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Hey, Go Church Family, Pastor Julie here with Pastor Matt.

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Happy New Year, everyone.

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Yeah, Happy New Year.

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So we wanted to record a short message that just says Happy New Year and lets you know

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that we're praying for you, we love you.

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We say that all the time, but we don't just say it, we do it.

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We mean it.

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Yeah.

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And we wanted to, this is an exceptional Sunday, not just because it's a holiday, but because

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it comes between two series.

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And so our regular podcast will be back next week.

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But I wanted to just share this quick message and talk about the new year and talk about

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change.

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This is a time of year where change comes up.

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We get to focus on that.

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And Julie, will you read 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18 for us?

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Absolutely.

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So, just to give you a chance to find it if you're looking it up yourself, it's 2 Corinthians

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chapter 4 verses 16 through 18.

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And it says, for this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the

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inward man is renewed day by day.

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For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding

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and external weight of glory.

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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,

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for the things which are seen are temporal, or they change, but the things which are not

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seen are eternal.

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I love that verse.

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There's so much in it.

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I especially love that phrase, weight of glory.

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Yes.

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And there's a lot we can talk about there.

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But that passage of scripture is about change and the focus that is necessary for change.

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And if we focus on outward things, then we're watching things that actually are passing

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away.

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But we can choose to put our focus on spiritual things.

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And in January of this year, as a church, I want us to on purpose put our focus on spiritual

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things, eternal things.

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If you think about like a car, there's a device in a car that allows the car to change directions.

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It's the steering wheel.

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And you can get in the car and decide, I want to go to this place.

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I want to go to this market.

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I want to go to my friend's house.

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But at some point, you have to turn the wheel.

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And you turn the wheel the direction you want to go.

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That's right.

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It's something that happens before you arrive.

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And so for us, that has to do with changing our focus, which is obviously something that

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we can talk about, but also changing habits.

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And January is an excellent opportunity for us to look at how we're spending our time,

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how we're spending our focus, what we look at.

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And because of that, we want to look at the subject of fasting as a church in January

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from a biblical perspective.

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But I don't want to just study it.

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I want us as a church to do it.

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I want to challenge everyone to fast in January.

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I didn't say I want everyone to not eat for the month of January.

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But I think that this is a subject that we need to look at from the scripture.

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And we need to address from a place of faith.

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And we need to do from a place of faith.

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And faith comes by hearing God's word.

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That's right.

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But before we get into any of that in the actual podcast and in our in our grow group

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study, I wanted to bring it up today.

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And I want to read from Matthew, chapter six.

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I'll start reading in verse 16.

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Jesus said, Do not act like the hypocrites when you fast.

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You know what that word hypocrite means?

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Everyone, I suppose, knows what a hypocrite is.

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It's someone that says one thing and does another or acts like one way when they're

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around everyone else.

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But then they act a different way when they think no one's watching the Greek word.

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I'm not a Greek scholar, but this was actually the same word that was used to describe an

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actor.

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So if you went to a movie or if you went to a play, the cast of that play are in Greek

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hypocrites.

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And Jesus said, We should not be like actors when we fast.

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So this tells us right away, this has to be something that we do genuinely and from the

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heart.

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That means not because I said we should do it on the podcast that everyone should fast.

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If we keep reading verse 16, Jesus goes on and says, they who's they they those hypocrites,

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they make it clear to everyone they are fasting.

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Now, I mean, can you can you think of someone that kind of made it clear to everyone around

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them?

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Hey, I'm fasting.

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Hey, hey, everyone, I'm fasting.

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I was discussing this series with Gilbert and he made a comment that I really liked.

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He said we shouldn't put the weight of fasting on others.

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Yeah.

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So if I make the decision to fast, it's for me.

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That's right.

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It's and it's as soon as I as soon as I put the weight of my fast on you.

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Now I've I'm not doing biblical spiritual fasting anymore.

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You're not doing it by faith.

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Jesus goes on.

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He says, I tell you the truth.

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The praise they the hypocrites seek from others when they tell people about their fast is

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the only reward they will receive.

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And this is what I want to hone in on.

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There is a reward for fasting.

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In the Old Testament, there are fasts that are described in the New Testament.

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Fasting is mentioned is talked about, but there's nowhere in the Bible where it tells

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us we need to fast for this long in this way, for this reason.

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In fact, everything that we see people fasting for in the Old Testament, we actually have

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received in Jesus in our redemption.

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But there is a reward in fasting, and I want you to receive that reward.

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Now I'm going to go back to this subject of change as we finish.

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Everybody wants to see change.

