Perception
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and uh what is perception it's an honest question what
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is perception very good how you see things now brother Gary you were a
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contract built Custom Homes right and so before you ever went to the
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site you were going to build the house on before you ever dozed the first
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pad you had blueprints that came from an architect correct and the reason you had those is so that
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you would have a perception of what the owner wanted that new custom house to look like as drawn by the architect
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correct every time every time and so when you did that your job was to make
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that house look like what was on that paper
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perception he had to have a vision of what he was supposed to do to be able to
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do it we have to have the same thing and uh I've talked about Vision
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before and I've talked about different aspects but there's more to it than it involves more than just Vision it
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[Music] involves you as a person see if each and every
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one of us as a Christian have to deal with two perceptions we have to deal first with
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our per perception of ourselves in our relationship with
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Jesus and then we also have to deal with the world's perception of us as we
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relate to them how many of you have ever met somebody that uh is constantly angry
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with what's going on in the world and is constantly condemning them and and talking I don't know having
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trouble this morning I swear I'm not drunk I haven't had a drink in 40 years
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uh but you have people that are constantly angry at Christians because
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they don't live up to this perceived idea of what a Christian is have you ran
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into that person have you ever seriously talked to
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that person and asked them where they got that perception of what a true
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Christian is and if you did did you find out that
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it didn't come from the Bible and they're angry at you because
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they have this perception that was told them by somebody else that was told by somebody else but it didn't come from
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the Bible but they said it did that's the perception you have to
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worry about when it comes to dealing with the world the other perception you have is your relationship with
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God and that perception is your perception and we always have to
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realize that our perception of our relationship with God has to line up
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with Christ's perception of his relationship with
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us how many of you have ever done something something that you regretted and then kicked yourself for it
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for weeks because you felt like such a failure only to realize at the end of
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this self- butt kicking contest you were going through that Jesus had Let It
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Go the moment you asked him to but it took you all this time to accept the
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fact that he did it and so you've spent this
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time going through these stages of guilt
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remorse anger regret that wasn't yours to carry
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because it was his to carry and he already forgave you for it the second
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you said God I messed up please forgive me he forgave you for it at that point
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you were supposed to leave all of that at the altar but you picked it up and you took
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it with you and it
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became the burden you were never supposed to carry so today I want to take a look at
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some things go to the next slide Chris 1 Timothy
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4:12 this is Paul speaking to Timothy and if you haven't really read
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into and if you have your Bibles with you turn there if you don't have your Bibles with you and you got it on a
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phone go there um but I want to read this to you because this is Paul
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speaking to Timothy now Timothy was about 15 years younger than Paul and
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Timothy Timothy is um is actually the model the Bible uses for a
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pastor 1 Timothy second Timothy and the Book of Titus were letters from Paul to
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these two men who were put in place as Pastors in churches that Paul
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founded and the letters are to them on how to how to conduct the
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church how to get people to serve in the church what the correct code of conduct
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was for the Christian Pastor board and Believers that's what these two books
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three books are actually about first and second Timothy and Titus there's
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actually Paul's letter to these two men of how to set the government up in the local church but also included in that
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is something specifically that he told Timothy to emulate that means to do as he had been
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taught to do and what he says is let no man despise thy
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youth but be the our Jes or kicking my
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but but be thou an example of the Believers that means I'm supposed to be
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an example to you in my life and my
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actions in word in not he's not speaking about this he's talking about keeping my
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word word in conversation in other words
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don't engage into what's the word that they use for
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that when you tell a joke that it's not quite dirty but it's over on the side you're not supposed to engage into
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conversation like that be an example of Charity that's
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Christian love be an example of walking in the
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spirit walking in faith and in keeping yourself
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pure sounds like a pretty big uh load to carry for a pastor right do
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you know why because I'm responsible to God for
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your soul and if I'm not setting the
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example not talking the example literally setting the example
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you're never going to see it now does that mean that everything's wrong and nothing's right absolutely not and
