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Gravity is the theme for today 
and specifically defying gravity

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as we've been looking through 
the musical Wicked and the the 

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movies Wicked. 
I mean, just a quick, this is 

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not to shame anyone for not 
having but but just how many 

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people have watched the either 
the the musical theater 

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production or the movies Wicked?
Let me let me see hands. 

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OK, so so most folks, but not 
everyone. 

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So let me get just a little bit 
of background for those folks 

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who haven't seen it. 
The, the, the pivotal song and 

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anthem in in the the musical and
the the movies is the song 

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defying gravity and Elphaba, who
is labeled later the Wicked 

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Witch of the West, is faced with
a decision. 

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There's bad stuff happening in 
ounces, bad policies, bad 

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ideologies, bad actions are 
happening. 

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And most folks are just kind of 
going along to get along, 

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getting along to go along and, 
and stay in favor with the 

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powers that be maintain their 
position and status and society 

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and the, the land of Oz. 
But the the primary evil doers 

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in the movies here is, is the 
wizard himself and the wizard's 

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assistant assistant, Madam 
Morable. 

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Some people might say that the 
wizard is Madam Morable's 

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assistant, but you can watch 
that and make your own decision 

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there. 
And they have labeled the 

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talking animals as a threat to 
society and the talking animals 

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have to be silenced. 
They have to be removed, they 

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have to be killed, they have to 
be imprisoned. 

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What they have to be made in 
some way to serve the human 

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beings as as objects rather than
having a full position in the 

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the land of Oz as a whole. 
And Alphaba objects to this. 

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Other people object to it too, 
but they're afraid. 

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They're afraid of the powers of 
the Wizard and Madame Morible. 

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They're afraid of the police. 
They're afraid of losing status.

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They're afraid of losing 
position. 

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And so some people are really 
gung ho. 

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Some people are just keeping 
their head down and their mouths

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shut. 
And Alphabet refuses to do 

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either. 
And, and she says, I'm going to 

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resist this and, and sings this 
song defying gravity at the 

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point where she finally makes 
the decision, I'm willing to 

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sacrifice it all to do what's 
right by these other members of 

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our society that the talking 
animals, many of whom were her 

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friends. 
And, and gravity operates here 

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as a metaphor. 
And, and sometimes when you look

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too closely at the metaphor and 
a good story, you can kind of 

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mess up the story. 
I'm not trying to do that, but I

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think that the metaphor is worth
looking at here because because 

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what Alphabet says she's doing 
is she's defying gravity. 

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This, this force that is pulling
her and others to compromise, to

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get along, to go along to, to, 
to engage in bad behavior. 

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Just because it's easier and 
natural to do that since 

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everybody else, everybody else 
is doing it anyway. 

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And, and that's kind of how 
gravity works in, in the 

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physical universe, gravity is 
the force exerted by any object 

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with mass against other objects 
with mass that are near it. 

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And the larger the mass of an 
object, the greater force it 

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exerts. 
And so we're drawn to the most 

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massive object in our immediate 
vicinity. 

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So you and I all have a little 
bit of gravity, but our little 

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bit of gravity means nothing 
compared to the gravity 

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gravitational force of the 
Earth. 

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So, so, you know, we don't 
bounce into each other because 

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of gravity. 
I do that to people because I'm 

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clumsy. 
But that has nothing to do with 

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gravity. 
The gravity that of the Earth, 

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this massive object that pulls 
us to itself, it's impersonal, 

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It's constant and ongoing. 
You know, it's it, it doesn't. 

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It's not like man Blevins, I 
hate Blevins. 

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I'm not going to let him fly. 
It's just, that's just how 

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gravity works. 
It's impersonal, it's constant. 

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There's no place you can go on 
Earth to escape the force of 

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gravity and, and, and to resist 
it requires conscious decision 

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and sustained effort. 
And Alphaba made a conscious 

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decision to resist this, this 
cultural gravity that she was 

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experiencing and escape that and
do the right thing, freeing 

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herself, defying the gravity of 
the culture in which she was. 

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That's what Alphaba did. 
Alphaba defied the gravity and, 

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and, and she did it literally 
when she flew around in her 

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room. 
She did it figuratively when she

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said no to the forces of the 
culture that were around her and

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said, I'm going to do what I 
know is right in spite of the 

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destructive pressures. 1 might 
say sinful pressures of the 

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culture of the world around her 
to reject, exclude and and 

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devalue certain people within 
that society and alphabetified 

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gravity. 
Now, now I'm going to need. 

