Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / September 16 – Stronger Together

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September 16 – Stronger Together · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:06
  Hey guys this is the daily ripples and uh we got pastor mike and paris with
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  us and today's the september 16th stronger together,
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  the stone god never intended me to walk this journey of faith alone,
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  practical today i will choose connection over isolation pride tells me i can handle life by myself,
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  but wisdom reminds me that strength grows in healthy relationships we all need
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  people who encourage us challenge us and walk beside us Thank you.
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  Spiritual as i follow christ's example of living in community the holy spirit
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  teaches me humility and reminds me that i belong to something greater than myself,
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  the father strengthens us as we encourage one another and grow together in faith,
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  and i was i was looking at this for a second and,
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  just thinking about like my life you know well what it used to look like and
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  what it used to look like is man my first sponsor doug took me a long time to get.
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  Comfortable calling him and so like,
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  i wouldn't really and you know eventually over like a year you know i got comfortable
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  like right i would call him and like wait man,
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  wouldn't matter how long it took me to do my first fourth step but it did take a couple days,
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  and so like man i would i would be dodging emailing to me I wouldn't go to meetings
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  he would go to, and then he'd pop up at this other meeting. I'd be like,
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  whoa, man, you're out here.
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  He'd be like, I got to go. I'll get to act like I got a telephone call.
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  Man, like, so, you know, well.
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  I've done that to get out of conversations before, sadly. You know, full confession.
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  But, man, but like, you know, but what's that taught me to do is dudes I work
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  with today, and I don't know if it helps, but I try to open that door with them.
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  And, uh, like the, the telephone that, you know, cause I hear,
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  you know, I mean, I get it, man.
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  I mean, it's hard for me sometimes though, pick up the telephone and call somebody. Right.
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  Yeah. You know, let alone, you know, if I was in my nervous,
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  don't want to call anybody, would rather it's isolated in my house and hide
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  in my closet, but that's what I want to do.
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  I want to go hide in my closet behind my clothes because that's as far as way I can get for new people.
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  And that's why when I'm in an institution, there's some piece of comfort in
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  there because I don't have to deal with you, Peaks.
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  And so, but like, I think it's really cool, man, because like what he showed
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  me, what Doug showed me, what other dudes showed me over time was,
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  you know, that they would just talk.
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  And I kind of do that probably when I call him, call Paris, man, I just talk, right?
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  Because one thing that's important to me is that, you know, is that that phone
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  dialogue is there, right?
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  I established that with men because I call them and I just talk,
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  let them talk a little bit. I talk because I know they probably don't have anything to say, right?
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  Not right now. Me and him talk for plenty of time. But in the beginning,
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  man, like you don't have much to say because right, like I'm talking to this
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  random dude that I don't know that I don't even, I don't talk to my family this much.
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  I don't talk to my mom, my dad, any of these people because I'm scared to death of everybody.
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  And especially this random dude I met at this meeting or this place that someone
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  gave me his number why would I like so I try to open that phone dial a little
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  bit with the beginning because man I know that like,
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  I can't do this alone either but I didn't know that,
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  because I got my up to my like you know what I know to be true is,
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  that's all I have is me that's how that's my nature right this to just think
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  it's me anyways that's my original thought.
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  You know hmm,
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  Man, when it talks about, you know, I walk this journey of faith,
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  I don't walk this journey of faith alone, then I practically say I choose connection over isolation.
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  You know, it got me to think about the tradition, tradition more,
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  where it says, you know, a common warfare should have come first.
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  Personal recovery depends on AA units.
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  And that's what, you know, that's what this, I believe, you know,
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  going back to the, even when I remember doing my first step,
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  you know, or when I started reading the book of Koran. He was talking about the triangle.
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  You know, the triangle was a very important part of, and that's why it's the
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  first page of the book, you know.
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  But it's very, it says unity, service, and recovery.
