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Hey, welcome to the City Point 
Church podcast. 

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Thanks for joining us. 
Every day is an opportunity to 

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take hold of. 
So we hope this message inspires

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you and build your faith, but it
helps you have more of a God 

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perspective for your day. 
Enjoy. 

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This month we've been focused, 
well, we've just started 

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focusing on relationships, which
is really, really awesome. 

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And if we're going to be honest,
relationships are the most 

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important parts of our life and 
but they can also be the most 

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confusing parts of our life as 
well. 

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And see, sometimes people are 
confusing and sometimes we're 

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confusing. 
And even something as simple as 

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saying hi to someone can be just
the most interesting moment. 

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And so you say hello to someone,
then they don't hear you. 

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And so your brains gone. 
All right, right. 

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What do I do next? 
Do I say it louder? 

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And it's like, oh, now I feel 
like I'm young. 

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I'm like, hello. 
It's like, oh, no, it's not how 

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I should respond. 
And then do I like, do I just 

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wait? 
And I'm like awkwardly waiting. 

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So I'm like, I'm probably just 
not going to say anything. 

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And that's just one moment. 
And what if it's a passing 

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moment here in church or down, 
down the cafe and it's about 

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friendship and you see someone, 
you're like, yes, this is it. 

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This is my purse. 
And we're going to hang out, get

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food up deep chats, change the 
world. 

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It's going to be amazing. 
And then you don't see them for 

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hear them for three weeks. 
You're texting them, no reply. 

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And then you start replying the 
conversation in your head. 

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You're like, did I laugh too 
loud? 

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Did I say that joke too much? 
Did I say bless you idly? 

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I don't even know. 
And then they finally reply and 

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they're like oh hey, sorry I've 
been busy and for them nothing 

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has changed. 
And for you you've already 

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processed grief in those moments
and I'm usually the one as well 

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that doesn't reply. 
So I'm sorry to anyone that has 

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been feeling those things. 
I still love you, I just forgot.

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My bad. 
But because relationships are 

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confusing, and even with the 
awkwardness and the overthinking

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and the moments where we 
question everything, we still 

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want friendship to be loved and 
to ultimately be long. 

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And why? 
Because God had designed us like

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this from the very beginning. 
We were created for connection, 

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not isolation. 
To know and be known and to love

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and to be loved, but in 
relation. 

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But if relationships matter that
much, then we can't just drift 

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through them accidentally. 
We have to be intentional about 

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the you and I. 
So tonight the title and message

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is called you and I and I want 
to talk about two areas that 

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shape every relationship we 
have, which is friendship and 

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love. 
So our first point tonight is 

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the influence of friendship. 
Can everyone say the influence 

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of friendship? 
Love it. 

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I do it with the youth every 
time I grab their attention in 

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case they were drifting off 
somewhere with friendships. 

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We can have many different 
friendships and many different 

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seasons of life and these groups
and but each one plays an 

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important part of our, of 
shaping who we are today. 

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And it seems pretty important to
God as well that we have good 

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friendships because the Bible's 
full of many different examples 

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of them. 
And there's one example of them 

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and it's in First Samuel 19, not
on the screen because there's a 

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lot of it. 
And it's where the guy named 

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Jonathan and David. 
Now Jonathan was good friends 

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with David and we were getting 
along quite well. 

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And there was a situation where 
Jonathan was in where his father

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was saying, hey, jealous and his
father's king Saul is his name. 

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And he's going, I'm jealous of 
David getting really mad and 

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frustrated. 
And so he's like, I'm wanting 

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you to assassinate him and get 
some the guards as well. 

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And so Jonathan is like, this is
not good. 

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I really like David. 
And So what he does is he 

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actually warns David, lets him 
get out and out of that moment 

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as well and sets him, continues 
him on the path of what God 

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called David to go to, which is 
the throne of Israel as well. 

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And ultimately through this act 
of showing that true friendship,

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God was able to continue to use 
that. 

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And I would love Jonathan as my 
friend who's got my back. 

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And it's important to know who 
our friends are. 

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And you're probably not going to
have a situation like that. 

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And I'm really hoping that never
happens. 

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But to know those friends that 
have got you there in 

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Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 to 10, 
and the new Living Translation 

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is what I'm going to be talking 
about tonight. 