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Can I get a little extra volume?
I'm going to show a clip and 

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this clip is very short and very
soft. 

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So so give me give me. 
We might have to play it twice 

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to actually to get it, but but 
I'm my mind is weird. 

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I acknowledge that most people 
that know me recognize that in 

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me. 
I have a hard time watching the 

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movie Wicked and listening, 
particularly the song Defying 

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Gravity without thinking of The 
Godfather Part 3 and Michael 

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Corleone. 
And I don't know if you know who

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Michael Corleone is. 
Wait, we'd ask this for, for, 

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for Wicked, who's who's here has
seen The Godfather Part 3 about 

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the same number of people and 
the same people and we got movie

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lovers here. 
That's for OK, so, so Michael 

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Corleone, we're going to see a 
short clip, maybe the most 

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famous lot, one of the most 
famous lines in all of movie 

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history. 
Here's Michael Corleone. 

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At this point in the sermon, we 
listened to Al Pacino as Michael

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Corleone delivering his famous 
line from The Godfather Part 3. 

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Just when I thought I was out, 
they pull me back in. 

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Now back to the sermon. 
That's it. 

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Very short clip. 
Just when I thought I was out, 

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they pull me back in. 
Michael Corleone is talking 

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about the exact same dynamic 
that Alphabus sings about in 

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Defying Gravity. 
The social pressure that pulls 

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on us and demands conformity 
insists on conformity. 

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For Michael Corleone, what he's 
resisting is a criminal 

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underworld through which he and 
his family became wealthy and 

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powerful by engaging in lots of 
violence, lots of death, lots of

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destruction, lots of other 
illegal activity. 

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And now, later in his life, 
Michael Corleone is trying to 

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free himself from that criminal 
underworld. 

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And every time he tries to get 
out, they pull him back in 

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Alphaba. 
Alphaba defied gravity, but 

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Michael Corleone kept getting 
pulled back in. 

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Why? 
Because Michael Corleone, He 

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wanted to be free of all of the 
negatives of the criminal 

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underworld, but he really didn't
want to let go of the positives.

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He wanted to keep the money and 
the wealth that his family had 

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amassed. 
He wanted to hold on to his 

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power and influence within the 
community. 

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He liked the status and position
and privilege that came along 

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with it. 
And so he wanted to hold on to 

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those things while freeing 
himself at the same time. 

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And gravity doesn't work that 
way. 

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Michael Corleone learned what 
everyone who has ever 

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participated in a 12 step 
recovery program learns very 

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early on, that half measures 
avail us nothing. 

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And Michael Corleone was all 
about the half measures. 

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I want to let go of all of the 
negatives, but I want to hold on

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to all of the perks and all of 
the positives. 

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It's like trying to fly to the 
moon. 

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I mean, flying the moon. 
Risky business, right? 

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You know, we, we, we lost some 
astronauts in that quest. 

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We nearly lost more. 
And you know, you're going a 

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long way away from the Earth, a 
long way. 

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We're really defying gravity 
getting way out there. 

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But if we had said, you know 
what, we could lose that, right?

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Those spaceships as capsules and
those, those men that are in 

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them, why don't we tie a cable 
to the capsule so that no matter

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what happens, we can reel it 
back in? 

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Never would have gotten to the 
moon. 

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That's what Corleone was trying 
to do. 

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He wanted to stay tethered to 
the thing that he was also 

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trying to escape because he was 
unwilling to sacrifice the perks

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and the positives to be free of 
the negatives. 

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Alphaba. 
Alphaba was. 

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There were no half measures. 
She was willing to put 

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everything at risk, to defy 
gravity and do right by the 

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people of the world around her. 
Even if it cost her status and 

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position, which it did. 
Even if it cost her reputation, 

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which it did. 
Even if it cost her wealth and 

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privilege, which it did. 
Even if it cost her most of her 

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human relate, most of her human 
relationships, which it did. 

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Even if it cost her all of those
relationships, which spoiler it 

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didn't, And even if it cost her 
her life, which spoiler it 

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didn't. 
Almost, but not quite. 

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Almost, but not quite. 
But Alphaba was willing to risk 

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it all. 
She didn't have to sacrifice it 

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all, but she was willing to hold
it all loosely. 

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And if she lost it, she lost it.
Because the most important thing

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to her was not holding on to the
perks, but was doing the thing 

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that she knew was right, no 
matter the cost. 

