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Well good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you. I have been part of Far Reaching

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Ministries as the Latin America director for two years and as of a couple months

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ago I was asked to now be involved in what we're doing in Ukraine and so it

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works very well to be able to update the church because Edward Amaya who also was

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pulled from the Middle East to focus in Ukraine about two and a half years ago

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was here when we first started the work and that work has evolved and matured

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quite a bit and so I'm excited to be able to share that with you but if you

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have a Bible if you could open it with me to Luke chapter 5 because I will be

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going through that but as you're finding your place in Scripture I know Far

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Reaching Ministries has been involved with this church for some time but in

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case you're unfamiliar with what we do as Pastor Nathan said we started in

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Sudan a little over 25 years ago training chaplains and that has grown

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and expanded to where we've trained over 700 chaplains have over 400 active

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chaplains have lost 73 of our men I've been able to go to Sudan three times and

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every time I go I'm reminded of the friends that I made on the first trips

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that are no longer with us and so it's just that kind of ministry and being

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involved in a country like Sudan allowed us to expand into the Middle East to

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where we work in in over 30 countries where most of them are closed countries

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because of radical Islamic governments that are leading them including for

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example Afghanistan which we had 22 pastors when Afghanistan collapsed almost

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four years ago now and when it collapsed we had 200 people between the pastors

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or families in their small churches that were all targeted to be killed by the

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Taliban and we mounted a rescue operation to where we went to a

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neighboring country hiked over the mountains to meet our people were able

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to evacuate them and four years later we're continuing to rescue people out

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of Afghanistan to the state we've been able to rescue 2,800 people that were

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marked to be killed and and so when the war in Ukraine started because we've

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been involved in war zones we're in six active war zones right now we were asked

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to get involved with their chaplains were involved training them were involved

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funding them and through them we started building homes we've built over 200

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homes for people that have lost their homes we were feeding 15,000 people a

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month we have two homes for children that have lost their parents in the war

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and Wes our founder went there February of this year and we were so broken-hearted

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I wasn't on that trip at the beginning of the year about the children still

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living amongst the rubble in cities that have been destroyed so what happens is

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you got the front with the Russians and within artillery range they're taking

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those cities some of them 20 30 40 50,000 100,000 people pre-war and have

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leveled them well the men had gone off to go to the war and a lot of women were

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killed just going out to get supplies and it's really hard to describe how how

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brutal it is Russians have taken 200,000 Ukrainian children and so we bought a

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massive property on a safe part of the western part of Ukraine and we're going

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to have our biggest home in the entire world and so that is a big focus of what

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we're doing right now and whenever we talk about Ukraine we understand that

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it's a loaded subject because it's something that has become politicized and

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so much money has been sent by our government that a lot of people are

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concerned with that and so we do get pushback surprisingly from the church

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and what they'll say is haven't we done enough for them or the the phrase I hear

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more often is isn't the government in Ukraine corrupt I'm Mexican born and

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raised still live in Mexico English is my second language my father is a

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missionary that's why I speak English but sadly Mexico is notorious for having

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corruption within the government and so as someone who has been around corruption

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their entire life I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that there is

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corruption in the Ukrainian government nevertheless I have heard that there is

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some corruption in the United States government I might be wrong don't quote

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me on that one but we've been around the block enough to know that governments

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have their agenda and so we don't work through the governments we work alongside

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of them we need permits we need things to be done legally but we don't work

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through governments we work through the local church through the pastors through

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the chaplains and so I had the privilege of going last month to Ukraine and

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meeting maybe 15 of our chaplains while I was there and it was just so beautiful

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to see two things one the fearlessness talk a little bit more about this in a

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second but to their love for Jesus and the reality is I'll talk about this in a

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second in the message but when you lose everything except your faith your faith

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it says in first Peter which is much more valuable than golden parishes is to

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be found with that value and so they've lost everything everybody has lost

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friends everybody has lost things that are valuable and if you happen to

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leave live at East everybody has lost their livelihood their home their

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everything physically speaking and so how do we reach nations and cultures and

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it's all boils down to this what Ukraine needs is the same thing the Latin

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American needs where I'm mostly involved it's the same thing that America needs

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which is people need an encounter with the real Jesus and so I want to look at

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the story of Peter having this encounter with Jesus and how that should impact

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the way we long to reach the world and so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read

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through the passage that we're gonna consider together then we'll pray and

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we'll work through it it says so it was as the multitude trust about him to hear

