Sermon
Keys To Thriving In This Season (Forgiveness)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week, we hope you enjoy
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this message from Justin Carpenter. You know, I know y'all thought I was
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like thirty, but you know I actually I gotta be honest with you.
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I actually was looking in the men'saw yesterday at hib at some of the hair
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dye, and and I was like, where's Troy? Where Troy go?
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He was back there a minute ago. Would he sneak out of here?
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Stinker? Now? I wasn't gonna out him. I'm listen, I'm a
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pastor. I would never do anything like that. So I was laying in
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my pool yesterday getting a little sun. This is not blood pressure. And
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I was laying there and I asked the Lord, said, what do you
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want me to teach on? Lord? I said, I really, I
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was really burdened for a word for the body because of everything that's going on
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and and even all the shakings that were seeing among leadership in Texas, specifically
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Dallas. How we've seen you know, TD Jake's under allegations a few months
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ago, which that's not over, I promise you. Then we we within
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what a two week period of time, Tony Evans, who I listened to
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him for years and loved his teachings, don't know exactly what's going on there.
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And then obviously the big the big Shaker was just in the last little
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bit with Robert Morris. And you know, a burden that I'm carrying,
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which I do believe is from the Lord in this hour for the body,
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is this as the Lord is purifying his church. You have to understand something.
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Anytime personal sin, unrepented personal sin becomes public, it's not because God
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took delight in exposing someone. It was because they were grieving the spirit for
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a very long period of time, given plenty of opportunity to repent privately,
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and ignored it. And I just want to say this up front, there
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are sins for leaders fivefold ministry, you know, elders, I believe without
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a doubt there are sins that permanently disqualify you, not from not losing your
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salvation, not being healed or restored, but permanently disqualify you from being a
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shepherd or a fivefold And I really don't care everybody agrees with that. When
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it comes to issues of like what was just exposed, it's heartbreaking, extremely
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heartbreaking. When you find out that a young woman was actually twelve years old
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and a minister's twenty one years old, that is a crime. That is
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not something that elders get to keep quiet in the name of love. And
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he never should have been put back as an overseer after that. I'm sorry.
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There's a cost, just like you're going to begin to see ministers die
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premature deaths in the future. See. I think it's Bobby Connor that said
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we're way too familiar with a god we heard. We know we are in
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a very sticky transition in the body of Christ right now. On one hand,
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the world is going to always mock and make fun of when leaders fall.
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The other hand, people that have been hurt in the church, that
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are struggling with their faith right now, that adds fuel to the fire,
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That adds accusations of the enemy to try to get them to be permanently stuck
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in a ditch and fall away. See, it says many there's going to
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be a falling away, and it doesn't necessarily give a whole lot of detail
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to the falling away. But I'm telling you right now that one of the
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most important things is that you don't allow the lawlessness of others to kill your
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love for Jesus and people, period, and that and and that is one
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of the biggest dangers we're in right now because these, like I said months
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ago and years ago, it's like, I don't know about y'all, but
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some of the exposures like Holy Cow shocking, like legitimately shocking. You know.
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Scripture says if you take heed, you know, or it says if
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you stand take heed. In other words, don't puff up. The response
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of us in the body of Christ right now should not be arrogance, should
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not be like ha, they got what they deserved. No, it should
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be for healing, restoration. Now it's not always into what position they had.
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But Jesus didn't come to destroy life, but to save it. And
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I'm not gonna read the whole chapter like I did first service, but any
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Ezekiel nine, you actually see six men, and they come to the sanctuary.
