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00:00:00,600 –> 00:00:04,080
In 2025, I found myself
wrestling with frustration that

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00:00:04,080 –> 00:00:08,520
God was not giving me joy.
And then God very patiently told

3
00:00:08,520 –> 00:00:11,200
me what was actually happening.
It wasn’t that he was

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00:00:11,200 –> 00:00:14,000
withholding joy.
It was that I was rejecting.

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00:00:14,000 –> 00:00:17,520
It What followed was an
invitation to spend 30 days

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00:00:17,520 –> 00:00:21,000
looking at 30 passages on Joy
and turning it into a devotional

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called Rejecting Joy.
No.

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Longer.
You’d think I would have learned

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00:00:25,000 –> 00:00:28,160
that coming into 2026.
I was wrestling with hope.

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00:00:28,840 –> 00:00:32,040
God, why are you making me?
So hopeless.

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And God very patiently let me
know the reality.

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He wasn’t withholding hope.
I was.

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Rejecting it.
And so now here I am, spending

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30 days looking at 30 passages
on hope.

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And my hope is that this
encourages you.

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One thing that’s different this
year is I felt like God was

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inviting me to be publicly
transparent with my processing.

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To actually go live on social
media, pull out a random verse,

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and then read and process
through it on camera.

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This isn’t me coming to you as
an expert on hope, but me coming

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to you honestly as someone
wrestling with hope.

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And by witnessing that some of
you might feel less alone, may

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feel seen and understood, may
end up being encouraged in a way

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that is far deeper than the best
platitude.

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So join me as I spend 30 days
navigating 30 passages on Hope.

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This is day 27.
You’re listening to episode 234

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of the Where.
Did you see God podcast?

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Good morning folks.
I’m tired, did not get good

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sleep, but we are down the last
five.

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That doesn’t seem right.
Oh, maybe I did 31 days.

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00:02:06,120 –> 00:02:08,199
Wow.
At any point somebody could

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burst in this room, so who knows
how much time I have.

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So let’s not waste it.
Finally, I just want to thank

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you that you were God and you
were good for the ways that you

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move.
And despite my lack of energy,

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you are all energy.
And so I just pray that you

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would equip me for this time.
Holy Spirit, guide me to the

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verse that you would have for
us.

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Give us ears to hear.
Guide our minds to understand

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hope and ways beyond our
default.

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That’s premise only.
Name.

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Amen.
There we go, First

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Thessalonians.
We spent a long time reading

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00:02:44,280 –> 00:02:48,400
Psalm after Psalm after Psalm,
and now we’re hopping around the

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One T books.
First Timothy, now First

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Thessalonians 413.
But we do not want you to be

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uninformed, brothers, about
those who are asleep, that you

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may not grieve as others do who
have no hope.

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OK, you know what to do, folks.
Sometimes we just sit with a

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passage and don’t look at the
context, but that’s not how we

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roll here, you know.
Let’s read it.

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00:03:22,920 –> 00:03:25,400
As for other matters, brothers
and sisters, we instructed you

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how to live in order to please
God, as in fact you are living

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now.
We ask you and urge you in the

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Lord Jesus to do this more and
more.

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For you know what instructions
we gave you by the authority of

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the Lord Jesus.
It is God’s will that you should

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be sanctified, that you should
avoid sexual immorality, that

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each of you should learn to
control your own body in a way

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that is holy and honorable, not
in passionate lust like the

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pagans who do not know God.
And that in this matter no one

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should wrong or take advantage
of a brother or sister.

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The Lord will punish those who
commit such acts, as we told you

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and warned you before.
For God did not call us to be

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impure, but to live a holy life.
Therefore, anyone who rejects

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this instruction does not reject
a human being, but God, the very

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God who gives you his Holy
Spirit.

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00:04:08,200 –> 00:04:11,120
Now, about your love for one
another, we do not need to write

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to you, for you yourselves have
been taught by God to love each

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other, and in fact, you do love
all of God’s family throughout

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Macedonia.
Yet we urge you, brothers,

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sisters, to do so more and more
and to make it your ambition to

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lead a quiet life.
You should mind your own

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business and work with your
hands, just as we told you, so

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that your daily life may win the
respect of outsiders and so that

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you will not be dependent on
anyone.

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Brothers and sisters, we do not
want you to be uninformed about

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those who sleep in death so that
you do not grieve like the rest

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of mankind who have no hope.
For we believe that Jesus died

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and rose again, and so we
believe that God will bring with

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Jesus those who have fallen
asleep in him according to the

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Lord’s Word.
We tell you that we who are

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still alive, who are left until
the coming of the Lord, will

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certainly not perceive those who
have fallen asleep.

