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- Welcome to week one of
our Dream Now small group.
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I am so glad that you're
here with us today.
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So thrilled that you made a
decision to join in community.
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To grow deeper, to build
friendship, to let God take
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what he's doing on the
weekends with the messages
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and the books that we
have deeper into our lives
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and to grow together.
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I can't wait to see what's
gonna happen in your life
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as a result of this group.
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Now, this is a very critical moment
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for us as a church family.
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We are seeing God move in powerful ways.
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We're launching into a
multi-year vision initiative
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as a church, and most
importantly, we're asking God
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to give us his fresh vision for our lives,
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his fresh dreams for our lives.
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We're asking for it individually,
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and we're asking for that
collectively, as a church family.
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Now, there's a couple things
that are really critical
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to take it deeper into our lives
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and to get the most out
of our journey together.
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First of all, I would say it's critical
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to be present every week.
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Every time we gather together,
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we're getting to know one another better.
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Every time we gather
together, we're taking deeper
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what we've heard in the
weekends as we talk about it,
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and then we're being
encouraged to stay on track
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with the book that we received.
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Now, I wanna also encourage
you in addition to that,
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to journey through this book,
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and I wanna walk you through a couple
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of really important
components of the book.
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The team did this wrote this book
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so that you can grow spiritually,
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so that we can get the
most out of our dream
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now journey together.
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And inside the book, I wanna invite you
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to go ahead and open it up to page nine.
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You're gonna see on
page nine, session one.
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So each week, we're gonna
journey through a different part
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of God's dream for our lives.
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We're gonna start individually
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with God's dream for our life.
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And then next week, we're gonna talk
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about God's dream for our family.
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And the third week, we're
gonna talk about God's dream
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for our church.
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And the fourth week we're
gonna talk about God's dream
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for our community.
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And then the last week we're
gonna talk about God's dream
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for our world.
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Each week, you're gonna see an opportunity
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to check in with your small group.
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You're gonna see an opportunity
to catch up on your week,
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and then you'll also see a little bit more
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about the big theme for the
week as such as God's dream
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for your life this week.
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In addition to that, as you
turn the page, you're gonna see
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that there's a QR code that
you can scan for a video.
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Now that's the video that
you're watching right now.
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Every time the video
is shown in your group,
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you're gonna hear me
talk about the subject
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or the content of the week.
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And then at the end of the video,
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you're gonna get the questions
to discuss in your group.
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Today, I am gonna give
you three questions.
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Now these three questions are gonna apply
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what we've learned to our lives.
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You'll also see a place that
you can write down some notes.
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So you might write down
some notes as I'm talking,
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you might write down some notes
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as somebody else in the group
says something brilliant.
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Or if you say something brilliant,
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you might wanna write that down too.
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So you've got discussion notes.
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Then you're gonna turn to the
next page, which is page 12.
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And on page 12, there's a note.
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So each week, there's gonna be a note
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about the Dream Now offering.
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This week you're gonna read
about God's dream for your life
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and how the offering is tying in
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to helping our whole
church dream fresh dreams
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for our lives.
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As you look at this, one of the things
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that you're gonna notice
is this is leading us
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towards the end of our time together
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where we're gonna have
a commitment weekend.
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We're all gonna bring
our commitments together
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and make a commitment
of what we plan to give
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above and beyond our regular giving
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over the next three years.
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I'm gonna ask you to bring a commitment
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with a one-time gift,
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and we're gonna start
talking about that more
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as we go along throughout the group.
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But each week, that page will describe
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some very important
components of the vision.
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So I wanna encourage you to read that
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and make sure that you
got it in your heart
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as we're journeying.
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You'll also see a place
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where you can write down prayer requests.
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So there'll be time in the
group to share prayer request
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and pray for one another.
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This is a very essential
part of a great group,
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is praying for one
another as we're gathered.
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Now, finally, you're gonna
see our daily devotions.
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And every day, there's
gonna be a short devotional
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with an opportunity to write down insights
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and what you sense God is
trying to speak into your life.
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So I wanna encourage you, go through
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there's five days a week,
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and then when we come back
in the following week,
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we can share some of the
things that we learned
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through our time alone with God
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as we journey through the book.
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This book will help you
as we're walking through.
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Now today, as we're in week one,
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we're gonna talk briefly
about Moses again.
