Epic, epic. Hey, good morning, everybody. Everybody doing good? You guys doing good this morning? Fantastic, hey, how many of you have been a part of one of our seat gatherings so far in 2018? Man, they have been incredible. Banning, if you don't know, Banning Leapshire from Jesus Culture was with us Wednesday and I had just gotten home from Omaha, Nebraska. I spoke three nights in Omaha and then flew in for Wednesday and I was really tired but man, that was just one of the most powerful services I've ever been in and it was amazing. This Wednesday night, our guest is gonna be Bob Sorgi and Sarah said that Bob can't speak. He actually can speak. He just had a vocal cord injury so he can speak about an hour a day and just an incredible testimony. He travels all over the world actually preaching though which is amazing because when he had a voice he was a worship leader and thought his ministry was over but God has given him a new voice, a more powerful voice and he wrote a book that we have in our resource center called Reset, 20 Ways to a Consistent Prayer Life and it's a real easy read. It's very practical. If you've ever struggled with trying to just get a consistent prayer life this book will help you very much. I have three copies. How many of you would like a consistent prayer life? All right, this young man right down here in the blue. I got a scan over there. Yep, you're right there. Young lady in the cream colored sweater. I think it's you. You, you gotta come. And all the way in the back, you gotta come. So let's give these guys hands for coming on up. There you go. I'll toss it at you. There you go. Good catch. And then this gentleman is coming for it and he's here. All right. So the rest of you they are available in the bookstore and Bob will be here Wednesday night at 6.30 and we really hope that you can join us.  Everybody else, if you have your Bibles take them out and open them with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. This is part three of our series entitled Saints and Sinners. And at the very beginning of this year I think I told you that I believe it's on God's heart to really speak to us and to teach us to help us grow in our understanding of the issue of identity, of identity. I think identity is not only on the heart of God I think it's important because it's something that is globally something that people are really hungering for that are looking for a sense of belonging and an understanding of where they come from.  It's not just your family, but it's your family background. I have a friend who adopted some children and now that they're getting older they're asking questions about where they came from and it's not that they don't love their family it's not that they don't love their adoptive mom and dad and brothers and sisters it's just that there's a question inside of all of us really naturally about who we are and where we came from and so he's dealing with that. You know, maybe 25, 30 years ago I remember someone in my family, my grandmother's sister began to kind of put together a family tree catalog. It was, I remember it kind of had a spiral ring to it. She spent about 20 years putting together this family lineage thing for all of us and I still have a copy of it. It has a lot of photocopy pictures and birth certificates and names and a drawing of a family tree that connects us back about 300 years and it just took an exhaustive amount of time and travel and going to the library but now how many know that you can actually go online and probably do a lot of that in about 30 minutes that would have taken you 30 years because of technology. It happens to be one of the fastest growing what they call vanity industries. They call it vanity because it's just something that you do because you want to where people are going on sites like ancestry.com to figure out their family tree. How many of you have done something like ancestry.com or an online family tree? Okay, several of us. I did it about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, ancestry.com was kind of new and it gave me a 30 day free trial and because I'm cheap, I'm like 30 days free anything. It's probably, I'm gonna do it. So except for 30 days free at the gym. So I had this ancestry.com so I went online and punched in all my information as much as I could remember on my dad's side, I was really curious for two reasons. Number one, on my dad's side, I've always heard that we're Irish and every time I've kind of looked up Cummings, the surname Cummings comes up English and so I'm like, where's the Irish part in there? And the second part of it that I was really curious about was on my mom's side, there was rumor that we had Native American in it. So I jumped on the ancestry.com, filled in all the information that was there and sure enough Cummings goes all the way back there but here's what was interesting, I found out. When I go back four generations, what I found out was that my great-grandmother who I knew, her name was Wilma Norton, her maiden name was Bird and I didn't know anything beyond that but it punched in all the names, birth certificates and all kinds of stuff and what it popped up was that my great-great-grandmother, my grandmother's mother, her name was Lillian Kilborn Bird and I knew that to be true because I asked my grandmother. So Lillian Kilborn Bird but what I didn't know is that she lived and died in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Now we had absolutely no connection to Kalamazoo because I was born in Pontiac, Detroit area, raised most of my life in Grand Rapids and for me growing up in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo was a direction on 131.  The only time I ever came to Kalamazoo was I came to Wing Stadium to see an Imperials concert.  