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137: Standing Tall, Falling Hard
30 Plays13 days ago
Has there ever been a time in your life when you knew what God wanted you to do, but you did the opposite? Taking His law as a suggestion (instead of, well, law), you went ahead and did it your way. Obedience isn't our strong suit.
God can certainly work through us when we do what is contrary to His will for our lives. But imagine how much sweeter the relationship with your Savior would be if you took the words "thy will be done" to heart! In obedience, there is so much God can and will do through you. It's not about being bossed around; it's about opening yourself up to the life that Jesus wants for you. We see the Israelites going their own way (again), and God giving them what they want. There's a lot for us to learn from their mistake and we will hear more about it in this week’s episode with Pastor Chuck Schlie.
If you’d like to dig deeper, check out these discussion questions. You can complete them on your own, with your Community Group, or with family and friends.
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Transcript
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The following podcast is a Jill dev Divine Media production.
Introduction to Sermon Series
00:00:19
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I'm your host, Jill Devine, and welcome to Normal Goes a Long Way. Let's go ahead and get into this week's sermon series based on the story. It's all about chapter 10, standing tall, falling hard.
00:00:32
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right. Hey, good morning, church. And God's great blessings to you as we open up to chapter 10 of the story today. Our journey started out with the new year. And if you have been keeping up, then I commend you for your stick-to-it-ness.
00:00:46
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I hope that you find your time with God's word well spent. I think it is incredibly important. ah for us as individuals and as a congregation. ah But let me add this. If you are new to Messiah or if you missed out here and there, let me just say it's not too late.
00:01:05
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ah You can get a copy of the story today. Just head in the back hallway. Jill Mack will hook you up with a copy. We'll be happy to put that story in your hands.
Personal Reflections and Office Tour
00:01:15
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Now, let me show you something.
00:01:17
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This is my office, my home Away from home. I love my office. It is so cool. But what I want to point out are all those note cards that I have taped up next to my desk here. Let's zoom in.
00:01:32
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My collection of various quotes and Bible passages are very important to me. And I find myself reading them a lot, especially when I'm looking for inspiration.
00:01:45
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And this week, I found one by C.S. Lewis that really caught my attention. And here it is. Whatever you do, he God, will make good of it, but not the good he had prepared for you if you would have obeyed him.
00:02:05
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That's a good one.
Main Topic: Obedience through Saul’s Story
00:02:06
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And it fits nicely with today's topic, which is obedience. We are going to be looking at the life of Saul, Israel's first king.
00:02:17
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and the title for this chapter is called Standing Tall, Falling Hard. And King Saul fell hard. He got too big for his britches.
00:02:32
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He got too big to obey. It's got too big. Hey, speaking of big, Andre the Giant. Some of you remember Andre the Giant, okay?
00:02:43
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Seven feet, four inches tall, wrestled Hulk Hogan. He was in that movie, The Princess Bride. Have you seen that movie? It's 38 years old, and it's yeah it's a good one.
00:02:54
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Well, it's the story about... Well, let's take a look. Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Wesley around. Oh, boys.
00:03:06
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I want to see my face shining in it by morning. As you wish.
00:03:15
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As you wish all he ever said.
00:03:21
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Tharmboy, fill these with water.
00:03:26
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Please? As you wish.
Prayer and Love: 'As you wish'
00:03:33
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That day she was amazed to discover that when he was saying, as you wish, what he meant was, you.
00:03:42
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And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.
00:03:49
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Phone boy.
00:03:54
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oh Fetch me that picture.
00:04:04
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you
00:04:09
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work
00:04:13
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Thank you.
00:04:27
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All right, hey, I share that clip with you. ah Not so much to talk you into watching a movie, although I do like it. what i What I really wanted was for you to catch that line, those three simple words, as you wish.
00:04:44
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What he was saying when he said, as you wish, was, i love you. Well, pretty romantic stuff there. Well, skip the romance. Rather consider this. What if those three words were more, let's say, ah prayer? What if you were and I were able to pray that prayer i pray truly and
Hannah’s Example of Faith and Dedication
00:05:06
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continually? Well, if so, then I think that prayer just might be the perfect prayer outside of the Lord's prayer, of course.
