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Questions to Spark Your Kids' Thoughts on Jesus · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  You're listening to thursday mornings with alex and
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  don team ad don is a pastor with 40 years experience and alex is just as curious
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  as you are we look at the most important and interesting questions about the
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  bible and christian faith so let's talk about it pastor don good morning alex How are you here?
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  Good present present. We did it.
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  Everyone. Thank you for joining us. We are so grateful that you are here again.
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  This is, this will be the last episode as far as for me sitting here for the foreseeable future.
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  So again, if you know anyone who wants to take my place, please have them reach out.
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  I'm willing to train them, do whatever, you know, to help, you know,
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  keep this going. If, if, if that's the Lord's will, if that's the Lord's will.
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  Yeah. So pray about it. But we need prayer about that. Yes, we do.
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  We would really appreciate that.
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  Yeah, it wasn't. I'm going to miss you, bud. I'm going to miss these times.
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  That's not I might still come in
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  here and bother you. I think just instead that's legal. Good. All right.
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  Then I can actually come into some of these harder questions. All right.
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  You're going to make this last episode all the hardest ones.
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  No. Okay. No, absolutely not. No, this one is actually in.
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  It kind of goes along with the theme as to why I am stepping away.
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  Way because this is a huge time commitment and i love my family and uh if it's getting in the way,
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  that's tough now i feel like sometimes they help me they give me some content
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  charlie and bennett sure give me a lot of content oh yeah you should be a preacher
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  they'd be good illustrations,
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  they're wonderful illustration oh yeah so first question kids good evil what
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  are they kids good Good or evil. Yes.
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  They are us at our unbridled creative worst.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Because basically all that frontal lobe stuff has not been developed yet.
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  So, they really have no filters unless we help them find them.
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  Oh, yeah. And that's the beauty of kids is the fact that they have no filters.
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  What's interesting then, when we flip that over and we go to Matthew 18,
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  and we see Jesus taking the little children and, if you don't come like this
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  kid, you don't get into the kingdom.
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  And that's unfiltered and just kid.
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  So, are they evil? Probably. Yeah. A little bit of time. A little bit, but just like we are.
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  Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think you'll enjoy that. One of the reasons why we started
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  this podcast and one of the reasons why I felt it was you know,
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  successful is my ability to come up with content.
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  Because I ask why a lot. I want to know why. I want to know the answers.
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  Why are we not knowing the answers?
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  Charlie does the same thing. He's in that stage where it's a why to everything.
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  And so now it's starting to be, you know, we'll correct him and be like,
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  okay, you know why, you know, and my mom or whoever would be like,
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  oh, it's weird how he asked why every time.
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  I wonder if, I wonder if God answered my prayer that you would have a child
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  that's just like you. Yeah. I go, oh, thanks, mom. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Well, and then I think just writing on that is the fact that I'm finding that
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  by this podcast and the ability to ask questions to somebody and just,
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  you know, confound the preacher right off gives people the freedom to ask me
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  questions because they know that Don,
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  Don at least tolerates that kind of environment on a regular basis.
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  And so people do, they, they come and ask me all sorts of questions,
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  whether about morality or spiritual warfare or, or whatever.
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  And so it's, uh, yeah, it's been
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  rewarding because it opened a door that I think was previously closed.
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  You know, I don't want to talk about that. Interesting.
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  He doesn't want to talk about that. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do.
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  Well and that that's kind of one of the reasons why i i really
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  cherished our relationship not cherished we're
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  not i'm not breaking up no cherish
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  our relationship is that you know i i i totally understand that sometimes having
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  someone who always challenges i've been i've been accused of challenging everything
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  i'm and you do i kind of do it's sort of a gift i'm curious but to find Find
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  someone in yourself that is,
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  that tolerates that or is willing to, I don't know, be a part of that.
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  Yeah. Just knowing that. Because often when we bring those questions up,
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  we see, when we challenge something, then it's seen as negative. Yeah.
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  Rather than saying, okay, wait a minute, maybe we have gotten off base here
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  and there with what we're doing. And so a challenge often says,
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  okay, why did we start this? Why are we doing this?