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And these men as you read, you actually find out these men are
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a and you see with you see a man with an inkhorn, and it
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says, now this is verse three Ezekiel nine. Now the glory of the
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God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the
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threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed in linen,
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who had the writing case at his waist, this is an angel, This
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is not just a human being. And the Lord said to him, passed
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through the city through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the
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men who sigh and groan over the abominations that are committed in it. So
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here's a picture. We've had abominations in the Church. We've had We've had
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leaders that for some reason got into a place of arrogance where they thought they
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could hide their sin or or cover it up, or leave very important details
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out and just carry on as life as usual. Can I tell you,
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if you have wilful habitual sin in your life, repent pent And if you're
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in a place of influence as a leader, you're accountable. And if you're
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passing judgment on these leaders that have fallen, take it easy, because you're
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going to give an account for your life before the Lord Jesus as well.
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And the old adage of he without sin throw the first stone, and he's
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marking. So what our response should be in the body of Christ is when
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God's purifying and drawing us close. We need to be in a place of
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humility, and we need to be in a place where we actually are mourning
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over the sin that's been exposed, the sin that's been tolerated. It's sin.
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It's not just mistakes, y'all. But too many times we were like,
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oh, yeah, they made some mistakes. No, it's sin,
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unless you forget Jesus was beaten beyond recognition as a human being because of our
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sin and the moment that we're tempted to take our sin lightly. Because remember,
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there's original sin, imputed sin, and personal sin. That's the way
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sin affects original adam imputed from the law, personal or wilful. All of
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this is written for us to live a life of godliness, of righteousness,
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of holiness. It's not written for the world. It's written for us,
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and it's specifically addressing sinful issues that were in the church. So this man
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with the inkhorn, he literally's going any and all of everyone who actually didn't
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celebrate the abominations, didn't tolerate them, but actually they were sighing and groaning.
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They were grieved over it. We had to be grieved over the crap
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that's been allowed in our country. We had to be absolutely grieved over the
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injustice that happens within our government. We should be grieved over the fact that
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we're losing leaders because they didn't stay accountable, they didn't stay humble, they
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got people around them. Unfortunately that we're willing to compromise things. But it
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does not negate your commission. It does not negate that Jesus is still Jesus,
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and at the end of the day, he's the author and finisher of
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our faith. He is the one we're supposed to keep our eyes on.
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If you get your eyes off the Lord and you put them on man,
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you're going to want to quit because I got news for you. The moment
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you shift your gaze from him to around you, that's Greek for you're gonna
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be done. Because every single person in here is in process. And if
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we do life together long enough, guess what we're gonna bump into each other's
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processes. Hello, marriage, friendships. But then we we get offended,
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we'll get arrogant. Well, I would never do that. They're not doing
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it right. I call those the cheap sheet seats, taking shots from when
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you've got no skin in the game. So as I was Again, this
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was my long intro as I was talking to the Lord, and I've not
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talked about this for quite a while, but and I want to say this
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up front that this key or these keys to thriving in the season, it's
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not just about thriving in the season. It's literally about thriving in your relationship
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with Jesus, thriving in the Kingdom. Don't get caught in the season throwing
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mud. If you have a temptation to become a thumb war person on social
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media, don't, It's not worth it. I want to talk to you
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about a foundational key, and that's forgiveness. And this is what I specifically
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heard the Lord say to my heart yesterday that forgiveness is an absolute key in
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this next season. Now understand, forgiveness is always key, because without it,
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you're done. Right. I tell people, only forgive to the degree
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you want to be forgiven. Who wants to be fully forgiven? Then you
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don't have a choice. I just I don't know. I'm trying to be
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creative the second service. I didn't do that first service. But the reality
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is there's a lot of stinking teaching when it comes to the issue of forgiveness.
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And I'm afraid there's a lot of times where people have honestly tried to
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put their best foot forward in this issue of forgiveness and have gotten stuck because
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they haven't been given proper teaching on forgiveness. I asked this first service,
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who has been told it doesn't matter what you feel, just you know,
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by make the wilful choice, by your will, just forgive right. Question,
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if you had the ability to totally forgive someone in your soul completely and
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forgive everyone, what do you need Jesus for? How is it that we
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think it's about living in the spirit, walking in the spirit, But then
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when it comes to this issue of forgiveness, all of a sudden we have
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soul power. I will will my forgiveness. No, you want to punch
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him in the face. How about this? You thought you forgave someone right,
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You're like, Lord, I forgive them totally. Oh, I bless
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them in Jesus' name. Three weeks later, you see them, all of
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a sudden, you don't feel so good about being around them. All of
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a sudden you're like, ooh, because you can lie to yourself, but
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your body won't lie to you. In other words. You can intellectually lie
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to yourself, but what you really believe in your heart's gonna uncover you.
