Latest / Real Life Theology Podcast / Simple Discipleship, Radical Change (feat. Jim Putman)

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Simple Discipleship, Radical Change (feat. Jim Putman) · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back everyone to the Real Life Theology Podcast. Today we are featuring
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  Jim Putman talking to us about the power of God. This episode will help us see why
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  the church's simple biblical mission is to make disciples who make disciples
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  through loving transparent relationships that follow not only Jesus's teachings
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  but also his methods. Here is the episode.
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  Good morning. You know, Real Life Ministries is a... if I could put it into
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  the best, you know, use a couple of words that if you understood the story that
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  would kind of sum it up. The word simple would come to mind for me. Now I don't
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  mean simple as in easy. We all know that as soon as... whatever starts
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  out as simple, you add people to it, you add yourself to it. My biggest problem is
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  me wherever I go, there I am. Okay, not easy. The world is complex enough, I
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  don't need to have like a complex plan too. I want to have a very simple plan
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  because that means I can participate because I'm a simple person. As soon as
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  you add life to it, it gets complex. And it gets overly complex if you have an
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  overly complicated plan with overly complicated people. And so simple would
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  be how I would describe it. I'd never been in a church over 180. I had been an
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  atheist, an alcoholic, an athlete, got saved. For me, the whole church thing was
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  very complicated. What was simple was there was a man of God who didn't see
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  his role as a role to convert me. He saw his role was to be a disciple maker who
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  didn't just answer my questions pre-acceptance of Christ. He loved me
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  and in relationship with me, did life with me, earned the right to be there
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  when I had those questions. And he didn't know the answers to the kinds of
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  questions I had, but he pursued those answers, gave me an opportunity to
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  hear those questions answered from somebody who was like-minded with me,
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  walked me through the ramifications of, this is true, oh no, I've destroyed my
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  life and everything else, there's no way I could be saved after all of this, to
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  here's the gospel, the good news that we've all sinned and fallen short of the
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  glory of God. Very simply, help me understand that Jesus came for me. He
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  didn't just come to save me, he came to offer me what was best for me, his
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  lordship. Because my personal lordship, sitting on the throne of my own heart,
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  had ruined me and ruined my life, ruined my relationships, helped me understand
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  that God wanted me and had a plan for my life, a good plan. Walked me through
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  relationship, he didn't just help me find a relationship with Jesus, he saw it as
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  his role to help me find a place to use my gifts and abilities in the body of
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  Christ. Not as a spectator and an attender, but somebody who had a place,
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  had a ministry that had been shaped out of my giftings, the way I had been knit
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  together, my experiences, and even my stupid decisions and mistakes, he helped
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  me find that that shaped my ministry. I understood some things that not
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  everybody could understand, which had prepared me for the ministry God had for
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  me. He discipled me from pre-Christ to Christ, to becoming a, created a new in
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  Christ Jesus for good works which God planned for me to do before time began.
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  And as I went through that experience, then coming to the church, realizing that
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  very few had that experience. If I would have been discipled the way most people
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  had been discipled, at very best, I would have been a person who attended church
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  every once in a while and did not experience all that God had for me. Not
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  just to save me, but the Holy Spirit power that was given to me for me to
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  change me to find a life worth living, a meaningful life in the kingdom of God.
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  And the sad part of it is, so few people have experienced that, which is why it's
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  my passion to see the church become what it's called to be, because the person who
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  discipled me didn't do anything other than what Jesus had told him to do. What
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  Jesus had told all of us to do. You see, there's a power. The church is supposed
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  to be the manifold wisdom of God revealed to the world. The church is God's
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  plan A. And the role of the church is to make disciples who make disciples. Now
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  part of being a disciple maker is to help people find the truth in the
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  scriptures. All scriptures God breathed in the gospel. The knowledge of the
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  gospel. I love where he says, all scriptures God breathed and
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  useful for training. Prior to that it says, in the scriptures, the wisdom of
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  God is revealed, the salvation of God is revealed, and all scriptures God breathed,
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  useful for training, correcting, all this. It's not just the gospel is found in the
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  scriptures, but all scriptures God breathed. And within the scriptures is
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  contained the methodology of Christ for the church, the architectural plans for
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  the church, and the architectural plans for discipleship. A lot of times we take,
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  in our group, which is we believe the inerrancy of scripture, we love
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  Jesus, the person of Jesus, we love the teachings of Jesus, but we want to
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  divorce the methods of Jesus from his teachings, but we want the results of
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  Jesus. Bobby and I were talking, let me just tell you why I hate progressivism. I
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  hate progressivism, which is this attempt to make the Bible more palatable to the
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  masses by emptying it of some of its teaching, so that you don't have to be
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  ashamed. I don't want to be ashamed for the gospel. I want Jesus and salvation,
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  but don't want to be ashamed. So the parts that don't really fit with the
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  culture, we'll just shift them into this other category of cultural back then, and
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  we don't have to do it now. And it empties the Bible of the inerrancy of
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  scripture. I mean, it's not inerrant anymore, and then we get to pick and
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  choose. I stand over the Bible rather than under the Bible, and I get to decide
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  what it is. And if I get to decide, then so does that person, unfortunately. I
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  hate progressivism. Here's why I hate progressivism. It's unloving. It's
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  unloving. It's unloving because if all scripture is summed up in love the Lord
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  your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor
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  yourself and Jesus said and all the law and the prophets hang on these two
