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Nephilim, Enoch, and Identity: What Matters vs What Distracts · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Look at the book of Enoch and you start seeing, oh my goodness, what a bunch of yehoos.
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  I think we as Christians living today
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  need to go to Romans chapter 8 and understand our identity in Christ.
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  My Bible class right now, we're talking about spiritual gifts.
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  And we all have different spiritual gifts and there's not one that's better
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  than the others or anything like that.
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  Relish. Pleasing or zestful flavor. A quantity just sufficient to flavor,
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  to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Welcome back to another episode of Relish. I am Rowan Miller.
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  This is Pastor Don Patterson.
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  Don, how are you doing today? Yeah, we're doing all right. We're doing all right. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Life is good, even at this age.
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  We've been getting some nice warm weather lately. so yes we
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  were ready for spring i mean we really didn't have a hard winter
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  compared to other winters but uh
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  uh yeah we're ready for spring i
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  must for snow but there were a couple freezing days in
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  there yes exactly yes even
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  the model t made it through the winter well oh yeah and it started on the first
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  try yes on its own i didn't have to crank it the battery was up yeah you know
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  that makes life worth living you know when you go out to the old car and it
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  starts right up yeah i guess that means it wasn't too hard it went to right
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  yeah it wasn't too hard it went yeah,
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  oh well we have different ways that we measure how things are good and not,
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  yeah yeah all righty oh yeah sorry bud oh what is the what has given the most
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  meaning and purpose to your life so far?
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  Most meaning. What makes life worth a living?
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  That's a song like that. Um...
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  I think just like relationships I have with family and friends and church members, um.
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  I don't have too much more to say on that, I guess, but good Christian friends.
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  A lot of fun to be with friends and family, especially over holidays.
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  We're all getting older, and we've got two, three cousins at college,
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  and going to be more next year.
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  So you've moved from that time when you were outside swinging together and playing
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  football in the yard and getting muddy and things like that,
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  and to a time when you're now adults embracing each other. Right. Yeah.
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  Cool. Growing up with cousins. Does it get better than that?
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  Highland, especially. Yeah.
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  The one side of our whole family is like those within 15 minutes of each other.
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  Wow. Yeah. Wow. That was cool. Yeah.
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  That's special. I had that when I was young. Yeah.
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  All our cousins are spread now, but at one time we had a lot of cousins and
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  a lot of good times together. Yeah. Yeah.
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  All right. Interesting. First question here for you. Okay. What are your thoughts on the Nephilim?
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  Oh, okay. Well, at least we're out of the personal stuff, like the last two episodes.
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  Interesting, the role of the Nephilim in biblical literature.
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  The Nephilim definitely were a physically superior group.
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  And part of that's attributed to, in the Genesis chapter 6, it talks about them
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  being the sons of God and mating with the women, the daughters of men.
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  And so, that is in the canon, biblical canon.
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  And then we look at the book of Enoch and you start seeing, oh my goodness, what a bunch of yehoos.
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  And then how they….
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  If we take any credit from, I mean, if we give the Book of Enoch any credence,
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  if you will, they were quite a bunch of schnucks.
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  I mean, here they were physically superior and carried a wisdom level that was
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  beyond, at least according to Enoch.
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  But they were scoundrels. And I guess they were the epitome of who we are as
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  human beings, or our worst half, if you will.
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  And Goliath of Gath is probably the clearest biblical example of that race, of Nephilim.
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  And we know that they were pretty well eliminated by David and his helpers in 1 Kings.
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  Yeah. And there was something unique about that race in that they knew God and.
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  But they really ran contrary to anything socially, biblically,
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  ethically reflecting of the scriptures.
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  It was as if they were polar opposites of the scriptures.
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  Yeah, I've heard the term like fallen angels. Fallen angels,
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  yes. I've heard that term in connection with them as well. And so it's almost
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  as if they were the epitome of what we should not be, but they were big and
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  strong. And so they threatened God's people.
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  In fact, not only God's people, they were a threatening race.
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  It's interesting then that of date, we find more evidence of that race,
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  but we have eliminated that race,
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  at least currently,
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  unless another couple of angels fall and we ended up with Samaritan.
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  But, yeah, it was interesting.
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  I guess my reflection on it is interesting that that race could be totally eliminated
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  by human beings because they were far superior, right?
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  So, yeah, my thoughts on the Nephilim, yeah, it was one of those.
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  I think what it is is evidence that if we don't understand who God is and who
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  he's calling us to be, we could end up just like them.
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  A superior race, superior strength-wise, and definitely not focused on anything God wants.
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  And we're so consumed in ourselves and our superiority, you know,
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  like pride does come before the fall, and that we're consumed by it.
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  Because we think it's our own power that we overpower the situation.
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  And God's people aren't that way. Notice this. God's people are not to be that
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  way. We're to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
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  Our lives are to be surrendered to his will.
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  So we don't do it my way, you know.
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  I did it my way. I thought of that song. Yes. That's not who we are as Christians.
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  Instead we are doing it god's way and we're
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  living into his kingdom priorities and his call on our life and and we yield
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  ourselves to the master because that's i i find that's where we're most rewarded
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  is living for god living for the kingdom and not having to have it my way.