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that's this person who has a misconceived perception of what a Christian actually is you know if they
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see you down at the bowling alley throwing balls down the lane you committed a sin or you went to the
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theater oh man you went to the movies or you wear
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makeup or you a guy with a beard or you wear short sleeve shirts
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or you wear jewelry none of that
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stuff has anything to do with what Paul told Timothy to do in fact both Paul and
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Peter said to do all things of moderation it's okay to go to the movies
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as long as you know that what you're watching isn't blaspheming
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God it's okay to laugh and J and have a good time as long as what you're doing
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is not bringing sin against God you have to learn how to walk it
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when you were a baby you couldn't walk you couldn't feed yourself you had to
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wear diapers somebody had to change you but as you continued to grow because you
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were being fed you no longer had to wear diapers you could walk on your own you
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could talk some of us has never stopped talking since we started and I'm guilty of that
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myself um and you began to mature became an adult and if you had the proper
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Foundation put in place by your parent or parents if you were fortunate enough to have two parents living in your house
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and not just one um you learned how to be a
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responsible reasonable adult that knew how to take care of
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yourself that was inspired to go take care of yourself in your case like
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brother Carrie you you started business you became and you owned your own business you built Custom
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Homes you went to school you went to school you're going to school you did
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something about your situation and hopefully the situation you have now is
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better than the one you had when you grew up in because you determined to do something about it
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same thing happens in our spiritual life I can't make you
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become anything more than you are if I don't walk it out in front of you if I
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don't do and live the example and that's probably why um I have to respect most
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of the men at my father's house is they've seen me on my best days and my worst days and I'm not any different I
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still say the same thing I still tell them the same thing I'm just mature enough that when I know I'm having a bad
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day I go get by myself and close and lock my door and I start praying until I change
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it before I do something stupid that doesn't mean that I'm immune
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to stupid I've made my mistakes still do I've had to go back and apologize
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because somebody said something to me at the wrong moment and my brain my mind was not on Jesus where it belonged and I
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responded Out of My Flesh have you ever done that how many people got
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scars thanks to you how hard was it to go back and try to make up for
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that are they still offended have
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you done what Jesus said to do if your brother has ought against you go to your
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brother be reconciled to your brother bring your gift back before the altar or is there still
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some bad feelings out there now don't take what I said wrong there are some
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people no matter how much you apologize you can never fix the bad feelings okay you always have that one person that I
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have a brother how many of you remember my brother
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okay yeah my brother Eddie yeah he lived in Vancouver Washington I haven't seen
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him since 19 uh uh ien seen him since
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2011 yeah to the best of my knowledge he's still butt hurt over something that happened in
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2013 that he's never let go of me no matter how many times I've apologized for it he's still hanging on to it and
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we're talking 21 22 years later it will affect you spiritually he
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has no relationship with God these days because he's still hanging on to hurt
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and bitterness over something that was so small and
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insignificant but he allowed it to grow and fester until it created
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division now it's almost
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insurmountable that's not the way to live your life you're certainly not going to have victory in that ever so
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what do I do I've extended the olive branch I prayed I did did everything Jesus said to do and move
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forward you have to do the same thing but if you have an
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opportunity to fix that you're required by God's word to fix
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it we're also required under what he said and this applies to
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everybody is to live at peace with all men and especially those of the household of
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faith how many of you know somebody out there who used to go to this church that is still mad we'll come back to this church
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because they're still mad that's something that happened 30 some odd years
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ago I know a couple of people that way that used to attend this church that live in Biselia now they're all happy
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and smiles and everything when you see them you invite them to church and it's like they're still hurting over
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something that happened long long time ago that they should have
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easily let go of but they didn't that's called Baron at Grudge and you have to
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let those things go still part of perception go to the next slide
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Chris so I want to read to you out of Thessalonians that's why I told you you guys need your
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Bibles chapter 5 starting in verse
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11 this is what this is to you you remember remember the
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first verse that I shared with you that first section of verse out of Timothy is to the pastor that's what the
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pastor has to do that's what he's supposed to emulate now we're going to take a look at what the congregation is
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supposed to do as well so he says starting in verse 11 he says wherefore
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Comfort yourselves together and
