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Choosing God Over Others Approval - Christmas Special - 151 · Marriage Life and More and Bible Study

0:28
Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you is the quickest way to forget what people think about you.
0:34
Daniel Moore: Living for an audience of one saying God, I want to please you with all that I do.
0:39
Daniel Moore: That is the quickest, the best and perhaps the only way to grow past living for the approval of others.
0:46
Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you.
0:50
Daniel Moore: Do you care about what other people think about you?
0:53
Daniel Moore: Well, this week, on Connecting the Gap, we're going to talk about that and we'll be back right after this.
1:25
Music Beds: Voices of night divine, all night when Christ was born.
3:39
Daniel Moore: Welcome to Connecting the Gap.
3:42
Daniel Moore: And things are a little bit different around here this week.
3:44
Daniel Moore: You probably already noticed some Christmas music going on here in the background and we've got a special episode coming your way.
3:52
Daniel Moore: We're taking a break from our normal series that we've been doing here recently.
3:54
Daniel Moore: Who Is Jesus?
3:56
Daniel Moore: Of course, last week we talked about Jesus' love, which was really an excellent episode to lead us up into this week.
4:03
Daniel Moore: As we're going to take a break here Next week, we'll get back into that.
4:06
Daniel Moore: We have a couple more episodes coming your way of that series before we switch gears and kick off into another study at that point after the first of the year.
4:14
Daniel Moore: As I've been telling you here for a few weeks now, we have a special episode coming your way, and I hope that you will enjoy it.
4:21
Daniel Moore: Hopefully you guys have a good week lined up here ahead of you.
4:24
Daniel Moore: Maybe the rest of this year Probably have some days off of work, possibly some time with family and, of course, just remembering that price that Christ paid on Calvary.
4:33
Daniel Moore: He came as a baby born in a manger to save the world from our sins, and I'm so thankful that he did that.
4:39
Daniel Moore: That's what we celebrate here in this Christmas season.
4:43
Daniel Moore: You can visit my website at ConnectingTheGapnet for everything about our ministry.
4:46
Daniel Moore: You can listen to this podcast by subscribing wherever you get your podcast.
4:50
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4:57
Daniel Moore: And, of course, we don't charge for this podcast.
5:00
Daniel Moore: It is free.
5:01
Daniel Moore: I do this each week as a ministry, and I hope that you guys enjoy it.
5:04
Daniel Moore: One way that you could support us, though, if you are listening to us on Apple or YouTube Rumble, maybe Spotify there's areas there that you can give us reviews, and you can also rate the podcast on Apple.
5:15
Daniel Moore: I'd love for you to give me a good rating on there and a good review that helps other people that don't know about the ministry, to learn a little bit about what other people think about it and maybe get them to join as well, and maybe through all of that we can reach some people that are lost, some people that need to know Jesus and what the reason is for this Christmas season.
5:36
Daniel Moore: Well, without further ado, we're going to go ahead and get into the special episode this week on Connecting the Gap as we get into this week of our Christmas episode for 2023.
5:47
Daniel Moore: This week, if you have your Bibles with you or your Bible app and you want to turn to Matthew, chapter one, we're going to see the angel appear to Joseph and talk about how do we overcome our fear of what people think about us.
6:03
Daniel Moore: Now I want to start this out this week with a question.
6:06
Daniel Moore: How many of you would say that you often care a lot about what other people think about you?
6:11
Daniel Moore: You know, the reality is that, at one level or another, all of us are very concerned.
6:17
Daniel Moore: You know, do you like the card that I drive?
6:19
Daniel Moore: Do you like the clothes that I wear?
6:21
Daniel Moore: Do you like my hairstyle?
6:23
Daniel Moore: Do you think that I'm funny?
6:24
Daniel Moore: Do I fit in?
6:25
Daniel Moore: Do you like my Instagram selfie?
6:28
Daniel Moore: I mean, you know, if I hold it up here, I have two chins, if I hold it down here, I have four.
6:32
Daniel Moore: Do you like this filter with my duck lips?
6:35
Daniel Moore: Do you like my duck lips?
6:36
Daniel Moore: And you know, we become so easily obsessed with what other people think about us.
6:41
Daniel Moore: In this week's story, we're going to watch Joseph battle with the opinions of people when he has to decide between doing what is easy and what is right, between what people would want him to do and between what God wants him to do, and so let me give you some context here, and then we're going to dive into the special Christmas episode on connecting the gap.
7:03
Daniel Moore: Joseph is engaged to be married to a young teenage girl.
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Daniel Moore: She's a virgin girl named Mary.
7:09
Daniel Moore: Now, in this time in history, engagements were a lot different than they are today.
