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Speaker: when you think about
it, your life is really actually,

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um, a battle for attention.

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Maybe you've never
thought about it this way.

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There's, so there's th- there's
kinda three things we're gonna

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work our way through here.

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Your life is really a
battle for attention.

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I don't know if you've, you've
really realized how much your

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attention is a competition.

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Everything's competing for your attention.

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I don't know if, um, you're, you've
heard of this before, but, um, th-

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there's this thing called, called
Netflix, and, um, their CEO said

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something really interesting.

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He said that Netflix's main competitor
is not Hulu, it's not Disney Plus,

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it's not anything else, not Paramount
Plulch- Ultra Pro Max or whatever, right?

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It's sleep.

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Netflix's biggest competitor,
he said, is sleep.

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Because sleep takes up so much time.

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Sleep takes up way more time than,
than Hulu or Disney or whatever.

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They said their main competitor is
sleep, and that's because they're

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fighting for your attention, right?

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YouTube is fighting for your attention.

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Facebook is fighting for your
parents' attention, not yours, right?

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'Cause none, none of you
care about Facebook, right?

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All these things-

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Are fighting for your attention.

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And the phrase, even the
phrase pay attention, right?

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Pay attention.

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Why, why do you think we say that?

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Attention is a resource you have.

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You only have so much attention, right?

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Some of you are losing it
very quickly right now.

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You only have so much attention

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What you decide to give
it to is a huge deal.

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What are you paying your
attention to, right?

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What are you giving your attention to?

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This verse is saying this person
who's, who's talking about they're,

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they're living this, this life and
it's hard sometimes, but they're

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saying that eventually I know that
if I give my attention to the Lord,

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I'll be safe, I'll be secure, right?

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Both maybe emotionally presently, but
also forever, 'cause they know they'll

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be safe with him forever, right?

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But your attention really matters.

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It…

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Your attention is a priceless
resource when you think about it.

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You can't get your attention
back once you've given it away.

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You can refocus it, but you've
lost those, that amount of focus.

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You, you never get to use
that attention ever again.

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It's gone.

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Just like time.

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You never get to use it ever again.

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So what I wanna ask you tonight is
how are you spending your attention?

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Where is your focus going?

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Because your focus is going
to determine who you are.

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What you give your attention to determines
the kind of person you're gonna become.

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You're becoming someone every day.

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And when you think about Sherwood North,
when you think about student ministry,

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when you think about what you're doing
here on Wednesday nights, every day, every

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hour, you're becoming someone, right?

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Think back to last year when you
sat in this room for the first time.

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You were a different person.

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You liked different things.

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You had different priorities.

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Maybe you even had a totally
different outlook on life.

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You're a different person
than you were a year ago.

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Next year, when you sit in this room,
or not, right, when you graduate,

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you're gonna be a different person
than you are now, and that's because

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of the things you paid attention to.

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What you gave your attention
to shapes who you are

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Attention is an invitation to influence.

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When you give your attention to
something, you're saying, "Influence me.

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Change me."

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When you go watch a video, when you
listen to someone talk, when you sit

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down to, to read something or not read
something, you're saying, "Change me."

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Whenever you pay attention to anything
or choose not to pay attention to

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something, you're saying, "Change me.

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I want to be like what
I'm paying attention to."

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That's what you're doing every time
you pay attention to anything, whether

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it's a conversation at school, whether
it's, um, something you see online,

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whether it's people in your life,
the people you pay attention to, the

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people you put yourself in the way of.

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You're saying, "Change me."

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That's what you're doing when you
give your attention to something

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In the book of Hebrews, it says
in chapter two, verse one that

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your attention is actually what
keeps you holding fast to Jesus.

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The book of Hebrews is written to
a bunch of people who are tempted

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to walk away from Christianity.

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It's these people that they're, they're
not sure if they wanna be Christians

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anymore, which maybe in a year in your
college dorm room, that's gonna be you

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Or maybe with when you have to decide, oh,
do I wanna be with these friends who are

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gonna lead me away from the Lord, or do
I wanna maybe be faithful to the Lord and

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obey Him, even at your school right now?

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That's the decision you have to make.

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Do I, do I wanna walk away from this,
or do I wanna stay faithful to Jesus?

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And what he says is, the au- the author,
he says, "Pay attention to what you've

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heard so you don't drift away from it."

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Attention is how you hold on to Jesus.

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Attention is your anchor to Jesus.

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And so part of the reason we spend
so much time at True North of, of me

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just talking to you is because what
I'm trying to do is I'm trying to

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hold up Jesus through the Word, right?

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I'm trying to say, "Look at God.

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Pay attention to what He says,"
because I want you to anchor onto

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Jesus so you don't walk away, right?

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If you're a Christian.

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And if you aren't a Christian, I want you
to pay attention to Jesus so you latch

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onto Him, you grab onto Him in faith, and
say, "I trust you, and I'll follow you."

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That's why your attention
is such a big deal.

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And so what we're all about here in True
North is I, I'm trying to convince you

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from scripture that Jesus is worth your
attention, and that's something that

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even if you're a Christian, you have to
convince yourself of every single day.

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Jesus is worth it.

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He's worth my attention.

