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Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks. Where we connect

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the Bible to your life. In the time it takes

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to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. You

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either follow Jesus or you don't follow

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Jesus. You're either getting closer to God

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or you're getting further away from God.

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We like our binaries and we like them

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for good reason. They shake us up. They

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shake us out of our spiritual slumbers. And

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they awaken us to the possibility that

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our lives may be headed in the

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wrong direction. We like our

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binaries because Jesus himself sometimes spoke

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in binaries. Check this out. Matthew

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12.30. Whoever is not with

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me is against me. Whoever does

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not gather with me scatters. But

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he spoke in other ways. Sometimes

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it sounds like he says the opposite of

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that. When someone who wasn't following Jesus started

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casting demons out in his name, he didn't

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say all in or bust, buddy. Instead

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he said this to his disciples. Do

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not stop him. For no one who

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does a mighty work in my name will be

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able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For

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the one who is not against us is for us.

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It's almost the opposite. Apparently,

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you can stay half-hearted for a time.

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But Jesus expects that time will pass

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and you will either move on or

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move in to the kingdom. Studying

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the kings in the book of Chronicles

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makes this principle clear in action. Consider

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this strange verse 2 Chronicles

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25.2, and King Amaziah did

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what was right in the eyes of the

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Lord and yet not with a whole heart.

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What does that mean? He did the right

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things for the wrong reasons? Or

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perhaps it means that his devotion

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to Yahweh was superficial and sporadic.

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Or perhaps it's just an honest assessment

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of his life. An assessment that

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can be made of many lives. We

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all give God half as much as he

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deserves and care half as much as we

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should about him. This verse is

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not in the Bible. Give us a pass.

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It's in the Bible to give us a

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mere so that we might realize that even

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if we were kings and queens, We.

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Could hope to do little better than

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we do right now. But even more

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importantly, it's a window. If we

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see past Amazon we will see

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forward to the future king from

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his lines who did not live

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with half hearted devotion. Jesus. You.

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See Jesus lay down his whole life

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in obedience to his father and the

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author of Hebrews said he did so

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for the joy set before. He

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died with a whole heart for the whole

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world so that he could one day raise

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up whole hearted humans in a world made

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whole by his was. No,

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I hope you can see what's so different

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about your wife. And Amazon has eyes. You

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can see clearly what was only a

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fog. The Messiah your hope is set

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before your eyes. His hope was but

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a shadow of what's to come. And

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because you know the hope that is set before

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you. You. Are freed to start living

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today like the future is in the presence

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but differently. If you know that you are

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destined one day to have a whole hearts

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and if you know that God's spirit within

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you wants to give you a whole heart

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today, the why do you play around with

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all the sins it isles? The keep you

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from giving your fourth hole devotion to Jesus.

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As Cs. Lewis once put it, were

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like children playing with mud pies when

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we could be enjoying a pleasure cruise.

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To get out of this predicament, we must learn

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to see the mud for what it really is.

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The truth is that we all fear

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missing out on something if we give

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up the sex or drink or gossip

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or materialism. agreed, or course, joking that

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keeps us halfway committed to God. We

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know a day is coming when we want

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indulge in such things, and so we figure

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it's better to enjoy them all the fun

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Last. But this. Makes haven't into

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a how and the hell out of heaven.

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If we indulge ourselves and last greed and

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selfishness, we are plunging ourselves into a lake

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of flames it pretending that it's a nice

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hot spring. It's. Not nice. It's

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the. If the flames wish to

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return you to dust so you must

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develop in yourself a distaste For said

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if you want to be wholehearted he

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must develop a true discussed with on

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righteousness. This doesn't mean becoming self righteous

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towards others and judging others, it's about

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judging yourself And how could you judge

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others when you see the same sickness

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in you he sees you want to

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be a whole hearted disciple of Jesus

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you need to be able to call

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mud mad. If you can't

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do that, you will never be able to

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enjoy the pleasure cruise of righteousness that Jesus

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is offering you. But that's the flip side

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of things. You also had to develop a

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taste for righteousness. My two kiddos

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are very different eaters. My son Oliver loves

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to eat just about anything. My daughter Iris

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is a bit more picky and so one

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of the things I talk with her about

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because I used to be a picky eater

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to is that you have to try new

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things if you want to enjoy them. and

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some vegetables might look really gross, but it

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turns out that when you eat them and

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they're properly prepared, they're quite delicious and so

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I'm constantly encouraging her to develop a taste

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for new things. And this is exactly what

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needs to happen in Us. As

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a result of the fall, we all

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have a natural taste for crotty macaroni

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and frozen pizza and processed foods. Of

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course, we all want that. That's what

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we've been raised on. That's what it

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means to have sin and your wife

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from your birth, from your earliest moments

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and what God wants to do. Say,

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I have something so much better for

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you. but you need to develop the

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taste. You need to get a taste

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for the goodness of holiness, the goodness

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of righteousness, the goodness of justice, love

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and mercy. You. See if you want

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to live with a whole heart your whole heart has

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to want would Jesus has to offer and you won't

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wanna if you don't have a taste for it. You.

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Want shoes? The Good: Napa Valley Wine

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If you've only had yellowtail and you need

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to ask God let me experience righteousness

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and enjoy it and develop a taste in

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my life. For it's to that I can

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be a wholehearted follower of you. Ten

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Minute Bible Talks is a crowd funded project

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is this podcast is helping you grow

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