Sermon
Student Ministry October 15, 2026- When It Isn't Giving Blessed
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to Celebration Baptist Church Podcast, where we help people connect with God and others.
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Each week you'll find biblical teaching, practical encouragement, and conversations designed to help you follow Jesus in everyday life.
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To learn more about Celebration Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, visit iCelebration.org.
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Now let's get started.
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What's up, CBC students?
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We're super glad to be back with you on your Thursday morning wherever this podcast finds you, whether you're getting ready for school or you're skipping playing hooky today, or uh you're, I don't know, maybe you're sound asleep as this podcast is coming out.
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I don't know where you're at, what you're doing, who you're with.
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But we are excited to chat with you this morning.
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I'm here with Jesus Amila, as always.
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W W.
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We are gonna start today's podcast off with a very, very serious question.
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What is your favorite Halloween candy?
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I'm gonna have to ask for some clarification on this one.
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Am I supposed to pick a candy that only comes out during the Halloween season, or or am I just picking my favorite candy anyway?
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I think what my mind goes to when I say my favorite Halloween candy or your favorite Halloween candy is like what you're most excited to see dropped in your bucket when you're going like trick-or-treating, you know.
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So it could be anytime, I guess.
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Okay, got it.
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Okay, who wants to start us off?
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You got an answer for that?
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I I got an ad man, Reese's peanut butter cup.
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That's no doubt.
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Okay, peanut butter cups or like the pumpkins, you know what I'm talking about?
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They're like I don't care if they're shaped like a pumpkin, like a Santa.
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It doesn't matter.
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It's got chocolate and peanut butter.
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That's like Pastor Jesus, that's W for me.
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He's downing it, yeah.
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I wonder if our audience will agree if chocolate is candy, though, because that's like controversial.
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Maybe you're just really controversial.
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Is that what is it like controversial like that?
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Is water wet?
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Is what is water is water good intro questions for next week.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Catch us next week when we talk about is a hot dog a sandwich?
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But I I think I think chocolate is candy.
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Yeah, because I think so too.
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If not, what would it be under?
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Dessert?
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Uh yeah, a sweet.
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I don't really know.
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But I think it's candy.
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Okay, okay.
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I listen.
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I think I don't know.
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It gets dropped in my bucket or my box or one of my kids' boxes, it's mine.
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Yeah, I'm down with that.
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Yeah, I get no.
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Since some of my kids have allergies to milk, right?
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And so then all of a sudden I win like that.
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Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
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Okay, how about you, Nola?
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Um, Mila should go next because my answer is actually your answer, but I'm trying to think if there's something else that I'm missing.
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So I can like shake it up.
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If not, I'll give my great minds think alike if it's the same thing.
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That's what I'm talking about.
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Um, you know, I don't I don't enjoy candy too too much, but I think something consistent that I always like is just like gummy bears.
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I feel like that's really chill.
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It's always good.
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I'm it's it's a dependable candy.
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It's always gonna taste it.
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So let me go.
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Sometimes you get those um those gummy bears that are like half rock, half gummy bear.
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And then you have the other ones that are nice and chewy.
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And sometimes gummy bears have stuff in them.
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It's true.
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So tell me, do you have a preference?
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Can you rate your gummy bear experience?
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Um, my gummy bear experience?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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What are the gummy bears that as like in the golden bag with the bear?
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What is that called?
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Those are what are those?
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Doesn't it start with an H?
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I think it's haribo, yeah.
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That is my favorite gummy.
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It is really those are the ones that like literally will break your jaw.
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Yeah, and that's yeah, it's a little they are like kind of chewy and you kind of have to like sink your teeth into them, but yeah, that's it.
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Yeah, okay.
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Or that are just Welches, just like good old Welches.
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Gummies.
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Gummies.
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Okay, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a gummy bear, it just needs to be gummies.
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Yeah.
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Okay, so then we got the whole debate.
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You know, are are Welches better than motz?
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Yes.
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Are better than than than a Hasbro, you know?
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Maybe, yeah.
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I don't think Hasbro is even I I think Hasbro is a a board game brand.
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I think so.
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I think so.
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I think so.
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So what is it that you call the haribo?
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Haribo.
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I'm still working on some phonic skills.
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Sorry.
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Sorry.
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Um, okay, so I'm just gonna I'm gonna stick with the Reese's, but I am gonna make a case for the pumpkins.