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the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesareth and saw two boats

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standing by the lake but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing

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their nets he then got into one of the boats which was Simon Peters or Simon's

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and he said asked him to put out a little bit from land and he sat down and

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taught the multitudes from the boat when he had stopped speaking he said to Simon

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launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch but Simon answered

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and said to him master we have toiled all night and caught nothing

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nevertheless at your word I will let down the net and when he had done this

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they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking so they signaled

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to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they filled both

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boats so that they began to sink when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at

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Jesus knees saying depart from me for I'm a sinful man oh Lord for he and all

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who are with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken and

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so were James and John the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon and

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Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid from now on you will catch men so when

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they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed him Jesus

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I pray that you would speak to us this morning I pray that we would have an

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encounter with Jesus because I know that many people here have a genuine

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relationship with him but just like many people might have a genuine

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relationship many people might feel that even if it's genuine it's

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superficial and it's not where they long it to be and I know that when you

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reveal yourself to us there is there's a response that changes our reality and

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our perspective and our priorities so I pray that you would reveal yourself to

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us this morning in Jesus name amen I don't know about you but when I read

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this story I get the sense that this is Luke telling us about the first

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encounter between Jesus and Peter doesn't it feel that way that Jesus is an

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itinerant speaker and there's a crowd following him and it says are pressing

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about him and so he can't address the multitude just by the sheer you know

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magnitude of the multitude so he asked to use a boat he put some distance

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between him and the crowds he uses the shoreline like a natural amphitheater he

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starts preaching Peters there he says hey let's go fishing they have a

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miraculous catch and then you know Peter launches himself at Jesus feet saying

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depart from me for I'm a sinful man oh Lord Jesus says you will become a fisher

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of men and Peter abandons everything to follow Jesus that reads like if it was

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the first encounter between Jesus and Peter but scholars that piece together

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the gospel will tell us that this is in fact not the first encounter it's the

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first encounter is very different it's in the gospel of John and Peter was a

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disciple of John before he was a disciple of Jesus and that was in the

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Jordan River and so piecing together the Gospels most scholars assume that this

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story happens probably months after Peter has already been following Jesus

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as a disciple I don't know about you but then that brings up a question which is

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if Peter had been a disciple of Jesus for months at this point what took him

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so long to come to this aha moment where he he addresses Jesus as as Lord and God

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and says you know I want to follow you regardless of what it cost what what

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took him so long and the reason I say that Peter addresses Jesus is God and

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Lord you need to understand the the Hebrew context which is every single

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time in the Old Testament that somebody believes himself to be in Jesus in God's

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presence they think they're going to die and so before the death of Jesus the

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idea of God's presence is completely different than the idea of Jesus

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presence God's presence after the the death and resurrection of Jesus so the

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New Testament invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace that wasn't the

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mindset in the Old Testament the Old Testament is God is so radiant and

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powerful and holy and other that human beings cannot approach God's presence or

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they would get zapped so every single time in the Old Testament somebody

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believes himself to be in God's presence they're afraid they're going to die it'd

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be like a you know a fly trying to land on the surface of the Sun it's just

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incompatible and so that's Peter's reaction depart from me from a sinful

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man oh Lord what took him so long so I have four points for us based on the

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story we just read and the first one is being with Jesus does not necessarily

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mean you know Jesus which is Peter's reality which is he was with Jesus but

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didn't truly understand who Jesus was no I want to be careful because who I'm

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describing here it's not people that are that are willingly hypocritical that are

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knowledgeable about their lack of faith and have a facade to project a holiness

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they know they do not possess that's not who I'm talking about there will be

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people in church that way no people that are hypocritical we've all met somebody

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whose life does not line up with their Creed if you will that's not who I'm

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talking to I'm talking to those who are genuine as Peter was who loved Jesus as

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Peter did who have sacrificed for Jesus and so I don't want anybody to show your

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hands because I don't want to put anybody on the spot so don't raise your

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hand but does this describe you I love Jesus I want to follow Jesus I am

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following Jesus my worldview is shaped by his teachings but if I'm being honest

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my relationship with God still feels superficial still doesn't have the depth

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I wish it had that was Peter's reality and it's my experience that that's the

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reality of many many people in the church that have a genuine yet

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superficial relationship with Jesus so it gives what what is the way that Peter

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changed that so point number one is being with Jesus does not necessarily

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mean you know Jesus point number two is it is in deep waters where you will find

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him so Jesus invites Peter to go fishing and whenever you see a story in the whole