So when God called Jane and I down here in 1996, I had no idea that I had family here. My great-grandmother lived and died in Kalamazoo. She died on my birthday in 1922 and is buried in the cemetery on Riverview which I pass every single day. I had absolutely no way of knowing that but it was fascinating. So now every time I drive by the cemetery, I realize I have heritage in this city. Who knows, my grandmother who I know is a Christian probably was praying for the city of Kalamazoo and two generations later, God raised up her grandson and moved him to Kalamazoo to start a church. God just does stuff like that. Then, then I got this notification for something called 23 and Me DNA testing. Has anybody ever done that before? So I'm like, all right, now I'm really gonna figure out if we're Irish or what or Native American. So I did the DNA testing, you do the swab, you send it in, they do a whole scientific thing and the results came back and here's what came back for me. This is last year. I'm 96.5% English-Irish which they're all one and the same really so it still doesn't help me. But then I found out I was 3% Jewish. I was like, the tribe. I mean, I'm in there. I'm in there, shalom. The whole dealio. And you know what else I found out? There's absolutely no Native American. My family on top of being Irish and Jewish is a bunch of liars. There's rumors and lies. Like, there's no Native American in us anywhere. So the reason why those things are interesting and the reason why millions and millions of people are doing it is because they wanna answer the question of who am I? They wanna know who they are. In order for you to know who you are, it's more than just what you wear, what you drive, where you work, who you know. It's more than your present. Who you are has factors that go all the way back even further than you know. And I wanna tell you today that in Christ, your identity, your new identity goes way, way back. Who you were before you found Christ and who you were in Christ and who you are now in Christ goes way back. And it's important for you to know who you are. And it's important for you to be able to answer this question. Who do you say that you are? Who do you say that you are? Because if I ask you that question, who do you say you are? How you answer that question is so pivotal, it's so important. Now, this is what Paul in Ephesians chapter four is answering. He's talking to, remember in Ephesians, he's talking to people that did not grow up in church. He's talking to people that grew up in a culture much like the world that we live in that is un-Christian. They were pagans, which means they worshiped idols. They had a whole different worldview, a whole different perspective about who they were, about what was right, about what was wrong, what was moral, who God was, how you interrelate with other people, how you relate to the rest of the world. And Paul now is writing to them because now on the other side of finding Jesus, on the other side of coming into Christ, he's trying to get them to understand that everything has changed. Everything has been altered. Whether you know it or not, it's been altered. And you need to know because what you know can then empower you to live it. So look with me here at Ephesians 4 verse 17. This is what he writes. He says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles. For those of you reading the Bible and you don't know what a Gentile is, a Gentile is anyone who's not a Christian. It's just somebody living in the world far away from God. It says so don't walk, don't live your life like Gentiles in, and here's how he describes it. In the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all kinds of uncleanness with greediness. You'll notice that the two issues that Paul primarily deals with when it talks about people in the world or many of us before we came into Christ. The way of the world, the way that it operates is because we're spiritually blinded and we're actually spiritually dead on the inside. We actually then are driven by our natural sinful instincts towards it's kind of a roller coaster or a snowball effect towards sexual sin, towards idolatry and towards greediness. It's just natural. Nobody has to teach us that because it's actually our human nature, our sinful human nature to go downward, to spiral downward. But look at what he says in verse 20. But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and you have been taught by him, and look at this next line, as the truth is in Jesus. Everybody say that with me. As the truth is in Jesus. One more time. As the truth is in Jesus. You should underline that market, highlight it, sprinkle glitters and dazzle that verse in your Bible because that is good for anything in your life. The truth is in Jesus. If you're ever wondering, the truth is in Jesus. But then it goes on. That you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul's contrasting two identities. He's saying this is how you used to live. When you were in this world, if you go back and read all of Ephesians one and Ephesians two and three, in Ephesians two, you quickly find out Paul says this.  That's who you used to be. And Paul is now saying don't live like that anymore. Remember that everything's changed in Christ, everything's different. And because of that now, I want you to change the way that you think and I want you to change the way that you live. Put off, put off that old man and put on the new man that is created according to the image of Christ. What Paul's literally saying is this, is that there is a battle going on on the inside of every Christian. And the battle is this. I know I'm saved, I know I belong to God, I love God, I want to please God, but I've got this other thing going on on the inside of me, the old me that wants to rise up and wants to have its way the way that it used to. Literally what Paul is saying is you've got two selves. You have two identities that are competing for dominance in your life. One is your old self, the old man he calls it, which is the old sin nature that every one of us is born into this world with. It's in Adam and the new, the new self is created in Christ Jesus. It's righteous, it's holy, it wants to please God, it submits to God, it's created into the image of God. That's who you really are, that's your new identity. You've been issued a brand new passport in Christ from the kingdom of God that says son, that says daughter, that says righteous, that says holy. Heaven, you are now a citizen of heaven, Philippians 3.20 says. That's your new kingdom, that's your new nationality. And so you get this new passport, but you still have your old passport hanging around from the kingdom of Adam, which is not blessed, it's cursed, which is not a son, it's a slave, which is not full of the spirit of God, it's full of the spirit of fear, and it's not driven or led towards destiny, it's actually deceitful and driven towards sin and death and destruction.  