00:05:13
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But as you wish is a great prayer. It is a prayer that would open up our hearts to the desires of God. Jesus said, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
00:05:30
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If you obey commands, you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
00:05:43
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You see, obedience and love together. together As you wish, which is easier said than done because, ah truth be told, we really don't like being told what to do.
00:05:57
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We tend to have a hard time with obedience. It is a struggle for God's people. It always has been. Now, this section of the story begins with a rather happy ending for a barren woman named Hannah.
00:06:14
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And she has been praying. She has been asking God to give her a son. And she promises then in return to give that child son. back to the Lord so that he may serve God for all of his life.
00:06:27
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And that's exactly what happens. And she names the boy Samuel, which means heard God. God heard Samuel.
00:06:38
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Hannah's prayer, and it's this beautiful story. God answers her. Hannah keeps her word. And once the child is weaned, she gave her boy to Eli, the high priest.
00:06:50
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And Eli is going to raise the boy, train him up in the ways of the Lord. And as Samuel grows in years, so he grows in his relationship with God.
00:07:01
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And one night, God whispers to the boy in the middle of the night, And Samuel doesn't really understand the voice at all at first. But eventually he says, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Oh, that's a good word there. A couple of them. Servant.
00:07:21
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As you wish. God is the king. The servant obeys. As you wish. And as Samuel grows up, he grows in his knowledge and he he grows in the love of the Lord more and more and more. And he grows up literally in the Lord's house.
00:07:41
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And it is good to grow up in the house of the Lord. It is so good, in fact, that it is my number one bit of parenting advice. And here it is.
00:07:54
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Do not make Sunday worship optional. That is my number one bit of parenting advice. I personally believe that there is no better way and to love your child than to bring your child up than in the house of the Lord.
00:08:12
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ah Make Sunday worship, and I'll include the you know kids ministry here too, but make it a regular, consistent, weekly, locked into the calendar occasion.
00:08:24
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It is good for your children, and it is good for you too. ah Because worship has a way of just reminding us that we're not the king. you know The world does not revolve around us. And so we come and we hear God's word and we pray and he hears us.
00:08:47
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but We confess our sins. He feeds us at his table. We sing our praises to him and it's good. It's good. It's right.
00:08:59
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It's the best way to go. as you wish. Well, let's return to Samuel.
Misuse of the Ark and Israel’s Downfall
00:09:05
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As Samuel grows up knowing the Lord, ah so does the assignment that God has been preparing him for.
00:09:14
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Samuel is going to be the one who is going to speak God's word. He will be a prophet. God will use him to bear much fruit. And he's going to lead God's people into the next chapter, but it's not going to be easy.
00:09:28
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As far as the history of Israel goes at this particular time, We find them in one of those periods of chaos. And this time, they're being attacked by the Philistines.
00:09:40
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And it was ah during the second battle but with them that the Ark of the Covenant was captured. If you are unfamiliar with the Ark of the Covenant, then I'll refer you to another 80s movie that you probably have seen. That's right.
00:09:56
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Raiders of the Lost Ark of the Covenant. You see the box with the angels on top. The original version ah probably looked very, very similar to this.
00:10:09
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The Ark of the Covenant was a box in which the Israelites kept a jar of manna. They also kept Aaron's rod as well as the Ten Commandments.
00:10:20
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But it wasn't just a box. It represented the presence of God. And since the Israelites got creamed by the Philistines in the first battle, someone came up with an idea.
00:10:35
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Let's go into battle again, but this time let's bring out our secret weapon. God in a box. A good luck charm.
00:10:48
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Now, Eli the high priest knew that this was a terrible idea. He knew better than to use the ark as a magic box, but he agrees to the plan anyway. Well, you can bet that it didn't turn out too well for the Israelites.
00:11:03
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It didn't. They get crushed. It never ends well when you play games with God. the Israelites get smoked.
00:11:14
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And they end up losing seven times more soldiers in the second battle than they did in the first. And worst of all, the Ark of the Covenant is captured.
00:11:25
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It is carried off into the hands of the enemy, but which is absolutely just unthinkable for the Israelites. To lose the Ark is to lose the presence of God.
00:11:38
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And the presence of God was the thing that made the Israelites unique. Well, I really do wish we had time to really unpack what happens next. It's fascinating.
