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Hey, Go Church family. I'm so glad to be back. My name is Gilbert and I'm here with Pastor

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Matt Haribo.

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Hey everyone.

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And I'm also here with Lara.

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Hi everyone.

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Welcome back.

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Isn't Lara a blessing?

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Yes.

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I'm glad to have Lara here.

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I am very thankful. And I'm very thankful for this series. I'm really enjoying this

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study. If you can't tell. The Trails of Faith was such a great week and this one is going

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to be even better.

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Absolutely. I'm really excited about this and I'm actually really excited about those

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who do this work.

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Yeah.

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And not just hear it because they'll get results.

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That's right.

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And I'm going to get results and I'm going to see more. You know, I'm going to remember

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this word and I'm going to keep reflecting on this word, meditate on this word so that

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when things come up, I'm going to assess am I on the trail of fear or am I on a trail

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of faith? Let's get back on that trail of faith so that we can start seeing success

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after success.

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And I know this sounds maybe different to what we may have heard about the Bible, but

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it all starts in the mind. Right? This is literally what our main scripture says. So

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let me read our main scriptures. Romans chapter 8 verses 5 and 6. For those who live according

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to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according

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to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be

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spiritually minded is life and peace.

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You notice that there is, you know, verse 6, it refers to two paths that we can take.

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And it says to be carnally minded or to be spiritually minded. So the first step on that

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path is the mind. The first step on that path is literally what you do with your mind and

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where your mind is going. And the end of that path is either death or the end of that path

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is either life and peace and everything else in the middle. It's either the substance of

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death or the substance of life and peace. So what do you want to experience in your

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life? It starts with your mind and it finishes with life or death. It's that crucial. It's

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that important when it comes to the success of your walk with the Lord. And the, I will,

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let me read again the purpose. I think that's really important because everything we do

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is with purpose. So every subject that we cover, every series that we think of, it's

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not just to fill time. You know, we're not doing these podcasts to fill time. We're doing

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this because we want to see results in your lives. This is why we're here. The measure

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of success of leaders is how well everyone's doing in the church. It's not how well the

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message goes or how many likes you get on social media. It's how well the church is

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doing, how well the spiritual family is moving in the direction that the Lord has them move.

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So thinking about purpose is important because it gets our minds on the results of what we're

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trying to achieve here. So let me read the purpose. The Bible teaches that we are a three

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part being, spirit, soul, and body, and that these parts are all designed to work together.

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We want everyone in the Go Church family to learn to allow our spirit to direct our thoughts

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and to govern our lives and actions according to the law of love. So basically what is this

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saying? We're saying that we are a three part being and all of the parts need to work together,

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right? Because our faith or what we believe may start in our hearts, but it moves into

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our minds and then based on the thoughts that we have, we take actions in our lives and

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we move in that direction. And the goal is to move in the right direction, right? So

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the first two weeks we talked about the trail of fear, which is governed by the fleshly

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or carnal mind. And in week two, we talked about the trail of faith, which is the equal

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and opposite version of that, which is governed by the spiritual mind. Now this week we're

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going to talk about some practical approaches to what do you do if I'm on this path and

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I need to fast track back onto this path. And we call this week the love solution. We'll

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talk about why we call the love solution. But I will say a couple of things. Number

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one is let's say I'm in a state of fear. I realized that I'm on this trail of fear. I've

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taken decisions up to this point in my life, not based on what God said, not based on what

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I know is truth, but based on what seems right to me because of urgency in my life, because

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of pressure in my life, because of needs in my life. So now I'm on this path and I've

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realized this is wrong and now I need to get back on track. What do I do? Well, the first

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thing I will say is that fear always focuses and fixates on the outcome. So if I'm in fear,

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if I'm on this path of fear, I'm realizing that I'm so focused on something happening,

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I'm so focused on the result happening, I'm so focused on what I'm seeing, what I'm not

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seeing, but the opposite happens with faith. Faith is when I fixate or focus on the one

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who's producing the outcome. So fear fixates on the outcome, but faith fixates on God who

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gives me the right outcome. And basically what I'm saying here is that I need to refocus

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my soul. I need to refocus my attention. And fear is resolved by a change of perspective,

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not a change of outcome. What do I mean by that? In week one, we talked about the storm

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and Jesus and the disciples in the boat crossing the sea of Galilee to get to the other side.