Paul says it this way, he says put on the new man, put off the old. If you think about it, it's like an outfit of clothes. How many know every day you get up and you choose what you're gonna wear? Have you ever looked at somebody and thought to yourself, why in the world did you choose to wear that? I mean, for real. I was scrolling through USA today and on the app and there was a very famous person and they were on there and rich people can wear whatever they want to, right?  I mean, some people can wear tight shirts and they look good. I mean, they're just, they're built right and it looks right. But when you don't have a six pack and you got a six gallon around your midsection, you should not be wearing one of those Euro fitting, suction painted on shirts that's like stretching across here.  And I'm just like, ooh, why did you think that was okay? We choose what we wear. And we choose every day what outfit, what man we choose to put on. As long as we think, as long as we think that nothing has really changed in us other than our sins have been forgiven. But I'm still basically the same person that I was before Jesus. As long as we believe the lie that says, this is just who I am. As long as we believe that, then we'll continually put on the old man, the old outfit, the old identity because that's all that we think that we are. See, I believe one of the greatest lies that the devil has perpetrated to the church, to Christians, to humanity is this, is that, however you are born the first time into this world is how you will always be. Well, if that's the case, then Jesus just becomes a holy eraser and graces just about, it's okay, I know that you can't help yourself. So every time you mess up, God's just gonna allow you to erase it as if it didn't happen, but nothing can really change on the inside of you. But that's a lie because the whole reason for Jesus coming and dying for our sins was not just to forgive our sins, but grace was meant to empower us from the inside out so that we could become who we were always created to be. We were called to walk in the image of Christ, we were called to live in the purpose of God and to be victorious over sin.  And it's not because you're smart, it's because God's great. Jesus, listen, Jesus did not come to make all right people better. Jesus came to make dead people alive. And Jesus didn't come to make sinners modified, Jesus came to make sinners saints. He didn't come to just modify you, tweak you a little bit.   I'm like, you should have seen me. If you can imagine it, don't try and imagine it, but I would have been a mess in this world without Jesus because I do not take no for an answer. The Holy Spirit has really worked in my life and developed patience and trust. But man, I'll tell you what, I'd have been one intense puppy running around this world.  Because I can't imagine what they would have been like without Jesus. So as long as we, listen, as long as we look at ourselves and say, well, this is who I am, I can't change it. I've always been like this, I'm always gonna be like this. Then the devil's got you on lock, he's got you right where he wants you. But Jesus came to set us free from the old identity and by his Holy Spirit and his word working on the inside of us, become who we were created to be. Not according to your image, but according to his image. That's why Paul says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. There's the story in the Daily Telegram, or the Daily Mail, which is a British paper. This was a couple of years ago about this man from Maryland. His name is David Howe. He was 45, he was an auto mechanic in Maryland. And he discovered through genetic testing and doing his background, like I was talking about, that he actually is the heir to the throne of a British province called the Isle of Man. Now the Isle of Man is a historic island. The kingdom there dates back about 900 years. So it's kind of like Scotland, Wales. It's part of the British Empire. The Isle of Man, though, has its own throne. And this man discovers that he actually is the rightful heir to be king of the Isle of Man. But he's a mechanic living in Baltimore, Maryland. So TLC did this whole reality show on him called Suddenly Royal. And what the show is about is, it's a true story. He travels there with his wife Pam and their daughter Grace. They go to the Isle of Man. He's never been there before. And he goes there because he's claiming his rightful inheritance to be the king. Just sit right back and hear it tell you. And he goes there and he's not the Prince of Valera. I mean, he's going there to be the king of the Isle of Man. And when he gets there, people do not receive him. People are like, we do not want an American as our king. I don't know what they got against Americans, but you know, I mean, we're pretty nice people. But he shows up over there and he had two great challenges. Here were his two biggest challenges. Number one, in order for him, and once they validated that he actually was the rifle heir, he had two choices. Number one, he had to first make a determination that if he was going to accept the throne, he was going to live there permanently in the kingdom. He had to leave behind the old and he had to move there permanently to sit on the throne. He couldn't fly in on weekends to be king on the weekend, body shop Monday through Friday, king on Saturday and Sunday. He had to leave the old, his old life behind to live there. And the second thing was this. Listen, he had to learn how to be a king because there were expectations about how a king lives that are different, vastly different than how a mechanic lives. You think about it. A mechanic is used to being under a car all day long. A king sits on a throne. When a mechanic walks into a room, he says, how can I help you? When a king walks into a room, he says, how can you help me? Vastly different. He had to hire actually a specialist from the royal family to actually teach him how to conduct himself like a king. So he taught him how to hold a tea party, how to walk, how to sit, how to shake hands, how to receive honor, all these different things that were brand new to him. And the story is fascinating, partly because it's true, but the second reason why it's fascinating is because you and I are presented with this very same thing every single day as children of