Seeing the Supernatural | Faithful in a Faithless World Week 6

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Kyle.

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- And I'm Hannah.

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- And today this is our final week

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in the book of Daniel.

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We're going to end it with a bang.

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We're to jump straight in the prophecies of Daniel 9-12.

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It gets weird.

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- Yeah, you're correct. That's right.

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And our senior pastor, Brian Tome,

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is going to walk us through starting right now.

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- The book of Daniel is a story of a faithful man

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and the unmatched power of God.

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At this point, we have seen

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some crazy things happen with Daniel.

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He's been taken from his home,

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learned to serve the king,

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and even thrown to hungry lions.

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Although he spent much of his life

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away from his home country, Jerusalem,

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he never forgot where he came from

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and never stopped praying for his people,

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Israel, to be restored.

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One day, Daniel receives a response

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to his request for restoration,

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and it leaves him shaking in his boots

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and unable to speak.

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He has a series of visions

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that lead to more questions than answers.

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Today, we explore his mysterious visions

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and what it means for our life.

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- There is a spiritual realm that affects

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the realm that we're in right now.

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Hey, my name's Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.

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We're going to talk about what's behind the door,

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what's behind and underneath the veneer

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in this spiritual realm

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and how it affects our lives today.

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The last few years have been brutal for us.

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We have never seen more conflict, more tension

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than we're seeing and experiencing right now,

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at least that's what the pundits say.

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I read an article in the New York Times, it says this:

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Why is substance abuse totally escalating?

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Why is mental health totally de-escalating?

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Why is it we have more conflict and tension

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seemingly than ever, ever?

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Why are we at the edge of our wits end?

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It's like every indicator is bad and not looking good.

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And the question is why?

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Why is it that we're not having fun

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and we are unhappy in our culture?

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The Bible can give us some of those answers,

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and those answers are related to the spiritual realm.

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There's a realm that's beneath the surface,

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that's behind the other door

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that can't be examined inside of a petri dish.

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You can't go to a library and get

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all the information about the spiritual world

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and then understand it.

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You can't model it on a computer, and yet it exists.

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And it's crazy that just about all of us

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believe that a spiritual world exists.

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Like, we walk, walk into a room that's dark

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and the hair goes up on the back of our neck.

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Why is that?

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We have a dream and we wonder,

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was there a spiritual meaning to that dream?

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Is God trying to talk to me?

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It's because we're not physical beings

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with spiritual properties,

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we're spiritual beings with physical properties.

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We're tapped into the spiritual world.

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We have a cancer diagnosis

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or our grandmother has a cancer diagnosis,

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and we all of a sudden believe in prayer

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or are open to other people praying for us.

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And the Understanding Unbelief Project,

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which is sponsored through

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the University of Kent in the United Kingdom,

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it was based on thousands and thousands

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of interviews with atheists and agnostics.

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They conclude this:

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Naturalist means only what's in nature,

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only what I can naturally see is only what there is.

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Even atheists and agnostics, there's something

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inside of us that believes that there's things

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that we can't see and that we can't understand.

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The atheists and agnostics are really

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most against religion, a structure, a system

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that tries to systematize spirituality,

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and for good reason.

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There's there's a lot of things inside of religion

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that have hurt people and aren't good.

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But religion is different than the awareness

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that there's something behind the door,

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something that's underneath the surface.

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This is Daniel's understanding.

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It's why he had a powerful life.

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And if you want to have a powerful life,

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you're going to have to be in touch with this.

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Now. Let's talk about this realm for a moment

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and some of the attributes or things

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that are necessary inside of it.

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We see this in the Book of Daniel 9:4.

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Whenever we come into a verse in the Bible

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where there's commandments, rules, repentance,

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we tend to get like,

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"Oh, rules, commandments, repentance, ugh."

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But when we understand where Daniel starts,

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this looks a little bit differently.

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He talks about Love, your steadfast love.

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Any talk or conversation about repentance and sin

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needs to start with a conversation about love.

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Any talk about a spiritual realm,

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any talk about a realm that exists behind the door,

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underneath the veneer that's influencing us,

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any talk about that has to start with

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and conclude with love.

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That's what Daniel talked about:

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Your steadfast love.

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Daniel has the powerful life he has because

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he understands God as having steadfast love.

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What's that steadfast mean?

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It means it never ends.

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It goes on and on and on and on.

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It's steadfast. It's who he is.