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  Should we sustain this? Right. And, and.
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  A challenge is good. Right. Because I think the church has sort of become an
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  entity and that's why denominationalism is going down the tubes.
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  Right. Because we forgot why we're here. Right.
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  And so, yeah, it's good. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's, I always thought that was
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  important, but I can see the stressful nature of it.
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  But yeah. Yeah. I hope kids everywhere. And that was one of the parts of going
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  to the Hillcrest episodes.
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  If there are any out there of you guys listening, God bless you.
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  I mean, the amount of hope that I got for the next generation because of you
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  is, I can feel it right now, it fills my heart. It's awesome.
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  Just the desire, the conviction to know more. Because I feel like if you're
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  not asking these questions of the Bible, you know, you're not,
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  you don't have the gospel on your lips. And that's kind of what we're called to do.
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  But if you don't know why, it's very easy to simplify the message and leave
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  yourself very vulnerable.
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  We're outside forces, you know? Yeah, and the outside forces are going to take
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  advantage of it. Oh, yeah. Yep, yep.
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  So like I said, this final episode I want to touch on because my kids and everyone
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  else's kids, so I thought it'd be a good thing for us to talk about how to foster that environment.
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  And I've got a list of questions that you can ask your kids every night,
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  so that'll be in the episode notes.
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  And I found this one online. I thought it was a really good list.
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  Yeah, and what I think is interesting is We're bringing up our children probably
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  during the part of our life that we are most exhausted.
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  I mean, I remember myself as a young father and all the pressure that was in my vocational life.
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  And then add that to the pressure of still getting to know my wife.
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  And so we had relational pressures. And then here's these ornery little guys.
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  And they run around and they run around and they need attention and they've
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  got energy. And by the time you're laying in bed and they're wanting daddy and.
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  Why is God? Wait a minute. I get that at nine 30 at night when I'm tired.
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  And so I cherish a young father who's willing to take that time and,
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  and answer that question at eight 30 at night when this kid should bed asleep
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  at half hour ago. Oh, yes.
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  Yes. Yeah. And it's one of those things that I cherish. I put my kids to bed almost every night.
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  And so we have time of like, we do a devotional and
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  then we pray and hopefully before or
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  after that devotional and prayer i'll get to ask some questions you know
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  like did you hear anything today at school or something like that
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  you want questions about you know how is your life going do you have any questions
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  about the devotional that we just did and sometimes there's really good stuff
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  and sometimes no let's read our book or tell our story or something like that
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  yeah there's a spot there yeah that they can that they can bring those questions.
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  Yes. I think that's what I've learned through this is we need to create,
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  continue to create spots that people can ask questions. It's so important for kids.
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  It's, and I've found that it's with Charlie, my oldest one, he,
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  I have found him to be the most inquisitive or curious when we're doing stuff together.
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  He's got to be doing something in order for him to understand it or to like,
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  when we remember, Remember how I showed you how he memorized that Bible verse?
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  I was trying to get him to memorize this Bible verse, everyone.
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  And when we first started it, it wasn't really going so great.
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  And he was like dancing around and like rolling on the floor.
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  I'm like, just sit there.
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  I mean, now I kind of brought this frustration to my wife. She goes,
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  you told a four-year-old to just sit there. Yeah, not going to happen.
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  But once I said, you know, go ahead and roll all over and do it.
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  Boom. It happened so fast. He just has to be able to be able to doing things.
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  So that space is that active, we're doing something together,
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  spark the conversation, and then we talk and the conversations are awesome.
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  Yeah. And I learned that with my dad.
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  Repairing machinery was a time that he and I had together.
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  And those are good years and good conversations. Good.
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  It's interesting how that works, right? It is. But for us as guys,
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  that's going to have to be because we need to know that we're busy, invested.
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  And then if you've got a little extra, I'll ask you this question.
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  You know, let's see how much extra you got. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's good.
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  Let's see. Do you have any like do's and don'ts of teaching kids about Jesus? Yes.
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  Hmm. The, the, the don't is yeah.
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  Don't spank because they don't get it. Oh, sure.