God. We have gone from being slaves to sons and we have suddenly become royalty. In Christ, we have suddenly become royalty, but every day we also have to make the decision, am I going to leave everything behind and live in the kingdom of God? Because that's what it requires to really step into the full measure of our authority and the full measure of our calling and the full measure of our identities. We gotta leave the old behind. There's no part time identity in the kingdom of God. Jesus said this, if a man wants to set his hand to the plow, looks back, he is not worthy to come into the kingdom of God. In other words, we can't have hesitation. If we go in for Jesus, we need to go all in for Jesus. And we need to make the determination, I'm stepping into the kingdom and I'm gonna take my rightful place and walk in my identity. The second biggest challenge we have, just like this gentleman did, is we have to now learn how to live like kings and queens. To reign with Christ, because we're not used to reigning. We're used to being slaves. Slaves to our desires, slaves to what other people think, slaves to fear. You think about how many, I mean, really, can we just take an honest moment here?  Don't advertise it, but just think about it for a minute. How much of our lives, the way that we live it, is controlled by fear? The fear of what other people think, the fear of missing out, the fear of rejection? Think about it. Think about how many things, why do you do the things that you do? Why do you wear what you wear?  Why do you work where you work? So much of it is motivated by fear. Kings don't live by fear. Kings are 100% confident. Queens are confident. Royalty is confident because they know who they are. These are the decisions that we make. In order for you to fully make them, you need to understand two things.   Jesus has redeemed you. His ultimate goal is to restore you, but it requires a process of renewal. What I want you to do is turn with me way back in your Bibles to the first chapter of the book of Genesis. So I want to show you what took place. What was God's original purpose in creating humanity? Why you are here? Before you can say who you are, you have to know why you are here. And only the Creator can tell you that. So all the way back in the book of Genesis, in the very beginning where we have a record of how God created the heavens and the earth, it says in chapter one, verse 26, God said, let us make man according to our image. In our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So ladies, God gave you authority over all the creeps. Sorry. Okay, so it says so God created man in his own image, and in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And then God blessed them, and he said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Four things right here that we can find that are reasons the why behind God creating humanity. First thing that you'll notice is this. God didn't just pick out an animal and say I'm gonna change your name to man. God created all the animals. He created the birds, he created the fish, he created the giraffes, the dogs, the hippos. God even created cats. I know it's hard to believe, we all just assumed they came from hell, but God really did create cats, and they were good in the beginning before the fall.  God created man with his own hands and breathed his life into him. Man was the chief crowning achievement of all of his creation.  It's different. Man was created different. And it was created different because God had a different purpose for man. And here were the four purposes that God had for creating humanity, creating you. Number one is identity. He created mankind so that we would bear his image, reflect his image back to his good creation. God wanted everything that he made to be able to see his image. When you talk about image, I'm talking about his likeness. I'm talking about his ways. I'm talking about his wisdom, his truth, his power, his authority. I'm not just talking about looks. We're self-aware. We're creative. We're spiritual. We're full of wisdom. We know justice in our original creation. We bore the image of God to the rest of creation. Number two, we were created for intimacy. When I talk about intimacy, I'm not talking about sexuality. The best definition of intimacy is this. Intimacy is when we invite others into our experience and our inner world. The why behind what we do. Remember Jesus said to his disciples, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. What does that mean? It means I'm inviting you into my inner world. I'm inviting you into my experience. When God created mankind, he created us to bear his image, but then he also created us so that he would have a friend. God would come down after he created man and he would walk with man every single day and he would explain to man, I created that and here's how I did that and here's my plan and here's truth and here's wisdom. But he also invited man into his creating process. He says, look, I'm creating and I'm building a beautiful world. I want you to help me do it.  Says he brought all the animals and Adam named them.  Dog, good. Pig, good. Horse, good. Hey, can we, you know, maybe make it a little bit more sophisticated Adam? Platypus, great. Hippopotamus, woo, now we're rolling, baby. Chicken, all right. He invited man into partnership. That's what intimacy is, it's partnership. So he created mankind for intimacy, number two, for intimacy, for identity, number two, for intimacy, number three, relationships. After he created man, he realized the only thing that God had made that wasn't good was that Adam was alone. He said it is not good that man is alone. And so he created woman out of Adam's side. He didn't find a compatible partner in the animal world and so he created exactly what a man would need to compliment him and to find companionship in this world. He had a relationship with God but God knew that he needed horizontal relationships as well. And so he created woman, he put man asleep, took something from his side, his rib. He formed woman and God was the first matchmaker. He came walking down the aisle between the trees and he brought Eve to Adam. And the reason why woman was called woman is because when Adam saw her, he went, whoa, man. Whoa, man, whoa, man. I'm just keeping you awake, all right. And he's like, yes, flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. And God said to them, I want you to be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. Everything that God blesses grows and multiplies. And God, this is marriage. God created the first marriage. God brought the bride to the groom and he said, now I'm blessing you.  