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And then you go into a tailspin because you're like, I forgave them,
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I forgave them. We'll get to where you get stuck and unstick you,
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hopefully if you're stuck this morning. What's your name? Yes, you,
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Darlene. During worship, when I was playing drums, I looked over at
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you, and the compassion of the Lord is drawing you right now in this
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season, and he is softening you your heart to horrible wounding that you've gone
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through, that you've tried to run from, that you've tried to mask,
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that you've even tried to cover up. But he loves you. Weigh too
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much to let you walk around with that pain. And I saw bruising in
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the spirit on you that the Lord's going to heal that specifically, is going
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to give you new eyes to see life. There's a lot of things that
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you've been carrying around that you are blaming yourself for right now, and it's
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false responsibility. The little girl didn't deserve it. And the Lord loves you
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with an unconditional love, and he's not what your fears have worried about.
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He's good, he's trustworthy, and he is safe. Bless you. Oh,
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come on now, No, I don't never mind that, y'all.
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I had the craziest thing this week, and I'm staying on this forgiveness thing.
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But the Lord led me to do something as an act of generosity this
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week that I'd never done in my life. And Anthony was with me.
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Where'd he go? Anthony was with me and he was waiting on me where
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we were at, And anyways, I told him what the Lord laid on
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my heart. And I get to the truck and that little thing happened like
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five times. I thought I wasn't going to make it in the truck and
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was just, I mean, just lit up. And I heard the Lord
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say to my heart that generosity is your weapon. See, y'all, our
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weapons of warfare are not cardinal, but they're mighty in God for the pulling
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down of strongholds. And it says that we have weapons of righteousness in our
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right and in our left. What you need to do in any given moment,
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and says Lord, what is my weapon? Because just because this weapon
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was your weapon last week doesn't mean it's the same weapon this week? Are
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you with me so, Matthew six twelve, fourteen, and fifteen, And
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forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if
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you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But
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if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your heavenly or will
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your father forgive yours or your trespasses. You know, that's one of those
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scriptures that we all would love to paraphrase and change up and soften up just
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a little bit, but we can't. What if your desire to draw the
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forgiveness process out has way more to do with you wanting judgment in your heart
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than it does actually releasing someone. Are you with me? If you've been
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told to take your time with forgiving, I don't mean processing, don't misunderstand
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me. I don't mean processing the pain, the trauma, getting your heart
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healed, but the issue of forgiveness, the debt, the trespass. If
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you've been taught to just take your sweet time and just let it you know
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as you get to it, that's fine, that's hogwash. That's secure humanism
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with a religious mask. On it. What if Jesus just took his time
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to forgive you, if he just kind of took his time carrying the cross
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and be like, oh, I think I'm gonna slow down. I don't
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know. Well, hold on, I don't you know. And this is
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exactly where Peter found Peter's always looking for an angle, right, He's also
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always looking for an ear. Then Peter came up and said to him,
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Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
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He's looking for the legal right out of this thing. And he's probably thinking
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of one of the other disciples. How much you want to bet they live
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together all the time. Peter was probably annoyed with Thomas because he was doubting
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everything. Thomas, come on, let's go. I don't know if I
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can make it. Thomas, let's multiply the food. I don't know if
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it's gonna happen. Thomas, as many seven times Jesus said to him,
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I do not say to you seven times, but seventy seven times. And
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by the way, one of the Gospel says, in a day, Hello,
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do the math people? Four hundred and ninety times? Who has ticked
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you off? Four hundred and ninety times in one day. Don't look at
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your spouse four hundred ninety times and guess what even if that was realistic,
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a literal legalistic four hundred and ninety times, tomorrow I get to jack with
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you four hundred ninety more times. That's not the point. The point is
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total forgiveness. Total. But Peter's as human as we are. He's looking
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for a way out of this thing. He's like, four hundred and ninety
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one, I'm punching you. Come on, well more, come on,
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Oh, keep it coming. Keep he's print winding up. Oh, come