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Bible but even more so in the Gospels every single story is using a valuable

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real estate and what I mean by that is the way you would write books back in

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the day was you would have very expensive parchment and the writing

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process wasn't difficult but the copying was expensive and so you had to be

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extremely selective with the stories you share even in the Gospel of John John

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says that if we were to share all the stories all the books in the entire world

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wouldn't be enough to share everything that Jesus did and so when you see a

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story in the Gospels you need to stop and ask yourself this question okay I

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understand what happened but why is this what what spiritual principle is this

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story illustrating and I believe that's the point of this story I believe that

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Jesus understands that Peter's faith is superficial and so the invitation to

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deeper waters is not because Jesus wants to go fishing but rather the story of

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the miraculous catch is the way that Jesus is helping Peter go deeper in his

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relationship with him and so the way we know Jesus is when we face deep waters

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now I like that phrase because it makes sense you know we use this phrase that

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person's going through deep waters what does that mean it means they're going

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through hardship through insecurity through pain through confusion but it's

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in deep waters where we will find him let me say it another way it's not until

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you face the deep waters of life that you can have genuine faith proved faith

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faith that has gone through the fires I want to use a illustration for this and

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this is a preacher's favorite so you've heard this before I do apologize this is

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about a man who 130 years ago was a circus performer that decided to go solo

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and his act was to set a tightrope across the Niagara Falls and so he would

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cross the Niagara Falls and people would gather and they would tip him and that's

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how he made his living well as anything interest started to wane and the crowds

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started to diminish and his livelihood started to suffer as a consequence so he

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decided to do his most daring feat and he announced on the newspaper Charles

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Blunden will do his most daring feat and he didn't say what it was he just

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invited people to come out on a Sunday morning as he was going to defy you know

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the gravity and do this stunt and so he shows up and there's thousands of people

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waiting for him and he's got a wheelbarrow and he says how many of you

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believe I can cross with this wheelbarrow people started jeering and

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shouting and screaming I believe we believe and he crossed with the

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wheelbarrow and people lost their minds but he wasn't just there to cross with

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the wheelbarrow he said how many of you believe that I can cross with somebody

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inside of the wheelbarrow people start going crazy and in unison started

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shouting we believe I believe and he goes all right I need a volunteer and it

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went dead silent because it's one thing to shout I believe from the comfort of

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the safety zone and just to finish the story apparently there was a volunteer

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you know who volunteered to do that Charles Blunden's mom which tells you

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something the person that saw him probably at four years old going to

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gymnastic classes and at seven years old learning to do you know smaller level

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stunts was the person that truly trusted that's thing faith that only invokes

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your voice you have to question if that's truly faith because faith invokes

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trust and trust that is able to go through the deep waters and hold on to

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Jesus and so I wish this weren't the case I wish I could tell you that there

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was a path to spiritual growth and maturity that was easy that you could

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somehow embrace comfort and security and the known aspect of your life and grow

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by leaps and bounds in your spiritual life but that's not the way it works the

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way Jesus said it was in this world you will face tribulation in this world you

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will have tribulation I grew up as a Christian in the 90s most of you will

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remember this there was a fad in the 90s that I kind of wish would come back

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because it was kind of cool wait this fad was we would put Bible promises on

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everything bumper stickers or no stuff that we would put on our fridge we would

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embroider it on a pillow just everywhere and any calendars anything we could

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put Bible promises on coffee mugs you know what promise I never saw printed on

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a coffee mug in this world you will have tribulation as you're pouring your

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morning cup of coffee dreading the day ahead but it is a promise but that's

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only the first half of the promise in this world you will have tribulation but

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be of good cheer I have overcome the world it's like the psalmist who said

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yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil

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why because you are with me intimacy with God is strictly tied to difficulty

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in life and man I wish I could say that weren't the case but it is but God is

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calling you we even saying it keep calling us to deeper waters to deeper

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faith to deeper trust so point number one is being with Jesus is not necessarily

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mean you know Jesus point number two is it is in deep waters where you will find

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him point number three is before he commissions you he will allow you to

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come to the end of yourself meaning he doesn't just want you to step out in

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faith he wants to work with you to transform every area of your life but

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specifically your pride how do I get that from this story when Jesus tells

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Peter let's go fishing Peter says okay but you need to know Jesus that we

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fished all night and caught nothing so God allowed Peter to go through failure

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before Peter received the miracle and I think that's telling as well because so