In our world, we're trying to strip down all gender identities and distinctions and can I tell you what we're really attacking is the image of God. Because God created male and female in the image of God. And it's not an attack on sexuality. It's not an attack on traditionalism. What it's really an attack on is the image of God because the devil hates the image of God. When God created man, he created male and female, brought them together. He said, it is good. And the offspring of that was, they began to have children. Children are good. Isn't it amazing that in our world, we talk about kids as an inconvenience, keeping us back?  I know they worry out sometimes but children are a blessing from the Lord.  So everybody get to work. All right, so number four, here's the number four reason that God created mankind to exercise dominion over all creation. So he wanted them to bear his image, intimately partner with him, have horizontal relationships that would be the stable building block of God's good world and then fulfill their destiny by subduing the world, subduing everything. The only thing that man was supposed to be underneath was God himself. It was supposed to be God, man creation. That's how God originally created. And you know that when God created, when God created man perfect, there was perfect peace in the earth. There was perfect harmony. Man was not created for death. Death only came in after the fall. There was no sickness, there was no disease. That all came after the fall. It was not God's originally designed. And the reason why I tell you that is because I think it's really important that we understand this. In our world, a lot of people ask questions and say, well, if God is such a good God, then why is there so much evil and so much bad in the world? Can I just tell you when God created the world, He created zero sin, zero envy, zero greed, zero death, zero sickness, zero disease. There wasn't any of that in God's good creation. But in order for God to have a loving relationship, He had to create free will agents because love requires risk. If you're going to have true love, true friendship, true partnership, you have to take risk. And man ended up being deceived by the serpent, the devil, who came and whispered in Eve's ear. And here's, listen to what she said. She said, that fruit really looks good. The serpent said, that fruit really looks good. Oh, I can't eat that because God said I can have everything in the garden. It all belongs to me except for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why in the world did God put a tree that they're not supposed to eat out? It's because it's a test of loyalty. And that's exactly where the enemy challenges us. You may not have a tree of knowledge of good and evil growing in your backyard, but you've got things in your life that are a test of loyalty where God says, don't do this. Well, I want to do it, it looks good, looks fun. Looks like it tastes really good. Can I tell you that is the area that the enemy will always come and whisper in your ear and say the same thing that the serpent said to Eve. Here's what the serpent said. Has God really said, is that really applied to you? Second thing that he said was this. He said, God knows this.  God's trying to keep you from being the best that you can be. God's trying to keep you from pleasure. He doesn't want you to have. God's trying to keep you back because God just wants to keep you under his thumb. And the lie that the serpent told man and woman was this.  But what was the truth? The truth was they already were just like God because they were created in the image of God. The only difference was now because they've chose independence from God. They rejected his commands and they believed the lie of the enemy. Now they came in under the authority of the devil, the serpent and when they came in under the authority, all the keys that God had given Adam over all of creation, over all the world to have dominion over it that were supposed to be partnering with God. Now mankind began to partner with hell and the keys to the world were handed over to the enemy and that's where sin, that's where sickness, that's where isolation, that's where death all entered into the world from. What happened at the fall? Well, our identity was broken like a mirror. It's distorted. Most of the identity issues that we have in the world today are the result of you and I looking into a broken mirror and we can barely see the image of God. It's there, but sin has broken it and it's marred and it's distorted. It affected our intimacy because now we're not walking with God the way we were designed. The human heart was never meant to be separated by God. The human heart was never meant to just have a checklist and say, all right, here you go. Here's how to behave yourself. Now we were created to be heart to heart with our father walking in partnership and in intimacy with the world but after they believed the lie and ate the fruit you know what happened? Says God in Genesis three, God came in the garden and he said, Adam, where are you? Adam was hiding behind a tree and here's what he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid. It's the first mention in the Bible of fear. It comes because of sin. You were not meant to be motivated by fear you were meant to be motivated by intimacy. God says, where are you? How many know that God knew right where Adam was? Wasn't looking for information. He was asking the question, so Adam would evaluate his own life. Where am I? Look at me, look at what believing the enemy has done in my life. It has got me isolated and broken away from the God who loves me. It's broken my image. It's broken the image of God in my life now by sin. It separated me and my identity, my relationships are broken. Genesis three said that now you're not blessed. Mankind was cursed, the earth was cursed, marriage was cursed.  