7:14
Daniel Moore: Today, if you're engaged and things kind of go weird, then you can just say hey, see you later, I'm breaking off this engagement.
7:22
Daniel Moore: Well, back in this time, an engagement was actually a binding agreement.
7:27
Daniel Moore: You would be engaged for a year's period of time and in that time, if you wanted to break it off and break off that engagement, you actually had to file for divorce.
7:36
Daniel Moore: So the only way to get out of an engagement during this time would be to get divorced or to die.
7:42
Daniel Moore: And the engagement was so serious that if one of the two people died, the one would be considered a widow or a widower.
7:50
Daniel Moore: So this was what the engagement would mean.
7:54
Daniel Moore: So with that in mind, that context, here we pick up the story in Matthew, chapter one, verses 18.
7:59
Daniel Moore: And this is Matthew's version of how the birth of Christ came to be.
8:03
Daniel Moore: He said this.
8:04
Daniel Moore: He said this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah, came about.
8:07
Daniel Moore: His mother, mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
8:16
Daniel Moore: Now you can just read this, but if you try to get to the minds of Joseph and Mary, you have to admit that this had to be a really odd conversation.
8:27
Daniel Moore: When Mary sits down with her fiance and says oh, joey, honey, bunches, I've got something to tell you I'm pregnant, but wait, wait a minute, don't, don't, don't, don't, just don't, just jump to conclusions here.
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Daniel Moore: The good news is it's by the Holy Spirit.
8:44
Daniel Moore: Well now, if I'm Joseph and I'm kind of like, and how long did it take you to come up with this story?
8:50
Daniel Moore: Don't give me that Holy Spirit stuff.
8:53
Daniel Moore: I saw the way that guy was checking you out at the well.
8:55
Daniel Moore: Yeah, that just doesn't feel right to me.
8:59
Daniel Moore: So you have to admit, from a human perspective, he's got two options.
9:03
Daniel Moore: If you factor out the possibility that God actually did that, he's got two options.
9:09
Daniel Moore: You know, this chick is crazy, or she's a liar and I don't want to marry someone.
9:15
Daniel Moore: That's crazy or a liar.
9:16
Daniel Moore: She says I'm pregnant and the Holy Ghost did it.
9:20
Daniel Moore: So you have to acknowledge at some point that Joseph is going to be asking himself okay, if I stay with this girl, what's everybody going to say?
9:29
Daniel Moore: What are they going to think about us?
9:31
Daniel Moore: Because from her perspective, she's already marked.
9:35
Daniel Moore: This was a sin during this time to be pregnant out of wedlock.
9:40
Daniel Moore: That was punishable by death At that time.
9:43
Daniel Moore: They would stone you for this.
9:46
Daniel Moore: From his perspective, he's marked for the rest of his life.
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Daniel Moore: If he's the guy that got her pregnant, or she got pregnant with someone else, then from that point on he's going to be finding it hard to find a job.
9:58
Daniel Moore: If he divorces her, then at that point no other father is going to want to bless his daughter to be married to him.
10:05
Daniel Moore: He might find it difficult to get people to do business with him.
10:09
Daniel Moore: You know he's taking his donkey in for an oil change and the people say you know we don't work on that kind of donkey here at this place because everybody's going to know what was going on in this guy's life.
10:24
Daniel Moore: So we don't know for sure the state of mind, but we do know from the text that he is bailing on this relationship.
10:33
Daniel Moore: He's done.
10:34
Daniel Moore: Either he doesn't believe her or he doesn't want to take the heat, or whatever it may be.
10:39
Daniel Moore: But he thinks about it and he's like, okay, it's best to move on down the road.
10:44
Daniel Moore: Well, in verse 19, we see how this unfolds.
10:47
Daniel Moore: It says but because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
10:59
Daniel Moore: So here it is.
11:00
Daniel Moore: He's jumping out on the relationship.
11:02
Daniel Moore: Now there's a lot of commentaries out there that say that divorcing her quietly was actually a very noble and honoring thing to do, and I probably tend to agree from his perspective.
11:14
Daniel Moore: What he's thinking is I'm not going to expose her to public shame.
11:18
Daniel Moore: I'm not going to say to everybody hey, she cheated on me, stoned her to death.
11:23
Daniel Moore: He actually probably really loves her and cares about her and he thinks, you know, maybe she can go have this baby somewhere and maybe hopefully start over, you know, and then I'll start over and we'll just move on down the road.
11:37
Daniel Moore: And he's about to learn one of the most important life lessons for those who want to honor God.
11:42
Daniel Moore: Are you ready for it?
11:44
Daniel Moore: Well, if you're taking notes, this is a big one.
11:46
Daniel Moore: He's going to learn that pleasing God often means disappointing people.