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For the Lord Himself will come
down from heaven, and with a

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loud command, with the voice of
the Archangel, and with a

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00:05:05,720 –> 00:05:09,200
trumpet call of God, and the
dead in Christ will rise first.

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After that, we who are still
alive and are left will be

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caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in

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the air.
And so we will be with the Lord

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forever.
Therefore, encourage one another

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with these words.
Throughout the history of those

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following God, there has been
this resounding question of what

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00:05:27,880 –> 00:05:31,760
happens after you die.
And even in the New Testament,

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00:05:32,320 –> 00:05:34,240
there’s a lot of wrestling
around this idea of

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resurrection.
There are many different

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theologies, but what everyone
could agree on is that the

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observations of their eyes and
the logic of their brains

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00:05:46,400 –> 00:05:50,600
indicated that pretty much for
everyone except for the stories

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00:05:50,600 –> 00:05:52,320
we’ve heard, when they die, they
die.

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You’re born, you get old, you
die, and your body decays.

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The Egyptians tried to find ways
to stave off that decay, but

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even that wasn’t perfect.
Many religions have ideas about

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there being something after
that, but from a human

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standpoint it’s not a thing that
we can readily prove.

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00:06:15,120 –> 00:06:18,680
You can find plenty of books on
Amazon of those who had a near

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death experience and they write
about what they saw and

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experienced.
But still all of us at the end

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of the day are in these human
bodies that we feel changing,

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have experienced the loss of a
loved one, and there’s a lot of

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grief in that.
I went to two funerals this past

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month and my wife and I were
talking about how the older you

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get, the more of these you’re
going to face.

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Grief becomes more and more a
part of the human experience the

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more people you love and the
older all these people get.

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And so the Thessalonians are
seeing people dying in

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particular.
I would have to do some research

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to find out if this is the case
here.

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But there was a lot of
persecution happening, and

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perhaps they were facing that
persecution.

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Perhaps it’s not just people
were dying of old age, but we’re

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being dragged out of their house
and killed.

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And so they were understandably
grieving.

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And Paul’s not saying not to
grieve.

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What he’s saying is not to
grieve as those who do not have

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hope.
Brothers and sisters, we do not

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want you to be uninformed about
those who sleep in death so that

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you do not grieve like the rest
of mankind who have no hope.

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And So what is the hope then
that they are called to have?

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Here we go.
This is the one I want.

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Thanks for joining with me,
folks.

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Ephesians 212.
Remember that at that time you

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were separate from Christ or
excluded from citizenship in

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Israel and foreigners to the
covenants of the promise,

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without hope and without God in
the world.

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But now in Christ Jesus, you who
once were far away have been

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brought near by the blood of
Christ.

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For He Himself is our peace, who
has made the two groups one, and

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has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility.

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00:08:06,040 –> 00:08:09,080
And in Him you 2 are being built
together to become a dwelling in

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which God lives by his Spirit.
Boom, becoming a dwelling in

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which God lives by His Spirit,
not individually, but being

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built together.
And So what is the hope that

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00:08:21,040 –> 00:08:24,880
Thessalonians carry with them?
The reason that they should not

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00:08:24,880 –> 00:08:30,760
grieve as others do?
Others, as the NIV puts it all

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in mankind knows that you were
born, you live, and then you

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00:08:35,000 –> 00:08:36,799
die.
When you die, you’re gone.

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And when you’re gone, it’s sad.
Some may believe that there is

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something afterwards, but they
cannot see that person in that

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00:08:44,440 –> 00:08:46,720
afterwards.
They cannot be with that person

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00:08:46,720 –> 00:08:49,800
in that afterwards.
They can hope that that will

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happen, but they might still
wrestle with that.

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But for many, there isn’t
anything after.

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And when you’re gone, you’re
gone.

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And Paul is saying, no, you have
been brought into a hope that

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00:09:00,600 –> 00:09:05,320
says that this life is not the
full life, is not the end, that

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00:09:05,320 –> 00:09:10,120
this is the space in which you
are being bound together to be a

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00:09:10,120 –> 00:09:13,520
dwelling place of God through
his Spirit.

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00:09:14,600 –> 00:09:17,280
That’s referred to us as being
temples.

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But we are the blocks building
with Jesus as the cornerstone.

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My kids are being loud.
I don’t know if you can hear

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him.
And so we do not want you to be

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uninformed.
Brothers, yes, your loved ones

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00:09:30,240 –> 00:09:32,920
are dying.
Yes, you have questions.

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You may be even scared of your
own death.