And then ultimately it stole from us our destiny to be kings and queens. Now here's the good news. Everything that we lost in the garden because of sin, Jesus has restored at the cross and the resurrection. Everything that you and I lost in Adam, God has restored in the garden. No, believe me, listen, Romans chapter five, it says in verse 17, for if by one man's offense, that's Adam, death reigned through the one, much more those who received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, listen to this, will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Galatians three says that Jesus hung on the cross and became cursed for us so that you and I could experience the blessing of Abraham. We could be blessed because Jesus took our curse upon him. Jesus broke the power of sin. He broke the power of the devil. He took back the keys of authority over the earth when he ruled and he reigned on the cross and in the resurrection. And every one of us who come to Jesus, we are completely restored in our walk with God. We are made new. We are redeemed. We are taken out of the pit of slavery and brought into the throne room of royalty. Our sins are erased. We're put a robe of righteousness on. He puts a ring of authority on our finger. He writes all the days of our life. He calls us his children. We've got royalty flowing through our blood.  It's in Jesus. So Jesus restores us at the cross. He redeems us at the cross in order to restore our destiny so that we can reign in life. You were created to reign in life. You were created to reign in life through Jesus Christ, not by your efforts. But how do you get from over here where I just gave my life to Jesus? I'm a Christian and I got all these hang-ups. Anybody ever had a hang-up? I got hang-ups. But God's working on the hang-ups because here's what I refuse. I refuse to live my days believing that hang-ups have authority over me because I belong to Jesus. And there is no hang-up that can stand in the shadow of my Jesus. Every chain is broken at the name of Jesus. And so how do we get from being restored in Jesus to walking in death? It requires a process of renewal of our thinking, changing the way that we think. Put it to you this way. In order for paradise restored to become a reality in our life, we have to have a paradigm renewed. Our way of thinking. We have to change the way that we think. Romans chapter 12, verse two says this. Do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can prove what is the acceptable, perfect will of God for your life. Next week we're gonna talk about how do we change the way that we think? Because now if we've made the decision that I'm going all in, I'm gonna live in the kingdom. Now we gotta learn how to live as overcomers, as kings and queens, as victorious, as saints. As saints, everybody say the truth is in Jesus. Come on, say it like you mean that. Say the truth is in Jesus.  Say the truth, I'm gonna, come on, don't make, everybody stand up, you're gonna get this, trust me. Everybody hands up in the air, stretch, touch your toes. No, seriously, touch your toes. I can't but you, please. Now I want you to say this. The truth, that's a little bit better. One more time, say the truth is in Jesus. That's it, that's it. That's it. The truth is in Jesus. It's plain and simple.  The world's cursed. Whoever you put your life in subjection under gets to determine your final end. You live in the world, all it has to offer you is death. And the goal of life is not to arrive safely at death.  And in Christ, you can find the resurrection power you need to fulfill the purpose, the destiny that God has always had for your life. You can find peace, righteousness, and joy. It's in the kingdom. But if you're gonna live in the kingdom, you gotta leave the old behind. You gotta put on the new and leave the old behind. Today, we all get to make that decision.  Today, I want you to examine your heart. I wanna say this different, and please, no one looking around, this is a sacred moment. I just want you to close your eyes and examine your own heart and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying this morning. I wanna ask you this question.  Not saying you're perfect, but you have made the decision to make Jesus the king of your life. Not the world, not other people's opinions.  Today, when no one looking around, that's when you raise your hand if you've made that decision.  You're confident of that. Thank you, you can put your hands down. Would you pray? Because there are some people that are in this room who either don't know the answer to that question or very honestly know that they've never done that. There's even some that are here that say, you know what, Pastor Lee, I prayed that prayer, made that decision a long time ago, but the truth is I walked away. Kind of like the prodigal son in the story that Jesus told in Luke. He asked his father for his inheritance and he left home and he went and lived in the world and did the world things and spent it all on himself and his desires. One day he woke up in the pig pen and the Bible says that he came to himself and he realized what he had done and he decided to go home. Some of us are in that place today. Some of us are here and it's like, I knew God, I grew up in church, right? Pray to prayer and ask Jesus into my heart, but the reality is I've spent good portion of my life living for myself, the way of the world, not concerned about what God thinks. And now I find myself in a place in my life where I'm in the pig pen and I wish I could go home. I want to go home to the Father. You need to come to yourself, you need to come to yourself, which means remember who you are. Today some are here today and you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. You've never done that. You've maybe believed in the existence of God, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you having an intimate relationship with God where he comes in and forgives you for your sins against him and he gives you a new heart and a new life and a new calling and a new identity. And you repent of the old and you say today, I want to live in the kingdom. I want to reign in the kingdom. I want to be a child of God. And so I reject my old identity. Today God forgive me. If you've never done that, today's your day.  