11:52
Daniel Moore: He's going to learn the powerful truth that if you want to obey God, there will be many times when other people will not agree and they will not understand.
12:02
Daniel Moore: Pleasing God often means disappointing people.
12:06
Daniel Moore: And here's how the story goes down versus 20 and 21.
12:09
Daniel Moore: It says but after Joseph had considered this.
12:12
Daniel Moore: In other words, he's thinking through here's the pros, here's the cons the cons of staying her.
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Daniel Moore: You know they outweigh the pros.
12:21
Daniel Moore: So I'm going to break up with her and move on down the road.
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Daniel Moore: In verse 20, after he considered all this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph, son of David, fear not.
12:33
Daniel Moore: The King James version says fear not.
12:36
Daniel Moore: My version says do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
12:44
Daniel Moore: Verse 21 is so powerful.
12:46
Daniel Moore: It says she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
12:55
Daniel Moore: You will give him the name Jesus because he will save people from their sins.
13:02
Daniel Moore: At this moment, when he awakes from the dream, you have to imagine the pendulum swing of emotions inside Joseph's mind.
13:09
Daniel Moore: He's like my gosh.
13:11
Daniel Moore: For centuries and centuries it's been prophesied that a Messiah would come.
13:15
Daniel Moore: And here an angel of the Lord has told me that I get to be a part of the greatest event in history and at the same time, the emotions have to swing the other way.
13:24
Daniel Moore: Oh my gosh, what are people going to say about me?
13:27
Daniel Moore: What's this going to cost me?
13:30
Daniel Moore: On one hand, I get to possibly change the world.
13:33
Daniel Moore: On the other hand, I have no idea how difficult this will be.
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Daniel Moore: Everyone else around me is going to say run for your life, don't marry this girl.
13:43
Daniel Moore: She's sin and should be put to death by stoning.
13:46
Daniel Moore: On the other hand, should I please God?
13:49
Daniel Moore: Should I do what people want?
13:51
Daniel Moore: Or should I do what God wants?
13:53
Daniel Moore: And I can promise you.
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Daniel Moore: If you're a follower of Jesus, at different points in your life you're going to be confronted with opportunities to obey God or do something easier to win the approval of people, and he's going to learn these very important principles.
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Daniel Moore: If you're taking notes, why does this matter so much?
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Daniel Moore: The first thing and this is gigantic in our lives is this Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
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Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
14:31
Daniel Moore: And the reality is, for most of us, we drift toward wanting to please people.
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Daniel Moore: You know what do you think of me?
14:39
Daniel Moore: Do you like me?
14:40
Daniel Moore: Do I fit in?
14:41
Daniel Moore: Do I measure up?
14:43
Daniel Moore: I mean, am I cool enough?
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Daniel Moore: Do you like what I'm doing?
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Daniel Moore: Can I be a part of your club?
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Daniel Moore: Can we be friends?
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Daniel Moore: Do you think I'm doing the right thing?
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Daniel Moore: And suddenly, without even meaning to, we surrender our lives to the opinions of people at the expense of actually living to please God.
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Daniel Moore: How do we overcome that?
15:03
Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
15:11
Daniel Moore: Here's the good news, and this is so powerful.
15:15
Daniel Moore: The flip side is true as well.
15:17
Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you is the quickest way to forget what people think about you.
15:23
Daniel Moore: Living for an audience of one saying God, I want to please you with all that I do.
15:29
Daniel Moore: That is the quickest, the best and perhaps only way to grow past living for the approval of others.
15:36
Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you.
15:40
Daniel Moore: And here's the bottom line when you think about it, you can't please everyone.
15:45
Daniel Moore: If you try to please people, you're going to fail at some point.
15:49
Daniel Moore: If you wear your hair one way hey, do you like this?
15:53
Daniel Moore: Oh, yeah, I like it, you're cool now.
15:55
Daniel Moore: But another group says, no, that's ugly and makes you look fat.
16:00
Daniel Moore: And I like this kind of music.
16:02
Daniel Moore: Do I fit in?
16:02
Daniel Moore: Yes, you do, and no, you don't.
16:05
Daniel Moore: If I believe this politically, do I?
16:07
Daniel Moore: Yes, I do, no, I don't.
16:09
Daniel Moore: How about I stand in the middle?
16:10
Daniel Moore: Well then, we all hate you, or whatever the case may be.
16:14
Daniel Moore: There's lots of arguments that can be tossed around in that situation, because if you try to please one group, you displease someone else.
16:22
Daniel Moore: And the bottom line is no matter how hard you try, you cannot please everyone.
16:28
Daniel Moore: But the good news is.
16:30
Daniel Moore: You can please God.