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I know sometimes people like get weird about the different shapes because the ratio between chocolate and peanut butter is different.
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Like the pumpkins definitely have more peanut butter, but I really I like more peanut butter.
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So I like more peanut butter too.
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I'll do a I'll do a Reese's cup and be totally fine, but I'm I'm all over some pumpkins because I got more peanut butter.
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So I would definitely prefer more peanut butter than than the chocolate, no doubt.
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Yeah.
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All right, man.
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Great.
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So there you go.
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Good to know.
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Well, um, Pastor Jesus, can you just give us a brief like overview for those that may have not made it to Converge yesterday?
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Just like, hey, this is kind of the brief brief synopsis of the story that we talked about last night before we hop into our questions for Acts three.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So I mean, if we combine last week and this week, so so last week we started with chapter three, and then this week we ended with verse four and chapter four.
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So technically, in the last two weeks, we've covered a particular chapter, and that chapter is kind of connected all the way to verse four in terms of chapter four, because chapter three begins three in the afternoon, and then chapter four, verse four ends with the evening.
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So I tend to look at that as you know, in uh fancy seminary words, a pericope, right?
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So sometimes we tell the students it's an episode in a season.
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So this is an episode.
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Three o'clock, going to the temple gate, you got the lame man, that's what we covered two weeks ago, and then this week, okay, and now you have these people here, like gawking at these guys.
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And we talked about it last week.
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I had listen, these guys are like, I am a servant, I am a steward, I'm not a celebrity.
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So they did well with you know, bringing glory to God in that moment.
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And so then now he has a conversation with right.
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Peter has a conversation with him, and and what we covered this particular week was hey, in light of what you did, then the question becomes, What did you do?
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Right.
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Because last week we covered that, you know, they made a gospel presentation, right?
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This Jesus, the source of life, like you gave him over to die.
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This is what you did.
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So this week we have their response to that.
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Hey, what should we do?
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Again, go back, repent and believe, right?
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And so what we did in student ministry is we spent a good amount of time specifically talking about chapter three, verse 18, where it talks about, you know, I'll even read it.
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It says, in this way, God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets.
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And this is what we spent the vast majority or a good amount of our time talking about is that his Messiah would suffer.
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So anyway, we just, you know, in terms of what we talked about just last week, we I mean not last week, but like just yesterday, a combination of Jesus and what he did being a stumbling block to some, foolishness to others, and for us being the actual power of God.
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So that's what we spent.
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That's what we talked about in pseudo ministry, I think.
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Mm-hmm.
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Okay.
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Um Yeah, so my questions are kind of tied to the latter part of your um message from yesterday, which is like the the beginning is we're talking about Christ who is the cornerstone.
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He's who we build everything our whole lives on, he is the stumbling block for the Gentiles and the Jews, because what kind of hero comes to die for a uh villain, right?
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And we are the villain.
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So uh so then we kind of transitioned into um, well, I'll just read these two verses really quickly, um, because that's what my first question is tied to.
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Um it says, this is 25 and 26 of chapter three in Acts.
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Um it says, You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
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God having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
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And so I was reading along with you as you were talking about that last night, and I was like, Man, I know I have felt this before, and I can guarantee that there are students that have kind of felt this before.
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So here's my question.
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Yeah, what if I don't feel like a blessed family of the earth?
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What if like it's like it's absolutely fact that Jesus is who he says he is, he died on the cross for our sins.
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He really did love us that much.
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But like there are times, and and then like this these verses kind of go on to say, like, you are chosen, like you are blessed if you are in Christ.
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Um, and then he you kind of reminded us of the benefits of being a citizen of heaven and uh the fact that you are saved from your wickedness.
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Um, Jesus was specifically sent to you, like da-da-da-da-da, all this stuff.
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So, what happens when we get to the point in our Christian life where we're not feeling that?
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Like we know these things to be true in our head, but our feelings are anything but like we're not we're either just like super apathetic in our relationship with the Lord and just like whatever, I feel just blah.
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Yeah.
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Or maybe there's some kind of circumstance in our life, you know, we're gonna my next question is kind of tied to the earlier part of chapter four where you kind of close the message and there the uh is it the Pharisees?
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Sadducees and the captain.
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There were a lot of those people of the temple.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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So that they start kind of picking at them and arguing with them.
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And so maybe there's like a situation in our uh students' lives that are contributing to them, just feeling like it's not giving blessed.