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  Yeah. Pride is definitely something that, I mean,
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  not to the level where I'm just beating down on other people,
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  but kind of just thoughts in your mind, and you're kind of like, oh, that's not good.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  So here comes, you have another question.
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  So the flip side of that is, okay, so we could say pride with the Nephilim was
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  part of what consumed them.
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  And the thing I
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  find in Christians in our age is that we wrestle with having a false pride that's
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  grounded in our abilities and don't take a hold of the pride we should have.
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  You know it's a little okay so you are you excelled in basketball this year,
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  i i can't imagine why you wouldn't be proud of that yeah because i'm proud of
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  that i'm proud of your accomplishments but that's not something that's driving
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  you into the future right right in fact you're not going to go into basketball
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  you're going into golf right but you also excel and golf.
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  Is that yours?
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  Or are those gifts and abilities God's given you.
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  For a unique talent, for a unique place, maybe for a unique niche for you to give the gospel.
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  I guess what I'm saying is, I think we as Christians living today need to go
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  to Romans chapter 8 and understand our identity in Christ.
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  Why did he call us? Why is he asking us to do what we're doing and anchor our identity in that, yes,
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  if we have been laid aside the old life in the Spirit and grab a hold of this
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  new life that He's given us, then we are,
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  because those who are led by the Spirit of God, verse 14, are sons of God. Can you imagine that?
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  That living as Christians and putting to death the old and the flesh and all
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  the things that come with that.
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  For you did not receive a spirit that made you a slave again to fear.
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  And that's one of the main hallmarks I see today.
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  Christians are scared.
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  And we should not be ruled by fear.
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  But you receive the spirit of sonship. and by him we cry, Abba, Father.
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  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
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  Now, if we're children, then we're heirs, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ,
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  if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
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  That means that when things go wrong,
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  It might be because of who we are in Christ.
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  And it's all right. Look at the martyrs that paved the way for us to be where we are today,
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  to be able to freely share the gospel because we share the identity with Christ.
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  And he ended up on a cross.
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  So this identity should reign in our hearts high enough that we aren't down on ourselves,
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  but we celebrate what christ is doing in our lives basketball golf uh how he's created you,
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  how he's created me i'm i praise the lord he's done a unique work to get me to a unique spot,
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  And that's his business.
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  I just need to glorify him. It's that relationship piece that it comes back to.
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  So pride, I know we have traditionally in the church realized that pride comes before the fall.
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  And that if we have pride in what we've done, likely we'll fall.
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  If we have a reverence for what Christ is doing in our lives that grows out of our identity of.
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  In Christ, that's good. Yeah.
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  Man, what God is. What would God do in his church if we adapted a faith that
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  reflects the relationship?
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  Yeah. I know in Bible class right now, we're talking about spiritual gifts.
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  And we all have different spiritual gifts.
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  And there's not one that's better than the others or anything like that.
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  And same with our physical gifts that we have here on earth. Yes.
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  You can use those in your different ways for the glory of God.
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  And they come together for the kingdom's sake. Right. And it's not like,
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  sometimes we can spur each other on.
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  That would be Hebrews 10, 25. We spur one another on.
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  But I don't expect you to teach me.
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  People have tried to teach me how to golf before. It ain't going to happen. It's not going to work.
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  I won't be a Grandpa Moses playing golf. No.
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  But we do.
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  We do gain something by the fellowship with each other when we acknowledge, yeah.
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  That's doing a wonderful work in Rowan. And he's doing a wonderful work in Nathan
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  and doing a wonderful work.
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  In Minerva. And wow, that's not competition.
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  It's a reverence of what God's doing in our midst.
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  Yeah. And those spiritual gifts are very important because we've got,
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  I mean, think of the offices of Ephesians 4, verse 11, pastors, teachers,
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  evangelists, prophets, and apostles. Mm-hmm.
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  We aren't even looking for apostles anymore, are we? And prophets, are you a prophet? No.
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  Sometimes I think I'm a deficit, not a prophet. And then evangelists,
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  we're not naming evangelists and calling out an evangelist, but those are spiritual,
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  offices of the church, according to Paul.
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  Spiritual gifts, Galatians 5.20, we we sort of work on those yeah so what is
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  god doing how did i get on that my i went way off i don't know we start with nephilim i'm so sorry.
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  Oh that was great that was great oh those are usually the best is when Well, poor Don.
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  Yeah, Don sort of went like this.
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  I apologize.
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  I think one question about did it. About did it. About Don.
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  Well, it was a good question. I'm sorry it took me off on some trail, but it did.
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  No, that was allowed because you answered the question first.
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  Okay, okay, yeah. It's nice to have rules like that that help us go.
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  So whoever brought that one that was a good question it i'm sorry i didn't answer,
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  quite the same way but that we enjoyed it here hopefully you enjoyed it there
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  oh so if it's not good i hope it's entertaining,
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  oh my what is you got any more questions or um worried about dawn over here maybe i don't know,
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  Thank you guys for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Lord willing.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast. Feel free to become part of this
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  ministry by sharing it with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us, and may God bless your day.