16:31
Daniel Moore: You can live a life where God looks at you and says you did good, you did the right thing, you brought glory to my name.
16:40
Daniel Moore: Well done, my good and faithful servant.
16:43
Daniel Moore: But how do we overcome living for what everyone else thinks?
16:47
Daniel Moore: We surrender ourselves to the living for an audience of one, because becoming obsessed with what God thinks about us is the quickest way to become set free of what people think about us.
17:00
Daniel Moore: And Joseph is going to have to get to a place in his life where he says you know what I value?
17:07
Daniel Moore: The opinion of God above the opinion of people.
17:10
Daniel Moore: Now, how does this play out in our everyday lives?
17:13
Daniel Moore: And I'm going to give you two big thoughts to take with you and apply and to put into play in your life.
17:19
Daniel Moore: I'm going to put it under the subtitle how do we live for God instead of for people?
17:24
Daniel Moore: We're going to have two thoughts on this and we're going to do that when we come back.
17:29
Daniel Moore: We're going to take a break for a moment here on this special Christmas episode on Connecting the Gap, and we're going to be back right after this.
18:00
Chat About Jesus dot com: My brother and I work with young people that have hard lives.
18:03
Chat About Jesus dot com: Sometimes we feel that hurt with them.
18:05
Chat About Jesus dot com: One Christmas we visited a theme park that was decorated beautifully.
18:09
Chat About Jesus dot com: I remember Brad said man, holiday decorations are always special, but wow that I really need the lights this year.
18:16
Chat About Jesus dot com: Maybe you've had that kind of year long hard, chaotic, strange relationships, a dwindling bank account, maybe losing a loved one.
18:24
Chat About Jesus dot com: Maybe for you it's more the heartbreak season than the holiday season.
18:27
Chat About Jesus dot com: Did you know that God's book says he has kept track of every tear you've cried, that he wants to wipe away each one and bring peace and purpose to your life.
18:36
Chat About Jesus dot com: He doesn't want the pain of your past to define you anymore.
18:39
Chat About Jesus dot com: God's book says he binds up the broken hearted, that when you begin a relationship with him through Jesus' death and resurrection, you can be forgiven and free.
18:49
Chat About Jesus dot com: You can find out more by calling 888-NEED-HIM or by going to chataboutjesuscom and find the true light this Christmas.
19:00
Music Beds: So this is Christmas, and what have you done?
19:06
Music Beds: Another year over?
19:10
Music Beds: A new one just began, and so this is Christmas.
19:18
Music Beds: And what have you done?
19:21
Music Beds: Another year over?
19:24
Music Beds: Another year over.
19:28
Music Beds: A new one just began, and so this is Christmas.
19:37
Music Beds: I hope you had fun.
19:42
Music Beds: The near and the dear ones, the old and the young, the old and the young, welcome back to the special Christmas episode of Connecting the Gap.
20:02
Daniel Moore: We've taken a break from our series we've been doing on who Is Jesus and we're doing a special Christmas episode as Christmas is coming up here this next week, and then, of course, following that we'll get back to our series we've been in.
20:12
Daniel Moore: We'll finish that up here on the first year and get on to new things.
20:15
Daniel Moore: Hope you guys are enjoying this week.
20:17
Daniel Moore: We're going to go ahead and continue here as we go into the break.
20:21
Daniel Moore: We were talking about how it plays out in our life, about how do we live for God instead of for people, because we get put in those positions sometimes where we have to make a choice.
20:33
Daniel Moore: We have to decide are we going to please God and do what he asked us to do, or are we so worried about what people think about us that we're going to put God to the side and make them happy?
20:44
Daniel Moore: And, as I was saying, we have two thoughts that we can put into play here To help us live for God instead of for people.
20:52
Daniel Moore: The first one if you're taking notes, this will really speak to many of you.
20:55
Daniel Moore: I think it did to me.
20:56
Daniel Moore: It's so important because when you're living for God, not everybody's going to like it.
21:02
Daniel Moore: Pleasing God often means disappointing people.
21:06
Daniel Moore: If you're not ready to be criticized for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used by God.
21:14
Daniel Moore: That's the number one thought.
21:18
Daniel Moore: You can write that down.
21:18
Daniel Moore: If you're not ready to be criticized for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used to God.
21:25
Daniel Moore: There's some power in that.
21:27
Daniel Moore: Think about all the different ways that Joseph and Mary would be criticized.
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Daniel Moore: I mean they would be publicly disgraced again and again and over and over People would whisper about them hey, hey, you know, that's not really Joseph's baby.
