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Have you ever gotten off course?

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Have you ever talked into your Google Maps and somehow the map quest or whatever took

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you in the wrong direction?

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Or maybe you had just something wrong in the address and you put it in and instead of ending

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up over here you ended up over there and all you had to do was make a little adjustment

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and you're back on track.

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That's what I want to talk to you today about and that is just making little adjustments.

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There's a lot of information that's out there right now and some of it is fake.

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Some of it is false and what's funny is in the day and hour we're living in we're having

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to constantly go back and listen to the Holy Spirit and ask the Holy Spirit to come into

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our lives and say can you help us Holy Spirit make adjustments so that I don't get off

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course.

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I love so many scriptures in the Bible but one that is really a foundational one is out

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of 2 Timothy 2.15 study to show yourself approved rightly dividing the word of truth and now

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more than ever there's a lot of doctrine out there that's kind of dicey kind of interesting

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and it seems like in the last oh I don't know especially since November it's like a lot

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of things that I've always kind of felt were off are really officially kind of being exposed

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and I'm thinking wow I really was hearing from God.

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You know in all things you want to go back to what does the Bible say.

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Can you open up a good study Bible and can you divide the word of truth can you go in

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here and can you study it out or can you find those scriptures in the word that really confirm

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what you're hearing or what is being taught or what is being said and I think if we always

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go back to where is that in the Bible or can you give me scripture for that.

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I think one that will always manage to kind of keep us on the straight and narrow.

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I love to use the illustration of the gravel roads in Iowa.

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I was born and raised in the Midwest and I'm mighty proud of it but I'm telling you those

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gravel roads can get kind of dicey and you don't ever want to end up in the ditches because

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you can mess your car up pretty doggone good if you get on one ditch or on the other ditch.

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You might get your car stuck there and have to get somebody to come haul you out.

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It might take you a long time it might cost you a lot of money you might be stuck there

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for a while and you know in life we can get where we think we're in a good place and then

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we get off and we get stuck and then we've got to have somebody come along and help us

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get out of that ditch kind of help us get out of that place where maybe we were listening

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to or entertaining or feeding doctrine that was kind of off.

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So there's just a couple things I just want to challenge you or invite you to think about

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today okay.

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If what you're listening to does it really line up with the character of God?

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I mean is that really God's character?

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Can you back that up with scripture?

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Just think about that for a minute okay.

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Does it line up with his nature?

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I mean does that really seem like the Holy Spirit would actually really do or say that?

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Because if you're seeing something happening and it just doesn't seem to be with God's

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nature then something in there is off and either you're off or whatever's going on is

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off and there's nothing wrong with asking questions you know journal it write it down.

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I have a friend of mine I always say man I'm getting this and she says write it down because

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you'll find out down the road whether or not it's right.

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My challenge to you is think about it is something that's happening in your life or something

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being shared right now that it just seems.

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is off to you, but you just can't put your finger on it, you might want to think about it.

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Another way I like to think about it is out of Matthew 6, 33. I've shared this before, but

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seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That means seek God's way

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of doing things. Seek the kingdom's way of doing things. Seek traditional, I would call it maybe

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maybe it's the wrong word for you, the orthodox Christian way of doing things.

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Go back and really look at it. And his righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God

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and his righteousness. That comes from you guarding your heart. That comes from you judging

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yourself. That comes from repenting when things might be off. That means you're making the

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adjustment to stay in the middle of the road. You're making the adjustment by looking at your

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own heart, your own motives, and saying, am I off? Do I need to make an adjustment here?

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If you make those adjustments and you ask the Holy Spirit to come and show you things, he will.

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He will most definitely begin to expose things to you that are wrong or off. But you have to

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invite him into that process. When I was a kid, we had a cottage up in Canada and my Uncle Bob

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would come up and we would take tree branches and we would turn my grandfather's old bass boat

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into a sailboat. And we would take beach towels and we'd hang them on these poles and we'd hook

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up ropes and we'd go out on the lake and the wind would come off the lake and it would blow us.

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Really, it was so much fun. Sailing was amazing. I mean, it was kind of an ugly sailboat, so to speak,

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but boy, we had fun. And one of the things you learn very quickly when you go out sailing is that

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you have to adjust the sails in order to catch the wind. And what I woke up this morning with for you

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was, does it just feel like it's dead? You're not going anywhere. Lord, where are you?

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There are desert experiences that when you're in ministry and you love God, there are just seasons

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where you feel alone and you're kind of outside of things. But those seasons are sometimes the

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best because what they do is they really create within you and create within me a hunger to say,

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Lord, where are you? And I have so many people in my life that I've had in class and in Bible,

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and I know that they're now in a kind of a dangerous place. I love them with all of my

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heart and I always will. But my heart this morning is, if things are just dead and there

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just doesn't seem to be the Holy Spirit moving you and leading you and guiding you, have you

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opened the door to some things that are not good? Have you opened the doors to the occult?

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Have you opened the doors to things that are evil? Are you playing with evil? Are you feeding evil?

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Are there areas of your life that maybe the Lord is asking you to kind of put down because you've

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opened the door to some areas of deception? And if that's you today, the whole illustration I

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saw this morning was adjust the sails. Take the ropes and adjust the sails again. Adjust your

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heart. Adjust your life. Adjust what you're thinking. Adjust what you're listening to.

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Adjust what you're reading. Make those adjustments so that you can come back on course and then

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the wind of the Holy Spirit will come and it will blow and all of a sudden you're going to start

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moving again. But you're the one who's going to have to make the adjustment. You're the one who's

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going to have to decide, uh-oh, I really need to close the door to this. And this morning,

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this is kind of sober and somber for someone. If you have opened the door to something, whether

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you wanted to or not, and initially it looked like it was a good thing, but then it led to another

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door. And then it led to another door. And now you're, you're in a place.

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Where you just don't know what to do because you you've gotten yourself in a

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position you don't know how to get out of. I've been there you know I can

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remember when I was a young Christian and I was just starting to make major

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decisions in my life about following God and there was a lot of warfare around me

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and I was not making great decisions but there came a day where a woman was I was

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attending a Bible study in Davenport Iowa and this woman came to me and said

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you know Leanne you need to you need to close the doors to some things and she

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prayed over me it was wonderful and I really didn't understand what she was

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talking about because I was so young in the things of God and she said you know

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I think there's just some things that you need to get rid of. I went home and I

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asked the Holy Spirit about it and I went through my apartment and I started

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grabbing books and tapes and music and things I was reading and I walked them

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out to the burn barrel outside my apartment and I got rid of all of it and

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I know now looking back at that point in my life that it was a it was a turning

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point for me I made the decision that I wanted to stay in truth I wanted to stay

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in the Word of God I wanted to stay with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and I didn't

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want to open the door to fake or false teaching you know when you're young and

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you're susceptible and you're impressionable there's all kinds of

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things that can be influencing you and and it can bring confusion and God is

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not the author of confusion but he in his infinite love and mercy will help

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you make those adjustments and you might make mistakes you know we all do but in

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his love he will help you and he will get you back on track and he will guide

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you into all truth he will guide you back to a good place so take the time

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today look at your life evaluate what you're listening to and if you have to

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adjust your sails then I encourage you to adjust those sails and you'll get

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moving again in him have a good day

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you