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Hey everybody, welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.

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I am so excited and I can't thank you enough for tuning in.

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This is the very first episode, that's right, number one, numero uno, the inaugural kickoff,

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the start of it all, and we're going now.

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So to give you an idea, I feel a little awkward right now.

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This is new for me.

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When I speak, I'm usually in front of a group of people, so I have a gauge right there in

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front of me as to how well things are going, how things are being received or not received.

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If I need to go into more depth, if a joke has been taken well, all that kind of stuff.

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And I'm sitting here recording, I've probably gone through a half dozen takes just trying

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to get through the beginning of this, and it's different.

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It's a little intimidating.

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So what I've done is I've sat down, I've said a little prayer, spoke to God, said,

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Lord help me.

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And what we're going to do is we're just going to jump right in here and we're going to kick

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things off.

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So with that said, welcome to the first episode.

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The title of this is Reluctant Heroes.

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It's that time of year, that's right, New Year's, when people start making promises.

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It's upon us again.

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And these are promises people know that they are most likely, they're not going to keep.

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Matter of fact, they've probably made it year after year and they've broken that promise

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year after year.

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You know, call it resolutions, call it what you want, it's a promise.

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New Year, new me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Some of us fall on this category regularly.

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Others, I'm trying to put it that tough guy attitude, a little bit more critical.

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It's a new year, but I'm going to be the same jerk I've always been.

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Paraphrasing the course because usually when people say that or they post the meme, it's

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a little bit more vulgar.

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So the other day though, I came across this and I saw it on Facebook and it brought to

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mind one of the Marine Corps leadership principles.

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And that principle is to know yourself and seek self-improvement.

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I'm going to say it again.

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Know yourself and seek self-improvement.

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This is something we can all benefit from.

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We all have weaknesses, we all have ways that we can improve.

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There's definitely opportunities for us to improve regularly.

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Now this is a biblical aspect as well.

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Ecclesiastes 5.5 puts it this way.

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There is, excuse me, it is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.

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You should underline that and highlight it.

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If you're taking notes, make a note.

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Ecclesiastes 5.5.

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It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.

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You see, you can't break a promise you never made.

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And a broken promise is never, ever a good thing.

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Matter of fact, most people will remember the promises that you broke than the promises

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you kept.

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And regardless of what day the calendar says it is, we should always strive to be better.

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Now with that said, I want to remind you, everyone is a leader.

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Everyone.

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You, me, that guy down the block that you don't like, that person at work that annoys

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the tar out of you.

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Everyone is a leader.

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Everyone is following an example.

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Everyone is setting an example.

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It does not matter if you're at work, church, school, home, out on the baseball field, anywhere.

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Everywhere you go, you are being watched.

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And we question that.

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Really?

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Me?

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I'm a leader?

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Maybe on the Xbox?

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Maybe on the soccer field?

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Maybe?

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Big maybes, right?

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See, people are full of doubts.

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People are scared.

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But God knows what He's doing.

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And we see it throughout the Bible.

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I'm going to go into some prime examples from the Bible of reluctant leaders.

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I'm going to start off with Peter.

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Peter was a fisherman, and Peter had one of the biggest stumbling blocks when he started

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out.

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Because he denied Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times.

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That's right, Peter denied Jesus three times, yet he still went on to become one of the

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most well-known apostles.

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One of the people directly responsible for founding the early church, and gave what's

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considered one of the greatest sermons after Jesus.

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We can read it in Acts 2 verses 14 through 40.

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Matter of fact, this sermon was so great and so powerful that in Acts 2 verse 41 it says,

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Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number

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that day.

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Now that is a tremendous number.

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To give you an idea, I'm going to bring it forward to modern days.

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Most churches are pretty small.

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The average church, I think the last thing I read it said the congregations are made

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about 80 to 150 people.

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Of course, you have your mega churches, they're quite a bit bigger, but even they, even they

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would be impressed to see that many people join their church after just one message.

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That's a lot.

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At 3,000, I mean, holy cow.

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That is a ton.

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That is more people than we had students in my school.

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If you think about it in that term, that's a lot.

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How can you relate to 3,000 people?

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Most of us, it's a struggle.

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The next person I talk about, you go to Judges, chapters 6 through 7.

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Chapter 6 through 7 tell us of Gideon.

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This is a general.

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Gideon was a man who felt he was abandoned by God and was so low on the totem pole that

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he didn't believe God was actually talking to him.

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He needed proof that God was talking to him.

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He questioned it.

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Not once, not twice, but again, three times he questioned whether or not God was actually

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talking to him because he didn't believe it.