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edify one another even also as you do in other words I am
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supposed to build you up in the same exact way I build myself up I have to
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pray for you I have to love for you I have to hold you up I have to take you forward through whatever it is you're
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going through and you have to do that for me too it's required for all of us
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he says and we beseech you Brethren to know them which labor among you
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and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and an admonishment is an encouraging word it's to lift you up
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that's what admonish means and to esteem them very highly in
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love for their Works sake do you have somebody here that's teaching your kids Sunday school pray for them do you have
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somebody here that's teaching you in Sunday school pray for them you have somebody that's teaching your kids and
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roal Rangers or Mission Nets you need to be praying for them you need to be building them up lifting them
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up because you're agreeing to let them influence your
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kidss life or influence your life and they need to know what God has to
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say I was let's see I went to Mo Bay on I went
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over there on Monday and uh Tuesday night man I'm sleeping like
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the dead I'm over there enjoying the weather it's 61° sleeping like the dead and I wake up
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at 11:30 at night and for the next 4 hours I'm
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praying I was asleep holy spirit woke me up I felt
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like this overwhelming burden of something was happening and I began to
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intercede and I interceded in prayer until it lifted I was up till for 4 4 hours
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praying if you're trying to serve God if you're looking for God to be active in your
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life you're going to experience the same thing and what you're supposed to do in
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those situations is to begin to
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intercede not begin wondering what's going on what's here what's there you yield yourself to the spirit begin to
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intercede until that lifts and it's important
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because the person sitting next to you or near
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you may need your help but doesn't know how to ask but they know how to ask
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God and then God wakes you up to intercede for them on their
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behalf and that's should be a normal thing it shouldn't be an occasional
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thing amen it should be normal when you're going through things
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and you're reaching out to God God should be waking somebody up to pray you may not know who you're praying
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for you may not know why you're praying you may not know what they're going through God may not even give you a
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glimpse he just wakes you up to pray and you have have to be
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obedient because if I don't pray I'm not doing what he said to do
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right there I'm not lifting you up I'm not edifying you I'm not exhorting you
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I'm not admonishing for you I'm being selfish and rolling over and going back
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to sleep and we're all guilty of having done that
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too because we have to teach ourselves how to be obedient to to the leading of the Holy Spirit
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he will wake you up he will stop you in the middle of your day I didn't tell you how many times I'm
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sitting in there working and something will just I will just suddenly I know the presence of the
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holy spirit is there and I stop push my laptop
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back start focusing myself in on whatever it is the holy spirit is trying to reach me about because I know it's
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important important he doesn't stop by just because I mean he does but it
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starts with his brother Tim was talking about this morning when you start your day off with Christ when you start your
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day off with prayer when you start your day off building your relationship through the holy spirit it's real easy
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for him to get your attention during the day when you're
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busy because you already set the tone for the day entering into relationship with
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him and when he need you to pray he can tap you hey Michelle are you
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busy right now I'm right in the middle of surgery can you pray can you pray and
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work in surgery at the same time yes brother Tim can you grind
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lenses and pray at the same time oh he doesn't have his ear in can you
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pray and grind lenses at the same time okay sister bunny can you take care of
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them cats you got and pray at the same time okay Lon can you run that office
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and pray at the same time yes sir it's not that difficult that's what he means by
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meditate upon the word day and night you can do more than one thing at one time
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our brains God designed that way I can push things to the back of my
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mind I can bring them up to the front of my mind I can pray and concentrate on other things but the first thing for me
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to do that is God has to get my attention so I'll feel the presence of the holy spirit so that I can push
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things back get my mind settled on Christ begin to pray and then go
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forward we all need need each
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other and we are incapable and know it sounds terrible
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but it's a fact we are incapable of making this walk
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alone you can't make it without me I can't make it without you and neither one of us can make it without him we are
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incapable of making this walk on our own that's why the writer of Hebrews was so
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adamant about forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together after the manner of some is and so much more
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so as you see the day approaching well what day is he talking about the times we're living in right
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now it's that
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important he says now we exal you I'm verse 14 says now we exal you Brethren
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warn them that are unruly Comfort the feeble-minded support the
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weak be patient toward all men see that none render evil for evil
