of the fruit of the

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 spirit and humility and following the Lord. And that's all on his grace. And so I'll just leave

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 us with that, that we rest on the finished work and we pursue him out of response to his love for us.

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 And one thing that really unlocks passion for God is knowing how passionate he is about us.

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 And if you think about how much God loves you and how much unconditionally he's passionate

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 about spending time with you, if you meditate on that, I guarantee that you will grow in your

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 joy. And if you let the seeds of those truths work deep in your heart, you'll become a beautiful

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 person. Not because you aim for that, but because you aim for Christ. So anyway, that's all I got.

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 I don't have any discussion questions, but yeah. Male and female are both open to it.

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 Yeah. Did you have a follow up with that question? What was it? Did you have a thought?

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 Yeah, definitely amazing to do this in communities of people for sure.

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 Because it was an individual thing. It was like a community took the nest right now. It was an

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 individual pursuit of God. And at the end of your vow, because I was reading literally, Christi gave

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 me a book actually a few months ago, and I was just reading about this. And so that vow could have

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 been anywhere from a week to a month to a year, five years to a lifetime. It was up to the

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 paper on the vow, how long they would have that vow, take that vow. And at the end of the vow,

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 they would shave their head. Men and women had sacrificed their hair on the altar.

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 And, you know, so, and even in the New Testament, it doesn't say it was a nest right now,

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 but I believe it's an axe where it talks about Paul shaving his head and doing it,

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 they believe that he took a vow for a period of time in the New Testament there. So anyway,

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 it's such an interesting thing. And like I really appreciate what you have said, because what it

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 really comes down to is remembering to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. And, you know, anytime,

380
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 anything of note happened in the Old Testament, God holds his people to consecrate themselves.

381
00:46:14,349 --> 00:46:19,349
 And especially going into like the Promised Land, anything like that,

382
00:46:24,570 --> 00:46:29,469
 Yeah, thanks. And that plays out in our life too,

383
00:46:29,849 --> 00:46:33,409
 whenever we're getting ready for something, the Lord calls us into that.

384
00:46:34,830 --> 00:46:39,929
 Yeah, this morning, I was thinking about how I consecrated myself,

385
00:46:40,750 --> 00:46:49,389
 and I've had myself here for so many years, and will speak of her. And it's not just a

386
00:46:49,389 --> 00:46:55,809
 self-righteous thing, it's keeping in mind that we were bought for a very happy price.

387
00:47:17,430 --> 00:47:18,630
 Yeah, amen.

388
00:47:19,170 --> 00:47:23,050
 Yeah, amen. That's great. Definitely.

389
00:47:26,750 --> 00:47:34,409
 Yeah, there are definitely applications. I think we all realize the Old Testament was not written

390
00:47:34,409 --> 00:47:44,170
 for us, or to us, sorry, to us, but was written for us. You know, that we take it and we look

391
00:47:44,170 --> 00:47:49,690
 at it through the lens of Christ and the New Covenant, and we can draw principles and

392
00:47:50,490 --> 00:47:52,429
 power and revelation from it.

393
00:47:55,710 --> 00:48:01,650
 All right, any other thoughts, or questions, or anything? Last chance.

394
00:48:04,469 --> 00:48:14,210
 Thank you guys for coming out tonight, and appreciate the opportunity to share in front

395
00:48:14,210 --> 00:48:18,650
 of you guys. So, Lord, thank you for this time. We bless you. We love you, Jesus.

396
00:48:19,289 --> 00:48:24,449
 Let's help us to go in the power of your Spirit, in Jesus' name. Amen.

397
00:48:29,250 --> 00:48:34,590
 Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.

398
00:48:35,289 --> 00:48:40,789
 Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

399
00:48:40,789 --> 00:48:43,889
 Be blessed and have a great day!