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If you've got your Bibles, that 
is very good as well. 

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And it says here, two people are
better off than one foot. 

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They can help each other 
succeed. 

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If one person falls, then the 
other can reach out and help. 

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But if someone who falls alone, 
they're in real trouble. 

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These type of friends who these 
type of friends know who you are

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and help give good wisdom and 
encouragement to making better 

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decisions and they ultimately 
help realign you back on the 

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right way of living how Jesus 
called us live because if 

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someone really loves you and 
they're willing to have those 

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tough conversations because they
actually care about you. 

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And sometimes those 
conversations can be tough and 

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sometimes they involve a little 
bit of a whack on your head. 

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And I've had plenty of those and
I'm very grateful for them. 

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And but they love you because of
that, that if they didn't love 

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you, they wouldn't have that 
conversation. 

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Because if your world, it's full
of people saying you're the 

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best, you're great, you're doing
nothing wrong. 

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There is you're the perfect 
person right now. 

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That's probably a problem 
because there's a chance you've 

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not allowed anyone close enough 
to speak into your life or 

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someone has actually spoken into
your life to do correction or 

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anything and you've gone, no, 
that's not for me. 

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But I want to let you know what 
the Bible says in one 

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Thessalonians 511 says so 
encourage each other and build 

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each other up just as you are 
already doing. 

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We are called to build each 
other up to encourage and be 

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doing it in love as well. 
Because anyone can point out 

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someone elses problem. 
But Jesus mentions to be careful

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not to judge someone for the 
speck in their eye and ignore 

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the log in your own eye because 
who you walk with determines 

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where you walk. 
There are times in life where 

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you have to recognize when a 
friendship or even a whole group

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is slowly leading you away or 
from Jesus or affecting who you 

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are. 
See the Apostle Paul says in one

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Corinthians 15 verse 33, Bad 
company corrupts good character.

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Many people make the mistake of 
associating with the wrong 

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crowd. 
And I want to let you know it's 

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not wrong that being around 
people that are not living 

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according to the word of God, 
we're actually called to reach 

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the lost, to bring people to 
Jesus. 

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That is what we're called to do.
But is there signs of your 

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character or your relationship 
with God being affected? 

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See, Pastor Craig Rochelle says 
this, I can tell who you will 

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become like just by looking at 
who you are hanging around. 

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And there's been many moments in
my life where I've had these 

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groups of friends around me who 
I've hung out through the years 

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of my years that I'm at now. 
And and with those groups, they 

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were good, good guys, but they 
weren't living a life for Jesus 

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as much. 
And and it was actually it's 

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time to affect who I am. 
And I could see I was separating

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myself away from God just ever 
so slightly because it's not 

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something an immediate thing. 
It's a gradual because the enemy

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is going. 
I'm I'm going to wait. 

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I know that I can if I can get 
this one little thing because 

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with it, where is it? 
There we go, because my 

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definites that I had my 
definites of this is not what 

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I'm going to ever do. 
Started turning to maybes and 

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started turning to, oh, it's 
actually OK, That's just a bit, 

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you know, religious thinking or 
like, you're just too strict 

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with it. 
And I could see my world 

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starting to shape in a different
direction. 

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And I'm so grateful for this. 
I'm so grateful for the Lord 

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that I recognize that I had to 
separate myself from them. 

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And I didn't want to be mean or 
anything, but I knew this wasn't

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good for my life because 
ultimately I didn't want to 

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jeopardize my relationship with 
Jesus. 

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And I could see that who I was 
was beginning to drift slower 

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and slower away. 
And wise people around me, they 

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were telling me, but my 
proximity of the friends that 

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were around me were closer. 
And so it was making that 

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decision to separate myself from
the proximity of those around me

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that weren't leading me closer 
to Jesus. 

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I had to step away from that to 
allow other people to come in. 

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And so from that decision, there
was a gap in which God then 

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placed, or more so revealed good
and faithful men in my life who 

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has shaped me and pulled me 
closer to Jesus, which I'm so, 

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so grateful for. 
Now this is all good. 

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This is all true. 
Great wisdom as well to take on 

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as well and make your life 
better. 

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But without this one very word, 
it's all meaningless and 

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pointless. 
And that word is love without 

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love. 
So the second point tonight is 

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unconditional love and if you 
could get anything from tonight,

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it is in the scripture in 
Matthew 22 verse 37 to 39. 