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on. Every one of y'all have been in that place where somebody really ticked
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you off, where you wanted to give him some five fold ministry. I've
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been there. Hello, Internet world, your pastor's been so angry he's wanted
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to do five fold ministry. In this life, you will have trouble understatement
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of the year, Maybe Jesus, could you capitalize that and put that and
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read too, But take heart of overcome. See, when I get into
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a place where I want to hold on to unforgiveness and make somebody pay,
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it's only because of all the lies I believe. But if I actually allow
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the Lord to expose the lie based thinking that I think about unforgiveness, then
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forgiveness becomes effortless. It actually stays of a thing of the spirit rather than
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the soul. Therefore, the kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king
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who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle,
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one was brought to him. He owed him ten thousand talents, and since
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he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife
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and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So
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the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me,
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and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the
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master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that
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same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him
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a hundred denari and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying,
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pay what you owe, and that's exactly what we do after we've stepped into
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Jesus, been totally forgive, and then want our brother to pay. Pay
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what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him,
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have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went
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and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow
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servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went
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and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned
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him and said to him, you, wicked servant, I forgave you all
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that debt because you pleaded with me, and should not you have had mercy
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on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you, And in anger,
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his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.
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Let me tell you something, it's not easy to become demonized, but there
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are certain ways that make it really easy. You go ahead and be justified
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giveness and bitterness, and I can guarantee you you will have demonic influence come
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into your life, and if you keep holding on to it, eventually it
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will become familiar in working to your soul, and you won't know what's your
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voice and what's it and you will stay stuck in that place until you forgive,
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which is releasing the debt. Now, who wants to stay ticked for
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a long time? Here's what we have to remember, you're born into a
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battlefield and the enemy doesn't care what you think. The enemy is a legalist
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and he will take every possible right that he can. Y'all excited? This
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is awesome? Come on, hang in there. It gets better. We
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got to take an account of the debt. The issue when I talked about
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y'all, when you thought you forgave someone and then all of a sudden you're
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around them and you're like, oh Lord, can I just smack them?
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Once you realize there's easy, No, you realize that there's unforgiveness there.
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Why because you may have been taught to blanket your forgiveness rather than take an
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account of the debt. You may have been taught just to do a nice,
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fluffy prayer of forgiveness over everything they did. And you genuinely probably forgave
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them of some of those things. But if you had ten trespasses with them
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that your heart was holding, and you forgave eight of them, guess what
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you got two trespasses you never released. And that's why every time you get
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around that person, your heart condemns you, or you feel condemned like h
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because you didn't totally forgive. Don't blanket your forgiveness when you need to deal
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with forgiveness for someone, and get alone with the Lord and say, Lord,
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help me process. Come into this Lord. I want to know everything
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I'm holding against them, and when I'm doing prayer ministry with people, and
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I know there's a stronghold, which, by the way, the very found
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I don't give a flip what inter healing process you're doing, what name you've
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put on it. It's either biblical or unbiblical. It's that simple. If
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it's biblical, then repentance and forgiveness are at the very foundation of it,
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period foundational. You cannot have inner healing without repentance and forgiveness at the core.
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It's like applying the blood on both sides of the doorpost repentance forgiveness.
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It's a beautiful picture with the passover. No where was I I just sidetracked
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right before that? Hun, You're always paying attention to what I say?
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What did I just say right before that? Were you not in my head?