21:44
Daniel Moore: Or they might be saying, hey, you know, they say it was the Holy Ghost, but I saw his donkey parked outside of her apartment at 2am and you know they were just doing Bible studies at 2am, you know, or whatever the case may be, and I mean this was like huge and a huge public disgrace and I don't know how it will play out in your life, but there's going to be a time when you're reading God's Word and God's Word tells you to do something that is culturally unpopular and if you obey, guess what?
22:18
Daniel Moore: You're going to be criticized.
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Daniel Moore: Or you may hear the voice of God leading you to do something.
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Daniel Moore: You may be a teenager, a college student or a full-blown adult and you're trying to break free of the party lifestyle.
22:30
Daniel Moore: You say I'm going to serve Christ, I'm not getting drunk anymore and I'm not doing drugs anymore, and all your party friends are going to be like what are you doing, you religious freak-o.
22:42
Daniel Moore: Or you might say you know what, no matter what I did in the past, from now on I'm going to honor God with sexual purity.
22:49
Daniel Moore: And people are like and you're what I mean?
22:52
Daniel Moore: That's like the stupidest.
22:54
Daniel Moore: You know what year we live in and how much fun the bonga bonga is to do and you're going to do this.
22:59
Daniel Moore: That's crazy, you religious loser freak-o.
23:02
Daniel Moore: And they're going to make fun of you.
23:04
Daniel Moore: Or you may say you know what?
23:06
Daniel Moore: You guys are going to the beach for spring break, but I feel called to go and serve the poor on a mission trip, and they're going to be like why are you going to spend your money to go do something that stupid?
23:17
Daniel Moore: And they're going to continue to stay in there and just make fun of you.
23:22
Daniel Moore: Or you may be in a place where you actually leave a high paying job to go to a lower paying job Because you feel like God was calling you to do something with your life and that would actually contribute to society.
23:33
Daniel Moore: And you feel like you could make a difference at this new job, even though the pay isn't as high.
23:38
Daniel Moore: And everybody's like, well, why would you do that?
23:42
Daniel Moore: I mean, life's all about money, right?
23:44
Daniel Moore: That's pretty stupid, you idiot.
23:47
Daniel Moore: Or maybe you're going to live beneath your means and you may stay in a profitable job and you may live on less than you actually make, so that you can give sacrificially and generously To make a difference in this world.
24:00
Daniel Moore: And then they're like well, why don't you just blow it out, dude?
24:04
Daniel Moore: I mean, you could do this and travel and have a blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
24:09
Daniel Moore: And it just goes on and on and you say, because this is what God is calling me to do, and they're going to mock you, they're going to make fun of you and if you're not ready to be criticized for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used by God.
24:24
Daniel Moore: You know I like to teach people and other leaders this the more you do, the more pain you will experience.
24:31
Daniel Moore: If you want to make a difference in this world, you will endure more pain than those who don't.
24:36
Daniel Moore: If you want to live a life where nobody criticizes you.
24:40
Daniel Moore: Let me tell you what to do Do nothing, stand for nothing and have nothing.
24:46
Daniel Moore: I choose the bullets.
24:48
Daniel Moore: Go ahead and shoot.
24:50
Daniel Moore: I would rather do something significant and have people shoot at me Than do nothing at all.
24:55
Daniel Moore: That's why sometimes, if your church isn't called a cult, every now and then You're not doing jack.
25:02
Daniel Moore: You know, I'm dead serious.
25:03
Daniel Moore: And they're like oh, I know that they're a cult, they're just a cult.
25:08
Daniel Moore: They're a cult that stuff that they do over there.
25:10
Daniel Moore: And we're like yeah, you know, bring it on.
25:12
Daniel Moore: Okay, fine, fair enough, call us that, we can do nothing.
25:16
Daniel Moore: There's not nobody that's going to talk about us.
25:20
Daniel Moore: Everything significant that I've done in my personal life or I've done together with my church has been met with resistance and criticism.
25:26
Daniel Moore: Anything significant is met with spiritual resistance and criticism.
25:31
Daniel Moore: Personal or professional life.
25:33
Daniel Moore: I mean, it's crazy.
25:34
Daniel Moore: You know, in personal life, there was a pastor that had six kids and you wouldn't believe the crap they had to go through.
25:41
Daniel Moore: They're like well, six kids, what are you?
25:44
Daniel Moore: I mean, don't you know what causes that?
25:46
Daniel Moore: And they were like yes, we do.
25:48
Daniel Moore: And they were unwilling to give it up.
25:50
Daniel Moore: The way they saw it, children were blessing.
25:52
Daniel Moore: They won a couple more blessings than the average family and that was just them.
25:56
Daniel Moore: They felt called to home educate their kids.
26:00
Daniel Moore: Now, I homeschooled in the eighth grade.
26:02
Daniel Moore: I've never, ever said you should do that.