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No matter the cost. 
So she defied gravity, where 

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Michael Corleone just got pulled
back in. 

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What does it take to defy 
gravity? 

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It takes a mindset and activity 
like alphabet. 

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It takes sustained effort. 
It takes a conscious decision. 

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And it takes a willingness to 
hold everything loosely and put 

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everything at risk for the sake 
of doing right, of doing good, 

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of living the way that we know 
is right and good to live, no 

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matter what the cost. 
There is constant social 

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gravitational pull on our lives 
in this world. 

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Some of it we're aware of. 
Some of it like gravity. 

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Most of time we don't even think
about, we don't even notice it 

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until we're trying to defy it. 
When we try to defy it is when 

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we discover that it's there. 
I learned when I was young that 

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there's some gravitational pulls
that struggle and pull on me 

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and, and I was not even aware of
them then, but at, at a certain 

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moment in high school, I became 
aware of them. 

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A little personal confession 
time here. 

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One of the things that pulls on 
me is a desire for approval from

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people and authority. 
It's a, it's a gravitational 

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force that I have struggled with
my whole life. 

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I didn't, well, that's not true 
because for the first part of my

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life I was unaware of it. 
And you can't really struggle 

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against it until you're aware of
it. 

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And, and, but it's, it's there 
approval from people in 

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authority. 
And I learned, I did learn very 

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on the way to get approval from 
people in authority is follow 

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the rules. 
Rule followers get rule 

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followers get told all 
throughout their schooling years

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that you're a great leader. 
What they're really being told 

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is you're a great follower of 
rules and and that's a very 

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different thing from being a 
great leader. 

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I had that. 
I really began to become aware 

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of the problem of this because 
as like most kids, I also knew 

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that it's not a cool to snitch. 
Snitching is not a good thing. 

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And then one day early on at 
high school, I don't remember 

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the detail. 
I remember some irrelevant 

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details and I've forgotten most 
of the relevant details. 

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The, the, the, the irrelevant 
details was I was either walking

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into or out of English class and
and then my principal just 

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appeared as if out of nowhere. 
I don't know where he came from.

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Suddenly he was right in front 
of me. 

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My back was against the wall and
his face was this far from my 

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face. 
I'm not sure why I'm doing this.

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I think he was shorter than me, 
but he was right there in my 

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face demanding that I snitch on 
someone. 

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And I caved instantly. 
Instantly there was no conscious

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decision there. 
It was like, if you pushed me 

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off the building, I wouldn't 
have to decide to fall. 

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I would just fall. 
And that's what I did. 

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And that bothered me for years 
and years and years and years 

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afterwards because I thought, 
I'm not a snitch. 

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And I'm like, well, you 
snitched, how can you say you're

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not a use? 
And it's that gravitational fool

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pull. 
I was so inclined to please the 

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person in authority that I was 
unaware of the social pressure 

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that was on me. 
That and I've had to learn to 

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defy those kinds of things and 
it's still a struggle. 

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Still a struggle. 
I would if I got an e-mail today

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from the Bishop saying, hey, I 
listened to your sermon 2 weeks 

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ago. 
It was wonderful. 

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I would feel way too good about 
that. 

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What difference does it make 
ultimately if it's the Bishop or

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not? 
I would feel way too good about 

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that. 
That gravitational pull is still

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there, but now I have enough 
awareness of it that I can make 

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decisions to defy it. 
Those kind of pressures are all 

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around us, whether it's it's 
social pressure to reject a 

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person at school or at work or 
in the community. 

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Might be social pressure to 
reject an entire group of people

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for one reason or another at 
school or at work or in the 

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community. 
It can be pressure to engage in 

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illegal activity or legal 
activity that is really 

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destructive. 
The Jim Crow laws of the of the 

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South were a horrible form of 
social gravity that a lot of 

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people just went along with 
because that's just, well, 

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that's just how it is. 
I know people that kind of grew 

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up in that and they told me, we 
don't understand, Scott. 

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It wasn't racism. 
That's just how it was. 

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And it's like just how it was 
was racism, right? 

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The fact that we don't identify 
the gravitational pull is so 

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strong. 
And the people that defied that 

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gravitational pull, they paid 
dearly for that defiance, dearly

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for it. 
And thank God they were willing 

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to pay that price because that's
what it takes to defy gravity. 

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A willingness to sacrifice, a 
willingness to hold everything 

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loosely because you might lose 
it. 

