Episode Transcript
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Did you know people today might think the worldis in its current state because of darkness,
because of the worldly sinners doing worldlysinful things, caring less about God, being
more into this or that, not wanting to go tochurch, taking God out of our schools, out
of our country, and so on. But this isn't true.We are where we are mostly as a result of God's
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own people rejecting Him, pushing Him away,not wanting Him. Let me say that again. We
are where we are in the world today, not becauseof the world rejecting God, but because of
the Church rejecting God. If the Church wantsto point its finger anywhere, it should be
at itself, not at the world. We are stiff-necked,stubborn, and always resist the Holy Spirit.
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We go to church and resist God. God starts tomove and He is shut down, and not just by the
leaders. God starts to move on you. You canfeel your heart softening. And what do you
do? You resist. You shut it down. God wantsto move. He wants to answer us. He wants to
be God. But we don't allow it. We fear it. Weresist it. Sadly, in most churches, people
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don't stand much of a chance to get God to comedown in their lives. Hurting people remain
hurting. Sick people remain sick. Broken peopleremain broken. I don't think we even realize
how much we really are resisting God. I thinkwe think we are doing the right thing. Churches
resist God while praying for Him to come close.How confusing this must be to God. God come
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down to us, answer us, but don't mess with ourlives too much. Keep your distance. Oh God,
help those sinners out there, all those poor,broken people whose lives are a mess. Bring
them salvation, but don't dare touch me, God.Who me? No, God, I'm fine. We expect revival
to be for all those lowly sinners, alcoholics,adulterers, and heathens out there to come
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to know the Lord and be saved and become likeus. We want Him to deal with everyone else
while we are unwilling to let God really comenear us and deal with our hearts. We go to
church week after week, sing songs, worship,pray to God, but we don't allow Him to get
near. It's like the Bible says in Matthew 15.These people honor me with their lips, but
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their hearts are far from me. Their worshipis a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as
commands from God. We say all the right things,but our hearts are like a fairy tale. They
are on a land far, far away, somewhere else.God wants our hearts, but we keep them locked
away. No wonder nothing much ever happens inchurch. Nothing ever really gets better. And
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we blame God like he is distant. or isn't answeringus when all along it is us who are far away.
And instead of breaking or changing, we continueweek after week, if only we could really see
what we look like from God's perspective. Wewant God to come down in a way that fits us,
our church, our denomination, our religion.God tries and tries to come near, but we aren't
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having it. We reject God because He doesn'tshow up in the package we desire. Or he requires
too much attention, too much time, love, selflessness.He wants to change our hearts and heal us,
but we are satisfied being broken and distant.We just want enough of him to feel better about
ourselves, make our lives a little bit easierand give us assurance of a happily ever after.
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But we really aren't that interested in knowinghim. We set the parameters of what we are comfortable
with. We want God, but we don't want to falldown. We want God, but we don't want to cry.
We want God, but we don't want to deal withour hearts. We want God, but we don't want
to look foolish in front of everyone. We wantGod, but we don't want it to take too long.
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We want God, but we want it to be neat and tidyon our terms. We want God, we just don't want
him to mess with our lives too much or requiretoo much. We create the image of God for our
church, how he best fits us, and then expectGod to come down in that image that we've created.
We've created a weak, ineffective church devoidof any real power. We have nothing to offer
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the world other than come be like us. And believeme, they don't want to be like us. They see
right through our hypocrisy. They want somethingreal. They don't want our old timey religion.
They want life. So they have turned their backson religion and the church and are chasing
everything else, trying to find some real life,some help, some answers. and we are upset at
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them that they are chasing everything else,but yet it is us and our system of religion
that has pushed them away from God. Everyonedeserves the chance to encounter God and experience
Him, but the church as a whole has taken thatoption away. This religious system is one that
resists and rejects God, treats Him shamefullyand dishonors Him. It's a system that resists
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that creates a people who resist. It keeps usfrom really encountering God. Churches bring
people in who are hurting and desperate andpassionate, and they cool them off, clean them
up just enough not to embarrass the group asa whole. Churches should be bringing people
to God. Instead, they snatch them on their waytowards heaven and make them twice as fit for
hell. That's really harsh you say. Well, maybe.But I'm not saying it just to bash the church.
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I'm saying this as hey, you know what, thingsare broke, they aren't working right now. Isn't
it better for us to wake up and see that andstart to change, instead of persisting in what
we've done that isn't working? We should wakeup and say, hey, we are changing everything
and aren't stopping until God actually showsup. Whatever that means, whatever it takes.