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My life is not giving blessed family of the earth right now.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So I don't know, I guess that's my question is what's your encouragement to a believer who might find themselves in that situation?
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They're not like these are this is true.
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We are the blessed family of the earth, we are chosen.
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Jesus Christ has been sent to us, he loves us, all that good stuff.
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But what if my emotions are not necessarily caught up with reality?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Okay, so I'll I'll approach that two ways.
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Okay.
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The first may blow you out of the water, and then the second one, I'm probably gonna tie directly into what we read.
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Which one would you like first?
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You want blow me out of the water.
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Blow you out of the water.
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Uh let's do that.
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All right.
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So you have eternity and you have time.
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Mm-hmm.
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So um you have aspects when when you read scripture, there's the already but not yet.
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And the concept is we actually are operating almost like in two realms almost.
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So, on the one hand, you are absolutely blessed with regards to eternity.
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I want you to remove time.
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There's not a yesterday or today or tomorrow, right?
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So all of a sudden, if you are in one of those, let me just call it seasons where you're not feeling it.
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This whole concept of, oh man, you know, God promised Abraham blessings.
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I don't feel that.
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First thing I'm gonna ask you to do is separate yourself from time.
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Jump into the eternity.
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That's good.
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Because the Lord wants to bless you eternally, right?
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So all of a sudden, you've now done a very good thing.
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You moved your eyes from going in and down, right?
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I mean down and in to your heart, oh, whoa, it's me, whatever it may be, to now getting your eyes instead of down and in, out and up.
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So you've you've repositioned your eyes in what you're looking at.
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So what's gonna blow you out of the water is we are actually operating in eternity timeless, right?
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Now, reality we live in time.
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So you have two, right?
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So the Lord says he wants to all also bless us in time, right?
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And so yeah, um that means you're gonna go through seasons.
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So this leads to my second item.
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If we go back to verse 19 of chapter three, and I'll read it, it says here, therefore repent and turn back, right?
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So that your sins may be wiped out.
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And so now we're gonna go into benefits of being a citizen of this kingdom, right?
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Number one, your sins are gonna be wiped out.
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Next, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
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Seasons, right?
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You're a believer, right?
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For those of you that decided to become believers and made that choice, it isn't rainbows and butterflies from this point forward.
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You're gonna go through ups and downs, you're gonna go through seasons.
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So for those that don't feel the vibe right now, two things look to eternity, you are blessed eternally.
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That's okay.
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But you know, we're practical people, let's look at that within time, right?
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We gotta start a middle and we gotta finish.
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The Lord talks about seasons.
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And so if you recognize that and you supersede what he says, that he's gonna bless you above your feelings, you gotta do that, right?
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Because I think your your conversation hinted at being led by your feelings.
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Yeah, you gotta make a decision if your feelings are more true than the Bible.
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The Bible makes it very clear you are blessed, but there are seasons.
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There are seasons because we operate in time, but you can remove the time element by moving your eyes out and up and recognize eternally, in timeless perspective, you are blessed.
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So those are the two little things that would be my answers.
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I like that to that equation.
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That'll help you out.
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That'll help you out.
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Well, I love it.
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I've I'm just like, yeah, yeah.
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That'll work.
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That'll work.
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And you could imagine if we can do all this and we're eating Reese's peanut butter cups and gummy bears.
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There we go.
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We're talking now with hold up, man.
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Catch us on the podcast next week with Reese's pumpkins, and I'm gonna find some better gummies for Mila, because I do not approve of the rock hardware.
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Those gummies are horrible.
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And let me make let me tell you what makes those gummies even worse.
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Because you go and we're ice cream people, you dump stuff in the ice cream, right?
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When you put gummies in the ice cream, they make it even harder.
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Yeah, it's horrible.
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I've never eaten them like that.
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Well, I tell you what, you do that, that is gonna change your perspective on the gummy.
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Okay.
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I usually put cereal in my in your gummies?
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No.
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In my ice cream.
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Really?
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Yeah, like you've cereal?
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Like like fruity pebbles.
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If you're doing like a fruity pebbles being good, fruity pebbles, gluten-free, just want to let you know.
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Yeah, that and I've never done gummies.
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That's funny.
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Yeah.
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What do you put in your ice cream, Nola?
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Um, see, I'm not like a fruity kind of gal, so like but I I will occasionally dabble in fruity pebbles, but if I have my choice, it's gonna be something chocolatey.
