Faith on the Go: Ep: 1 The Curse of Familiarity: Rediscovering Reverence

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Hello, and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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We're listening to our first Faith on the Go monthly series.

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We just concluded the Eyes Wide Open series where we learn the power of praying

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in the Spirit and how to see what God is showing us with clarity and conviction.

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But here's what we must understand next, that what God reveals to us is holy.

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What we see from Him is sacred, and what we hear from Him is not common.

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And how we respond to His voice really does matter.

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This is why we're launching this new series, because too many have lost the

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reverence of the Holy God.

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We're hearing from God, but we're treating His word like it's optional.

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We're entering into his presence without honor, and the danger is real.

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We're getting used to glory without being changed by it. This is not just a

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teaching, it's a warning.

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A call to return to God with holy reverence and holy fear.

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A moment to check your posture before the king.

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So welcome to the curse of familiarity. When we get too casual with God,

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too common with His presence, too careless with His sacred.

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We don't just lose reverence, we risk losing the glory.

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But this series isn't about shame, it's about awakening.

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It's about returning to holy reverence fear and walking in the holy awe of the Lord God Almighty.

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I'm your host Connie Morris and this is Diary of a Black Woman podcast with

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our Faith on the Go series. So let's go.

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I'd like to open up in prayer with our favorite person of the Bible,

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Jabez. So let's make this declaration.

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God, we thank you that your hand is upon us. Our territory is continuing to

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expand. Please keep us from harm.

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And our prayers, thank you for hearing our prayers. And we know that you hear and you do answer them.

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Thank you that we walk free from pain. we walk in truth, and we turn back to

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a deep intimacy with you, O Father.

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We walk healed, we walk in power, and we walk boldly in our divine purpose.

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So I have a new episode here, and it's Faith on the Go from our Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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And this came about just from what, you know, I've been seeing just showing

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up at church or just how people treat the Holy Word of God.

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And some of my favorite scriptures are in here about how do we honor God?

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We just cover Eyes Wide Open where we pray in the Spirit and God shows us things.

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But what do we do with those holy things?

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So let's just go over what we don't do, what we shouldn't do with it.

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The world is no longer recognizing the power of God. How many of us need the power of God to survive?

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I know I do. Raise your hand if you do. because the church no longer takes him seriously.

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We gather in his name, but we don't tremble. We quote his word,

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but we don't obey his word.

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We ask for miracles, but we offer no reverence.

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And we speak of relationship, but we really walk in familiarity.

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Well, welcome back to Faith on the Go, Diary of Black Women.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris. And today we're going to begin the sacred journey

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into what the Lord has shown me is spiritual cancer in the body of Christ.

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It's called the curse of familiarity.

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This message is not going to be entertaining, but it is to be for an awakening

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for the ones who know that something is missing in the church.

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And maybe, and just maybe, it is the fear of the Lord.

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Now, many of you probably never heard of what that, what is familiarity and what that looks like.

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And why would we use such a strong word like curse? Why is it called a curse of familiarity?

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Because familiarity is not like a closeness. You know, it's not like it's a friendship with God.

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It's when we've grown so close to being so used to His presence that we actually

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stop honoring His presence. You know, what does that look like?

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You know, some of it is obvious. Some of it, it'd be like, you know,

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you show up at church late.

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Church starts at 10, you walk in, the worship, you used to show up early.

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You know, you used to show up early, but now you just show up any time you want to.

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And then you expect a seat in the front row because you've been a member of

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the church for a certain amount of years.

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So there should be a seat for you because, you know, you've been a member for oh so long.

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That's the familiarity of God's presence.

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You just show up when you want to. You decide to serve on a certain,

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maybe you're an usher, a greeter, or whatever you decide on in the ministry

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or health team. But you don't honor that.

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You just show up when you want to. You're on the schedule.

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They put you down, but you don't okay it. You don't say, yeah,

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I'm showing up. You just don't show up.

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That's familiarity because you've been there.

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I don't have to show up. You should have called me earlier.

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We get a little kind of secret attitude. So familiarity happens when the sacred

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becomes common, when the awe becomes apathy, when routine replaces reverence.

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You still go to church.

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You still pray. You still serve, sort of, kind of, but something's missing.

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Something's not there. Something's gone.

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The trembling is not there. The reverence, the fire is just not there.

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The voice of conviction is just not there.

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You come to church like you're going to the grocery store. You show up at church

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like you're showing up at your friend's house.