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Halfway through they encounter a big storm. All the disciples are gripped with fear. I

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understand. I'm not saying I agree, but I get what happened there and I get also why

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that's in the Bible, right? That's for us to discuss right now. And while Jesus was

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fixated on what God said, God said to get to the other side, they were fixating on we're

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all going to die because I see a storm right now. They were fixating on the negative outcome

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of the situation. Jesus never fixated on whether there was or there wasn't a storm. He was

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fixated on what God said. And he was fixated on the fact that God's getting us to the other

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side. But here's what's really interesting is that even after the storm was done. So

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if, let me actually go back in here so I don't paraphrase too badly, but even after the storm

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was done, it says he arose, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.

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And immediately in that moment, basically the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

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And then he turns and he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have

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no faith? So the seas now calm, the storms over a miracle happened. They saw the great

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power of the word of God in action and verse 41, and they feared exceedingly and said to

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one another. So they're still in fear even though the element went away. So what they're

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doing is fixating on the outcome, fixating on what could happen, fixating on this. And

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the fact is that the reason that they say they're afraid is actually not there anymore.

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That's, this is so crucial because I would encourage you just to rewind this and listen

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again to what Gilbert just said. It is critical to understand and the element that had seemingly

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caused the fear, at least that's what we think. We think, well, it's a huge storm. That's

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why they're all afraid. But now the storm's gone and they're still afraid. So there's

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something else, right? And that's this point that you made there is fear is resolved by

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a change of perspective, not a change of outcome. And as I was thinking about this, getting

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ready for this to record today, I was thinking, you know, how many times I've seen people

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praying in fear. They'll have a situation that they want to see change and they'll,

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at least they think they're praying in faith, but they're really in fear. And it's something

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like this, they'll squeeze their eyes shut real tight and they get their, oh Lord. And

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they're serious. They're very sincere. They want a change in outcome. This outcome has

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to change. This outcome has to change. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow and the doctor

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needs to tell me everything's okay. I need a good report from the doctor. Why? What about

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the good report that's in Isaiah 53? What about the good report that's in Matthew chapter

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eight verse 17? What about the good report that's in first Peter two 24? What is it about

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this doctor's report tomorrow that needs to, needs to, to change so that you believe what

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the Bible says? This fixating on an outcome change is fear. Fixating, focusing our mind

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on the one who produces the outcome. That is how we get on the right trail. That's really,

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really good. That's right. So if you look at a Hebrews chapter 12 verse one and two,

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it's a, let me read it. Looking. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great

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a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares

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us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking onto Jesus,

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the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured

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the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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So if you look at Jesus as an example here, he looked past the circumstance. He looked

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past the cross. He looked past all the pain. He looked past even the separation between

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him and his father, which, which is in of itself the most terrifying thing that we could

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ever experience in our lives. And I don't think we understand it to the measure that

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he experienced it. The thought of that much trust in God that every single person who's

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gone to hell has never come out and he's going to get me out of this because I'm seen as

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righteous. He has that much power to raise me up. He had that level of confidence, not

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in this situation, but he had that level of confidence in his father. So he looked at

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his father. He looked at the outcome or I don't want to say the outcome because this

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confusing language, but he looked at the perspective of at the end of this, there is going to be

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a harvest of believers. There's going to be all of these Christians who are saved. There's

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going to be all of these people who come to the knowledge of God and who come back into

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relationship with God. And this he accomplished not by looking at the cross and looking at

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the difficulty and looking at, Oh, if I could just get through the cross, Oh, if I could

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just get through the scourging, Oh, if I could just get through this, he, he had a joy that

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was set before him. And so he endured the circumstances because he had a joy set before

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him and he was fixated and focused on that. That is the trail of faith. The trail of faith

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is not fixating on the fear, fixating on the outcome. So the disciples on the boat, you

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know, we talked about this, do you not care that we're, we're perishing? Like it's, it's

