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Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Here you'll find practical, relevant, biblical

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information. The Bible will be broken down verse by verse so that you get the full context of the

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scripture to better grow in your relationship with Jesus. Lord we thank you for the blessing

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this day, the blessings it's going to contain. We thank you for gathering us all here to praise

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and worship in your name and fellowship. We ask that you open our hearts and open our minds to

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what you have to speak to us today and show us how to apply it in our daily lives. Amen. All right

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well again good morning everybody. Welcome to Sanctuary. Welcome to everybody who's joining

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us online. Those who follow on the podcast as well. It's great to have everyone with us.

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Returning faces. It's been a while. It's good to see you sister. So you know right now you know

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with the that last song that we did during praise and worship you know talks about gift of Christ.

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And right now there's a lot of people that are out there they're trying to find those perfect

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gifts. You know they're hitting the stores or online or whatever you know you got kids doing

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their little crafts in school and all that kind of stuff trying to make that that little

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card or whatever that handprint thing that's just you know perfect. You know those are those those

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are always gold right there I think. You know get those little pieces from your kid when they're like

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that big right. But you know still there's a lot of stuff out there you know matter of fact

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as it worked this week and people just sitting there on their phones just.

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It's like what are you doing I'm on Amazon. It's like oh my goodness.

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You know so there's there's a lot there's a lot going on out there.

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However have you ever stopped to think that no matter what you've done.

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What you're shopping for the greatest gift that can be given has already been given.

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In fact two of the greatest gifts that we can possibly get have already been given.

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Forgiveness and faith right. That's what we're going to be talking about today. Two great gifts.

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So you know with that though we had to stop we had to ask ourselves

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with this in mind how do you how do you share this gift with a non-believer.

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And then for the believers in your life.

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Well how do you get them. How do you what do you get for somebody who already has the perfect gift.

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The person who already has it all right because we already have it all in Jesus.

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So again that's what we're going to be taking a look at today. So and we're going to start

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specifically with forgiveness. So with that said let's go ahead let's open up our Bibles. Let's

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open up our Bible apps and we're going to be going to Luke chapter 17. So Luke 17.

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I'm going to start right there at the beginning verses one through three.

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So Luke 17 verses one through three. Jesus teaches. Then he said to the disciples.

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It is impossible that no offenses should come but what is the purpose of the word

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it's impossible that no offenses should come but woe to him through whom they do come.

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It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the

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sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed yourselves. So I know

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that's not all of verse three but that's where we're going to stop because we're going to come

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back to it and here as we're going into forgiveness at the very beginning here Jesus is actually

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giving us a warning and this is a warning that is basically saying God exacts a very high toll

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for anyone who would tempt you know or lead astray any of God's children. Now this part here is

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twofold because most often when this verse is read it's done so with thinking of just small kids

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right and it's not wrong in that respect that is a big part of it. It really is

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you know the way it's often read and applied leaves it only there though and there is you know

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there's a special punishment for those who would hurt children in any way and with parents you know

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with parents this is why it's so important for us to be engaged with our children even if you're not

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parent if you're in a position where you engage with youth you really need to be engaged because

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especially in this day and age of technology social media video games you know all these

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different things and apps that kids use to to plug in and talk to each other and all that kind of

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stuff there is a huge influence here and you know a huge influence by the enemy. So we really need

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to know what's going on with them and in their lives we need to actually talk to them we can't

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be afraid to talk to them right it's like people like to throw things out there oh you can't do

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that that's abuse oh hogwash you know CYFD the police and all that if they did come out they

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will tell you no that's nonsense go be a parent you know just the other day you know I was talking

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with somebody who was upset because they're they're having trouble with behavioral issues with one of

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their kids so they called the police the police came out and told them just be a parent discipline

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them but that's the the spirit of fear that's built up in so many people now they're afraid

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to engage with their parent with their kids you know so we need to we need to take a look here

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and there's some questions that we need to be asking who are they with what are they doing

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how are they doing it where are they doing things how are they doing things

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sounds familiar doesn't it who what when where why all the same questions that we had to answer

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even in class if you were writing a paper these are the same things teacher would call you over

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hey why didn't you do this what is this who is this where is that how right who what when where why

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why all that same stuff we should be asking our kids the exact same things

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you know we need to be very mindful

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that we live in a very worldly world not a godly world so we need to know what the influences are