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You see a little parallel here between Peter who denied Jesus three times.

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This is Gideon.

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He's like, come on, no, you're not him.

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God was talking to him.

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To give you an idea of why Gideon felt that tiny, he and his people were living in caves

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and were in fear for their very lives every day.

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Just to go out into the world for their daily needs was a serious matter.

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To make things even worse for Gideon, like I said, he was a general.

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At that particular time, he commanded 32,000 troops.

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That is a lot of troops.

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And God stripped this all the way down to 300.

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That's right, 300 troops were left when God was done separating them.

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I know a lot of us think of the movie 300.

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The feat that these 300 men accomplished was even greater though.

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You see Gideon took those 300 men and was able to chase off his enemies.

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That's right, he chased off his enemies, which were thousands.

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They were seriously outnumbered.

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And he was able to usher in a time of peace and freedom for the Israelites.

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Gideon was a great general.

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No doubt about it.

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Like I said, we're going to come back and we're going to spend more time on Gideon here

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as well.

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Now, for the next example, Exodus chapters three through four, talking about Moses.

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Now when we talk about Moses, most of us think of Charlton Heston coming down out the mountain,

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a couple of tablets in hand, powerful imagery.

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But I want to remind you, Moses was a man who was on the run for his life.

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He was a murderer who had to run for his own life.

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Now in that context, let me ask you, is this somebody that you would follow?

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Most of you, if you were honest, would say no, because when we think of murderers today,

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we say, lock them up and throw away the key.

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As a matter of fact, there's some people out there listening to this who probably say,

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give them the chair, gas them, hang them, shoot them, et cetera, et cetera.

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We do not think highly of murderers.

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In those days, it was no different.

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Murder is a serious offense.

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There's no doubt about that.

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And Moses was a murderer.

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Moses was a man who literally questioned God.

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Exodus three, verse 11, Moses stated, who am I?

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And God answered in verse 12, I will be with you.

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Yet Moses continued to argue and play the what if game to the point that the Lord got

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angry.

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It kind of went like this.

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Moses is sitting there, but what if they don't listen?

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What if they don't believe me?

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God said, I'm with you.

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You better listen.

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I'm with you.

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Do you not hear the words coming out of my mouth?

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Not quite literally the way it went, but I mean, basically, I mean, that's just, you

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think about it, especially for those of you who are parents, this is really easy to relate

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to because when our kids argue with us, you get to a point like, what did I say?

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Right?

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Even if you're not a parent, you have, all of us at some point in our life have had somebody

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that we've gotten into an argument with.

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I don't care how small it is, where we've basically gotten pushed to that point where

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we're like, what did I just say?

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All right.

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Now with that said, we are all called to walk in faith.

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Each of us has to carry our own cross.

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And it starts right here.

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It starts in your heart.

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You see, the calling God places on you is more important than any of the wants you have

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for yourself.

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Why do some people turn away?

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It's hard.

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It's really hard.

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It's hard to turn away from our earthly condition.

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I want this.

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I need that.

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What will other people think?

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Oh, that isn't cool.

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I'm here to tell you, you have to get out of yourself.

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You have to trust in God and find the ways to do what he's called you to do.

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You know, if the Lord has called you to do something, the way to do it is there.

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You just have to trust to start marching forward and you will start to find exactly what you

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need to get the job done.

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When you don't, you start kind of thinking, like I said, going back to these, you know,

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these little things that pop into your head, you know, you know, oh, that's not cool.

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What are other people going to say?

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What do people think?

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You know, we start putting the world in front of us.

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These things pop into our head because I mean, that is the enemy at work in your life.

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And we all know that he's a liar.

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He's telling you things that are not true.

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You're not good enough.

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You're weak.

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You'll never amount to anything.

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You can't do this.

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You can't do that.

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You're stupid.

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You're ugly.

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You're too short.

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You're too tall.

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You're clumsy.

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You're irritating.

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You're hairy.

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Et cetera, et cetera.

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Why are you listening?

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Stop!

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It's a new year.

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It's a new me.

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Nonsense.

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You are the same person today because you're not listening to God.

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You want to be a new person?

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You want to be a new me?

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Start following the example Jesus set.

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Stop caring about the earthly judgment of others and start caring about the judgment

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of Jesus.

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Now I'm not saying don't care about people.

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No, because that's the attitude that people have.

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Oh, I don't care.

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Whatever.

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I'm me.

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I'm a self-made man.

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That's garbage.

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What I'm saying is you need to start caring about the judgment of Jesus.

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You need to start caring about what God wants you to do.