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a matter of fact that they're perishing. That's it. Like they categorize this, this situation

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as a dire situation and they had fear and then things change and then they're still

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in fear. You realize that there's something wrong. Like this is beyond, this is beyond

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the circumstances. This is in their minds. And now to get out of this is stop looking

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at, you know, stop looking around you. Look at Jesus, look at the author and finisher

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of your faith. Look at the one who gave you the reason to be faithful in him or the reason

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to have faith in him because he is faithful. The reason to have confidence in him because

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he's faithful. So there, there is that element where we need to have a refocus of our soul

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because when we say soul, we mean, we mean our mind, but also our will and our emotions.

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So we need to refocus our mind and our emotions and our will to look at the author and finisher

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of your faith, to look at the person who is going to get you through this no matter what.

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I'm reminded of this story. This pastor shared this and they had built a building, really

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nice auditorium, but the auditorium had had no natural light source and he had left his

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keys on like the seat near the front of the auditorium. So he had been talking to someone,

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everyone was gone, all the lights were off and they thought, oh, I gotta get my keys.

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So he goes back in the auditorium and it's completely dark. Now he's the pastor of the

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church and he also like built the church. I mean, they, you know, he didn't build it

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himself, but I mean, he's like, he designed it or was part involved in the design of the

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building. He knows what's in there. He also knows there's no one in there, but he, he

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said as soon as he walked in, suddenly fear just wrapped around him. Like it was completely

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dark ink black and he got on this old trail, this old familiar trail of fear because as

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a child he had loved watching scary movies and he'd, he'd watched these scary movies

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and then they lived in this old house and the door to his bedroom had this kind of like

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creaking sound when, when it shut. And just as he closed, as just as the, the auditorium

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door closed, it kind of made that same sound. Heard that sound. It triggered this emotional

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response. Suddenly it's pitch black and he's nine, 10 years old back in his bedroom, afraid

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of all these movies that he hasn't seen in years and years and years. Fear just gripped

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him. You know why? He has suddenly slipped back in this old trail. Now he's standing

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in a room, a big room by himself and just, there's no lights, but fear is all around

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him. And his like first reaction, he said his first reaction was to turn around, grab

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the door and open it, get, get out of there. But he stopped and he thought, no, no, I,

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I'm not going to, I'm not going to give this any place. So he just carefully walks, because

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he knows right where this aisle is, walks, can't see anything, walks down till he, about

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where he thinks is the first, first row of chairs. He finds his keys and gets back, picks

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his keys up all in the dark and all that fear still feels like it's right there. But he

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is refusing to act like he's 10 years old, to refuse to act like he's still on that trail.

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He's going to act like this room is perfectly fine. Nothing's going to jump out from the

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shadows and get me. And he walks to the, he walks up another aisle, walks up to the back

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where he knows all the lights are. And he turned the lights on. Turn the lights on.

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Sure enough, everything is perfectly normal, just the way he'd left it. Nothing. Everything's

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fine. And he's looking, he's like, no fear. Shut the lights off and walks out. Fear is

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resolved by changing your perspective. Being confident both in who you are and who the

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Lord is and what he thinks about you.

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Yeah. Praise God. So I want to, I want to go a little further in this refocus our soul

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element and why we call it the love solution. You know, I'm going to read a passage of scripture,

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which I love. We can say love about scripture, right?

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So 1st John chapter four, verse 16 through to 18, I'm going to read this. And we have

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known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love,

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abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have

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boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. Praise God.

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There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment,

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but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. There's a lot in this passage. And

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you know, I think this passage alone, you can go in three different directions, but

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I want to focus on the love solution. So talking about how the love of God helps us refocus,

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get off this trail of fear and come back to a trail of faith. And I just want to pick

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out two points and I just want to focus on these two points. Number one, God is love.

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So it also says in verse 16 that he who abides in love, abides in God and God in him. So

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love is who God is, but if we are in the place of love or in the hands of love, then we know

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that we are with God and God is with us. And so this, this revelation is so powerful that

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the person who is love is also the most powerful person anywhere ever. Right. And he is for

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you and with his love, he surrounds you and he protects you and he keeps you safe. I really

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like that. There's a passage in Zephaniah, there's a verse in Zephaniah in chapter three

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and verse 17 and I, I love it. And I think it just brings out the point in the NLT translation,

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which I'm going to read for the Lord, your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.