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  Sure. But I'm, what I'm saying in that is it needs to be positive.
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  It needs to be something that like Jesus did. Right.
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  Okay. Okay. And so his investment was
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  in that child that was coming to him with that open faith that had no boundaries
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  at that point and didn't have any moral background to it and realized that we're
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  raising up these children to know a Savior, to have a relationship.
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  We're raising them up to have a relationship. And so that's as important as
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  the scriptures that support that relationship and the songs that celebrate that
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  relationship and the relationships beyond in the church that support that relationship.
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  Yeah. All those are positive. One of the things that I nudge young families
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  is to find a Bible church,
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  Bible preaching church, for a network of support.
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  Yeah. Because I think maybe my generation made church secondary or at least
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  down the line in its importance.
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  And so a lot of them, while the parents went to church, those that are in their
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  30s and 40s aren't going to church because mom and dad didn't think it was that important.
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  And so they just aren't going to church. Right.
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  Well, that means that like my grandchildren's age didn't, don't know what church is.
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  Right. I had one of my grandchildren, I said, it's going to be so much fun.
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  You're going to hear your grandpa preach tomorrow.
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  And I don't think you've ever heard grandpa preach. So what does it mean to preach?
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  And I thought, oopsie, I think maybe it's happened. Yeah. So, yeah, we need to.
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  And the church, on the other hand, needs to see itself as network creators of
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  support for our families. Yeah. Okay.
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  Safety nets sometimes. Right. Because these young families go through crisis.
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  Like, you know, I know a young man who lost his wife about eight weeks ago.
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  And we need to be, the church needs to be a support. port.
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  Can you imagine being a young father without the missus around and have young ones that you're.
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  You need to do your work to support the family, and you need to grow those kids.
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  And so the church needs to be there. Right.
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  I have found that with our church community, the amount of willingness to help
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  and support, everyone is chomping at the bits to do it.
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  Like it's almost, I remember, and I think I've said this before,
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  when our house caught on fire, so we had to spend like six months with my parents,
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  or nine months with my parents, and that was six months after getting married
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  so fun times there it kind of forced my mom and and wife to learn how to get
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  along with each other i just say that as a joke but,
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  there was a person in our church who said you know like you know you know
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  you're you're you've got all this
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  stuff to do you know when can we come help and i said you know oh yeah they're
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  gonna do this part thing here and then and then i'll let
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  you know and she she stopped and she goes everyone always says
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  that but like i i want to help
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  are you going to call me
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  and at the time i was like yeah yeah i will at the time i was like that was
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  kind of weird but she wanted to bless us and i'm saying no thank you right and
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  that just clicked in my mind being like everyone just wants to be able to help
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  and to bless each other and it's not a you don't owe them anything they don't
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  They don't want to be owed anything.
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  They just want to be able to love you that way.
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  And that's what a church, that's one of the biggest blessings of a church.
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  Right. That's that heart-focused community. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
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  So I figured we would do some of these questions that I found that,
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  you know, you can ask for your kids just as maybe like to see what this would look like. Okay.
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  And I think some of these are going to be for older ones and for younger ones,
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  depending on what skill or what they know, what the age level is.
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  And then some of them is like, you know, they're not going to know anything.
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  And it's just an opportunity. Right. So like, here's a good one.
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  Which fruit of the spirit is easiest for you to practice and why? Oh.
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  Do you have an answer for that? Yeah.
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  Uh well the long suffering because you
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  ain't got no choice yeah here it
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  comes yeah okay that's the one i was i was interesting i was thinking about
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  this the last week or so i'm getting ready to take a class and thinking about
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  that almost like exact same question and then uh yeah long suffering because
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  you really don't have no choice i mean you're either going to suffer or suffer long or,
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  aren't, you know, implode. Right.
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  Yeah. Sometimes it's hard for us that we take our eyes off of that piece.
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  You know, I think when you were gone, Kurt Wise, he preached on that.
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  You know, it's like, if you're not under trials, if your life is hard,
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  know that that's because God is there.
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  This is your path. You know, if it was super easy and you're just super comfortable,
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  boy, I'd be kind of. I'd be questioning whether you're on the right path.