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This is Jesus speaking and Jesus
replied, you must love the Lord 

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your God with all your heart, 
all your soul, and all your 

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mind. 
This is the first and greatest 

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commandment. 
A second is equally important. 

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Love your neighbor as yourself. 
If there could be anything, it 

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would be in this verse. 
And I pray that you get a 

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revelation as well with it and 
God reveals more. 

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But when we're trying to love 
someone without you yourself 

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filled, it's conditional. 
It becomes self focused and you 

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keep trying to give out of an 
empty well, which means there is

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a disconnect. 
But when your heart is 

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connected, it is full of God's 
love. 

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It overflows true love and that 
love is an agape love which 

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means unconditional and Jesus 
calls us to live like this. 

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In John 1512 he says this is my 
commandment that you love one 

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other one another as I have 
loved you. 

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Jesus loved us unconditioning 
and he was calling us to love 

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unconditioning because he loves 
us all unconditioning and there 

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man there is so many verses on 
how much he loves us. 

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We actually cannot fully 
understand or comprehend the 

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love that God has for us and I I
was chatting with one of Josh at

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the back there going man. 
I don't want to cry in the 

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moment because I'm just so in 
awe of how much he loves us and 

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there's such power in the love 
and what he does done for us. 

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And but to help us unpack what 
this love is and we're so 

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grateful that God spoke through 
the apostle Paul. 

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And this was Paul talking about 
love in one Corinthians 13, 

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verse four to seven, it says 
this love is patient and kind. 

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Love is not jealous or boastful 
or proud or rude. 

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It does not demand its own way. 
It's not irritable and it keeps 

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no wrong record of being 
wronged. 

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It does not rejoice about 
injustice but rejoices whenever 

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the truth wins. 
Love never gives up, never loses

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faith, is always hopeful and 
endures through every 

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circumstance. 
Now we can understand what love 

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is and through this way, but 
also we're human, we are needy 

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and we're going to fall short 
and we have a good chunk of the 

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Bible in the Old Testament 
showing how we cannot do it 

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alone. 
And that is why being connected 

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in relationship with Jesus 
brings the this overflow of love

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as the worship team can join me 
as well. 

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Jesus says this in John 15, five
Yes, I am the vine, you are the 

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branches, those who remain in 
me, and I and them will produce 

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much fruit for apart from me you
can do nothing. 

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See, we cannot do it alone. 
We need him in our lives. 

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We, we need to have these forms 
relationships to be intentional 

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on who's speaking in our world 
and who we are speaking into 

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this because with that verse 
going God as number one, that we

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love God first. 
Then through that love, that 

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connection with God, our love is
able to be overflowed and poured

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out to others so that we could 
love each other in those 

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moments. 
Because that is a that is what 

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God is commissioning and calling
us to do that we love one other,

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but first we love God. 
We have that relationship 

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connected in those things 
because without him, without 

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that relation, without being 
connected to the divine, we 

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cannot do those things. 
We cannot give out of a love 

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that we do not have because we 
need that divine love, that 

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agape love because it's he's the
author of love. 

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He's the one that made it. 
And so if we're chasing things 

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of this world, that's not that 
type of love. 

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That is a falsified love. 
The real love is through God 

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alone because for our city, we 
are wanting to bring a social 

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and spiritual transformation of 
the lives around us. 

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So we have to be connected. 
We can't be doing it alone and 

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in this moment as well. 
God interrupted me during the 

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week and I love it. 
I love when God does it. 

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It's so beautiful and hey, he 
was told me just these 3 words 

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and and if you're here tonight 
listening and you've been 

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listening saying you don't 
understand my situation, you 

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don't understand what's going on
this. 

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It's like you just don't know. 
God wants to let you know these 

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words they gave me and it's just
three words and it's just saying

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just let God, that's it. 
And I'm going just like God. 

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This is like, no, it's just just
let God. 

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And I don't know who it is for, 
whether it's in this place where

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someone listening, but God's 
just wanted to let you know, to 

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just let God. 
That's it. 

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Just like God, whether you're 
doing it in your own strength, 

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where you're holding it all just
like God because He is the love,

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He is a divine love. 
And you don't have to carry 

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these burdens alone. 
He is there with you.