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So it probably I'm definitely gonna put, you know what my favorite topping is?
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Whipped cream.
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Yeah, I'm a whipped cream girl.
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Is that a topping?
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Oh, yeah.
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It feels like it's like a garnish, meaning it's just there for like decoration.
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Like you just slap it away.
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No, no, no, no.
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It actually goes with it.
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Oh, yeah.
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So when you go to Chick-fil-A and you order, you know, your milkshake and they have it whipped cream, I go and I think once I start tasting whipped cream, party's over.
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No.
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You you're thinking that's funny.
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You're thinking that's part of the party.
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Yes, absolutely.
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All right, hey, student ministry.
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We're diverse over here.
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We got all kinds of opinions.
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That's funny.
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All kinds of dessert preferences.
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Don't forget, next week is a hot dog a sandwich.
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No, just get it.
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Okay.
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Um, not really sure how we went off the rails.
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Just know what we're but we're gonna get back on the rails.
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But part two, you talked about chapter four.
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What was it that you had a you had a second question?
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Okay, so um, okay, so let's just kind of do a little refresher.
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Um, I think it let's see.
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We'll just st I'll just stop because verses one, two, and three are kind of what my question is tied to.
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So I'll just read that real quick.
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And it and as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
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And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
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So um, I guess my question is do you have any encouragement to those being confronted by their friends who are quote unquote greatly annoyed because they are trying to teach Christ, proclaim Christ.
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Um, this is a very relevant like question based on a question.
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I mean, excuse me, based on an interaction, a conversation that I've I have had over the weekend with a student.
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Also had the same conversation more or less with a college student.
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Um, and so I don't know.
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I it just seems like I keep having conversations with students that are like, man, people are getting frustrated with me because I'm trying, you know, I'm trying to ask my believing friends, hey, uh what are you reading for your quiet time right now?
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It's like, okay, people getting a little offended.
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Like, why are you worried about what I'm reading for my quiet time right now?
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Like, what if I'm, you know?
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And so um, yeah, I guess just encouragement for those that are standing out and are doing exactly what they have been called to do and trying to call their friends higher, but are being met with annoyance and opposition and and not how to not be like a slave to being a a people pleaser, if that is maybe their tendency.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Okay, so I'll I'll approach that in in two aspects, right?
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So if I read the context of what we went over, the context is almost like the word being confronted by non-believers.
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So I'll I'll I'll talk to that first and then we'll go into the second one, a believer, almost like being attacked or confronted, or that whole ironing, sharpening iron.
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We're like, hey man, I prefer to be just a dull hammer.
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Nah, we're making swords here.
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So you got that.
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So going into the context, right?
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So for those that are sharing the word and are constantly getting the pushback, I will refer to you to the one verse we didn't read in here, which is that verse four.
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But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of men came to about five thousand.
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And I think I said, Hey, listen, you're gonna come across a pattern that when the word is attacked, it expands.
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You're gonna start to see that pattern.
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So the encouragement for those that you know, it's the non-believers or the curious that are getting super annoyed that you continue to talk to them about Jesus and inviting them over, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It won't be void.
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I think you share that a lot, Nola.
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Um, when uh when you've given announcements or when you've given your messages or when you've spoken, I think Mila's done that as well, which is you know, we're just reminding the kids the word does not come back void.
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How do I know that?
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Because there's a pattern that they'll pick up on when the word is kind of confronted and pushed back on, you know, I'm annoyed or I don't believe in the resurrection.
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It comes back even stronger.
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Right?
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Can't wait to go over the scripture verse with how the word jumped out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.
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You talk about being attacked and being persecuted.
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That's gonna be a scene that we're gonna enjoy reading, and then we're gonna see, right?
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Every time, here's the pattern the world attacks and the word spreads, right?
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That's a pattern that we picked up.
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But specifically to your item, which is you know what?
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I'm a believer, I'm trying to become like the single best disciple maker.
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And I face someone that's comfortable just remaining a believer.
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Right?
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And I think Pastor Doug, you know, because we had uh we had the great pleasure of having Pastor Doug lead our calendar meeting here at Celebration Baptist Church, right?
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And by the way, Pastor Doug did give me that lesson, and that might be what I teach in terms of at the leader team lead leaders uh leaders retreat.
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Yeah, right?
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And we kind of and we kind of just talked about, he made a particular point.
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I may not answer your your thing fully, but I'm gonna try to pull from my mind uh my Pastor Doug notes.