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what's going on there and we need to be teaching our kids exactly what the worldly falsehoods are

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and there are a lot of them there are a lot of traps that out there by the enemy

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to snare our kids to pull them away right everybody in this room is falling for some sort of trap at

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some point or another every single one of us right because every one of us is a center

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so in guarding with this when we when we're asking our kids these questions and we're

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we're pointing out the falsehoods we also need to come back and we need to show them

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what the biblical standards are what the word of god says that they need to be doing and how they

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should be living and how to apply it to their life you know like i said there's another group here

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that this passage also belongs to and this passage is also talking about new believers

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right some people like to use the term baby christians those people who are new in their walk

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with the lord right you can apply a hundred different terms here you can phrase it up however

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you want it's all the same though people who are young and are still learning or just coming in

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you know and these are people that are easily hooked and pulled away unfortunately you know

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for it because i mean as much as it's like yes jesus is my lord and savior

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just as easy as it is to say that it's easy for them to get pulled away too because there's

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a delicate stage where yes you know jesus is reaching out and they're but and they're just

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starting to grab that hand they don't have a firm grip yet and the enemy is over here on the back

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side he's pulling them back it's like no don't go that way don't do it so there's a war on right

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a little bit of a tug of war you know and unfortunately as believers

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we're the worst enemy when it comes to this we have the biggest misstep

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when it comes to this it's because of indifference impatience

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ignorance on our part sometimes arrogance you know somebody comes in and you know they're

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professing you know oh yeah no i believe and then we're just expecting them to know everything

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all the the lingo and the traditions you know every parable every comment every

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parable every commandment exactly where it's at you know john this mark that genesis revelation

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and so on and so forth but we don't even stop to think even we don't know all that right

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and there's some people out there like dennis cole

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dennis cole is amazing if you haven't seen him he goes up and he does a thing and he goes up

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and verbatim he has a couple books of the bible that he goes through boom boom boom boom and he

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can recite the whole thing it's amazing and have him up there you'd be watching him you think oh

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this guy he knows but he knows the bible from the very first word to the very last one from genesis

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one one to revelation you know it was 22 i'm going to say it's 21 22 something like that

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um but you know what i can guarantee you he doesn't there's not a single person in life

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not one human being that knows every part of the bible even he has parts that he has to go back to

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and refer to there's not a pastor out there who doesn't have to go back that's why we all have

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all these tools at our disposal but as believers we get so caught up it's like what do you mean

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it's like what do you mean you don't know what the great commission is right we like to use all these

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big words and we sound so smart we have it all together and we put all this weight on somebody

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who hasn't been equipped or exercised enough to be able to carry that weight arnold's fortune

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nader right early in his career he did the the konan movies and part of the konan movies is he

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went out and he actually got with somebody and learned how to use a sword how to swing it and

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all that kind of stuff and he made a comment to his trainer like man this thing is heavy

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the trainer said get stronger get stronger

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and what are we doing with the word we're doing the same thing we're putting it in somebody's hand

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but we're not telling them to get strong we're just saying use it apply it know it

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instead of teaching them so we lose people

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you know all those commands all those locations all those maps

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everybody has different strengths everybody has different things in the bible that they cling to

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and then they know and is embedded in their heart that serves their life

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you know and unfortunately we get some people who come in and we turn our nose up at them

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because they're ignorant they don't know they're not a believer it's like really

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we need to be teaching them we need to be lifting them up we need to be nurturing them praying over

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them right instead of turning our backs and pushing them right back out the door into the

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darkness that they came from back into that lonely place you know essentially when we do this

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when we have this misstep we have this in our life we're taking somebody

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instead of being like yes hey this is jesus this is what he's done for me this is what he can do for you

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when we get caught up in this mindset and unfortunately a lot of places have it

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we're handing them back over to the enemy on a silver platter

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they say yeah hey take them satan and it's not right it's not the way we're supposed to do things

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that's not what the gift is about

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all right going on continuing on in our our reading here we're going to go back into luke 17

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verses three through four we're actually going to finish three this time

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jesus continues says take heed to yourselves if your brother sins against you rebuke him

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and if he repents forgive him and if he sins against you seven times in a day

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and seven times and a day returns to you saying i repent you shall forgive him now this is important

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because as much as it pertains to the church it should be applied to all of our relationships

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whether we're working with a believer or not every person that we come in contact with