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Thinking? So? So I will take yes, thank you. So
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I will get a notepad and I will tell whoever it is. Hey,
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here's a notepad, here's a pen. I want you to write down every
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single person that you know you have something against in your life. And I
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want you to take your time, and I want you to take an account
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of the debt, and then I want you to forgive every one of those
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items. And I want you to ask the Lord if he wants to say
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anything on each of those debts that you're releasing. My buddy Dan Gerroy,
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early on when I was forgiving, he would always have pencils. Anybody knew
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Dangerroy, Yeah, he would always have pencils. I may have broke about
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ten cases of those things after about two years, but I got through it.
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And just as a closure, when I forgave, i'd break that pencil
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and lots of pencils, lots of pencils. But you take an account and
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you fully forgive from your heart. But one of the there's many reasons why
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we don't forgive. We believe the lie that our unforgiveness were justified. They
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don't deserve to be forgiven, well neither do you? Oh? True,
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they deserve to be punished. Well, so did you Jesus handled that if
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I forgive, they're only going to do it again. How many times have
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you done something again after you ask for forgiveness. How many times did I
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do something? Not? Many? Right? How about this? My unforgiveness
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protects me from further pain. If I hold my debt like a shield,
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I protect my heart from rejection rather than recognizing. If I wasn't looking to
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you for identity, you couldn't reject me. What is it? I ask
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people, what's your unforgiveness doing for you? Well? Nothing? Well that's
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a lie. If it was doing nothing, you'd forgive right. Think about
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your thinking right now, every one of you in this room. If there's
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someone you need to forgive, I want you to think about why you've not
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forgiven yet. I didn't say it was easy. I'm sure being beaten beyond
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recognition wasn't easy either. See he is the trump card, no pun intended.
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He is the ultimate trump card. Because any excuse we try to come
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up with, and we look at Calvary, you can tell Jesus your blood
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you spilt for him, isn't it isn't good enough? So I tell everyone
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bleve's that baby lord. I tell everyone forgive to the degree you want to
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be forgiven. Colossians three thirteen says bearing with one another and if one has
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a complaint against another. Forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you,
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so you also must forgive. Colossians three thirteen Tewod Corinthians two ten says
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this anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. This is Paul. Indeed,
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what I've forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your
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in the presence of Christ now here. I love this. This is this
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is a scripture that we need to remember in this moment. Luke six forty
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two, how can you say to your brother brother, let me take out
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the spec that's in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that's
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in your own eye? You hypocrite. Do you know what hypocrite means,
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you Hollywood actor? Hypocrite means to act literally, So think about the actors
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in Hollywood. Think about a really bad one too, you know, lousy
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like B film or something that's that's like you hypocrite. First, take the
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log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take
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out the spec that's in your brother's eye. See, it doesn't say we're
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not to hold each other accountable. It doesn't say we're not to judge righteously,
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which we are, and it says, confess your sends one to another,
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pray for one another, that you might be what healed. But it's
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an issue when I'm ignoring the beam in my eye and I'm more concerned about
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the speck in your eye. Mercy proceeds forgiveness. I might say this.
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One of the greatest clues if you've actually forgiven someone is the compassion of the
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Lord fills your heart for that person. It's hard to have compassion for someone
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and want to strangle them at the same time. Why do I feel like
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some of you all have been there. It's like I can hear somebody go,
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well, I've done that. The next day, Moses said to the
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people, you've sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to
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the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned
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to the Lord and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin.
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They've made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you forgive their
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sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you've
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written. Moses is amazing. On one moment, He's like, Lord,
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kill me now, I can't handle all these people. Take me out.
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He did, say that kill me. There's yeah, I'm these stiff necked
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people. And then the next moment he's like, Lord, have mercy on
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them. If you don't have mercy on them, blot me out of your
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book of life, which is literally just a beautiful picture of intercession and a
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prophet filling in the gap interceding. Please, he says, please blot me
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out of your book that you've written. But the Lord said to Moses,
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whoever sin against me, I will bought out of my book James two thirteen.