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You know, you serve any kind of way. You just, because you walked in the door,

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we should just be happy you showed up. That's not honoring God.

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God told you to serve, not to man, but unto him.

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So what happens when familiarity shows up? What does that steal from you?

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Familiarity is a thief. It doesn't show up loud, but it robs you.

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The awe, you stop being moved by the presence of God.

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The presence of God is moving greatly in the sanctuary, and you're still standing,

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everyone else is on their knees, everybody has fell on the floor in honor of the presence of God.

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And you're still standing, looking around, and in your mind,

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you're saying, it doesn't take all that. The awe is gone.

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Honor. You stop respecting the spiritual things.

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Instead of you honoring the spiritual things of God, you just don't respect it anymore.

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You used to walk in, in the church lot and you see trash kind of floating around in there.

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You'll go pick it up and put it in the garbage can or even in the restroom or whatever.

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You're honoring, you're honoring the church, right? The spiritual things you used to pray.

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You couldn't miss a message, but now the message is missing you.

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Obedience. You start responding when God speaks.

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Now he yells and you still don't respond.

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You're like, it still don't take all that. I don't need to respond the way I used to respond.

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Why? Because we think that we get seniority in the church that we can kind of

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disrespect the Lord or disrespect his presence.

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We know that Moses and a lot of times when God moved, Enoch was three,

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he walked with God, was it 300 years? It was like a long time.

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There is no seniority in the spirit.

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There is seniority when it comes to serving God. He sees that,

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but you're never too old to obey him.

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And so seniority, familiarity robs you of the awe.

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It robs you of the honor. It robs you of the obedience. You become numb.

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You become busy, but barren.

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You look like you're busy about the Lord's business, but you're not producing any fruit.

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You're in the building, but you're not in his presence.

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So here's the danger. What you treat as common, you will never carry with power.

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And that can cause a lot of emotional turmoil because you're in the building.

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You think you're serving God with all your heart, but you have lost the awe.

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You know, what happens? You'll say, no one ever prophesies over me.

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Well, God talks to us all the time.

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He talks to you all the time. But are you listening?

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So let's walk through the word and see what happens when we dishonor God.

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This is not to scare you, but it's just to wake you up.

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We had Nadab and Abihu, a strange fire in the sanctuary.

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That's found in Leviticus chapter 10 verses 1 through 2.

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They offered an unauthorized fire. So fire came out from the Lord and consumed

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him. We know that the Lord is a consuming fire.

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So if you play with fire, you will get burnt.

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And so we know that Nabdab and Abihu, I might be messing up those names,

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but go to Leviticus 10 through 1st chapter 10, 1 through 2, and you can look it up.

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It says they were priests, sons of Aaron in ministry.

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So they were raised up in the church. They were raised up in ministry.

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And so as they were raised up in the church and raised up in ministry,

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they knew what to do and what not to do.

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But they got into the church and they were playing with the fire.

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And they offered worship God did not ask for, and the fire they mishandled, and it killed them.

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God doesn't accept anything just because we offer it. It must be holy.

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So we have these two sons who were the sons of the priest playing with fire,

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became too familiar with the holy things of God.

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And God, it says, so fire came out from the Lord and consumed them. Boom, they were dead.

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Playing with the holy things, and they were killed immediately.

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Uzzah, the casual touch of the ark, 2 Samuel 6, verse 6-7.

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This is not to scare you, but to show you that even though you don't see God,

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even though we do feel him, he's still watching.

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And he is still holy. So he reached out and took hold of the ark, and God struck him.

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So Uzzah was holding the ark of the Lord, and it began to shake as they were carrying it.

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And Uzzah thought that he can catch the ark if it fell.

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So Uzzah grew up around the ark. He was used to it, but he forgot it was holy.

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Familiarity made him casual, and one unclean touch ended his life.

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So we see two people here so far that played with fire and got burnt.

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We see here in Eli's sons, defiling the offering that's found in 1 Samuel 2,

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verses 12-17, and chapter 4, verse 11.

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It said they had no regard for the Lord, and they died.

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These were leaders. They were priests.

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So the people that are dying are not the ones who didn't know what they were

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doing. They purposely was playing with holiness.

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So these were priests. They were leaders. They're supposed to set the example,

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but they abused the offering, slept with women at the altar,

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used their position for personal gain.

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God warned them. They didn't repent. He judged them.

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Leadership without reverence is rebellion So we see Eli's sons,

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they defiled the offering Not only did they defile the offering,

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they disrespected the offering,

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We read here that it says, they slept with women. You can read it in your Bible.