Today if you say I just don't know, today I want to make sure that every single one of us lead this place confident that we're right with God. That doesn't mean you have all the answers. It doesn't mean that everything's fixed. It just means that you have God, the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you. You're right with God. All over this room right now, please if you're hearing you say, Pastor Lee, I know I need to get my life right with God. I couldn't raise my hand a moment ago because I'm either unsure or I'm positive that I'm not right with God.  I need to get right with God. All over this room, I want to pray with you. If you say, I know I need to get my life right with God. Pray for me. We're going to do just that, but I want you to take a step of faith. I want you to acknowledge that before God. I just want you to lift your hand. No one's looking around, just me, but indicate and say, pray for me. I need to get my life right with God today. I want you to just raise it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I see your hand, thank you. Over here to my right, I see your hand. Come on, just raise it. Say, pray for me. I want to be in this prayer today. I want to get right with God.  I see this hand over here all the way in the back. If that's you, you just raise it. I just sense that there's a couple of people in the back of the room who don't have their hands raised right now because you're fighting an internal battle. Today, let Jesus win that battle. Just take that step, raise your hand. Thank you, all the way in the back. Thank you, thank you, sir. I see that hand, lots of hands. I'm so proud of all of you. Would you just put your hands down right now? Thank you for your honesty. The Bible says this, if we believe in our hearts and we confess with our mouth out loud that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved. It will begin the process of following Jesus. It's how we're born again. So, I'm gonna lead us in a prayer. I want everyone in this room to say this prayer out loud. Say it with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus' name. And I confess that Jesus is Lord. I believe he died on the cross for all of my sin, taking my penalty, so I don't have to. And I believe that you raised Jesus from the dead physically, alive, forever. And I believe that he's seated on the throne, reigning and ruling. And today, I bow my knee and I say, forgive me. Cleanse me of my sin. Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I put off my old self and I choose to follow Jesus. I turn my back on my past and I set my face like flint to following Jesus. Teach me, fill me and lead me in Jesus' name. Amen.


Statistics and Excel. Issue with five number summary and box plot. Got data? Let's get stuck into it with statistics and Excel. Although we'll be using one note here, but we're going to talk about Excel too. You're not required to, but if you have access to one note, we're in the icon left-hand side one note presentation 1422 issues with five number summary and box plot tab. We're also adding our transcripts so that you can go to the view tab, immersive reader tool, changing the language if you so choose being able to either read or listen to the transcripts in multiple languages using the timestamps to tie in to first a word from our sponsor.  Like our CPA six-pack shirts, a must-have for any pool or beach time, mixing money with muscle, always sure to attract attention. Even if you're not a CPA, you need this shirt so you can like pull in that iconic CPA six-pack stomach muscle vibe, you know that CPA six-pack everyone envisions in their mind when they think CPA. As a CPA, I actually and unusually don't have tremendous abs. However, I was blessed with a whole lot of belly hair, allowing me to sculpt the hair into a nice CPA six-pack-like shape, which is highly attractive. Maybe this shirt will help you generate some belly hair too, and if it does, make sure to let me know. Maybe I'll try wearing it on my head. And yes, I know six-pack isn't spelled right, but three letters is more efficient than four, so I trimmed it down a bit, okay? It's an improvement. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com to the video presentation. One note desktop version here, data on the left-hand side, two data sets this time creatively named data A and data B. We're going to do some of our standard stats on both data sets including the mean or average, the min, quartile one, median or quartile two, quartile three, and the max. We'll also create a box and whiskers for both data sets, otherwise known as a box plot, and we will see that although both data sets are very different, we're going to come up with similar stats or the same stats and basically the same image in the form of a box plot. Now this is given to highlight the fact that sometimes these stats, although important and very useful, may not be all we need in order to get a real grasp of the data, especially when we're thinking about the spread of the data. How is it basically populated say around the middle point? So if we look at these two data sets, they've been specially put together so that all these stats are going to work out like this, but the general concept is the idea here. So we've got data set A, we've put them in order from smallest to largest, 50, 75, 75, 100, 100, 125, 125, 150, data set B, 50, 75, 75, 75, 75, 125, 125, 125, 125, and 150. Now if I look at our stats then for data set A, we can take our average, which is simply adding up all the numbers, and then dividing by the count, or we can use the Excel formula, the average formula, we get to 100. And then if I do the min, meaning take the smallest number, we can see in data set A it is 50. And if I do the calculation in Excel, it would be equal to min, and that would automatically give us the 50, quartile one. So now we're picking the middle number in the first quartile, breaking it out into quartile 75. And if I was to do that in Excel, I would have the quartile function, it has a second argument, making sure that we put the comma and then the one, picking up the 75. Then the median, or quartile two, is the middle number. So we order it all and pick the one in the middle, which is going to be the 100. We can also do that with the median formula or function in Excel, or we can use the quartile function, and then comma two. Median function is usually the one that's going to be used. It's easier. It's faster. You only have one argument instead of two to do it. And then quartile three is going to be like the middle point of the last quartile 125. Same quartile formula, but the argument on the second argument is a two if you did that in Excel. And then the maximum is 150. 