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many times as Christians we expect the fact that we have a promise that we go

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from victory to victory from glory to glory that we're more than conquerors

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that means we will never fail just like I don't like the idea but it's true that

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it is through hardship that we find intimacy with God it is also true that

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even as a Christian you will go through seasons of failure but God does not

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allow the failure because he's angry at you or wants the worst for you listen to

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this God wants to use you God wants to use you but the most dangerous thing

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that can happen to a Christian is not failure it's that God uses you and that

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puffs you up with pride to such an extent that you end up disqualifying

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yourself this is exactly what it says when when Paul is telling us what you

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look for in a leader in a pastor it says not a novice because being filled up with

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pride he can fall into the same snare as the devil so what does that mean the

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most important attribute for a child of God is humility so God will allow you to

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go through seasons of failure so that when he finally uses you you point to

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heaven and say to God be the glory instead of assuming that it was your own

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doing what would have happened to Peter you guys know Peter what would have

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happened in Peter had they had this miraculous catch but he hadn't had the

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failure the night before do you think Peter would have been like man that was

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Jesus doing it or do you think he would have been like man I'm a really good

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fisherman Jesus you like that you ever want good fishing in the Sea of Galilee

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you know who to hire you got Peter the fisherman best in the whole town but it

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was his failure the night before that allowed him to see the hand of God in the

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catch and allowed him to realize that Jesus is Lord and so if you've been

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through failure you need to understand that it's not final I hate failing I

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hate feeling like a failure I feel like I've let people down that I love and

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that that is as a human but maybe more so as a man I don't know but as a human

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one of the worst emotions is feeling like a failure and I mean I've been there

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and I know you've been there you feel like God has forgotten you he hasn't and

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it's not that he did it to be cruel it's that the plan he has for you is so great

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that he cannot risk it going to your head and puffing you up with pride and

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so he will allow you to be broken before you are blessed so that you like Peter

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can say every good and perfect gift comes from above the father of lights and

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not assess your situation as it being you the one who provoked it but you the

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one who received from his grace before God uses you he will allow you to come

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to the end of yourself and point number four we need to leave it all to follow

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him Peter left everything even the miraculous catch I want you to think

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about this for a second for Peter the catch doesn't represent fish what's he

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gonna do with a couple hundred fish there's gonna say a couple hundred is in

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the gospel of John it tells us about a miraculous catch and it tells us how

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many it says a hundred and fifty three large fish and in that story it's one

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boat and the boat isn't sinking and the nuts aren't breaking here it's two boats

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and the nets are breaking and the boats are sinking so couple hundred large fish

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the only thing I don't know is what a large fish is is it five pounds ten

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pounds fifty pounds a hundred pounds but I'm just guessing this is likely we were

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to sell the fish in a fish market tens of thousands of dollars worth of fish

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how would you feel if I gave you this morning a check for forty thousand

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dollars would you be pretty happy I think whatever tax bracket you're in you

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would still be pretty happy with a forty thousand dollar check Peter doesn't say

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what I would say which is great sign me up love to be a fisherman give me 48

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hours I'll sell the fish we'll leave with some money in the bank he left the

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fish which would be the equivalent of me giving you a check and you not taking it

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because you say I want to follow you and I don't want to wait till the bank opens

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tomorrow let's go kind of crazy but that's the excitement that Peter had and

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it might just be if he's followed Jesus for a couple months now that he has heard

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people say I'm happy to follow you just let me parent bury my parents you say

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hey let that bury their own dead oh I'm happy to follow you just let me figure

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out my financial situation and him saying hey foxes have holes and birds

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have nests but the son of a man has nowhere to lay his head it might just be

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that Peter is petrified to wait and miss out on the opportunity of being a fisher

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of men so he forsakes everything the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer a German theologian

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who was killed by the Nazis said it from prison he wrote when God calls a man he

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bids him come and die salvation is free but obedience to the calling will cost

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us like I said I just got back from Ukraine a couple weeks ago and this video

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was done at the end of 2022 when the war just started and the reality is that it's

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so much worse now even than it was then and one of our concerns like I said is

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there is hundreds of thousands of orphans and just military not counting

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civilian losses it's low end estimate 200,000 might be way more than that

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that's what they're saying and when we were there every single city is being

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bombed every single city we were in we heard bombs over there it sounded like

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thunder in the background we went to one of the frontline cities that has been a

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hundred percent destroyed it's pre war population was about 50,000 people had