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He will take delight with you, delight in you with gladness with his love. He will calm

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all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. So with his love, he calms all

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your fears because when you see the love of God and you see that God is love and God is

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in me and love is in me, there's no room. There's simply no room for fear because I

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know that he is greater than the thing I'm afraid of to begin with. Point number two

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is that perfect love casts out fear. So God is love. So if perfect love casts out fear,

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then perfect God, God perfected in me casts out fear. So what does perfected mean? It

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means to be complete, to be, it's, it's seen in different passages of scripture where this

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completion is to be transformed and changed into perfection or like a desired outcome.

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And I can see it this way that God perfected in my spirit, in my mind, in my body casts

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out all fear. So you see that in second Timothy chapter one, verse seven, that Paul tells

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Timothy that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound

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mind. The word sound mind, I really like it when I realized what it was in Greek is sozo

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from a hope. So saved mind, a redeemed mind, you know, a restored mind saved means so many

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things, but it's a saved, redeemed, restored mind. So we have a restored new mind, which

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is perfected by God. So if I have God's mind, how would God think about this situation?

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This is literally what he put in me. So the perfect love that he has is him perfecting

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my mind to the point where I like the way Mark Hankin says this. He says that I want

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to, you know, the Holy spirit is going to make you lose your mind so that you can get

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the mind of Christ. So I lose my own mind, my way of thinking, my fear thoughts, my fear

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patterns, and I allow the God mind, which is perfected in me to cast out all fear. And

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so there's so much there that we can look at and understand that, you know, when God

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gets access to my mind, when God's word gets access to my mind, it pushes out all fear,

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it pushes out all room. You know, when Paul was telling Timothy this, Timothy was afraid

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because there was a great persecution happening and Christians were being burnt alive. They

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were being fed to wild animals. There was unfair, unjust, cruel persecution, you know,

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and he was literally one of the most visible Christians at that point in time. He was literally

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the pastor of the biggest church in the Mediterranean. And what was Ephesus? Was it the second or

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third biggest city at some point? Yeah, it was, right? It was a big city and the Roman

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Empire. And so he would have been prime target number one for persecution. So he would have

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been very tempted to leave his post and just run away and hide and abandon all the Christians

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who needed him. He was pastoring them. He was shepherding thousands of people. And what

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Paul tells him is God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a saved

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mind. So now with your saved mind, with your God renewed mind, look at what you need to

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do, you know? And this is the love solution. Yeah, it really is. That's so good. You know,

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and notice there, Paul didn't say, I'm going to pray that the Lord will give you something

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you don't have. That's good. He said, listen, Timothy, you already have this. Yeah. And

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you need to start thinking like this. You need to get off the trail of fear. Stop imagining

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yourself at the bottom of the amphitheater running from lions or stop imagining that

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the older people in Ephesus are going to say to you young Timothy, we're not going to listen

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to you. You're just a young guy. We don't have to listen to you. No. He said, you start

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acting like the word is true. Think like, think with your redeemed mind about what God

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has already put on the inside of you. So powerful. Yeah. And so in doing this, I want to move

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to the practical application and how we can think about what we need to do. And let's

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go back to what we read last week, which is what the Lord commanded Joshua. And actually,

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rather than reading that scripture, I'm going to read Psalm chapter one verses two and three.

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So it says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates

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day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth its

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fruit and its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.

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So if we want success, I mean, prosperity in this context means success, whatever that

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may look like. I mean, it can be, it's not, you know, limited to financial prosperity.

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This is success in every area of your life that God ordained for your life, whether it

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is ministry or work or family or, or any kind of relationship, whether it's about, you know,

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being in the right place at the right time, any kind of success, it starts in meditating

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in the word of God. So we said this towards the beginning, but what you look at will influence

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what you think. And in this world, unfortunately, we are all, we have, we have so much access

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to stuff that tells us how to think. Social media tells us how to think. Our schools tell

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us how to think. Our parents tell us how to think. Our friends tell us how to think, you

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know, any kind of peer pressure tells us how to think. And the fact is God also tells you

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how to think. Now, what are you going to allow your mind to marinate? Because there is a

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balance you need to marinate in something that will influence you more than the other

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thing next to you.