00:11:49
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But I'm going to give you a very short version. The Philistines, they take the ark home with them. But God inflicts them all with an infestation of rats and get this, hemorrhoids.
00:12:03
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Although in your NIV Bibles, the word is translated as tumors, which is a very polite choice. the Philistines, of a sudden, they kind of wise up.
00:12:15
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And they send the Ark of the Covenant, you know, get this thing out of here. They send it back to the Israelites along with five golden rats and five tumors, which is very strange.
00:12:29
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By the way, right, here's another case. If the Bible was made up, there's no way that someone is including that little detail in there. It's just too weird. So the Philistines, they might have all the power. They might have the weaponry.
00:12:45
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But God reminds them that they're not too big. They are embarrassingly human. Anyway, let's head back to Israel. It is a mess.
00:12:56
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They have been playing games with God. is a time of widespread disobedience and corruption. ah Eli's two sons, they were priests. ah and um And they were just terrible people.
00:13:11
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Wicked priests at that. They got too big for the job. Instead of serving the Lord, they served themselves. They stole offerings. They took advantage of women.
00:13:22
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And their father just kind of looked the other way. but the people were just as arrogant. They're chasing after other gods and writing their own rules and everyone doing as they wished.
00:13:36
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a mess. And God would clean up that mess by allowing the Philistines to come in and mop up Exit Eli and sons, enter Samuel.
00:13:50
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But it's the same old story with these Israelites, isn't you know, we've seen this act again and again and again, round and round and round it goes. God spells it out. You shall have no other gods before me.
00:14:06
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And they ignore them. They follow their own rules, make it their own way, and they pay dearly for it. Boy, they sure had a tough time with obedience back then.
00:14:18
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know, I'm just glad those days are long over. And, you know, we're not like that today.
00:14:25
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yeah you know better. That's funny. Sad. You hear it all the time.
00:14:32
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hear all the time. It's my life and I'll do what I want. Nobody has the right to tell me what to do, cetera.
00:14:48
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And on and on it goes. God's word and his will are regarded as optional suggestions at best.
00:14:59
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And of course, it's not just those people out there. No, it's you and me and here. We have a tough time with obedience.
00:15:12
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We like to be the king and and sometimes we get too big.
00:15:18
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How do you know if you're getting too big? Oh, I would say you're too big if you're too busy to worship God.
00:15:33
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got Bigger priorities. um I would say you're too big if you refuse to repent and change your ways.
00:15:46
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I would say you're too big if you just won't forgive people.
00:15:54
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You're too big if you're holding back on your offerings.
00:15:58
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as Speaking of which, as Laura mentioned in a couple of weeks, you and i are going to put that one to the test. We call it Jubilee Sunday around here. And what we're asked to do is basically look first. Look at what have I been giving to God?
00:16:14
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Sit down, do some math. you know Do you know what you give to the Lord and for his work? Know what you give. And then we're asked to grow what you give.
00:16:27
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um God asks us to trust him. He'll be the king. He'll be the Lord. And he says, trust me in all areas of life, including our finances.
00:16:39
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So will you and I obey the king? ah We don't want to get too big. We want to be as you wish kind of people. And I'll admit it. This is tough stuff.
00:16:52
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Obedience is not easy, especially when it comes to the money. Because let's face it, God's word is clear.
00:17:04
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But all too often, we i would just do what we wish. Just
Israel Demands a King
00:17:10
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like in 1 Samuel chapter 8, the Israelites, what they want is a king. They're tired of priests and prophets and religion They want to be like everybody else.
00:17:26
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They want to be like the neighboring nations. they They want to do their things their own way. We're just kind of tired of your arrangements, God. We want a king to lead us, just like everybody else.
00:17:39
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And naturally, the prophet Samuel is hurt. But God says to Samuel, oh, don't be upset. It's not you that reject him. They're rejecting me as their king.
00:17:52
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And Samuel, he makes this big speech. He pleads with the people. he says, no, you don't know what you're asking for. Don't do it. A king is going to make heavy demands. you know It won't go well for you. it won't go well for your children. Don't do it.
00:18:08
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But despite Samuel's warnings, the people protest all the more. Give us a king. And God says, as you wish, usher in reign of Saul.
00:18:21
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And here is a sobering lesson.