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  Yeah. And we even had Hillcrest students ask, you know, am I,
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  should I be worried if I'm not being persecuted?
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  You know? Yeah. And probably. Yeah. You know, I just, I remember in one of my
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  hardest times in my life, God gave me the words of James chapter one,
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  verses two through four.
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  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you endure trials of many kinds,
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  because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
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  And perseverance when it's finished its course
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  leaves you mature and complete not lacking anything and
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  what caught me was james's words are so close to what paul says in romans chapter
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  5 verses 2 through 6 i mean it's almost the same thing so it's as if these early
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  christians understood that this suffering part creates in us a a growth that
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  we wouldn't have otherwise right.
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  Yeah. And I think that's important thing for young men to know growing up,
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  not just young men, but anyone who has that fix it mentality is that sometimes
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  when our relationships aren't feeling quite right and there's stress within
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  it is to know that it's going to take some time.
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  I know that's something that I have a hard time with. I'm like,
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  okay, I see this problem. I made this mistake. I'm sorry.
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  Okay. Yeah. You forgive me. Cool. Okay. All right. This is what we're going
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  to do now. And I'm trying to just, I don't know, I would say like just drag
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  someone with to be like, oh, now we're getting better.
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  Yeah or you know and maybe that's not
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  them they're more of the you know everything's fine
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  kind of phase and that week
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  right exactly and it's not you
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  know set in stone or anything but yeah just dragging them through to
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  like oh we're gonna get better together that's gonna put up some walls sometimes
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  right yeah so that long suffering that long just trying
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  to build that relationship sometimes is it
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  and you got to build the relationship first before you
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  can do any of the rest yeah yeah okay so what would
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  be the fruit of the spirit that's the hardest for you to practice and why
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  joy joy okay and
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  i think that's pretty common i'm going
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  through marcus warner and what's her name building bounce okay and it is relating
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  the importance of us getting back to joy after we've been in times of trial
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  and tribulation sure and we as christians should live more time in joy Yeah.
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  And make that a goal to get back to. And so using Jim Wilder's work on the right brain.
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  Right brain, left brain, it's building pathways that gets us from this negative
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  experience back to joy. The joy in the Lord is our strength.
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  And so since the joy in the Lord is our strength and we're over here and we're
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  not happy, then how do you build that pathway, that neural pathway Back to joy.
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  And we have to confess the fact that our life experiences have often short-circuited
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  our pathways, that we would have had as children to joy.
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  And so it is a part of our Christian experiences, if you will,
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  to begin to recreate neural pathways that we had as children to joy as Christians.
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  So it's part of our transformation to get back to joy.
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  And I think we've had enough solemn faces in church long enough that we didn't
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  think joy was really a commodity of the church.
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  And I think we need to live into that and remind ourselves, hey,
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  the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's right.
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  Yeah. So we need to get strong. And it's hard. I think that some people do.
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  Do some people express it different ways? Joy? Oh, yeah.
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  Can't you tell? I'm just bubbling over with joy. Yeah. I know.
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  Sometimes I feel like I'll get asked, you know, my wife, what's wrong with you?
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  I'm like, nothing. I'm fine.
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  She's like, well, you look like yourself. I'm like, I'm actually pretty great.
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  I had a good day. My wife will do the same thing.
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  My wife will do the same. What are you mad about? What did I do to upset you?
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  Am I? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, dear.
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  I really, I'm really not in as bad a shape as you think I am.
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  Yeah. But God bless you anyway for noticing.
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  Yeah. Yeah. I think sometimes that one's tricky. I got kids,
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  so there's always just a constant.
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  I get to struggle with all of them sometimes if I spend a whole day with them. Patience.
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  But then joy. Joy. There it is.
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  Yeah. They just pop full of it. Then we're dancing. Then we're wrestling.
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  Then we're, you know. Singing.
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  Oh, there you go. Yep. They're using inappropriate words where they're not supposed
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  to. And I get to say, don't do that. And then tell my wife. And then we have joy.
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  We laugh about it. Can you believe what he said to grandpa? That's kind of funny.