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unto any man but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all
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men and then he's going to give you some pointers on how to do this eight
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verses Rejoice ever more what happens when you begin to
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Rejoice your attitude changes pray without ceasing we've
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already discussed it's possible to do that you can pray and do the other things at the same time and pray without
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ceasing in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
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concerning you quench not the spirit despise not
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prophesying prove all things hold fast that which is good
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abstain from all appearance of evil and the Very God of Peace sanctify
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you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
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blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful Is He that calleth you
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who also will do it now that's pretty plain he's telling you how to do it this
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is how you walk that successful Christian Life this is how you keep
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everything lined up it's not difficult but you have to make yourself
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do it you have to train yourself to do it and it starts with the first thing
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you do when you wake up go to the next slide
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Chris got a couple more left Romans 14 so now we've talked about what God says
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to a pastor we talked about how we are supposed to lift up our other
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brothers and uh starting verse 12 our accountability Factor how many of
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you ever heard that word applied to you you got to be accountable god holds you
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accountable you're accountable for every every word you say you're accountable for everything you do how many of you
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have heard that before and I know you've heard it from brother chenworth because he used to say it all
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the time to me um and he used to preach it all the time about being accountable and being
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accountable means taking responsibility for your actions that's what being accountable is if I give you a set of
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guidelines to live by and you break
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them and I enforce them I'm holding you accountable for
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your action that's what that is so God gave us his
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guidelines for us to live by to hold ourselves and each other accountable for
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the things we do so verse 12 of chapter 14 it says so then every
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one of us shall give account of himself to God let us not therefore judge one
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another anymore but judge this rather that no
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man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's
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way I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of
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itself but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him that is
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unclean in other words if I know that there is something that hinders your
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walk I should not do it in front of you or encourage you to try to break out of
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that if it's hindering your walk now I'm not talking about things like having bad
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habits in your B in your life that could could cause you physical harm or or
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healthwise I'm talking about things that in your mind you really can't do and
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that your relationship with Christ is whole and fulfilled I shouldn't encourage you not
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to keep that I shouldn't try to get you to do something
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different because you were not going to be successful at and that's is what it
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is he says but if thy brother be grieved by with thy meat now you have a responsibility to keep that that's what
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he's talking about here now walk us down not charity
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charitably destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died and then he says this let not your good be evil spoken
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of that's a big one we can do a lot of things and we can
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try to do a lot of good but if we do it in a way where other people begin to look at what we're doing and finds fault
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with it they begin to speak evil of the things we're doing and he says not to do that that's
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why Jesus said let your yay be yay and your Nay be nay don't swear by anything don't do that keep your
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word live a life that's respectable and acceptable unto God be the same in
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private as you are in public that's being transparent live a life of
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character and integrity based on this based on what God's word
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says that you've dug in there for yourself and found out what it said you've taken these things because um I
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give you when when I first met when I first met
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giling and and especially her dad they were going to church over
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in um wood pill Jesus
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assembly W this church and if you've never been to a West Church you really don't want to go
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to a w this church because they have a strange interpretation of the godhead they believe Jesus is the father Jesus
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is the son Jesus the Holy Spirit and that God that he spoke to himself from heaven and that he spoke to himself from
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the it's weird okay that's where they went to church and that's what her dad believed
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it okay and I mean he believed it um and was not open to having a
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discussion that he might be wrong in fact he had a stack of papers about that thi to prove how right he
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was that's not something you need to do in fact that's the type of person that
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that uh Jesus said in The Sermon on the Mount agree with your eny quickly and
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depart there's no profit in that conversation okay but that kind of life
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and those kind of beliefs bring bondage and they will hold you prisoner
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they will hold you
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captive until you get set free how many you ever heard he whom the son sets free is free
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indeed okay so the whole thing controversy going on about that whole
