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So many of us want to follow after Jesus, but there is something that is just holding us back.  If we are ever going to grab a hold of who He is and who He has called us to be, then we need to LEAVE BEHIND certain things.

Philippians 3:13 tells us to leave behind our past ... AND.  What a key word.  AND there is something more.  AND there is another step.  AND we need to press in even further.  What else do we need to do?  We need to LEAVE BEHIND SELF.  Why?  Because we are lazy and because we have missed the point of life.

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So many of us want to follow after Jesus, but there is something that is just holding us back.  If we are ever going to grab a hold of who He is and who He has called us to be, then we need to LEAVE BEHIND certain things.

During the first week in our series we took a look at these things:  Regret.  Shame.  Guilt.  All things that we hide deep in our hearts that keep us from following fully after Jesus.  So, the first thing we need to leave behind?  According to Paul we need to leave behind our past.

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This is the first message in our new series at ICC 'The Pursuit of Epic'.

What do we need to do in order to begin this pursuit of Epic?  The answer is found in an old man, living in self-imposed exile, in the middle of the desert on the backside of a mountain.  Through him we see that the pursuit of Epic starts with a realization of how BIG God is, how small we are and how BIG His love and His plan for us is.

What about you?  Will you start the pursuit?

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For many of us, we have heard the words of Jesus so often that they begin to ring hollow, they begin to lose some of their impact and we begin to lose some of our passion.

But, what if we were reawakened to Him?  What if we were reminded of how amazing His words were (and are) and began to once again grab onto that which He has called us to?

And what has He called us to?  It's simple.  So simple that it changes everything.  He calls to us ... 'follow me'

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Far too often we think of Jonah only as a nice kids story and then relegate it to Sunday school or children's Bible.  However, to do so is to miss the convicting and life-changing truth that is the point of Jonah.  As Andy Stanley says 'You can surrender to the moral will of God, and you can surrender to the personal will of God and still not surrender yourself to the purposes of God in the world.'

Jonah teaches us the danger of becoming a good Christian.

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In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Paul makes his case for Missional Living.  That is that we who are followers of Jesus are to sacrifice our wants & desires to serve others that they might know Jesus.  If we were to grasp this & live it out, it would be revolutionary.  Enter in.

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There is a progression to leaving a godly legacy:

Every time we begin to become who God created us to be, though, there will be enemies. It will get hard. There will be opposition? Then what do we do? Endure.

I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Nehemiah 6:3

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How do we change our legacy? How do we change directions? How do we become who God created us to be? The key to change is confession & repentance.

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We are ALL leaving a legacy; the question is what will our legacy be? In Nehemiah 1:11 we see six of the most powerful words pertaining to legacy ...

I WAS cupbearer to the king ...

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"If you are not close to a lost person, then you are not as close to God as you think you are."

Perry Noble

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