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If you heard the message
this last weekend,
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you'll remember me sharing
a bit about Moses' life,
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how he goes from being in Egypt,
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being raised in Pharaoh's household,
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and then having a moment where
he actually kills an Egyptian
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and runs into the desert.
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Now, his murder of this
Egyptian comes out of anger
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and frustration because the
Israelites, Moses's people,
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were being oppressed by the Egyptians.
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He goes into the desert and
on the backside of the desert,
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after 40 years, he has
an encounter with God
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that changes his life.
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He sees a burning bush, he
walks over to the burning bush,
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and God speaks to him
from within the bush.
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Now this bush was different.
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It was not burning up.
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So it was burning but not burning up.
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And as Moses has this
conversation with God,
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God gives him a dream.
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God gives him a vision.
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The dream and vision
that God gives to Moses
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is to go back into Egypt
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and bring the Israelites
out of their oppression,
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to bring them out of their slavery.
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Now, God says something very important
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and interesting to Moses.
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He says, "I have heard,
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I have seen the misery of my people.
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Their cries have reached my ears."
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So God is burdened by this.
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God's heart is consumed with the reality
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that his people are being
treated this way by the Egyptians
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and he wants them to be free.
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Same way God wants you to be free today.
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Spiritually, emotionally, relationally.
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God wants his people to be free.
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And he's choosing Moses
to be his messenger.
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He's choosing Moses to go back into Egypt
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and bring the people out.
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Now, God's dreams start
with God's burdens.
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That's really important.
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God's dreams begin with a burden
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that God puts on each of our hearts,
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and he's wanting to put a
fresh burden on your heart.
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He's wanting to give you something
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that he deeply cares about.
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Now, there are so many
things that God cares about.
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None of us can care about all the things
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that God cares about,
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but all of us can care about something.
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And every time there's a what
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that God wants to
accomplish on planet earth,
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he always chooses a who.
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God puts dreams in
individual people's lives.
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Sometimes, it's a dream
to start an orphanage.
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Other times, it's a dream
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to be a better dad, a better husband.
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There are people that are
gonna get dreams for businesses
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or the business that
you lead to be focused
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and led on purpose to share
the good news of Jesus
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with the people around
you, at your place of work.
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Others of you, perhaps you're
gonna get some kind of dream
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when it comes to making a
difference in your community
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or your neighborhood.
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But all of us, God wants
to give us a fresh dream.
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And you wanna pay
attention to those things
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that break your heart, the
things that are on God's heart,
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that you sense an internal stirring.
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Now for me, I remember
when I was in middle school
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and high school, as I'm beginning
a relationship with God,
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starting to follow Jesus,
there was this unique burden
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that God put on my heart.
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That was to share my faith
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with my friends who didn't
know the love of Jesus,
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who didn't have a relationship with God.
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That unique burden became a
call to vocational ministry.
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So I'm standing here today out of a burden
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that God put on my heart to be a pastor.
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It became a dream to let God use my life.
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Now, God gives dreams
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to people not just vocational
ministers of his good news.
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He gives it to anyone who
opens their heart to him.
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So we're gonna wrestle
through what are those burdens
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that God is wanting to put on your heart?
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Now, there's another component of this.
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When he gives you that burden,
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most of the time, it's bigger than you.
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Most of the time, it stretches you.
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And Moses, you see, even from this passage
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that we looked at on the
weekend, Moses says to God,
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"Who am I?
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Who am I to go back to Pharaoh
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and tell him, 'Let's
take the people out'"?
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And God, he speaks to Moses
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and he says, "Moses,
hey, here's your sign.
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Here's your sign.
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Actually, you will know
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that I told you to go back
when you get back out here
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and you worship with the
people at this mountain
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that you're standing on right now."
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Now, when you think about that,
that's kind of a funny sign.
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Like Moses, here's how you'll know.
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You'll know when you know.
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And God actually is
asking Moses to trust him,
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to take a step of faith, to move forward
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knowing that God will deliver him
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and he'll stand back on that mountain.
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Now, as we keep reading through Exodus
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and Moses' writings, you see he got back
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to that mountain and he worshiped.
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But there was a period where
he had to operate in faith
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with a vision that God
had put in his heart.
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God's dreams stretch your faith.