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They slept with women at the altar.

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Now, as we read this, you can pretty much think about what's going on in the

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real world. I don't watch the news.

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I don't follow different churches online, so I don't really know what's going on.

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But sometimes some of that stuff happens to hit the main, some of my news feed,

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and it kind of fall right into this story. how God holds leadership accountable

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for what they're doing in the church.

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And most of this, no one's died yet, but if we keep playing with fire,

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those people will get burnt.

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I love when he says with the Eli sons that God warned them they did not repent.

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I never think that God would just, in my opinion, knowing God,

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how he talks to us and gives us 150,000 chances, right?

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But sometimes we're not listening. We get so disrespectful that God hasn't did it on the first time.

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He hasn't touched us on the hundredth time. But that hundredth and one time might be your last time.

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Let's go on to Judas. Judas, a kiss without a heart.

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You can find his story in Luke 22 verses 47 through 48 and Matthew chapter 27 verse 5.

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Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?

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Then he went and hanged himself. Judas walked with Jesus.

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He ate with him. Judas wasn't a stranger to Jesus.

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He was not a stranger to Jesus. But when the all died, betrayal took place.

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He kissed Jesus and sold him out. How many of us has done that?

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How many of us praise the Lord on Sunday or Wednesday, whenever you praise the

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Lord, but then sell them out on every other day?

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The kiss without a heart. What looked like affection was actually apostasy.

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Proximity to the holy is not the same as purity before the holy.

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Proximity to the holy is not the same as purity before the holy.

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So my question to you, have you grown familiar? Has worship become a routine?

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Do you skim scripture without conviction? Do you pray and never expect to be changed?

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Do you serve but don't tremble?

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If that's you, this is not condemnation. It's a divine invitation.

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You may have never been taught this. Maybe your church trained you to perform and not to fear.

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Maybe you didn't know that God still watches.

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He still weighs motives.

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He still expects awe. He still expects to be reverence and worship. But today, you know...

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And today, you can come back to reverence.

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We're going to do a quick prayer, but I want to just kind of do a quick review

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about what we just read, because that was really heavy.

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So let's talk about what happened while strange fire in the sanctuary.

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Nadab and Abihu, they were sons of Aaron, so they were priests of God,

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and they were in ministry.

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They offered worship that God didn't ask for.

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God has a particular way he wants to be worshipped.

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We got Uzzah, the casual touch of the ark.

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He grew up around the ark. He was used to it, but he forgot it was holy.

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Eli's sons, they defiled the offering. They were leaders. They were priests,

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but they were sleeping with the women at the altar.

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It's like sleeping with women at the church as leaders, using their position

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for personal gain. They ignored God.

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The kiss without the heart that Judas betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss.

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He got so familiar for being around him that he lost the awe.

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That happens when you maybe work at the church, and the pastor,

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he's friendly and he's fun,

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and you see him as a man, but he walks with the mantle from the Holy One of God.

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And when you get too familiar with him and you lose that awe,

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you can actually be a Judas.

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And have you stopped reading your Bible? Have you stopped what you have drawn

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you close to God from the beginning?

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What was it that kept you safe from sin?

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Do you show up to your post as routine? Does God show up in the temple,

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the tabernacle, as though He's here and I don't feel Him?

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Right? What do you do?

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Is that you? It's not a condemnation, knowing that He still watches.

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So let's repent and let's do our declarations and we'll close in prayer.

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Let's repeat after me. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for walking on holy ground with dirty shoes.

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Forgive me for being casual where you were calling for consecration.

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I renounce the spirit of familiarity.

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I return to wonder, to trembling, to holy fear.

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Restore reverence in me. Let me never treat your presence as common again.

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Let me worship. Let my worship be weighty again.

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Let prayer be pure again. You are holy, and I will take you seriously again.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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The declaration, say this aloud. I break the curse of familiarity.

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I choose reverence. I choose awe. I choose obedience.

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God is not common. He is holy, and I will tremble again.

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This is the word of the Lord, not just a podcast, not a performance.

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It's a prophetic invitation to repent and return to awe.

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Next episode, we'll walk slowly through the lives of Moses and Uzzah.

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Two men, two different responses.

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One removed his shoes, the other reached out his hand. One was caught, the other was killed.

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Until then, walk softly, worship deeply, and take God seriously.

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I'm Connie Morris, and this is Faith on the Go, the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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And this is your call to reverence. Amen. Until next time. See you later.