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The idea of repenting, turning from our sin,

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turning from the ways that we've lived,

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asking God for forgiveness, we won't do that

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unless we have a foundation of belief

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that God loves you.

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Do you believe God loves you?

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You have to believe that because of our core base

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isn't the belief that God accepts us

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the way we are right now, though we may have goals

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for us to change and go differently,

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that he accepts us the way we are right now,

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he's a fan of who we are right now.

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He has warm emotions for us right now.

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He loves us the way we are right now.

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It's that baseline that helps me to repent.

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If I don't have that baseline of understanding

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and believing that God loves me,

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then it's going to be all about behavior modification.

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I'm going to repent or change so that God loves me more.

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No, it doesn't work that way.

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In fact, that will only make us more bitter.

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That will make us actual atheists and agnostics

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if we keep thinking we have to do this and that

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for God to love us.

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Eventually we're going to forget that guy

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or woman or whatever he, she, it is, I'm done with it.

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We have to believe that God loves us,

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and this is the foundation from which we grow.

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This was Daniel, his belief.

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He wasn't afraid of God's wrath

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caused him to do all the things that he's done

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in this series that we've looked at.

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It wasn't that that made him

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want to have water and vegetables.

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It wasn't that that caused him to pray at the window

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towards Jerusalem three times a day on his knees.

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It wasn't religion that he was trying to fulfill,

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a system he was trying to operate in,

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it is that these were expressions of his love for God

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and ways that he felt the love of God.

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- Ok, last week I talked about giving

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in less than 30 seconds. - You did. It was really good.

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- See if you can do it. Ready? - Ok, I'm ready.

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One thing we want you to know

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is giving as a spiritual act and trust me,

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we're only going to talk about it for 30 seconds.

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That's right.

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So giving is something that we do to honor God

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and show him where our heart is,

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that we are giving our money to him,

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whether he blesses us immediately

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or he doesn't ever bless us again.

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And if you want to take that step, you can give

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and go to Crossroads.net/give right now.

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- 20.03, that is strong on.

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Come on, let's get back to Brian.

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- Iin the book of Daniel 9 is says this:

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You are greatly love.

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Daniel has this vision, he doesn't understand it.

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He knows that it's spiritual.

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It's not the pizza he had

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or the matzah bread the day before.

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He knows there's something profound about it.

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So he's asking, "How do I know this? What is this?"

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And there's a messenger that comes to him

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from the spiritual realm and says,

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"Hey, before we get into anything here,

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know this, you are greatly loved.

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You're greatly loved."

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Do you know that God thinks that about you?

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Do you believe that God thinks that about you?

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Some of us, we don't pray because

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we're afraid God might speak to us.

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And if God speaks to us, he's going to tell us,

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"You're just an idiot. You got problems."

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Some of us, when we think that God might send

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a prophet to speak to us like Daniel,

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it might be all doom and gloom.

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You have to believe that when God interacts with you,

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the first thing he would say is,

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"Hey, you are greatly loved. I love you."

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I know that's mind blowing for some of us

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who've been caught in religion

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and caught in judgementalism for a long, long time.

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Being loved, by the way, doesn't mean

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that God affirms all of your choices.

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That's our problem, we don't understand love today.

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We think the way that I'm loved is

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you affirm everything I'm currently doing.

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No, God does not affirm everything that we're doing.

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That doesn't mean he doesn't love us, though.

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There's a baseline of knowing that God is for you.

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And if he's for you, who can be against you?

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Daniel gets this again and again that he is loved.

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Then in the Book of Daniel Chapter 10,

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still inside of the same recourse, it says this:

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We're going to get into some freaky stuff.

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We're about to get into some freaky stuff.

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But when people start talking about spiritual realm

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and spiritual battle, spiritual war,

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they tend to not talk about love.

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Here it is right now, I'm going to show you

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one of the freakiest things in the Bible

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that gives us an insight as the spiritual realm,

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but you had to see again and again and again,

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it's about love.

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Whenever somebody starts getting into

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spiritual warfare, spiritual darkness,

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spiritual battle and they don't understand love,

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I know they don't understand spiritual war,

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spiritual darkness, spiritual battle,

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because it's all about love, the love of God,

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the steadfast love of God who is for you

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and who is about you.

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And we have to be for other people

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and about other people.

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Are you hearing me?

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I can't get this through enough.

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The main spiritual battle that's going to happen

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in your life is whether or not

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you understand the love of God.

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That's the biggest spiritual battle there is.