150. Now, and that would be a max formula here. Now, if we did the same thing for B or this, I'm sorry, this is going to be the box and whiskers. So we've got our box and whiskers representing our numbers here. And you can see these numbers being represented, the 100 average is the same in this case as the median, the 50, the 75, the 125 and the 150 125, and the 150. Okay, so now I think I put it underneath here. Let's go to data set B. So here's our two data sets again. I'm focused on let's just open data set B this time. So now if I look at data set B, the average if I took the average and added up data set B, I once again get to 100, which is the same as what we had for data set a I'll just open both of these. So they come up the same. It's like, Okay, well, that's kind of weird because the data sets are clearly different. Right, these are different data sets pretty dramatically different. So if I go to the men, I get to the same number. So it's like, Whoa, is this like this? Am I is this just the same numbers the same data set? Let's take a look at quartile one. If I took quartile one for data set B versus data set a I get the same number, which is like that's weird. And then the median, if I look at the median, I get the same number, the middle point. And then if I look at the quartile three, again, I get the same number down here. And then if I look at the maximum, I get the same number. And if I was to then do the do a box plot, because I got all the same numbers, you would think the box plot would basically look the same. So here's the box plot for data set B that we saw versus data set a. Now, if I look at the histograms, they they do show us the difference, right? So the box plot isn't giving us because this is that kind of five numbers, but the histogram does give us that because it gives us that kind of middle point. So the histogram gives us an idea if I break it out in a histogram, I'm saying, well, these are substantially different. When I think about these data sets in terms of how the data is spread around that middle point, so you can see here, you've got that middle point, you know, looking looking more like a, you know, the curve in the middle, it's popular, more the data sets in the middle, and then they spread out this way on the right hand side. And the middle point, or the average and and the median, both coming out to be a 100 in here somewhere down here, although you get the same median and average, there is nothing in this middle point and the data is still over to the side, but we still get all the same numbers, we still get the same average, we still get the same, you know, middle number even and the quartiles. Now, this isn't likely that you're going to get all the same numbers, right? This is a pretty specially designed data set. So all of these numbers line up, but you can get the idea here. The idea is that these numbers, although quite important, useful to be calculating, don't always give you everything you need, especially with regards possibly to the spread of the data, like around the center point, which is going to be our point of focus when we get to things like the standard deviation and the variance. So these two box plots, you can see are exactly the same for data B and data A. And then the histograms do give us that indication. And so our focus is in on this kind of concept right now with the spread, which we want to be able to summarize. It would be nice numerically if we could as well as pictorially with like a histogram. And so we'll get into some calculations based, which will be the, you know, the standard deviation and the variance in future presentations.


In Crosslake there's a very special summer camp to make sure every child has an authentic northern Minnesota summer. This past weekend was the camp's big fundraising event and our Anthony Scott has all the details.  Rachel Best was describing Camp Knudsen, a summer camp in Crosslake for kids with special needs. From down syndrome to heart conditions, there is a one-week specialty camp for everyone. We have kids here with our skin camp where they never ever met another kid that had the same skin condition that they have. The heart kids, we call them, had the big scar down the middle of their chest. I was the only person on that table that did not have that scar. So for them to be able to go into the water and not be stared at, not feel ostracized, and just feel like every other kid, that makes a huge difference in their lives. On Saturday Camp Knudsen was transformed into a 50s themed camp for their Night Under the Stars fundraising event. I'm in awe. Every year I'm just so surprised at how many people are willing to come and donate and support camp and we couldn't do this without all of their support and so it's amazing and everyone is so friendly and you just feel the spirit of camp. Night Under the Stars at Camp Knudsen was an extreme success as community members showed outstanding gratitude donating thousands of dollars during the live auction. This year items that were donated included Minnesota Vikings tickets in jerseys, a one-of-a-kind fishing experience, and some handcrafted tables and benches. Every year the funds go towards something specific that the camp needs. This year happens to be a storage facility and a maintenance facility for the camp so we always have that specific need another time and in addition to that we raise money for horseback riding for kids or campers who come and do not have the funds to go horseback riding and a few other additional you know fund fund the need type things. There was nearly $5,000 raised during the live auction alone and people also donated by buying a ticket to the event and through their silent auction. I think you know at the end of the day again it's all about the kids it's about the mission everything that we're doing out here we're serving kids who need this the most. The Night Under the Stars was a night full of giving and a reminder that inspiration can come from anyone reporting from Cross Lake Anthony Scott Lakeland News. The new facility that Camp Knudsen is fundraising for is scheduled to be built in time for next year's campers. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.