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For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, Mercy
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triumphs over judgment. I gotta land this thing. I got eleven minutes.
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Hey, it's eleven. Where are you prophetic people? Eleven? Oh it's
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ten, ten, eleven eleven. Forgiving yourself one thing. One of the
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one of the biggest giants for people that have gone through abuse, whether physical
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abuse, sexual abuse, what have you, is false responsibility because they have
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been in secular terms, psychology terms, they have been gas lit to such
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a degree that they think everything is their responsibility, and through deception, they
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take on the respect of their life onto them to such a degree that they
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think everything is their fault. Now I want to help y'all. If gaslighting
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narcissist. Anybody heard the term narcissist, let me help you with that.
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If if someone is a full blown narcissist, they have a Jezebel spirit.
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It's that simple. That's what that spirit looks like to the world. So
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the issue of forgiving yourself is so many times we will misplace the sins of
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others, and there's so many times we ourselves are the last ones to forgive
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ourselves. And I shared this briefly first service, but I remember I remember
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feeling totally responsible for the molestation I went through as a child, believing that
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it was my fault, that somehow I should have been able to protect myself.
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And it makes no logical sense if you're year four or five years old
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and there's an adult who's doing the molestation, how could you ever blame yourself?
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But through all of the demonic stuff, in the manipulation and just gaslighting
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and all of that, you end up with a whole bunch of stinking thinking.
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And I remember it was probably two thousand and two we were in marriage
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counseling. Lisa needed to tune up, so I agreed to go and just
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joking, Sean's like, really, dude, you did that again. And
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no, we were marriage counseling, and because I told Lisa, and I
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think I've shared this so I won't belabor it. But I told Lisa's like,
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look, Hun, I didn't call you hunt at the time. Girlfriend.
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I said, look, my parents divorced. They split up when my
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mom was pregnant with me. I was molested as a kid, But don't
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worry, none of that affected me. That that is in what you call
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a guardian lie in denial, which we all have our PhD. In denying
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suppress. We call it spirituality. And I'll never forget the counselor the moment
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Lisa said the word molestation. Daryl Pitts, he's passed away now, but
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he was the head counselor for Jerry Folwell's church, and he like, all
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of a sudden, it's like Lisa disappeared in the room and he's only focused
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on me, Like what is going on here? I'm not the problem,
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And all of a sudden, next thing you know, I'm in I'm in
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counseling by myself, without my wife, and he's asked me all these uncomfortable
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questions. I didn't even like to say the word molestation. I was like,
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yeah, my uncle messed with me. That's how disassociated I was from
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the pain false responsibility. I can't ever take responsibility or the pain in my
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heart if I think it's all my fault. If I don't transfer the responsibility
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of what happened to me back on the one that did it, I can't
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ever forgive them. And now I'm stuck in a cycle of unforgiveness that I
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can't get out because I took the bait of Satan. Are you with me?
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It doesn't have to be my story. It doesn't have to be what
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I went through. It could be whatever something that happened to you, whether
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it was in business, the marketplace, relationship, marriage, whatever it is
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fill in the blank. False responsibility keeps people ensnared in many many ways.
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And I remember Daryl said, well, well, how big were you when
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this started happening. I don't know. I mean, I'm really tall now,
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so it's hard to judge. And so I was like, I don't
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know, maybe you know, maybe a foot shorter, you know, And
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he goes, well, don't you think it's time that you take the responsibility
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off that little boy and put it onto the one that it belongs. And
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this was around two thousand and two, and this was just regular counseling.