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Let's make that practical. If you, if you sit with your, you know, in a, in a day, let's

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say you're awake for 16, 18 hours and in 16 or 18 hours of being awake, four of those

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hours throughout the day are spent looking at things on social media, videos on social

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media, making fun of politicians, talking about how bad the situation is, talking about

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how, you know, the, this politician isn't doing this or this policy is not going to

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change or this government official has stolen this much money. Do you know the result of

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that will be this? That's, that's what you're taking in. So then that's what will come out.

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That's what you'll think about when you lay down that that thought will come back, that

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image will come back, that video will come back, especially if it's funny. Humor is such

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a powerful tool and you think, oh, well, you know, it's just a funny joke, just making

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a joke about, you know, this politician or that politician. Fun people, you know, it's,

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I should say it's funny. And so people laugh. But what we're really doing is we're, we're

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adopting a line of thinking and that line of thinking may or may not be in agreement

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with what God's word or let's say it another way, it may or probably not will perfect the

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love of God in us that casts out fear. And one of the greatest ways to become successful

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in the things of God and to see your faith made sight is to cut out things that introduce

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fear into your life, cut out things that introduce doubt into your life. Just cut it off. Yeah.

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It's it is not helping you. I remember I was I used to really like political satire. I

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just thought it was funny. It was, you know, kind of my sense of humor, at least I thought

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it was at the time. And I was laughing about something once. And just on the inside, I

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don't mean I heard an audible voice, but I know the Lord spoke to me and he said, I don't

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think that's funny at all. If you want to talk about like the feeling of being covered

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in cold water, sometimes like, well, and I thought, well, I kind of do think this is

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funny. He doesn't think this is funny. I need to change. I need to change my perspective.

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The right conclusion. And so I just deleted that. I won't, you know, I won't let myself

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watch, listen to or laugh at things like that now because he doesn't like it. And, you know,

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I'm not so you're renewing your mind. I'm renewing my mind. I'm changing what I what

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I let come in and I'm directing what I let my mind think about.

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So I want to, I want to give three practice points and three points that we can consistently

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monitor. So if we want to talk about renewing our mind and meditating the word of God, this

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is what we can do. So maybe you're like, what is, what is meditating the word? Like, what

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are you talking about? Let's, let's, let's say it this way. We are finding a way to apply

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our minds, you know, sorry, activate our minds with the word of God as often as possible.

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Let's talk about doing three things. Number one, we should actively review and diagnose

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wrong thoughts. Okay. So second Corinthians chapter 10 verses four and five say that the

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weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty and God for pulling down strongholds,

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casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of

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God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So like Pastor

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Matt said, if there's something that seems harmless and seems funny, and then just directly

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contradicts what God's trying to do, that's a thought that lifts itself up against the

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knowledge of Christ. And that is something we need to cast down. I like that it's the

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word cast. It's not a gentle thing. It's literally like tear it down, you know, tear down these

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thoughts.

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Isaiah 29 17 says, it will not be very long until Lebanon shall be considered a fruitful

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field. So if you're going to say, yes, I believe that that's what the Bible says about this

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nation, then I can't, I can't spend six or eight hours laughing at jokes about how politicians

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are stealing everyone's money and they're taking the country for a ride and it's never

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going to get anywhere. That's the one of the one thing is true or the other. And one is

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the scene realm, which is temporary and subject to change. One is unseen. And I'm going to

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choose to focus on what is not yet seen.

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That's right. I mean, this is the reason why I chose to register myself as a taxpayer in

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Lebanon. I am a tax resident in Lebanon. I don't even make my money in Lebanon. My job

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is abroad, but I choose to do that because I put my money where my mouth is and I believe

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that this nation is changing. God called me to be here for his purpose, for that promise.