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But death has lost its sting.
Death no longer holds power over

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us in the way that it did.
Jesus has made a way to full

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life.
You know, he talks about living

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water to the woman trying to get
water.

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And he’s like, you’ll never be
thirsty again.

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And she still thought he was
talking about regular water.

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Like, what kind of magic water
is this?

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00:10:00,040 –> 00:10:01,400
He’s talking about something
greater.

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00:10:01,760 –> 00:10:03,680
You know, we hear him talking
about full life, and we think

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00:10:03,680 –> 00:10:06,400
we’re he’s talking about life as
we understand it now.

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00:10:06,400 –> 00:10:07,600
He’s talking about something
greater.

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00:10:08,160 –> 00:10:12,920
As they watched persecution
increase, as death became nearer

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00:10:12,920 –> 00:10:16,000
and nearer, a greater and
greater threat.

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00:10:16,680 –> 00:10:21,240
Fear was probably banging at
their door and sorrow is trying

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00:10:21,240 –> 00:10:25,080
to pull them down.
And Paul is saying don’t be

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00:10:25,080 –> 00:10:29,040
uninformed about what’s really
happening here, about what Jesus

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00:10:29,040 –> 00:10:33,280
is really doing here.
Because if you are, then, yeah,

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00:10:33,280 –> 00:10:34,960
you’re going to grieve,
understandably.

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00:10:35,720 –> 00:10:38,800
But you don’t have to grieve as
those who have no hope, because

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00:10:38,800 –> 00:10:42,320
you do have hope.
Do you know what that hope is?

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00:10:42,840 –> 00:10:44,800
Do you understand that?
That hope is about something

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00:10:44,800 –> 00:10:49,640
greater than the here and now
than simply staying alive, That

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00:10:49,640 –> 00:10:55,200
you could die today, and that
hope proved to be something

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00:10:55,600 –> 00:10:58,040
immeasurably more than you were
asking for imagining.

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00:10:59,520 –> 00:11:03,000
And so this is a good passage
for those who are grieving, for

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00:11:03,000 –> 00:11:06,560
those who are wrestling with a
fear of death.

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00:11:07,920 –> 00:11:10,360
Jesus wants us to understand
that death is not the end and

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00:11:10,960 –> 00:11:14,040
that death does not have to have
power over us and that it

194
00:11:14,040 –> 00:11:16,200
doesn’t even have to have it
sting anymore.

195
00:11:17,160 –> 00:11:19,040
Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt,
Doesn’t mean that grief doesn’t

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00:11:19,040 –> 00:11:21,880
happen.
But says do not grieve as others

197
00:11:21,920 –> 00:11:24,960
do.
You can still grieve, but don’t

198
00:11:24,960 –> 00:11:26,600
grieve as though there is no
hope.

199
00:11:27,400 –> 00:11:30,600
Our opportunity is to explore
what is this hope of a full

200
00:11:30,600 –> 00:11:36,360
life, of becoming God’s dwelling
place, of something that even

201
00:11:36,360 –> 00:11:40,360
death can’t stand against.
And if we could latch onto that

202
00:11:40,360 –> 00:11:46,960
hope and it gives us power back
over death, how can that also

203
00:11:46,960 –> 00:11:50,040
impact the other areas in our
life that aren’t as serious as

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00:11:50,040 –> 00:11:51,840
death?
The other things that are

205
00:11:52,400 –> 00:11:55,960
allowing fear to bang at the
door and grief to drag us down?

206
00:11:56,720 –> 00:12:00,400
If we can latch onto a hope that
gives us courage over death,

207
00:12:01,520 –> 00:12:03,360
then that hope can give us
courage over the other

208
00:12:03,360 –> 00:12:06,440
situations in our life.
Father God is just thinking that

209
00:12:06,440 –> 00:12:08,480
you were gone.
You were good for the ways that

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00:12:08,480 –> 00:12:12,160
you move.
And we do acknowledge that it is

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00:12:12,160 –> 00:12:16,760
easy for us to see the world as
all mankind sees it, to grieve

212
00:12:16,760 –> 00:12:20,000
as all mankind grieves, as
though there is no hope because

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00:12:20,000 –> 00:12:21,520
it’s hard for us to understand
this hope.

214
00:12:22,040 –> 00:12:23,800
To Holy Spirit, I pray that you
would move today to give us a

215
00:12:23,800 –> 00:12:27,960
deeper glimpse of this hope,
this hope that even death cannot

216
00:12:27,960 –> 00:12:31,040
stand against, and let that not
just shape our understanding of

217
00:12:31,040 –> 00:12:35,280
death and loss, but our
understanding of life was only

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00:12:35,280 –> 00:12:36,200
name.
Amen.