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Pastor Doug says, Is it possible to be a Christian and not a disciple?
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And he said, not possible because that's not what we're asked.
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But if you live in that realm, if you're someone that wants to be a Christian and yet not grow, that leads to misery.
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Yeah.
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Right?
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So all of a sudden you're you're spoken to by friends that don't want you to be miserable in the faith.
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And you think, man, they're just getting on me.
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I mean, hell, but back up.
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You know what?
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There is joy by dying to yourself and growing in the Lord.
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Yeah.
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And so when a buddy or a friend comes and simply asks you, man, hey man, have you done any reading this week?
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Be honest.
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No, that's fine.
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Yeah.
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But definitely don't look at it as if someone's trying to get on you for a negative reason.
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Sorry, you just happen to have a friend that wants you to have your best time, your best experience in time.
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Remember, we talked about eternity and time.
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One's timeless, one is in operating in time.
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And so I find it encouraging when I'm operating and I'm seeing people operate in time, like want the best now.
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You know, I want a I want the old to go, I want the new to come.
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And, you know, I've been on both ends of the equation.
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Every now and then I ask, hey man, how's your reading?
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How's your I I don't expect an answer.
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I'm not gonna be frowned, frown upon someone that says, you know, last time I picked up the Bible was about a year ago.
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But I know where their heart is, and their heart is to care for me and to love.
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And, you know, I'm very encouraged by one particular person.
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Um, you know, I'll throw Henry out there.
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He's one of my T group.
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I won't throw the last name out there, but Henry's one of my T group guys.
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And and he's talked so many times about accountability and his just desire for it.
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Jumping in the T group, doing a couple different things.
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I paused the lesson at that point.
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You know, um, it's about four of us in the group.
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I got Johan, I got Jackson.
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All of a sudden I was like, you know, man, how many times do you talk about accountability, man?
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You need to define this for me because I'm thinking we're seeing it differently.
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And he just simply talked about um, you know, almost just like, you know, someone that's encouraging me and asking me questions tied to my walk.
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And he didn't find anything wrong with that.
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He's actively seeking that out.
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And so I was like, yo, bro, you you seem to want blessings now.
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I'm not saying that that you don't just because you don't read.
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Uh your salvation is absolutely secured.
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It has nothing to do with whether you're reading the Bible or not.
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But the quality of life you have is based on how your disciplines are going.
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So true.
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And so, you know, hey, listen, you got a bunch of people around here that just simply want you to just have a better walk.
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And you may be getting annoyed with it.
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You may be comfortable, right?
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Because this is the problem.
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You know, anytime you're confronted with pain, you prefer the comfort.
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The comfort is staying in your rut.
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Good or bad.
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No change needed.
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I'm here.
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Right?
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People will always tend toward run not toward what's best, but what's towards the least painful.
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Psychology 101.
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People prefer to avoid pain than to seek pleasure.
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That's just the way it is.
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And so when you're spoken to and you know your first kick is like I'm going to avoid pain, meaning I'm going to stay exactly where I'm at because change is change is painful.
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But even if what you're experiencing isn't good, you would rather not change.
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That's just our that's just the nonsense of being in a broken world and being broken.
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So just encourage you know iron sharpens iron.
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Whoever's coming up to you don't get annoyed.
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Sorry.
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These people just want like your best now not later.
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Right?
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So believe in their heart right and and also if you're one of those because I I've been there at times where you know there's just a massive amount of accountability and hey where are you reading and where you're this and you do I've been on the other side of that like yo man how many times are you going to ask me that?
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When you're in those moments you know what I choose to do?
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I choose to believe the best in the person speaking to me.
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They don't want to they don't want they don't want to like annoy me.
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They don't want to they they they want nothing but the best I tell my kids all the time bro you know when you need to worry?
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When I don't talk to you when I don't correct you when you're receiving no guidance.
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When there's silence from daddy bro you need to push the panic button.
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And so you know God's called me to always care for you and discipline you and help grow you.
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Right?
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Mela could be the Mela's right here to my left he'll tell you I would say to them you know what you don't want?
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Me not to say anything.
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And so all of a sudden you have these friends and if you notice all of a sudden your friends aren't asking you hey where are you at in your walk?
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Blah blah blah.
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Hold on you need to ask some questions.
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Yo don't quit don't quit on me.
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I'm going to say no to you from now until I'm 88 but don't quit on me.