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  And all of that is one key thing. And when we talked about walking this faithful
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  path, not being alone, you know, because it says, prior tells me I can't,
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  or it says, yeah, prior tells me I can't handle the life of myself.
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  But wisdom, the wisdom and knowing that I can reach out to someone,
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  I can reach out to a sponsor, I can reach out to Mike, I can reach out to anyone,
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  and we all are in this together.
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  That's the part about not being alone.
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  And if I go to the page 130 in the 12 of 12, it says, Moreover,
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  he finds he cannot keep this price of the gift unless he gives it away.
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  Neither he nor anybody else can survive unless he carries this AHA message, you know.
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  And that's where I'm here today. You know, I really believe that God placed me here for a purpose.
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  And my purpose today is to carry this mission because I've been gifted something sobriety.
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  I wouldn't, I probably thought I was going to get there, you know,
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  without being in this program. But, you know, I have got that guilt,
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  so now I have to be able to give it out to others.
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  And that's what came to mind when I talk about stronger together because,
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  you know, we are real very much stronger together than we are separate, so.
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  Well, I think that, as the Gospel of John tells us in the first chapter,
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  you know, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God,
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  and the Word was with God.
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  And then it tells us later in the chapter that the Word became flesh and blood and dwelt among us.
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  And so what that tells me is that If God sent himself down, basically in the
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  form of God, in the form of Christ, to live amongst people.
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  Then that's clearly the design for living that we should be following as well,
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  is to be living with other people, not just being isolated and not just running
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  the show by ourselves, that we are indeed stronger together.
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  I mean, throughout Scripture it tells us this message. And Proverbs 27,
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  17 is one of the famous Proverbs that, as iron sharpens iron,
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  so one person sharpens another.
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  You know, and so, but even more than just one person sharpening another,
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  what was sticking out to me is that, you know, God loves us so much that He
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  lived with us in community.
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  And like, you even follow the example of Jesus in His time on earth, right?
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  He was not just sitting in a throne room somewhere waiting on people to come
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  and learn from Him and worship Him, right? He was traveling around with His disciples.
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  So He was living His entire life in community.
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  And yet I just want to vibe out in my, you know, TV room up here with the TV
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  on and not be bothered by anyone.
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  Well, how ungrateful would that be? You know, after everything that God has
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  done for me and God has clearly shown me that living life in community with
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  others is what works for a meaningful life, then that's the type of life that
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  I need to be aspiring to live. Right, right.
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  Well, in the twine and twiles.
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  Dave 129, it says, The unity of alcohol and synonymous is the most cherished
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  quality of our society has.
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  Our lives, the lives of all to come, depends squarely upon it.
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  Because we can't do this thing, first of all, we can't do this thing alone.
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  Because how am I supposed to show anybody or someone to show me?
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  So that goes back to like, hey man, we got common problems.
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  But do we have common solutions? right because if we're not if we don't have
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  a solution to our problems we're just dudes in a jail cell with a common crowd
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  or no silage and so when i think about that man i always think about working with others.
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  You know so it says the top of page 90 when you discover a prospect for alcohol
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  unless you find all you care about them,
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  and that's an important thing right because if i if i don't know anything about
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  you like and i can do like we i mean i'm sure you two guys i mean both of y'all
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  know how to talk to people.
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  Yeah. Right. And like, you know, I can talk in a way.
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  Go ahead. Well, I was just saying that what you're getting at goes right back
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  to what, you know, Paris was talking about yesterday, the day before,
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  about finding more rooms around here with more people that look like him to make that connection.
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  That's kind of, that's what my mind went to when you start talking about learning
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  as much about the new man as possible because you're trying to form that connection
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  to be able to associate with them and help.
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  Right, yeah, so, but, you know, also, I don't get to pick and choose, I get to hell.
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  Right. Right, yeah, so, yeah, I understand, like, if I were going to write other
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  people, right, that fool, but, like, but the reason I find all I can about him
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  is, right here, it says, you may, this advice is given to the.