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And I will do what I believe Lebanon should be. I will see it in that light. So that takes

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me to number two. So we said we should actively review and diagnose wrong thoughts. Number

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two, we should actively think the right thoughts. So Paul says in Philippians chapter four,

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verse eight, that whatever is pure, whatever is noble, whatever is of good report, whatever

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is worthy of praise, think on these things and keep thinking on these things. And this

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is what we need to do. So get our minds off the wrong things. Well, obviously you empty

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the cupboard, fill it with good stuff. This is the point. Just actively think the right

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thoughts.

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Point number three, this might sound trivial to you, but it is not trivial. This is a spiritual

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action that you take, which is, we need to talk to ourselves and we need to talk to ourselves

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until we line up with the word of God. So you see Psalm 42, the Psalmist is saying,

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why are you cast down on my soul? Come on, lift up, come on, have hope in God. Why are

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you cast down? He's literally talking to his own soul. I can talk to my mind and say, why

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are you depressed? Oh, mine. Why are you anxious? Oh, mine, lift up, come on. This is the hope

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that God has for you. Come up, come up. And, and so I encourage you, I absolutely encourage

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you these three things, do them actively review and diagnose wrong thoughts and tear them

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down actively. Think the right thoughts, which is, which are in line with the word of God

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or are directly the word of God. So Isaiah 29, 17, it is not yet a very little while

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until Lebanon is esteemed the fruitful field. That fruitful field is esteemed the forest.

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Put that in your mouth, put that in your, in your mind. If ever you feel like someone

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cuts you off on the street and you feel like just trashing them and all the roads in Lebanon,

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stop and remember, this is what I want to fill my mind with. Am I going to fill my mind

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in my mouth with this or my mind in my mouth with this? And if you happen to get off track,

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start talking to yourself, get yourself in front of a mirror. I do this. I don't know.

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This works for me. And this worked for the Psalmist in Psalm 42. So I'm going to do that.

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And why are you cast down on my soul? You couldn't see it, but Laura raised her hand

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too. I do it too. It's awesome, right? Yes. How does that make you feel? Like what happens

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when you do it? Um, transforms me, shifts the focus back to Him. Yeah. Back on God.

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Yeah. Refocus. Back on what He says about me. Yeah. Instantly. It changes. Focus instantly

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when you start saying His words. So that's the love solution, right? You go back to refocus

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the soul, right? We get off like the circumstance and the thing and the thing. We get our minds

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back on God. This is who is the promise giver, you know? And that's, that's so important.

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I want to, I want to take it one step further and I want to introduce you to a prayer in

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Ephesians chapter three. Now, um, if you don't know what to pray, guess what? There are tons

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of prayers in scripture that we can just pick up and pray for ourselves on a daily basis.

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And what's amazing about, about Ephesians three is that, uh, Paul is literally praying

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for the church in Ephesus and the church at Go Church and the church across Lebanon to

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have a greater revelation of the love of God. So the, you know, let me read this out. Let

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me read this prayer out. So Ephesians chapter three, verse 16. So he's saying that I pray

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that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might

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through his spirit in the inner man. The Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that

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you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints.

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What is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes

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knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Glory to God. I love

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that prayer. I've personally taken this up to pray this in my life on a daily basis for

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me and my house. And what I see in this prayer is the fact that there is a revelation of

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the love of God. So once I'm strengthened in my spirit, I see who God really is. When

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I see who God really is, then I can be filled with all the fullness of God. So the revelation

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of the love of God directly impacts what I'm going to see in my life. And if I take hold

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of that, I will see more in my life. So I want to, I want to take us for a minute from

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defensive to offensive. Okay. What I mean by that is we've been talking about, I'm on

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the trail of fear. How can I get off this trail of fear and just come back to the right

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place? This is defensive. This is me being in the wrong place. Just trying to survive.

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Let's talk offensive. I'm on the trail of faith and I want to enhance this walk on the

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trail of faith. So if you notice what, what Paul is saying, he's saying that, you know,

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that they, Christ may dwell in your heart and that you being rooted and grounded in

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love may be able to comprehend with all the saints in unity altogether. What is the, the

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width and length and depth and height of that love to know the love of Christ, which surpasses

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all knowledge so that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. He doesn't stop there.