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  I bet those are good examples. Oh, man. Make sure you write them down in your
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  journal. I have them in my phone saved to share at his graduation. Okay. There you go.
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  Graduation. Boy, his party's going to be fun. He will be red-faced. That's for sure.
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  Well. Yeah. Yeah. As red-faced as you were at your graduation, right? Yeah.
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  I don't know. Oh, yeah. I definitely was embarrassed a few times.
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  How about this one? If you could ask Jesus any question, what would it be? Right. Yeah.
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  I think that the theological piece of salvation, his need to give up his life
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  so that we could be forgiven and saved.
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  That's pretty deep for a simple thinker like me.
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  How'd you guys come up with this plan anyway? Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
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  Because, yeah, because most of the answers to anything you'd be asking is like,
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  because I know everything. This has all been in place.
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  You know? Except the one thing. Except the one thing. he
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  didn't know the day nor the hour that the lord would come
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  matthew chapter 24 which i
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  find odd yeah he was walking on earth and didn't know when the end of the world
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  would happen right and i think now we realize that there were so many little
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  pieces that had to be put in place at certain times that to nail it down to
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  a day because of all the other things god knows right And I, yeah.
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  So when they come at me and say that predestination, well, if predestination
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  really was a thing, he didn't know the day and the hour. Sure.
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  But that's just my thing. That's probably one of my, my conundrums I'd ask him first. Right.
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  Yeah. I mean, like funny things come to mind, you know, like who you're voting for or.
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  Who did you vote for? yeah what's the best denomination or
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  something fun but yeah i yeah
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  i just want to know more about everything right yeah did
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  i miss anything last question i think this is one of the best ones what miracle
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  would you have liked to see jesus do man a couple years ago i would like to
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  seen a healing of a man that was
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  very dear to me and i if and since it was stage four when it was found,
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  and we knew that the outcome, according to nature, wasn't going to be good.
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  Right. And we knew that from the beginning.
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  However, he was in remission. He was actually in remission, and we celebrated
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  that remission when it came on again and took him very quickly.
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  If that healing could have happened, I think a lot of us would have said,
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  hey, there is no doubt there is a God.
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  There's not no doubt that God isn't in concerned about the here and now and,
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  about us because we needed him so bad right yeah he
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  was at a key point in leadership in our church at
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  the time very dear soul yeah and that miracle I thought we had it I thought
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  we had that miracle in his remission and yeah I would like to have seen that
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  stay yes because that relationship was obviously important. Mm-hmm. Yes.
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  Yeah, it's interesting to see what gets answered in those situations, you know?
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  Because, I mean, there's a young child in our church that was a miracle for
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  her. That's right. I believe. Well, my wife's a miracle.
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  Yes. We've celebrated 25 years beyond what she was given. Yeah.
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  That's a long time. That's awesome. Heck yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
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  The one I would have wanted to see would definitely have been the fish, the fishing nets.
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  Hmm. Breaking. Yeah. Yeah. just because of
• 23:35
  all the stuff that would have happened there and i'd
• 23:38
  want to know exactly what the and you know all the variables yeah
• 23:41
  yeah i've i've thought about this before you know just going out onto a lake
• 23:46
  maybe ice fishing or something with friends we're not catching anything so we're
• 23:51
  dreading having to go back and tell our wives that we did this for nothing yeah
• 23:56
  you bought that thousand dollar fish finder though we go yeah yeah you can find a fish but Yeah,
• 24:01
  and then you see this hippie-looking dude on the shore in sweatpants and wearing
• 24:06
  Crocs saying, you know, go give it one more try.
• 24:08
  And you go out there, and then you're catching 60-inch muskie,
• 24:12
  and they're flopping around the ice shack, knocking over.
• 24:16
  Yeah, that would be impressive. Yeah.
• 24:19
  Yeah. Yeah, knocking over the heater, I assume burning down the shack.
• 24:23
  Because I was wondering, you know, their nets are breaking, and they're going
• 24:25
  to make the boat break. Yeah. That thing comes back to the shore.
• 24:29
  That's American. They're just leaving it there because they're like,
• 24:31
  ah, all this stuff's broken anyways.