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you know um

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every person that we come in contact with you know um and when we rebuke it's basically you know it

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says the word rebuke here it's saying hey you're wrong i don't approve of this the word doesn't

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approve of this you need to make a change that's what a rebuke is right somebody missteps and you

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confront them about it okay messed up but when we do this we shouldn't be going up to somebody

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with a laundry list you did this this this this this and this and you need to change this this

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this and this and because people put up walls real quick right all of us have been in a relationship

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you know it very quickly turns into that whole you did this at 12 36 p.m 36 seconds saturday

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december 3rd uh at phoenix arizona at the plaza there was a crow flying overhead that caught it

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made a dog start barking three doors down right ladies taking a take note of that one you know

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that one happens a lot so guys we get caught up in that too come on let's be honest

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let's be honest but that's where arguments start going right you call out every little

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thing down to the detail it's like what really and then what's worse is we like to take that

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spent shell that's already been fired right pick it up off the ground dust it off stick it in our

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pocket so we can take it home clean it up and refill that bullet right press our own shell

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use it again so i i got that out this time it worked pretty good i'm gonna pocket that one for later

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that's what we do and but we shouldn't you know we we're not we shouldn't be using that kind of a

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bullet in the first place but even when you know if we do we shouldn't be picking it up to try to

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use it again you know it's it's it's important for us we need to especially when we're angry

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when something upsets us we need to take a look at our attitude

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right our attitude it's a it's a it's a big thing

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and we need to examine whether or not we should even open our mouth at that time because let's

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face it there's times our attitude is not in the right place our temper is not in the right place

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and we say stuff we really shouldn't we really shouldn't especially with our loved ones because

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we feel like we get away with more sometimes strangers but really with our loved ones right

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oops looks like i didn't put this next verse in there that's okay

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okay

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Ephesians 4 verse 32 puts it like this

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be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as god in christ forgave you

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i said when we rebuke somebody we have to look inside ourselves and we have to ask a couple of

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questions one do i love this person two am i willing to forgive them

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because if the answer to either one of those questions is no

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then even going to engage with them to have a conversation with them is a moot point

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because you yourself are already falling into sin and you can't confront sin with sin

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you just can't we're not supposed to you know telling someone that you disapprove of their

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actions if you can't do so lovingly if you don't love them enough if you're if you're just speaking

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out of a place of hate and discontent stop back off don't engage

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because you're more likely to say or do the wrong thing yourself

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you know anything that you had to say at this point it has no weight it has no worth

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it's empty it's hollow

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you need to be you know when you engage with somebody

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you have to be willing to forgive them how do you forgive somebody if you don't even love them

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right love it's an action

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love is also something that we feel right

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do you care about somebody is what this is saying because love itself is the action but do you care

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enough about somebody to let them know hey you've messed up and you have to be willing to do so in a

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tender loving way not cussing at them not throwing things across the room slamming doors punching

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holes in walls using your your status as a supervisor or a manager or a manager

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or team leader or whatever people like to throw that one out too right no i've i i've been here

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for 10 years and three days and i've done this and i've done that and they start touting their

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accomplishments and everything six what's that have to do with the price of tea in china

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has nothing to do with this right here shut up and sit down

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that's that's where most of us start thinking right away right

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it's like get out of here with that nonsense like i said those words they come from a place of hate

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discontent and self-importance and pride and entitlement and as soon as they open their

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mouths we have no interest in what they have to say so do you love them do you care enough that

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you actually want to help them correct this action and not only that but do you care about somebody

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enough that you actually want to help them correct this action and not only that are you willing to

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forgive them because christ has already forgiven us it's not about you at that point it's about

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your relationship with christ and what he's done for you he went to the cross for each and every one of us

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no wrong against us has killed us right we're not dead but he died and rose again

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with the weight of the world upon him

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so if you can't forgive you need to work on yourself and forgiveness is a great gift

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it really is not just for other people but for yourself so forgiveness being the first gift

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the second one faith which we already talked about a little bit we alluded to it

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so with faith if we go back into uh luke chapter 17 we're gonna go specifically to verse five

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so luke 17 verse five

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word says and the apostle said to the lord increase our faith

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increase our faith what a great thing to ask for right just looking at it increase our faith

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right about now a lot of people are asking people hey what do you want for christmas

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what is on your christmas lift what do you want what do you need what can i get you

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some people are like i don't know another people are making a list that even santa claus has to