00:18:27
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Sometimes God will give you what you want, even if it's not what he wants for you.
00:18:40
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Take that one home and put it in your pocket. Sometimes will give you what you want. even if it's not what he wants for you. They want a king. And so God gives them exactly the kind of king that they are looking for. His name is Saul. And he definitely looked the part. ah he looked like a king on the outside. he was big, literally head and shoulders above everybody else, ah standing tall, starting strong. But I'll tell you, his obedience was short lived and he fell and he fell hard.
00:19:16
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because he got too big. Thy will be done turned into my will be done. And if you just kind of skip ahead, you'll see that the vast majority of his 40-year rule and his life was just one big mess.
00:19:33
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Saul resisted God's ways. He had tough time with obedience. And don't we all?
Obedience and Human Struggle
00:19:43
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A lot of us, you know, oh we all like the idea of Jesus being our savior, right? we've We're in on that, man.
00:19:51
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Save my soul, Jesus. Yes, yes, yes. We want him to save our souls, but we struggle with Jesus being our king and him telling us what to do with our life, with our time, with our money.
00:20:14
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with our relationships. That's why we always have to check our hearts again and again and again, and we need to check it, I would say, every week.
00:20:26
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You know, we have to ask ourselves, what's it going to be? Is it going to be that thy will be done or my will be done? ah But please know that in order to pull this off, it's going to take way more than willpower.
00:20:43
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We're slightly adjusting our schedules. No. Obedience is a matter of the heart. Father Paul Tripp offers this helpful definition.
00:20:54
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Obedience is the willing submission of my heart to God that causes me to do what God has commanded without challenge, excuse, or delay.
00:21:08
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Or another way to put it would be as you wish. And when the heart's desire is to please God and when obedience is a love thing and it's all connected to Jesus, oh man, you you will bear much fruit. You will shine.
00:21:24
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You will glow. Let's take a look at another video. This one is called Weird Science, but it's not another
Power and Obedience: Pickle Experiment
00:21:33
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80s movie. This one is an experiment.
00:21:47
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What I've got here is a Polish dill pickle into which I've jammed a couple of forks. And I'm going to do something that you really shouldn't try at home, which is I'm going to wire this pickle to the electrical outlet and plug it into the wall.
00:22:03
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And we'll see what happens.
00:22:10
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so we're running current through this pickle. The pickle represents essentially a container that contains electrolytes. We're getting some smoke here, some sizzling.
00:22:22
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Lights please.
00:22:27
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This is known as the electric pickle demonstration. The pickle is a container for two electrolytes, acetic acid and sodium chloride. And the color of the light you see is partly impacted by the green of the pickle, but it's the sodium D line, which is exactly the same light that you see in the yellowish street lights that you sometimes can find in cities.
00:22:51
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Lights, please. You can also use this idea, though I don't recommend it, for cooking hot dogs. You can take two forks and stick it into a hot dog and wire your hot dog to the wall if you're not allowed to have microwave ovens or whatever in your dorm rooms and you want to eat a hot dog.
00:23:07
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Same idea. In that case. I love that guy. I really do. I think it's his first line was, don't do this at home. And then at the end, he's like, well, you cook these hot dogs your dorm room.
00:23:18
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I love that, man. Chemistry in action. um But really, think about it. If God could do that with a pickle, think what he could do through you. In this experiment, the pickle is a power conductor, okay? A conductor.
00:23:33
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And this analogy from the field of electricity ah something John Ortberg uses to illustrate obedience to God. You're either a conductor or a resistor.
00:23:47
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The difference between the two can be described like this. a conductor is willing to let go self and it is opened up the power.
00:24:00
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ah Floating around the periphery of its atoms are electrons that can quite easily pass from one atom to the other. And so a conductor might have what we would call a generosity of spirits when it comes to electrons.
00:24:15
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A resistor, by contrast, does not want to let go. It resists. It hangs on to its little electrons. and It clings to its own way of being and doing things. It doesn't want to change.
00:24:29
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and because it's not open to the flow, the resistor really never knows much power. It's a dead branch. The secret of the conductor, though, is that it's not generating on its own power.
00:24:46
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The conductor is not particularly clever. It's a pickle. It's simply a conduit. It is open, it receptive to the flow of current that can change its world from darkness to light.