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Yeah.
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Right?
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So on the one hand you get that silence that you're so begging for to leave you alone push the panic button.
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You need to ask some questions.
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But anyway that's where I'm at my thought.
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Yeah.
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There's so much to everything that you just said but it's so true.
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And I think the main thing that kind of is standing out to me is that for the person for the person that is asking the hard questions and calling your friends higher and being obedient and trying to speak the truth in love you really do have two options right and this goes back to our previous question where you talked about your gaze shift being not down and inward but out and up.
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Out and up.
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And so anyways um you have two choices right yeah you do you have two choices.
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You can either choose to be defeated when your friend says back up off me.
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I don't want to talk about that like that's not your that's none of your business or you know I'm annoyed with you because you're what do you think you're better than me?
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You know like you can either choose to be defeated by that and frustrated and whatever.
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I mean fill in the blank um or you can choose to see it in a positive light in terms of like hey I had a great conversation where you know somebody's heart was pricked in the right direction and it's really not on me.
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There's no pressure to absorb in that conversation because I was just doing what the Lord called me to do.
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And I'm going to trust that he is going to bring about whatever fruit needs to happen.
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Whether right now it's just that their heart is pricked and they're a little uncomfortable but maybe 10 years from now it's like I remember back to that conversation where somebody tried to to kind of help a sister out and I wasn't receptive to it.
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You know?
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And so uh in those two conversations that I kind of had over the weekend I saw both.
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I saw somebody who was super frustrated and like I beating themselves up being like am I even fighting the right battles?
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Is this even worth it?
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Like should I have said this?
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And then the other person was like but you know what?
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But I was faithful.
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And I can I can say that I was obedient at the end of the day and that Christ was glorified through my obedience.
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You know?
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And so um anyways I think that's really good because I think if I'm really honest more often than not I I'm so deeply like I want to be right.
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I just want to be right and I want everybody to know that I'm right and what I did.
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Okay.
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And that's not always the overwhelming feeling of being a Christ follower.
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Yeah yeah yeah number moments where it's like uh people are not super on board for what Nola Caseen has going on.
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You know?
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Yeah yeah and it's like okay but I don't have control over that I just need to do what I'm called to do.
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So let me let me let me uh live on screen yeah yeah yeah let's look at let's look at Nola Casey let's look at Nola Casey.
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So it because it it's uh it it's something that we we all need to think about.
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It's the truth.
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How do we get the truth on the other side of this bridge right sometimes the truth is a thousand pounds but the bridge is only a hundred pound bridge.
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And so in Nola's case Nola has a monster skill so this is more information for some of our younger peer-to-peer mentors or uh some of our younger walkers you know you gotta assess who you're talking to for sure you can't move away not getting the thousand pounds of truth on the other side of that bridge.
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That's gotta get done.
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Yeah but this is where relationships and understanding who you're talking to work so important.
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This is where maybe 10 trips of a hundred pounds gets the thousand pounds over.
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Yep.
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So you just need to just assess the bridge right how do you get a thousand pounds of truth over a hundred pound bridge this is where this is where tact comes in and some people got it and some people don't some people like you I'm spitting truth and I'm able to look at that person says you are absolutely speaking the truth here.
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Unfortunately this bridge can't handle that all that weight at one time.
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So this is something where you know you're blessed with and I'm I and I'm here to say you know all the kids that you know are being blessed by uh the girls ministry team you know what these guys know how to take a thousand pounds of truth on whatever size bridge you have.
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So listen if you find yourself being one of those hundred pound bridges trying to get a thousand pounds over by whomever whether it be Mila or Nola or Idana or Naomi whoever it may be um all these folks believe sometimes your bridge can take more than a hundred pounds.
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You gotta believe you gotta trust those the Lord's put in front of you.
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If you put trust in Nola in Mila and they're trying to take 150 pounds over and you say I could only handle a hundred maybe you can handle 200 just because you've your self-assessment isn't always correct.
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Yeah.
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Right?
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So all of a sudden we let the Lord work right there is a way for Mila to take a thousand pounds of truth all over in one shot by the power of the Holy Spirit and your bridge that's a 50 pound bridge still take it.