• 24:33
  Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, they followed him, right? They did.
• 24:37
  They followed him, you know, even with all those fish on the.
• 24:41
  Yeah. Should have taken the market first, you know, I mean, as good,
• 24:45
  you know, thinking about economics and things like that.
• 24:48
  Well, let's go to the fish market first, get rid of these, and then we can put
• 24:52
  that money in the pouch and Judas can make over it and yeah, whatever. Yeah.
• 24:57
  There you go. But that didn't happen. But there are people on the shore,
• 25:00
  right? Yeah. So they just got to have that.
• 25:03
  Wow, they brought these all in for us. They just left with that guy.
• 25:07
  They're not coming back. Yeah, well, yeah. So I thought that'd be interesting.
• 25:11
  Okay, so everyone, that'll be it for today.
• 25:14
  Like I said, I'll put these questions in the show notes.
• 25:18
  So that'd be like under the description in the YouTube or Rumble video.
• 25:23
  And then the show notes, if you expand it in a podcast, these questions will be in here.
• 25:29
  Or maybe copy and paste it to put it in your calendar to ask what your kids
• 25:33
  want every night or something like that to just spark that conversation to get
• 25:37
  the wheels turning up in their heads.
• 25:39
  I know from experience, that's very good because I'm always very concerned to
• 25:45
  make sure that I'm putting enough effort into shepherding that relationship with God, you know?
• 25:50
  So, I feel like that's a very good avenue to go. You've come a long way. Yeah.
• 25:55
  So, Don, will you pray us out? out. I'm going to do it a little different if
• 25:59
  that's all right. Okay. I'm going to pray on you. Okay.
• 26:03
  Heavenly Father, I thank you for this ministry. I thank you for Alex and his development of it.
• 26:07
  I thank you, Lord, for Alex. And I pray your blessing upon him.
• 26:12
  Give him a sense of your peace, your presence, and the direction that you would have him to go.
• 26:19
  And we thank you for all he's done for all the rest of us.
• 26:24
  Reveal to us, Lord, the next steps, so all of us know where to put our foot next.
• 26:30
  In Jesus' precious name, amen. Amen. Thank you. Again, everyone, thanks for joining us.
• 26:39
  I'll say I've got a lot of hope for the future. Decided to see what happens
• 26:43
  with this show or what different things happen.
• 26:46
  I know there's a good plan here somewhere. There's a plan. Yeah.
• 26:51
  But like I said, I really don't want to see the show go away.
• 26:55
  So if you've got know someone bonus points, if their name starts with an A,
• 26:59
  obviously that would be otherwise.
• 27:02
  Yeah. It's really easy to switch it all over to a different name too.
• 27:06
  So yeah. Today or tomorrow.
• 27:10
  Listen, you who say today or tomorrow, we're going to do this or that, this or the end of that.
• 27:15
  Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?
• 27:17
  It's a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
• 27:21
  Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord's will, I will live and do this or that.
• 27:27
  As it is, you boast and brag for tomorrow.
• 27:31
  Such boasting is evil. But anyone who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it sins.
• 27:37
  That if it's the Lord's will has been something I've taken to heart for a long time.
• 27:43
  So if it's the Lord's will, you'll be back. Yep. But if it's the Lord's will,
• 27:48
  if something else happens here, it will.
• 27:51
  But we give it all into God's hands. Yes, absolutely. That his will is done
• 27:56
  on this earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
• 27:59
  Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Don. I appreciate it. You too. And thank you to all of you out there too.
• 28:03
  We wouldn't do it if there were zero views on all these things or didn't know any of you guys.
• 28:07
  So this is just as much about you as
• 28:09
  it is for us. We definitely enjoy the conversations and all the questions.
• 28:13
  So thank you.
• 28:16
  And God bless all of you guys. Anything else? Amen. Amen. Take care. Bye. Bye.
• 28:23
  Thanks again for joining us for this week's episode. We are both having a ton
• 28:28
  of fun making these videos and episodes.
• 28:31
  And if you're having fun too, please tell a friend about this and help us to grow this mission.
• 28:37
  Thank you and God bless.