26:05
Daniel Moore: In fact, some of you that listen each week, I know you, you should not do that.
26:09
Daniel Moore: It's a personal thing.
26:10
Daniel Moore: And people are like, oh, your kids are going to be weird, yep, because have you seen normal?
26:17
Daniel Moore: I mean, they're going to grow up to wear denim skirts and make their own butter.
26:21
Daniel Moore: Bring it on, man, put some butter on that bread.
26:25
Daniel Moore: The church that I go to right now is a mega church and when our pastor started our church, people were like you don't need another church.
26:31
Daniel Moore: Why another church?
26:32
Daniel Moore: You know, when our church went church online Church online there's like people are saying, oh, there's no such thing as church online.
26:39
Daniel Moore: And while everybody's arguing about it, our church was just quietly reaching about 150,000 unique computers in countries around the world where you can't get the gospel there any other day, and those numbers have grown every year up to over 400,000 at a time.
26:55
Daniel Moore: Okay, you know, just just criticize.
26:58
Daniel Moore: You know, shoot away all day long.
27:00
Daniel Moore: And then there's multiple sites.
27:02
Daniel Moore: There's like, oh, church can't go to multiple sites.
27:04
Daniel Moore: It's got to be small to be godly.
27:06
Daniel Moore: If you're big, you must be doing something wrong.
27:09
Daniel Moore: If the gospel is working and you're reaching people, there's got to be something wrong with that.
27:14
Daniel Moore: Churches can just get too big.
27:16
Daniel Moore: You know, anything significant you do will be met with criticism and resistance.
27:21
Daniel Moore: If you're not ready to be criticized for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used by God, because becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
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Daniel Moore: But becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you is the quickest way to forget what people think about you.
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Daniel Moore: Thought number one if you're not ready to get shot at, you're not ready to be ready to be used.
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Daniel Moore: Well, here's the second thought, and this is probably hopefully going to set some of you free Extraordinary acts of God often start with ordinary acts of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: Let's repeat that Extraordinary acts of God often start with ordinary acts of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: I mean, think about this the savior of the world was born when two teenage kids said yes to God in a simple act of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: What's crazy is, if you try to get to the mind of Mary and Joseph, what did the angels say You're going to have a boy going to be named Jesus.
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Daniel Moore: He's going to save people.
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Daniel Moore: That was it.
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Daniel Moore: There's no details like how are we going to raise him?
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Daniel Moore: How are we going to discipline him?
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Daniel Moore: Are we going to spank him or put him in time out?
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Daniel Moore: I mean, we're dealing with the son of God here.
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Daniel Moore: Okay, so he's perfect.
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Daniel Moore: Maybe he'll spank us or put us in time out.
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Daniel Moore: There's no details here of how we're going to do this.
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Daniel Moore: I mean it's crazy.
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Daniel Moore: And I think there are times when God would say you know, we're like, show me the details.
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Daniel Moore: And God will be like you can't handle the details.
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Daniel Moore: If I showed you everything, you wouldn't take the first step Now.
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Daniel Moore: They didn't know details.
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Daniel Moore: And this is what I embrace so often and that is what we don't have to understand completely, to obey immediately.
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Daniel Moore: We don't have to see the whole picture to put the first puzzle piece in place and trust God with the rest.
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Daniel Moore: Because, as we've discussed in other episodes in the past, outcome is whose responsibility?
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Daniel Moore: Outcome is God's.
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Daniel Moore: What is our responsibility?
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Daniel Moore: Obedience is ours.
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Daniel Moore: Outcome is God's responsibility.
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Daniel Moore: Obedience is ours.
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Daniel Moore: Extraordinary acts of God often start with ordinary acts of obedience and you know this is so encouraging to me.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea what you might set into motion with one simple obedient act toward God.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea what you might set into motion when you simply obey what God puts on your heart.
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Daniel Moore: Now I'm going to keep teaching this until you understand it.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea what you set into motion when you do what God calls you to do.
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Daniel Moore: Craig, or Shell, shared this story.
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Daniel Moore: In fact, years ago there was a guy he said I can't remember his name, don't even know his name.
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Daniel Moore: He just kept coming up to me again and again saying I don't know why, but God puts you on my heart.
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Daniel Moore: You've got to go down to this downtown Bible study.
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Daniel Moore: He said.
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Daniel Moore: I don't know why, but I promise you you have to go down to this downtown Bible study.
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Daniel Moore: Craig was in his 20s or his early 20s at that time, and so, finally, craig went down to the downtown Bible study and he listened to pastor Nick Harris teach one of the most powerful Bible lessons that he had ever heard.