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You need to start listening to Him and stop listening to the world.

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But what if they call me stupid?

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God already answered this.

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He told Moses and he's telling us.

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I will be with you.

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You see, we have to change our mindset as individuals and as a community, as a society.

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We need to realize that while we live in democracies and republics here on earth, in heaven, it

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is the Lord's kingdom.

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The Lord's kingdom.

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There's one kingdom, one ruler, and it's His way or the highway.

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His way.

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Not ours.

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His.

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Everything you do is important.

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Everything you do will lead you down the path to who you will become.

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Now you could be a sinner and continue to sin or you could become the person God wants

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you to be.

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You could go to hell or you could go to heaven where you'll be rewarded with more than any

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of us can imagine.

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We've already been promised this.

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Our rewards are waiting for us there.

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But what happens is we lose focus on His way and we start doing things our own way and

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we put ourselves on the highway.

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God doesn't.

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Jesus doesn't.

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We do.

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See, people are going to be jealous of you.

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People are going to be hateful of you.

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It's a fact of life.

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It just is.

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You can't and you will not ever please everyone around you.

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You can't.

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Genesis 37 tells us of Joseph.

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Joseph is a man who was sold into slavery by his brothers, his kin, the people he should

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have been closest to.

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But his brothers sold him into slavery because of their own jealousy, their own envy.

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Yet even with this, he was a slave who over the years rose up through the ranks to be

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declared as Pharaoh's second in command.

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Second in command.

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That's how well trusted and how revered this guy was.

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That's a lot to his character.

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He went from slavery to second in command.

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That's a lot.

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You see, even a small drop of water will cause ripples than the rest of the water.

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Just a drop will cause ripples.

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And it doesn't matter what age you are.

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As an adult, as a teen, even if you're a child, as a child, and as a Christian, you

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could set an example that saves the soul of an adult who has yet to find a relationship

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with God.

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And of course, as a teen and as an adult, we all have that ability in us to lead people

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to the Lord.

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This is what we call planting the seed.

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You want proof of how some of this happens.

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I'm going to give you an example here.

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What do young people think of when something terrible happens?

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We're talking about our little kids.

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Oh, that's sad.

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That's bad.

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Stop.

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You shouldn't do that because it's wrong.

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Now you think of how teenagers and especially adults think about things.

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How do I get that person back?

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Let's make them pay.

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If I was in charge, they'd be tarred and feathered.

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They're justifying revenge.

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They're passing the judgment and already looking to execute.

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Judge-jury-executioner.

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So let me ask you this.

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Who sets the better example in those cases?

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The youngest do.

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Let's bring it home.

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The movie Gladiator, the main character Maximus, he's rallying his troops for a battle and

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what he tells them is this.

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What we do in life echoes in eternity.

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This is a rally cry.

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He's telling his people they don't need to be afraid and that everything each and every

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single one of them does will be recognized long after they're gone.

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That they are the example for generations to follow.

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And so are you.

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Ask yourself, what example am I showing?

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What example should I be setting?

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What does God want me to do?

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See if you don't do it here, where you're at, then you won't do it out in the world

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where it matters most.

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See this is your proving ground.

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Not only do you learn here, but this is the place where you get to start doing what God

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commands us to do in your own life.

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The next step is for you to take it into the world and bring God's love and hope and light

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to those who don't have it and so desperately need it.

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The people who are living in darkness, you know I've said it time and time again, going

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all the way back to the days when I was a field training officer and everything all

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the way through my days, you know even my interviews, you know as an EMT and everywhere

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that I've been, it's always come up and it's something that, talking about catchphrase

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or whatever, this is one of the most important things in your life.

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The light of God is in you and it is up to you to be the light in other people's darkness.

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In other people's darkness, you are the light.

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And when you look at statistics of people who don't go to church, I mean really, even

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I'll say, to the unbeliever, the most that many of them will ever see of a church is

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you.

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You and the example you set, the way you treat people, the way you talk to people, it's important.

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You just said, you are the light of the world.

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You are the light in the darkness.

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You are the light on the hill.

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Plain and simple.

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Plain and simple.

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Tomorrow is not promised to us.

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Even finishing out the day is not promised.

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What we have to do in this moment is we need to take advantage of the opportunity.

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Let Jesus into your heart and start to follow His example to the best of your ability.

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And that will lead you down the path to becoming who God wants you to be.

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It's the time to stop being a reluctant leader and start figuring out how to become the leader,

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to become the person that God wants each and every one of us to be.

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Thank you again for tuning in.

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We'll catch you next time.