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  Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. It's in the next paragraph. On page 90,
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  it says, you need this information to put yourself in his place to see how you
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  would like him to approach you if the tables return.
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  Yeah. So, like, my job is to see how I need to approach you.
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  Right? Yes, and I agree, man. Oh, 100% worse. Yeah, what the other part was talking about.
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  But, like, you know, so say that, like, dude doesn't respond.
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  That's cool, too. because like dude doesn't like i mean man me and my sponsor
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  were talking another day about this and i said we're talking about some sponsorship
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  and this and that and i said how many people do you think i took through the book my first sheet,
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  man i had a hotline going on right like every night i'm reading every like you know i mean,
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  it was crazy i mean i had people scheduled one two three people i mean i did
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  a i did five fifth steps and one weekend one back,
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  and like oh i had them coming And then, like, it was like a, it was a drug deal, dog.
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  I always said that, but Starbucks, word would leave, the next one would pull up. That was wild.
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  And, you know, but, like, that's, man, I'll tell you, you know,
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  so my experience through that, you know, is a lot of book work.
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  It was just a lot of reading, a lot of reading. But, like, I got a lot of experience through that.
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  And God did that for, man, God put me in that position and it was an amazing thing to do.
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  But what I found is, is during that time, especially, I like,
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  you know, if they went back out, I'd take them off a morning meditation thing.
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  You're having pity about it. But I wasn't really petty, but like,
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  you know, I didn't think I could do anything else for him. Got it,
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  got it. But like on page 95 says, show him, show him how they were free with
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  you. Talking about the spiritual toolkit.
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  Offer him friendship and fellowship.
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  Tell him that you that if he wants to get well you will do anything to help,
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  and so like that's that willing part right.
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  If he is not interested in your solution, if he expects you to act as a banker,
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  financial difficulties are nursed for his sprees.
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  You may have to drop him until he changes his mind.
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  This is, he may do after he gets hurt some, some more anyway,
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  but like that, that's, there's clear men. Like, I love it. Cause like people,
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  people will talk about how they sponsor and what they do.
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  You can make it personal. Well, what I do is on page 89 to 103 working with others.
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  And it's clear-cut on things.
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  You know, and we talked about that dude the other day. He said,
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  man, come back out. Come back drinking if you need to.
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  You're not convinced, right? Because if you're not with this way of life,
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  then what's the good? Get it.
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  Man, there's other ways. Hey, you don't hear too many people today telling new people that.
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  Oh, they don't want that. Yeah, I know. It's not common.
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  He wasn't new, though. Yeah, I mean, he's been on the fences for so long.
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  I'm like, wow. You still don't want to get past that part? you know, allow.
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  But when he was talking about the spiritual, the principles,
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  you know, it made me think of, you know, and working with others because it's
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  on the spiritual part of this ripple, Bailey Ripple today, it says,
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  as I follow Christ's example of living in communion, the Holy Spirit is teaching
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  me humility and reminds me that I belong to something rather than myself.
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  And I went straight to page 93. It said, to be vital, faith must be accompanied
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  by self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action.
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  So that's the way I must live today in this community, you know,
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  to be up strong when I can be of unity with another sick man or anything like that.
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  And I also, you know, I love that verse, you know,
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  on Psalms 133, it said, Behold, how good and how pleasant is it for brethren
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  to dwell together in unity. You know,
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  That unity, man, it's just a strong thing to have.
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  But that's all. What you got in the past, Mike? Well, I mean,
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  this is a community, and we are meant to live in unity in it.
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  It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. It tells me that on page 152 in the middle of the page.
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  And it tells us that there you will find release from care, boredom, and worry.
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  Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last.
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  The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead.
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  Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you. Corey, pray us out. Amen.
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  Father God, help me value the people you place in my life.
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  Your Holy Spirit, teach me to walk in humility and unity with others.
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  Shaving you through the example of Jesus. Amen. Amen.