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The original OG of Defier Defier
of gravity is Jesus himself. 

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He did it literally walking on 
water, which is really, really 

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cool. 
But far more significantly is 

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that he did it socially, the 
pressures that he was under. 

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But from the very beginning, in 
his decision to become a human 

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and live on earth with us, Jesus
began defying gravity. 

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He could have chosen to be born 
in a palace and wrapped in 

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silks, but who chose to be born 
to a poor family and wrapped in 

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rags? 
He could have chosen to be born 

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in a place where he would have 
been laid in a soft, beautiful 

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gilded bed, but he was laid in a
feed box. 

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He could have chosen to please 
the religious authorities that 

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are around him and said, you 
know what? 

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If you want our approval and our
blessing in your your mission 

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project here, Jesus, you need to
reject those people and hang out

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with us. 
And Jesus said, well, I'm going 

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to hang out with those people. 
If you want to join me, you can 

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come over here and hang out with
them too. 

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He could have capitulated to the
political authority that was 

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around him and said whatever he 
needed to say to get on Pontius 

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Pilate's good side or Herod's 
good side so that he wouldn't be

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crucified. 
But he said, you know what? 

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You can't take my life from me 
because I give it freely. 

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Ha. 
And that's what he did from 

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beginning to end. 
Jesus defied gravity so much so 

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that when he gave up his life 
for us and they put him in a 

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hole in the ground and put a 
stone in front of the hole, He 

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still rose up. 
Define gravity, define. 

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And he offers us, invites us to 
join him in that. 

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And he offers us through his 
Holy Spirit, everything that we 

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need to defy gravity as well. 
All we have to do is sacrifice 

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everything, or at the very 
least, surrender everything and 

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hold it with an opening. 
Most of us aren't asked to 

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sacrifice everything. 
Few people, followers of Jesus, 

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have been asked to do that. 
Relatively few. 

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We call them martyrs. 
Most of us have not been. 

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But we're all asked to hold 
everything loosely and say 

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Jesus, whatever I need to, 
whatever needs to fall away in 

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order for me to rise up with 
you, it's OK. 

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It's OK. 
This was the decision that Alfa 

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faced and thank God, one of the 
one of the coolest heroes in in 

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in the literature and stories is
is alphabet. 

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As she makes her decision to 
defy gravity, Allison's going to

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come up and and and sing about 
that. 

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She's going to sing defying 
gravity for us. 

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And you might have to adjust. 
Just give Derek back there a 

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00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,680
thumbs up or thumb down if you 
need more volume or less volume.

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And, and, and, and what I'm 
hoping is, is that Alphabet's 

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anthem is our anthem too. 
All right, here we go. 

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At this point in the sermon, 
Allison Bradbury sang Defying 

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00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:22,560
Gravity. 
She did a beautiful job with the

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song and I wish I could include 
it here, but for licensing 

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reasons, I can't include it on 
this platform. 

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If you would like to hear 
Allison singing, check out the 

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same sermon on YouTube. 
Just search for CRSNB sermons 

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and click on the Defying Gravity
sermon. 

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Please be aware though, that I 
don't have good tech for 

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recording live musical 
performances, so the audio 

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quality is not nearly as good on
the recording as Allison was 

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live. 
You can also find Cynthia Revo's

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version on YouTube and all major
music platforms. 

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Now back to the sermon. 
Thank you so much. 

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Can I have thank you, thank you,
thank you. 

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Oh, that's the third time 
Allison has sung that today, and

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00:19:11,450 --> 00:19:13,610
she sung it brilliantly all 
three times. 

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So, and, and that's it. 
That's it. 

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That decision, that decision to 
try to find gravity, to say, 

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even if I fly alone, here's the 
beautiful thing. 

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Sometimes it feels like when 
we're doing this, we're doing it

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alone. 
But the Bible tells us we're 

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surrounded by this great cloud 
of witnesses. 

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So even if we can't see when 
we're defying gravity, we are 

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not doing it alone. 
We have others around us who 

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through the ages have made that 
same kind of decision. 

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And with the grace and the power
of Jesus Christ, we too can 

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mount up on wings like eagles. 
We too can defy gravity. 

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We can resist the forces and the
pressures and the world around 

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00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,120
us to conform, to get along, to 
go along and instead choose to 

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live and love like Jesus lived 
and loved. 

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00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:05,680
Define gravity in Jesus name, 
Amen. 

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00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:06,560
Amen.