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thing is actually centered around a verse in Acts chapter 2: 38 repent be
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baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved you ever read that okay you ever had somebody tell you
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that if you get baptized any other way than being baptized in the name of Jesus you're not saved
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they believe that okay how many of you have heard
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someone say unless you get baptized according to Matthew 28:19 you haven't been baptized
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correctly in other words in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit the two verses do not contradict
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each other being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ if you understand who Peter
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was speaking to he was telling them that they need to be baptized into the one they
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rejected that's what he was saying he never changed what Jesus
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said was the Great Commission it means to baptize them to
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the empowerment of what I
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did you're ra you're buried when you get baptized in water
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you buried into death his death and raised unto what raised unto life and that life is
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in who Jesus that's the
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point but we stupid human [Music] beings like
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to how did Brother CH withth used to say that we like to SW uh strain the net and
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swallow the camel have you never heard brother Tima
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say that okay what it means is we'll get in a fight over the smallest little tiniest detail but we'll swallow the
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biggest lie there is that's what it
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means rather than promoting brotherly love and charity and agreeing that you know we
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can agree to disagree and still Fellowship ship in the same [Music]
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place as long as the core beliefs that you and I have are are the
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same and I remember brother CH used to teach you about wearing bright red
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lipstick and he used to use an ungrateful ungracious term when you did
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uh and he wasn't trying to beat you up it was just his personality
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you know I don't think it's all that cool myself personally so I'm not going
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to say I'm tell you put the red lipstick on it's fine but it's about perception all of
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this is about perception and why would it be so important to take a look at what at that
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perception I don't care if you come to dress where come to church wearing a dress wearing pants wearing flipflops
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wearing your your finest clothes you have in your closet all I ask you is to
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be modest that's
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it nothing else be
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modest now when I'm at home I I wear shorts but I ain't wearing them in
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church but then again I'm a guy uh I'm an older guy you notice I
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didn't say I'm an old guy I'm an old guy okay I still don't I still don't
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see when my mind's looking that way I still don't see the guy staring back at me in the mirror I still feel like most
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of the time like I did when I was 25 so I have a Mis conceived perception of myself I
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guess I think I'm younger than I am but I live my life that way
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too don't let the old man in that's right I don't let the old man in I keep kicking him out to the curb um
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perception will give you everything you need or it'll hold you back from
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everything you need perception go to the last slide Chris
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how many of you know that word that phrase carped sees the day that is the mission
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of every single Christian is to seize the day
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carpedm if you get up first thing in the morning and you set everything straight between you and Christ you have seized
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the day you have brought every thought under
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captivity to the mind of Christ you have lined your life up to the will of God
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you have seized the day you have taken the power over the day from the enemy and
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placed it firmly and squarely into your hands you have seized the day you are
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supposed to do that every [Music] day he didn't tell you to lay down and
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be a welcome mat for the devil he told you to put on the whole armor of God to
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withstand the attacks of the enemy and to go out and conquer the land
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Carpe DM you should put that on your up on the wall somewhere on your favorite
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place in the in in the house if that's your refrigerator put that sucker on the refrigerator
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carpedm seize the [Music] day I can't seize the day for you I can
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encourage you though I can admonish you I can remind you I can hold you up in
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prayer but until you you seize the day you have no
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Victory and you keep getting beaten up seiz the
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day all right sister Lon we're about to close if you want if you got anything you we're good we're good we're
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good okay you already heard that sister Lon need you guys to help with clean up
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I didn't dismiss you yet just hold on man you can't be that hungry I didn't
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preach but 45 minutes let me give me and pray and there's plenty of spaghetti out
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there and there's plenty of pasta and there's salad and there's desserts and there's all the things you need to just
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make yourself feel good today but before we go out there I want you to pray this
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prayer with me it's a very simple prayer it's not very long and this is the
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prayer Lord Jesus Jesus God help me to seize the
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day help me to do what you called me to do to the best of my abilities and not
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to kick myself over my failures to go forward doing what you've asked me to do
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as long as you asked me to do it and Empower me through your precious Spirit
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to be able to do it in Jesus name we pray amen pretty simple
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prayer all right sister
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Lupe if you're ready go ahead and go out the door
#Religion & Belief
#Social Issues & Advocacy
#Self-Help & Motivational