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  commands every command ever Jesus ever gave us because he loved us right he
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  knows how he made us he knows how he made marriage how he made the human body
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  he knows all of that right it's unloving to tell somebody what they want to hear
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  so they feel about better about it when what you're telling them actually
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  destroys their bodies their marriages their spiritual life it's unloving but
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  it's always interesting to me that it's some of the same people who would say
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  that about marriage you know the fundamentals will say that about
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  marriage that's not God's plan won't actually follow God's plan when it comes
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  to church and discipleship you get the point I mean it's early for me in North
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  Idaho so I don't even hunt this time of day I'm serious I just did a series not
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  that long ago on we called the elephant in the room and we talked about abortion
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  and homosexuality and marriage and all these things and I had a whole bunch of
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  people going yeah preaching I love that you love the word and then I go ahead
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  but how many of you in here have sat in here and we've talked about God's plan
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  for the church and your role in it and you're like yeah I hate homosexuality
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  but no I'm not doing what God says in the church you don't get to pick and
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  choose you're a hypocrite here's why I say that and I think it actually applies
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  to this group I hate progressivism and I love the Bible is God's Word but you
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  know what I also hate I hate fundamentalism that said maturity in
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  Christ is to know the right terms the exact right words all the Bible rules
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  and stuff but forget that every law and prophet was summed up in love and so
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  maturity is to know all the right stuff and be anti-progressive when it comes to
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  these new doctrines and you know inerrancy of scripture I but when it
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  comes to actually living it out I'm too busy learning to love I'm too busy
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  making sure I transfer the right information because maturity is to know
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  the Word of God but when it comes to living out real relationship in
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  discipleship I'm too busy I've got other things to do so while I hate
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  progressivism I hate fundamentalism the way it was lived out because it led to a
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  whole bunch of lonely people who don't really know each other shaking hands how
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  you doing fine fine fine but there's not confession of sin not transparency
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  and honesty there's putting on church clothes there's pastors who actually
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  think they're making disciples by preaching I'm not saying that that's not
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  a part of the process but if Jesus is the greatest model of discipleship yeah
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  he would preach but nobody understood what in the world he was talking about
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  and they would go what did that mean not even Jesus did it that way he's the
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  greatest communicator on the planet and you think you can do better than him
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  Jesus knew I'm gonna teach you but we're gonna do life together I'm gonna model
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  for you I'm gonna help you understand the doctrine but the right app not just
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  that but the right application of how it's lived out if all along the prophets
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  everything in the Old Testament is summed up in love how does this teaching
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  play out in a relationship God is a God of relationship but we turn him into a
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  the God of information right information it's not actually lived out and you're
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  saved because you have the right in for me Jesus is Lord I believe that he's
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  Lord really then tell me how you're modeling his love relationship in real
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  relationships that are transparent honest you're talking you're doing life
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  you're not just you know tell me how that that plays out because that's what
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  he did that's how he defined it your people as the head goes the body
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  follows the reason oftentimes your people don't know how to make disciples
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  like the guy who discipled me is because they were never discipled that way they
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  were educated at a Bible College they got all the right information they passed
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  the test I'm not against Bible College but it's got to be lived out it's got to
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  be modeled for people because those people are gonna see they weren't
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  discipled they're gonna come and go what is the disciple maker promise am I
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  supposed to gather my kids together and preach them for 40 minutes that's all
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  I've ever seen I can't do that at home that won't work in fact I'm bored halfway
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  through your message my kids will be bored halfway to two minutes into mine
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  they've never seen it lived out so here's what I'm saying to you in one
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  minute and ten seconds I have left I want us to know the right word the truth
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  about the gospel about faith about Christianity about your saved by grace
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  through faith for good works which God planned for him I want pastors
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  understand the rule you're not the paid player and people aren't the spectators
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  and you're not successful because a whole bunch of people come and watch and
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  listen to you teach the right doctrine success is the disciple maker who makes
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  disciples if you're a pastor your job is to create a system an environment
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  where you're doing this modeling it so other people can model it I can't
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  disciple everybody that's not my job my job is to make disciples to make
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  disciples to make disciples so everybody who's willing in the church has the kind
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  of relationships where they not only learn the truth of the scripture and ask
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  and answer questions and work it out they not only get to learn the truth but
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  the right application in very simple ways because at the end of the day
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  there are very simple people out there a lot of times we're asking and answering
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  questions they don't even have wouldn't even apply to their life because all we
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  do is hang out with other pastors and read commentaries instead of the regular
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  everyday front lines and at the end of the at the end of the day Jesus used
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  ordinary unschooled people to change the entire world he unleashed an army of
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  regular people that weren't so exceptional but they had an exceptional God
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  thank you guys for listening to this episode on the real life theologic
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  podcast please check us out at renew.org we've got more great podcasts we've got
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  tons of great free ebooks and along with other great articles on theology and
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  disciple making I hope you guys have a great rest of your day