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If you don't understand the love of God,

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if you don't sense the love of God,

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if you don't channel the love of God to others,

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you are never going to get to level two,

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whatever that is,

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in understanding the spiritual realm.

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Everything starts with love.

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Let's see what happens.

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Daniel is praying to understand this vision.

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And he gets, the angel comes,

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"Hey, your prayers have been heard."

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Maybe some of us need to hear that right now.

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If you've been praying for something,

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"Is God hearing my prayer?"

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Yes, your prayers are being heard.

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And then it continues.

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Gosh, there's that -- there's that sound again.

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[muffled sound]

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Let's go see that.

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He's praying and nothing's happening,

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and we see just a glimpse, just a glimpse

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of why nothing is happening in this spiritual realm.

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[muffled sound]

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A door opens

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and we see something

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that we hadn't seen before.

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He says it was the prince of Persia

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that was holding me up, this other entity.

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You're like, "Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

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Prince of Persia. Wait, what? Who is it?"

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We want so much more, but that's the point.

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It's just an opening,

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a glimpse into the spiritual realm, and it shuts.

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Opens and it shuts.

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It's almost like the Bible doesn't want to describe

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and define a lot because we would maybe

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get too into the spiritual warfare,

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maybe not into love.

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But this is real.

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This isn't an isolated event in the Bible.

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This realm is described and defined

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in the Bible in other places.

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In the Book of Ephesians 6:12, here's what says:

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So there are powers and principalities,

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there's a structure, there's an authority structure

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that's behind the veil, that's behind the door.

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And I wish that when this door opens up

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in Daniel 10 and he talks about this,

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this king of Persia, king of Persia, prince struggle.

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What is it?

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I wish. I really, really wish he went into more detail.

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He doesn't.

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Maybe it's good because if he went into more detail

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we'd probably fixated on the spiritual realm

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more than we'd be fixated on love.

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When you're fixated on love,

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you're operating in the spiritual realm because

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that's where the game is won and lost.

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But it's another verse here in Ephesians,

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in the New Testament, to show us there's a structure,

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something that's going on behind the scenes.

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There's things that we don't understand

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that are affecting us today.

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These things start to shape our lives

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when we understand that these things actually exist.

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And these things will actually increase

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our prayer life, we'll actually start to pray.

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Remember where this started?

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Daniel hears, "Your prayers have been heard."

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One of the reasons why we don't pray

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is we don't love God all that much

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or we would want to talk to him.

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You know, the love is starting to die

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in your relationship

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when you don't want to talk to the person.

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So we don't have a great prayer life because

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we don't have a great love life with God.

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Or when we do talk with God,

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we don't know what to say.

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And some of us,

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we don't even want to ask God for anything,

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because if he doesn't give it to us,

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then we'll be crushed even more because

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we'll believe that he doesn't actually love us.

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And so we're actually afraid to pray for things.

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We'd rather pray for starving children in Afghanistan,

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or we'd rather pray for some other such thing,

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because if we pray for something that we want

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and then God doesn't do it, we're going to be crushed

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because we might conclude, maybe he doesn't love me.

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He can love you and choose

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not to give you the thing that you're praying for.

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He could also love you,

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but there's static in the spiritual realm

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where it's taking a long time to get the answer

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that he wants to give you because there's forces

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that are battling it out inside of the spiritual realm.

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Prayer isn't always epic and fulfilling.

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Daniel has some prayers that are epic and fulfilling,

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but it's not always epic and fulfilling.

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We're looking at a highlight reel in Daniel's life.

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He lived 80-ish years, at least 80 years.

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The book of Daniel was written about over 80 years.

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There's 12 chapters.

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And there's some really intense spiritual things

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that are happening in it.

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But we realize it's a highlight reel,

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we're getting some stuff here and there.

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But it wasn't like every day he was having

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a window, a door opened to understand

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the king of Persia or the prince of Persia.

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It's a highlight reel.

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It's the way our lives are going to be.

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We're going to just drone on

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in meandering prayers sometimes,

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and we're going to really wrestle with love.

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And we're going to try to be loving.

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Every once in a while will get it right.

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But they're likely going to be

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long periods of time where we're stumbling,

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where we're hearing things, but we're not seeing things.

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This is, I think, the life of Daniel.

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We're getting his highlight reels.

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In your highlight reel with God,

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you may have one every day, but I don't think so.