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triple check right no there's no santa claus you know what i'm saying though he's like oh my goodness

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i need a rolodex to get through this how do we section this off so it makes sense to me and i

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could go from one department to the next and not be going back and forth like a tennis ball

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and i'm like oh my goodness i need a rolodex to get through this how do we section this off so it

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not be going back and forth like a tennis ball all day right it's ridiculous instead it's very

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short sincere and to the point all i want for christmas is faith increased

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that's something if we think about it a lot of us

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if we if we put ourselves in the shoes of the apostles and where we're at in our walk

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right now based on a lot of the things that we hear this is a good ask increase my faith lord

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and it's not a lighthearted request either you know this is something

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that all of us find harder at times we're put in situations where this right here becomes a genuine

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request because forgiving others is not always easy having the faith to know that everything's

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going to turn out and everything's going to be good

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that's tough

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we all have doubts

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one thing or another we all have doubts

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so the disciples here they're asking you know they're like hey you had this in front of us you're

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asking us to do this that is a big ask i'm willing to do it but i need i need something for i need

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you to help me out here i need my faith to just boom i need it to grow i need more faith

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because i'm doubting whether things are going to go the way i think they're going to go here

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i'm doubting things are going to work out the way that they should here so i need you to work on my

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heart i need the help right here you know for forgiveness like i say it's hard in fact it is

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so hard that sometimes people are wronged to that point that they are stone hard they refuse to

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forgive sometimes an act was so horrific to them that they refuse and relationships are permanently

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damaged it's not to say that the aggressor was in the right

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obviously they weren't but the forgiveness is still there like i said it's not just for the other

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person it's for us as well you can't move on when you hold on to something when you're holding a

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grudge you can't love as we're commanded when you're holding a grudge you can't love as we're

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commanded when you're holding on to hate

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it's all about that relationship with god now unfortunately a lot of times we're put in these

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places where we have to forgive even if the other person isn't asking for it but we know we need to

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forgive them because we're upset and this is a place where god is actually working on our inner

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character to see what we're going to do to try to guide us to the right decision not force us

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because we need to do so with a glad heart we need to be wanting to do this we need to be willing to

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do this but he's testing us and he's testing us in a way that we can see what's going on

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and we know what's right we know what's wrong we know what we need to change in our life

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in the very next verse luke 17 verse 6 jesus says

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so the lord said if you have faith as a mustard seed you can say this say to this mulberry tree

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be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you

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kind of had this old-time cartoon in my head this tree just kind of pulling itself up it's roots

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like legs and it's like and then plant itself in the sea his way is crashing over it you know

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those cartoons from like a hundred years ago i don't know it's goofy i know

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you know uh jesus though you know like you know he grants the gift

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he grants his gift that we've all asked for but he doesn't do it in a way that we expect you know

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instead of being this big emotional swelling inside where we get this warm and fuzzy you know

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and here's jesus you know in the back of our head you know the holy spirit going you can do it

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that's not the way he goes he doesn't go the way we want him to go most of the time he didn't come

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in this world and he didn't you know establish things the way everybody thought he would he's

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definitely you know he's a rebel he goes against the norm doesn't he you know instead you know he

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explains what the the true power of faith is and where it comes from because faith real faith

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is so much more than the superficial

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and a lot of people have a very superficial faith right you know the faith in the unseen

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as opposed to believing because of what you've already seen what you already know of god right

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herews 11 verse 1 if we turn to herews 11 the word puts it this way now faith is the substance of

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things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen that's the key right there

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not seen kind of wish i'd underline those when i put those up there happy i have this little laser

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pointer but no the faith of substance faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of

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things not seen meaning we have complete trust in god not just putting on this horse and pony show

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but being able to move when he says move being willing to move and not just putting on this

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but being able to move when he says move being willing to do when he says do right acting in

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complete obedience to what he's telling us to do and it's that faith that changes us from the inside

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out remember healing starts on the inside not the outside and it takes time

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you know we want this instant gratification

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it's mine and i want it now no it's his and he will give it to you in his time and he will work

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in his way to his will there's lessons to be learned there's growing pains to be had

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that's the way of life that's the way of a believer

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but when this change occurs it empowers us and it empowers us to do things

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that we never would have considered being able to do or it would have even considered even being a

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part of our path and years ago i never would consider i'd have even been here