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That's all Holy Spirit work but you know so it can work multiple ways I don't mean to confuse anything but the idea being everybody in here is putting it in the hands of the Lord and the people that are caring for you, the Lord's fully aware of who they are and I will say you know with regards to the ministries whether it's girls ministry uh um where we have uh mentors and disciples happening there or on the boy side where we have a couple of boy mentors uh there is truth that's going to be given to you yeah sometimes they have a better assessment of the bridge but they also probably have a better understanding of who the Lord is and what the Lord can do.
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Yeah and so nothing's impossible with the uh without or with the Lord so anyway I don't know if I answered your question yeah yeah I think you absolutely did and um kind of on the flip side of that you can't always withhold truth based upon what you think the bridge can handle right or what you know the bridge can handle right so like in this situation I I have a feeling that Peter knew when he was having this interaction with the paralytic which is kind of what we're we were talking about last week um in the is the context of this story he probably knew that the captain and that the Sadducees could not handle the truth or were not going to handle it well right and so maybe you have somebody in your life who is just like not at all going to handle the truth well but you can't you can't waver on it like you're in a situation where you just absolutely can't opt out and be like well maybe I just won't talk about the Lord like just like low key heal this person and move on.
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Um and then on the flip side sometimes your evaluation of how much truth a person can handle you don't actually yourself have a great grasp on so like yes I absolutely agree there are times where you do have to use tact and you have to know who you're talking to because the way that I would correct uh I say correct the way that I would speak the truth to maybe Idana versus another student that I uh mentor completely different because they're two completely different personalities.
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So like I yes I do have to kind of use a sermon for those two people but then there are certain situations where it's like you can't back down from the truth regardless of how much weight that person can you know and so uh and sometimes you I remember this time where I was thinking like I'm not gonna share the gospel with the student because I know she's lost but I don't think she's ready to hear it.
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And I had a student come up to me and say you know Kelly this is at a previous church so y'all have no idea who I'm talking about.
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Um but uh a student named Adeline came up to me and said hey Kelly is really in need of the gospel and I was like I know she needs she's in need of the gospel like we're gonna pray for her for a good bit and then once she feels like a little bit more soft to me then we'll we'll pull her and share the gospel with her.
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And she was like no I think it needs to happen like now.
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And I was like okay well let's just sit on it for a week and if you're still feeling this strongly then I'll help you share the gospel with her next week.
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Sure enough she came up to me the next week it was like we need to share the gospel with Kelly.
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Shared the gospel with Kelly and Kelly was like nobody has ever talked to me about where I'm at in my relationship with the Lord and I actually have questions.
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She started asking questions about the gospel and I just thought you know what was hardheartedness was actually just confusion.
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Okay.
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And two days later Kelly accepted Christ.
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And so you know that's just an and and that's me calling myself out saying I did not have an accurate evaluation of where that student was at.
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Okay.
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Um and I had been working with students for a long time at that point.
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You know I had been a Sunday school teacher and still like didn't have a super great evaluation didn't have the faith that I probably needed to just share the gospel with this student.
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And it took another student to come in and say hey what if we just were bold and shared the truth with the student and so anyways God can do whatever he wants to his word does not return void.
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So hopefully all of these different like scenarios are kind of coming together and hit home for you wherever you're you find yourself sitting here listening to this podcast.
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That's right that's right.
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That's really all that I had did anybody else have anything they wanted to address, say well I I I did want to say you know these upcoming I think this upcoming month, we have a couple different uh speakers giving the message you know we have um Jonah Hendricks coming up we got Nola coming back on board she's got a message and then we have um Austin Delaney coming in and so you know one of the things we want to do is um you know I think it's important that the students just kind of hear from from their leaders.
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You know I mean everybody in the ministry I think very much loves the Lord and is looking to deliver you know the most accurate word to them that they can apply in small group.
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And so you know I'm I'm looking forward to it myself.
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You know in those two of those weeks I'm not in town uh but I am looking forward to when I in town and and Nola has the message so that's I'm looking forward to that.
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So that'll be good.
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It'll be a good time.
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Well I think this is probably our longest podcast to date and uh so if ever there was any doubt that we can yeah we can guys you give us 20 minutes.
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All right well we love you guys tremendously we are just super blessed to be able to work in student ministry at CBC and we can't wait until we get to see you guys again.
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Signing out we'll see you next week.
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Bye-bye Deuces thanks for joining us on the Celebration Baptist Church podcast.
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We hope today's conversation helps you take another step in your faith journey.
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For more resources, upcoming events and to join us live visit iCelebration.org.
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Until next time keep connecting with God connecting with others and living on mission