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Daniel Moore: And it was so moving that Craig went to his church on Sunday, and it was so moving that Nick became his pastor, and it was so moving that he ended up inviting him to serve God in full-time ministry at the church and allowed him to go to seminary and helped him to end up starting life church.
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Daniel Moore: And there's a guy that he doesn't even know his name who helps set something into motion that he had no idea.
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Daniel Moore: But a simple act of obedience had a chain reaction of a whole lot that would bring glory to God.
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Daniel Moore: He said his wife Amy and I, we had no idea what we would set into motion when we met with 45 people in a two-car garage almost 18 years ago and thought maybe we could do church in a different way.
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Daniel Moore: And oh, they criticized.
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Daniel Moore: They're like Oklahoma doesn't need another church, oklahoma doesn't need another church.
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Daniel Moore: The problem is we didn't realize this.
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Daniel Moore: The church wasn't intended just for Oklahoma.
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Daniel Moore: God intended something well beyond, well beyond that.
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Daniel Moore: He said we had no idea what would be set into motion with the single act of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: He continued years ago we were sitting around, we were really frustrated because nobody cares about reading the Bible anymore and just from their own lay person's assessment, they kind of thought this is probably the most disengaged generation in the history of Christianity when it comes to reading the Bible.
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Daniel Moore: So, craig said they thought somebody's got to do something about this.
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Daniel Moore: It might as well be us.
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Daniel Moore: So they took it upon themselves, a small step of faith, and built a little website called uversioncom, where it was supposed to be kind of like Facebook, youtube and the Bible.
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Daniel Moore: They built a community around the Bible, craig said.
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Daniel Moore: The problem is it just didn't really work.
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Daniel Moore: Nobody would use it except for them, and they only used it because they made it.
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Daniel Moore: They really didn't like it, but they had no idea that that was the first step that would lead them through a door, that whenever Apple would create apps, they thought, well, I wonder if we turn this into an app?
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Daniel Moore: We had no idea.
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Daniel Moore: They said, as of today, now, that they've given away totally free, no cost to the receiver, over 120 million free uversion Bible apps, and that doesn't even count the new and even more popular kids Bible app.
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Daniel Moore: He said we had no idea that we were set into motion with a single act of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: And so this week, when you go and you invite someone to Christmas services, you have no idea how their family might become different.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea how generations might be different by a single act of obedience, because God put someone on your heart when you feel prompted to serve somewhere in your church.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea who you might impact, whose life might be different, how their life might come back to bless you, how much your life will be changed when you do something for somebody else.
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Daniel Moore: And suddenly, maybe the high point of your week is when you're an invisible servant, serving like Jesus did, and you find love and joy and fulfillment in doing that.
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Daniel Moore: Some of you, you might start to tithe and one day you look back and you say I cannot believe what God did in our lives, in our marriage, in our relationship, in our family, in our finances, when we took the single act of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: Some of you, you might foster or you might adopt, and you don't know the details.
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Daniel Moore: You know there's, I don't know.
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Daniel Moore: And how are we going to?
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Daniel Moore: God's going to cost, where they're going to come from, and you don't have to understand completely to obey immediately and take the next step.
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Daniel Moore: And years later you're like, wow, I cannot believe how we changed this life.
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Daniel Moore: Or maybe that might surprise you even more I can't believe how this life ended up changing ours.
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Daniel Moore: You may be a single guy and you see a single girl this week and God's going to prompt you to get up off your single butt and sew your Xbox and get out of your mom's basement, iron a shirt, brush your teeth and ask her out on a date, and one day you're going to have a son and name him Daniel, because God used me to help you get some action in your single life.
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Daniel Moore: Glory to God.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea what a single act of obedience can set into motion when you obey what God puts on your heart.
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Daniel Moore: Extraordinary acts of God often start with ordinary acts of obedience.
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Daniel Moore: And so the angel speaks to Joseph and says fear not.
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Daniel Moore: Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what is in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
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Daniel Moore: You will give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus, because he will save people from their sins.
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Daniel Moore: Now he's got a choice to make.
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Daniel Moore: Does he do what's easy or does he do what's right?
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Daniel Moore: Does he do what people would want him to do or does he do what God would want him to do?
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Daniel Moore: Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you, but becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you is the quickest way to let go of what people think about you.
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Daniel Moore: So in this one little verse we see his decision, and what's so encouraging to me about this one little verse is that God is going to prompt many of you to do something through his word or by his spirit, and one sentence could summarize your response.
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Daniel Moore: Here was Joseph's response in verse 24.
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Daniel Moore: When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
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Daniel Moore: He did what the angel of the Lord commanded him and through that simple act of obedience, the greatest act of God in human history was brought to fulfillment.
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Daniel Moore: You have no idea what you said into motion with the single act of obedience to God.