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Now, I love to think about
dreams with this big question.
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What is the thing that you would do
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for God if you knew you would not fail?
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And sometimes, the
reason we don't step out
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is 'cause we're afraid of failing.
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But if you can just
take that off the table
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for just a moment and wrestle through,
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what's the thing that you would do for God
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if you knew you wouldn't fail?
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In just a moment when we
jump into our questions,
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we're gonna wrestle through
that question in particular.
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Now, there's one final part of the message
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that I wanna bring back to the forefront,
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and that's the question
of what's in your hand.
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Now, God, he very specifically,
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has this conversation with Moses.
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And Moses is coming up
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with all these reasons
why he can't go back
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and why he's not equipped
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and why he doesn't have the abilities.
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And then finally, there's one
last moment where God says
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to Moses, he says, "Hey,
what's that in your hand?"
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Now it's kinda funny.
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Moses looks back at God
and says, "It's a stick."
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Now, think about that for just a moment.
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40 years in the desert,
he doesn't own any sheep.
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He's tending to his father-in-law's sheep,
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and all he has is a stick.
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Imagine him like kinda
even thinking about him,
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like looking at the ground.
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"I got a stick.
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Here's my stick, God.
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What can you do with a stick?"
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Maybe you feel like that,
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like maybe you feel like
when you look at your life,
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what can God do with my life?
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Ordinary life.
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I feel like that's so often.
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That I really don't have
a whole lot to offer God.
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Well, the good news is a
stick in the hands of God,
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it becomes the rod of God.
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And when he lays it down,
it's turned to life.
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It becomes powerful.
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In fact, God tells him to lay it down
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and then pick it back up.
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And God uses that stick in Moses' hand.
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Now it's called the rod of God.
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And all throughout the story
of Exodus, we're gonna see
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how God calls Moses to
use that stick to lead
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the people of Israel out of Egypt.
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You have something in your
hand that when you lay it down,
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all of a sudden it takes
on a whole new life form.
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And I wanna encourage
you to wrestle through,
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what's in your hand?
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What's the thing that
God has given to you?
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There are talents, there are passions,
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there are relationships that
you have influence with.
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And all of those things are things
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that God has placed in
your hand to be stewarded.
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There are possessions
that God has given to you
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that perhaps maybe you
hold onto them so tightly
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and they're not being used by God.
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You're not getting fresh dreams
for those areas of your life
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'cause you're holding them so tightly.
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So I wanna encourage you,
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as we wrestled through this last weekend,
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to really strongly consider
what's the thing in your hand?
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And perhaps today, God could
use this as a moment for you
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to lay it down, to surrender it.
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Now, as we wrestle
through these questions,
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I'm gonna go back through
what is the burden
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that is on the heart of God
that he's asking you to carry?
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That's the first question.
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Second, what's the thing
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that you would do if you
knew you would not fail?
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And then third and final
question is, what's in your hand?
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What's the thing that God is saying,
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"I wanna use that to
give you a fresh dream,
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to make a difference through your life."
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I am so excited about
this moment right now
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because you're about to shut me off.
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I'm not gonna be talking anymore.
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You're gonna get in your group
and you're gonna converse
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and have great conversations.
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But what's gonna happen is
the fulfillment of the promise
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that God gave in Acts 2.
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he's gonna keep pouring out
his spirit on us, his church.
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He's gonna give us fresh
dreams and fresh visions.
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And as a result of that, there's
gonna be so many miracles
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that we see God do in
and through our lives,
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and I can't wait to join together.
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All of our campuses are gonna
have these premier nights
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where we're gonna roll out big vision
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for the next several years of our church.
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I wanna encourage you
to make sure you join us
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for one of those premier nights
to really wrestle through
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and hear where is God leading
us as a church family?
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But for today, I wanna
encourage you just to pause
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and to ask those three questions.
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And before we do, I'm gonna pray over you
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as you go back into
discussion and your group.
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God, I thank you for our groups
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that are joined together
all over the world,
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literally today.
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Having conversations about your
fresh dream for their lives.
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I pray that you would give
fresh vision, fresh dreams
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to every person that is talking right now,
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that is having these conversations.
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And that as a result, you
would give fresh dreams
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to us as a church family.
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Bless them as they talk right now,
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and use it to change their
lives in Jesus' name, amen.