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This wasn't like, you know, interhealing and deliverance. And I was extremely
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Baptist, so I thought that was all a bunch of weird stuff and I
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broke. The other thing is when I chose to actually call what happened to
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me what it was, rather than to deny my heart to create space from
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the pain. Listen, I don't care what you've gone through. You have
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to take responsibility for your heart. What you've gone through, you've got to
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take response ability for it. Because it's so easy to fall into a victim
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spirit when you've been horribly abused. But I promise you this, if you
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hold on to a victim spirit as your identity, you'll never get free because
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a victim spirit never takes responsibility, and you got to take responsibility. I'm
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not saying for their sin. You take their sin and put it on them
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and forgive them. Y'all with me, Listen. Forgiveness is foundational, and
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we have shown over the recent years, at least in the American Church,
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that we're not really good at this thing called forgiveness, which is I think
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it grieves the Lord tremendously. I'm not saying don't have healthy boundaries. You
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know, if you lost a family member de al Kaido, You're probably not
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going to bring them to the dinner table. I'm not saying become a doormat.
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You can forgive. It doesn't forgiveness, doesn't restore, doesn't create reconciliation.
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That's a separate step. And you got to have health boundaries. But
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make sure the motives are correct, all right, man, I go,
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yeah, yeah, okay. So but with this issue of forgiving yourself,
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self hatred is typically a root many times of autoimmune issues, and it manifests
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with your with your physical body rejecting itself. And so if you're struggling with
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autoimmune issues this morning, I'm not guaranteeing it self hatred. But what I'm
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saying is ask the Lord to show you if there is any self bitterness comes
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in when unforgiveness towards yourself is not dealt with. Self rejection is the end
-
result of not dealing with unforgiveness towards yourself. Let me tell you something.
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Self hatred is ugly. I mean ugly. One of the most physically brutal
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manifestations I've seen in nineteen years of doing deliverance was an end of visual that
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had a huge self hatred spirit on them. They literally began to punch themselves
-
in the face and all over their body. And this was some years ago.
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And I remember, you know, I had to put my coffee down
-
because I usually have coffee when I'm doing ministry, and and I literally just
-
went over and I baar hugged this person and I said, I bind you
-
in the name of Jesus, and I started rebuking the self hatred and we
-
went to the ground. It was actually, I like warfare, Like I'm
-
a man, so I'm like, when when it gets on like that,
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my I'm like, whoa, I get pumped. But this person got completely
-
free. But I just want to say that it's self hatred is what is
-
needed before a spirit of suicide can have its way. Hatred towards others opens
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you up to a spirit of murder. Jesus said, if you have hatred
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in your heart, you've already committed murder. So self hatred does the opposite.
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Y'all with me, So let me finish with this Ephesians four thirty two.
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Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God
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in Christ forgave you. An unforgiving heart is a judging heart. If you
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find yourself always judging the snot out of everybody, you may want to look
-
and see if there's unforgiveness. Therefore, you have no excuse, o man,
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every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another,
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you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practiced the very same things Romans
-
two to one. And now let me end with this forgiving God. Before
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you say heresy, let me expound. God doesn't need our forgiveness, but
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many times we're holding debt against him because of the lies we believe. This
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goes back to false responsibility. How do you know when you're holding God responsible
-
for somebody else's sin, it goes like this, why did he let this
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happen? Been there? Anybody been there? Why did he let this happen?
-
As if he was the author of sin and he just violateds Listen,
-
if you're a Calvinist an oarminiist, it doesn't matter. There are things that
-
happen when it comes to sin that God had nothing to do with. He
-
wasn't the author of it. The enemy came to steal, kill, and
-
destroy, but God came to give life and give it more abundantly. Those
-
are your two categories. When you steal, steel, kill, destroy,
-
that's the hand of the evil one. He comes in brings deception, gets
-
you to blame God for his actions, almost like false worship, because when
-
we start blaming God for the enemy's hand, it's like worship to him.