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in a pulpit anywhere preaching anywhere doing any kind of ministry anywhere matter of fact if you'd

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ask me at one point bless you sister if you'd ask me at one point i told you i'd have been dead by

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30 yeah my mom's smiling over here because she knows she's heard it a long time ago man things

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change right the holy spirit does change things you know and the mustard seed you know it talks

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about you know we're just looking at the mustard seed this is one of the smallest seeds out there

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i'm not going to say the smallest because i don't know if it's the smallest or not some some things

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say yes some things say no some say it's a certain type of mustard seed doesn't matter you think

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of any seed you could think of an apple seed right the word uses a mustard seed though seeds

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are tiny they're small right you drop one you're like oh and you're looking for it like you drop

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the contact and you take this seed and you plant it in the ground now it's completely unseen

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but culture right cultivated it's at work it's growing it's flopping over it's growing roots

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finally that plant starting to grow up it's moving it's growing it's inside it's inside the earth

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eventually it gets to a point where it breaks through the ground and it is small but starting

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to be seen and then it grows and grows and grows until it becomes a full plant

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and at this point it's something recognizable it's bearing fruit that is recognized and used

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the world over and our faith is like that our faith is like that it starts very small that

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mustard seed of faith right right here when we welcome the holy spirit in

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and now we might not have all the outward signs right away most people don't

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but he's at work he's growing he's healing things he's growing things and eventually it starts to

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come out and people start to see a change in you and then eventually they see a big change

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a big change huge change right so this guy went from being a total dirtbag to being an awesome

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i'm not going to say perfect because jesus is the only perfect human ever walked the earth right

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but still awesome people can change people do change and it's because of the holy spirit

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that faith coming through them you know that's why the word talks about you know shedding you know

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getting rid of the old and being born new right so it grows to the surface go from a humble start

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that eventually leads to a major change and that major change in you can lead to a major change

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in the world that you don't know about think of inventions things that have been built up in the

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world different forms of light bulb were tested and tried over and over and over again

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how many of us use candles to light a room anymore or lanterns

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you really don't camping maybe right if you're out in the elements sure but even then we use

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light bulbs of sorts typically right what powers our phones you come into a room anywhere it's dark

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hit a light switch our lovely christmas tree over here you'd be pretty hard pressed to find trees

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very often other than in a grocery store on demonstration that don't have lights everybody

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likes putting lights on their trees and their houses those initial concepts trying to make that

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light did a lot of people see it right away no those inventors did sure but even then it was

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pricey it was time consuming it came at a cost it came with a lot of work and now you look at where

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it's gone so many stories out there science fiction for example right is it philip k dick

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is responsible for a lot of stories that have been converted to very high grossing movies very

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popular right when he was alive though he never saw the benefit of it he wrote because he loved

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to write he liked to entertain his fortune didn't come until after he died

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so the major change that can come because of the change in you

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may not even occur until after the lord's called you home

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doesn't mean you shouldn't though we all should we come to christ christ has asked us to do certain

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things we should do it no matter how hard it may seem because when we go to philippians 4 13

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we're pretty familiar with this a lot of us have heard this before matter of fact one of my favorite

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rings that i wear quite often has this very verse inscribed on it i can do all things to christ who

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strengthens me does it mean you shouldn't do it we all should we come to christ christ has asked

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doesn't mean you can lift up a mountain like superman or fly or have x-ray vision or any of

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that nonsense get that out people like to toot that stuff a lot of prosperity good nonsense it

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goes into that no that's not what it means but while we might feel that we need more faith

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within us to do the great things the reality of it is we don't the seeds already been planted we

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have the faith we need whether we recognize it or not whether it's come through the ground or not

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and the lord will provide the means for us to do what we need to do he will give us the strength

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to do what we need to do he will walk us through it because when we cultivate what the lord's placed

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in us when we take that gift of faith that's already been placed in us and we water it right

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we tend to it we nurture it it grows to something great going back into luke 17

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luke 17 verses seven through ten

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jesus says and which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when

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he has come in from the field come at once and sit down to eat but will he will he not rather

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say to him prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till i have eaten and

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drunk and afterward you will eat and drink does he think that servant because he did the things

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that were commanded him i think not so likewise you when you have done all the things which you

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are commanded say we are unprofitable servants we have done what was our duty to do

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think of it this way the world that we live in is a very entitled world we live in a world where