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He's worth my trust.

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He's worth my devotion.

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That's because your attention
shapes your values, your priorities.

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When you say, "I set the Lord before
me," I'm putting Him in front of

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me because I think He's important.

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You pay attention to what
you think is important.

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If wh- I was gonna ask you,
"Hey, what do I think, what you,

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what do you think is important?"

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You can maybe tell me, oh, yeah, maybe
you, you know people like this at school.

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They say, "Oh, God first," right?

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Maybe their s- you know, their
senior quote or their whatever.

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They say, "God first.

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God first," right?

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But you look at their life, what
do they give their attention to?

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That's what they really
think is important.

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And worship is really all
about priorities, right?

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If, if I heard someone m- one
time define it to me this way.

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They said, "When you think about
worship, think about worthship."

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It's what you think is important,
what you think is valuable, what

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you think is worth your time,
what you're paying attention to.

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You think it's valuable.

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It's about your prior-- So your attention
is gonna influence your priorities.

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And maybe you think, "Okay, yeah, my
priority is I know God first," right?

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I remember in sixth grade we
had to, like, do this thing.

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It was a really dumb project.

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I thought it was really lame.

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We had to, like, draw a picture
of, like, our heart, and it was

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like, "What's in your heart?"

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Right?

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And me, you know, growing up
in a, in a Christian home, I

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was like, "Oh, yeah, Jesus."

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So I'd put, like, a cross
in the middle, right?

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And then I'd put all these other
things, you know, on the out--

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like the outside of my heart.

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But I was like, "Cross has to be in
the middle 'cause I'm a Christian

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and Jesus is most important."

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But really, the-- what my life
was is it was like Jesus first and

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then, like, all these other things.

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That's really not putting Jesus first.

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Because if you're really putting
Jesus first, Jesus is gonna be

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in all the other things, right?

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It's not like, oh, I just do the
Jesus stuff first, and then I

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go and do whatever I want later.

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It's Jesus is actually in everything I do.

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That-- When Jesus is most important to
you, it's kinda like He's the sun and

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everything orbits around Jesus, right?

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It's not like, well, I did the Jesus
stuff first, and then I d- got that

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done, and then now I do the rest of
the stuff that I really wanna do.

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Right?

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I think that's a lot of professing
Christians, that's probably what they do.

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They say, "Well, God first.

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Okay, I did that.

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You know, I hit the home run, and
I, you know, pointed to the sky,

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and then now I can go party and do
whatever I want 'cause I did that."

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That's not what putting God
first actually looks like.

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What it looks like is everything
they did orbited around Jesus.

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That's what we're talking about.

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I set the Lord always before me, right?

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Not just first, not
just most often, always.

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So your attention changes your priorities,
and your priorities are really all about

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your heart, your desire, what you want.

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You prioritize what you want.

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That's how life works.

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Jesus said it this way:
"Where your treasure is, there

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your heart will be also."

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Right?

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Show me what you think is important,
I'll show you what you want.

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And your attention, like we
talked about at the beginning,

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is what shows you what you want.

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You pay attention to what you want

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And so really what this is all
about is I want you to want Jesus.

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That's the, the, the main goal of
everything we do in True North,

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is I want you to want Jesus.

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Not just like Jesus, not just
think Jesus is helpful, not just

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think Jesus is kind of important.

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I want you to want Him.

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I want you to, to love Him.

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I want you to be really excited about Him.

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That's really why we're here, and
that starts with your attention.

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It starts with what you give your
attention to, 'cause that's gonna

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shape who you are, it's gonna shape
what you think is important, and

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that's gonna change what you want

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And so really that's what it, it all
comes down to is do you want Jesus?

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How much do you want him?

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Because who you are is gonna
be downstream, right, from

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what do I think is important?

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'Cause that's what I'm gonna focus on, and
that's gonna shape everything about me.

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Okay, so let's pray.

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That's what True North is all about.

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We're gonna pray, and then
you guys are gonna hang out

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with your groups, all right?

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Heavenly Father, um, you love us a lot.

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Um, you don't just kind of love us.

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You don't just tolerate us.

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Um, you love us more than we could
actually ever imagine loving someone,

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which is crazy to think about.

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Um, and it's not just because we're
so great, it's because of who you are.

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It's because you are love, and you
give us your commands because you

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love us, and you make hard things
happen to us because you love us.

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Because our problem is that we love things
that aren't as good as you, and we turn

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those things into our source of happiness.

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And really, those things aren't
gonna make us happy as you will,

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because you're so much better.

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Jesus, you are better than anything
and everything the world has to offer,

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just like we talked about last week.

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And so I pray that you convince us daily
that you are better than everything else.

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And I pray that you give us a deeper and
stronger and more consistent desire for

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you, that we would be so excited to be
with you, so excited to talk to you, so

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excited to hear from you in your Word.

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And I pray for anyone here who doesn't
want you, for anyone here who, um, is,

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whose heart is kinda cold towards you,
or they don't really feel like-- they

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don't feel very excited about you.

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I pray that you open their eyes and show
them that you are so much better, um,

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that you can make them so much happier.

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You offer so much more joy than the
things that you've made that they're

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looking to to make them happy.

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I pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.