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So in verse 20, he says this, he says, now to him who is able to do exceeding. I know

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that Laura likes that word able now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above

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all that we ask or think, think mind think according to the power that works in us to

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him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

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Now the thing about this is that in order to get to a greater manifestation, to be able

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to see the he who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think. So

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for me to get to that higher thought, I need to have a revelation of the love of God. So

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he's able to do more than I can even think right now. So I need to unlock my thinker

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to be able to receive more from him and do more in him. So the knowledge of his love

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improves our thought life. So because I have more revelation of his love, I can think the

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way he thinks. And I'm convinced that, you know, that that passage in Isaiah chapter

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55, where he talks about the Lord saying, you know, my thoughts are not your thoughts

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and my ways are not your ways, but my ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts

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and my ways are higher than your ways. He's not telling you I'm different to you. He's

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telling you come up, come up. Yes. He's telling you come up. Like what he's telling you is

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I'm thinking here and you're thinking down here. Exactly. I'm asking you to come up because

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I am able to do exceedingly abundantly what above what you are asking or thinking right

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now. So pray this prayer so that you can think higher, so that you can do more and you can

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receive more. That's so good. This is offensive. This is an offensive mentality on the trail

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of faith. So now I'm on this trail of faith and I'm saying, Lord, I want to see faster.

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I want to see more. What do I do? Pray Ephesians chapter three, verses 16 through to 19, because

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when you get that revelation, he's going to fill you with the fullness of himself and

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you're going to be able to think higher. Now I want to just share this little illustration.

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That's so good. I know we're over time, but I want to share this little illustration,

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which I shared this story on previous podcasts, but last year in summer I was in the Netherlands

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with my wife, Ciela, and her mom, and we're driving around this really pretty area. We're

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going for a walk in the woods and I'm seeing these nice houses in the forest and they're

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quite pretty and they have land around them. Just look at them. This is nice. Honestly,

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in my heart, it just came up and again, it's not like an audible voice. It's not something

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wasn't a vision, but it was in my heart and I felt the Lord say to me, you can have one

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of those. You know that. Honestly, talk about his thoughts are higher than my thoughts.

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I wasn't in that mode at all. I wasn't thinking that. I wasn't even thinking that's for me.

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I was in a mentality of plan my finances to the end of the year, plan my finances for

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the next two years. I was in a low thought plane. I was not on a higher thought plane,

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but I realized that, you know, he said you can have one of those. It didn't mean like

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today you're going to buy that house, right? What it meant is think higher, think higher.

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You can go further. Now I can stop there and never go further. I can reach that point where

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I never see that promise. He said I can have it, but I could put myself in a position where

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I never go down the trail of faith. I never go further in that trail of faith and I never

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see more. But the point is he's trying to take me down the trail of faith to go further.

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And in order to do that, I need to think higher. So to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

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Now I'm not suggesting the epitome of spiritual mindedness is a house. What I am saying is

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that when God says something, you put your mind to that and he will take you to that,

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to the greater manifestation of life and peace in your life. And this is what I'm encouraging

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us all to do. Let's think higher. So we need to think higher in order to see more. And

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so I'm going to hold on to that. And he says you can have one of those. It seems way beyond

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my capacity or my Lara ability today, but that thought is there. I'm convinced that

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I can have that because I'm convinced that he gave that to me. And I'm changing that

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language from I can have that to I have that, you know, and I'm starting to think higher

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and I'm starting to go further. And I find myself personally in a place where I'm unsatisfied,

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not because I'm in the wrong place, but because I want to go further. And this is what you

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pray for to go further. This is what you do to go further to be spiritually minded is

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life and peace. So you need to keep being spiritually minded to walk further and go

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higher where he's called you to go. So with, I mean, with that, we're already over time.

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What we're going to talk about this week is Paul, and we're going to look at the example

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of Paul, specifically the subject notes are going to be about Philippians chapter one.

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Paul wrote the letter of Philippians when he was in a Roman prison in a miserable condition.