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If we have to scrap everything we know, we arenot going to keep doing church this way. Whatever
we need to change, even if it's not pretty,even if it's not presentable. But what about
visitors? What will they think? What about numbers?What about money? Who cares? If God isn't even
there, what does any of that even matter? Whocares about numbers? Numbers? For what? People
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that are far worse off than when they came in?We are afraid of losing money, so we keep going,
even though we know it's broke. We have createda people broken down and weighed down by heavy
burdens that God never intended us to carry.God's ways are far better, far lighter, far
easier. His burden is light, but yet we areso weighed down by our religion. He has made
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a way for us, but yet we continue to carry andstruggle doing it our way. We never really
fully surrender and give up our will for His.We are missing out on real abundant life. We
are missing out on really knowing this amazingGod who we say we serve. Oh, but you say, that's
not our church. God is definitely in our church.Is he? Is he really? Come on, be honest. Maybe.
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But in most churches, instead of the emperor'snew clothes, we have the emperor's new God.
Oh, isn't he wonderful? He's right there. Helooks so amazing. Yeah, I guess he's great,
but I don't see anything. Shh, don't say anything.Just agree and nod your head yes and stare
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like you can see him. He is wonderful for sure,I guarantee it. Stop acting like God is around
when we know he isn't. We do our best to appealto people with God not actually even being
there. We go to church every weekend and leavewith lively music, a trendy sermon, a sense
of community, but with very little, if any,of God. Not changed, not transformed, we just
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feel inspired. Inspiration will not go veryfar, and no, warm fuzzy feelings don't count.
Church should be about attracting God to showup. All of our effort should be sent towards
heaven, not towards us. We should be sendingout all the effort upwards to heaven so that
God would notice, come close, show up, so wecan really encounter Him, really experience
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His presence, really be changed. Instead, wetry to make church livelier, more flashy. We
put our best efforts into more attractive marketing.Better facilities. Lively worship, trendy preaching
that appeals to our target demographic insteadof appealing to God. We run our churches like
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social media, using all the keywords and tricksto get more followers and likes, and ultimately
more money. But we miss the most important partof all, God. We keep trying to make it all
work. We keep trying to be God's people withoutGod. And worse. We are mad at the world for
taking God out of our schools and out of ourcountry, but yet we are the ones who have taken
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God out of our churches and out of our hearts.The world may have taken God out of our schools,
but the church has taken God out of the church.Have you ever heard the saying, if it's not
broke, don't fix it? Well, it's definitely broke,and someone needs to be courageous enough to
fix it. Now, I'm not saying, let's split andgo start another church across the street,
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just because we go to church on Thursdays, andthose heathens at the other place go on Wednesdays.
We have enough powerless churches already, wedon't need another one. Let's not tear the
whole community apart over something God probablycares less about. I'm saying, let's just be
honest. Just agree that maybe we all might bewrong. Maybe we are missing the mark. We can
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all do better. And we are all mostly focusingon the wrong stuff. Most churches focus on
things that God probably isn't too concernedabout. While the things he is concerned about,
we neglect or ignore, like our hearts, our pride,our sins, our lack of him in our lives. Listen,
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hear me. I wish the problem lay elsewhere. Iwish we could say, oh, it's all their fault.
It's big pharma. It's the government. or it'sthat super rich guy who's messing everything
up. But in reality, God is not really concernedabout all those things. But he is concerned
about his church, his people. What we are doingjust isn't working, but yet we persist in it.
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It's flawed and broke, but yet instead of changing,we blame others. Where are the pastors, the
leaders, the congregations, who have the courageto say enough? This isn't working. Who cares
what we do next? Unless we get God to come down,what does it matter? We don't want to be this
way. We don't want to treat God this way. Wedon't want to treat others this way. This is
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not who we are. This is not who God createdus to be. God is trying to help us out, not
scold us, not put us in time out, not take awayall of our fun. He wants to help, but his hands
are tied if we are unwilling to see the issue.You might say, What can I do? I can't change
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the church. No, but you can change you. Don'tjust go along with the crowd that says everything
is fine. It's everyone else's fault. One ofthe most powerful things you can do is just
be honest with yourself and God. You know thereare things inside you that are wrong. Attitudes
and mindsets that just don't belong. The stuffyou shove down so no one else will see. Stop
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excusing yourself for whatever reason. God doesn'twant to punish you. Religion does, but not
God. He just wants you to be honest and dealwith it and move on so you can have a better
relationship with Him. Stop looking at everyoneelse and just let God deal with you. God's
not looking for perfect. He's looking for honest.It's us. We need to change. The church needs
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to change. We need to allow God to be God. andstop resisting and stop fighting Him. We think
we are fighting the world and darkness, butreally, we are just fighting God. Our struggle
is not against darkness, but against God. Whenwill we allow Him to finally win us over? We
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need to break free from this religious systemand run as fast as we can towards God, and
not stop until we are completely His. Not stopuntil He comes down in our lives in such a
way that all the world can see how differentwe are. Not stop until we truly are the people
God deserves, that our hearts are completelyHis, and we actually have something valuable
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to offer the world.