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Daniel Moore: So when God speaks to you and you wrestle with it what's easy, what's right, what people think, what God thinks there could be one sentence that is a destiny altering sentence, and you did what the Lord prompted you to do.
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Daniel Moore: I promise you you have no idea what one single act of obedience can set into motion when you obey what our good God puts on your heart.
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Daniel Moore: As you take a moment today, there may be a lot of you who would recognize, like I do, because I so often battle with not just at the back of my mind, but at the front of my mind.
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Daniel Moore: What are they going to think?
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Daniel Moore: Am I going to fit in?
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Daniel Moore: Do I measure up?
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Daniel Moore: Are they going to like me?
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Daniel Moore: Where do I stand If I do this?
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Daniel Moore: What are people going to think?
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Daniel Moore: And I want with all my heart to overcome this fear of what people think and become so obsessed with what God thinks that I'm not moved by the opinions of people.
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Daniel Moore: Where are those of you who you would recognize I'm often more concerned with what people think than I am what God thinks.
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Daniel Moore: And today I want to be totally and completely transformed.
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Daniel Moore: I want to be different.
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Daniel Moore: I want to align myself with the heart of God and I want to be obsessed with his will, his purpose, his kingdom, his plan, his goodness and His direction.
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Daniel Moore: I want to live for Him, even above the opinions of people.
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Daniel Moore: If that's you, on this Christmas week in 2023, I want to say a Christmas time prayer with you.
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Daniel Moore: Say, father, I thank you for the hundreds and hundreds of people this week that genuinely sense the burden and the responsibility, knowing God, that it's so easy to surrender to the opinions of people.
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Daniel Moore: But, god, we want to have the courage to obey you no matter what.
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Daniel Moore: God, I pray that, as we read your word and as we're in your presence, that your Holy Spirit would build our faith, build our passion, god, to obey you.
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Daniel Moore: God understanding that we don't have to understand completely to obey you completely and immediately.
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Daniel Moore: And, god, I pray that time and time again, even today, when there would be an opportunity to do the wrong thing or do the right thing, when you prompt this God, that we're always going to do the right thing.
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Daniel Moore: God, I pray that we would be sensitive to what your voice would say, to lead us even into doing things that might be uncomfortable, things where people would criticize that.
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Daniel Moore: God, we would so much rather please you than have people like us, knowing that people are so fickle.
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Daniel Moore: Anyway, god, I pray that we would be obsessed with you, god, that your kingdom would be first in our hearts, god, that we would obey what you call us to do and that we could look back at this moment and, god, worship you.
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Daniel Moore: Thank you, knowing that we had no idea what you would set into motion when we took a simple moment to obey you at your word.
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Daniel Moore: God, give us the courage to live above the opinions of people and only God for your approval.
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Daniel Moore: Thank you, lord, and in Jesus' name we pray.
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Daniel Moore: Amen From all of us here at Connecting the Gap.
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Daniel Moore: We wish you a merry Christmas.
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Daniel Moore: Hope you have an excellent week here coming up, we'll be back next week with another episode of Connecting the Gap.
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Daniel Moore: We'll get back into our series.
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Daniel Moore: Who Is Jesus?
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Daniel Moore: Until then, don't forget that God's word never fails us.
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Daniel Moore: God's word has stood the test of time and through Jesus' death on the cross, he has connected the gap.
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Daniel Moore: Merry Christmas from Connecting the Gap.
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Daniel Moore: You've been listening to Connecting the Gap podcast.
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Daniel Moore: I'm Daniel Moore, the host for this podcast, and I personally thank you for listening.
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Daniel Moore: Each week In this world there are many disconnects that cause chaos in our lives.
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Daniel Moore: This podcast is births from the desire to share hope and restoration of the power of the gospel by being transparent and open in our biblical walk with God.
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Daniel Moore: Each week we take a few moments as we navigate God's word and peer into other people's testimonies and encourage each other to connect the gap.
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Daniel Moore: We upload a new audio podcast every Thursday and a video version of it on YouTube and Rumble.
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Daniel Moore: We are also on the Christian podcasting app Edify.
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Daniel Moore: You can subscribe to our podcast on many of the available podcasting platforms, such as Apple Podcast, deezer, spotify, google Podcast, amazon Music, iheart Radio, tunein Radio and many more.
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Daniel Moore: We are also available on your Alexa-enabled devices.
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Daniel Moore: If you would like to give us feedback or would like to contact our ministry for any reason, including prayer, visit our contact page at wwwconnectingthegapnet and send us a message.
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Daniel Moore: We hope you are blessed by this ministry.
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Daniel Moore: This is a production of Connecting the Gap Ministries.
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Daniel Moore: Thank you.