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Like if you look around, it's miserable. You know, it's ugly. There's this constant, I

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don't know, I don't even know how to describe it. I'm sure Pastor Matt being a history buff

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would describe it way better. But, you know, there was obviously all the conditions that

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he was in were horrible, horrible, horrible. But then there was also that constant in the

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back of his mind. They might, you know, pick you up and just throw you to a lion right

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now, or they might, you know, light you on fire right now.

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He was imprisoned in Rome at the time or around the time when Nero was burning Christians

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to light his garden at night. Paul was in the prison in Rome, which had like a dual

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purpose or maybe it wasn't a dual purpose, but it was a sewer. So for the city, which

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is terrible, right? The conditions are, it's not just Paul is in prison. Yeah. Paul is

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in prison in Rome when Nero is in the palace. And if you, you know, any student of history,

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Nero is a crazy, crazy sociopath. But yeah, the prison that he writes Philippians from

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is crazy bad conditions. Like he would have been waist deep in sewage, perhaps as much

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as waist deep. That's... And how many times does he write rejoice in that letter? Exactly.

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Read Philippians one, thinking the number of times you're like... I'm waiting for the

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but. He was in bad conditions, but... But he wrote Philippians one and said, rejoice.

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And again, I say, rejoice. And it's, you know, it's one thing to rejoice on a big Sunday

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when we're all together and, you know, but it's what you have built on the inside of

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you, how much of the love solution you have taken in, how much of this Ephesians chapter

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three prayer you have prayed and got to where you think higher matters because at some point

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you might find yourself in this condition. And Nero released him. Praise God. Yeah. Because

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Paul said he chose, right? He said, and even in Philippians one that, you know, I don't

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know what I'll choose to depart and be with Christ, which is far better or to remain here

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and to come back to you to finish the work that we started. And that's what happened.

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So the substance of things hoped for was manifested, right? It was there. That was it. The substance,

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the faith that he had down, you know, going down that trail of faith, he saw it manifest.

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That's amazing. So, you know, this is something we're going to talk about in groups, leaders,

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you're going to do a great job giving that context and opening up to talk about Paul

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because Philippians one is not the only place where we see this amazing character and this

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amazing renewed mind in operation and action. But we see it across scripture in the book

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of Acts and, and in many other of the epistles. So I also encourage every single person to

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come to the grow group and share, share a story or share something, share some light

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that you've seen about Paul and how his renewed mind acted in those situations. And with that

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we're out of time and we're closing up for this month. It's been an amazing series.

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It is. I'm, I'm sad that we are, we're finishing this out. There's so much more. Yeah. Really

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in this and but yeah, in your groups, share your testimonies and share about how much

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you loved having Laura with us all these, all these weeks.

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I love being here. Thank you. And we're thankful to you taking time to listen to these, these,

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these podcasts have been longer because you know, we wanted to get through some of these

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subjects and Laura talks so much. So Gilbert, do you have a scripture? I do. I just really

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want to share the scripture and the truth, new Testament. It's Colossians chapter three

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verses one and two. I've wanted to share this in the last four weeks. I didn't get a chance

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and in closing, I do want to share this. I think it's appropriate right here, right now.

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This is Paul speaking to the Colossian church and he says that you have been raised with

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Christ to share in his risen life. So I'm going to pause here. I'm going to read this

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again. You have been raised with Christ to share in his risen life. So the will of God

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for your life, according to this is life and peace. You know, going back to Romans eight

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at six, the will of God for your life is sharing in his risen life. So the life of God and

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the peace of God, that's his will. So let's keep reading and look at these instructions.

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So set your hearts on heavenly things for that is where Christ is now seated at God's

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right hand. Verse two, you need to have heavenly thinking and not be restricted by mere worldly

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thoughts. So I'm going to leave that there. And like we said for the third time, we're

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out of time. We're closing. So, but if no one's told you, we love you. We are praying

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for you and we will, we'll be back next month with a new series. God bless you. We love

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you. Thank you for listening to this message. We want everyone to experience the unconditional

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love of God, grow in his love and go with his love to the rest of their world. We invite

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you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering. And if no one told

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you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.