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everybody gets a trophy just for participating right you get to put a star at your desk because

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you know he manages like you know what this guy has good customer service skills let's recognize

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that you know nothing out of the normal just doing what they're supposed to do

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when lose or draw they don't deserve a trophy when you do the things that you're supposed to

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should you be committed like oh that's awesome no you're doing where you're supposed to say

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you're breathing today you get a trophy

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hey you put on clothes today let me get you a ribbon

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right it's crazy that's what this is saying you know it's like somebody coming they do the things

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that they're supposed to they're gonna be that hey good job right on sweet no that's not how it

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should be when we live a life that obeys god when we're doing the things that god wants us to do

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god when we're doing the things that god wants us to do then we're doing what we're supposed to do

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when we live a life of faith when we forgive people the way that we're supposed to give

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we share those same gifts that have already been given to us these are the things we're supposed

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to do it's not one of those things where he comes up and pats you on that good job buddy a little

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noogie there no we nor should we expect that so you know what i'm doing what i'm supposed to cool

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so i'm just happy to be here doing my job we're good carry on you know when we live that life of

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faith when we go out and we forgive people when we love people and we're doing the things that we

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should we don't get extra credit for these things it's not about our works we're doing the things

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that we want to because we love christ we're doing the things that we're supposed to do

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because he's given us that chance that second opportunity to do it to be rejoined with the

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father and to come to the table in heaven right it's not about us when we do these things it's

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because the rep we're representing what christ has done for us in our lives we're doing it to show

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people what a relationship with god is we cannot have that prideful life where we're grabbing out

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and we're latching on to that little ribbon for showing up to work you know like oh look i got a

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gold star today it's not about that oh you went the whole month and didn't miss a single day of

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work good for you buddy here's your trophy no get out of here with that nonsense

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nobody should be looking for that kind of comfort that is the wrong comfort that's your pride and

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guess what happens when you when you have that pride and you take over and you give in you let

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your ego up you fall into sin you fall into sin instead we need to recognize that when we're

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faithful and we align ourselves with god's will we've done what we're supposed to do and we should

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have enough comfort in knowing that we've done that you know any any reward of value it's not

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going to come from man there's not a single thing that any man on this earth can give to any single

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one of us that's truly of any value the rewards that matter are rewards that we're not going to

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see until we're reunited with the father in heaven who knows what those are going to be

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nobody here but it shouldn't matter because we're not doing it for those we're not doing it to

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reserve our space right no works our works get us nowhere our deeds get us nowhere

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which is why it's more important that we use our deeds to show the way to christ to point the way

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to him to light the darkness you know we should be living in a way where we can reach our hand out

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and we can lift somebody up remember i've talked about this before the difference between a hand

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out and a hand up a hand up does so much more

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and when you can give that hand out or the excuse me the hand up you're showing the light of christ

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and while faith and forgiveness are great gifts the greatest gift any of us can or will ever receive

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is that of knowing jesus

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and we're going to be able to do that in the next few days

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now before we pray i'd like to remind everybody if you have a prayer request come get up with

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anybody anybody on staff any of our volunteers we'd love to pray with you after service okay

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so let us pray lord we thank you for this time and learning this time of understanding this time

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you and each other please guide us as we apply these lessons that you've spoken to us to our lives

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we thank you for the reminders that each one of them contain you know and

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help us to ensure that as we go through and we're doing the things that we're supposed to

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that we're doing it properly and within your will and to reflect your light and your glory

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not ours we ask you that you continue to remind us that you're with us each step of the way

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especially those times when we're filled with doubts help us to get that doubt out and fill it

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replace it with you you know help us to proclaim your greatness for everyone to hear

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and we ask for your protection as the enemy or excuse me protection from the enemy as we go out

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because we know the enemy is going to attack us and do everything he can to try to pull us away

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from your light and to block the light that reflects from us from others being able to see

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so we ask for protection as we do that as we take your light into those dark places

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so that those who need to see it can see it you know we love you we thank you

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for all this and so much more and all of these people said amen and amen

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thank you all for joining us here today at healing scars with pastor Burton please like subscribe and

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share our podcast on any platform it is that you tune into us on if you do have any questions

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any prayer requests or would like to know more about our ministry you can find us on our website

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at be the light sanctuary.org or on facebook at be the light sanctuary you can also find how to

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contact us there whether it's direct message or email we look forward to hearing from you all god

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bless