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I'm gonna finish with this two things James one, thirteen to seventeen. Let
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no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God
-
cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each
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person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire,
-
when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it's
-
fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers,
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Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
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of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
-
I'll never forget this. Some years ago, maybe five six years ago,
-
Becky Bowen. You all know Becky, right, some of y'all know Becky
-
a little bit, just a smidge. Becky shows up one morning that she
-
often does and says, I know what your problem is. I'm like,
-
huh, yeah, I know what your problem is. I go, what
-
do you mean. She goes, You're mad at God? I said,
-
no, I'm not. Uh, yes you are. I'm like, Becky,
-
no, seriously, I like, I don't feel anything. I promise
-
I'm not mad at him. Yes you are. If you all know Becky,
-
you know why she didn't batt off the gas. And I'm like,
-
no, I am not mad at God. But now I'm getting irritated with
-
you because you keep telling me I'm angry with God. And and she goes,
-
no, the Lord told me you're still mad at God. There's still
-
a part of you blaming him for what happened to you when you were little.
-
I go, no, I don't think so. So we're sitting in
-
the office actually I think it's Anthony's Anthony's office. Now we're sitting in there.
-
Who's a prayer ministry room at the time. So I'm like, Ward,
-
if I'm if there's any part of me that's still angry with you.
-
I don't think it is, but I'm like, I don't want to keep
-
it, and and we keep talking, keep processing, and all of a
-
sudden, a rumble from the basement I think it came from my pinky toe
-
and began to work its way up, and all of a sudden I could
-
feel this buried anger I had, and all of a sudden my heart had
-
permission to have a voice in that place, and it came up, and
-
I took my fist. I shocked myself and I I was sitting on the
-
couch, and I even shocked Becky a little bit because I made a fist.
-
Don't worry, I didn't hit her. And I swunk forward and I
-
go with him. Why on the she ole which fill in the blank did
-
he let it happen? And I instantly realized I was still angry, and
-
I broke right in that moment and started crying. And I was like,
-
Lord, forgive me for still holding you responsible for his actions. And it
-
was done. You can lie to yourself, you can intellectually lie to yourself,
-
but your body won't lie. Why will your body not lie? Because
-
what you really believe in your heart is what you're going to manifest as a
-
man, thinketh so is he Proverbs. It's what you believe guard your heart
-
for. Out of it flow the issues of life. We light our cells
-
better than anybody else on planet Earth. Just because you say, oh,
-
I don't feel anything, well, guess what. I had my guardian lie
-
for years and years and years until it failed. I went through all those
-
things, but it didn't affect me liar pants on fire. It absolutely affected
-
me. Could have absolutely destroyed my life. Had the Lord not had mercy
-
on me to be able to deal with all my stuff when I did,
-
then I would I would have probably ended up being a statistic if I'd gone
-
back, gone back into ministry before I got healed up. So what does
-
our posture need to be in the season. We need to be praying for
-
the body of Christ. We need to have humility, We need to mourn
-
over the things that are being exposed. Y'all. I don't think I said
-
to this service, but there are things. Did I say there are things
-
that should disqualify you from ministry? Yeah, it's true, But I want
-
to encourage you in this hour. Don't get jaded with Jesus. Don't get
-
jaded with his kingdom because he's coming back for his bride. Stop looking at
-
each other as enemies. Start looking at each other as family. And even
-
if you think the person next to you is like crazy Eddie from Christmas Vacation,
-
cousin Eddie, I mean, you still gotta love cousin Eddie, even
-
if he's out there with the RV fill in the street with the All right,
-
let's stand if they can get the prayer team to come forward, Wayne,
-
if you want to get some keys for me, sir? Did that
-
help anybody? Did that help with the issue of forgiveness? Good? All
-
right? So, Father, I thank you that he who began a good
-
work will complete it. Lord. I pray that we would walk humbly with
-
you, that we would love mercy, that we would do justice, Lord,
-
and we just lift up all the man Lord, all the stuff that's
-
been exposed over the last few months. Lord, we just lift up the
-
body of Christ in Dallas to you, Lord, Kansas, California, Lord,
-
and all over the earth for that matter. And I pray Father,
-
that we would keep our eyes on the prize, Lord, You're the prize,
-
that we would gauge success, that we would gauge success Lord. By
-
what you gauge success Lord, that souls would be so thank you for listening.
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For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to this podcast. We're
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going to our website at www dot Cross Kingdom dot org