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I think your highlight reel with God

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might be you're going to have

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breakthrough spiritual moments once a year, maybe,

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once a month, maybe once a week. I don't know.

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I'm just trying to normalize for you,

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don't feel like God doesn't love you

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if you're not having breakthrough moments with him

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and gushes of love coming through your mind.

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We know that we love him,

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we know that he loves us when we operate

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in a way that he would be honored, when we pray.

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One of the people who is most operative in prayer

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and in the spiritual realm that I know

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is my mother-in-law, Sally.

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When I first came in the family,

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married her daughter Lib, and I got in the family,

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her and I were coming from

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really different spiritual perspectives.

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The same spirituality, following Jesus, Christians,

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but I was coming from a place of being in seminary.

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I wanted to see an answer

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that was given in the Bible and everything.

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If everything didn't start and end with the Bible,

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I was feeling queasy about it.

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She was and is more of a prayer person,

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operates more in the spiritual realm.

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Words you could use for her would be charismatic,

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or maybe with a dash of Pentecostalism thrown in there.

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She speaks in tongues.

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She, you know, all kinds of stuff like that.

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And as a 20 something guy who was operating

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more in the Bible, she had beliefs

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that really annoyed me.

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And we would get in, you know,

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we'd get in fisticuffs and arguments.

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Actually, I would argue with her,

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she wouldn't argue so much to me,

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but I would with her. Why?

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Because I had a love problem.

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I had a love problem.

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I thought it was about the right theology,

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but really it was about me not having

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enough love for my mother-in-law

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to just let her believe certain things

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that could be true, not be true.

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It doesn't matter to me and isn't worth

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the relationship being in turmoil

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over me making an issue out of it.

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I had a love problem.

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As I've matured, not just matured physically

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and age wise, but matured spiritually

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and have grown in my love, our relationship is great.

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Actually it was always great, it's always been great.

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She's always been a blessing to me.

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Always, always has been a blessing to me.

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I just wish I had this --

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I had this little, just cantankerous debate

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with her from time to time.

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But it's always been great.

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But in the years that she's got,

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as we've both gotten older, it's gotten even better

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and better and sweeter.

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And unfortunately, she's, you know,

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in her late 80s right now.

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And her and my father-in-law, stuff in the late 80s

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for many people starts to pop up, physical issues

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and all kinds of issues start popping up.

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And so we're there, Lib and I are there for them.

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We live in Cincinnati, so we're there

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to help them with anything that we can do.

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We got a call that their refrigerator has gone out.

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And can we help them find a new refrigerator?

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Of course. Sure, we can, it's pretty simple,

00:22:17

just go to homedepot.com or Lowes.com.

00:22:21

Home Depot, if you want to sponsor us,

00:22:22

you can pay for your ad right now.

00:22:24

Anyway, we would go there and we would say,

00:22:26

"We're just going to find you a refrigerator.

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We'll have it delivered

00:22:30

and all that's going to be good."

00:22:31

So we're working on that process.

00:22:32

The next day we hear from my mother-in-law, Sally.

00:22:36

"Hey, no problem. Don't need it.

00:22:38

Don't need it fixed because

00:22:40

I prayed over the refrigerator

00:22:42

and it's fixed. It's running."

00:22:45

We are like, "Huh? Of course she did.

00:22:48

Of course, Nan would pray over the refrigerator."

00:22:50

We're laughing about this.

00:22:52

We're like, "Yeah, that's exactly something she'd do,

00:22:55

pray for a refrigerator and just like God

00:22:57

to actually heal her refrigerator."

00:23:02

So we start talking about this and Lib and I realize,

00:23:05

you know, we've had this icemaker

00:23:07

that's been broken for a while.

00:23:10

We paid for to get fixed before, broke again,

00:23:13

and I've done everything to figure it out.

00:23:15

I just want to pay for another repair guy

00:23:17

to come in for it.

00:23:18

Shut it off. Turn off the breaker.

00:23:20

Turn it back on. Cycle through the different settings.

00:23:22

And it's just not freezing things anymore.

00:23:25

But we haven't prayed for it.

00:23:27

So, Lib just reach out her hand towards the icemaker,

00:23:31

says, "Pray in the name of Jesus

00:23:34

that that icemaker would be healed.

00:23:35

Bless us, Lord, and heal that icemaker."

00:23:38

I'm standing they're like, "Yeah, God, yeah,

00:23:40

same with me. Amen."

00:23:42

Turn that thing on,

00:23:44

that thing has been making ice now for three weeks.