00:25:03
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The conductor's prayer is, as you wish. And the resistor's prayer is, leave me alone. And God answers each prayer.
00:25:17
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You and I live in a spiritually charged world. The Holy Spirit is all around us. It is in God's word.
00:25:29
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It is in baptism. It is in the Lord's supper. It is in his church. We didn't invent it, but it is given to us. It is the power of the gospel.
00:25:41
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And we, we don't have much power at all. Certainly not when it comes to willpower, but we can be opened up to his power and connected to Jesus' power.
00:25:53
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You will bear much fruit. The fruit of the spirit, right? Do you want love? you want to be more in loving? about joy?
00:26:05
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Peace. Doesn't that sound good? Could you use some patience?
00:26:12
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Kindness, yes. Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And then there's all these byproducts that come along with it. Self-discipline, generosity, integrity, humility.
00:26:30
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And those are very good things. If you're open up to doing things God's way, you will be amazed. Let God's word flow into you and out of you.
00:26:44
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And that's what a conductor does. Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. You remain in me. You will bear much fruit.
00:26:56
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It's a pickle of fruit. I don't know. But I do know that Jesus continued by saying, and apart from me, can do nothing.
00:27:08
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Hear it again. Remain in my love. If you obey by commands, you will remain in my love.
00:27:20
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Just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. See, obedience and love, they go together. Jesus obeyed in the garden. In the middle of the night, he prayed as you wish.
00:27:38
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ah as you wish, not my will be done, but your will be done. He became obedient and unto death, even death on a cross.
Conclusion: Jesus’ Ultimate Obedience
00:27:51
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In his great love, God came to rescue his people, not in a box, but in a man. And he came so small, a baby in fact, that To us, a son is born.
00:28:07
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To us, a child is given. And that child grew up. And they gave him a crown. And they made him king. Not their king.
00:28:20
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The king of the cross.
00:28:23
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And his blood flowed out of him for our salvation. And you see, as he hung on the cross, what he was saying was, i love you. And that's why we come and worship.
00:28:44
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That's why. That's why we drop our resistance and say, as you wish.
00:28:53
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That's why we repent and we pray, forgive me. And God hears that prayer and God answers that prayer because he wants to and because he can.
00:29:08
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Because he's bigger than our sin. He's bigger than our failures. And his mercy is bigger than our disobedience. His love is bigger. That's our kingdom.
00:29:21
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I love the graphic that's used for the story. have a friend who goes to church here and he got that tattooed on his arm. And I'm jealous. It's cool.
00:29:34
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Because those two crowns say it all. The crown of thorns is there. It is shadowed. And the king's crown dominates because Jesus battled sin and death and the devil and he won. He is the king of kings.
00:29:53
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Those crowns say it all. That's why we try to obey him, not because you have to, but because he went to the cross for you.
00:30:06
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And so what do we say in response to that?
00:30:10
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about as you wish? Amen. Let's pray. Good and gracious God, our Savior and King, help us to love you so that your will becomes our great joy.
00:30:23
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Make us to be as you wish kind of people. Don't allow us to get too big that we would ignore your word of life. Have your spirit's power flow into us and have your spirit's flow out of us so that we may love you better and serve you more and love and serve our neighbors too.
00:30:41
Speaker
And Lord, we want to lift up our neighbors this morning, all those who suffered damage either from property or from loss of life. There was recent storms. we We also want to pray for a couple of students from Francis Hall High School who were in terrible accident yesterday.
00:30:59
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Come to their rescue, Lord, and show yourself as a God who brings healing and recovery. And we do pray for all in our lives who are suffering, and we ask that you would heal the sick and calmly afraid and give hope to all who mourn, protect all who serve, bring back the wandering, and grant your peace to all troubled places and to every troubled heart.
00:31:22
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Keep us connected to Jesus, the true vine, the king above all kings, our savior and Lord, who also taught us to pray. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
00:31:35
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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
00:31:52
Speaker
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. We've designed some questions to go along with each sermon. So if you're feeling that you're ready to go a little bit deeper, head to normalgoesalongway.com and you will see the questions for this week's sermon.
00:32:12
Speaker
And come back on Thursday because Ms. Hannah, Ms. April, they will present this sermon in kids form. Thanks for listening.