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about a thousand people still living in basements and amongst the rubble every

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single building was destroyed and they're still meeting for church in the

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rubble of a building when they told me that that was moving then we went to a

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different city called Zaporica and that's a main city close to the front

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line and through the night you could hear the sirens not the sirens the the

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signals the bomb sirens and you could hear the bombs landing and it sounded

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like I said once again like thunder and then we went to Pokrovsk which if you're

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following the war is becoming the new hotspot where Russians are concentrating

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their entire effort and there the artillery was constant there was never

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silence but it was still at a distance it sounded like continuous thunder and

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bombs landing and we drove through the craters where ammunition had been

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recently and there was still fires in these craters and then we got to

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Kharkiv which is the second largest city in Ukraine and we went to a building

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that was hit the night before and it was an entire apartment complex that was

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leveled and that night at midnight a ballistic missile landed and every other

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bomb that I heard that at that point I'd heard hundreds if not thousands

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because it was pretty constant it sounded like thunder in the back you know

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in the distance just like thunder would would sound this one shook the building

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so violently I'm surprised it didn't blow out the windows and it was so loud

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and it was a very surreal feeling I peeked out the window and it was so

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close that the neighbors went out with flashlights to see where it landed the

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next day the chaplains told me that it was a ballistic missile which is they

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launch it into space and it comes straight down and it's so fast it's

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really hard to stop and those are the kinds of missiles that take out an

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entire city block a few minutes later a second one landed and a few minutes

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later a third one landed with the same violence and this did not sound like

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thunder this sounded like a seven to ten second demolition of a building where

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you could hear the debris breaking a building slowly collapsing so I called

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my wife said I love you don't know where the next one's landing at that point

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there had only been one and then I started praying and I felt for the first

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time in my life that maybe my next words I was gonna speak them to Jesus in

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person and it was just those three missiles I don't know how close they

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were because the Ukrainians don't disclose the locations because the

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Russians would be able to see like I said it was close enough for people to

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go looking for them with flashlights in that city block and that day we left

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that really hot spot in the front lines and we're maybe two or three hours away

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and we met with different chaplains a chaplain that was in his 50s and I live

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in Mexico I've seen a lot of stuff cartel related we're rescuing children

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from sex trafficking and organ harvesting from organized crime in

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Central America and so I've been in a lot of situations I've had guns pulled on

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me I've had a case pulled on me and whenever you go through that and you

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share that with a Mexican and I say this is a Mexican if you're a Mexican I don't

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think you should take an offense because this is just the reality of how we are

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we will laugh and one of the way we one of the ways we process these really

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tragic things is we just kind of laugh and so we went to a place in Mexico

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where we got these you know we had a guns pulled on us and we got turned

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around and there was 50 of us and when we finally got to the city we told the

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pastor who had had his father killed a few years ago by organized crime and he

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said welcome to Matamoros with a huge grin on his face and he just kind of

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laughed about it so I expected that kind of a response from the Ukrainians you

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know when you're so broken sometimes humor is the only way to process these

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things and honestly it was it was impactful for me but I figured for them

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it's no big deal they're living in a war zone this is their life for the last

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two and a half years when I shared what happened the night before this hardened

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man of maybe 50 years years old started crying and he said your life will never

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be the same for all of us having a missile land close to us has been a

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before-and-after moment for our life and you will realize that so much of what

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you strive for and so much that is a priority for you when you feel this

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small you realize how meaningless it is and when he said that I realized that

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I've seen it many times like I said I've been in some really intense scenarios in

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my life but this was different because it's arbitrary you don't know where the

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next one's gonna land and three have landed and they have all shaken your

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building with violence and then you realize I get to go home when one of the

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chaplains took us to Poland to leave he saw a plane in the sky and he started

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crying and he said I can't remember the last time I saw a plane without feeling

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fear because there's no commercial flights every time you see a plane in

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Ukraine it's a military plane and you don't know it's friendly or not one of

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the guys and this is the last story is 22 pastor's kid great kid he's a

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paramedic on the front lines and one of his best friends who had he had been

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friends with since he was in kindergarten was killed and they knew

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where the body was and what happens is in Ukraine if you don't recover the body

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your family does not get government help and so it's really important to recover

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the body so that they can prove who died and when you have evidence then the

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government will help the widow or the parents so this is a 21 22 year old kid

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you got killed and it was right on the front line and they couldn't get the

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body and so for two days the body was just there until finally he decided to

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go in a vehicle through the artillery hits to recover his friend's body put it