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But how many of us are willing to do change in in November of this year?

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I started thinking about this series, and so I decided that this is already in the past.

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This isn't what I'm doing now.

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So I'm not telling you, not bragging about my fast, but I decided that I would just not

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eat anything cooked, which was a challenge for Julie because Julie's a great cook.

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But I decided that for a period of time, not the whole month, but for a period of time

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in November, that I was just going to tell my body no and only eat raw vegetables.

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Now, if you know me, you know that Matt loves broccoli and cauliflower.

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I should have given them some cucumbers.

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It would have been good for him.

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That is all I ate for about three weeks.

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And that's OK.

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You know, nothing bad happened.

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That's right.

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And the exercise of doing that was just simply to remind the flesh that the spirit man, the

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real you remember we've talked about this in Trails of Thought, the series we did, Real

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You, and then the series that Pastor Matt Beamer did called House Hunters.

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You can go back on YouTube and watch all of those.

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The real me can tell the outward part of me no.

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And that verse that Julie read, the outward part is perishing.

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It's already passing away.

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So it shouldn't be in charge.

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That's right.

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And what I want to challenge you to do is look at things, not bad things.

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I don't want you to fast unforgiveness.

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You should just stop that altogether.

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Yeah, I don't want you to fast pride that that's something you should just deal with

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and not allow.

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But look at things that are not bad.

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Things that you like.

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Yeah, you know, it's something people often think that fasting is only food, but you can

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fast social media.

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You can fast watching television.

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You can fast your favorite series on TV for a month.

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There are so many things that you can fast that take attention away from the things that

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God has for you that if you will just give them up for a moment, you'll recognize the

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position that you give them in your life.

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Yeah, that's really good.

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And we can we'll talk more about different kinds of fasting.

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But you know, Julie mentioned social media and television.

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There was a there's an he's in heaven now.

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It was an international internationally known evangelist.

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And when he was not internationally known, he wasn't even really, you know, known much

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outside of his family.

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He made a decision that he was going to give the Lord 10 percent of his time every day.

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He wanted to give the Lord a tithe of his time.

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So two hours and 40 minutes, at least every day.

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He wanted to to spend time praying and and meditating, giving himself to the word and

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study.

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Well, he quickly realized he didn't have an extra two hours and 40 minutes because he

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was married and he had children and responsibilities.

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And he thought, well, how am I going to do this?

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And then he realized, oh, wait, I do have that time because that's the time I sit in

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front of the television.

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And so he just shut his TV off and he he went and he took that time and he he didn't fill

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it with something else that was natural.

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He filled it with time spent with God.

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And as a result, in his generation, he was one of the most effective evangelists in his

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day.

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And there is a direct connection between what he chose to focus on and the result or the

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destination that he arrived at.

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We all want to see big changes.

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But those big changes are the result of little focus changes.

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That's right.

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And they show up when we tell our body no, when we tell our soul no, when we say, you

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know, hey, I like doing this.

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Hey, I want this.

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No.

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You know, I I jokingly say sometimes that there are some people, it seems like they've

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never heard the word no.

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Yeah.

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But it's actually a good thing for you for you to tell you, no, that's right.

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No, we're not going to think about that.

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No, we're not going to have that attitude.

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No, we're not going to have our little pity party.

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Yeah.

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And if we want to do those that have that kind of control and see these big changes

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in our life, it needs to start somewhere small.

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That's right.

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And so this month in January, we're going to talk about fasting next week in our podcast.

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You're going to hear more about that.

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We'll get into the scripture on it.

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But I want to encourage you with this message to look at your life, look at the way you

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spend your time on a daily basis and pick something.

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Yeah.

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And I'm not asking you to, you know, post it on social media, let everyone know, hey,

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listen, everyone, I'm going to fast.

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Don't in other words, don't put the weight of it on others.

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Just you tell you no.

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Why?

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Because there is a reward.

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There's a reward for you.

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And I want you to get everything that Jesus has for you.

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That's right.

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Not just in 2024, but everything that you've received in him.

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I don't want you to miss out on any of it.

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And that's our prayer for you.

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That's right.

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And so I know that I know that you've heard me say it before, but I'm going to say it

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again.

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We we love you.

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Yes.

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We're we're praying God's richest and best for you.

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We're praying that you see and walk in everything that Jesus has put on the inside of you.

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Happy New Year.

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Happy New Year, you guys.

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We love you so much.

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Bless you.

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Thank you for listening to this message.

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We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, growing his love and go with

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his love to the rest of their world.

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We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering.

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And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.