00:23:47

Three weeks it's been making ice.

00:23:49

Now, some of the naturalists among us would say,

00:23:51

"Well, there's just something in line.

00:23:52

You didn't do this or you didn't do that."

00:23:54

I understand how things work mechanically.

00:23:56

I rebuild engines. I install things. I rewire things.

00:24:00

Believe me, I understand this stuff.

00:24:02

I've looked into it. I have.

00:24:03

This was a healing of an ice maker by God,

00:24:08

just like he healed the refrigerator.

00:24:10

I know this sounds crazy.

00:24:11

I know this sounds stupid.

00:24:13

Why would God care about an ice maker?

00:24:15

Why would God care about a refrigerator?

00:24:16

I know that. I know it sounds crazy.

00:24:19

I know it sounds stupid.

00:24:20

And so does everything else in the spiritual realm.

00:24:23

That's why it's called the spiritual realm.

00:24:25

We don't have words for it.

00:24:28

We don't have understandings for it.

00:24:34

When you pray something and God says yes to it,

00:24:39

it's the spiritual realm in operation,

00:24:40

or specifically it's God in operation.

00:24:45

When you see yourself being used to bring

00:24:46

someone to Christ, you're operating in love

00:24:49

and you're experiencing the spiritual realm.

00:24:51

When you deepen somebody in their relationship

00:24:53

with Christ, you're operating in love

00:24:56

and seeing somebody operate inside the spiritual realm.

00:24:59

When you have a godly marriage,

00:25:01

when you have a godly dating relationship

00:25:03

and you're operating according to love,

00:25:05

you're operating in the spiritual realm.

00:25:08

When you see somebody and talk with somebody

00:25:10

who has different beliefs than you

00:25:12

and different views than you.

00:25:14

And they want to pick a fight with you,

00:25:15

and they want to get you on your edge

00:25:17

and you love your neighbor as yourself,

00:25:21

you're operating in the spiritual realm.

00:25:23

When you see somebody who is hurting financially

00:25:27

and you don't want to just pray for them,

00:25:28

you want to actually give them some money

00:25:30

for a few meals, you're operating

00:25:33

inside of the spiritual realm.

00:25:35

All of these things start, all of these things end,

00:25:39

and all these things go through love.

00:25:43

This is complicated stuff that we're dealing with today.

00:25:45

It's intense things.

00:25:47

The keys to understanding them are inside of the Bible.

00:25:50

That's why this year we're doing the Bible Challenge,

00:25:53

year of the Bible Challenge 2022.

00:25:55

Join with us inside the app, as you can see

00:25:58

me and others comment on different things.

00:26:00

Open up your Bible, do whatever you can

00:26:03

to get yourself in touch with the love of God,

00:26:06

which means you're going to get that through the Bible.

00:26:08

You're not going to get that through Netflix.

00:26:10

You're not going to get that through broadcast news.

00:26:13

You get it through the Scriptures, the love of God

00:26:16

and the awareness of something great and beautiful

00:26:19

that is just behind the scenes.

00:26:22

Let me pray for you right now.

00:26:23

Jesus, I thank you for your love for us.

00:26:26

It is astounding, and it's astounding to see

00:26:29

how Daniel operated in that love

00:26:31

and in the power of your spirit.

00:26:33

Help us to be more like him,

00:26:36

and mostly more like you. Amen.

00:26:41

- Hey, you know that Bible Challenge

00:26:42

that Brian referenced, you know what?

00:26:44

You can actually join and do that

00:26:46

right in the palm of your hand

00:26:48

by downloading the Crossroads app.

00:26:50

And when you get there, you're going to see

00:26:51

people reading and journaling and encouraging each other

00:26:54

and just learning about the Bible.

00:26:56

And if you fell off and you had to app,

00:26:57

maybe you deleted it, maybe you haven't used it,

00:26:59

like, in like 2 or 3 weeks, whatever.

00:27:01

- That's okay.

00:27:02

- That's okay. Get back on. You totally can.

00:27:04

- This is something we're doing all year long,

00:27:06

so relax, jump back into it.

00:27:08

If you didn't get this yet, by the way,

00:27:09

it's not too late. This is free.

00:27:11

It's a guidebook we put together all about Daniel,

00:27:14

chock full of good stuff.

00:27:15

You can get a crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.

00:27:17

- It has everything.

00:27:18

You know what, ya'll?

00:27:19

We'll see you next week on Crossroads.

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