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over shoulder got in the car bullets whizzing next to him and he was able to

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get his friend's body to safety and he could feel something moving inside of

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his clothes and so when he went to clean up himself he had his friends dead bodies

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maggots inside of his clothes and when he shared that to me it was surreal

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because it's just one story of millions

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we've bought a home because we realize there is a whole generation that is

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going to be traumatized by this one this war has taken the lives of many if it

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doesn't end soon it's going to continue to take the lives of many and children

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are innocent and like I said at the beginning I know that there's a sense in

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which many people say that's not my problem but that should not be the

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church's mindset the church's mindset is there's some things that are worth

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dying for and when I was asked why I went having three kids of my own a

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twelve-year-old nine-year-old and a three-year-old and they told me there's

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other people in the organization they can go that don't have children that age

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I said two things one how many people are in the United States Army that have

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to go serve their country that have children that are willing to risk their

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life because of their duty to their country how much more as a child of God

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of God has given me an opportunity to be light in the darkest place on earth

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should I take that opportunity but there's a second reason maybe a reason

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that's a little bit more selfish which is if something were to happen to my

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country where I was taken to war and my wife was killed and my children were on

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their own I would hope somebody would care enough to go find them and so this

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is the opportunity that we have to make a difference and to realize that when

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God calls a man he bids him come and die and the the sacrifice that they're

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facing they have to face because of geopolitics but you and I get to enter

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into their brokenness and I think that's why they were so thankful enter into

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their brokenness and say we're here for you we're going to help I have two areas

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that I want to make you aware of where you can make a difference through

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sponsorships the first one is where I'm most involved they didn't even talk

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00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:50,520
about this but it's it's important for our ministry we're planting churches in

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criminally controlled areas in Latin America and so we started six or rather

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seven last year and we're doing six this year and so if you'd like to sponsor one

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00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,680
of our church planters it's $75 a month that obviously doesn't cover his needs

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we have to raise several sponsors per each pastor but if you'd like to sponsor

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a pastor at $75 a month and then we have the children Ukraine so this is for the

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home we're building once again the sponsorship amount is $75 that doesn't

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cover their needs so we have to do several sponsorships per child and as we

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speak on this it's really important that we're clear that I know how compelling

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this is and I know every single person here wants to make a difference and be

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involved and so there's a part of our mind that wants to do this okay I want

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to make a difference and I'm currently giving this much to the church which I'm

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giving to God so I'll just take from what I'm currently giving to the church

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and redirect that to sponsor a child that's not the way we believe that

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missions works what is the biblical mindset as we give to our local church

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first and then we give to missions above and beyond that so please do not take

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from what you're currently giving to the church to support one of our pastors or

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one of our children for some people that means you are not in the place where you

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can be faithful to your local church and support one of these children if your

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heart is in the right place I know God will lead you to a place where you can

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eventually and for the time being you can pray for them but do not sacrifice

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what you're giving to your local church for most people $75 a month is doable I

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live in Mexico I have a family of five and if I take my family to dinner in

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Mexico it'll be $75 for dinner and so for dinner with the family I can make a

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difference in the life of the pastor or of a child and for some people $75 a

429
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month is very doable and you would like to do a pastor and a kid or several

430
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kids it doesn't cap out at one but this is the reality evil people are not

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asking permission to do evil they're going out and doing it and they have a

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terrible resolve and many of God's men don't know what to do many of God's men

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are inactive there's no way that God's men should have less resolve and those

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bent on evil there's a code name for everything we do in our code name for

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home that I get to oversee in Latin America is called little starfish that's

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based out of a story that there was a storm that pushed out a ton of starfish

437
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out on the sand and a kid is just all excited and goes out and starts

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throwing the star but fish back in the water and there's tens of thousands of

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them so somebody yells at him and says you're wasting your time there's too

440
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many of them what you're doing doesn't matter as a child throws one more and

441
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he says it mattered to that one we ought to do for one what we wish we could do

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for all and in so doing we will change the world this praises I thank you so

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much for the opportunity to stand in front of this beautiful church and just

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your providence and the way I met pastor Nathan at an event and just this is a

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church that it believes in missions and I just thank you so much I pray you would

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bless this church and as we stand in the gap for those who are broken remind us

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that there's things in life that you have called us to and even though

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there's a risk we join the millions hundreds of millions of Christians

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around the world that being a Christian is a risk and we want to be used by you

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to make a difference in Jesus name amen bless