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Good morning, everyone.

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Would you join me in a word of prayer. Lord as we talked about your

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Word let us pray for your Holy Spirit your presence your power.

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Your will be done.

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Lord Jesus I pray this in your name alone.

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Amen.

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So good morning.

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My goal today is pretty simple actually would like to bring us all a

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little bit of encouragement and maybe even sprinkle in some

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inspiration along the way.

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I've noticed that. I've noticed that a lot of Christians today kind of

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walk around with a spirit of defeatedness.

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Have you noticed that? Either either they feel like they've lost

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something or maybe just feel lost and making me for many reasons.

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I mean, there's so many there's political upheaval this happened over

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the last couple months. The pandemic that never ends maybe just some

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personal struggles, but people are carrying a lot. And and let's just

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be honest,

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Yes, 20/20 was a brutal year for just about everybody.

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Yes, the moral foundation of our society has completely shifted.

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And yes, the church has lost influence and impact in our culture. And

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let's be honest people go to the Kardashians

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they trust the Kardashians more than they trust denominational leaders

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today.

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Amen. That's a sad, Amen

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but thank you for admitting it.

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Yes.

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Mainline denominations and the institutions associated with them are

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on the decline.

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So are you feeling encouraged yet?

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Yeah, it is all those things are true.

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But we we look at things from a different perspective.

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Now,

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I don't know if any of y'all when we were kids did this but it if you

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couldn't go play baseball out in the yard with friends just go out on

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your own with a baseball and a bat like toss the ball up in the air

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and then take a swing at it.

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So it's so this is not a true story but just picture this kid goes out

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to do this and he said he does what most kids do he pictures himself

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at the most intense moment World Series final inning.

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He's up at the bat if he gets a hit they win run comes in

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they win the World Series. So he steps up tosses the ball up takes a

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swing and he misses. Alright this just got more intense.

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So he takes the ball again tosses it up swings misses again and it

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can't get any tighter than this. Two strikes last

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potential out if he gets a hit they win if he misses they lose the World

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Series. Throws the ball up picture yourself as a kid. Swings with everything he's got

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totally misses.

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And then and then just picture this kid is standing standing there,

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got his head down and then he just gets this a giant smile on his

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face.

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See he came in thinking he was the greatest batter in the world, but he

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just realized he's the greatest pitcher in the world and it just won

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the World Series.

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Total perspective shift. And I would say if we look at all those

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things

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I mentioned earlier from the Earthly perspective.

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Yes, there there's a lot of reasons to feel defeated.

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But if we flip and look at things from a Heavenly perspective the

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perspective that God tells us to have that literally the word of God

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says that we should have a Heavenly perspective.

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We should see everything differently.  I mean

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Jesus has already won.

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There is no reason for us to feel or be defeated. Amen to that.

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I'm not done.

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I'm just saying just you know, looking for affirmation.

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Amen, Amen to that.

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He's already won.

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He's already there and our text shows Jesus

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authority on display.

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So he comes into the very beginning of his Earthly Ministry and he

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began speaking.

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and says with one with authority.

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There's so many things that we could

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so much depth over what it means for him to have authority versus the

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religious leaders of the day. But I want to take the simplest view of

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that when he spoke people noticed something different about the way he

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spoke compared to the way everyone else was acting and thinking and I

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believe that's what we as Christians should look like today.

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I mean the Bible says we should have a reason for the hope that we

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have. When people ask us we should have a reason that for the hope that

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we have. That means (A) we have hope and (B) it's on display enough to

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people actually asked us about it.

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And that hope is rooted in Jesus the victor, Jesus victorious, Jesus the

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one who's already won paid the price on the cross rose from the dead

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that pretty huge. Now, now it's amazing how much we know that but we

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still come with the defeated attitude instead of one from victory.

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Now, I'm coming from Minnesota, William Utech and I are here for a

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couple days for Minnesota and I've noticed something in Minnesota the

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difference between Minnesota for sports fans in Wisconsin sports fans

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were right on the border. And some of you may be you maybe you

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have your own kind of backgrounds on this or you know this

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specifically. But in Minnesota there's a really funny phenomenon it like

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it don't matter how good a team does, no matter how far they progress

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in the playoffs whether it's hockey or football. The only exception

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seems to be a women's basketball and I don't get it cuz they win all

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the games and nobody pays attention to them.

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But no matter how good a team is

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doing

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Minnesota fans have a really hard time actually emotionally committing.

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I'm not kidding they will win a playoff game with a miracle catch and the next week

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they're like, you know, I'm just not ready to get emotionally

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involved.

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I'm cheering for them, but I'm not really hopeful and the reason is

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cuz they lost and lost and lost and lost and they've had their hearts

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broken. And I'm noticing Wisconsin fans are the opposite like they can

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come into a game it all the odds are against him, but they've got hope

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maybe I think we're going to pull this one out didn't make the Super

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Bowl this year was that

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King of the North there it is.

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Thank you for that.

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Can we get an amen?

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No matter how bad it looks Wisconsin fans are like, I think we got a

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reason for hope.

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And I'm telling you my friends no matter how bad it looks today.

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No matter how bad it might get and the Word with the Word does says

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it's some point it's going to get very bad.

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We have a reason for hope because we know the end of the story.

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We know the one who has the victory.

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We know the one who is the victory.

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So keeping with the sports analogy metaphor, whatever we call it.

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So how many of you never dvr'd a game so you knew the end score before

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you started watching it? Yeah. When your team, you know, what the end of the

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game they're going to win.

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There's nothing more fun.

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Right? The most terrible things can happen.

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You can watch somebody, you know injuries happen the other team scores

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and you're thinking yeah, that's terrible, but I know how this thing

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ends.

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And I'm telling you my friends no matter how bad the Earthly view

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might be.

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We know how this thing is.

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We know the end of the story and that means war, war does not have the

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final say, sickness, cancer does not have the final say, death itself,

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Satan do not have the final say the victory is Jesus's it's already

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been won.

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We operate from the place of victory already and that should give us

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hope. So

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if the world throws us a curve ball and if you see what I did there, I

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mean it kind of defeats it to say it but curveball batter earlier.

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Okay.

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So if the world throws us a curve ball, we we stand in the seat of

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victory already.

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And because of that we're people of hope and I pray that when people

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see that hoping you and ask you about it.

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You have a reason to give them.

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Jesus the victor.

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His just the authority now and forever.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Please stand for a final hymn.